Ecommerce and Retail

What the sessions actually say

1. Sell what the market is starving for, not what you feel like selling

   Sabri's first businesses failed because he picked the product he was interested in, then went hunting for buyers. Reverse it. Research what is already selling in irrational quantities, what people would crawl across crushed glass to get, then work out what spin or angle you can bring to that. You get the wind in your sails instead of swimming upstream.

   Sabri SubySabri Suby: how to build an offer nobody can resist →

2. Make the offer so strong it keeps you up at night

   Most businesses have resistible offers: buy my thing, and if it doesn't work, oh well. Sabri launched King Kong with a guarantee to get clients onto page one of Google or he worked for free. The test is whether the prospect asks how you can possibly deliver on it. If they don't ask that, it isn't irresistible yet.

   Sabri SubySabri Suby: how to build an offer nobody can resist →

3. Expect a refund rate under 5% on a guarantee

   Founders freeze at the thought of guaranteeing results. Sabri's benchmark: if more than 5% of customers claim on your guarantee, you are not doing a good enough job of delivery. Treat the claim rate as a quality signal, not a reason to avoid guarantees. A compelling offer beats a convincing argument every time.

   Sabri SubySabri Suby: how to build an offer nobody can resist →

4. Test demand with a giveaway landing page and $10 a day in ads

   Before Hero Packaging launched, Anaita built a landing page offering a free compostable mailer and ran a Google ad to it at roughly $10 a day, then counted signups. Do the same for every new product: get the smallest quantity possible, pre-sell it, and only commit to inventory once signups prove demand exists.

   Anaita SarkarAnaita Sarkar on testing demand, margins and founder content →

5. If you will not spend money on ads, you must spend time

   Anaita's rule is time or money, ideally both. No ad budget means content every day, markets, events, blog posts, SEO and being in rooms with the right people. Saying you have no ad budget and also hate making content is, in her words, the dumbest thing she has heard, because a business needs one of the two inputs.

   Anaita SarkarAnaita Sarkar on testing demand, margins and founder content →

6. Build one gathering place for customers, even if two people show up

   A Facebook group, a broadcast channel, a Saturday running club. Anaita points to activewear brands running weekly run clubs: even at two attendees it gives you content, face time with customers and a reason for people to feel they would miss out if they left. She argues community is the difference between a brand with longevity and one with none, because every business has direct and indirect competition.

   Anaita SarkarAnaita Sarkar on testing demand, margins and founder content →

7. Run Google PageSpeed Insights on mobile and chase 85 out of 100

   Anaita says 80 to 90% of traffic is mobile, so test the mobile score, not desktop. Aim for 85 to near 100. Watch two metrics specifically: first contentful paint (the first thing that loads) and largest contentful paint (the last thing that loads). Anything over 2 seconds is too long.

   Anaita SarkarWebsite optimisation that actually moves conversion rate →

8. Pay a freelancer $100 to $150 every three months to strip JavaScript

   Anaita rebuilds speed roughly quarterly because she keeps adding Shopify apps. The brief is simple: remove all the old JavaScript and speed up the site. She hires on freelancer.com or fiverr.com, posts the job, waits 24 hours for responses, then picks on review count and portfolio examples. It is not a technical job to brief.

   Anaita SarkarWebsite optimisation that actually moves conversion rate →

9. Do the speed maths on your own traffic before you write it off

   Anaita ran Step One underwear through PageSpeed Insights and got 34 out of 100, with first contentful paint at 3.2 seconds and largest contentful paint at 27 seconds. With 60,000 organic visits a month and 40% of people abandoning a site that takes over 3 seconds, that is 24,000 recovered visitors. At 2% conversion and a $100 average order value, that is about 485 extra orders and $48,000 a month.

   Anaita SarkarWebsite optimisation that actually moves conversion rate →

10. Do one interesting thing a week and document it as a content series

    Anaita starts every Monday by deciding on one interesting thing the brand will do that week. Redecorate the office, run small guerrilla marketing at Bondi, surprise a staff member, organise a mini founder event. She documents it on stories Monday to Wednesday, then posts the outcome on Thursday, including if it failed, because people back you when you fail publicly. Her line: if you do interesting shit, you'll have interesting things to talk about.

