No room for a clever introduction.

💩 Tyson Drake with a step-by-step template for meetings that get [stuff] done

💰 Cody Plofker reveals how Jones Road is driving incremental, new customers

📊 Connor MacDonald on the most critical thing DTCs “don’t know they’re doing”

🤩 Connor Rolain pulls back the curtain on celebrities x creating brand loyalty

🗞️ Top five headlines in consumer news with executive summaries and links

With a  bonus + teaser  at the end …

Cody Plofker CEO, Jones Road Beauty

Meta & Google Aren’t Broken. They’re Bloated.

You’re retargeting your own customers, bidding against yourself, and trusting ROAS that doesn’t match your margins.

So we tried something different: Rokt Ads by Aftersell.

It’s not social. It’s confirmation-page placements on other premium ecommerce sites … right after a customer makes a purchase, when intent is at its peak.

With suppression lists and verified identity, each click is net-new, not recycled. Here’s what we saw:

Known for high-converting post-purchase flows, Rokt acquired Aftersell in 2024 — unlocking enterprise-grade performance tech once reserved for Disney, Macy’s, and Ticketmaster.

Now it’s available to DTC brands like ours and yours. See if you qualify for …

Tyson Drake Fractional CMO

How to Run Meetings That Get S*** Done: “L10” for Ecommerce Teams

Most people hate meetings, including me.

What if there were a format that not only made meetings suck less but also moved your business forward?

Today, I want to introduce you to L10 meetings + provide a simple template you can “Make a copy of” for yourself.

It’s a framework I’ve adopted, adapted, and seen help with alignment, accountability, and performance across teams.

What is an L10 Meeting?

The L10 (or Level 10) meeting is a framework from the book Traction by Gino Wickman. It’s part of the broader Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).

While the book leans toward general entrepreneurial orgs, I’ve adapted it to work well for ecommerce.

If you’re a founder or part of a leadership team, marketing, operations, product, eCom, CS, finance, etc., this format works. It aligns multiple departments, prevents surprises, and pushes real decisions forward.

 Step 1  Get the Right People in the Room

Before diving into the agenda, let’s talk about bloat.

As your team grows, you naturally start inviting more people to meetings. Before you know it, you’ve got 15 people in a room who don’t all need to be there. I’ve been guilty of this too.

Be honest with yourself. Does this person need to be here? Or, can they be updated later?

For example, a full creative team might not need to attend. The lead strategist, editor, or designer can represent the group.

Same with marketing. Media buyers don’t need to sit in on the ops and product back-and-forth for 3PL or factory-related decisions.

Trim it down. Often, less is more.

You’ll often get better engagement and faster decision-making with fewer people in the room. Use internal docs, Slack summaries, or 1:1s to loop others in as needed.

 Step 2  Use a Slide Deck as the Meeting Template

All departments should update their section in advance. Keep it in a shared Google Slides deck …

One owner, everyone contributes.

Make this deck your source of truth. When used consistently, it creates organisational memory. You can look back at decisions, roadblocks, and progress across quarters.

The L10 Meeting Agenda + Timing Guide

Now, let’s walk through the structure.

1. Good News (5 min)
2. Scorecard: KPIs (5 min)
3. Marketing Calendar (5 min)
4. Quarterly Rocks (5 min)
5. Last Week’s Action Items (5 min)
6. IDS: Identify, Discuss, Solve (30 min)
7. Conclude: Action Items (5 min)

1. Good News (5 min)

Start on a positive note. Everyone shares a professional or personal win:

• Took the kids to Disney on Ice.
• Hit a fitness goal.
• Finally finished that book.

This sounds fluffy, but it sets a collaborative tone and relaxes people. Don’t underestimate how helpful this is, especially for remote teams.

In distributed environments where people don’t casually chat in the office kitchen, a few minutes of human connection matter.

2. Scorecards (5 min)

Each department shares a few key metrics. Everyone should have 2–3 high-level KPIs:

• Target
• Actual
• Difference

This can be done in two ways. Either a single slide with all the metrics, where department leads give a high-level overview. Or, each department lead has 1-2 slides with some charts.

I prefer the second option because I like seeing charts that show changes over a larger time period, which you can’t see with last week vs. the previous week.

Don’t go deep here; this isn’t a data dive. It’s a pulse check.

Here are a few examples.

Marketing

• New customer sales
• Returning customer sales
• Contribution margin
• aMER (or CAC)

Creative

• # of net new creatives
• % of creatives at spend target

Ops

• Last-mile delivery cost
• Variable costs %
• % same day dispatch

Product

• SKUs launched
• Gross margin
• Sell-through on last launch
• COGS supplier price reduction

Customer Success

• CSAT score
• First response time
• 3rd party review scores

Finance

• Net profit
• Cashflow forecast

These are your weekly accountability metrics. They may vary at different points in time depending on what’s currently important to focus on for the business.

