Jordan West

E-Com Investor & Podcast Host | Multiple Exits| Avid Golfer, Biker + Hiker | Dad Of 3 | CEO + CMO | Mastermind Host

My Journey 
When I was 23 I decided to buy a Taco Del Mar restaurant... I knew I had made a huge mistake at 2pm the first day when only 3 customers had walked in... (and two of them were my parents haha) 
For 5 years I worked hard to grow sales every way I could think of and in the end, tripled our revenue which still didn't seem to matter on the profit side. (I lost a lot of money 💰)

The one thing that I seemed to be the best at in the restaurant endeavor was marketing and getting people in the door. 

Fast forward to 2014 when my wonderful wife Carmen (definitely my better half) started a modest baby clothing line and was selling at craft markets. 

I asked if I could test running a few ads on Facebook... and the rest is history. I learned every up-and-coming strategy and tactic and helped grow the small start-up to a multi-million dollar company and still growing!

Since then we have acquired multiple DTC brands and have built an agency (upGrowth Commerce) to service our brands as well as others who are in a similar situation to us!

In 2019 we started the podcast "secrets to scaling your e-commerce brand" which is now in the top 50 business/marketing podcasts in multiple countries including Canada and the United States.

I love connecting with people, so please connect. (I do have a no a**holes policy though, so don't connect if that's you.) 

I talk all about scaling businesses using paid ads on “Secrets To Scaling Your E-Commerce Brand”.

Chief Executive Officer

We just helped a brand pass $3,000,000/month on TikTok Shop LAST MONTH and it wasn’t luck!!

We’re now ranked as one of the Top 5 TikTok agencies in North America at Social Commerce Club!!

What I've seen is... 

Most brands have no clue what the investment into TikTok Shop ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE!

They guess when to spend, when to restock, or when they’ll hit break-even.

We don’t guess.

We plan every move using a forecasting system we built in-house. 

It shows exactly:

 📈 When to scale and how fast
 💸 When you’ll hit break-even
 📊 How much to invest in creators, inventory, and ad spend
 ⚙️ When to pull back or double down

That system is the same one we use daily to manage multi-million-dollar TikTok Shop brands.

And now, we’ve decided to make it available to other operators.

If you want the same forecasting tool we use to plan, invest, and measure scale... comment “Forecast” and I’ll DM it to you. 

(must be connected)

Let me know what you think!

Another random day 
Another random screenshot from TikTok Shop at Social Commerce Club 

This is ALL incremental as fas as we can measure!

PLUS HALO 

Once you nail this channel things het WILD 

But... 

You really have to invest in the beginning. 

It's not facebook ads 

The bar to breaking even is higher thann you think. 

I just built a forecasting tool that keeps EVERY SINGLE NUMBER in mind. 

Send me a DM and I'll connect you with my team to walk you through it for your brand to see where break-even happens on platform.

I want to be clear 🫠 
These daily random TikTok Shop GMV MAX screenshots that I share are from ADS driven results ONLY 🤩 

This doesn't include organic affiliate driven content 

I feel like the guy in 2015 trying to tell his friends that Facebook ads work (I was that guy lol) while the majoirty of people were waiting...

I realize that if you haven't gone HARD on TikTok shop you won't be able to to before BFCM 

But... 2026 will be the BIGGEST SHIFT into social commerce that we have seen. 

As AI content becomes more prevalent, HUMANS will crave human connection 

Which is why I believe that LIVE SHOPPING + Afilliate driven content will be the two biggest levers any brand can add to their arsensal. 

So what is my recomendation for bransnds in 2026? 

1. Talk to my team NOW to get in line at Social Commerce Club
2. If you can't afford us... I'll send you recommendations for cheaper agencies
3. If you're just trying to dip your toes in the water of TikTok shop join my skool group here https://lnkd.in/gMAu-gDZ

Me: “If you had one controversial take on what brands get wrong on TikTok Shop… what is it?”
Zohaib Rattu 🤳: “Over-subsidizing their products.”

Me: “Not could be cannibalizing your other channels… you ARE.”

That moment hit hard!!!

Because here’s what a lot of brands are doing right now:

They take their main hero SKU
Sell it full price everywhere else

Then make it stupid cheap on TikTok Shop “just to get sales” + get momentum

And then they’re shocked when

Amazon flatlines

TOTAL MER blows up

Retail partners start asking questions
TikTok didn’t break your unit economics.

You did!!

The way I think about TikTok Shop:

It’s the only channel that will pay you (even breakeven) to give you insane impressions.
If you even make $1 profit there

And you’re getting a $30 CPM worth of awareness for free
You’re winning.

The problem...

Most brands aren’t tracking the halo.
So they see “low-margin TikTok orders”

Instead of “cheap reach that lifts Amazon / Shopify / retail”.

If I were rebuilding your TikTok Shop strategy from scratch, I’d do 3 things:

1️⃣ Protect the hero
 
No more “fire sale” pricing on the SKU that drives your brand.
 Use:

 – Smaller bundles
 – Trial sizes
 – TikTok-only variants
 
And keep price architecture consistent across channels.