    Anaita SarkarThe weekly routine that keeps your brand top of mind →

11. Map seven content ideas per platform on Monday, storyboarded not dot-pointed

    Seven ideas for Instagram, seven for TikTok, seven for LinkedIn if you post to all three. Reposting the same piece counts as one. Anaita does not stop at a list, she storyboards each piece: green screen screenshots ready, images ready, all banked. She then films at least two pieces on Monday so the week starts with content in the bank. She does not batch create because too much changes day to day at Hero Packaging.

    Anaita SarkarThe weekly routine that keeps your brand top of mind →

12. Review your ads manager yourself across four time windows every Monday

    Anaita checks the last 3, 7, 14 and 30 days to see the trend, not a single snapshot. She looks at whether CPA is climbing on specific creatives and whether ROAS is moving up or down, then cuts creatives, optimises campaigns and switches some creatives back on. Her position: no agency report will teach you what your ads manager will. Go in yourself.

    Anaita SarkarThe weekly routine that keeps your brand top of mind →

13. Guess the buyer's email address instead of networking your way in

    Annabel had zero retail contacts. She searched terms like "Priceline beauty buyer" on Google and LinkedIn to get names and titles, worked out the company's email format, then guessed. An out of office reply confirms the format is right. One day she sent 300 emails and the Priceline buyer replied almost immediately. Her framing: path of least resistance, and if they don't reply there are 365 days in the year, so email again until you catch them on a good day.

    Annabel HayAnnabel Hay: from nightclub idea to Priceline and CVS shelves →

14. Pay for third-party QA before a batch leaves the factory

    Clutch's first 5,000 units were sealed by a machine running too hot, which pierced the tube tops and caused leaks in transit. Annabel had to issue mass refunds on nearly all of the $160,000 made at launch, then pay again for new manufacturing and a new manufacturer. She had never heard of third-party QA inspectors who squeeze and check every tube before dispatch. Build a pre-launch checklist and don't let the excitement of holding a finished product make you ignore red flags.

    Annabel HayAnnabel Hay: from nightclub idea to Priceline and CVS shelves →

15. Budget your patent in stages across the 12-month window

    Annabel paid roughly $30,000 to $40,000 to lodge with the International Patent Office. About 12 to 18 months later the office confirmed patentability, which opened a 12-month window to lodge in each individual country. She ranked countries into priority one to four and spread the filings across quarters to match cash flow rather than paying around $300,000 at once. Miss a country in that window and you start the whole process again.

    Annabel HayAnnabel Hay: from nightclub idea to Priceline and CVS shelves →

16. Set a daily revenue number before anyone quits their job

    Don did not wait for a million dollar plan. The first milestone was a consistent $500 a day, enough to cover rent, before he left his job. Matilda's trigger was ten times that, roughly $5K a day, before she left recruitment. Pick a daily number tied to a real bill, hit it consistently, then make the leap.

    Don RobertsonSTAX: 10 Years of Building a Cult Activewear Brand →

17. Hire for demand, not for the org chart you want

    STAX's first meaningful hire was customer service, not marketing or brand. They had oversold a collection and were drowning in around 800 emails overnight on Outlook with no ticketing system. Matilda was answering them at 3am and giving things away for free. Hire into the place that is currently breaking, and hire someone who loves the brand but is not so emotionally invested that every angry email ruins them.

    Don RobertsonSTAX: 10 Years of Building a Cult Activewear Brand →

18. If you have to negotiate with yourself to hire someone, it is a no

    Don's rule after several bad hires. Matilda adds that every time they second-guessed their gut and hired anyway, it was a disaster. She also warns against treating interviews as a PR pitch: they used to run a PowerPoint on why you should work at STAX, and people arrived expecting the Instagram personalities rather than bosses. Make interviews an even exchange so both sides can test the fit honestly.

    Don RobertsonSTAX: 10 Years of Building a Cult Activewear Brand →

19. Screen every product against a five-point criteria list

    Dylan asks: does it solve a problem or is it genuinely unique, is there demand, is it saturated, can content be easily created and shipped to creators, and are competitor reviews positive. The final test is whether you can add products later to lift average order value and lifetime value. A product does not have to solve a problem, the viral light-up ducky lamps were just a unique take on something people already owned.

    Dylan MullanDylan Mullan: product selection and organic content for ecom →

20. Use Page Transparency and Google Trends to prove demand

    Dylan does not chase being first to market, he looks for recent competitors already selling. Go to a competitor's Facebook page, click Page Transparency, and if an ad has been running over three months it is a strong signal it is profitable, because nobody leaves a losing ad on. Cross-check with Google Trends (above 50 or clearly trending up) and main keyword volume over 10,000.

