The Built To Scale Podcast

About The Built To Scale Podcast

The Built To Scale Podcast: Direct Response Marketing, Paid Media, and Scaling Strategies for Ecommerce Brands Everyone talks about scale. Almost nobody explains how it actually happens. The Built To Scale Podcast exists to close that gap. ========================= About the Podcast Hosted by Shmuel Herschberg, CMO of Built To Scale and founder of Shyn Media, the show sits down with top marketing leaders, media buyers, and DTC operators to break down exactly what drives scalable growth: paid media strategy (Meta, Google, YouTube), creative testing and production systems, funnel optimization, conversion rate strategy, email and lifecycle marketing, and the operational systems behind brands doing real revenue. No theory, no recycled tactics. Just specifics from people who've built and scaled ecommerce and direct response brands themselves. Each episode is built for founders, CMOs, media buyers, and digital marketers who want the mechanics behind growth, not another surface-level interview. ========================= Watch and Subscribe! New episodes weekly. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBuiltToScalePodcast (https://www.youtube.com/@TheBuiltToScalePodcast) Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-built-to-scale-podcast/id1885295516 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-built-to-scale-podcast/id1885295516) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0tTVaqWxfxnC4QcWMoG3ks (https://open.spotify.com/show/0tTVaqWxfxnC4QcWMoG3ks) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebuilttoscalepodcast/ (https://www.instagram.com/thebuilttoscalepodcast/) ========================= Continue the Conversation To learn more about Built To Scale, please visit https://www.builttoscale.co/ (https://www.builttoscale.co/) Want to talk about scaling your brand? Book a call (https://calendly.com/shmuel-builttoscale/exploratory-call).

Publisher

Shmuel Herschberg

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 Mar 2026

Latest episode

26 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

32 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   26 Oct 2026

   Lessons from $4 Billion in Performance Marketing and Scaling Past 7 and 8 Figures | Thomas McMahon

   Most ecom founders stuck in seven or low eight figures think they need more traffic. Thomas McMahon says they're earning exactly the traffic they deserve, and the real blocker is something breaking inside the business. Thomas spent years in business development at ClickBank and now runs Happy Scaling, an advisory firm for founder led ecom and direct response brands. We get into why the hustle that adds six or seven figures is often what keeps you from adding eight or nine, what the chargeback curve reveals about your funnel, and why direct response brands that never build a brand will struggle to exit. ================================= What you'll learn: - Why conversion rate operations matters more than conversion rate optimization - How to read refund and chargeback spikes to find the exact friction point in your customer journey - Why "we learned a lot" is a crutch, and what execution actually looks like - How to judge a new ad channel by budget, not just time, and why native fails when you treat it like Meta - Why pure DR brands are hard to sell, and how "brand response" builds a business buyers want - The signal that you've outgrown running your own business day to day ================================= About Thomas McMahon: Thomas is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Happy Scaling, which he runs with Dominick Keenan, ClickBank's former VP of Sales. With insight into $4 billion in performance marketing and consultative high ticket selling, Thomas helps ecom founders and the vendors who serve them scale revenue, protect profits, and avoid burnout. ================================= Key moments: (02:14) Vetting a business partner with 114 questions before launching Happy Scaling (05:20) Founders don't have a traffic problem. They have an operations problem. (10:17) Brand response vs. pure direct response (17:58) How long should you test a new channel? Follow the money. (21:07) Why "we learned a lot" is a crutch (26:57) How GLP-1s and peptides blew a hole in DR supplements (29:24) What a day 4 to 7 chargeback spike is telling you (34:54) Who actually buys pure DR companies? (38:28) Why DR operators resist organic, and why that's a mistake (41:54) How Built To Scale maps ad performance by pain point and audience (42:31) The Happy Scaling sweet spot: $5M to $50M founder led brands (46:34) The one thing stuck founders should stop doing ================================= Connect with Thomas McMahon: Website: https://happyscaling.co (https://happyscaling.co) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasmcmahon1855/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasmcmahon1855/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happyscaling/ (https://www.instagram.com/happyscaling/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thomas.mcmahon.94695 (https://www.facebook.com/thomas.mcmahon.94695) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@happyscaling (https://www.youtube.com/@happyscaling) ================================= About The Built To Scale Podcast: Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/) Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/thebuilttoscalepodcast/ (https://www.instagram.com/thebuilttoscalepodcast/) If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co (mailto:podcast@builttoscale.co).

2. 

