1
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:10,700
Welcome to another edition of the Always Be Testing podcast with your 

2
00:00:10,700 --> 00:00:15,400
host, Ty De Grange. Get a guided tour of the world of growth, performance 

3
00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:19,900
marketing, customer acquisition, paid media, and affiliate marketing. 

4
00:00:20,500 --> 00:00:25,400
We talk with industry experts and discuss experiments and their learnings in growth, 

5
00:00:25,500 --> 00:00:30,500
marketing, and life. Time to nerd out, check your biases at the door, and 

6
00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:35,000
have some fun talking about data driven growth and lessons learned. 

7
00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,600
Hello. Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Always Be 

8
00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:45,200
Testing podcast. I'm your host, Ty DeGrange, and I'm really excited to have 

9
00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:50,300
Andrea Barsk Roberts with me today. How's it going, Andrea? I'm good. Just, 

10
00:00:50,700 --> 00:00:55,700
surviving the Texas summer heat. Yeah. We are. I feel like this year has 

11
00:00:55,700 --> 00:01:00,200
been mild by comparison to the last couple years, which I've been pleasantly 

12
00:01:00,500 --> 00:01:05,500
surprised by, but definitely is always a a challenge to kinda mix it up, get 

13
00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:10,300
into cool areas. And how how have you been coping? Water. Anything to do 

14
00:01:10,300 --> 00:01:15,100
with water helps. Luckily, we have a a tiny pool in our yard. 

15
00:01:15,100 --> 00:01:19,900
So that and a a play water table for the baby is is a 

16
00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:24,900
safe room. Beautiful. Yeah. The little ones, it makes it also a little harder. But, 

17
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:30,400
well, amazing. I'm I'm excited to dive in with you today. For those of you who don't 

18
00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:35,300
know, Andrea has a great background in performance marketing, marketing strategy, 

19
00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:41,200
mix of start ups, really interesting companies, everything from Open Farm to 

20
00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:46,100
HelloFresh to a number of really very interesting roles in the space. And I think she's got a 

21
00:01:46,100 --> 00:01:51,000
ton of insights and learnings that are gonna be super valuable to dive into. It's always gonna be 

22
00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:56,000
always a fun conversation that we typically have Andrea and I. Andrea, maybe kick it off. Like, 

23
00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,800
how did you get into into the space, into marketing? Yeah. I think it 

24
00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:05,700
really started in college. I I took a marketing course and and was 

25
00:02:05,700 --> 00:02:10,700
focused on sort of advertising and consumer psychology. And that was really when I 

26
00:02:10,700 --> 00:02:15,600
knew I wanted to do something with people and where I'm really thinking about people and their 

27
00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:20,400
behavior and didn't really know where that was gonna take me, but, you know, I was 

28
00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:25,400
thinking either marketing or psychology or human resources. But I 

29
00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:30,100
I really knew I wanted to do something with people. And from there, graduated 

30
00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:35,600
at the height of the financial crisis, so not the best time to graduate college, 

31
00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:40,600
but ended up getting a job in sales, which obviously involves a lot 

32
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:45,400
of people and interaction. And just really found myself curious about digital 

33
00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:50,100
marketing and the marketing side. You know, I saw these leads coming into our Salesforce 

34
00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:54,900
instance, and I was like, how is this happening? Like, where are these people coming from? And 

35
00:02:55,200 --> 00:03:00,100
it was right when sort of paid social was becoming a thing and just realized 

36
00:03:00,100 --> 00:03:04,800
that sales was not really where my my passion lied and that marketing was where I wanted to 

37
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:09,800
be. And that was where startup environment ended up from there 

38
00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:14,500
getting various jobs at startups that landed me at HelloFresh, which 

39
00:03:14,500 --> 00:03:19,000
was, I would say, the first real sort of performance marketing 

40
00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:24,100
environment I'd I'd been in, and then it kind of all, I guess, developed from 

41
00:03:24,100 --> 00:03:29,100
there. Would you say that's kind of your, like, sliding door moment of of your career that 

42
00:03:29,100 --> 00:03:34,100
kind of opened things up, or is there another one that you feel was more I always say to people, 

43
00:03:34,700 --> 00:03:39,600
HelloFresh was really that job that I attribute so much to. You know? I didn't 

44
00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:44,200
learn everything there, but it was really sort of the catalyst for everything that happened afterwards. 

45
00:03:44,300 --> 00:03:49,300
And I say to people at start ups, you know, it's a really hard job and you're wearing a million 

46
00:03:49,300 --> 00:03:53,700
hats. But if you're really building your resume and your knowledge 

47
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,000
and those sort of learnings, it's worth it. It's a hundred percent worth it. 

