Advertise on podcast: Bright Minds of eCommerce Podcast

Black Friday is coming in hot and in this episode I'm walking you through everything I want you to sort out now, so you're not scrambling in November. We start with whether you should go on sale at all, then get into margins, timing, budgets, the Meta ads creative that cuts through a feed full of black tiles, and the email mistake that left me a little bit jaded last year. I'm also sharing the four questions to keep on a Post-it note and why you need a plan for the very quiet week that follows.

I sit down with Mary from Mary Grace this week, and we get into how she turned her own skin sensitivities into a full beauty and home fragrance brand, why she ditched the picture perfect approach to branding, and how that decision ended up building her the most loyal customer community. We also talk about the chaos of accidentally going viral, what she's learned from having actors and authors comment on her posts, and her simple but brilliant advice for anyone too scared to put themselves out there. Be weirder. You're not weird enough.

Why has marketing gotten so boring lately? In this episode I'm unpacking why so many eCommerce brands feel the same, and why having a personality, yours or a deliberately built one, might be the biggest competitive advantage you're not using. I look at brands like Duolingo, Frank Body and Who Gives a Crap who've nailed this, share why trying to get everyone to love you is a losing game, and give you some practical ways to find your own point of difference and start standing out in a crowded feed.

Jodie Minto joins me this week to talk about the marketing mistakes she sees eCommerce founders make on repeat, from relying too heavily on organic social in the early days, to going all in on paid ads and forgetting everything else. We get into product pages that leave customers with more questions than answers, what conversion rate you should actually be aiming for, and why the money you think you don't have might be sitting in your slow moving stock. Jodie also breaks down how to prep for Black Friday without blowing your ad budget or your profit margin, and shares why she treats every campaign, post and email like a little experiment.

Is your Meta ads account structure actually built for your goals, or just built? In this episode I break down the two types of advertisers I see all the time, the set and forget crowd and the constant tinkerers, and why both approaches can quietly cost you growth. I share a real client story where solid sales were masking a serious growth problem, talk about when to hand control back to Meta and when to take it away, and give you a tidy little trick for cleaning up a messy account without losing your data.

Jaimie from Bloom Money joins me to talk numbers, the kind most eCommerce owners avoid until tax time forces their hand. We get into why Shopify and Xero never seem to agree, the GST mistake that once cost a business three hundred grand in ad spend, and how to actually plan a Black Friday sale using real figures instead of a guess and a prayer.

Sixteen years ago I started Bright Red Marketing with no idea what I was doing. In this episode I'm sharing the sixteen lessons that stuck, from learning I'm not for every client, to why chasing the algorithm makes you a worse advertiser, to the accountant conversation that changed everything. Some of it's about business, some of it's about boundaries, and one of it is about why a logo is not a brand.

In this episode, Lauren McBean from Kuddly Kids shares the messy, honest reality of buying and building a business from scratch, from the stock she's still clearing five years later, to burning out before she finally let go of control. She also shares how she is learning how to show up online when it terrified her, the gut feeling she ignored and why trusting your instincts might be the most underrated business skill of all.

I'm talking about the thing I think a lot of marketers are getting quietly wrong right now, optimising so hard for numbers that they've stopped actually connecting with people. I share the story of a client ad with a goal ROAS of zero that went on to get a 22x ROAS, break down what "more human" content actually looks like in a Meta ads context, and explain why founder content, UGC, and even a well-placed typo might be worth more than your next polished creative.

Running an eCommerce business while stuck in a mountain of emails and admin tasks? Jess Whatman from AgentSync joins me to talk about how to actually figure out what to hand off, the difference between a VA, an OBM, and an executive assistant, and why the real risk is staying stuck doing everything yourself. We also get into how AI and automation are changing what offshore support looks like, and why 80% done by someone else beats 100% done by you at midnight.

In this episode, I take you through my step-by-step Meta ads account audit, the exact process I use to find what's working, what's not, and where budget is quietly disappearing. From dashboard setup to audience segments, funnel metrics, creative performance, and the breakdown tool, this is a practical look inside how to actually read your account instead of just hoping the numbers make sense.

Nikki Parkinson has been a content creator and influencer for nearly 18 years, and in this episode she's sharing everything brands need to know about making influencer partnerships actually work. We talk about why follower count is a trap, how to vet creators properly, why long-term relationships beat one-off campaigns every time, and how creator content is becoming one of the most powerful assets you can use inside your Meta ads. If you've ever wondered whether influencer marketing is worth it for your eCommerce brand, Nikki has some very useful things to say.

Scaling your Meta ads is one of the most misunderstood parts of running paid ads for your eCommerce store. In this episode, Dahna breaks down horizontal vs vertical scaling, what's changed with Advantage Plus, and the practical strategies that let you grow your ad account without blowing up what's already working.

AI is everywhere right now, but most people are starting with it completely wrong. Em Gee joins me to break down exactly where to begin if you want AI to actually save you time in your eCommerce business, how to train it to sound like you, and why the human in the loop is still the most important part of the process. Whether you've been dabbling with AI for a while or still haven't really gotten into it, this one is worth a listen.

Your product photos are doing more selling than you think, and if they're not up to scratch, your ads don't stand a chance. In this episode, Dahna chats with Peita from Bloom Creative about strategic product photography, why trust is the real thing you're selling online, and how to build a shot list that actually works for your eCommerce business. They also get into UGC, AI images, and the moment you know it's time to stop DIYing your content.