Joe Marston 🚀

Co-Founder

Scaling e-commerce brands to 7 and 8 figures 🚀 | LU Entrepreneur of The Year Award Winner | Founder of The Leading TikTok Marketing Agency and an Award Winning Full Service Ecom Growth Agency.

3x Agency Founder.

We scale brands to 7 and 8 figures with creative, paid traffic, retention and funnel optimisation.

In 2024, having a great product is one thing…

But scaling a brand to £10M is a another.

You need a simple roadmap for profitably attracting and converting customers, at scale.

Because when you get that right…

- You stand out from competitors in the market
- You build a community around your brand
- You acquire customers at will (profitably)
- You turn customers into raving fans 

Giving you complete control over your growth.

We help our clients do exactly that with our proven system that guarantees growth.

1. Initial diagnostic to identify bottlenecks in your business
2. Developing a bespoke growth strategy for your brand
3. Creative ideation and production 
4. Unique UGC collaborations
5. Targeted advertising (Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, Snapchat)
6. Email marketing 

And having generated over £100M+ in sales across 200+ brands, we’ve know the ecommerce game inside out.

🚀 Mystery Shirt In A Box grew from £5K to £2.6M in just one year with our help
🚀 The Essence Vault is hitting 7 figure months in its second year since launch
🚀 Vintage Threads tripled their revenue working with us with a 6x ROAS
🚀 AIRfreshh went from 0% to 52% of revenue from email in 2 months!
🚀 Bene Culture saw their revenue grow 6x in 6 months with our help
🚀 The Oodie generated £2M on TikTok alone in their first year
🚀 UN:IK’s first quarter of 2023 was up 88% on 2022
🚀Grew Liam and Co. 500% year on year

Don’t put up with unpredictable, unsustainable or underwhelming growth any more.

If you want to see how we could help scale your brand, send me a DM saying ‘SOAR’

If you're not ready yet, I post daily educational content to give you all the secrets.

Founder

E-commerce growth agency offering bespoke services to online businesses looking to increase their sales and scale their brand.

2026 is a new game entirely - so we’ve distilled what’s actually working for 8–9 figure DTC brands into one huge resource...

📖 THE 2026 D2C PLAYBOOK: The New Rules of Meta, TikTok, AI & Performance Creative

The scroll is now personal.

Every feed is a unique journey and most brands aren’t building for it.

In 2026, you’re not just running ads. You’re feeding machine learning systems with creative, copy, and context, at speed.

The brands winning are the ones who’ve built signal-rich creative systems and message frameworks that adapt to intent.

We’ve pulled together the exact strategies, formats, and frameworks we’re using right now.

- What’s working
- What’s out
- What’s next

Want the download?

→ Like this post
→ Comment “2026” and we’ll send it your way

Building DTC brands to 8 and 9 figures | Founder of Soar With Us & For You Advertising | Triple Whale's "Agency of The Year" Winner

For one last time, we’re releasing our most requested resource of 2025: a folder of the top-performing brand funnel breakdowns of the year.

Their full stack: Paid strategy > Organic > Landing pages > Google ads > Email > Offers

8 of the best brands of 2025.

Here’s who’s inside:
– rhode skin
– MESHKI
– Loop Earplugs
– ALO
– IM8 Health
– REFY
– BRĒZ
– WONDERSKIN

If you want the folder, you know what to do.

Like the post.
Drop “FUNNEL” below.
We’ll send it your way.

Make sure we're connected so I can DM you

TikTok Shop went from an “experiment” to a $15bn GMV channel in the US in under two years, while UK revenue grew 180% YoY.

The question isn’t whether it works anymore. It’s whether your brand is actually set up to capture it.

We’ve seen enough TikTok Shop launches now to spot a clear pattern:

- a strong first week
- inconsistent creator output
- messy LIVE execution
- offers that spike once, then fade
- no repeatable way to scale GMV

That gap is exactly what this resource is designed to close.

We’ve put together a practical, start-to-finish TikTok Shop guide for established e-commerce brands that want to treat the channel as a growth engine, not a side experiment.

It’s built for teams doing £5M+, where execution, structure, and control actually matter.

Inside the guide, we break down:

- How to set up TikTok Shop foundations that support scale (not short-term spikes)
- The LIVE structures and technical setup brands use to keep viewers engaged and buying
- How to choose hero products and offers that drive consistent GMV
- The affiliate playbook: recruiting, incentivising, and sustaining creator output
- How to use LIVE coupons and flash deals without eroding brand value
- What top-performing TikTok Shop content has in common (hooks, proof, CTAs)
- How to train hosts that can actually sell on camera
- The metrics that matter during LIVE — and what to do when performance drops
- How TikTok Shop can double as a creative engine for paid and organic growth

It’s a plug-and-play blueprint based on what’s working in real accounts right now.

If you’re responsible for growth, ecom, or creative, this guide is designed to save you months of trial and error.

Want it?
Like this post
Comment “tiktok shop” and I’ll send it your way
(Make sure we’re connected so I can DM you)

The most productive thing I did this week was stare at a wall for 30 minutes.

Dr Andrew Huberman explains that your ability to focus is driven by the inputs you received in the hours before you sit down to work.

If you scroll Twitter, watch YouTube, or listen to podcasts between work blocks, your brain is still processing that stimulation when you try to focus.

He calls it "dopamine residue."