48
00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,900
I would say the sliding door moment for me was right after that where, you know, I've 

49
00:04:03,900 --> 00:04:08,400
always been a huge foodie, and I was choosing between 

50
00:04:09,100 --> 00:04:13,900
two job offers. One at a really early stage, like, pre, you 

51
00:04:13,900 --> 00:04:18,900
know, founder, no other investment, not a not a dime of revenue start up 

52
00:04:18,900 --> 00:04:23,700
in the sort of restaurant, business. It was basically like a 

53
00:04:23,700 --> 00:04:28,600
resi, but like a club where you got points, etcetera. And my job at 

54
00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:33,200
Petflow, which is a a pet food supplies retail online retailer, and 

55
00:04:33,500 --> 00:04:38,500
my heart was saying, oh, restaurants, food. I'll be thinking about all of that, you know, every day. And then, you 

56
00:04:38,500 --> 00:04:43,400
know, there was pet, and I was like, you know, I like pets, but the two 

57
00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:47,800
completely different jobs and and businesses. And I I ended up going with Petflow 

58
00:04:48,500 --> 00:04:53,400
for a number of reasons, and it really was the right decision in hindsight. You know, 

59
00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:58,000
Petflow was more mature. It allowed me to sort of build upon what I'd learned at HelloFresh, 

60
00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:03,200
and I think it taught me that in life, there's just chapters. And 

61
00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:08,000
luckily, I've been able you know, I think the jobs I got after allow me to pay to go to 

62
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:12,700
restaurants and and enjoy that passion. And I think, you know, made me 

63
00:05:12,700 --> 00:05:17,400
realize there's hopefully another good forty years of my life that I can do 

64
00:05:17,700 --> 00:05:22,600
other things and explore other areas. So, That's awesome. That was another sort of 

65
00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:27,200
sliding door moment, I would say. That's great. What do you think it was that kind of, 

66
00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:32,000
like, having the startup experience and the various work experience prior to HelloFresh? What do you 

67
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:37,000
think it was that kind of made that transition doable for you? I think 

68
00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:42,400
I sort I'm a I'm a little bit of a risk taker, I think. You know? I'm not think my 

69
00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:47,200
sisters at my wedding, their speech was about how I I, I have a lot of 

70
00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:51,400
courage, I guess. And I think it's startups that's rewarded, 

71
00:05:52,100 --> 00:05:57,000
and it is scary. You know? You're doing a lot. You're taking risks. You're making big 

72
00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:02,000
decisions. And if you're in an environment where that's sort of, rewarded 

73
00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:06,900
or encouraged, you just realize that's where you're gonna, you know, thrive and grow. 

74
00:06:06,900 --> 00:06:11,800
So I think that's it was sort of a personality thing, honestly. That's awesome. 

75
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,900
Where do you think you to kind of harness that courage, or or were you just born with it, or where where do 

76
00:06:16,900 --> 00:06:21,900
you think it kinda comes from? I think it it's you know, maybe my parents growing up 

77
00:06:21,900 --> 00:06:26,700
sort of encouraged me to do things even if I was bad at them. I was never, like, 

78
00:06:26,700 --> 00:06:31,400
an a student, you know, always sort of b, b plus, you know, a solid, but 

79
00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:36,300
never, like, an amazing one. And they just always encourage me to try things and 

80
00:06:36,300 --> 00:06:41,100
encourage me to be curious. And I think also just, having 

81
00:06:41,100 --> 00:06:45,700
that support network and that net knowing that, you know, what's the worst that could happen 

82
00:06:45,900 --> 00:06:50,900
and just feeling supported, I think, just gave me the confidence to take those risks. That's 

83
00:06:50,900 --> 00:06:55,600
awesome. I love that. You've had a number of, you know, marketing roles, 

84
00:06:55,700 --> 00:07:00,600
marketing leadership roles, roles where you've had to flex your your 

85
00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:05,500
strategic muscles. When you think about, you know, difference between good 

86
00:07:05,500 --> 00:07:10,500
marketing strategy and not effective marketing strategy or things that have not 

87
00:07:10,500 --> 00:07:15,300
worked, how do you kind of think about that? What are you what are some of the differences and observations you've 

88
00:07:15,300 --> 00:07:19,800
you've had over the years? Oh, it's a lot. I'm I think definitely 

89
00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:25,000
one of them is having ill defined goals. Like, if you don't really know what you're working towards, 

90
00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:30,100
you're you don't know when to stop. And I think sort of knowing 

91
00:07:30,100 --> 00:07:35,100
when to stop is is pretty important at whatever level you are in the organization. I, 

92
00:07:35,500 --> 00:07:40,200
if you're spending a week trying to solve a problem, it's probably, like, three days too many 

93
00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:45,600
that you were trying to solve it before either asking for help or, you know, changing directions. 

94
00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:51,200
I think another one I sort of actually have two. One is a bit broader, and one 

95
00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:56,200
is focusing solely on the KPIs and numbers and sort of that I guess 

96
00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:01,200
things have evolved, you know, since a few years ago, but that sort of pure performance marketing 

97
00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:05,900
approach, I think what I've really learned is you have to think about 

98
00:08:05,900 --> 00:08:09,800
brand, and you have to you do have to have a little bit of faith in it, 

99
00:08:10,900 --> 00:08:15,700
and I think really hard. That is where courage is really important. You have to 

100
00:08:15,700 --> 00:08:20,700
have conviction that that's important and invest part of your budget there. And then I 

101
00:08:20,700 --> 00:08:25,600
think the last one is definitely spreading yourself too thin and not really doing 

102
00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:30,600
anything well. Doing a lot of tests, but never really giving a test a chance to succeed 

103
00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:35,600
because you didn't dedicate enough resources or or time to it. Yeah. Those are really 

104
00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:40,400
interesting observations. And and the first thing that's come up recently on the pod, and and I think it's 