Slow stock not moving? Call the number of units moved for these item categories. Recent COGS increase? Call out cost-saving initiatives.

Not everyone will hit their targets. That’s ok. However, everyone should know what’s on track and what isn’t.

Don’t sweep things under the rug.

3. Marketing Calendar (5 min)

Have the marketing lead share their screen and walk through what’s coming up:

• Offers or campaigns
• Product drops
• Creative deadlines

Why marketing? Because different teams operate on different timelines. Product may be working 3-6 months ahead. Media buyers are optimising daily.

This meeting aligns the room.

It’s also a forcing function to stay on top of upcoming work. Sometimes, the only time a product and creative lead will sync is during this calendar review.

Cover 2-4 weeks out, not just the week ahead.

4. Rocks: Quarterly Goals (5 min)

These are your quarterly priorities, tied to overall business objectives. Revisit them weekly.

1. What’s on track?
2. What’s off course?
3. What’s blocked?

Encourage updates to include both quantitative and qualitative insights. For example, “We’re 65% of the way to our new customer revenue goal,” or even better, “We’re behind on new product photos by 5 days due to delays in samples.”

Link these goals back to individual and departmental accountability where possible. You want every team to feel tied to at least one rock that ladders up to the P&L.

5. Last Week’s Action Items (5 min)

Circle back on last week’s commitments. Use a checklist-style format to address each action item:

• Owner: Department
• Done: Yes or no
• Notes on its status

Expect 90%+ completion. If someone consistently doesn’t deliver, it’s a signal not only about that person but also the system, delegation, or workload.

6. IDS: Identify, Discuss, Solve (30 min)

This is the most important part of the meeting.

Before the meeting, everyone adds their blockers, issues, or concerns to the deck.

The founder or CEO then ranks them by priority, since they usually have the broadest view across departments and can best judge what’s most important to tackle first.

Examples:

• Revenue decline tied to high aMER
• Inventory delay from a supplier
• Decline in CSAT post new launch

Discuss, debate, and decide:

• What’s the core issue?
• Who owns the next step?
• What’s the timeline?

If the issue can’t be solved today, break it into next steps:

• Set a follow-up owner
• Define what “done” looks like
• Roll it into the next action items list

The best IDS sessions are candid. No posturing. No politics. Just solutions.

 Step 3  Conclude with Action Items

You want a simple list …

This should take no more than 5 minutes, but it’s crucial. Everyone leaves knowing exactly what they need to get done.

The key? Only include action items to be completed before your next L10 meeting.

Bonus: Send out the slide deck + recap via Slack to the appropriate channel(s). Good habit to build team clarity and transparency.

Pro Tips for Running a Get-Stuff-Done L10

Stick to time.

Assign someone to be the timekeeper and keep things moving.

Make it visual.

Use charts, screenshots, and timelines when relevant.

Don’t go down rabbit holes.

If an issue needs deep work, park it and book a follow-up.

Keep it consistent.

Run this same time every week, ideally Monday, to set the tone.

Rotate facilitation.

Gives different leaders visibility and perspective.

Final Thoughts

This meeting format has changed how I help brands operate. When done right, it creates:

• Total transparency
• Clear accountability
• Problem-solving momentum

You can roll this framework out across your entire brand.

Marketing team? Change the scorecards to include channel managers and go. Ops team? Same. Finance? Yep. The structure stays consistent. The content is specific to the department.

Let’s run more productive meetings.

Tyson Drake is a Fractional CMO; he’s led marketing at DTC brands like The Oodie and appeared as an early guest on the Marketing Operators Podcast (below).

Connect on Twitter (X) or LinkedIn.

Connor Rolain HexClad, Head of Growth

Celebrity Brands x (Real) Loyalty

Tom Holland just proved what we already knew …

His BERO pop-up hijacked Wimbledon weekend without spending a dime on sponsorship. Just a founder pouring beers and talking to customers in Covent Garden.

No “playbook.” Feet on the ground. Hands getting dirty.

Gordon Ramsay has taught us the same at HexClad. Show up and actually care.

The audience knows.
​
For BERO, this commitment even appears in its membership program (powered by our friends at Rivo). One of the perks is exclusive Q&A sessions with Tom himself.

For brands spearheaded by a celebrity, this level of involvement is becoming table stakes for success.

It’s one of the reasons our Gordon’s Golden Ticket sweepstakes (also run through Rivo) did so well.

But it’s not just A-listers.

There’s a lesson for all of us.

Shoppers can smell inauthenticity a mile away … whether it’s UGC, micro-influencers, or macro-influencers.

The deeper you root the people who represent your brand into acquisition and retention, the more powerful loyalty becomes.