2️⃣ Define your blended model
 
Decide up front:
 – What MER are you happy with including TikTok
 – How you’ll measure halo (Amazon, Shopify, retail lift)
 – What CPM you’re effectively getting from organic + creator content

If TikTok is breakeven but blended MER is up and CPMs are down… keep going.

3️⃣ Make TikTok the awareness engine, not the profit center (at first) 
 
Creators get you reach.
 
Reach fills retargeting pools on Meta, Google, Amazon, retail.
 
Your job is to:

 – Seed a ton of creators
 – Let TikTok Shop break even
 – Harvest the profit off-platform

TikTok Shop doesn’t have to be “super profitable”. (at first)

It has to be super scalable.

Curious where you’re at...
 Are you still discounting your main hero SKU heavily on TikTok Shop? 

Or have you already pulled that back?

You’re talented?
Great! Let me tell you what matters more… 
And why talent is the thing that I look for last 👇👇 

Are you complainer? 
Are you a victim?
Do you not have a growth mindset?
Can you not take criticism?
Do you have a fragile Ego? 
Is it everything everybody else’s fault?


 if you answered, yes to any of the above, I don’t want you in any of my organizations.

If you are thinking to yourself, oh man, I have these people in my organization… do everything in your power to first coach and correct, but most likely you need to remove them. 

It’s incredible What will happen when you do! 

Anyone else with me?

Big ask LinkedIn 🙏
We’re looking for a head of live shopping at Social Commerce Club 

Will be insane growth over the next 5 years 

Maybe one of the biggest ops that I can think of TBH 

Will be sooooooo much work

But you will help us build something HUGE! 

NA based only 

Message me if you think it’s you. 

This role will report directly to the CEO btw

Yes yes yes 

We have been thinking more about what this role looks like from the agency perspective.

How we train fast

Who’s base knowledge makes them a good fit etc. 

And I will tell you what I know. 

99% of people don’t get it. 

They haven’t had the paradigm shift yet. 

It’s a new muscle 

It’s a new way of thinking. 

Working with creators is HARD! 

They don’t perform like ads do 😆

But this role is really big in terms of impact and responsibility 

Seems like more brands are catching on. 

But tbh I still feel like guy in 2014 telling their friends to invest as much as they can into Facebook ads and they laugh at me 🤷‍♂️🫤 when it comes to how big social commerce really is going to be!

Here’s how I look at this…

At Social Commerce Club we… 

1. take the highest performing tiktok shop content

2. Offer a percentage of ad spend (capped) to the creator to use their content on Meta 

3. Print brands cash with these ads omnichannel 

This is the 2025 playbook imo

Yesterday I was driving with my son who’s 6… 

We saw a bunch of billboards and he was asking about the messages on each

It reminded me of the classic Tim Ferris question… so I decided to ask him

“If you could put one message on a Billboard, what would it be?” 

He took about 3 seconds and said 

“My message would be “I love you””

This kid gets it ❤️

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Stuart Briscar

For the past 20 years I’ve worked with 62 CEOs and business owners on marketing strategy. That’s given me a front-row seat on how to think strategically when building organizations.

A lot of my work has been about helping teams handle change and keep moving. I’ve led restructures, trained people on new standards, and run regular 1:1s with managers to find and clear roadblocks. I’ve also worked with marketing and creative teams to tighten how they communicate so projects stay on track.

I’ve trained specialists to step into account strategy, developed team playbooks and standards to build consistency, and set a simple leadership rhythm with weekly manager check-ins and monthly growth sessions to keep priorities clear. I also built a recognition program that made people’s contributions visible and encouraged participation. Across many roles, I’ve acted as the bridge between strategy and execution.

During a merger, I temporarily managed both teams, aligned them on shared processes, and helped stabilize delivery while maintaining performance. 

At my church, I restructured the staff onboarding process that was spread across five people and reduced it to two, which made everything more consistent. I also created the Leadership Development Plan for our church and trained staff through workshops and 1:1s so everyone used the same language and framework to develop volunteers at every level.

My background in performance psychology and my doctoral work in strategic leadership help me connect how people think with how organizations grow.

Head of Marketing

Blue Burst Media a full-service digital marketing agency that is dedicated to helping businesses achieve their growth goals. Blue Burst Media has over 15 years of experience working with businesses across a variety of industries and a track record of delivering excellent results for our clients.

Our signature service, Digital Growth Teams, offers businesses a cost-effective way to access top marketing talent. Our dedicated teams are made up of senior-level professionals who are committed to helping businesses achieve their marketing goals and drive growth. With Digital Growth Teams, businesses can enjoy the benefits of a dedicated in-house marketing team without the cost and commitment of hiring one.

🚀 BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL
Take Stuart to Work Day

Try before you hire. 🔍

For one day I’ll step into your world and help solve a real problem:
🧠 marketing confusion
⚡ leadership tension
🧩 team dynamics that feel stuck
⏳ decisions that keep getting delayed

No interview. No pitch deck. Just real work.