105
00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:45,300
come up a lot from, in my perspective, from performance marketers and growth people that are 

106
00:08:45,300 --> 00:08:49,900
very strong and have some really good experiences. So, you know, for you to kind of 

107
00:08:50,100 --> 00:08:55,000
double down that and share that unprompted is really interesting because I think a 

108
00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,900
lot of people yeah. I'm sure people have kind of seen some of the, like, Amazon 

109
00:09:00,100 --> 00:09:05,000
and Jeff Bezos learnings that that he's kind of touted over the years. Like, when data when 

110
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,900
the qualitative and the quantitative are kind of at odds with each other or or kind of, 

111
00:09:09,900 --> 00:09:14,900
like, at a draw, like, he'll he'll kinda lean on the qual and the the customer voice 

112
00:09:14,900 --> 00:09:19,900
and that and which I think is kind of often lends itself to the the brand voice. I 

113
00:09:19,900 --> 00:09:24,700
don't know if you've observed similar, but I think I think you're spot on there. I think a lot of times people can 

114
00:09:24,700 --> 00:09:29,500
get caught into the data weeds, into the minutiae. And it's like you have to kind of 

115
00:09:29,500 --> 00:09:34,300
be able to also take some pretty sizable swings and and go with some degree of 

116
00:09:34,300 --> 00:09:39,300
conviction on on some of these business and marketing decisions. Yeah. And I've been at companies where we 

117
00:09:39,300 --> 00:09:44,300
invested zero in brand and content and not zero, but it was definitely not 

118
00:09:44,300 --> 00:09:49,000
a priority. Generally, probably you find that in, like, PE backed, environments 

119
00:09:49,400 --> 00:09:53,600
versus VC backed, just much more sort of conservative environments. 

120
00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:59,400
Yep. But I think Open Farm, definitely an example of a brand, 

121
00:10:00,100 --> 00:10:04,700
where we invested a lot in content and partnerships and 

122
00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:10,000
just owned content and particularly influencers was a big bet while I 

123
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:14,900
was there where we're starting from scratch, and it takes a long time to start seeing impact 

124
00:10:14,900 --> 00:10:19,700
on in influencers. And you just have to have a lot of faith in the channel and 

125
00:10:20,100 --> 00:10:25,100
measure what you can and make the best decisions you can, and I think that's where 

126
00:10:25,100 --> 00:10:29,900
conviction really matters. And talking to people, you know, I think 

127
00:10:29,900 --> 00:10:34,400
having great partners that have succeeded that you can learn from and also, 

128
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:39,900
I think, get data from so that when it comes to sort of justifying the budget, you can 

129
00:10:39,900 --> 00:10:44,600
say, I know this doesn't look good right now, but we gotta keep going and chipping away at 

130
00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:49,100
this. Yeah. And not necessarily calling out any one brand or experience 

131
00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:54,600
specifically, but do you feel like that patience is rewarded in most cases when 

132
00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:59,500
there's an investment there, or are there times when maybe it doesn't make sense? Obviously, there's a 

133
00:10:59,500 --> 00:11:03,500
lot into that question, but I'm just wondering if you have a take on that. 

134
00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:08,800
It's such a balance. Sometimes speeds I mean, speed is always the best. 

135
00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:14,100
The faster you can sort of get indicators, the better or change 

136
00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:19,000
direction. I think I think there's sometimes when waiting can really hurt 

137
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:24,000
you. I think I've noticed, like, on-site conversion optimization, you know, you can 

138
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:29,000
try to wait for stat sig forever. And at a certain point, you just kinda have 

139
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:34,000
to say, does this also make sense? You know? Did is does our hypothesis make sense, and 

140
00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:39,000
is the data sort of pointing in the direction? You know, that that's an example where wait you could be 

141
00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:43,900
waiting for months and months and, you know, end up in the same place. Totally. Yeah. And 

142
00:11:43,900 --> 00:11:48,500
you you kind of made some great observations around, like, your open farm experience. 

143
00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:53,600
I I couldn't agree more about there's times when that that waiting game does not make 

144
00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:58,600
sense. What are some of your other favorite learnings from Open Farm? Oh, man. 

145
00:11:58,900 --> 00:12:03,300
I think the importance of probably supply chain and inventory, 

146
00:12:03,700 --> 00:12:08,500
that's really from just my CPG experience in general. If you don't have the product, 

147
00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:14,000
you can't sell it. I really felt that as we launched Amazon 

148
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:18,900
while I was there. And just if anyone's, you know, done 

149
00:12:18,900 --> 00:12:23,800
three p on Amazon, managing inventory can be a real pickle sometimes. 

