"The DTC Guy" | Sold @SharmaBrands | Creator @workweekinc | Get smarter with my free weekly DTC newsletter (100k+ readers): nik.co/email
New York, NY
- Tweets 40,064
- Following 4,238
- Followers 186,542
- Likes 123,671
99% of people suck at writing cold emails.
I get about 1,000 emails per day, here's what catches my eye 🧵
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You’ll be fine. You’re young. Feeling unsure and lost is part of your path. Don’t avoid it. Take a breath. You’ll be okay.
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As we grow up, we realize it becomes less important to have a ton of friends, and more important to have real ones.
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Time heals nothing unless you move along with it.. Stay busy. Stay focused. Stay confident. Focus on you.
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Finally settling down to my vegan, gluten free, soy free, non GMO, organic, raw, antibiotics free, low fat/carb meal
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I've generated over $120,000,000.00 in online revenue.
The 2 biggest mistakes I see are:
• Constantly chasing new customers
• Not being smarter with existing ones.
Here's a breakdown of 6 free tactics I used to add $100k+ in revenue. 🧵
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If you work in marketing, I have a gift for you 🎁
Here are 10 can't-miss resources that you should have bookmarked, for inspiration, when you need it most 👇
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life goes on without you. the second you think that you are irreplaceable, you’ve lost a great life lesson. all you can do is work to be undeniable but know you can always be replaced. 🤷♂️
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If people want to make time for you, they will. Nobody is ever "too busy." They make time for what they want to make time for. Never forget.
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Fake friends are like shadows, always near you at your brightest moments but nowhere to be seen at your darkest hour
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take 30 min a day for yourself. chill alone. think. ideate. personify an idea in your head. relax. focus on you. reflect. learn to love who you are with all your likable traits and your vulnerabilities.
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He raised $3M in funding with just an idea and a presentation.
In 2 years, his company passed $8M in revenue.
Now, they're making over $100M as a sustainable outdoor gear brand.
The story of how Davis Smith built Cotopaxi 🧵
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This is how I would make an extra $5,000/month with just 8-10 hours of work.
Most people have no clue how to set up ad accounts and pixel their websites to get started.
Time for a thread: 🧵
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The easiest thing you can do as a brand to drop your customer acquisition cost by 30-40%:
Create beautiful landing pages to educate, story tell and give your consumer a reason to become a part of your brand.
Here's a thread of some incredible landing page examples:
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In 18 months, a portfolio co grew profitably from $1,500/day to $100,000/day in daily revenue.
I agreed to advise this company in 2019. There was no product & no customers, but I fell in love with the founder's drive.
Here are 3 simple things we did, weekly, to scale fast 👇
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If you don’t feel motivated to do what you are doing, chances you aren’t doing what you love
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Be the one who adds value to the people around you. Be the energy you want to attract. ✌️
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Your biggest problem is you think you shouldn't have them. Problems are what sculpt our soul, what makes us become more.
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Once you're truly happy with yourself, good will come your way unexpectedly. Be happy with YOU before trying to be happy with THEY.
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Find three hobbies 👇
• One that makes you money. 💰
• One that keeps you in shape physically & mentally. 💪
• One that keeps you creative & always one step ahead of the rest. 🧠
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goals aren’t enough. u need goals + deadlines. goals big enough to get excited and deadline to make you run to it. 1 isn’t much good without the other, but together they can be tremendous. 💥
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Ever seen this at your local grocery store?
Believe it or not, this is a highly calculated tactic by Oreo. And they're not the only ones.
This is the story of the brand strategy that Oreo doesn't want you to know about 🧵
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we live in such a copy & paste world, that authenticity and vulnerability are seen as a sign of weakness and/or failure.
however, those traits are what make visionaries and are instilled in those we look up to.
be yourself. trust yourself. be honest with yourself.
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12 months ago, @MentorPass asked if I would take $1,000 per hour to talk with founders who want to pick my brain.
Today, I've done 100+ hours of paid calls with founders and marketing teams, around the world.
Here are 8 common revenue-generating tactics that brands miss:
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In 2019, he started a side project with $3000.
In 2022, the brand hit $150M in yearly revenue.
Bootstrapped. Profitable. The fastest-growing DTC brand ever.
These are the 6 levers of their hyper-growth that you can replicate in your business 🧵
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It's so generous of these gurus on clubhouse to help us make a million dollars before they have made a million for themselves. 🤗
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99% of meetings are a waste of time.
Here’s a framework I learned to make sure your meetings stay efficient:
POST
Purpose
Outcome
Structure
Timing
Outline POST in every calendar invite and your meetings will shrink from 60 min to 25 min, or 30 min to 12 min.
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If you don’t like the way things are going, you got two options: change your mindset or change the situation. Your choice. Do more of what makes you happy.
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Today I'm turning 26 years old! 🥳
Unlike many, I had a very untraditional entry into adulthood:
• I didn't go to college
• I built an 8-figure DTC business before I could drink
• Today, I employ ~30 people
These are 13 things I wish I knew sooner 👇
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99% of entrepreneurs in CPG fail because they don't build a BRAND, even if they had a good product.
After helping launch 11 brands in the last 18 months, I've put together a Modern Day Brand Ingredient List.
Here are 10 simple things you can do to consistently build brand 👇
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Get the vision straight, and all the hard problems will get easier. Get the vision wrong, and all the easy problems will get harder. 🔑
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As long as you have passion and you're willing to work hard, you can do anything you want in this life.
