Explore every episode of the podcast Marketing Operators
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta’s Product Director Explains How Its Ad Algorithm Works | 20 oct. 2026 | 00:57:54 | |
“With Andromeda, we can look at the entire universe.” What should marketers focus on now that Meta’s ad algorithm handles targeting? Sukhesh Miryala (Director of Product Management, Meta) sits down with Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) to open up how Meta picks a winner for every impression. Rising CPMs don’t always mean your last change backfired. Meta’s ad prices reflect supply and demand, while Andromeda lets its delivery system consider more ads for each impression. As automation improves, the marketer’s job shifts toward defining what a valuable outcome looks like, supplying reliable data, and building diverse creative that helps Meta find the right match. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth NeonPixel Haus Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| Meta Reveals Its Plan For AI Media Buying | 16 oct. 2026 | 00:57:55 | |
“All of these products eventually are going to come together.” Who calls the shots once Meta’s AI takes over? Nik Ketkar (Director of Product Management, Meta) sits down with Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) to map Meta’s plan for AI-run media buying. Half of a buyer’s job is still setup, structure, and budget tweaks. Meta wants that half gone, folded into Advantage+ and Ads Creative Studio. Once the AI proposes every move, buyers have to decide how much control to keep. The richer the inputs they feed it, the easier that control is to hand over. Interested in trying Meta's Ads Creative Studio or the other automation products Nik discusses in this episode? Fill out this form: https://9ops.co/meta-adscreativestudio Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth Haus NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| We Compare a $100 DTC Funnel vs a $100M DTC Funnel | 13 oct. 2026 | 01:00:48 | |
“We weren’t doing a good job showing the value.” Where does a new brand find trust when it can’t claim a bestseller like HexClad? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) compare a scaled HexClad funnel with one from the weeks-old Winks. Step by step, they trace how each one builds trust across ads, landers, offers, and upsells. Winks has a premium product, yet customers couldn’t see why it was worth the price. HexClad earns that trust before the click, with Japanese creators and a bestseller hook. The weeks-old brand has to build the same trust with a fraction of the proof. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter https://www.instagram.com/marketingoperators/ | |||
| HexClad + Ridge Reveal Their 8-Figure Celebrity Sweepstakes Playbook | 06 oct. 2026 | 00:58:18 | |
“Two of our winners have entered for free. They never purchased anything from us.” How did Ridge turn a 6-week Tony Hawk partnership into an 8-figure sweepstakes lift? Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) break down how sweepstakes campaigns became eight-figure growth engines for their brands. They cover celebrity deal structures, creative production, and revenue lift across every category. Tony Hawk’s deal doubled Ridge’s TV response rates and pushed partner-page ads to 40% of Meta spend. HexClad gets the same proof differently, running year-over-year holdouts and entry tiers that reward bigger purchases. Both track how sweepstakes shoppers scatter into unexpected categories, forcing a rethink of acquisition strategy. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| Two $100M+ Operators Get Honest About Launching New Brands | 29 sept. 2026 | 01:04:43 | |
“There’s so much that I took for granted. It’s such a different playbook.” What happens when two operators who’ve helped build nine-figure brands start again at zero? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (advisor and former CEO, Jones Road) compare notes on two new launches: Ridge’s Gut Culture and Cody’s Winks. They get into six hard lessons from the early days. (1) Building with a lean team. (2) Earning credibility when nobody knows the brand. (3) Finding a message that gets clicks. (4) Testing offers before the data is conclusive. (5) Making subscription economics work. (6) Dealing with high ad costs. Cody shares what’s happening at Winks just weeks after launch; Connor explains what Ridge learned from six months of building Gut Culture. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus NeonPixel Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| How a 15% Price Cut Sent a Ridge Product’s Revenue Up 60% | 22 sept. 2026 | 01:03:05 | |
Why do experienced operators still overcorrect on average order value? Varun Kundra (Co-founder, Aftersell by Rokt) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) to break down the pricing missteps that quietly cost real revenue and the metric worth watching instead. The hosts compare years of pricing tests at Ridge and Jones Road. They cover three ways to bundle for more revenue per order. Varun explains why image heavy upsells beat plain offers, plus a subscription upgrade converting at 20% to 30%. Connor and Varun wrap with a teardown of Winks, the brand behind Operators Build. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| Two 2027 DTC Shifts: AI Retention Marketing & TikTok Creator Burnout | 15 sept. 2026 | 01:04:59 | |
“We just had a hundred thousand people buy in the last 60 days.” What does the future of retention marketing actually look like by 2027? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) unpack what Postscript’s AI memories mean for retention marketing’s future. They map out a 2027 playbook built on personalized experiences, even as TikTok Shop’s creator economy hits a breaking point. Postscript is building unified profiles instead of fragmented SMS data. That shift promises holdout testing and customer lifetime value tracking. RCS already shows early lift in live tests. Meanwhile TikTok Shop’s incentive structure is pushing affiliates toward burnout. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| Holiday Offers vs Black Friday, Cyber Monday: Which Comes First? | 08 sept. 2026 | 01:05:08 | |
“Don’t let perfect measurement get in the way of good marketing” How do Ridge, HexClad and Jones Road each structure Black Friday, Cyber offers differently? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) share how holiday marketing campaigns pull their ecommerce brands in completely different directions. Shark Ninja becomes the opening case study, spending big on creator activations without measuring returns. The hosts counter with their own tactics, mixing steep weekend deal drops with full brand rebuilds between sales. The riskiest move this season turns out to be a discount that costs a brand its most loyal customers. Cody dives into Winks, a fresh sleep brand he and four other 9-figure executives are building from the ground up, and introduces Operators Build, the show capturing the entire journey from scratch. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth Haus NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter Operators Build https://9ops.co/ops-build-ytplaylist Winks | |||
| Incrementality Testing for Black Friday, Cyber Monday: What to Spend? | 01 sept. 2026 | 01:00:11 | |
“It is so incredibly easy to not drive incremental results the week of Black Friday.” Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) share how they are approaching Q4 planning. Before scaling Black Friday, Cyber Monday spend, both HexClad and Ridge test incrementality with real control groups. That same discipline shapes their AMER vs CAC debate, since neither wants to scale spend that isn’t truly incremental. Also, AG1’s new gummy launch steps up, and so does its cannibalization risk. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth NeonPixel Haus Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Proppel Operators Newsletter | |||