The fix is simple: boring breaks.

No phone. No music. No input.

Just silence.

I tested it for 3 days. The clarity was immediate.

I now build 10-30 mins of nothing before any writing, strategy, or deep work.

It sounds lazy. It's the opposite.

The less stimulated your break, the sharper your next work block.

This is one of many systems that helped me scale past 8 figures before 28.

(Yes, that's me staring at a wall. I don't actually do this - I normally meditate or sit in silence away from my desk. But I did sit there for 4 minutes just to get this shot, which might be worse so you should give this a like for effort) 

Want the full list of protocols that I’ve tested to 3x my productivity? 

Comment "productivity" and I'll send you 10 protocols that actually moved the needle.

This is what it looks like when persona-led growth is baked into the product, not just the marketing.

Kind patches are selling solutions to 10+ highly specific problems and doing it through 3,000+ live ads at once.

Each product?
→ Positioned to a different pain point.

Each creative?
→ Tailored to a specific outcome.

Each angle?
→ Built for a defined persona.

We’re talking:
• “Sunday scaries” sleep anxiety
• “Skin and hair” glow-ups
• “On-the-go” energy boosts
• “Late-night scrolling” focus drops
• Even “support with weight goals” and “hormonal balance” for women

They’re building mini-funnels that slot into people’s lives. It’s why their paid system scales without fatiguing.

We just broke the funnel down.

Mapped the personas, analysed the creative, and pulled the patterns.

Want the full teardown?
Like this post
Drop “persona” below and I’ll send you the link
(Make sure we’re connected so I can DM you)

Meta just rebuilt the algorithm. And if you're uploading the same 6 statics… you're invisible.

In 2026, scale doesn’t come from more budget.

It comes from creative variety that matches algorithm complexity.

Here’s what’s powering Meta’s backend now:

🔹 Andromeda – learns preference patterns from creative complexity → +8% ad quality

🔹 GEM – ingests billions of data points to personalise delivery → +5% conversions on Reels

🔹 Lattice – connects outcomes across placements + formats → +6% in ad conversions

🔹 Sequence Learning – understands what happens before the click → +3% conversion lift

None of this matters if you're still uploading templated UGC with 3 hooks and a voiceover.

Meta’s system doesn’t need more content. It needs more context.

That means:
- Persona-led narratives, not just “creators”
- Varied format logic (statics, scripts, carousels, reviews)
- Diverse outcomes (AOV, pLTV, incrementality, not just ROAS)

We call this Soulmate Theory: The right creative, for the right user, at the right moment.

The algo can find the match. But only if you give it something worth matching with.

Our process in 2026:
- Creative trees by persona → not linear iterations
- Weekly contextual inputs to train the algo
- Measured by incremental reach and hit rate, not CTR

This is what makes every part of the system work harder.

So if your Meta performance is flat, it’s not fatigue. It’s signal starvation.

Your next growth unlock isn't more budget. It's creative intelligence.

“We could’ve raised at £100million. We didn’t and I’m glad” - Dan Murray🧠

🔥 Just dropped a monster episode with Dan, co-founder of Heights, one of the UK’s most trusted wellness brands (and a brand we’ve been proud to partner with on creative).

Dan gets brutally honest on:

- How insomnia, gut issues and startup burnout led to Heights
- Why he turned down a £100M valuation and raised at £60M instead
- The real impact of celebrity collabs (every one of them a paying customer first)
- How they broke through 2 years of flat growth to hit £25M
- Why he believes in building the best product in the category, not the trendiest
- And how “The Smart Supplement” became Vitals with messaging that finally converts

If you’re building through the mud, chasing profitable scale, or trying to unlock a better narrative for your brand…

This one’s a masterclass in founder clarity, creative strategy, and performance at scale.

🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eWii754p

We helped Mindful Chef lift conversions by 39% and reduce blended CPA by 26% in 90 days - while maintaining spend

Mindful Chef came to us on a mission to scale efficient new customer acquisition and modernise its paid channel strategy. We needed to ensure that rising platform competition didn’t translate into rising acquisition costs.

The brief was clear: refresh channel strategy, bring AI-assisted optimisation into the mix, and allow creative strategy to do more of the legwork.

‍
👉 Meta
On Meta, we moved from manually stacked interests to letting creative drive discovery, integrating Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC) as the backbone of the strategy. A tightly run testing pipeline meant that each new concept had a fast path: validate in a dedicated test environment, then promote winners into core campaigns.

We layered in whitelisting to introduce fresh audiences and add trust signals, expanding reach while maintaining quality.


👉 Google
We streamlined Brand to remove cross-competition between Performance Max and Branded Search. Our bid strategy moved from target impression share to a Max Conversions test (versus manual CPC), unlocking volume and efficiency.

With stronger signal density established, we shifted to a focused target CPA approach, reducing acquisition costs on Google by 49% within the first 4 months of our partnership.


👉 Creative execution
Our first wave of creative translated Mindful Chef’s values into native-feel storytelling, mapped to key personas. We balanced high-production, “sceptic-to-convert” formats to tackle common objections around recipe boxes with UGC-led concepts that play into everyday tension points like back-to-school routine resets.

The result is a modular foundation spanning Problem-Aware to Product-Aware messaging, anchored in Mindful Chef’s USPs: health, convenience, and premium quality.

