Episodes
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Most retention agencies are still doing reporting the hard way. Manual decks. Static reports. Data that's already out of date by the time the client opens it. The agencies doing $100M in client revenue aren't doing it that way anymore. In this episode I sit down with Zac Cherin, founder of Hiro Analytics — the tool running inside Bread Loaf and some of the top retention agencies in D2C right now. We've been customers for five months. This is a real conversation, not a pitch. 10 hours back per client per month. Every single month. That's what we actually experienced. If you run a retention agen
Walmart just made one of the most strategic moves in D2C advertising history. They acquired Vibe.co — the CTV platform that democratized streaming TV ads for small and medium-sized brands — and most people in the CPG world haven't fully understood what this means yet. In this episode I'm breaking down exactly what Vibe is, why Walmart wanted it, and what I believe is coming over the next 6 to 12 months for every brand in the Walmart ecosystem. Vibe connects directly to Shopify, Klaviyo, and Triple Whale. Walmart has the largest retail footprint in the US and is competing hard against Amazon on
After a decade of auditing ecommerce brands,my team keeps seeing the exact same mistakes. Over and over. Across every size. Every category. And these mistakes aren't costing brands hundredsof dollars. They're costing tens of thousands —sometimes hundreds of thousands — every single year. In this episode I'm walking through all 8 of them.If you're running Klaviyo, there's a very goodchance you're making at least 3 of them right now. From measuring the wrong metrics, to ignoringdeliverability, to turning email into a couponmachine — these are the blind spots we find inalmost every account we aud
Everyone is talking about OpenAI ads.Nobody is actually running them. We are. Over the last five to eight weeks, Bread Loaf hasbeen onboarding real clients into OpenAI's adsplatform — and in this episode I'm giving you thefull honest breakdown of what we've actually found. The good. The bad. The bugs. The opportunity. CPMs at $50 flat. Random ad disapprovals. Budgetsnot spending fully. A platform that's basic andstill pretty buggy. And we're doubling down anyway. Because we've seen this before. Google in the earlydays. Facebook in 2014. TikTok before anyone tookit seriously. The brands that mo
Millions of people are skipping Google right now. They're opening ChatGPT and asking what to buy.And they're getting one answer. One recommendation.One brand. If that brand isn't yours — you're invisible. In this episode I'm breaking down exactly how AIsearch works, why it's changing how people buyonline, and the step by step playbook to get yourShopify store showing up in ChatGPT before yourcompetitors do. This is the biggest shift in ecommerce customeracquisition in the last 20 years. The brands thatfigure this out now will have a massive head start. ✅ Elevate your brand's Email & SMS market
Klaviyo just launched something most D2C brandshaven't paid attention to yet. K-Service — and specifically Customer Agent —is Klaviyo's new AI-powered customer support suitethat's changing how brands handle tickets, convertsite visitors, and drive revenue from supportinteractions. In this episode I sat down with Gina Potenza fromKlaviyo's partner strategy team to break downexactly what K-Service is, how it works, andwhether D2C brands should be using it right now. What we cover:— What K-Service is and why Klaviyo built it— How Customer Agent resolves tickets 24/7 across email, SMS, and WhatsAp
Most D2C brands have the same problem right now. Their paid media team is ready to scale.Meta is ready to spend.And there's not enough creative to feed it. The brands doing $100M+ have figured this out.They've built a content flywheel that generatesthousands of pieces of ad creative every single month— without expensive shoots, without celebrityinfluencers, and without paying flat rates upfront. In this episode I'm breaking down the full playbook.How TikTok Shop's creator affiliate platform letsyou find the creators that actually convert, and howto license that content to scale it everywhere.
