The Checkout

The NBA Banned Their Shoe — How APL Turned It Into an E-Commerce Brand — NJ Falk

Book a call with John: https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440 Most ecommerce founders try to build a brand by running better ads to a product page. They obsess over conversion metrics while ignoring the thing that actually makes a brand stick: a story consumers connect to and repeat back to each other. In this episode, NJ Falk, managing partner at Athletic Propulsion Labs (APL), breaks down the six or seven story threads APL uses across every product launch, campaign, and piece of content. From the NBA ban that became the foundation of the brand, to designing sensory language instead of spec sheets, NJ explains why most ecommerce brands hit a scale ceiling and what it actually takes to build a brand customers love saying out loud. Topics discussed: 00:00 - How APL turned an NBA ban into their brand foundation 01:00 - The origin of Athletic Propulsion Labs and the Concept One 03:00 - Never waste a crisis: turning a ban into performance credibility 06:00 - The six story threads APL uses for every product launch 09:00 - Why specs do not sell and sensory language does 11:00 - The Japan pancake trip that inspired a midsole 13:00 - Tongue-in-cheek tech stories like Run Naked 18:00 - How to keep your founder story fresh after telling it 100 times 22:00 - Gym to street to life and the versatility thread 26:00 - Social proof, awards, and editorial validation as a story bucket 30:00 - Should you build the story first or the product first 42:00 - Aspirational identity as the thread in everything you make 46:00 - A simple T-chart framework for brand storytelling 53:00 - How to expand into a new sport or category authentically 01:03:00 - Why brands hit a scale ceiling without a real brand Learn more about our sponsors: https://www.attentive.com/ [https://www.attentive.com/] https://fuego.io/ [https://fuego.io/] https://www.socialsnowball.io/ [https://www.socialsnowball.io/] https://redo.com/ [https://redo.com/] 🔗 CONNECT WITH RYAN DEISS: https://scalable.co/ [https://scalable.co/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandeiss/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandeiss/] https://www.youtube.com/@RyanDeissOfficial [https://www.youtube.com/@RyanDeissOfficial] 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOHN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/] https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle [https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle] 🔗 CONNECT WITH BART : https://szaniewski.com/ [https://szaniewski.com/] https://www.instagram.com/theszef/ [https://www.instagram.com/theszef/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/]

Most E-Commerce Brands Use Email Wrong (It Should Lower Your Ad Costs) — Sammy Tran

Book a call with John: https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440 [https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440] Most ecommerce brands treat email like its own revenue channel. They obsess over campaign metrics while missing the bigger opportunity — using retention to lower acquisition costs, improve customer experience, and increase lifetime value. In this episode, Sammy Tran breaks down what actually drives growth for ecommerce brands today. From subscriptions and retention marketing to AI-generated content and owned audiences, Sammy explains why brands focused only on short-term revenue are falling behind — and what smart operators are doing differently. Topics discussed: 00:00 - Why most ecommerce brands use email wrong 06:24 - Landing pages, pop-ups, and conversion strategy 07:00 - Why ecommerce testing gets complicated fast 14:43 - The reality of running a marketing agency1 5:07 - Agency incentives vs effective marketing 28:44 - Why retention revenue fuels growth 31:51 - Building better subscription experiences 32:05 - Loyalty systems and retention tools 39:51 - Why brands need audiences they own 40:05 - The rise of owned marketing channels 01:11:37 - Using customer feedback to improve products 01:11:50 - Finding patterns in customer responses 01:19:10 - AI-generated content becoming the norm 01:19:18 - Why human creativity will stand out more 01:21:36 - Final thoughts and closing remarks Learn more about our sponsors: https://www.attentive.com/ [https://www.attentive.com/]https://fuego.io/ [https://fuego.io/]https://www.socialsnowball.io/ [https://www.socialsnowball.io/]https://redo.com/ [https://redo.com/] 🔗 CONNECT WITH RYAN DEISS: https://scalable.co/ [https://scalable.co/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandeiss/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandeiss/] https://www.youtube.com/@RyanDeissOfficial [https://www.youtube.com/@RyanDeissOfficial] 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOHN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/] https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle [https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle] 🔗 CONNECT WITH BART: https://szaniewski.com/ [https://szaniewski.com/] https://www.instagram.com/theszef/ [https://www.instagram.com/theszef/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/]

He Built DigitalMarketer. Here's How He'd Scale Any E-Commerce Brand — Ryan Deiss