The Results:
✅ 67% META CONVERSIONS UP
✅ 26% BLENDED CPA DOWN
✅ 49% GOOGLE CPA DOWN

It feels like we're just getting started here, and we're incredibly excited at what's next for our partnership.

In under a year, IM8 Health crossed a $100M+ annualised run-rate and the underlying metrics actually improved as they grew.

With Danny Yeung making an appearance on the podcast this week, it felt like the right time to reshare our funnel breakdown to show what’s actually driving the numbers:

A few numbers worth paying attention to:

- $100M+ ARR pace in ~11 months
- 76% QoQ growth in the latest quarter
- 80%+ of first-time buyers convert to subscription
- $150 AOV, up materially post product expansion
- EBITDA losses now ~$2M per quarter, with breakeven in sight

We mapped IM8’s entire growth system end-to-end in a teardown a few months back, covering:

- Performance media across Meta + Google
- High-converting lander architecture
- Subscription-first funnel design
- Email + retention doing real revenue work
- Ambassador-led distribution
- Strong organic + owned community
- Bundled offers that lift AOV
- Clear, science-backed positioning (without killing brand)

If you want the full breakdown:

1️⃣ Like the post
2️⃣ Comment “IM8”
3️⃣ Make sure we’re connected so I can send it over

Here’s why most entrepreneurs never build anything that lasts:

They chase what’s easy, cheap, and fast, which means it’s easy to copy, and impossible to protect.

From day one at Soar, we asked ourselves:

“What would the best agency in the UK look like in 5 years and what do we need to do today to build that?”

At the time, it was just me and Olly.

Fewer than 5 staff.

No office.

No profit.

But that one mindset shift shaped everything.

We:
- Reinvested every penny instead of paying ourselves
- Hired top-tier people before we could “afford” them
- Built IP, frameworks, and internal systems from scratch
- Never cut corners, even when no one was watching

That’s what built the moat.

We weren’t trying to grow fast.

We were trying to become undeniable in one of the most competitive agency markets in the world.

And we’ve been scaling like that ever since.

Because while most people play the same game, we learned to play asymmetric warfare:

Win by doing what others can’t… or won’t.

If you’re building a DTC brand or service company, make decisions your future self will thank you for.

Short-term advantage is sugar. Moats take longer, but they’re the only way to win long-term.

I consumed 10+ hours of neuroscience-backed productivity content so you don't have to.

Here's the one thing that actually moved the needle:

Boring breaks.

Dr. Huberman explains that your focus isn't decided when you sit down to work. 
It's decided by what you consumed in the hours before.

He calls it "dopamine residue."

If you scroll Twitter, watch YouTube, or listen to podcasts between work blocks, your brain is still processing that stimulation when you try to focus.

The fix: No phone. No music. No input. Just silence before deep work.

I tested it for 7 days. The clarity was immediate.

This is 1 of 10 protocols I pulled from the research.

I put all 10 into a free PDF with step-by-step actions for each.

Comment "focus" and I'll send it to you.

In 2026, the most expensive mistake in paid media is making ads that look familiar.

If your ad account is full of:

– The same UGC setup
– The same pacing
– The same “hook → proof → CTA” flow

Meta doesn’t see 30 assets. It sees one idea, repeated. And that’s why scale stalls.

Because format and vehicle determine how Meta classifies your ads, not how many versions you upload.

Quick example (supplement brand):

UGC video
Creator talking to camera
“Nothing worked for my bloating until this”
Raw, selfie-style
Problem → Solution → Transformation

Static carousel
Clean, Reddit-style slides
“4 reasons your gut health is killing your energy”
Pain points, proof, soft product CTA

Same product.
Same promise.
Different format.
Different vehicle.

Which means:
– Different entity IDs
– Fresh reach
– New audiences unlocked

Format = the structure (UGC, static, high-prod, etc.)

Vehicle = the lens the story travels through (testimonial, expert, founder, education)

We recently changed just two things (format and vehicle) and Meta delivered the ad to a completely new audience overnight.

Nothing else moved.

If you want to win now, you need to mix formats and vehicles intentionally, not accidentally.

That’s how you unlock:
– New demand
– Better CPMs
– Scale that compounds instead of decays

Most brands don’t have a media problem.

They have a creative sameness problem.

We’ve audited hundreds of 8-9 figure ad accounts and the same problem shows up every single time.

Most DTC ad accounts we audit are built backwards are ignoring 3 key stages of the buyer journey:
- Problem unaware
- Problem aware
- Solution aware

All the budget is pointed at people who are already ready to buy.
- Offer overlays
- Product carousels
- Feature dumps
- “X% off today only”

And sure, it works, until it doesn’t.

You can’t scale if you only sell to people who already know you.

What we’re seeing in 7–8 figure audits:
- No context-setting
- No objection handling
- No storytelling or teaching
- No emotional runway

What to build instead:

You need creative that earns attention before it asks for action:
- Explainers: “Why most X don’t work”
- Sceptical UGC: “I didn’t think this would work because…”
- Founder POVs and breakdowns
- Category education or side-by-sides
- Hooks that sell the problem before the product

When you focus only on the most aware, you’re just pitching.
When you build for all 5 stages, you’re telling a story and scaling with depth.

The fastest way to kill Meta performance in 2026? Treat organic and paid as separate systems.

2026 is shaping up to be the year organic makes a comeback, not as a brand nice-to-have, but as an input into how Meta decides which paid ads deserve scale.

