6 Real Lessons from a 9-Figure DTC Operator

Welcome to this issue of The DTC Insider newsletter. 👋

We strive to deliver the latest growth marketing news and trends in the DTC space straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

Do you enjoy reading this newsletter? It'd mean the world to me if you could leave a review here.

Let's dive in!

Topics we'll cover today:
💠 6 Real Lessons from a 9-Figure DTC Operator
💠 New! Meta’s Value Rules
💠 How Black Rifle Coffee Hit $400M

Every week, I talk to 7, 8, and 9-figure DTC brands, and the challenges listed below come up again and again.

I’m building a new strategic resource to help solve them, and your input will shape what goes into it.

This is built for you, so I’d love your quick vote below. Thanks in advance!

6 Real Lessons from a 9-Figure DTC Operator

Last week, I had the honor of interviewing Curtis Matsko, founder & CEO of Portland Leather Goods.

He didn’t build a 9-figure brand by following the playbook.

In fact, he burned it.

Here’s what stood out from our chat 👇

🎯 1. There’s No One Thing

I asked Curtis the classic “what’s the #1 reason you made it?” and he hit me back with:

“Brian, the question itself is the problem.”

Boom.

He called out the mix that matters:
→ Frantic work ethic + 10-year patience
→ Product obsession + constant evolution
→ Optimism + brutal honesty
→ Kindness + accountability 

His growth wasn’t linear. But his adaptability was constant. 

My take:

This is a classic mistake I see brands make... 

They expect a huge impact from 1 single move.
And typically, that's not how consistent growth is achieved. 

🧠 2. Strategy Isn’t Static

“What got you here won’t get you there” isn’t just a cliché...
It’s what crushed his competitors.

Curtis watched admired brands go bankrupt because they kept doing what used to work. 

Meanwhile, his team was asking, “What’s next?” even when things were working.

If your last “win” is your current playbook, you’re already behind. 

My take:

2 things here:

1️⃣ Everything changes (algorithms, customer needs, economy), so why do we assume that what used to work will work now?

2️⃣ Your business evolves, so thinking you'll need the same to go from $0-$1M and $5M-$10M is not realistic. 

🧨 3. People Matter More Than Resumes

His hiring filter?

“Do I like this person?"
"Will they get better?”
"Do they have a chip on their shoulder?"

He’s not interested in broken people or yes-people.

He wants folks who challenge him, level up fast, and eventually become better than him at what they do.

📦 4. Why He Took Manufacturing In-House (And Built a 1,100+ Person Factory) 

Curtis tried outsourcing. It didn’t work.

Why?

Because algorithms don’t wait 4-6 months for your next batch.

To scale at the pace of demand, he needed:
→ Speed
→ Flexibility
→ Full control over SKUs, colors, timing

So he built the largest leather bag manufacturer in North America. 

Insane? Maybe.
Necessary? 100%. 

💰 5. Retention > Acquisition

While everyone is busy pouring money into CAC...

He’s obsessed with:
→ New variants for repeat buyers (1900+ last year, 3000+ this year!)
→ Constantly reducing the cost per unit without sacrificing quality
→ Low return rates

That’s the play.

My take:

Both are important, of course. However, since I have memory...almost EVERYONE cares about getting new customers.

Existing customers? They have been neglected for a long time.

And that's catching up on brands now. 

📉 6. The Agency Rant You’ve Been Waiting For

This part was gold.

Curtis doesn’t hate agencies.
He just...doesn’t trust most of them. 

“The word agency became a bad word because most don’t live up to their promises.”

But then he flips it:

“Most brands blaming agencies? The business is broken. You want an agency to fix your unit economics, logistics, and retention? Come on.”

He nails it.

Agencies can be great...only if the business is worth working with. And if the agency delivers.

Even though he has a sizable in-house marketing team, he uses them for high-leverage, specific things.

🧪 BONUS: What Metrics Actually Matter?

No silver bullet here either.

He watches everything:
→ Shopify fees
→ Return rates
→ Retention
→ CAC/LTV
→ EBITDA 

All of it matters. Why?

“Every dollar saved or earned is still a dollar. That’s the win.” 

My take:

Now more than ever, as he said on the episode, brands should be efficient.

This means measuring everything and looking for improvements, even if it's by 1%.