150
00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:28,600
And I think just understanding that part of the business and working with your ops 

151
00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:33,500
partners, I think similarly, in my Petflow days, I 

152
00:12:33,500 --> 00:12:38,500
actually oversaw our purchasing department and just really understanding how did we think 

153
00:12:38,500 --> 00:12:43,400
about purchasing, whether it's looking at the rate of sale of a product and what was the growth rate 

154
00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:48,200
of the product, what was the lead time for it to, you know, come from a PO into 

155
00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:53,000
getting it in stock, and, you know, what's the lead time from getting it to the warehouse to, you 

156
00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:57,500
know, unpacking it and getting it to the right place and it's showing up in in inventory, you know, 

157
00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:02,500
really understanding the whole sort of value chain of the product, I think, 

158
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:07,900
is huge. It must have been quite a learning at at an operation like Open Farm 

159
00:13:07,900 --> 00:13:12,600
two. Yeah. I mean, we we produce the product too, so very different from 

160
00:13:12,700 --> 00:13:17,700
being on on the retail side where you're you're buying the product from the from the 

161
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:22,800
manufacturers and brands. You're relying on them having the right inventory and, you know, you're just 

162
00:13:22,800 --> 00:13:27,700
one more step away. But, you know, I I loved that being on the brand side 

163
00:13:27,700 --> 00:13:32,500
is, you know, you're working with every department on this one brand and one 

164
00:13:32,500 --> 00:13:37,100
mission while on the retail side, you you have hundreds of brands all 

165
00:13:37,100 --> 00:13:42,000
managing all those different relationships and distributors and can definitely be a big 

166
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:47,000
challenge. That's awesome. Super interesting. Were there other ones that come to mind for 

167
00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:51,800
you from the Open Farm experience? Yeah. I think it's public information. 

168
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:56,800
We did a fundraise while I was there, and obviously with that grew grew very 

169
00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:01,700
rapidly. I think it was building a strategy, but also, you know, when 

170
00:14:01,700 --> 00:14:06,600
you you do a fundraise, you think about, like, what do we need that we or what have we been wanting 

171
00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:11,500
that we haven't been able to do now? We have a fundraise. How do we fuel that growth? How 

172
00:14:11,500 --> 00:14:16,200
do we make those investments? And I think I personally was maybe quick to jump on new 

173
00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:21,000
software and, you know, these, optimization tools. And I 

174
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:25,900
think we had a great stack, and I think I probably jumped on them a little too 

175
00:14:25,900 --> 00:14:30,900
quickly. You know, I think software can be extremely valuable. But if 

176
00:14:30,900 --> 00:14:35,500
you if your team isn't caught up in terms of bandwidth to 

177
00:14:35,500 --> 00:14:40,500
actively manage them and sort of squeeze out that value, then it it's just, you 

178
00:14:40,500 --> 00:14:45,400
know, sucking up budget basically every month. Yeah. And I I think, you know, you're working 

179
00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:50,400
with sales people, and you can build your hypotheses and your forecast around the impact. But and this 

180
00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:54,600
is a learning, not only at Open Farm, but every role is you 

181
00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:59,900
always overestimate the impact of any AB test or any new software or 

182
00:14:59,900 --> 00:15:04,800
new strategy. And, you know, it's good to be optimistic, but I 

183
00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:09,800
think the real winners are usually the ones that someone came up with in a brainstorming session and you try it 

184
00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:14,700
and you're like, woah. That increased conversion rate by thirty percent. Mhmm. Yeah. I 

185
00:15:14,700 --> 00:15:19,700
actually have an example at HelloFresh of that where we kind of we were looking at revenue 

186
00:15:19,700 --> 00:15:24,600
and we were trying to think, oh, how do we increase revenue or new customers? And, you know, we 

187
00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:29,200
thought, oh, maybe, you know, we collect all these email addresses that convert pretty well. 

188
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:35,000
I wonder how we can collect more email addresses. And someone was like, why don't we put a discount and 

189
00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:39,900
people would get a discount if they answer their email? And just adding ten percent to the email 

190
00:15:39,900 --> 00:15:44,900
capture just totally I think it, like, doubled or tripled the email capture overnight. 

191
00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:49,800
It was one of those just amazing sort of little gold mines. Having 

192
00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:54,800
an offer on that capture? Yeah. Yep. That's awesome. Very cool. What 

193
00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:59,700
what other HelloFresh is a really interesting one for so many reasons. What are what 

194
00:15:59,700 --> 00:16:04,300
are some of the other learnings that you, wanna share from that experience? 

195
00:16:04,900 --> 00:16:09,900
I joined in twenty fourteen. So, you know, it's a long ten years ago, which 

196
00:16:09,900 --> 00:16:14,600
is crazy. Yeah. But, you know, it's completely different environment then. 

197
00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:19,500
And, you know, performance marketing was barely a thing at that point. It was kinda 

198
00:16:19,500 --> 00:16:24,300
like a new concept, but HelloFresh, just amazing, amazing 

199
00:16:24,300 --> 00:16:29,000
company. Obviously, you know, operates in different countries and had, you know, great 

200
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,900
investors that that had a lot of learnings that we applied there. But it was very 

201
00:16:33,900 --> 00:16:38,900
much sort of a move fast and test everything, try everything, and 

202
00:16:38,900 --> 00:16:43,700
measure everything kind of, culture. And, obviously, at that 

203
00:16:43,700 --> 00:16:48,600
time, Blue Apron was sort of our big competitors. There was a huge sort of competitive 

204
00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:53,400
nature to every single day. We were, like, tracking new customers on a big screen and 

205
00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:58,500
had a big thermometer on the, you know, whiteboard, and it was just such a fun 

206
00:16:58,500 --> 00:17:03,400
time. I was one of, I think, four or five people on the marketing team, so 

207
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:08,200
very much a smaller team than it is today. But, I've it was just such a 