Most brands are still doing things the old way.Traditional shoots. Long timelines. Big budgets.Testing one concept at a time. The brands using AI ad creative right now arelapping them — and the gap is only going to grow. I break down why AI ad creative is no longer optional forD2C brands and agencies in 2026. ✅ Elevate your brand's Email & SMS marketing: https://breadloaf.typeform.com/to/rotiGDm7?typeform-source=www.youtube.com🚀 Discuss your growth strategy: https://calendly.com/markmilutin/retention-audit-kick-off?month=2025-02
Being in person changes everything. Not just for getting client work done — but foractually growing the business. I break down why in-person time with your remoteteam is one of the highest ROI investments you canmake as an agency owner. If you're running a remote team and you haven't donea retreat yet — this one is for you. ✅ Elevate your brand's Email & SMS marketing: https://breadloaf.typeform.com/to/rotiGDm7?typeform-source=www.youtube.com🚀 Discuss your growth strategy: https://calendly.com/markmilutin/retention-audit-kick-off?month=2025-02
If you're a D2C founder or brand operator using Klaviyoto scale your ecommerce business — this one is for you. Bread Loaf is partnering with Klaviyo and Orita to hostthe biggest D2C operator event the West Coast has everseen — a private yacht event in San Diego on July 30th. No pitches. No slideshows. No keynotes.Just the top D2C founders and operators on the WestCoast connecting over drinks, great food, and a sunsetover San Diego Bay. Spots are almost full. Not everyone will get in. If you run a D2C brand and want to be in the room withthe people who are actually scaling, click the linkbelow
Most D2C brands think they know where their customersare coming from.They don't. I just got back from the 2026 Triple Whale Whaleys inLA and the biggest takeaway was this — if you're notusing a single source of truth for attribution, you'remaking budget decisions based on lies. Google is overclaiming. Meta is overclaiming. And thebrand is paying for it. In this episode I'm breaking down everything that cameout of the Whaleys this year, including the officiallaunch of MobyTwo — Triple Whale's next-generation AIanalyst that's changing how we run attribution and makemedia buying decisions across
I've been a Klaviyo partner for over 10 years.Platinum Elite status. On the 2026 Partner Advisory Board.I've seen this platform evolve more than almost anyone. Last week I attended Klaviyo Connect LA — their firstregional event series in years — and I'm breaking downeverything that came out of it. Klaviyo is making a big move. They're not just an emailplatform anymore. They're pushing hard to become thedefinitive B2C CRM — combining marketing, service, andanalytics into one ecosystem. In this episode I'm sharing my honest take on where theplatform is heading, what's actually worth payingattent
10 years ago I started Bread Loaf as a freelancer.No team. No office. No guarantee it would work. Today we're a seven-figure agency with a global team— and I'm just getting started. In this episode I'm sharing the unfiltered story ofwhat the last decade actually looked like. The earlyburnout. Losing equity I earned. Selling my truck tobuy out my co-founder. Launching a team in Ukraineweeks before COVID hit. And the faith that kept thisbusiness alive through all of it. I'm also laying out exactly where Bread Loaf is goingover the next 10 years — $100M, a venture arm, globalexpansion, and acquis
Most brands are obsessed with acquisition. Paid ads, influencers, SEO… chasing the next new customer. But what happens when retention becomes the main driver of growth? In this case study, I’m breaking down exactly how we helped a DTC apparel brand grow from 51% to over 82% of total revenue coming from retention marketing — while scaling the business 5X in the process. We’re talking email, SMS, push notifications, and direct mail — all working together as a single system. No theory. No fluff. Just real numbers, real timelines, and the exact playbook behind it. If you’re running an e-commerce b
Most founders think raising more money is the goal. It’s not. In this episode, I sit down with Chris to break down what’s actually happening inside CPG right now — from equity deals that don’t make sense anymore, to why smart brands are shifting toward new financing models to scale faster without giving everything away. Chris went from a college athlete with zero experience to building a 7-figure business, stacking advisory equity across dozens of startups, and eventually launching a VC fund investing in the future of health, wellness, and CPG. We get into: Why most founders misunderstand fund
Most marketers think their ads stopped working. They didn’t. You just lost the data. In this episode, we break down what’s actually happening behind the scenes — how privacy updates, tracking limitations, and browser changes are quietly killing attribution… and what that means for your revenue. If you’re running ecom, using Klaviyo, or relying on paid ads — this isn’t a “nice to know.”This is the reason your numbers don’t make sense anymore. We cover: Why tracking is getting worse every yearHow much data you’re actually missing (it’s a lot)Why your flows and ROAS are underreportingAnd who’s re