| “Leadership Is Leverage”: Motion’s CEO on the Future of Marketing | 25 août 2026 | 01:12:42 | |
What changes when a single marketer creates as much value as an entire department? Reza Khadjavi (Founder & CEO, Motion) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road) to explain why he built Runneth, an AI agent meant to eventually replace Motion’s own product. He walks through the context engineering behind that shift and what it means for marketers. Motion scrapped its own revenue targets right after a record quarter, betting the whole company on AI agents. Reza explains how markdown files and organized repositories turn those agents into something closer to a new hire. His advice: skip the Mac Mini, move to the cloud, and put close to 10% of payroll behind AI. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth Proppel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus NeonPixel Richpanel Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| Funnel Coverage: The Upsell Fix Most Brands Never Check | 18 août 2026 | 01:15:54 | |
How much can filtering a collection page actually lift average order value? What about cart, checkout, and post-purchase? Varun Kundra (Co-founder, Aftersell) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) to unpack how ecommerce brands raise AOV. Four levers make that possible: collection page tests, product bundles, post purchase upsells, and cross brand advertising. HexClad’s new collection page lifted revenue per user by 7% and AOV by $10. Single silhouette bundles need no extra education, but new pairings like Japanese cookware still do. Varun ties it back to Aftersell and Rokt Thanks. Together they’ve generated over $1B in upsell revenue at a take rate under 1%. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel https://www.weareproppel.com/operators More from Operators Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| Haus CMO Reveals the Incrementality Index Behind Smarter ROAS Calls | 14 août 2026 | 01:12:59 | |
“I just don’t hear a lot of good reasons why this can’t be automated”. Can an algorithm allocate ad budget better than a human media buyer? Olivia Kory (CMO & Strategy Officer, Haus) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) to unpack incrementality testing, marketing mix modeling, and early agentic media buying. Geo lift holdouts and attribution debiasing point toward a future of automated budget decisions. Olivia shows how A/B testing replaced ROAS benchmarks at Haus. Control groups and treatment cells now anchor every incrementality read. Connor Rolain also shares how one conversion campaign test reshaped HexClad’s Meta strategy. The team ties it all back to multi-touch attribution for faster decisions. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth NeonPixel Richpanel Proppel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus More from Operators Operators Portal https://portal.9operators.com/dashboard Operators Newsletter | |||
| Employee Number Four to a $1.2B Unilever Exit: Katie Cirulli’s Story | 11 août 2026 | 01:12:21 | |
“It was the most fun role I think I’ll ever do”. How do visionary founders build teams to protect their time for big ideas? Katie Cirulli (Chief Emerging Brands Officer & fmr. President, Grüns) joins Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Cody Plofker (Advisor & fmr. CEO, Jones Road). She joined Grüns as employee four and rose from Chief of Staff to her current role. Before that, she spent years at McKinsey and Meta. She explains why founders need integrators, and how AI powers Grüns. She walks through the chief of staff role she built with Chad Janis. The CPM arbitrage test was an early swing that never scaled, unlike the LTO strategy that followed. Grüns now runs five emerging brands through dedicated marketing pods. Paid media, creative, and CRO, all guided by the same paper wall mindset. Powered By Motion https://9ops.co/motion-runneth Haus NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Operators Newsletter | |||
| Creators Over Reach: How to Rewrite Your Influencer Marketing | 04 août 2026 | 01:02:18 | |
“Borrow cultural equity executed with real partnership compounds faster than anything built in-house.” What happens when a legacy brand like Lexus stops buying reach and starts buying culture? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) trace how Lexus is using Colin and Samir to reach an audience Lexus already has. One idea drives the partnership: reach your audience better. Cody argues AI generated UGC misses the point entirely. Connor Rolain reveals the four and a half percent lift from a recent cart upsell holdout test. Retention marketing gets the final word on why so few brands measure it properly. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 https://9ops.co/motionapp-creativebenchmarks2026 Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Proppel Operators Newsletter | |||
| TikTok Shop Masterclass: Inside Ridge & HexClad Affiliate Programs | 28 juil. 2026 | 01:02:06 | |
“The new infomercial is TikTok shop.” Why did Ridge see 88% of its GMV Max lift happen outside of TikTok? Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad), and Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) sit down to unpack how their brands are building profitable TikTok shop affiliate programs. The conversation opens with Cody’s decision to step down as CEO of Jones Road. Connor MacDonald breaks down how Ridge structures affiliate incentives, generating 7,000 videos in a single month. He also shares a geolift study showing 88% of GMV Max lift landed off TikTok on Amazon and Ridge.com. The trio close by reverse engineering a TikTok shop brand, from price point to visual appeal. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 https://9ops.co/motionapp-creativebenchmarks2026 Proppel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus NeonPixel Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Operators Newsletter | |||
| Meta Ads Underperforming? Why + What To Do Right Now | 21 juil. 2026 | 01:08:09 | |
“I don’t think our ads are any better.” Why are Meta click-through rates rising while conversion rates keep falling? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) unpack why Meta ad performance has quietly shifted across ecommerce accounts. They break down Ridge’s new chains launch and the merchandising lessons behind it, and debate whether TikTok Shop’s affiliate program matters more than its storefront. Meta CPMs and click-through rates keep climbing across DTC accounts, even as conversion rates fall. The hosts respond with the exclusion settings and bid multipliers they are testing to fight back. From there, the conversation turns to Ridge’s chains launch and the pricing lessons behind it. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 https://9ops.co/motionapp-creativebenchmarks2026 Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel-mops Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus NeonPixel Operators Newsletter | |||
| The Performance Creative Director Hire: Operator vs. Ideator | 14 juil. 2026 | 01:11:56 | |