Meta’s GEM update (Meta’s new paid ads foundation model) quietly flips the question.

It’s not: “How do we make better ads?”

It’s: “How do we create better signals for paid delivery?”

GEM is Meta’s most advanced ads recommendation model, built at LLM scale to rank and sequence ads across Facebook and Instagram. Instead of judging ads in isolation, it evaluates entire user journeys and decides whether a brand’s creative is worth expanding to new people.

GEM is designed to make sense of:

- what people do over time (their sequence of actions, not just one click)
- the context of those actions (format, placement, device, surface)
- signals coming from across Meta’s ecosystem, not just Ads Manager

So if you’re still treating creative as “new angles” inside Ads Manager only, you’re training GEM (paid) with half the picture.

👉 The practical shift: organic shapes the interest signals GEM uses to decide whether your ads scale.

If people engage with your organic content (views, comments, saves, profile taps), you’re creating clearer interest patterns. GEM learns from those patterns when it decides:

- who to show your ads to next
- how aggressively to expand reach
- and whether your brand deserves cheaper, broader delivery

That’s why organic performance now compounds paid performance.

What to do this week

1. Run one creative strategy across paid + organic.
Same personas. Same objections. Same “why now?” triggers.
   
2. Build signal-saturated assets, not endless ad variations.
  Your goal isn’t 30 ads.
  Your goal is 5–10 distinct concepts that clearly signal who the product is for.
   
3. Make your creative org chart more important than your campaign structure.
   
  If you don’t have:
  - someone briefing
  - someone producing
  - someone tagging + learning
you’re not a performance team anymore. You’re just buying impressions.
  
The winners won’t be the best media buyers.

They’ll be the teams who can produce distinct, high-quality signals at speed across organic and paid and let GEM (paid) do what it’s designed to do.

Curious: are you still treating organic as a brand channel or are you using it as an acquisition input that determines whether paid can scale?

Olly Hudson unpacks the mechanics behind this shift, including GEM and UTIS, in a longer piece for anyone wanting the full picture https://lnkd.in/ej7TqbDF

Meta’s 2025 Andromeda update made one thing clear:

Creative and creator identity are now the targeting.

Meta isn’t relying on interests or lookalikes anymore. It’s matching ads to individual-level preferences in the moment.

Two implications matter:

1️⃣ Meta can support far more creative volume and match assets more precisely.

2️⃣ The brands that win are the ones engineering the strongest signals: relevance, engagement, and clean conversion journeys.

For brands spending multi-6 figures/month, growth rarely stalls because CPAs spike.

It stalls because first-time impression ratio (FTI) drifts down.

You spend more.
You hit the same people.
Top-of-funnel quietly dries up.

As a benchmark, we aim for 10–20% of impressions to be truly incremental each month.

So why do partnership ads win under Andromeda?

Across our accounts, partnership ads are taking a larger share of spend because they:

✅ Drive stronger engagement signals

✅ Feel more human and credible than brand-only ads

✅ Unlock new reach via identity, not just new angles

Same angle. Same format.

Run it through a creator, founder, or third-party identity and you open new pockets of reach without rebuilding the concept.

But, Partnership ads don’t fail at the ad level. They fail post-click.

If the landing page, pre-sell, or CRM doesn’t continue the same voice and story, the signal collapses.

Consistency is the multiplier.

If you’re scaling on Meta and not tracking FTI or incremental reach, you’re flying blind.

And if partnership ads aren’t a default part of your system yet, you'll get lost in the algorithm.

We tore up our entire creative process and rebuilt it for AI-first performance.

These 7 changes are now non-negotiable for scaling 8-figure brands.

2024–25 was about testing with AI.
2026 is about building with it.

Here’s what we’re shifting in our creative ops to scale real reach and win Meta’s AI game:

1. Creative diversity becomes non-negotiable
Meta’s new entity grouping system means if your ads look the same, they deliver the same. No matter how different the copy is.

💡70% of brands we audit are flooding their accounts with 100+ iterations...
But Meta sees them as 5 unique ads.

What we’re doing:
- Visual first, not copy first
- Distinct scenes, styles, formats
- Strategic volume > cosmetic tweaks

2. The AI Videographer becomes essential
We’ve added a Visual Prompt Engineer to every pod. A production multiplier.

🎯 Their remit:
- 10–30 ad variants per brief
- VO hooks, metaphors, transitions, environments
- Studio-level output without studio-level cost
It’s how we hit Meta’s volume bar without burning creative teams out.

3. AI = a second studio
We now run parallel briefs for human and AI production.
Same input, different output.

💡Where AI is outperforming:
- Product in environment
- Visual metaphors
- Explainers and low-prod demos
- Fast iterations on hooks + B-roll

4. Systems > tools
AI makes asset generation cheap.
So your edge isn’t generation, it’s organisation.

What we’re building:
✅ Centralised creative warehouse (transcribed, tagged, promptable)
✅ Context libraries for every format
✅ Performance data piped into feedback models
✅ Automated creative routing to avoid the graveyard problem

5. Feedback loops go automated
AI’s not just replacing creators, it’s coaching them.

We’re using tools that:
- Auto-critique sales calls and 1:1s
- Coach UGC creators on delivery
- QA edits before they hit the ad account
- Provide VO tone, clarity, and brevity suggestions in real-time

6. Video Gen hits mass market
Sora 2, Gemini V3.1, Nano Banana, Runway, they’re levelling up fast.

We’re already seeing:
- Seamless B-roll
- Abstract metaphors (balloons for stress, fire for urgency)
- “AI but not obvious” animations
- Scripted face swaps and founder clones

7. New workflows = new risks
Expect legal firewalls around:
- Creator likeness + consent
- Deepfake disclosures
- Brand safety for AI assets
- Authenticity disclaimers in ATL creative

We’re helping clients pre-empt with consent protocols, asset tagging, and workflow rules.