That’s exactly why we created the Journey Overlay Snapshot.
It's for brands that want to be efficient, not just “do more.” 

It's not a paid ads audit.
It's not an email marketing audit.

It's an analysis that uncovers 3 key revenue leaks due to misalignments between your customer journey and your marketing, suggesting a tactical improvement for each one.

We've already done it for multiple brands already, and let’s just say... jaws were dropped.  

Remember, it’s all about getting:
One insight.
One change.
One percent better.

That’s how real growth happens.

Want to get yours?
Book it at no cost here.

Promote your Business to 11,000+ People in the DTC Space

The DTC Insider (newsletter + podcast) reaches a highly qualified audience of DTC founders, directors, and marketers. Learn more about the sponsorship opportunities we offer for your business.

New! Meta’s Value Rules

How many times have people said: "you should stop treating every customer the same"?

Meta’s Value Rules feature helps you do just that.

It basically lets you tell Meta: “Hey, THIS segment of people is worth more to me. Go get me more of them.”

Here’s how it works:

With Value Rules, you can:
👉 Prioritize higher-value segments (think: high LTV or high AOV)
👉 Adjust bids based on what each audience is actually worth to you
👉 Consolidate campaigns while still pushing Meta in the right direction 

Let me give you a scenario:

Let’s say your data tells you this:
👨‍💼 Men aged 25-44 have a 60% higher LTV
👩 Women in the same age group have a 20% lower LTV

Instead of treating both the same, you can set a value rule to:
✅ Increase bids by 60% for men 25-44
✅ Decrease bids by 20% for women 25-44

Everyone else? They get the base bid.

Simple.

Now, a couple of things to keep in mind:

→ Rule Order Matters: If your audience overlaps across rules, Meta will apply the first one that matches. So be strategic when you stack them.

→ More Conversions ≠ Lower CPA: Since you’re prioritizing better customers, you might see an increase in overall CPA. But your revenue and margins could still grow, which is the whole point.

⚠️ Heads up: This is NOT for everyone.

If your data is messy or you don’t have enough volume to segment properly, this may backfire.

But for brands who do know their numbers and do want to scale smarter, you should probably test it.

How to get started with Value Rules:

You can find them at the Advertising Settings menu option.

When you click on it, you'll see the following screen:

Once you click on "Create a rule set", you'll see this:

Available audience criteria are:

You can combine up to 2 of them (ie. Age and Gender).

Finally, as I said above, rule order matters:

I hope it was helpful.

--
Follow me on LinkedIn for more growth marketing content in the e-commerce space.

How Black Rifle Coffee Hit $400M

This company does $400M in annual revenue. 🤯

Think you can learn a thing or two from them?

(I certainly did!)

In this episode of The DTC Insider podcast, Brian Roisentul sat down with Donny Jensen, CMO of Black Rifle Coffee.

Can't miss this one.

Check it out 👇

We discussed:
👉 Balancing Brand Building and Performance Marketing
👉 Content Creation at Scale: Black Rifle’s Internal Studio
👉 Building a $400M Brand with DTC Foundations
👉 Turning a Coffee Company into an Entertainment Brand
👉 Subscription Strategy: Exclusive Products and Experience
👉 Day Trading Retail Media: The New Growth Playbook
👉 The Role of Community in Retail Expansion
👉 Leveraging AI to Speed Up Content Production
👉 TikTok Shop & YouTube Shop: Lessons from Early Adoption
👉 From Agency Life to Brand Leadership: Key Learnings

Tune in:
📺 YouTube
🎧 Spotify
🎙️ Apple
🌐 Website

More episodes our listeners love:

💎 How BRĒZ is Disrupting the Beverage Industry with Aaron Nosbisch
💎 Bootstrapping a $100M E-Commerce Empire with Bear Handlon
💎 The Secret Sauce Behind BattlBox's Success with John Roman
💎 IQBAR’s Journey to 10,000 Locations And $50 Million with Will Nitze
💎 Supplement Brand Bootstrapped $10,000 and Built It Into Sales of $30 Million in Three Years with Ronak Shah

Also Happening in the DTC Space

📰 Postscript's State of the Merchant Report
📰 WTF is "Google Zero"?
📰 Meta Announces Major Investment To Advance Its AI Efforts

If you found this interesting, please leave us a review. It’d mean the world to me.