What’s included:
🕘 90 minute strategy session
📝 written roadmap afterward
📆 follow up check in a week later

Only 2 Black Friday spots.
After that this offer disappears. ❌

Why?
Because the best way to show what I do is to actually do it.

If you want one of the two spots, DM me with your biggest challenge. 

Let’s get unstuck. 🔓

Stuart Briscar, MS

Marketing leader helping brands scale efficiently and profitably

People have been saying SEO is dead for more than a decade.

It isn't dead. Not then. Not now.

And AI hasn't killed it either.

Yes... it looks different today. You cannot stuff keywords anymore or hide them in white text on a white background. Yes, LLMs can search websites and recommend products. 

But SEO is still alive and working for those who respect it.

LLMs still search the web. Search engines still reward relevance.

Good content still matters.
Backlinks still matter.
Authority still matters.

Stop burying SEO before it takes its last breath. It is not a ghost. It just evolved.

SEO survives because the internet is still built on language. That is something AI does not replace. It magnifies it. The real question is how to write for both humans and machines without losing the human voice.

If you are a sub $10M dtc ecom brand, here's how you scale 50%+ in 2026...

1) have a great product 
2) build a community 
3) target 4x MER 
4) partner with creators to be your creative engine
5) Let Meta be your acquisition engine, TOF on TikTok and YouTube Ads, and Google for the cleanup
6) lock in retention 
7) real customer service
8) have flexible ad budgets
9) Put hero products on Amazon

At $7M...

10) Add in programmatic
11) Add Post Pilot into the mix
12) Upgrade attribution

What else should be on this list?

Look closely at the image below. 

At first you just see an eye. But look again and you’ll notice something else… a maze.

That maze exists in all of us.

Whether we realise it or not, our brains constantly take shortcuts. 

Psychologists call them cognitive biases and every consumer is influenced by them every day. 

We like to believe we make rational choices, yet we often react faster than we reflect.

Dan Ariely says humans are predictably irrational, and the more you look at the psychology, the easier it is to agree with that concept.

Here are some of the ways we are influenced, whether we realize it or not...

→ Loss Aversion
Losing hurts twice as much as winning feels good. That’s why “Don’t miss out” often outperforms “Save today.”

→ Scarcity & FOMO
When something is limited, desire increases. Countdown timers and “Only 3 left” aren’t just tactics, they speak directly to a primal survival system.

→ Anchoring
The first number we see quietly defines what “expensive” or “cheap” means. A high original price makes the discount feel bigger than it really is.

→ Social Proof
We copy others when we’re not sure what to do. Reviews, UGC, and “10,000 people have already joined” tap into our herd wiring.

→ Reciprocity
Give first. Receive later. Free trials and samples activate an ancient rule of social fairness.

For myself, there have been way too many times I purchased something simply because it had over 1,000 5-star reviews. 

Is marketing about manipulation, or is it about understanding the triggers already deep inside of each of us, getting us to do what we already want to do?

Last year, I got to do a workshop with one of my favorite varsity volleyball teams (Go Hoyas!)

There are a lot of misconceptions with it comes to Mental Toughness in sports. I address those, as well as routines, leadership, and finding joy in sports

https://lnkd.in/evnCQ5nu

Open video: Unlocking Mental Toughness: Volleyball Workshop with Stuart Briscar on youtu.be

Unlocking Mental Toughness: Volleyball Workshop with Stuart Briscar

I think this is one of Firehouse Subs better marketing strategies.

I personally love their "Name of the Day" contest, but never in history have they picked "Stuart" 😂 

But... because I now have an increased incentive to purchase, I am actually going to order 3 times in the month of November.

Yes, I am spending more to get more... but I was going to eat lunch anyway.

#NotASponsoredAd #ButWishItWas

Most companies aren't hiring for a culture fit, they're hiring for a vibe fit

They are checking for chemistry when they should be checking for character

They are checking for personality when they should be checking for values

But that's the wrong way to hire for a culture fit.

A person's personality may look great when things are easy, but who are they under pressure?

In your next interview, ask these questions to uncover a person's values and character:

"Think of a time something didn’t go according to plan. How did you adjust?"

"When have you had to make a decision that wasn’t popular? What guided your thinking?"

"What’s a project you’d do differently if you could go back? What did it teach you?"

👉  Leaders, how are you checking for culture fit before you ever hire someone?

90% of the InMail I get is these secret "franchise opportunities"

What in the world is this?

And it's always from a middle-person

The funniest thing ChatGPT has added lately

Industry specific experience in DTC Ecom is overrated.

This is coming from someone who has owned marketing across 12 different industries... beauty, fashion, wellness, home goods, and everything in between.

What I have seen over and over is that the fundamentals always win. 

If you understand the ICP on a deep level
If the product is strong
If the messaging speaks clearly to real desires and real problems... you can adapt to almost any vertical.

The strategies, the acquisition structures, the creative thinking, the testing methodology, and the customer psychology all transfer.

Every industry may have its nuances, but the core levers do not change. 

If you can build trust and guide buying decision, the industry is basically irrelevant.

Specialization might help, but strong fundamentals scale everywhere.

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The Battle

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Stuart Briscar

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Engagements

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