“She has built an amazing system and an amazing flywheel.” What separates a performance creative director worth hiring from one who just manages a content calendar? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) dig into what it takes to hire a director of performance creative today, why the creative strategist role has split into two distinct skill sets, and how AI agents are emerging as a serious ecommerce conversion rate optimization play. They debate whether a great creative strategist should be an operator or an ideator. The answer is neither alone. Both hosts unpack why less prescriptive creator briefs are now producing better-performing ads than heavily scripted ones. The hosts close with a quick over-under on the retention tools most brands either overinvest in or ignore entirely. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 https://9ops.co/motionapp-creativebenchmarks2026 NeonPixel Richpanel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus Operators Newsletter | |||
| Big-Swing vs. Incremental: Our Ecommerce CRO Testing Framework | 07 juil. 2026 | 01:01:27 | |
“All bad tests turn good and all good tests turn bad.” How do you run ecommerce A/B testing faster without sacrificing statistical confidence? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) debate when to burn the current site down and rebuild versus grinding out incremental wins one test at a time. The answer depends on what you can afford to get wrong. They cover Ridge’s live theme rebuild, HexClad’s 27% RPU lift from a single collection-page interstitial in Japan, and the case for running four variants instead of two. Cody also breaks down the qualitative research stack that helped Jones Road Beauty string together six consecutive winning tests. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Haus Richpanel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Operators Newsletter | |||
| The Right Way to A/B Test Landing Pages on Meta Ads for Ecommerce | 30 juin 2026 | 01:04:05 | |
“It’s not a test. It’s diversity for the Meta algorithm.” Can running more landing pages hurt your ability to make decisions? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) dig into landing page optimization strategy, conversion rate optimization for Meta ads, and when structured testing is the wrong tool entirely. They cover what Jones Road learned from overdeveloping pages and what a disastrous A/B test on a new offer taught Ridge about how Meta allocates spend. They examine the operational cost of landing page sprawl, how to structure a site-wide theme A/B test without introducing too many variables, and whether DTC brands at scale should slow down product launches or double down on them. AG1’s move into creatine opens a broader conversation about the limits of single-SKU subscription businesses along with where product expansion makes sense. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus Richpanel Operators Newsletter | |||
| How to 2x Your A/B Testing Output Without More Budget | 23 juin 2026 | 01:14:26 | |
“We used to try to win every day. Now we’re willing to sacrifice entire months.” What does it mean to optimize ad spend when there’s no universal answer? Michael Ting (GM of DTC, JAXXON) joins Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) to challenge one of the most common assumptions in ecommerce email marketing and paid media: that there is a single optimized ad spend. There isn’t. The better question is what you’re trying to achieve and over what time horizon. Michael walks through how JAXXON uses cost per email signup to make confident budget decisions, spending aggressively into slow seasons and monetizing that list when it matters most. The conversation also covers decision quality frameworks, doubling AB testing velocity, and how daily performance reporting builds operator instinct over time. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Richpanel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Haus Operators Newsletter | |||
| DTC Content Creation Process That Wins on Paid Social | 16 juin 2026 | 00:57:15 | |
“The digital deliverables have outpaced production company knowledge.” How do you build a repeatable content creation process without hiring a full agency? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) break down how they approach content production across every budget level; ranging from $50k brand shoot days to $100 iPhone clips that outperform everything else in the ad account. The episode covers the full content production stack: multi-team shoot briefing, on-set creative strategy, and the in-house studio advantage. The trio also gets into clipping, AI-generated UGC, and whether dead internet theory is already shaping how products go viral. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Haus Richpanel Aftersell https://9ops.co/aftersell-mops Operators Newsletter | |||
| How AI Is Reshaping Ecommerce Growth Teams: HexClad & Jones Road | 09 juin 2026 | 01:04:12 | |
“We’re not hiring less because of AI. We just expect each hire to be more productive.” Is AI shrinking your marketing team, or just changing who belongs on it? Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) get into how two of the most operator-driven brands in ecommerce are rethinking their AI marketing team structure heading into the second half of 2026. They cover which roles are compressing, which are expanding, and what it actually looks like to build a leaner growth team that outputs more. Cody breaks down the CRO program he runs with one person that used to require six. Connor explains why HexClad hired more people after building an AI-powered seeding system, not fewer. And both share how they think about headcount requests now, and what they make teams prove before saying yes. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Aftersell Haus Richpanel Operators Newsletter | |||
| Meta Ads Catalog, TikTok Shops + GMV Max, and the Future of Creative | 02 juin 2026 | 00:59:49 | |
Can Meta and TikTok Shop be combined into a single playbook? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) are fresh off the Meta Performance Marketing Summit and cover what the event signaled, where paid social is heading, and what most brands are still sleeping on. They explain Meta betting big on product feed enrichment as the foundation for better AI-generated creative, and how GMV Max is quietly powering TikTok Shop’s top brands. The duo also reveals creators driving 60% of shop revenue, the Meta ads catalog, and TikTok Shop affiliate flywheels. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Richpanel Aftersell Haus Operators Newsletter | |||
| Live at Meta’s 2026 Performance Marketing Summit: Ads, AI & Audiences | 28 mai 2026 | 00:40:53 | |
“There’s going to be a world where you just tell them your product and your business goals and they do the rest.” What does Meta’s AI push mean for ecommerce brands trying to win on paid social right now? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) recorded this episode live at Meta’s Performance Marketing Summit 2026 where they break down everything Meta announced: AI infrastructure to catalog-powered creative and what brands need to do about it immediately. The conversation covers Meta’s shift toward catalog-first ad infrastructure and why clean product data is now table stakes, not a nice-to-have. They dig into how the media buyer role is converging with creative strategy, what a 24-hour full-funnel launch looks like in practice, and why the brands building creator ecosystems today are setting up a major moat for catalog creative tomorrow. Powered By Meta Operators Newsletter | |||
| The Meta Playbook That Took True Sea Moss Beyond Nine Figures | 26 mai 2026 | 01:06:17 | |
