Retail is not what it was.

Amazon rewrote the playbook. The pandemic forced seismic shifts. Venture capital flooded in, then dried up. We’re not going back to the old ways—so how do brands survive now and build for the future?

Ever been told to "fall in line" at work? Maybe your humor wasn’t “professional enough.” Maybe your leadership style wasn’t what people expected. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

When it comes to advertising, brands love a good metric. And for a long time, RoAS was the go-to measurement for success. But, as iOS 14 rolled out App Tracking Transparency, the industry saw RoAS take a hit. Suddenly, advertisers were flying blind, unable to directly attribute sales to specific ads. The response? A shift towards MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio), or what many now call blended RoAS.

The signals on Amazon are everywhere. But what do we do with them? Advertising on Amazon is all about honing in on customer behavior and then taking advantage of every opportunity you have to increase sales in the short term and profitability in the long run. Neha Bhuchar, CEO & Co-Founder of atom11, a retail aware advertising platform for brands and agencies on Amazon, schools us on how to actually address the real problems of your customer and take action. One of the biggest issues: customers don't always know what they want or what they need. In order to find out you have to ask the right questions and then... Shut up! Listening is your new superpower. Neha shows us how to listen to our customers in order to get to the root cause of problems so you can make impactful change. You don't fix problems on Amazon or in business. You fix root causes. It's time to shut up and listen to this next episode.

Is it possible to do good AND make money? Can you actually have a positive impact while growing a business? My guest on today's episode, Keith Hartnett, CEO of Better World Goods, thinks so. And we tend to agree. Keith's experience in selling on marketplaces and running an agency has shown him that making change requires you to be involved. You can't win in ecommerce or life if you don't play the game. We also dive into the realities and facades of agency life. In a social media world where everything gets divisive really quickly and we focus on the positives only, the reality of agency life is it's difficult. Not everything is a W and you will inevitably come up against problems. Intentionally hiding the difficulties shouldn't be the norm. Being willing to be authentic will go a long way and can actually provide you with credibility. Want to know more about how to run an agency with integrity? Listen to Keith's story.