    Dylan MullanDylan Mullan: product selection and organic content for ecom →

21. Two quick tests for whether a product is already saturated

    First, check how long the competitors have existed. If a brand and its hero product have been around more than three years, the product is likely saturated. Second, walk into Big W, Kmart or Officeworks. If they have a home brand version on shelf, Dylan guarantees it is saturated.

    Dylan MullanDylan Mullan: product selection and organic content for ecom →

22. Test demand with a Photoshopped product and a $20 a day Google ad

    Anaita Sarkar validated Hero Packaging before manufacturing anything. She built a single landing page with a Photoshopped image of a compostable mailer, three fields (shipping address, email, business name) and the offer "do you want a free compostable mailer?". She spent $20 a day on Google Ads targeting searches like sustainable packaging, compostable packaging, eco packaging and green packaging. She hoped for 20 to 30 signups and got 1,000 in seven days.

    Dylan MullanCreating and selling products customers can't get enough of →

23. Free samples only count as proof when people come back and pay

    Sarkar's husband pushed back on the 1,000 signups because free is not a business. The samples cost about $7 each, so it was a real spend. She waited one to two months to see how many of those 1,000 would place a paid order. About 70 per cent did, giving her 700 paying customers and genuine evidence of demand.

    Dylan MullanCreating and selling products customers can't get enough of →

24. Take a service people already pay for and turn it into a DIY product

    Dylan Mullan modelled Happy Skin Co on HiSmile and Bondi Sands, both of which took something you used to book in for (dentist teeth whitening, spray tan) and made it a home product. Laser hair removal fitted the same pattern: expensive, inconvenient, painful, and strangers in your business. The technology already existed with Braun and Philips on the bottom shelf of shaver shops, but nobody had marketed it on social media.

    Dylan MullanCreating and selling products customers can't get enough of →

25. Cap the soft launch at three months, then go

    Grace still backs building in public because it holds founders accountable. But she would never stretch the coming-soon phase past three months. Beyond that, the audience loses interest and moves to whatever is trending next, and you have spent time and money on content that no one can buy from.

    Grace GarrickHard launching your brand with PR founder Grace Garrick →

26. Define a hard launch as a compressed window, not a big budget

    Grace clarified this mid-session: a hard launch does not mean a launch event, paid talent or a large-scale campaign. It means everything you would have drip fed over six months goes out in a very short window. Same content, same spend, far more impact, because the density of the messaging is what makes it feel big.

    Grace GarrickHard launching your brand with PR founder Grace Garrick →

27. Lift the embargo, post the content and open the site on the same day

    If you are launching by PR, set one embargo date so all media coverage goes live together, then repurpose and amplify that across your socials. Do the same for your key launch content, your website and your EDMs. One day, all channels, no staggering.

    Grace GarrickHard launching your brand with PR founder Grace Garrick →

28. Improve an existing daily habit rather than replace one

    Jaryd's starting question was "what's going to replace coffee?" He changed it to "why replace it when we can just improve it?" Coffee is the most widely consumed beverage behind water and people do not skip their morning cup, so adding vitamins and minerals means the customer gets the upside without changing behaviour. If you want a big brand, pick something already inside a daily habit or routine.

    Jaryd TerkelsenBefore You Speak Coffee: from one SKU to 1,500 retailers →

29. Launch with one product and one audience

    Before You Speak launched with a single performance coffee, still its number one seller today. With limited resources you are the marketing team and the customer service team, so pushing multiple messages to multiple audiences makes your own life harder. Get one product moving, then use customer feedback to guide what you build next. The unsweetened range and other SKUs came later.

    Jaryd TerkelsenBefore You Speak Coffee: from one SKU to 1,500 retailers →

30. Do not order 10,000 units on your first purchase order

    Their initial PO was 10,000 boxes. It took roughly nine months to sell through, which Jaryd calls not the smartest move on cash flow. Size your first order against a realistic sell-through window, not against your ambition, because that inventory is cash you cannot spend on acquiring customers.