“You don’t have to be first to be the best.” What does it take to scale a brand from $20M to $140M in just 12 months? Luka Kvatchrelishvili (CMO, True Sea Moss) joins hosts Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) to break down how he took a bootstrapped, product-led superfood brand … and scaled it into a nine-figure DTC powerhouse. Luka shares his path from practicing law in Georgia to drop shipping foosball tables to leading a 33-person marketing team. The conversation digs into how Luka diagnosed and fixed True Sea Moss’ data infrastructure before touching a single ad, and how a surge in creative volume gave way to a more methodical, outcome-driven testing system. He also gets into the halo effect between Meta spend, Amazon, and retail performance; the power of the LTV-to-CAC cohort report; and how True Sea Moss went from Telegram groups and Trello boards to a marketing-led operation scaling toward half a billion. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Saras Analytics Haus Richpanel Aftersell Operators Newsletter | |||
| Ecommerce Content Flywheel: Meta to TikTok, Paid to Organic | 19 mai 2026 | 01:01:25 | |
What does a content flywheel look like when it’s firing on all cylinders? Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) break down how their teams structure content creation end-to-end: from micro-creators and TikTok Shop affiliates to high-production studio shoots and ambassador programs. Both hosts bring their own playbooks to the table to compare notes in real time. They cover the three core buckets of a paid ad account, why scripted UGC is losing ground to raw “yapper content, how to negotiate more deliverables without doubling creator rates, the TikTok Shop affiliate flywheel, and why building an in-house production playbook is one of the highest-leverage investments a brand can make. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Aftersell Haus Richpanel Operators Newsletter | |||
| How to Get New Reach on Meta: Tactics & Data for Ecommerce Marketing | 12 mai 2026 | 01:05:46 | |
Are you measuring new reach on Meta the right way or just guessing? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) dig into the tactics + measurement frameworks driving their paid media strategies right now. The conversation spans Meta’s incremental attribution rollout and what the data shows. They cover signal engineering with conditional pixels, the case for non-purchase optimized campaigns on YouTube, and why building a deliberate testing roadmap matters more than chasing every new ad tech feature. Plus, behind the scenes on Jones Road’s biggest creator partnership came together. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Richpanel Aftersell Haus Operators Newsletter | |||
| Most Underrated Growth Tactic in Ecommerce Right Now With Andrew Faris | 07 mai 2026 | 01:19:25 | |
Drawing on over a decade of experience on the brand, HoldCo, and agency sides of DTC, Andrew Faris (Founder, AJF Growth) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) to discuss what it takes to build and scale an ecommerce brand across every stage of growth. The conversation covers what advice from larger operators can get wrong for smaller brands and why AOV may be the most underrated metric in subscription businesses. They explore how to think about the atomic units of an offer, the real trade-offs between in-house and agency media buying, and why the message is the most underrated growth tactic in ecommerce today. This episode is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth Or, skip the waitlist and launch your Axon by AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://axon.ai/en/9operators | |||
| 500% Growth: Inside Cadence’s DTC and Retail Playbook | 05 mai 2026 | 01:13:25 | |
Can you build a sports brand by saying no to most customers? Matty Martin (Head of Marketing, Cadence) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad), to break down what it takes to scale one of the fastest-growing sports hydration brands from scratch. Matty shares how he went from setting up the Shopify site himself to leading a full marketing team; all while sending every single email the company puts out. They dig into why Cadence stays focused on the athlete and resists chasing the hangover angle, how three redesigns in one year tripled sales at GNC, and the free-gift mechanic that pushed their subscription rate from 30% to 75%. Matty also walks through the brand’s expansion into Target and Walmart, its approach to omnichannel measurement, and why Candence’s athlete partnerships drive retail credibility as much as awareness. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Richpanel Aftersell Rivo Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Operators Newsletter | |||
| Rethinking SMS Marketing for Ecommerce: AI, RCS & LTV | 28 avr. 2026 | 01:06:10 | |
What if the most powerful customer insight tool in ecommerce is hiding inside your SMS program? Mike Manheimer (Chief Customer Officer, Postscript) joins hosts Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) to dig into how brands are getting more out of their SMS programs. They cover what most brands are doing wrong about messaging frequency, how conversational commerce is reshaping the acquisition funnel, and why the data from texts may be the most valuable, untapped signal in right now. The conversation moves from holdout testing and subscriber LTV benchmarks to Postscript’s AI product, Shopper, and the surprisingly specific objections that are quietly blocking purchases. It also covers what RCS means for the future of mobile messaging, why org structure shapes SMS performance more than most brands realize, and the single thing a five-to-ten-million-dollar brand should do first to unlock more from the channel. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks Report 2026 Rivo Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel Aftersell Operators Newsletter | |||
| Building a 9-Figure Baby Brand: Bobbie’s Kim Chappell (Chief Brand Officer) | 21 avr. 2026 | 01:18:28 | |
“If you’re not staying unhinged, you’re not building a memorable brand.” What happens when a two-time Emmy-winning TV anchor walks away from the newsroom to help build one of the most talked-about baby formula brands in the country? Kim Chappell (Chief Brand Officer at Bobbie) sits down with Cody Plofker (CEO at Jones Road Beauty) and Connor MacDonald (CMO at Ridge) to explore what it means to build a purpose-driven brand in a highly regulated, deeply emotional category. Kim shares how a journalism career shaped her instinct for storytelling, why trust is her team’s most important metric, and how Cardi B landed in Bobbie’s inbox because she was already a customer. From navigating the 2022 national formula shortage — and the $300M in revenue Bobbie deliberately walked away from — to launching the first breastfeeding billboard in Times Square with Molly Baz, Kim breaks down how bold creative decisions get made inside a fast-moving startup. She also digs into Bobbie’s partnership philosophy, the brand values that guide every campaign, and why celebrating customer cancellations has become one of their most powerful retention moves. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Rivo Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel Aftersell Operators Newsletter | |||
| Why Your Meta Campaigns Are Stuck Targeting the Same People | 14 avr. 2026 | 01:08:31 | |
Are you exhausting your audience or just exhausting your strategy? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) dig into the mechanics of reaching net-new audiences on Meta, breaking down which lever moves the needle most: creative diversity, signal engineering, or landing page strategy. They also revisit a Ridge case study showing how optimizing for the wrong purchase event quietly cannibalized an entire product category’s growth. The conversation shifts to building a DTC marketing function from scratch, what the first senior hire should look like at a $30M consumable brand with deep retail roots, what to pay them, and how to think about the lifecycle marketing role that follows. They close on a standout YouTube incrementality test result where Amazon captured more than half the revenue lift, and what that pattern reveals about upper-funnel channels and where customers actually convert. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Aftersell Haus Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel Operators Newsletter | |||