Bottom line for DTC brands in 2026

The brands that win will:
✅ Build an AI-native production function
✅ Invest in strategic visual diversity
✅ Systemise asset tagging, routing, and prompts
✅ Use AI for creation and performance coaching
✅ Blend AI + human storytelling at scale

The brands that lose will:
❌ Rely on text swaps and tired recuts
❌ Let GenAI files rot in Google Drive
❌ Skip strategic iteration
❌ Ignore how fast video is changing

I spent years thinking I had to figure everything out alone.

That’s what founders do, right?

Then I read Ray Dalio’s approach.

He didn’t build Bridgewater by being the smartest.
He built it by being the most willing to be wrong.

Here’s what he did differently:

He worked for what he wanted.
Not for what others wanted him to do.

He came up with independent opinions.
Then found the smartest people to destroy them.

He stress-tested everything.
Not to prove he was right.
To improve his odds of being right.

He stayed wary about overconfidence.
Because in markets, bad opinions cost everything.

He wrestled with his realities.
Reflected on consequences.
Learned and improved from the process.

Most founders confuse independence with isolation.

They think if they’re truly leading,
they should trust their gut and move alone.

But the best founders I know
don’t just think independently.

They think independently, then test brutally.

They create systems to challenge their own logic.
They seek out people who will prove them wrong.
They remain paranoid about blind spots.

Because you can do a huge amount of work
and still be wrong.

The market doesn’t care how hard you worked.

Independent thinking isn’t about being alone.
It’s about being right when everyone else is wrong.

And the only way to get there
is to test your assumptions with people
smart enough to prove you’re not.

Founder lesson:
Work for yourself.
Come up with independent opinions.
Stress-test them with people who will destroy them if they’re weak.
Be wary about being overconfident.
Reflect on consequences and constantly improve.

That’s how you win.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Q5 is the most important quarter (that isn’t a quarter) and this is how not to waste it.

Most brands go too seasonal or default to evergreen messaging that totally ignores how people actually feel post-Christmas.

The sharpest operators?

They lead with problem-aware creative that taps into the “reset” mindset and they build it to last beyond Q5 with smart hook variation.

- 50% goes to problem-aware + unaware top-of-funnel content
→ Tap into the “reset” mindset but build in hook variations so these ads outlive Q5.

- 20–30% goes to mid-funnel trust-builders
→ Objection handling. Social proof. Clear transformations. Especially important in health & wellness, where everyone’s shouting at once.

We break this all down in the 2026 Ecommerce Playbook: why now’s the best time to reach your hardest to reach customers and the biggest mistakes brands make post-Christmas.

Catch up now: https://lnkd.in/eTdgnNRH

$0 to $120M run rate in 11 months. The fastest-growing supplement brand in the world.

Backed by David Beckham.

Built on science.

IM8 Health is setting the pace for a new wave of consumer health brands, and Olly sat down with CEO Danny Yeung to unpack exactly how they’ve done it.

One of the sharpest operators we’ve ever spoken to.

Watch the full episode → https://lnkd.in/ewauU5yT

We couldn’t hire enough great creative strategists. So we built a system to create them.

🚨 We’re opening applications for the first ever UK Creative Strategist Incubator.

Not a junior role. Not a course.

This is a 9-month, Meta-backed, in-person training ground to fast-track high-curiosity talent into elite creative strategy role, inside one of the UK’s most advanced DTC growth teams.

Here’s why we built it:
– Most brands are hiring this role for the first time
– They don’t know what “great” looks like
– And the A-players are either locked into top agencies or demanding £90k+ salaries

We’ve trained 30+ strategists from scratch over the past 3 years.

Now we’re turning that process into a formal programme and opening it to the public for the first time.

📍 Based in our new London HQ
£100m+ in Meta ad spend in 2025 to learn from
Backed by Meta, including in-person sessions at Meta HQ
Real brands, real feedback loops, and a clear path to promotion

This is the MBA for performance creative

Only 5 spots.

Apply below if you're early in your career, obsessed with how creative drives revenue, and ready to put in the reps.

👉 https://lnkd.in/eHYYPFvy 

📺 Watch the episode where Olly and Loukas reveal all https://lnkd.in/ethEgsKj

Progress in 30 days or your money back 💸 Fluff-free fitness to help you drop fat and gain muscle 🤝

Hey, here's my journey in a nutshell...

2020 -started my dream university course 
(dropped out 10 weeks later)
2023 - restarted uni studying marketing
2023 - graduated university with a 1st class marketing degree
2023 - applied for a load of jobs I didn't want
2023 - ignored a load of advice and became a personal trainer instead
2024 - started posting about fitness on LinkedIn.
         - Grew to 30k followers, gained some clients, sold some guides 
2025 - Realised I don't love online fitness coaching. But I do love LinkedIn.