    Jaryd TerkelsenBefore You Speak Coffee: from one SKU to 1,500 retailers →

31. Reverse-engineer a headline from a brand you aspire to

    Jessy's method: pick the founder or brand you want to be like, search where they have been covered, then find the exact headline. Her example was "Jane Lu creates fashion empire selling $59 dresses". Then write your own version of that headline with your point of difference in it, such as a lower price point or the product going viral on TikTok, and pitch that to the same journalist.

    Jessy MarshallHow to pitch media and influencers without an agency →

32. Write to the publication, not to media in general

    Daily Mail and the Australian Financial Review do not speak the same language, so the same pitch will not work for both. Daily Mail leans into what is going viral on TikTok and what customers are saying. Marie Claire wants ingredients if you are beauty, or fabrics if you are fashion. Read a recent storey about a competitor in that masthead and bundle your storey up the same way.

    Jessy MarshallHow to pitch media and influencers without an agency →

33. Send one Dropbox link with every asset a journalist could need

    Jessy's asset pack: the correct live website link (state clearly that you want your own site linked, not Priceline or another stockist, or they will link the stockist), e-commerce imagery on white for magazines, lifestyle imagery for outlets like Daily Mail, and a press release with brand background in case they widen the storey. Do their job for them.

    Jessy MarshallHow to pitch media and influencers without an agency →

34. Fix the 5 Ps before you optimise a single ad dollar

    Jo argues small budgets get wasted because founders jump straight to ROI optimisation without the fundamentals. Start with proposition (what do you actually stand for, in the way The Iconic settled on "a better way for people to shop") and people (exactly who you are for). Getting those right is what drives the efficiency of every dollar afterwards. Trying to be all things to all people dilutes the brand, even on a large FMCG budget.

    Jo RobinsonThe Iconic's CMO on getting off the paid performance drug →

35. Watch for churn as the signal that paid performance has topped out

    The Iconic counts a customer as churned if they do not purchase again within 12 months of acquisition. Jo found they were spending heavily on paid performance, acquiring customers once, then losing them, which she describes as literally buying customers. Track first-purchase-to-repeat over a 12 month window. If acquisition spend keeps rising while repeat rate stays flat, more paid budget will not fix it.

    Jo RobinsonThe Iconic's CMO on getting off the paid performance drug →

36. Use unprompted brand awareness as the metric that justifies brand spend

    The Iconic's unprompted awareness was declining quarter on quarter because they had done nothing beyond Google, banner advertising and a little SEO. Jo used that decline as the board argument for shifting spend to the top of the funnel. She warned it could dent short-term sales and would take six months to a year to show. Awareness has since moved up 4 basis points against competitors who outspend them.

    Jo RobinsonThe Iconic's CMO on getting off the paid performance drug →

37. Build the brand pyramid from the bottom, not from the tagline

    Start at points of parity (tangible ones like 'safe to use', 'delivered on time', 'servers up 99.9%', and intangible ones like 'I feel smart making this choice'). Then purpose or central organising idea, then rational benefits, then emotional benefits, then values, then persona, and only then promise. Josh's point is that promise is impossible to write in a sentence until you have answered everything under it. Promise is a North Star, not a tagline like 'Just Do It'.

    Josh SparksJosh Sparks: the brand pyramid, archetypes and the WHAC exercise →

38. Swap points of difference for reasons to believe

    Josh argues most products and services have very few genuine points of difference once you strip out price and speed. Instead of hunting for a POD, ask what reason you give someone to believe your promise. Rational RTBs are price, service, delivery speed, returns policy, warranty, organic versus conventional cotton. Emotional RTBs are the ones that pay: will they feel smarter, freer, more creative, more beautiful, higher status.

    Josh SparksJosh Sparks: the brand pyramid, archetypes and the WHAC exercise →

39. Aim for the unfair advantage as your top emotional benefit

    The highest emotional benefit, per Josh, is that buying from you confers what the customer perceives as an unfair advantage. Something others do not have. It can be internal confidence and certainty, or an outward symbol of status, or both, in the same way that working with Goldman Sachs on an IPO or McKinsey on growth makes an executive show up with more certainty. If you can distil your emotional RTB down to an unfair advantage, you are in a very strong position.

    Josh SparksJosh Sparks: the brand pyramid, archetypes and the WHAC exercise →

40. Rescue a dying email list by mailing only your engaged segment

    One brand Kelly works with slid from a 30% open rate to 15-16% over six months and assumed email was dead. It was not, the platforms had started flagging them and their quality score was degrading. She cut the send list back to engaged subscribers only, sent about three campaigns to that segment, hit a 40% open rate, then slowly reintroduced the unengaged. They are back at 32%.