| Your Step-By-Step Growth Framework With Bryan Cano (True Classic) | 10 avr. 2026 | 01:18:46 | |
This episode is brought to you by AppLovin. Get access to the Operators channel expansion playbook, online masterclass, and up to $5k in ad credits here: https://www.9operators.com/paid-growth Or, skip the waitlist and launch your AppLovin ads today with our Operators-exclusive link: https://axon.ai/en/9operators “Growth can actually kill a business that’s not prepared for it.” Bryan Cano (fmr. Head of Marketing, True Classic) joins Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge) and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) for a conversation that spans the full arc of his career. Bryan breaks down the stair-stepping method for scaling without blowing up operations, what it looks like to rebuild a marketing org ahead of Black Friday, and how True Classic became one of the earliest brands to scale AppLovin to $100K per day in spend. Still an advisor to True Classic, Bryan also shares what he’s building next — an AI-first brand consolidator with a founding team he describes as an executive AI stack + a first product just weeks away. | |||
| New Ad Accounts, Organic & Creators: Marketing Operators Hotline | 07 avr. 2026 | 01:05:54 | |
It’s a MOps Hotline special episode! Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) answer your most pressing questions. Especially how to get started. Connor MacDonald shares what he’s learning in real time from launching a new supplement company from scratch — no Ridge halo, no shortcuts. The trio breaks down why organic distribution has become the non-negotiable foundation before touching paid, and how to think about scaling a Meta account from $500 a day to $1,000 and beyond. They also dig into the evolution from demand capture to demand creation, how to read the signals in your ad account, and why onsite CRO (conversion rate optimization) might be the most underrated lever in your whole growth stack. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel Aftersell Rivo Operators Newsletter | |||
| Channel Diversification in Ecommerce: Biggest Mistakes & Wins | 31 mars 2026 | 01:06:40 | |
What if the reason your channel expansion isn’t working has nothing to do with the channel? Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) break down what drives channel expansion decisions. They use the David Protein bar lawsuit as a jumping-off point to discuss bold brand marketing and the frameworks behind how DTC brands scale beyond Meta. The hosts dig into why thinking about customers acquired — not revenue generated — changes how you sequence channel investment. They debate the biggest mistakes they’ve each made with channel timing and what they’d do differently if they were launching a brand today. The conversation gets specific about TikTok Shop affiliate structures, how organic content creation seeds better paid performance, and why baseball on linear TV is offering CPMs that rival platforms can’t touch right now. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Richpanel Aftersell Haus Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Operators Newsletter | |||
| Salt and Stone’s Ari Murray on Sessions, Scent & Scaling DTC | 24 mars 2026 | 01:13:59 | |
“The market will tell you your hero — you can’t decide it.” How do you build a brand after you've seen the inside of 30 others? Connor Rolain and Cody Plofker sit down with Ari Murray, Chief Digital Officer at Salt & Stone, who spent four and a half years as Chief Growth Officer at Sharma Brands before going in-house. They dig into what it takes to lead growth for a single brand after years of running it for dozens at once. You’ll learn when to hire an agency versus build in-house, and why the answer changes as a brand matures. Ari shares how Salt & Stone approaches acquisition without discounting, why discovery sets are central to their DTC funnel, and how she thinks about first-order AOV in a scent-driven category where customers can't smell the product before they buy. They also discuss session growth as a daily obsession, the real cost of dabbling in new channels without enough commitment, and why the line between brand and performance is too often drawn in the wrong place. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026https://motionapp.com/thumbstop-pulse/creative-benchmarks-2026?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-benchmarks-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast Aftersell https://9ops.co/4i3bb5 Rivo Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel https://9ops.co/richpanel Operators Newsletter https://9operators.com/ | |||
| Incrementality Playbook Every Ecommerce Marketer Needs | 17 mars 2026 | 01:03:21 | |
Are you making decisions based on data that proves causality or just correlation? Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad), Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) dig into what it means to build a truly incrementality-first marketing organization. They break down how to string together consecutive channel tests — using each result to build the next hypothesis rather than testing in isolation. They share real examples from their own accounts, including how a 20% budget shift to brand video drove a 40% lift in incremental results, why TikTok Shop is proving to reach a new audience for HexClad, and how Jones Road diagnosed and rebuilt a struggling Meta account from first principles. The conversation also tackles the nuance of measuring upper-funnel channels like CTV and YouTube, when directional reads are enough, and how to build a culture where your team learns to think incrementally without being told to. Powered By Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 Haus Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel Aftersell Operators Newsletter | |||
| Meta’s Manus AI Enters the Chat: Is Media Buying “Dead”? | 10 mars 2026 | 01:11:02 | |
Is media buying dead or just evolving? Cody Plofker, Connor MacDonald, and Connor Rolain unpack Meta’s integration of Manus AI into Ads Manager and explore what it signals for the future of paid growth. The hosts discuss whether AI-driven automation is making traditional media buying obsolete and what this shift could mean for ecommerce teams navigating an increasingly agent-led landscape. The squad also covers how they’re already applying AI inside their brands, from campaign execution to CRO workflows + internal tooling — evolving growth roles, cross-channel decision-making, and how teams are rethinking structure in response to more capable AI systems. Powered By Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp Richpanel Aftersell Rivo Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Operators Newsletter | |||
| Mattel & PDQ: Scaling Through Data, Checkout, and Customer Trust | 06 mars 2026 | 01:03:19 | |