Currently - a 26 year old personal trainer just figuring out what to do. 
(While growing on LinkedIn)
(And aiming to make this my job) 
(So I can work from anywhere)

Say hi!!

Ellie Hines 🍋

My dream is to work from my laptop anywhere. 
These are 4 things in my way. 
+ how I’m gonna beat them:

That’s my goal:

- No office
- No fixed schedule
- Location + financial freedom

Here’s what needs working on: 

1. MINDSET 🧠

Literally controls everything else. The universe rewards audacity, not talent. (which is good). Mean’s we’re in more control than we act like. Practising positive thinking, visualisation and honestly just being mentally tough “this can’t get me” attitude. 

2. Time management ⌚

I say “I don’t have time” but my screen time disagrees. I NEED to be more intentional with my time. Gonna start by tracking how long I spend on XYZ and time blocking 

3. Procrastination 🥱

Lol it can be BAD. Working on it by: 1. Having max 3 tabs open, phone in a draw, easy to-do lists, realistic daily goals, pomodoro working, working out of the house

4. Skillset 💻

No one’s born an engineer? Or a doctor? Or a banker? They go and learn it! We’re in the best time EVER to exist to learn things. It’s there, just got to be proactive about it. Immerse myself into learning, improving, figuring it out. 

I have obstacles. We all do. 
the absolute best news?
They’re not permanent. 

You want something?
Get out of your own way!!

P.s - tips for any of the above would be welcomed with open arms!

Self employed - Learning LinkedIn in public

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“You’re so lucky to be self employed…”

Wait, do you mean the:

- being “cringe”
- putting yourself out there
- paying for your own mistakes
- starting @ 7am, finishing @8pm
- having friends/family openly doubt
- an actual never ending to - do list
- not earning money when you’re ill
- working while others switch off
- prepping for unstable income

Yeah self employment is gooood. 
I love it. 

But if it was genuinely just that amazing and that easy, 
literally everyone would be doing it.

Just saying.

What’s your biggest struggle with your job?

I worked 11 months to build my dream, 

then threw it away in month 12.

In January 2025 I set myself these 3 goals:

1. Build an online community 
2. Launch online fitness products 
3. Work full time with online clients 

So I did:

- I posted about fitness consistently
- I launched online fitness plans
- I built my online client base

For 11 months, I chased those goals. 
I showed up daily, I put work in. 

And on month 12 I realised it wasn’t for me. 

So I stopped. 
Gave my clients notice.
And rebranded my LinkedIn. 

Now I don’t know who needs to hear this,
but YOUR GOALS ARE ALLOWED TO CHANGE. 

What you want can change. 
What you enjoy can change.
What you prioritise can change. 
(Chances are, they will!!)

And you owe an explanation to absolutely no one :) 

It’s not a failure. 
It’s not a “waste”.
It’s not a loss. 
It’s life.

When have you changed your mind about something?

3 years ago this was my biggest fear. 

Now it’s one of my life goals…

Living as many lives as I can

I used to worry about not being able to figure out:

- which job I wanted forever
- where I wanted to live
- who I wanted to be

and then felt like a failure when I changed my mind.

Then last year I had a realisation:
I don’t need to choose just 1. 
And neither do you.  

We get 1 (hopefully) long life. 
Why on earth would we limit it to just 1 version?

I tried something and it “failed”?
> Great, I experienced it

I changed my mind on life?
> Why should I always want the same?

I took a detour?
> Predictable books are soo boring.

As a chronic over optimiser, 
this perspectives changed my life. 

Now finding 1 job, living in 1 place, knowing 1 set of people feels like suuuuch a waste. 

Same to you:

If you’ve changed your mind
If your path took a turn
If something’s failed
Embrace it.

You get one life.
Why not live all the versions you can?

I got called “lazy” for dropping out of uni. 

Then went back and got a first. 

2018 : Re-sat A-Levels for my dream course
2019 : Got accepted + started studying 

10 weeks in : Knew it wasn’t right, dropped out

- Got told I was lazy
- Told I need to try harder
- Asked if I just didn’t want to work

2020 : Changed uni’s and studied marketing

2023 : Graduated with a first class degree 

Then:

- Got a new qualification
- Got a job in a new field
- Became self employed
- Travelled Australia
- Ran a marathon
- Fully freelance

But noooo I’m lazy because *I* made a decision about *my* life, on something that *I* knew wasn’t for *me* and *I* didn’t enjoy. 

Let’s get 1 thing straight. 
There’s a HUGE difference between :

1. Quitting as in giving in 
2. Quitting as a controlled decision

And number 2 is a strength.

If you know something isn’t for you, GET OUT.
We don’t have enough time to waste.

I wasted a year learning LinkedIn the wrong way.

But this 1 thing changed everything:

I joined LinkedIn in 2022
Saw the potential. 
Wanted results myself.

So I started:

- Reading endless "how-to" posts
- Trying to mimic the big creators
- Watched hours of LinkedIn vids
- Researching the perfect strategy
- Making pages full of instructions

Spent months in research mode.
Posted occasionally. 
Minimal results.

Then I did this 1 thing instead:

Got involved ❗️

- Started posting 3x a week
- Posted about what I wanted
- Stopped copying + found my voice
- Connected with many creators
- Saw what did / didn't do well
- Adjusted as I went along

I still read and learnt 
But I priortiized action > endless research.
And that's what made the difference. 