    Kelly SlessorKelly Slessor: the ecommerce fixes that actually move revenue →

41. Aim for a 40% open rate, treat 60% as the stretch

    Kelly's benchmark is simple. Thirty per cent is what most brands sit at, 40% is a good, healthy place to be, and she has one brand running at 50 to 60%. If you can get to 40%, your list health and content alignment are working.

    Kelly SlessorKelly Slessor: the ecommerce fixes that actually move revenue →

42. Kill the double opt-in on your welcome flow

    Double opt-in is the default setting in a lot of email platforms and Kelly says it is awful. Someone has just given you their email, which is the digital equivalent of agreeing to a first date, and you reply by asking them to confirm they really meant it. Turn it off and make the welcome frictionless.

    Kelly SlessorKelly Slessor: the ecommerce fixes that actually move revenue →

43. Hire to take jobs off the founder, not to fill a job title

    Kirstin-Lee pushes back on the standard advice to hire a head of marketing or an e-commerce manager. Instead, open your calendar and ask what is clogging your focus, then employ someone to take those specific jobs away. Her reasoning: the most valuable person in the business is the founder, and buying back headspace is what lets the vision grow.

    Kirstin-Lee KeysersKivari's founder on delegation, brand filters and saying no →

44. Use the 80 per cent rule to force yourself to delegate

    The rule she keeps coming back to: if someone else can do the job at 80 per cent, that beats it being done at 100 per cent by you. She still catches herself wanting to jump back in and repeats the rule to stop herself. It works as a live filter every time you are tempted to take a task back off a team member.

    Kirstin-Lee KeysersKivari's founder on delegation, brand filters and saying no →

45. Audit your week on paper, then circle the two or three jobs only you can do

    Write down everything you did this week, including gym, cleaning the house and the school drop-off, not just work tasks. Then circle the jobs only the founder can do. Kirstin-Lee guarantees there will be two or three. Everything else gets delegated, systemised or deleted, and she says deleting is her favourite of the three.

    Kirstin-Lee KeysersKivari's founder on delegation, brand filters and saying no →

46. Give every weekday a fixed content pillar and stop deciding

    Lexie's core practical advice is to map your week: Monday education, Tuesday promotional, Wednesday testimonials, and so on, then repeat it every week. She argues generic advice like "be consistent" never gets applied, but a Monday-to-Friday formula makes content bite-sised and actually doable. Pick the pillars that suit your business and lock the days in.

    Lexie MurrayLexie Murray on organic social, influencers and content pillars →

47. Post promotional content Thursday night or Friday

    Lexie schedules selling posts to land when people have been paid. She noted that a lot of the Big Four pay salaries on those days, so people are ready to spend on a Friday. Feed the timeline when the money is in the account, not on a Monday.

    Lexie MurrayLexie Murray on organic social, influencers and content pillars →

48. Use the four content pillars if you refuse to be on camera

    Around half of Be Seen Socials' clients fit four pillars: promotional (what you sell), educational (the problem area, not the product), aspirational (the brand world and lifestyle around it) and influencer/customer (testimonials and creators). All four can be executed with no founder face. Build consistency across those four and you get enough relatability to carry the brand.

    Lexie MurrayLexie Murray on organic social, influencers and content pillars →

49. Run your feed on a Monday to Friday pillar timetable

    Lexi's core method: five posts a week, one pillar per weekday, no more. Monday is founder content, Tuesday is customer-centric, Wednesday is aspirational, Thursday is promotional, Friday is influencer content. Post more than five and you lose interest, post less and you do not grow. Once the days are fixed you stop asking what to post and just fill the slot.

    Lexie MurrayOrganic social that grows a brand without ad spend →

50. Batch a month of founder content in one filming session

    The Monday founder pillar only needs four pieces a month, so film all four in one sitting. Meet the founder, your why, a founder highlight or journey story, and something honest about what you are working through. Lexi ran her own founder pillar solo for six years before hiring a content person two weeks before this session.

    Lexie MurrayOrganic social that grows a brand without ad spend →

51. Pick polished over raw when the brand is premium

    Lexi has changed her view on building in public. Crying on the internet can cheapen a brand that is trying to enter the market poised and professional, and she notes Uber and Airbnb never launched raw and real. Aim for elevated, chic, real and honest, but not unfiltered. If you are client-facing you also cannot post about client problems without legal risk.