Mina Zandbar (VP of Global eCommerce & Digital Growth at Mattel) and Avi Moskowitz (Co-Founder & CEO) of PrettyDamnQuick, join hosts Connor MacDonald + Cody Plofker to explore ecommerce growth from two very different vantage points — one inside an 80-year-old, multi-billion dollar toy company; the other, building the infrastructure that helps brands stop leaking revenue at checkout. Together, they reveal how your business can better use first-party data, AI, and smarter checkout experiences to improve customer trust and sell more. Avi explains how optimizing logistics and personalization inside checkout unlocks profit revenue, while Mina shares how Mattel builds agile, data-driven teams and connects directly with its global community of customers and collectors. The end result? A top-to-bottom analysis of your entire customer journey … to scale faster. PrettyDamnQuick Try Checkout Index https://checkoutindex.prettydamnquick.com/?utm_source=partnerships&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=theoperators&utm_term=podnotes Powered By Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp Haus Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel Aftersell Operators Newsletter | |||
| Category Expansion: When to Launch, What to Test & How to Scale | 03 mars 2026 | 01:00:35 | |
Are your new product launches driving incremental revenue or just shifting money around? Connor Rolain, Head of Growth at HexClad, and Connor MacDonald, CMO at Ridge, dig into one of the most under-discussed challenges in DTC: how and when to introduce new products into your paid acquisition channels. From HexClad’s cocktail shaker launch to Ridge’s tattoo-inspired wallet designs, they break down real decisions they’re making right now. Geo lift tests, channel holdouts, MER vs. ad-level performance, blended business unit analysis, and cross-category buying. The conversation centers on operationalizing category expansion in paid — building frameworks for when to scale, when to hold, and how to make smarter allocation decisions across categories. Powered By: Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel Aftersell Haus Operators Newsletter | |||
| Episode 100! The Big Rocks We’re Focusing on for 2026 Growth | 24 févr. 2026 | 01:16:47 | |
How do you build a marketing machine that scales without breaking? In celebration of episode 100, Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CMO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (VP of Growth, HexClad) reveal the strategic priorities driving their brands’ growth in 2026 — straight out of their internal planning docs. From creating a bulletproof marketing operating system to cracking TikTok Shop, the trio goes deep on what’s moving the needle. They unpack why Ridge is betting big on retention as a product, why Jones Road is obsessed with creator-led social, and why all three brands believe that testing volume — not just testing smarter — is one of the highest-leverage inputs you can control. The conversation wraps with a candid breakdown of organic YouTube strategy and whether product seeding can replicate the success they’ve had on Instagram and TikTok. Powered By: Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp Rivo Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel Aftersell Operators Newsletter | |||
| Performance Creative in 2026: What We’ve Updated and Why | 17 févr. 2026 | 01:17:15 | |
This week, the team breaks down how they’re testing creative and scaling systems. Volume still matters, but only when it’s paired with clearer concepts, stronger hypotheses, and better signal quality. Connor MacDonald (CMO, Ridge), Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty), and Connor Rolain (Global Head of Growth, HexClad) revisit the playbooks they built over the years and walk through what’s working right now. The conversation gets tactical fast. They dig into what actually defines a concept (message × format), how they’re structuring Meta campaigns to balance throughput and learning, and why hybrid CBO setups that blur the line between testing and spending are becoming the new standard. From ABO vs. CBO tradeoffs to pixel consolidation and signal engineering, they unpack how promising ideas get enough budget to generate real data. Then the focus shifts to creator pipelines, coaching feedback loops, and organic-to-paid workflows — including why Jones Road is building a creator-in-residence program to ship content daily, why HexClad is hiring a dedicated freelancer to source assets faster, and why Ridge treats its network of briefed creators as an internal function. A clear theme runs through it all … performance shouldn’t pit quality against quantity. It should focus on infrastructure to produce high output while learning faster and growing with intention. Powered By: Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Aftersell https://www.aftersell.com/operators Haus Get the 9 Operators Newsletter | |||
| From Organic Creative to Paid Performance: The New Flywheel | 10 févr. 2026 | 01:12:15 | |
Is your brand still creating content for a social media era that no longer exists? Hosts Connor Rolain (HexClad), Cody Plofker (Jones Road Beauty), and Connor MacDonald (Ridge) dig into how they’re rethinking organic and paid social content strategy for 2026 — and why the old influencer playbook is officially broken. Cody reveals the million-dollar organic social investment he pitched to his board and the creator-in-residence model he’s building from scratch. Connor MacDonald explains why Ridge is going all-in on high-volume, product-oriented creator content over signature-series brand plays. And Connor Rolain shares how HexClad is bridging its organic social team with paid media creative strategy through a simple Slack channel workflow. The conversation covers TikTok Shop affiliate flywheels, the death of follower-based reach, running creator-hiring competitions, and when it actually makes sense to invest in episodic brand content. Powered By: Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamphttps://motionapp.com/2026-creative-strategy-bootcamp-paid?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-strategy-bootcamp-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast Aftersell https://www.aftersell.com/operatorsRivohttps://www.rivo.io/operators Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Get the 9 Operators Newsletter https://9operators.com/ | |||
| Performance Creative: Velocity, AI Tooling & the Paid-Organic Relationship With Dara Denney | 03 févr. 2026 | 01:19:42 | |
Performance creative consultant Dara Denney joins the show to break down how modern brands are approaching creative strategy in 2026. The conversation opens with the shifting role of content creators versus strategists, and why creative velocity, operations, and in-house production are increasingly shaping how brands scale. From there, they dig into how AI is actually being used inside creative workflows - where it speeds up research and briefing, and where human judgment still matters, especially around roadmapping and idea selection. The group also explores the growing convergence of organic and paid, including how organic performance signals influence paid creative, why upper-funnel content belongs in performance accounts, and when “organic-first” ideas can still drive results. The episode wraps with a candid discussion on performance measurement beyond short-term ROAS, touching on creative diversity, upper-funnel impact, and how operators think about long-term growth when building scalable content systems. If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv6 Powered by: Motion. https://motionapp.com/?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=motion-sign-up&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast Motion Creative Strategy Bootcamp. https://motionapp.com/2026-creative-strategy-bootcamp-paid?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-strategy-bootcamp-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast Prescient AI. https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel. https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Aftersell https://www.aftersell.com/operators Haus Get the 9 Operators Newsletter https://9operators.com/ | |||