That’s exactly why all three of us Marketing Operators are on Rivo’s demo page!

THE FEED

​Selling Your Business​

​Spending More & Reaching Less? Fix Your Meta Account With Us​

The Trends

Curated by the editor of CPG Wire, this week’s five biggest headlines in consumer news.

1. Liquid Death to Launch an Energy Drink Line: USA Today​

Liquid Death, the beverage unicorn best known for its viral marketing, will release a sparkling energy drink line in January. Liquid Death’s energy drinks will feature an approachable 100mg of caffeine along with no sugar or artificial sweeteners.

The US energy drink market is expected to be worth $33B by 2030, and it’ll be interesting to see if Liquid Death can carve out a niche in this competitive category.

2. Little Sesame Raises $8.5M: Food Business News​

Little Sesame, one of the fastest-growing brands in the hummus category, just closed $8.5M in Series A funding.

The round was led by InvestEco — an investor in LesserEvil Snacks and Vital Farms — with participation from Santatera Capital, Beliade, and others. The hummus category is expected to grow at 8.1% CAGR through 2031 as consumers continue to seek out healthier snack options.

3. BeatBox Sales to Exceed $250M in 2025: Twitter​

BeatBox Beverages, an Austin-based purveyor of ready-to-drink cocktails, expects to move over 12 million cases this year, which translates to over $250 million in sales. Founded in 2011 by Aimy Steadman, Justin Fenchel, and Brad Schultz, BeatBox raised $15 million in 2022 to support its nationwide retail growth and surpassed $100 million in sales the following year.

4. Jams Takes on Uncrustables: PR Newswire​

Jams, a better-for-you player in the frozen PB&J category, officially hit shelves nationwide at Walmart. Founded by Connor Blakley and Josh Franko, each Jams sandwich contains 10g of protein and no seed oils, dyes, or high-fructose corn syrup.

The big player — J.M. Smucker’s Uncrustables — is still growing fast despite nearly three decades in the marketplace. Net sales increased $125M to $920M last fiscal year.

5. AWAKE Chocolate Grabs $8M CAD: PR Newswire​

Canadian functional chocolate brand AWAKE closed an $8M CAD funding round. Investors in the round include Btomorrow Ventures, the corporate venture arm of British American Tobacco, and BDC Capital. AWAKE launched in 2012 and is currently sold at over 18,000 doors across the U.S. and Canada. The company expects sales to hit $30 million this year.

Connor MacDonal CMO, Ridge

From Marketing Operators E013: Former CMO at The Oodie on Merchandising, Top of Funnel Tactics & More

Over a year ago, we had Tyson Drake discuss the most critical thing DTC brands don’t realize they’re doing … merchandising.

The episode was called “the best so far, not even close,” which — considering we were 16-for-16 on banger episodes (source: unverified) — was high praise.

Having Tyson on was a no-brainer for me because he’s been sharing the most well-informed and thoughtful content on marketing and merchandising.

​In this thread, Tyson revealed the “DTC Merchandising Dashboard” he developed at The Oodie and has deployed at lots of other brands.

As we’ve gone 0-to-1 on more strategic merchandising at Ridge, we’ve found value in creating a clear product hierarchy.

For us, it looks something like …

• Category: EDC (Everyday Carry)
• Product Category: Wallet
• Silhouette: Classic Ridge Wallet
• Colorway: Carbon Fiber 3k

Simple stuff, really.

But standardizing it across the org has benefited channels and workflows I hadn’t anticipated …

• Data: Enriching SKU-level revenue reporting with product information for granular trend analysis
• Site: Nested site menus, creating cleaner & more dynamic collections, product templates, etc.
• Paid: Using category, silhouette & colorway in ad names to analyze performance across dimensions
• SEM: Shopping feed rules (structured data between Shopify + Google) and campaign segmentation

Even SKU building because much of this info is coded all the way into the SKU itself.

Honestly, the list goes on and on.

It’s stuff we’ve always done but haven’t recognized or formalized the underlying structure.

What’s the biggest benefit?

The methodical, always-improving, and sushi chef-like approach that I strive for at Ridge.

 BONUS 

A ton of you wrote back asking for the full Google Doc of Sean Frank’s 2.7k-word magnum opus. So here’s the link.

​How Do You Build a $100M Brand? (Doc)​

 TEASER  

Speaking of Mr. Frank and writing back … three months ago, you absolutely demolished my inbox with requests — nay, demands — for a follow-up to his Private Equity Revealed.

Jason Panzer and Sean Frank with a written guide on everything you need to know about selling your ecommerce business + Matt Bertulli adds 21 questions to ask before you sell.

With (so much) anticipation,
Aaron Orendorff 🤓 Executive Editor

Disclaimer: Special thanks to Aftersell by Rokt and Rivo for sponsoring the newsletter.

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