    Lexie MurrayOrganic social that grows a brand without ad spend →

52. Build a service business account on four pillars, not random posts

    For a styling business Lexie mapped four posts a week: an expert pillar (a styling tip with no sell attached), a promotional pillar that spells out packages, pricing structure, onboarding and timelines, a customer pillar of testimonials and value, and an aspirational industry pillar. She stopped hiding her own package details years ago because being copied happens anyway and the delivery is never the same. Ambiguity loses the client who swipes on to someone clearer.

    Lexie MurrayOrganic content pillars, founder storey and getting engagement →

53. Use the aspirational pillar as your Vogue for free

    Lexie calls the fourth pillar the Vogue or Forbes for free: you place yourself alongside the level you want to be at by commenting on it. Her example for a stylist was posting the four Vogue articles you liked from Australian Fashion Week and your takeaways, then three predicted trends ahead of Paris Fashion Week in September. Keep it to your genuine expertise and avoid making claims you cannot back.

    Lexie MurrayOrganic content pillars, founder storey and getting engagement →

54. Treat Instagram as people who know you and TikTok as people who do not

    Lexie frames Instagram like the Facebook algorithm, distributing mostly to friends and family, which is why an account under 300 followers stays capped. TikTok pushes to strangers, closer to a TV commercial or a YouTube pre-roll. That difference should change what you post where, not just where you cross-post the same file.

    Lexie MurrayOrganic content pillars, founder storey and getting engagement →

55. Show the same outfit on two different body types

    Leah's highest-converting format is her and Renee, a size 6 and a size 12, wearing similar outfits and showing how each looks on both bodies. She has run this format consistently for close to four years, first with Ella and now with Renee. It is the content that reliably cuts through, and it is also what pulls new customers into the brand in the first place.

    Lia GeorgantisLeah, Girls with Gems: daily content that converts →

56. Lock the posting frequency, not the outfits

    Girls with Gems fixes how many times it posts across each channel every day, but only plans the actual content one to two days out. A Monday trade and creative meeting maps what is coming, then it changes constantly. If it is pouring rain the Hunza G swim launch gets pushed, because it will fall on deaf ears.

    Lia GeorgantisLeah, Girls with Gems: daily content that converts →

57. Give one day of the week a fixed identity

    Every Saturday is Sexy Saturdays, the hot going-out dresses, and it has run for years. The team deliberately holds back the strongest party pieces for that slot. A repeating named day gives you a reason to save your best stock and gives the audience a reason to check in.

    Lia GeorgantisLeah, Girls with Gems: daily content that converts →

58. Be the boob doctor, not the general practitioner

    Lisa coached electricians, carpet layers and any small business that came her way, and it satisfied nobody. A mentor asked her whether she had ever seen the cars a boob doctor drives, because specialists get paid like specialists. She niched entirely into women running DTC brands and the business took off, because she could speak to one group's pain points intimately instead of applying general logic to everyone.

    Lisa JonesLisa Jones: pick one lane and let customers write your copy →

59. Choose a market you have already been part of

    Daniel Hakim quotes Mark Bouris: make your market someone you are, or someone you have been before. Lisa agrees, adding that most women build a product because they solved their own problem, whether that is skin, gut health or a baby product. You need a real story attached to the business, because people sniff out inauthenticity and do not buy.

    Lisa JonesLisa Jones: pick one lane and let customers write your copy →

60. Check the market is big enough to pay your price

    Passion is only half the test. Lisa's second filter is whether thousands of people will pay the price you need to make money. If only about 1,000 people in Australia need the product, and they need it once, you will always be doing a hard sell. Premium pricing is fine, cheap is not the point, but there has to be real appetite so the product is easy to sell rather than a grind.

    Lisa JonesLisa Jones: pick one lane and let customers write your copy →

61. Gift your entire first production run before you spend on ads

    Priscilla gave away all 500 units of Bangn Body's first shipment to anyone who would take it, and did not run Meta or Facebook ads for over 12 months. The logic was recognition: by the time ads ran, she wanted roughly one in ten people to already know the brand so the ad worked harder. Naked Sundays did the same, running no paid media for the first two or three years and relying on seeding, press and events.