| Key Initiative Breakdown: When and how to diversify your media mix | 27 janv. 2026 | 01:06:33 | |
This episode breaks down a key 2026 initiative: when and how to diversify your media mix, grounded in real operator decision-making rather than theory. The conversation uses HexClad’s approach as a case study, exploring the data signals that indicate it’s time to expand channels, how teams test incrementality, and how operators manage rising measurement complexity - especially when scaling internationally. Along the way, the team explains how the “Rocks” system supports this kind of decision-making, from setting clear priorities and aligning teams to establishing cadence and ownership. They also unpack how KPIs are chosen at different stages, how retention-focused Rocks anchor growth efforts, and how insights from Japanese market data inform smarter media mix expansion. If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv6 Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:03:27 - Hexclad's 2026 Rocks 00:23:08 - Signals for Channel Expansion 00:32:23 - Expansion Playbook & Strategy 00:43:17 - New US Channels 00:55:59 - Sequencing & Complexity Powered by: Motion. Rivo. Prescient AI. https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel. https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Aftersell. https://www.aftersell.com/operators Subscribe to the 9 Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@Operators9 Subscribe to the Finance Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@FinanceOperatorsFOPS Sign up to the 9 Operators newsletter here: | |||
| The New Ecommerce Playbook: DR Funnels, CRO, and Buyer Behavior | 20 janv. 2026 | 01:26:59 | |
This week, the team sits down with Dylan Ander, founder of Heatmap and author of Billion Dollar Websites, to break down how modern ecommerce funnels are evolving and why many legacy playbooks are starting to crack. The conversation opens with Dylan’s perspective on AI, trust, and synthetic content, and why brands may be heading back toward more human-led, harder-to-fake creative as AI becomes table stakes. From there, they unpack why traditional DR funnels are losing effectiveness, how homepage-style and “Trojan horse” landing pages are reshaping conversion behavior, and what operators need to rethink about how users actually move through sites today. Dylan shares lessons from Billion Dollar Websites, including how ecommerce brands can borrow from info funnels to monetize beyond products and increase LTV. The episode closes with a practical look at research and CRO systems - how to structure insights, prioritize tests, and turn qualitative signals into a clear experimentation roadmap - grounding the conversation in how operators can build strategies that reflect real buyer behavior as the landscape continues to shift. Check out the previous episode with Dylan: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3iwer8FNwuwzDDnAV5X7JV?si=3NJKr9aMQLun1qWQvegSYw Find more about Dylan: https://dylanander.com/ Dylan’s newsletter: https://dylanander.com/newsletter If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv6 Chapters: 00:03:47 - AI Hot Takes 00:24:49 - Info Funnels & Monetizing the Customer Journey 00:39:13 - Research & The Billion Dollar Data Funnel 00:55:35 - Deepening Customer Feedback Analysis 01:10:40 - Testing Strategy & Evolutionary Redesign Powered by: Motion. https://motionapp.com/pricing?utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast&utm_medium=paidsponsor&utm_campaign=march-2024-ad-readshttps://motionapp.com/creative-trends Prescient AI. https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel. https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Aftersell. https://www.aftersell.com/operators Haus. Subscribe to the 9 Operators Podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/5CMxGOODTOB4zRbq5oHAVm?si=b295b9c03e9a407c Subscribe to the Finance Operators Podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/3cqVNmmrYxgb5ohBhw8uvy?si=424001675b3b48fa Sign up to the 9 Operators newsletter here: https://9operators.com/ | |||
| Our DTC 2026 Predictions & What 2025 Got Right and Wrong | 13 janv. 2026 | 01:29:00 | |
This week, the hosts return for their annual predictions episode, starting by revisiting their 2025 forecasts and holding themselves accountable for what hit, what missed, and what changed faster than expected. From there, they transition into their 2026 predictions for DTC and eCommerce marketing, grounding each call in real performance data, platform behavior, and operator-level experience. The conversation centers on paid media and channel mix, with deep discussion on Meta’s evolving ability to drive new customer growth, AppLovin’s continued rise, renewed performance on X, and how brands should think about wallet share, prospecting vs. retargeting, and incrementality across channels. They also unpack how creative strategy and signal engineering are becoming more critical as platforms automate bidding and optimization. As the episode progresses, the discussion broadens into longer-term growth levers, including performance-driven organic social, brand awareness measurement, dynamic pricing and pre-orders, affiliate and social commerce strategies, and the growing need to connect marketing decisions with inventory, finance, and long-term brand value. A core takeaway from the episode is how operators can move beyond tactics and apply better measurement, accountability, and systems thinking heading into 2026. Watch last year's predictions episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3CzkMlAHp7a2elLsIWO9qJ?si=wqbUJI_3QWqFLlOb5vN8aw If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv6 Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:04:33 - Reviewing 2025 Predictions 00:18:58 - Brand Tracking and Awareness 00:38:41 - AppLovin and Channel Predictions 00:57:14 - Database Design and Data Fragmentation 01:16:46 - AI Infrastructure and Documentation Powered by: Motion. https://motionapp.com/pricing?utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast&utm_medium=paidsponsor&utm_campaign=march-2024-ad-readshttps://motionapp.com/creative-trends Rivo. Prescient AI. https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel. https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Aftersell. https://www.aftersell.com/operators Subscribe to the 9 Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@Operators9 Subscribe to the Finance Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@FinanceOperatorsFOPS Sign up to the 9 Operators newsletter here: | |||
| From Brand Moments to Revenue: How Halfdays Drives Growth - with Liz Anthony, Chief of Staff | 06 janv. 2026 | 01:29:07 | |