208
00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:13,000
rigorous environment, and I'd never worked at a company that was so rigorous when it came 

209
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:17,700
to analyzing and just acting upon data quickly. So one 

210
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:22,800
I was on this thing called the churn committee where we were looking at, you know, churn every 

211
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:27,300
single week, and we were looking at recipe feedback, and we were looking at our, 

212
00:17:27,700 --> 00:17:32,700
subscription cancel survey and, you know, any other sort of customer service feedback we were getting. And 

213
00:17:32,700 --> 00:17:37,600
everyone was meeting together, presenting slides each week and just really talking about what 

214
00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:42,400
were the trends. Okay. What are we gonna do this week to improve the customer experience? And it 

215
00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:47,300
was just this sort of obsession with reviewing and moving fast and showing 

216
00:17:47,300 --> 00:17:52,300
results quickly. And it was just, I just learned a ton there. I 

217
00:17:52,300 --> 00:17:56,900
think it was also just fun because a lot of channels that are sort of mainstream today, 

218
00:17:57,300 --> 00:18:02,100
we were, like, just testing and trying out then. So, like, package 

219
00:18:02,100 --> 00:18:06,900
insert programs, which, you know, a lot of people do nowadays, you know, pay to put their flyers 

220
00:18:06,900 --> 00:18:11,500
in ecommerce boxes. And, you know, we were calling different companies saying, hey. You 

221
00:18:11,500 --> 00:18:16,300
know, we'll give you this CPM if you put flyers in your box. Like, what do you 

222
00:18:16,300 --> 00:18:20,600
think? Or and even even I think 

223
00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:26,200
this was a big eye opener was think realizing that our box had a hundred percent open rate 

224
00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:30,900
and saying, what are we doing in our box for our customers and really sort of 

225
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:35,900
unlocking the box or the unboxing experience as a CRM channel, which, you know, 

226
00:18:35,900 --> 00:18:40,500
now is obvious. People have these wonderful unboxing experience with drip 

227
00:18:40,500 --> 00:18:45,400
campaigns of inserts in those boxes, but, it was kind of a novel idea 

228
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:50,400
back then. I was just gonna say it's a hundred percent fun to 

229
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:55,400
see those channel s curves develop where, you know, you you know that they're you're kind of 

230
00:18:55,400 --> 00:19:00,300
on the emerging trend of it, and then it becomes a bit more saturated with time. You're seeing them so 

231
00:19:00,300 --> 00:19:04,900
frequently now, so it's cool to hear that you were, on the early side of that 

232
00:19:04,900 --> 00:19:09,900
wave. No. It was, just a great a great team, great company, great 

233
00:19:09,900 --> 00:19:14,600
people, for sure. I love it. You know, when you're thinking about teams and growth teams in 

234
00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:19,100
particular, what's the most important ingredient in your perspective? What's some of the most, 

235
00:19:19,500 --> 00:19:24,400
important pieces to have? I think not being, like, super myopic 

236
00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:29,400
when it comes to your growth levers, really thinking outside the box. We kind of touched upon this, you 

237
00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:34,200
know. And I really do think the space is evolving from just, like, performance marketing. Okay. 

238
00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:39,000
Let's optimize our campaigns or our landing page, but really sort of 

239
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,900
looking more broadly at, you know, customer service data. Like, what is customer feedback? 

240
00:19:43,900 --> 00:19:48,800
Okay. What's our member churn rate? Why are people churning? Kinda what I was talking 

241
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:53,700
about in in HelloFresh. If you can increase LTV of every single cohort 

242
00:19:53,700 --> 00:19:58,400
you acquire by ten percent, that's a huge growth lever. And understanding 

243
00:19:58,700 --> 00:20:03,100
what's driving the LTV to be sort of stagnant or consistent 

244
00:20:03,700 --> 00:20:08,600
is, you know, a missed opportunity. And you can, you know, throw money at new channels or, you 

245
00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:13,600
know, tweet creative and messaging or conversion rate, but really not not being 

246
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:18,400
too myopic on sort of your own department and really sort of thinking outside the box. I 

247
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:22,600
mentioned inventory as well. You know, how do you talk to, 

248
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:28,000
you know, your ops team about bundling products, and how do you make that 

249
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:32,600
efficient on the warehouse side? Because, you know, you have a lot of conviction that these two 

250
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:37,500
products would go well together, and you could increase AOV by x percent. So I I 

251
00:20:37,500 --> 00:20:42,100
think I mean, I personally just have a ton of conviction in customer service teams and 

252
00:20:42,500 --> 00:20:47,500
managed a customer service team for the first time in, I think, twenty eighteen or 

253
00:20:47,500 --> 00:20:52,400
twenty nineteen and just opened my eyes how important they are in terms of customer insights, but 

254
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:57,300
also that team is talking to customers. If you hire the right people, they're gonna be passionate and, 

255
00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:02,200
you know, thinking about how do they add value to the customer experience, whether it's, you know, being many 

256
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:06,900
consultants to our customers and giving them, you know, feedback on how to use the product 

257
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:11,800
or even just talking to them about their pet or, you know, can make a huge 

258
00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:16,800
difference. I love that. It's, I don't think enough teams realize that 

259
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:21,800
how much of a gold mine consume you know, customer service can and should be. I think 

260
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:26,700
by definition, you mentioned this early in the earlier reference, growth teams kinda they have to be 

261
00:21:26,700 --> 00:21:31,400
kind of unsiloed and unbundled to be really effective and I think to 

262
00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:36,100
do what growth teams need to do. And I think you kinda nailed that comment 

263
00:21:36,100 --> 00:21:40,800
about what's that kind of key ingredient of a growth team, from your perspective. 