   19 Oct 2026

   Your Email List Is Dying and Here's the Fix with the Inbox Geek | Nelson Aquino & Paul Counts

   The average email list shrinks about 22% a year, according to Nelson Aquino, and most brands are doing nothing about it. Meanwhile, they keep paying Meta and Google to reach people who already visited their website. For episode 30, I broke the format and brought on two guests: Nelson Aquino and Paul Counts, co-owners of InboxGeek. We get into why owning your audience beats renting it, how to win back subscribers who went cold months ago, and why AI will expose lazy email marketers instead of killing the channel. ================================= What you'll learn: - Why your list decays every year and how to re-engage non-openers instead of buying new subscribers - How to send emails when each subscriber is actually active in their inbox, not when your calendar says so - Why a once-a-month newsletter with 10 links is leaving money on the table - How story-based emails and pattern interrupts beat "on sale" emails in a crowded inbox - How website visitor identification turns anonymous traffic into an email list you own ================================= About Nelson Aquino and Paul Counts: Nelson spent 27 years in international marketing and sales at billion dollar footwear and apparel companies before leaving corporate to work with small and mid-sized businesses. Paul has been doing email marketing since 1998, when he was sending emails from a Hotmail account as a teenager. Together they bought InboxGeek, a platform that sends emails when subscribers are live in their inbox and helps brands capture their website visitors. ================================= Key moments: (08:48) What InboxGeek actually does, and how it wins back cold subscribers (11:09) Why your list quietly shrinks every year (18:33) Why you're not emailing too much (25:11) Pattern interrupts, open loops, and the power of empty preview text (30:35) Is it legal? CAN-SPAM, terms of service, and where it doesn't work (38:26) How Live Opens handles Apple Mail Privacy Protection (44:56) Why "smart sending" isn't that smart (47:01) AI and email: when the tide goes out, you see who's swimming naked (1:00:05) Nelson's prediction: an email resurgence in 2027 ================================= Connect with Nelson and Paul: InboxGeek: https://www.inboxgeek.com (https://www.inboxgeek.com) InboxGeek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inboxgeek/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/inboxgeek/) Nelson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonhaquino/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonhaquino/) Paul on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcounts/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulcounts/) Paul on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePaulCounts (https://www.youtube.com/@ThePaulCounts) Paul on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauljcounts/ (https://www.instagram.com/pauljcounts/) Paul on X: https://x.com/paulcounts (https://x.com/paulcounts) ================================= About The Built To Scale Podcast: Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/) Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/thebuilttoscalepodcast/ (https://www.instagram.com/thebuilttoscalepodcast/) If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co (mailto:podcast@builttoscale.co).

3. 

   13 Oct 2026

   AI Can't Close Your Deals & How One Upsell Yielded $60K in Two Days | Rob Schwartz

   One tweak. $60,000. In two days. Rob Schwartz, VP of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives at ClickFunnels, breaks down the upsell most funnel builders skip, why your first funnel should be ugly, and where AI voice agents actually make money (hint: it's not closing). ================================= What you'll learn: How a $47 VIP upsell before a webinar hit a 30 to 40% take rate and turned a "capped out" audience into $60K in two days Why a two step funnel (lead magnet, thank you page) beats waiting for the perfect offer stack How content creators leave money on the table with "link in bio" dead ends, and how affiliate links fix it without building a product Why AI voice agents work best as a filter, and why Rob keeps leads on the phone with AI for under a minute before a human takes over How Rob uses Claude connected to ClickFunnels to build pages and workflows, and to analyze sales data to decide what to offer next ================================= About Rob Schwartz: Rob Schwartz is VP of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives at ClickFunnels, where the job comes down to turning signups into revenue. He spent over 15 years as a software engineer before moving to the customer side of the house. Through his firm Ozer Digital Solutions, he builds AI systems for businesses that already have customers: voice agents that answer real phone lines, follow up systems that reach every lead in seconds, and automations wired into the tools they already pay for. ================================= Connect with Rob Schwartz: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robschwartz10 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robschwartz10) Website: https://ozerdigitalsolutions.com (https://ozerdigitalsolutions.com) ================================= Key moments: 02:43 - Why the best way to understand your customer is to become one 07:40 - Running ClickFunnels from inside Claude 08:27 - The missing step between your content and your revenue 11:14 - The affiliate link still paying Rob five years later 12:59 - The VIP upsell that made $60K and created more intentful buyers 15:26 - "I'd rather launch an ugly funnel than a perfect funnel" 23:29 - AI voice as a filter: why 20 to 30% of inbound calls are the right customer 26:05 - Five months building something non compliant, and the pivot 28:40 - Why AI should hand off to a human in under a minute 31:42 - Agents talking to agents: where AI voice goes next 36:08 - Imposter syndrome and the founders stuck at day one 42:09 - The mindset shift that breaks revenue ceilings 44:18 - Using Claude to analyze two months of sales and pick the next offer ================================= About The Built To Scale Podcast: Follow us on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/built-to-scale-agency/) Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/thebuilttoscalepodcast/ (https://www.instagram.com/thebuilttoscalepodcast/) For more information about Built To Scale visit: https://www.builttoscale.co/ (https://www.builttoscale.co/) If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas for a future episode, please email podcast@builttoscale.co (mailto:podcast@builttoscale.co).

Contact The Built To Scale Podcast

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