D2C Diaries

Claude Mastermind: Building a Creative Strategy System That Powers 6K Ads Per Month

This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard. Most founders building high-growth digital companies are stuck doing the same thing: toggling between apps, wrestling with spreadsheets, and manually reconciling expenses - all while trying to actually grow their business. There's a better way. Incard is the financial platform built for the way modern digital businesses actually operate. Multi-currency accounts, corporate cards with real rewards, and a fully connected banking experience - all in one place. This dedicated offer gets you: - 1 month free trial Incard Plus - All Incard Plus plan features included - 2% cashback on Ad Spend, Saas, Travel for year one This time-limited offer is only valid until end of May. Take control of your finances with Incard today. T&Cs apply: https://incard.co?fpr=soarwithus&fp_sid=pod --- Loukas breaks down the full AI infrastructure he has built on top of Claude, from context engineering fundamentals through to a self-learning creative OS that compounds over time. In this mastermind he covers why context is the entire game right now and why your prompts matter less than you think, how Claude Skills work under the hood and how to build ones that actually compress your team's best thinking into repeatable systems, the exact 8-phase scriptwriting skill Hambi runs in production, the recursive script grader that scores every script against 10 criteria and rewrites until it ships, and the reasoning trace system that turns Claude from a tool into something that gets smarter the more you use it. Whether you're just getting started with Claude or you think you're advanced, this is the end-to-end session. Comment "Claude" below to get the reference files, CSOS template and PDFs referenced in this episode. Sarah Levinger's article on Valence Zones https://x.com/SarahLevinger/status/2021281038895546761?s=20 D2C Diaries Scriptwriting Masterclass https://youtu.be/dlH4acLpd_g --- 🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0vgMDy0 00:00 Intro 03:27 Incard sponsor 04:20 Why context is the entire game  08:08 Brand context vs domain context explained 10:16 How to build a context library database 14:14 Claude Skills vs Claude Code vs Claude Cowork 20:38 Claude skills 23:23 The CSOS - single source of truth setup on Notion 26:33 Framework database  29:50 Skill building workflow 31:00 Scriptwriting Skill  35:35 Incard sponsor 36:28 8 phases of scripting writing skill 50:22 Reporting skill 53:27 Script Grader  58:28 Building operating infrastructure Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/ Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

The AI Stack Behind £100M Annual Ad Spend in 2026

This podcast is proudly sponsored by SARAL.  Find influencers, reach out, manage every relationship, all in one place, without any chaos. 200+ brands including Grüns, Solawave, Spacegoods are running their influencer programs on SARAL. If that sounds like what you've been looking for, go to https://tinyurl.com/3t4d4myx and book a demo with their team. Tell them we sent you to claim your $500 discount and whiteglove onboarding. --- In this episode, Olly and Loukas go deep on the AI systems they've spent the last few months building inside Soar Group - the personal operating systems, the creative production infrastructure, and the internal tooling that's changing how the business runs. This isn't a conversation about AI tools. It's about the architecture underneath them.They cover: How Olly built a personal operating system based on Andrej Karpathy's LLM wiki pattern — using Obsidian connected to Claude Code. Call transcripts categorised automatically every day, Slack piped in, reasoning traces stored against every decision made in the business. How Loukas built his own version in VS Code connected to Claude Code with in-depth context on every brand, every direct report, and every specialism, plus a reinforcement learning loop built into the content pipeline. The Club Neuro AI operating system - a full web app built as a test case before rolling into the Control Room. Best performing frameworks dashboard, hooks database, one-click reporting, weekly Reddit scrape, and a UI designed to capture operator intuition at the moment it happens. The four learning loops: performance into hypothesis, hypothesis into correction, correction into rule, decision into outcome. How they hired an AI videographer targeting 60 unique concepts a month — the equivalent of 15 shoot days replaced by one person. A mass static generation system with 40-60 framework prompts, brand DNA and personas pre-loaded, ready to generate at scale. The principle that ties it all together: context compounds. Models don't. --- 00:00 Intro 02:05 Our sponsor: SARAL 03:00 Our personal operating systems we've built 21:00 AI as a feedback loop 24:14 Our sponsor: SARAL 25:10 Our foundational context and data engine 30:20 Club Neuro: creative intelligence operating system 35:00 Best in class forecasting process  39:50 Our internal creative processes 47:28 Business intelligence platform Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/ Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