264
00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:45,800
A lot of times, it sounds like that there were examples where you saw customer 

265
00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:50,700
service really be leaned on appropriately and empowered to do 

266
00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:55,500
the right thing and to get good insights to make better decisions on growth, 

267
00:21:55,900 --> 00:22:00,600
fulfillment, operations, marketing, and a lot of the other departments, which I think is 

268
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:06,000
something I don't think enough brands and companies do. Yeah. I think customer service in 

269
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:10,500
particular in larger brands get siloed. You know, it's all about 

270
00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:15,200
SLAs on tickets. You know, how many tickets are you getting through? You know, what's the first response? 

271
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:20,400
How quickly are you getting through phone calls? And I think that's really what that team is 

272
00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:25,400
held to. And if you have a more of a marketer sort 

273
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:30,200
of maybe overseeing that team, you can really lean into, you know, how do you 

274
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:34,900
upsell and cross sell and, you know, what types of tickets should have a really long 

275
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:40,000
phone call. You know? The customer is really concerned about 

276
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:45,000
the product or or the service. You want them to spend that extra five minutes on the call 

277
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:50,000
and and make that frown turn upside down. So I I think, you know, it it's such 

278
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:54,600
a nuanced and such an amazing opportunity to talk to customers directly. 

279
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,900
Yeah. Exactly. And you've seen so many consumer examples of where that that customer session 

280
00:22:59,900 --> 00:23:04,800
invested in and done the right way can can really be a huge moat and competitive 

281
00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:09,500
advantage. And it's easier said than done, but I think it's it's a it's a good reminder. 

282
00:23:09,700 --> 00:23:14,500
Yeah. I think even I'll I'll give just another anecdote there. Just last 

283
00:23:14,500 --> 00:23:19,500
week, I met with our head of customer service at BodySpec, and, you know, we're in health 

284
00:23:19,500 --> 00:23:24,400
and wellness services. And our first time clients, I think, get a little bit of a 

285
00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:29,200
shock when they get their results and their first scan, and 

286
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:34,200
we've realized that those interactions with our customer service team just 

287
00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:39,200
totally changed the tone of the customer. They really just needed to talk to someone. And we've now 

288
00:23:39,300 --> 00:23:44,300
I I submitted, like, five dev tickets about where can we actually push talking to 

289
00:23:44,300 --> 00:23:49,100
our customer service team, you know, on the results page and the account page and emails and 

290
00:23:49,500 --> 00:23:54,500
really sort of, you know, proactively put our customer service team there and ready to go 

291
00:23:54,500 --> 00:23:59,500
and help. You know, does that increase our repeat rate, you know, significantly? So 

292
00:23:59,500 --> 00:24:04,200
I think a hundred percent. I I believe in the customer experience for sure. 

293
00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:09,200
Yeah. That's amazing. That's great to get a a good recent, learning example, 

294
00:24:09,500 --> 00:24:14,400
from your current experience, which is which is great. You kinda talk a little bit about what growth teams get 

295
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:19,300
wrong, and and you touched on easy to get sucked into the numbers as we kinda kicked off 

296
00:24:19,300 --> 00:24:23,900
with. Any more examples of that or any more you wanna say or elaborate on that topic? 

297
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:28,600
Yeah. I think I think just in general, it's easy when you're forecasting 

298
00:24:29,900 --> 00:24:34,400
putting together a budget or, you know, a hypothesis around a test. 

299
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:40,000
It is easy to say, okay. This is the CPM. Here's, you know, our conversion rate. Here's where we think 

300
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:44,900
this is gonna land. But if you don't step back to think about the human side, whether or not it's, 

301
00:24:44,900 --> 00:24:49,200
you know, like, is this creative, like, good and interesting? 

302
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:55,800
Or, you know, is there seasonality that we're not thinking about? Or, okay. 

303
00:24:55,800 --> 00:25:00,600
If I extrapolate these cohorts, we should land at this revenue 

304
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:05,600
number at the end of the year, you know, broken up by month. But when I 

305
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:10,600
look at the numbers, it doesn't make sense that we grow, like, twenty percent one month, month over 

306
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:15,300
month. So I think really, like, stepping back and thinking, okay. 