Grew to 30k followers
Gained real engagement
Built a strong community
Sold my own guides. 

Here's the reality. 
For literally everything in the world ever….

You can read as much theory, listen to as much advice, make as many notes as we want but nothingggg beats just trying and getting involved. 

Theory gives direction.
Practice gives progress. 

P.s - drop 1 piece of advice for LinkedIn newbies (and me)

I thought uni was the golden ticket to success. 

Then I was 3 yrs in, 9k debt, no grad job…

Everyone’s doing A-Levels
> I’ll do A-Levels 

Everyone’s applying to uni
> Guess I’ll apply to uni 

Everyone’s hunting for a grad job
> Suppose that’s the next step

Next I was applying for roles
Going to interviews I didn’t want
To get a job I didn’t even care about

Because that’s what we do right? 

Then 2 months in:

- Switched the job tab to the feed one
- Saw loads of self employed creators
- Doing their own thing with freedom
- Opened my eyes to other options
- Wondered if I could do that too
- Stopped applying for jobs

That week I started my PT qualification.
6 months later I was self employed. 
2 years on, I still am. 

Do you know what’s scary.
How much we live on auto pilot.
Doing the next step, what’s expected.
Without stopping and actually thinking. 

What do we actually want?
What makes us genuinely happy?
What is the best way to get there?

It’s so easy to not even choose a path, 
and just inherit one instead. 

What about you?

Who’s success are you building for?

Yours, or the version that sounds good?

I’ve consumed/created on LI for 2 years.
You can have the best post ever, 
but it can still flop without this:

Good structure. 

LinkedIn’s a scrolling game. 
And people scroll fast.

You could have the most insightful, interesting, helpful content ever.
But if it’s unattractive to read, 
it doesn’t stand a chance. 

Make it easy to read:

1. Get rid of the fluff
2. Make lists follow a pattern
3. Break it up with white space
4. Remove unneeded filler words 
5. Avoid paragraphs/long sentences
6. Keep sentences punchy (8ish words)

The easier it is to consume, 
the more people consume it. 
Simple. 

Don’t set yourself up for failure. 

(This made a HUGE difference to how my content performed)

2025 me could never reach my 2026 goals.
A rebrand is on the cards. 
Here’s 6 areas I’m working on:

1. Mindset 🧠
    - Where EVERYTHING starts
    - Being intentional with thoughts
    - Working on emotional intelligence

2. Persona ✍🏻
    - Visualising who I want to be
    - Showing up and acting as *them*
    - Building confidence through proof

3. Environment 🤝🏻
    - Being aware of my surroundings
    - Choosing places where I work best
    - Way more aware of the effects of this

4. My circle 👭
    - Who do I want to surround myself with?
    - Make more of an effort to see them more
    - Make an effort to meet more of them people.

5. Life 🌎
    - Stopping living on autopilot
    - Make more time for experiences
    - Figure out what I actually want (not others)

6. Work ethic 💻
    - When I lock in I lock IN
    - But first I will procrastinate
    - Finding methods to control this

Questionably the most important point, 

Weekly/monthly checks to make sure I’m actually following through with what I said.

2026 is the year I properly take control of my life. 

Any other areas I should look at?

I’ve been self employed for 15 months.
This is one of the biggest things I’ve learnt. 
(It saved my buisness)

Take advice with a pinch of salt.

People have said to me:

“Don’t bother with posters/social media”
 ⚡️ got most my clients from posters and social media

“You need to charge higher prices” 
⚡️lower prices helped me gain traction and momentum

“Don’t work for free” 
 ⚡️over 80% of taster sessions converted to paying clients

“It only works if you niche down” 
⚡️might work when you’ve built up a base but I just wanted numbers and experience

Advice can be great but,
Just because you’re hearing it,
doesn’t mean you should follow it.

Here’s why:

- you might do it better
- you might do it differently
- you might have different goals

P.s - especially if it’s coming from someone who isn’t where you want to get

I listen to a podcast on the way to work daily. 

Here’s my #1 takeaway:

Last year I wanted to stimulate my brain more.
So switched music > podcasts
Founders, CEO’s, comedians, authors etc.

The biggest take away:

📢 A do-er will always beat a thinker 📢

Every single time. 
And as a baddd overthinker. It hit HARD. 

My word for 2026 is ACTION.

I think a lot.
I plan a lot.
I vision a lot.

But I don’t *do* enough. 
And that’s what’s changing this year.

In work, pleasure, growth, LIFE
I want my actions louder than my intentions.

Goes right = you know what works 
Goes wrong = you know what doesn’t

Sometimes over thinking is the most unproductive thing you could do 

What’s one thing that needs less thought and more action?

I’ve been on LinkedIn for 3 years. 
This year I’ll make the most of it.
With these 5 things:

1. Experimenting

➡️ The fastest and most direct way to learn what works best. Doing it wrong is actually a long term shortcut 

2. Utilising DM’s 

➡️ I’ve NEGLECTED my DM’s for forever but that’s where the best connections are made so see you there

3. Share my journey

➡️ I’m not an expert (yet). But too often we wait to be one before thinking we’re ‘important’ enough to post. Instead, my learning journey  is fueling my content. 