This week, we’re joined by Liz Anthony, Chief of Staff at Halfdays, the fast-growing women’s outdoor apparel brand redefining performance skiwear. Liz breaks down how Halfdays balances brand and performance marketing to scale a highly seasonal DTC business, including the role of founder-led content, creative diversity, and standout collaborations like HOKA in driving Q4 momentum. From there, the group digs into how the Chief of Staff role acts as a force multiplier across marketing, product, and strategy - pulling from Liz’s consulting background to explore how strong operators create leverage in fast-moving brands. We wrap with a collaborative discussion on KPI ownership, dashboards, and forecasting, covering how teams use simple tools like Google Sheets to track leading indicators, align cross-functional teams, and connect marketing execution to real business outcomes. If you’re scaling a seasonal brand, building cross-functional clarity, or trying to connect brand moments to measurable growth, this episode is packed with practical insight. If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv6 Find out more about the Halfdays brand in another MOperators Episode: How Halfdays Turned Community into a Growth Engine - with CEO Ariana Ferwerda Chapters: 00:00:00 – Introducing Liz and Halfdays’ Brand Story 00:03:10 – Finding Product-Market Fit in Women’s Ski Wear 00:08:00 – Expanding Beyond Ski: Year-Round and Omnichannel Growth 00:13:30 – Defining “Her”: Core Customer, Persona, and Positioning 00:19:00 – Chief of Staff Role: KPIs, Strategy, and Cross-Functional Glue 00:24:10 – Liz’s Operator Background and Translating Consulting Skills to DTC 00:30:20 – Building the Team, Ownership Culture, and Management Style 00:36:20 – Q4 and Black Friday: Hoka Collab, List Growth, and Demand 00:44:30 – Content Engine, Community, and Always-On Brand Marketing 00:52:30 – Channel Mix, Out-of-Home Bets, and Retargeting Strategy 01:01:00 – 2026 Roadmap: New Franchises, Launch “Moments,” and Playbooks 01:11:30 – Data Stack, KPIs, and Using Analytics to Drive Decisions Powered by: Motion. https://motionapp.com/pricing?utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast&utm_medium=paidsponsor&utm_campaign=march-2024-ad-readshttps://motionapp.com/creative-trends Prescient AI. https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel. https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Aftersell. https://www.aftersell.com/operators Haus. Subscribe to the 9 Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@Operators9 Subscribe to the Finance Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@FinanceOperatorsFOPS Sign up to the 9 Operators newsletter here: https://9operators.com/ | |||
| The Influencer Marketing Playbook - with Lily Comba, Founder & CEO of Superbloom | 30 déc. 2025 | 01:16:54 | |
This week, we’re joined by Lily Comba, Founder & CEO of Superbloom, who opens up about how she got her start in influencer marketing and why she approaches influencer through a performance lens. Lily shares her journey from building in-house programs to launching Superbloom, and what she learned scaling influencer across some of the most recognizable consumer brands. From there, we go deep on measurement, attribution, and negotiations. Lily breaks down how to think about ROAS, CPA, multipliers, and code leakage, along with how she models performance upfront to negotiate smarter creator deals and build paid usage rights and whitelisting into every partnership. We talk through practical frameworks for forecasting results, setting realistic KPIs, and holding influencer partnerships accountable without burning relationships. We also dive into YouTube and channel expansion, including why YouTube is one of the most underrated influencer channels, how to negotiate effective integrations, and what longer-form creator content unlocks for both performance and brand lift. We wrap with how influencer fits into the broader media mix, common mistakes brands make when launching programs, and what operators should be focused on if they want to scale influencer the right way. If you’re trying to make influencer more measurable, negotiate better deals, and turn creator content into high-performing paid media, you’re gonna love this one. If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv6 Chapters: 00:00:00 – Scaling Influencer Spend and Proving ROI 00:03:53 – Lily’s Background and Building Super Bloom 00:08:45 – From Seed Health to Launching an Agency 00:13:05 – Brands, Categories, and Who Influencer Marketing Works For 00:14:03 – Performance-First Influencer Programs and Service SKUs 00:19:31 – Organic Influencer KPIs vs Paid Performance Metrics 00:22:01 – Full-Funnel Impact, Halo Effects, and AOV Considerations 00:25:16 – Discount Code Leakage and Attribution Challenges 00:30:13 – Using Multipliers to Translate Influencer Performance 00:34:38 – Modeling ROAS, Click-Through Rates, and Incrementality 00:41:31 – Awareness vs Performance Across Different Brand Types 00:47:19 – Influencer Negotiation Frameworks and Deal Structuring 00:52:47 – High-AOV Products, Long Consideration Cycles, and Measurement Limits Powered by: Motion. https://motionapp.com/pricing?utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast&utm_medium=paidsponsor&utm_campaign=march-2024-ad-readshttps://motionapp.com/creative-trends Rivo. https://www.rivo.io/operators Prescient AI. https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel. https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Aftersell. https://www.aftersell.com/operators Subscribe to the 9 Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@Operators9 Subscribe to the Finance Operators Podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/@FinanceOperatorsFOPS Sign up to the 9 Operators newsletter here: https://9operators.com/ | |||
| Setting 2026 Goals, Incrementality Lessons from BFCM and Amazon Brand Bidding | 23 déc. 2025 | 01:07:00 | |
This week, the team breaks down what recent platform moves signal for operators heading into 2026 — starting with Shopify’s Winter Editions and the growing role of Sidekick inside the Shopify ecosystem. They discuss how tools like Sidekick are democratizing data access, reducing operational friction, and changing how lean growth teams analyze performance, build reports, and take action inside the admin. From there, the conversation shifts to BFCM performance and incrementality, with the hosts unpacking what they learned from scaling spend in steps during peak periods. They discuss where incremental gains showed up, where marginal returns began to flatten, and why short testing windows can still offer directional insight even when results are noisy. The team then reacts to and unpacks a tweet about Amazon bidding more aggressively on brand terms, using it as a jumping-off point to explore demand capture during promo periods, brand search strategy, and how branded demand is distributed across Amazon and DTC during high-intent moments. Throughout the episode, a key theme emerges: how operators should interpret signals from major platforms and translate them into proactive strategy rather than reactive tactics. The episode wraps with a candid conversation on 2026 planning, including examples like Connor Rolain’s pyramid-style goal-setting framework, org design considerations, and how growth leaders can balance short-term execution with long-term thinking. MOperators Hotline If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv6 Chapters 00:00:00 – Shopify Winter Editions and the Rise of Sidekick 00:06:46 – Data Democratization and AI Inside Shopify 00:14:34 – Shopify Collective and Cross-Brand Merchandising 00:19:03 – Black Friday Scaling Tests and Marginal ROAS 00:27:27 – Brand Search Incrementality and Paid Search Myths 00:32:14 – Amazon Brand Bidding and the “Amazon Tax” 00:36:39 – What CMOs Must Lock Before Year-End Planning 00:41:22 – Hiring Plans, Budgets, and 2026 Readiness 00:46:21 – Managing Multiple Timelines Across Growth Teams 00:49:38 – Strategic Filters, Objectives, and Goal-Setting Frameworks Powered by Motion https://motionapp.com/pricing?utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast&utm_medium=paidsponsor&utm_campaign=march-2024-ad-reads https://motionapp.com/creative-trends Prescient AI https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=MO&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=ytdesc Aftersell https://www.aftersell.com/operators Rivo https://www.rivo.io/operators Haus http://Haus.io/operators Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/@Operators9 https://www.youtube.com/@FinanceOperatorsFOPS https://9operators.com/ | |||