307
00:25:15,300 --> 00:25:19,900
What's going on in December? And what do we really think the 

308
00:25:19,900 --> 00:25:24,600
consumer mindset's gonna be? And what does that mean for our strategy, for our 

309
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:29,500
team, for our forecast? And and I I didn't mention this, 

310
00:25:29,500 --> 00:25:34,400
but I think as I've, become more senior in my career, I've really found 

311
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:39,200
just working very closely with finance and and, on 

312
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:43,700
that planning and budgeting process has been they've been my my strategic 

313
00:25:43,900 --> 00:25:48,600
partner in my last several goals. You kinda nailed the next question 

314
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:53,500
already without me even asking it. I was kinda going into the the notion of forecasting, and 

315
00:25:53,500 --> 00:25:58,500
you kinda gave a great answer already. But is there any other best practice or 

316
00:25:58,500 --> 00:26:03,400
tip around kind of getting that process right and getting that accuracy 

317
00:26:03,500 --> 00:26:08,500
in a place that you need it to be? Yeah. I think, you know, in a subscription 

318
00:26:08,500 --> 00:26:12,400
business or a consumable business, it's a little bit maybe easier 

319
00:26:13,700 --> 00:26:18,600
to do that that process. But I think a lot of iteration and, you know, 

320
00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:23,200
getting insights from the team, but not taking it at face value and really pulling it all together 

321
00:26:23,300 --> 00:26:28,200
and saying, does this make sense, is huge. I think another one 

322
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:33,200
is, like, keep your network, you know, talk to people, join Slack groups, 

323
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:38,200
and ask people, you know, what did you see in your first nine months, you know, exploring influencer 

324
00:26:38,300 --> 00:26:43,200
or affiliate? Did it you know, you might think affiliate pay for performance. Yeah. This is gonna grow like crazy. 

325
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:48,100
And no, it's, you know, it takes time to gain momentum. And you want it 

326
00:26:48,100 --> 00:26:53,000
to grow fast, but that doesn't mean it will. And, you know, influencer, you know, sort of the opposite. Expectation 

327
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:53,500
with 

328
00:27:02,300 --> 00:27:06,700
management or with finance and Absolutely. And say, that's why we're only 

329
00:27:06,900 --> 00:27:11,600
dedicating ten percent of the budget the first three months because we don't want it to, you know, 

330
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:16,400
impact the weighted average CAC by too much. Yep. Certainly long term. 

331
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:21,400
Yeah. That's great. Is there are there any obviously, kinda shifting 

332
00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:26,200
gears here, taking the home stretch, into some of the personal or is there 

333
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:31,100
any book or resort like, book or something, especially, you know, you've you've been through a 

334
00:27:31,100 --> 00:27:35,900
transition of becoming a mom. It's a big change in life. And what's the love to hear your 

335
00:27:35,900 --> 00:27:40,800
learnings there and if there's been any tools or books or resources that have helped you kinda get through 

336
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:45,500
that transition that's such a big one? Yeah. It is a huge one. I 

337
00:27:45,500 --> 00:27:50,000
think my biggest learning or what I've, had to learn quickly 

338
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:55,200
is prioritization. And And I think also giving up some control, trusting 

339
00:27:55,200 --> 00:28:00,200
my team a bit more than maybe I would have before, and knowing that, you know, I I need 

340
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,200
to be flexible business. And 

341
00:28:10,700 --> 00:28:15,700
but I think priority prioritization is key, and I think efficiency. I'm actually 

342
00:28:15,900 --> 00:28:20,600
really impressed with how much I can get done now in a shorter amount of 

343
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:25,500
time. Because when you're when you're really committed, then you have kinda have to be you get it 

344
00:28:25,500 --> 00:28:30,300
done and you make it work. I think a support network is huge here too. I 

345
00:28:30,300 --> 00:28:34,800
think I've been really lucky. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of working 

346
00:28:35,100 --> 00:28:39,800
moms and just having people you can talk to and get tips from 

347
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:44,500
is is huge. And an employer that I think is really kind of understanding 

348
00:28:44,500 --> 00:28:49,400
about, you know, the last minute, you know, pick up from daycare, get sick, and Yep. 

349
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:54,500
It it's key too. Yeah. One hundred percent. It's cool to see kind of 

350
00:28:54,500 --> 00:28:59,300
communities and friends and people kinda, you know, wrap their arms around, you know, new parents, 

351
00:28:59,300 --> 00:29:04,300
and it's a it's a it's a change. And I think it's it makes sense, but 

352
00:29:04,300 --> 00:29:09,300
it's it's refreshing to see. And I think some new thing you know, things change and evolve, and you kinda my 

353
00:29:09,300 --> 00:29:14,100
wife and I have observed that in our experience. And so it's cool to hear that you're getting some good 

354
00:29:14,100 --> 00:29:19,100
community because I think that's a a huge aspect to all of this, figuring 

355
00:29:19,100 --> 00:29:24,100
it out as a as a parent and a and a hardworking, busy professional. It's it's not it's not 

356
00:29:24,100 --> 00:29:29,100
super easy, but it's it's pretty awesome. Yeah. It it is. Yeah. Are there, 

357
00:29:29,500 --> 00:29:34,300
any emerging startups or products that you, you know, someone who's ingrained in the 

358
00:29:34,300 --> 00:29:39,000
industry, like, find that you're kinda keeping your eye on or any that you wanna share with the 

359
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:44,000
audience? Yeah. I think, and it might be becoming a mother and it might, 

360
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:49,000
you know, being more in the health and wellness industry in my current role. But I 

361
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:54,000
think one thing I've learned is, yeah, women's health greatly underserved, and I think 

362
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:59,000
things are changing really quickly. You know, it was someone told me a statistic that there 

363
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,900
are only two hundred doctors across every practice, you know, from 

364
00:30:03,900 --> 00:30:08,300
neurology to urology to gynecology to endocrinology 

365
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:13,700
that focus on, menopause, which every single woman goes through. And 

366
00:30:13,900 --> 00:30:18,900
only two hundred doctors that, like, have any focus on that. It was just eye opening that 

367
00:30:18,900 --> 00:30:23,900
it's it's definitely underserved, and I think the tide's changing. And what 

368
00:30:23,900 --> 00:30:28,700
really opened my eyes to it was we, in my current, company, 

369
00:30:28,700 --> 00:30:33,300
we we do body composition scans, and you can test bone density and lean mass. 