    Priscilla HajiantoniThree beauty and wellness founders on getting product into hands →

62. Test whether a manufacturer will say yes by calling until number 13

    Samantha Brett had no manufacturing background. She Googled every sunscreen manufacturer and called them all, working on the assumption that twelve nos get you to a yes on the thirteenth. She then repeated the process with bottle manufacturers across China, India and elsewhere until she found one that could build a bespoke mister that would not spray into eyes. That bottle is now the reason the product ranks number one on Amazon US and Ulta US.

    Priscilla HajiantoniThree beauty and wellness founders on getting product into hands →

63. Recognise that a media profile does not convert to sales

    Sally Obermeder is blunt that a following does not mean add to cart. People already have a box they put you in, and if you push a product at them they get annoyed. Because SWIISH started with smoothies rather than a product, the habit was show and share rather than sell, and that removed the selling pressure from the content. Consistency over the long game builds the tribe, not the profile.

    Priscilla HajiantoniThree beauty and wellness founders on getting product into hands →

64. Film the work, then voice over it if the camera scares you

    Raquel could not talk to camera in the early years, so she filmed herself filling perfume bottles in her garage and lounge room, then recorded voiceovers explaining what she was doing. That behind-the-scenes footage of moving warehouse to warehouse became what the brand got known for. If you are not confident yet, shoot first and narrate later, then let practice build the on-camera confidence.

    Raquel BourisRaquel Bouris: guerrilla marketing and founder-led brand →

65. Turn a retailer rejection into a sampling stunt out the front of their stores

    Boots rejected Who Is Elijah with the line "you've got no brand awareness here, no one knows who you are". Raquel booked a flight five days later, took 500 discovery sets and her content girl, and stood out the front of three Boots locations handing samples to customers going in and out. She asked each person to go inside and ask staff if they stocked Who Is Elijah. Nine months later Boots emailed and agreed to stock the brand.

    Raquel BourisRaquel Bouris: guerrilla marketing and founder-led brand →

66. Use RocketReach to get buyer emails and post samples until they answer

    Raquel calls getting a retailer's attention the easy part. Take out a RocketReach membership, pull the buyer's email and office address, post them samples and keep emailing until they reply. She also landed David Jones at about 18 months in by DMing their fragrance buyer on LinkedIn.

    Raquel BourisRaquel Bouris: guerrilla marketing and founder-led brand →

67. Use "show and share" instead of telling and selling

    Sally's rule for the SWIISH team is "we don't tell and we don't sell". When they launched green powders nobody knew what they were, so every post explained what the product is, why they made it, why they chose that ingredient and not another, and how she personally uses it. People can then ask questions in the comments. Her reasoning: everyone is smart enough to decide for themselves, and when a customer chooses you, they stay.

    Sally ObermederSally Obermeder: show and share your way to a loyal community →

68. Withhold one thing on socials so people cross over to your database

    Sally treats social platforms as a database she does not own. So she shows and shares generously on social, then deliberately holds one thing back for the EDM: "this week there are 5 recipes for how you can use super greens", or a 21-day smoothie challenge. The lead magnet cost SWIISH a lot to make and cost the customer nothing, but the customer has to come through Shopify and leave an email to get it.

    Sally ObermederSally Obermeder: show and share your way to a loyal community →

69. Give value five times before you ask for the email

    Sally warns against opening with a free guide. "Give value, give value, give value, give value, give value. Then here there's even more value." Lead with the freebie and it reads as intense and suspicious, because people assume you want their email and their phone number. Accept that some people will take the free guide and leave, and that is fine.

    Sally ObermederSally Obermeder: show and share your way to a loyal community →

70. Use a future regret test to make the big, scary calls

    Sarah calls it her future regret management matrix. When Urban Outfitters placed an order she could only fill by leaving her legal job to pack for roughly seven days straight, she asked what 80-year-old her and 10-years-from-now her would regret more. Trying and failing while first to market, or staying safe and watching the window close. Law would still be there a year later, the retailer would not.

    Sarah DavidsonSarah Davidson: going global, partnerships and knowing when to stop →

71. Split your list into today, tomorrow and later, and only work today

    Sarah physically writes a list every day and sorts every item into three buckets. If it is not a today job, it moves off the page so she does not carry it. Her rule against distraction came from her husband: she was worrying about shipping matcha to Afghanistan when they could not yet ship to Caulfield North. Be discerning about what is genuinely urgent, because busy work like fixing the font on a post going out in two weeks gives you the tick without the progress.