Emergency episode. Today — Thursday, April 16th — RFK Jr. and the FDA announced a major policy shift: 12 peptides are being pulled out of Category 2 and sent to PCAC for formal review starting in July. Names like BPC-157, Epitalon, GHK-Cu, MOTS-c, Semax, and Melanotan II are on the list. This isn't full approval — but it's the clearest signal yet that peptides are moving from the black market into regulated, legitimate clinical pathways. And for Telehealth marketers and operators, this changes everything. In this episode, Mark Milutin breaks down what the shift actually means for growth in the
Telehealth brands are scaling faster than ever — and getting kicked off Klaviyo faster than ever, too. In this episode, host Mark Militant breaks down the compliance gray area that's catching up with fast-growing telehealth startups: Klaviyo (and most ESPs) aren't HIPAA compliant, and once your revenue starts climbing, that target on your back gets a lot bigger. Inspired by a recent post from Daniel Budai about a peptide client's migration headache, Mark walks through why this matters, when it starts to matter, and the three enterprise-grade platforms he's recommending to clients right now: Br
Klaviyo just rolled out one of the most important features for ecommerce brands right now — and almost no one is talking about it. In this episode, I break down how Klaviyo’s new social integration (powered by their Gatsby acquisition) is changing the way we grow email and SMS lists in 2026. Instead of relying on popups and website traffic, you can now turn Instagram comments and DMs into high-quality subscribers — natively inside Klaviyo. This is a massive shift toward first-party data and a more scalable way to build retention channels without depending on paid traffic or unstable third-part
We just hosted one of the most fun and valuable events I’ve done in my entire career — a private ecommerce experience with Klaviyo during the Waste Management Open in Scottsdale. In this episode, I break down exactly how we put together “From the Inbox to the Tee Box,” why we focused on a small, high-level group of founders and operators, and what actually happens when you get the right people in the same room — without pitching, without pressure. This wasn’t about selling. It was about building real relationships with people who are actively scaling brands, running paid media, and pushing the
I just got back from one of the most valuable marketing events I’ve been to in a long time — a private telehealth conference in Miami hosted by some of the top direct response operators in the world. In this episode, I’m breaking down exactly what I saw, what I learned, and why I believe telehealth is becoming one of the biggest opportunities right now for ecommerce brands, media buyers, and anyone in the paid ads space. We’re talking real numbers, real systems, and what it actually takes to scale in this space — from acquisition and creatives to retention, compliance, and high-LTV subscriptio
Big update—Bread Loaf is now an official partner of Applovin Over the past few months, we’ve been deep in the platform testing their Axon product, and the results have been strong. In this episode, I break down what Applovin actually is, how programmatic advertising works, and why this channel is becoming a serious opportunity for ecommerce brands. We cover the difference between paid social, search, and programmatic, why programmatic has historically been a black box, and how Applovin is changing that with a conversion-focused approach built for DTC. If you’re a founder, operator, or media bu
We just got back from Expo West 2026, and this was easily one of the biggest years yet. In this episode, Sarah and I break down the top trends we’re seeing in health and wellness—from the explosion of creatine (especially for women) to the continued dominance of hydration, clean ingredients, and premium supplements. We also get into what brands are doing differently, where the CPG space is heading, and what opportunities we see over the next 12–24 months. If you’re building a brand, investing in wellness, or just want to stay ahead of where the industry is going, this is one you don’t want to
Mark breaks down a whirlwind 24-hour trip to Denver to meet with the Klaviyo team in person — and why he's never been more fired up about Breadloaf's 10-year partnership with the platform. He walks through the case studies they presented, including West Coast Saw (a Klaviyo referral now crushing it across full funnel), Key.co's migration from Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Axle Advanced's journey from MailChimp to Omnisend to Klaviyo — complete with a 91/100 deliverability score through the holiday season. Plus, a recap of dinner with Brad Miller from Yo Colorado, who just landed their Nation
In this episode, I sit down with fashion industry veteran Jon Levine, founder of Apparel Advisors, to break down what it really takes to build and scale a fashion brand today. Jonn has been in the apparel industry for decades—building a $40M brand, working with private equity-backed companies, and now advising emerging and established fashion brands. We talk about the biggest mistakes brands make with positioning, why so many companies struggle with identity, and how founders should actually think about brand strategy in today’s DTC landscape. We also dive into how AI is changing content creat