The 4 Growth Levers Every DTC Brand Needs To Audit

This podcast is proudly sponsored by Incard. Most founders building high-growth digital companies are stuck doing the same thing: toggling between apps, wrestling with spreadsheets, and manually reconciling expenses - all while trying to actually grow their business. There's a better way. Incard is the financial platform built for the way modern digital businesses actually operate. Multi-currency accounts, corporate cards with real rewards, and a fully connected banking experience - all in one place. This dedicated offer gets you: * 1 month free trial Incard Plus * All Incard Plus plan features included * 2% cashback on Ad Spend, Saas, Travel for year one This is a time-limited offer valid till the end of this month, April 2026. Take control of your finances with Incard today: https://incard.co?fpr=soarwithus&fp_sid=pod --- Most people think growing a DTC brand is complicated. It doesn't have to be. In this episode, Olly and Sam break down the Growth Compass™ — Soar Group's trademarked framework for diagnosing the #1 constraint holding any ecommerce brand back from profitable growth. 4 pillars. 20 sub-factors. One binding constraint. Fix that one first. Everything else is noise. As promised in the episode — the full Growth Compass™ cheat sheet covering every sub-factor across all four pillars https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0tQ3_v0 [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbTZBOVI4OWUtQktMNWdQbXMtUDVGOV9hWWo1Z3xBQ3Jtc0ttdVd5bTMtb2ZNaTF0a3Jja0hTUE1VT0padEVPV2Y0Ykg3NG81ZGs4dzVLUXdYdHpSVmhpcU4wSGF0eVdWdjRIeXl1eG8ySGdLWkduaTlFZ0twQU1PblZKbXhyN1pTT1NTVmk3V3FwVktVZ2ZSZ2YwOA&q=https%3A%2F%2Feu1.hubs.ly%2FH0tQ3_v0&v=smPkn8Zka_A] If you want us to run the full Growth Compass™ audit for your brand - scored across all 20 sub-factors with a prioritised roadmap - book a call with the team 👉 Book a call https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0tQ4SL0 [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmRlN0dGYU5JZms5SGY0SWJFNmZIeEo1bTEtZ3xBQ3Jtc0trUzBEQndNNjhZYVFTYTBDMUZmN2JRYkMzN2xfQXlKb2hVWE0ySUNwZ1lpQ3FHOWJjdmtUa1BxUS1VQ29QNjBGZHlsbTRQampueFNRQzdNbWVtaXpmd3lXNThwQzZ6enVxSExOSnRiTTF6S3Rfa19rOA&q=https%3A%2F%2Feu1.hubs.ly%2FH0tQ4SL0&v=smPkn8Zka_A] Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/ Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

Q1 2026 D2C Debrief: AI Animation, Attribution Updates, and the Creative Gap Brands Are Missing

We're back. After a month off, a new office, two London events, and somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 ads launched... there's a lot to catch up on. In this episode, Olly and Loukas do a full Q1 2026 debrief across creative strategy, Meta attribution, offer positioning, and the frameworks they've been running across 250+ brands. --- This episode is sponsored by Foreplay. Start your free trial here: https://tinyurl.com/3caahj4w --- 🚨🚀 If you're a brand spending £100K/month, we'll run your ads. Apply for your growth roadmap: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0tvkYy0 --- Resources mentioned in this episode: Brad Jacobs: How to Make a Few Billion Dollars: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Make-Few-Billion-Dollars/dp/B0CHTQP25T [https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Make-Few-Billion-Dollars/dp/B0CHTQP25T] Rick Rubin: The Creative Act: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Act-Way-Being/dp/1838858636 [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Act-Way-Being/dp/1838858636] Jason Cohen: A Smart Bear: https://longform.asmartbear.com/jason-cohen/ [https://longform.asmartbear.com/jason-cohen/] Oren Johnson (organic content & creator trends): https://www.youtube.com/@orenmeetsworld [https://www.youtube.com/@orenmeetsworld] The GLP-1 $1.8B four-person business: https://x.com/jonoringer/status/2039759594461839599?s=20 [https://x.com/jonoringer/status/2039759594461839599?s=20] Creative Testing Playbook: comment TESTING below and we'll send it to you --- Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/ Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/

The Persona Mastermind: How Top 1% DTC Brands Drive Incremental Reach on Meta

🚨🚀 Your creative strategy was built for an algorithm that doesn't exist. In 4 weeks, we'll identify exactly where your creative is leaking money and hand you a roadmap on how to fix it  using a persona-driven strategy that reduces CAC, beats creative fatigue, and scales spend profitably. 4 week sprint. 3 hours of your time. No retainer commitment: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0sDQ-p0 Most brands respond to reach problems by producing more creative. More hooks, more formats, more volume. But if you're speaking to the same emotional states in the same way, more output isn't going to move the needle. The real unlock is persona diversity — and not just at a demographic level. In this episode of D2C Diaries, Loukas breaks down the exact micro persona framework Hambi use across seven and eight figure DTC brands to drive incremental reach at scale on Meta. This is the internal process — from macro persona to micro persona mapping, through to how psychological diversity in your creative signals to Andromeda who to put your ads in front of. If you're managing serious Meta spend and incremental reach is a constraint, this is the framework to fix it. Download our persona breakdown board here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0sDQTw0 Loukas published an article on micro personas, you can read that here: https://x.com/LoukasHambi/status/2028854922209374604 Follow Olly: https://linktr.ee/ollyhudson Follow Joe: https://linktr.ee/joe_marston Follow Loukas: https://shorturl.at/TRI8B / https://x.com/LoukasHambi Follow Liam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-dean-a11a43152/ Follow D2C Diaries: https://www.tiktok.com/@d2c.diaries / https://www.instagram.com/d2c_diaries/