370
00:30:33,300 --> 00:30:38,200
And we did a webinar on menopause because we were like, 

371
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:43,200
oh, this is a topic that is highly relevant to our service. And we had 

372
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:47,900
an expert come in and and and speak to people. And, you know, we have a pretty small 

373
00:30:47,900 --> 00:30:52,800
CRM, but over five hundred people RSVP'd. And Wow. It just 

374
00:30:52,900 --> 00:30:57,600
made us real and people were chatting in the chat box, and it was just such an 

375
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:02,600
engaging webinar. And it made me realize, you know, people are hungry to 

376
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:07,300
talk about this and get help and and have resources. Totally. I think the 

377
00:31:07,300 --> 00:31:12,200
companies that are in this space are are gonna do well. Yeah. I think I wanna 

378
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:16,900
say might have been Texas Monthly had someone pretty prominent 

379
00:31:17,300 --> 00:31:22,000
featured that's launching something in the in the menopause space and, makes 

380
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:27,000
sense. There's not a lot of something my my wife's looked into just from the hormone 

381
00:31:27,300 --> 00:31:32,000
therapy balancing perspective Yeah. HRT. Been well ahead of the menopause 

382
00:31:32,300 --> 00:31:37,300
stage, and I think that that's also kind of becoming quite quite popular. 

383
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:42,300
So it's awesome to see that and love to see the business opportunity and the the help 

384
00:31:42,300 --> 00:31:47,100
for for women and make lives better. That sounds like a really exciting one. That's really 

385
00:31:47,100 --> 00:31:52,100
cool. What's something that, you know, you wanna share with the audience that maybe, people don't know about you? I was 

386
00:31:52,100 --> 00:31:56,600
pretty athletic as a as a kid, and, you know, I love sports and 

387
00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,800
trying to get back into it. But, tennis in particular is one. I I just love 

388
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:06,800
it so much. I I'm lucky my my husband does too. So it's I think it's great to have 

389
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:11,600
sort of a hobby with your partner that you both love doing. Totally. It's just fun, 

390
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:16,500
and it's exercise. And there's just so much positive around it. That's great. I sort of 

391
00:32:16,500 --> 00:32:21,100
touched upon the foodie thing, but if you ever want restaurant recommendations or 

392
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:26,200
recipe recommendations, I, I love trying new things, 

393
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:30,200
and that's sort of my creative outlet for sure, making dinner. 

394
00:32:31,500 --> 00:32:36,300
I love it. Doesn't get any better than that. That's amazing. I'm I'm definitely 

395
00:32:36,700 --> 00:32:41,600
might have some, ideas, requests for for new places to try out 

396
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:46,400
around Austin, and it's a good tennis community here too. I I've been really 

397
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:51,200
I kinda re rediscovered tennis out here and knew that was something I wanted to get back to 

398
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:56,100
myself. So it's cool to hear that you're playing, and, it's it's I think you're not the only one on the 

399
00:32:56,100 --> 00:33:01,100
spot who's called out their their love of it, and, it's a it's a pretty fun 

400
00:33:01,100 --> 00:33:06,100
sport. I'm I'm a fan myself. It's one of those sports too you can I mean, you see eighty year 

401
00:33:06,100 --> 00:33:10,900
olds playing and just fun to do something that you can do your entire life? 

402
00:33:11,100 --> 00:33:16,100
That's very cool. Well, Andrea, it's been a pleasure. You've got such great experiences across so many 

403
00:33:16,100 --> 00:33:20,900
different cool businesses and from ops to marketing to CS and 

404
00:33:20,900 --> 00:33:25,800
and just being a great marketing strategist and leader. It's been been cool to continue 

405
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:30,500
to get to know you and learn more about your your background and really some good 

406
00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:35,400
quality learnings that you shared, which is just central to, like, all the things we talk about in the pod, and 

407
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:40,200
it's it's been a lot of fun. So thank you. Thank you. It was great. Absolutely. 

408
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:45,200
Absolutely. For for folks who wanna learn a little bit more about you and connect and 

409
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:50,100
and and ask questions and and get to know you, what what's the best way for them to, connect? 

410
00:33:50,300 --> 00:33:55,100
Yeah. LinkedIn is great. Just search for my name, and I should pop 

411
00:33:55,100 --> 00:33:59,700
up. And if you're in Austin, always happy to grab coffee or just a 

412
00:33:59,700 --> 00:34:04,600
chat. Amazing, Andrea. Always a pleasure. I think we're due for another coffee in, in 

413
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:09,600
Austin, and it's been, it's been great to chat with you today. Have an awesome day and your and a great 

414
00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:12,600
weekend. You too, Ty. Talk soon. Bye. Bye.