4. Meet more people IRL 

➡️ LinkedIn has to be one of the best ways of connecting with likeminded people as adults?? Who’s in Manchester and fancies a coffee?

5. Play the long game 

➡️ Instead of micro focusing on 1 week, even 1 month, I’ll be focusing on the whole year. It’s not all gonna fall into place in 4 days.

A bonus - write everyday. 

2026 is the year I’m going innn on LinkedIn. 

What about you?

How are you using LI this year?

10 months ago I ran 35km 
Cried 3 times 
But it rewired my brain forever:

December 2024 :
- Signed up for Manchester Marathon
- As a newbie runner seeking a challenge
    
March 2025:
- Deep into marathon training
- 35km deep to be precise
- Took me +4 hours
- Just with myself
- I cried 3 times
- 2 phone calls
- 0 motivation
- 0 positivity
- Pain CAVE.

But I knew I had to tick it off to do the full thing.

One of the hardest mental and physical things I’ve ever done honestly. 

Harder than the actual marathon.
But I did it. 

And it taught me this:
I can do it. 

When it’s slow.
When it’s hard.
When I’m tired. 
When it’s lonely.
With no motivation.
When it feels impossible. 

I can still do it. 
I did it. 

I didn’t come away from that run with motivation.
I came away with evidence.

And if you’re waiting to *believe* you can do something,
maybe what you actually need is proof.

Go get it.

Not knowing what to post is a #1 struggle on LinkedIn. It’s been mine too.
Then I asked myself these 4 questions:

Context:

- I posted fitness content for over a year
- Chose my content pillars, wrote easily
- Changed my whole LinkedIn identity
- Been struggling to know what to write

Here’s 4 categories I’ve dug into to help:

1. Direction ➡️
    - What do I want out of LI in the next 6-12 months?
    - What’s my main goal on LinkedIn?
    - Monetisation, job prospects, exposure?

2. Identity 😀
    - What do I want to be known for?
    - How do I want to come across?
    - If someone described my page, what would I want them to say?

3. Audience 💬
    - Who do I want reading my posts?
    - What stage of the journey are they on?
    - What do I want to make them feel?

4. Proof 🧾
    - What relevant experiences do I have?
    - What am I learning/testing right now?
    - What can I show, not just say?

SO many people drop LinkedIn before giving it a chance because there is 
1. no structure 2. no consistency 3. no reason to what they post.

My advice?

Use a bit of time to build a simple strategy.
It makes it easier and 10x more enjoyable.

Any more suggestions?

This is THE best thing I did for building my business:

Let go of how I thought it would pan out.

Before starting a business, I thought it would go something like this:

- Start the job
- Build an audience
- Do some PT tasters
- Gain in person clients
- Have top organisation
- Build some fitness guides
- Sell them on LinkedIn / IG
- Build a pretty solid income
- Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat

But it’s gone more like this:

- Massive growths and loses in profit
- Not enjoying the parts I expected
- Loving parts I thought I’d hate
- The least linear growth ever
- Doubting if it’s what I want
- Getting used to rejection
- 

We all have a version we imagine in our head before we do it.

And then it’s often:

- Slower than we expected
- Harder than we expected
- Longer than we expected

It doesn’t mean we’re failing.
It doesn’t mean we’re doing it wrong.

It just means it’s different to how we imagined, before we did it, before we had any experience.

And let’s be real, that’s not that surprising.

BTW : you can be ambitious af, and still have days/weekends that look like this:

You don’t have to be chained to a desk, 
working every waking hour 
caffeinated to the eyeballs
to be chasing big goals. 

Go outside
Look at grass
Read a fiction 
Watch a show 
See your mates
Cook new things 
+ chase your goals!!

What you doing today?

I gained 35k+ followers, 100x engagement, and sold guides on LinkedIn by doing these 5 things:

For context:

2023 : posted randomly whilst in Uni
2024 : posted about fitness - grew to 30k+

Here’s what changed :

1. Posting about something I’m actually passionate about ⚡️

- I went from posting about my degree subject because I thought I had to, to a subject I actually cared about and had passion for. Makes it 100x more enjoyable (and easier)

2. Built a *simple* strategy 💭

- Asked myself who do I want to be known to? What for? What do I want to gain? Then created content around *that.* Doesn’t have to be complicated but a little structure HELPS.

3. Found MY voice 📢

- Huge one. I stopped trying to imitate other people and found my own style and tone. People aren’t gonna remember you if you’re a carbon copy of someone else. Plus it feels fake. P.s - this didn’t come instantly. 

4. Balanced authority and relatability ⚖️

- “You have to be authorative” “People want relatability”. How about both? Educational content helps build reputation, and relatable content helps make meaningful connections + built trust

5. Focusing on progress > perfection 📈

- Cliche but true. In 2022 if a post didn’t do well, I wouldn’t post for a week. Now we just get on with it. Every daily post is a chance to grow, and it really shouldn’t be deep enough to stop you

Bonus one -  Patience. LinkedIn is a loooong game. 

Remember:

- disattach from the numbers
- practice and experiment
- and stay consistent!!

LinkedIn has SO much to offer
and pro’s outweigh any “cons”.

taplio

The Battle

Joe Marston 🚀

Ellie Hines 🍋

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taplio

The Battle

Joe Marston 🚀

Ellie Hines 🍋

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Joe Marston 🚀's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreJoe Marston 🚀's LinkedIn Performance