My Biggest Takeaway After 3,000+ Brand Conversations

I hope everyone that went enjoyed Sweets and Snacks. I experienced heavy FOMO seeing everyone post pictures with their favorite brand mascot. I don’t know why that show always has the highest amount of mascots in attendance, maybe because it’s such a crucial branding play for legacy candy, but I think more brands should adopt a lovable character we can all attach ourselves to as the brand grows. 

I will be in attendance at both the Fancy Food show next month and INFRA the month after, so if you're around, please do let me know! 

This week I am going to be a bit more existential and broad with the topic because although I think it’s imperative to execute correctly, I also think it’s one that is highly personal and not solved with a cookie cutter approach. 

That topic is brand direction. I want to dive into what it means to have brand direction before you even start building your brand and how a clarified sense of direction is the biggest unifying string that connects the most successful brands I know. First, a quick note from this week's sponsor Glimpse.

Why is my $30K PO only netting out at $17K?

For growing CPG brands, deductions aren’t just an accounting headache — they’re a silent margin killer.

Promos, short ships, spoilage, freight fees, and other line items chip away at your top line before the money even hits your account. And if you’re scaling into national retail, this compounds fast.

What’s at stake?

• 2–3% of top-line revenue lost to invalid deductions

• Hours per week spent chasing backup docs

• Invalid charges buried in emails or portals

• Disputes dropped (or never started) simply because no one has time

For lean finance and ops teams, it’s not about caring — it’s about capacity. As Kailey Donewald from Lil Bucks put it:

“We were three people. No one had time to fight $400 chargebacks… But that was real money slipping through the cracks.”

As Lil Bucks scaled into Whole Foods, deductions surged. A $10K chargeback meant entirely for another brand slipped in. Remits came in with 17+ unexplained codes. Their small team needed a better way to stay on top of it all — without hiring or burning out.

The solution: structure and visibility.

Finance-first CPG teams are:

• Reconciling deductions weekly

• Tying chargebacks to actual promo contracts

• Forecasting trade and margin impact by retailer

• Building ops systems that match their scale

Because if you’re not tracking this, your margin is at stake.

“Buyers are betting on you — not just the product. Showing up with clean numbers changes the conversation.”

Want help tightening your deduction process? → Let’s talk

I talk to on average about ten new brands a week. In the early years of WeStock, that number might be as high as thirty. But if we take even the low end of 10 and multiple that out for the lifetime of the company (and take a few weeks out for holidays), that is around 3,000 brands I have spoken to since starting WeStock. 

That number personally seems low, but I want to root the conversation in some context for you because I have definitely logged or am nearing the prerequisite 10,000 hours needed to make me knowledgeable about what it takes for brands to succeed.

During those conversations, it has now become easier within the first couple minutes to identify a brand that understands where they want to go versus one that doesn’t.

For me, what stands out the most from the top brands after all of these conversations, is how the best brands and founders have a clear sense of the brand's direction.

Before we go any further, let’s define brand direction. Interchangeable with brand strategy, it means the way you interact and communicate with your customers. Brand identity, vision, mission, and values are all included in what makes up your brand direction - but I want to add one more - brand destination. 

Every great founder I talk to has a clear vision for where they want the brand to go. They have an intentional and clear visualization of what success looks like for the brand and that end point is the north star which then guides the identity, vision, mission, and values, which all come together to create a clear and concise direction. 

This is often rooted in the success of another brand that they look up to which is 100% acceptable and suggested.

Having a clear brand direction does not necessarily mean you know exactly how you're going to get there. Unexpected issues and new opportunities will make the journey a continuous rollercoaster, but that is something every brand faces. 

The difference is that when you have a clear direction and you know what success looks like for your brand, you have your internal compass to make the best decisions possible when opportunity or adversity arise. 

The biggest unlock for a founder who has a clear sense of brand direction is how easily it opens up your ability to say “no”.

Saying “no” is a super power for founders, but you can only say it if you have full belief in where you're going. 

Walmart approaches you early on to test 500 stores in the Southeast, but you're not ready to support that region or type of account. Just say "no". 

Sprouts approaches you for their innovation set in your brand’s infancy, but you don’t feel 90 days is enough time for you to prove success. Just say "no". 

A broker arrives in your inbox, promising you the world and sales have been slow, so you entertain the high monthly retainer in hopes of some sales traction. Just say "no". 

You have already defined what success looks like from the onset with your brand direction and with that being your guide for your decision making, you can take a step back and make the best decisions for the long term health of the company.

As I have pointed out in the past issues, saying “no” doesn't close the door on the opportunity, it simply means that when your ready to revisit that opportunity it will be on your terms. 

On the other spectrum of this are founders who are directionless. 

It’s very tough sometimes to talk with these founders and offer help, because they are often looking for results and impact right away, but all I want to do is tell them to go back to the starting line first. 

That is because if you don’t have that direction, you will find yourself saying, “yes” to everything, simply because you think it’s what a growing brand should be doing.

You say “yes” to Walmart, and you realize you don’t have the prerequisite capital to support those stores, which means your going to be pulled soon. 

You say “yes” to Sprouts and their innovation set, just to realize you weren’t close to prepared to support a sprint-like test. 

You hit reply on that broker email and say “yes” to their services because you need to generate some short term wins, only to be out $50,000 in a few short months with no accounts to show. 

Having a brand direction empowers you to no longer chase opportunity because you think that is what you should be doing. 

Once you define the direction you can root all your decision making in it and feel confident in the decisions you make. 

Will you still make mistakes, absolutely! But you will learn from them and pivot quicker from them once they are made. 

Also, this doesn't shut the door on pivots. Pivots happen and some of the best brand's and companies come out of pivoting, but you still need clarity in the direction of what your building today to understand if a pivot is a short term fix or a long term alignment to get you to your end goal. Having a clear direction doesn't give you permission to be stubborn, but instead provides a better framework to make decisions if change is needed.

I am thinking about putting together a future webinar on the tactical ways of defining your brand direction, but I don’t think you need to overthink it in the beginning.

You don’t need to pay a marketing consultant or run a weekend all hands to define this clearly, you just need to do the following:

• Have an open conversation with the founders about the brand you want to build and define the perfect end point (it’s easiest to use other brands you admire). 

• Define the identity, vision, mission, and values (understanding that these will evolve).

• Create a living document internally that the company can reference and you can continue to come back as decisions and hurdles arise (this should be updated annually, but the core direction remains consistent).

There are so many factors that go into success, but even for me personally, I have found the daily decision making process harder when I wasn’t grounded in my future destination. 

Asking, how does this contribute to us getting to our brand's destination and does it support our direction, will guide your decision making framework when it comes to retail and overall growth in a much clearer way.

Understand where you want to go, have full confidence in the direction and strategy of the brand, and everything else will come into focus.