Most growth advice sounds great on paper.

More channels.
More tactics.
More things to add.

But when you zoom out and look at the brands that keep growing year after year, the story is usually much simpler.

In this week’s newsletter, I’m sharing a real example from a brand we’ve worked with for years that ignores most of the playbooks and still compounds.

Also, this Friday we’re kicking off Season 6 of The DTC Insider Podcast. 🎉

Let’s get into it.

Topics we'll cover today:

💠 Leverage > Distribution
💠 The 3 Revenue Leaks I Keep Finding in 7-8 Figure Brands
💠 The DTC Insider podcast: New Season
💠 Latest news in the DTC space

It’s funny how things work out sometimes.

The other day, I was on a client call and told this founder:

“I preach that brands need to do XYZ to succeed. You do almost none of them, and you’re still growing 50% YoY for the last four years.”

At BSR, my agency, we’ve been working with this 7-figure brand that sells auto parts for over four years now. They’re currently doing $6M+/year.

As I was telling them on the call, they don’t follow any playbook, and still, they’ve been growing around 50% every single year since we started working together.

They literally stay away from almost everything you read online, including in this newsletter:

Influencers? Almost nonexistent.
Amazing creatives? Not really. Mostly static ads with basic visuals.
Great team? It’s just the founder. No employees.
VC money? Nope. Bootstrapped.
First-need product? Quite the opposite. It’s more of a “want” than a “need.”
High repeat purchase rate? Nope. Most customers only buy once due to the nature of the product. 

So why?

Why are they winning while many others doing way more things aren’t?

I’ve been thinking about it for some time, and then it became crystal clear.

Leverage.

Let me explain.

Most brands I speak with focus almost exclusively on paid ads to acquire new customers. That’s fine, but on its own it doesn’t create real leverage. Plus, every other brand is doing the same thing.

This brand, besides running paid ads, does three key things right. And that’s where the leverage comes from.

They offer an excellent product at a very competitive price.

And to be very clear, their products can actually be tested using computers connected to the car to measure the performance boost.

What’s the leverage here?

A great product + strong pricing = happy customers who spread the word for you.

While the brand doesn’t own a community, the founder has been very active in industry Facebook groups for years.

Not posting links.
Not selling.
Just helping.

Over time, he became an authorized voice and a go-to reference, while constantly gauging what people actually want.

What’s the leverage here?

Through these groups, they slowly but steadily became a well-known brand. More importantly, they deeply understand what their target audience struggles with and have earned the trust of thousands of potential customers through real engagement.

They don’t chase content creators.

Instead, they identify a handful of customers who already have a loyal audience and build healthy, long-term relationships with them. And by a handful of customers I mean 2 or 3, not 20 or 50.

The key takeaway?

As the saying goes:

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

In this case, it means that to build a successful brand, you don’t need to do all the flashy things you read about online.

You need a great product and leverage.
Everything else is optional.

Sure, this brand could probably be doing eight figures by now if they added more layers on top.

But they’re doing just fine as they are. 

And sometimes, that’s okay.

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

In 2025, we audited over 90 brands, and we found that many of them have been stuck in a revenue plateau for 2, and even 3 years.

So, the question is: will you stay in the same place for yet another year, or will you draw a line in the sand and start a new chapter for your brand?

At BSR, my agency, we’re offering just 1 spot for brands that want to unlock the next level of growth.

Will you be one of them?

In the last few months, my agency audited multiple 7 and 8-figure brands.

And even when everything looks good on the surface...

📈 Revenue's growing
🎯 ROAS looks healthy

...under the hood, things often tell a different story.

And I keep spotting the same 3 leaks. Quiet, invisible ones.
The kind that cost brands $20K-$100K/month in profit.

Not media buying issues, strategy problems.
And if you don’t fix them, they compound. 

Let’s break them down 👇

🔻 Leak #1: Revenue is growing…but only on paper

“We’re growing!”

→ ROAS is higher
→ Revenue is up 

Cool, but is it mostly from repeat buyers and discount pushes?

I've recently shared with you how a brand's revenue was up YoY, but when we took a deep look they were losing orders from new customers AND subscribers every.single.month.

If new customer acquisition has stalled, you’re not scaling. You’re recycling.

Why it happens:

You’re tracking revenue and ROAS, but not who is buying.

If most of your growth is driven by promos and returning customers, you’re in trouble.

What to do instead:

→ Track CAC, not just ROAS
→ Break down revenue into New vs Returning
→ Rebuild acquisition with smarter, journey-aware offers 

🔻 Leak #2: Lifecycle marketing is disconnected from the actual journey

This one is so overlooked! 🤦

I guess every 7-8 figure brand has the core email flows set up...
But are they aligned with the business strategy?
Most times, they're not. 

Why it happens:

Most brands I speak with don't have a clue about the value ladder.

That is:

→ What customers buy on the first and future purchases
→ The time between orders
→ Why do they buy 

And many other things...

What to do instead:

→ Map out your customer purchase journey (with tools like Lifetimely)
→ Build flows around the product path and retention curve
→ Build replenishment logic that aligns with the buyer's behavior 

A while ago, I put together a mini-guide on this.

🔻 Leak #3: Paid + retention are pulling in different directions

Ad teams care about having a high ROAS
Email teams care about driving more revenue per recipient and email. 

Who's working towards growing profitably?

Why it happens:

→ Your teams work in silos (likely separate contractors or agencies).
→ No one's accountable to a full-funnel plan.
→ So things get misaligned, fast.

What to do instead:

→ Build a strategic 90-day plan across channels
→ Align the messaging, offer logic, and timing
→ Build a “Journey Overlay” to see where you’re winning (and bleeding) 

These are fixable, and fast.

But if you don’t spot them, they’ll keep hiding under good ROAS and “growth”.

We’ve been doing short Journey Overlay teardowns for brands and they always walk away with clarity.

Want me to walk through yours?

Just hit reply or book a teardown here.

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

This Friday, I’m kicking off Season 6 of The DTC Insider with someone who’s been at the center of e-commerce for years: Neal Goyal.

In this episode, we don’t talk about hacks.

We talk about what actually broke over the last few years, why so many brands lost predictability, and what Neal is seeing behind the scenes from brands doing $50M+ in GMV.

If you’re trying to make sense of what happened in 2025 and how to think about 2026 with more clarity, this conversation will help.

New episode drops Friday.

In the meantime, check out more great episodes of our podcast here.

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

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Brian Roisentul is the founder & CEO of BSR, a growth marketing agency he started in 2013 to help e-commerce brands unlock hidden revenue by identifying misalignments between their marketing and customer behavior. He is also the host of The DTC Insider podcast, where he interviews thought leaders, founders, and directors in the e-commerce space.

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