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The key to a good email:
• Clear introduction w/ social proof
• Steup the context
• Explain what you bring to the table
• Go for the ask
• Finish with a CTA
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2021 has been one of my biggest years, personally & professionally.
• I invested in 50+ new companies
• I grew to over 100k Twitter friends
• I grew my team to 15+ people
• I started and grew a new company to 7-figures
Here are 9 lessons I learned in 2021 👇
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Can't let someone with zero vision tell you how to live your life. Stick to the plan. Ignore the noise. Do you. 🙏
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We've launched about 8 new brands this year at @SharmaBrands!
Most have done $100k+ on day 1, a couple did $1M+ on day 1.
Here are 5 non-negotiable apps in our tech stack we recommend for brands doing $5M or more in sales, per year:
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This guy created the world's 1st ever, fully transparent fashion brand.
Michael Preysman made a ~$ 500M+ fashion brand with no industry experience.
Everlane is doing ~$250M+ yearly sales despite asking customers to buy less.
The story of how this Sharma Brands client did it 🧵
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When I dropped out of college, it was all about finding smart people to accelerate my career.
Following the right people transforms your Twitter feed from a college cafeteria to a mastermind dinner at an expensive restaurant.
Here are 25 of my favorite people to follow 👇
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The greatest life hack:
8+ hours of sleep.
Don’t deprive yourself of the best medicine on the planet. You’ll thank yourself tomorrow morning 😊
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Keep telling me how much I changed cause damn right I did not do the work to stay the same ☝️
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Aaron Krause raised $200K from Lori Greiner.
With it, he made a $300M business out of a sponge.
His company Scrub Daddy does $100M+ yearly sales and 4M TikTok followers.
A breakdown of how he did it🧵
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The best thing you can do for your career growth is cold email the people you idolize and develop a relationship with them.
That & 9 hours of sleep. Biggest career hacks.
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Life is short and unpredictable. Don't waste another minute on the people, places and things that don't make you happy. 🙅♀️🙅♂️
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Being loyal in all aspects of your life, from friendships to your relationships in past or present, shows a lot about your character.
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A year from now, there will be a marketing role solely dedicated to DMs.
Revenue optimization of SMS, Messenger, Instagram DMs, etc.
DMs / SMS have lower opt-in rates, but higher revenue per subscriber/engagement.
Scaling the unscalable is always an arbitrage in itself.
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On Tuesday, I wrote a cold email from my bed to @mcuban to be on @MorningBrew’s podcast. 📧
I followed my usual format:
• no fluff
• gave social proof
• showed why it’s impt to me
• went for the ask with no BS
Response time: 2 min ⏱
It worked. The interview is now live!
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When I was at hint water, a few years ago we ran a marketing test that has now become an industry-standard marketing tactic:
We worked with influencers, not for their following, but for their content, and dropped our customer acquisition cost by 40%.
Here's how you do it 👇🧵
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The best marketing answers questions:
• What are you selling? - product
• Why are you selling it? - credibility
• How will it help me? - benefit
• Who else uses it? - unbiased validation
• How does it work? - clarity
Education-first content = the highest LTV customers.
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I made a ~40-page deck on how I think about brand launches and it’s completely free. 🔥
All my knowledge, store apps, examples of creative, landing pages, media strategy, etc.
If you put your email in here, you'll get an email with the full deck:
SignUpForNiksEmails.com
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It's fascinating to see @justinbieber crush the launch of his new album from a marketing perspective.
In addition to the traditional press, he's creating so much content to fuel album streams.
He's big today because he gives his fans the content they want, not just an album.
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You've probably never heard of Aritzia, but your girlfriend definitely has.
This is because they've built an incredible brand by staying laser-focusing on celeb and influencer content.
And it's all because of their secret "high-low" method.
🧵
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In 2010, investors laughed at her business idea.
By 2015, she turned it into a $100M empire.
And 4 years later, she sold her haircare product business for $255M
The story of how Alli Webb made millions out of nothing but hot air 🧵
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Bet on the immigrants.
Bet on the people of color.
Bet on those from underserved communities.
Bet on those who've been through real shit.
They're the ones who will work the hardest, because they know what it's like to be at zero with nothing.
I know because I'm one of them.
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99% of B2B companies suck at marketing.
They focus on webinars, newsletters with their own product updates, eBooks, & happy hours.
It's lame and no one of importance cares.
Here's what I would recommend that would actually work 👇
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Cold emails are the gateway drug to any opportunity.
The easiest way to write a great cold email:
• be clever & funny
• add social proof
• be quick with your ask (no fluff)
• negate potential roadblocks by over-communicating
I attribute 99% of my "luck" to good cold emails.
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Most brands suck at storytelling.
If you're not talking more about why your product exists and what problem you solve, you'll never win.
You can't rely on just fast-cutting ads or pretty packaging. It rarely works to convert a new customer.
Don't sell, tell stories, instead.
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Chief Customer Officer is about to be a huge role in a few years.
Someone who oversees the customer experience, across product, CX, marketing, fulfillment, etc.
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Dear marketing world,
While you all argue whether or not “influencer” marketing still works, my friend @DannyDuncan69 just expanded his merch line to @zumiez.
Community + distribution is the 🔑
tubefilter.com/2019/06/06/da…
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