    Sarah DavidsonSarah Davidson: going global, partnerships and knowing when to stop →

72. Partner with brands that own the other moments in your customer's day

    Matcha Maiden stopped marketing as though matcha was the customer's whole identity. They mapped the rest of that person's day: fitness, activewear, plant-based milk. Then they ran joint giveaways, events and goodie bags with those brands, including repeated activations with Lululemon. Ten businesses running one competition could each pick up around 15,000 new email addresses off a shared consumer.

    Sarah DavidsonSarah Davidson: going global, partnerships and knowing when to stop →

73. Use every new platform feature the week it drops

    Taryn says LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok penalise accounts that ignore new features. When Reels launched, non-users saw the rest of their content suppressed. LinkedIn currently wants video, so post video even if it feels awkward. The platform reads you as a good user and amplifies your other content for free.

    Taryn WilliamsTaryn Williams: maximising brand reach on a small budget →

74. Chase niche creators, not follower counts

    Instagram's algorithm is shifting towards TikTok's model, where the content itself is classified and served to people interested in that niche rather than to your existing followers. So stop paying lifestyle influencers with what Taryn calls vanity metrics. Find creators making very specific content (parenting, vegan food) that matches your category, because that content now gets the bigger reach.

    Taryn WilliamsTaryn Williams: maximising brand reach on a small budget →

75. Book one networking coffee every Friday at 8am

    Taryn ran a standing rule of an 8am Friday coffee with someone new, went to every event she could, and joined clubs. She also cold messaged people on LinkedIn. She kept that up for roughly two years before the inbound enquiries started, so treat it as a two-year build, not a quick win.

    Taryn WilliamsTaryn Williams: maximising brand reach on a small budget →

76. Do five things at 100 percent instead of 20 things at 20 percent

    Thu says the brands that scale well pick a strict strategy and stick to it with conviction, while the ones that plateau chase 20 different ideas at once. Her advice to visionary founders who arrive with 10 ideas is to filter down to three, execute those fully, then move to the next. Also know when to quit a strategy that clearly is not working rather than staying fixated on it.

    Thu NguyenThu Nguyen on Profit, Focus and Going Global →

77. Judge growth on EBITDA, not the revenue headline

    Founders proudly report 100 percent year on year revenue growth while their spend has gone up 400 percent. Thu's framing: there is no point making an extra dollar if it costs you two dollars to do it. Protect profit as the number, and treat revenue growth as meaningless without the margin behind it.

    Thu NguyenThu Nguyen on Profit, Focus and Going Global →

78. Bank a few quarters of profitability before you scale

    Thu's test for readiness is several consecutive quarters of stable profitability, not appetite or ambition. She sees founders raise capital during a plateau and then use that money to survive rather than grow. Before you take investment, ask honestly whether the capital funds growth or just keeps the lights on.

    Thu NguyenThu Nguyen on Profit, Focus and Going Global →

79. Test the marketplace on social media before you build any tech

    Wendy started Wedded Wonderland on Facebook around 2011-2012, simply talking about the suppliers she was meeting and the problems brides had. She treats social as a live survey: throw questions out, see what businesses and couples respond to, and use the answers as your product research. Only after years of that did the tech platform and concierge get built.

    Wendy ElkhouryTwo-sided marketplaces: start with demand, then supply →

80. Build the demand side first, then go to suppliers with proof

    Wedded Wonderland deliberately serviced couples first. Once couples were asking for weddings in Mallorca, proposals in Paris, photo shoots in Lake Como and weddings in Tuscany, Wendy could approach venues and vendors and say she had specific couples looking in their area, backed by search data. Her framing: "if you have the demand, it's far easier to be able to connect with the businesses that can service that demand."

    Wendy ElkhouryTwo-sided marketplaces: start with demand, then supply →

81. Cover the supply gap with a free concierge so you never lose a lead

    Wedded Wonderland's concierge is complimentary for couples, which means even when a listing does not exist for a request, the team can go and find a vetted supplier. That removes the classic cold-start problem where a customer arrives, sees an empty category and leaves. The concierge also does the vetting work the customer cannot do from the other side of the world.

    Wendy ElkhouryTwo-sided marketplaces: start with demand, then supply →