Book a call with John: https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440 [https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440] Wondering why you're more buried in work than you were a year and a million dollars ago? You hired helpers. Not operators. Ryan Deiss founded DigitalMarketer.com, trained 120,000 marketers, and now runs 17 companies doing $250M+ a year. In this episode, he walks through how he'd actually scale any brand from $1M to $30M+ — from the hire that unlocks scale to the three engines that power e-commerce businesses. Topics discussed: 00:00 - Introduction 00:48 - Does EOS work in e-commerce? 08:13 - The worst stage of any business 09:09 - 3 engines every e-com brand runs on 21:42 - Mapping your business for scale 26:01 - Scaling without losing time with your family 36:00 - Why founders never feel like they’re making enough 40:50 - Identity shifts as you scale 48:17 - The first role to hand off (and one you shouldn’t) 57:23 - How to hire for an undefined role 01:01:54 - What to focus on at each stage of growth 01:10:37 - Should you scale, sell, or raise at $30M? 01:17:44 - Do lead magnets work in e-commerce? Learn more about our sponsors: https://www.attentive.com/ [https://www.attentive.com/] https://fuego.io/ [https://fuego.io/] https://www.socialsnowball.io/ [https://www.socialsnowball.io/] https://redo.com/ [https://redo.com/] 🔗 CONNECT WITH RYAN DEISS: Instagram @ryandeiss YouTube @ryandeissofficial X @ryandeiss Website : https://scalable.co/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandeiss/ Free Book Get Scalable: https://www.getscalable.com/ 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOHN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/] https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle [https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle] 🔗 CONNECT WITH BART : https://szaniewski.com/ [https://szaniewski.com/] https://www.instagram.com/theszef/ [https://www.instagram.com/theszef/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/]

How E-Commerce Brands Can Crush UGC in 2026 — Josh Suggs

Book a call with John: https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440 [https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440] Most of the e-commerce industry has written UGC off in 2026. Here’s why you shouldn’t. In this episode, StreetTalk founder Josh Suggs breaks down the one content format outperforming everything else in e-commerce ad accounts: street interviews. He shares where it fits in your media mix at every budget level, why the brands trying to do this in-house keep failing, and his formula that converts customers in just 40 seconds. If you're running paid ads in 2026 and haven't tested this yet, you're leaving revenue on the table. Topics discussed: 00:00 - Introduction 01:17 - StreetTalk’s origin story 07:53 - How they scaled so fast 17:41 - The early hustle 21:21 - Leveraging your way to success 27:09 - The business move that failed 33:02 - How Expo West changed the business 34:16 - The street interview formula 38:12 - Why street interviews convert so well 39:55 - Making money as a StreetTalker 42:18 - Why street interviews belong in your ad account 43:29 - How to allocate a $5–$10K content budget 47:42 - Why brands struggle to replicate this in-house 50:28 - Street interview concepts for real products 59:45 - Creating a show around your brand Learn more about our sponsors: https://www.attentive.com/ [https://www.attentive.com/] https://fuego.io/ [https://fuego.io/] https://www.socialsnowball.io/ [https://www.socialsnowball.io/] https://redo.com/ [https://redo.com/] 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOSH SUGGS: https://www.streettalk.com/ [https://www.streettalk.com/] https://x.com/joshsuggss [https://x.com/joshsuggss] https://www.instagram.com/joshsuggss/ [https://www.instagram.com/joshsuggss/] https://www.instagram.com/streettalk/ [https://www.instagram.com/streettalk/] 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOHN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/] https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle [https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle] 🔗 CONNECT WITH BART : https://szaniewski.com/ [https://szaniewski.com/] https://www.instagram.com/theszef/ [https://www.instagram.com/theszef/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/]

What $100M E-Commerce Brands Know That The Others Don’t — Nik Sharma

Book a call with John: https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440 [https://www.thedivenewsletter.com/squeeze-page1712742970440] Stuck between $2M and $30M and asking yourself, "What are the big brands doing that I'm not?" Nik Sharma worked with $100M brands like True Classic, Jolie and Eight Sleep, and he knows why most brands stall before they ever get close. In this episode, he breaks down exactly what the brands that speed-run to $100M do differently and the moves you can make to get unstuck. Topics discussed: 00:00 - Introduction 00:29 - What makes a brand reach $100M in e-commerce 04:15 - Eight Sleep case study: how they got so big 07:58 - Why second-time founders hit $100M faster 12:17 - Budgeting for marketing you can’t track 22:09 - Top vs. bottom of funnel marketing: what most brands get wrong 24:19 - Creating effective advertorials 29:04 - Why some successful brands stall before $100M 43:04 - Five marketing channels that work in e-commerce 46:15 - How to leverage AI without getting distracted 58:53 - Shiny object syndrome and your role as founder 01:01:19 - How to start a new brand with $50,000 01:09:24 - The one factor that differentiates $100M brands 01:13:31 - What most founders don’t know about scaling Learn more about our sponsors: https://www.attentive.com/ [https://www.attentive.com/] https://fuego.io/ [https://fuego.io/] https://www.socialsnowball.io/ [https://www.socialsnowball.io/] https://redo.com/ [https://redo.com/] 🔗 CONNECT WITH NIK SHARMA: https://www.nik.co/ [https://www.nik.co/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrniksharma/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrniksharma/] https://x.com/mrsharma [https://x.com/mrsharma] 🔗 CONNECT WITH JOHN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-coyle-1bb231120/] https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle [https://www.tiktok.com/@johnjhcoyle] 🔗 CONNECT WITH BART : https://szaniewski.com/ [https://szaniewski.com/] https://www.instagram.com/theszef/ [https://www.instagram.com/theszef/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-szaniewski-374b1141/]