Brain Driven Brands

Sarah Levinger
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  • Marketing
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Host Sarah Levinger breaks down the advanced neuromarketing secrets of 9-figure brands (like True Classic, Spotify, and Plants vs. Zombies) to show you psychology tactics any e-commerce brand can use today to cut costs, boost sales, and captivate the masses.

  1. 17 Things Brands Get Dead Wrong About Millennials

    23 hr ago

    17 Things Brands Get Dead Wrong About Millennials

    In this episode we break down 17 things every brand gets wrong about marketing to millennials, from the skinny-jeans myth to why "this will change your life" is the fastest way to lose us. We get into why millennials aren't in their "prime spending years" the way marketers assume, how the sandwich generation actually makes buying decisions, and why peace — not aspiration — is the emotion that's quietly winning in DTC ad creative right now. If you're building a brand that needs to sell to the biggest consumer group in the country for the next 10-15 years, this is the consumer psychology you can't afford to skip. ⚡ IN THIS EPISODE → Why "millennials are 25" is costing brands money (the oldest is 45) → The peace angle that's outperforming aspiration in ad copy right now → How to say "we get it" without the disingenuous "we're tired too" → Why nostalgia is a cheat code — but only if you get weirdly specific → The price-transparency move that turns a $350 sticker shock into a yes → Why the ripped-guy supplement ad and the "skincare girly" UGC both backfire ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 The accidental "Nate is a co-host" mixup that started it all 01:50 Rule #1: Stop putting millennials in skinny jeans — we're not 25 03:00 The myth of "prime spending years" (we own 3% of the wealth boomers had) 03:50 The most undertaught generation — and how to educate without condescending 05:20 Midlife reinvention, not crisis: the Aston Martin that got returned 07:20 What we actually want isn't the convertible — it's a three-day weekend 08:50 The "make me feel comfortable buying" shift that's working in copy 09:30 "It's okay that you're tired" — and the one line that ruins it 12:00 The built-in millennial BS detector and why "are you struggling with X?" dies on arrival 14:30 The makeup-ad take: stop making the women too hot 16:50 Nostalgia done right — Tamagotchis, Lego Batman, and baked-in references 18:10 The 3 ingredients every real community needs 19:00 Price transparency and the hidden-fee move that closes the tab instantly 20:30 Why Nike keeps chasing Gen Z and losing loyal millennials 21:30 The performative-everything problem (and why nobody wants to be Bryan Johnson) 23:30 Mega-influencers are dead — give us the 8K-follower creator instead 24:30 Rule #17: Your salad is not "the sigh of relief I needed today" 26:50 Why millennials will carry your business for the next decade 👉 Join Sarah's Creative Strategy Community: skool.com/tether-lab ─────────────────────────────────── 🎙 CO-HOSTS ─────────────────────────────────── Sarah Levinger 🌐 tetherinsights.io 🐦 x.com/SarahLevinger 💼 linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger 📸 instagram.com/sarah.levinger ▶️ youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg Nate Lagos 🐦 x.com/natelagos 💼 linkedin.com/in/natelagos 🎧 Tactical & Practical Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tactical-practical/id1752915534

    29 min
  2. Reduce Cart Abandonment by 21% with THIS Psychology Tactic

    27 May

    Reduce Cart Abandonment by 21% with THIS Psychology Tactic

    What if the reason customers are abandoning their carts isn't price...it's guilt? New research across 14 million e-commerce sessions reveals that the more pleasure-based items are in a cart, the higher the abandonment rate. (The solution for this is simpler than you'd think.) In this episode, we break down the psychology behind practical vs. hedonic upsells, why cold traffic wants logic before emotion, and how messaging sequence is the most underrated lever in DTC marketing. Nate also just bought an RV and accidentally became the perfect case study for why practical add-ons are a conversion cheat code for e-commerce brands and direct response marketers. Source: https://app.sciencesays.com/p/suggest-practical-items-to-reduce-cart-abandonment 🎉 Join the community: skool.com/tether-lab CoHost: Nate Lagos Twitter: https://x.com/natelagos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natelagos/ Tactical and Practical Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tactical-practical/id1752915534 CoHost: Sarah Levinger Learn more at: https://www.tetherinsights.io/ Twitter: https://x.com/SarahLevinger Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah.levinger/ Watch me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg

    21 min

  3. 6 May

    What Makes a Good Creative Strategist?

    In this episode, we get into the three layers of the job (tactical, exterior, interior), why "taste" is the hardest skill to teach, and the in-house vs agency debate that keeps getting it wrong. If you're a creative strategist trying to level up (or a founder trying to hire one) this is the framework we wish we had years ago. Plus: why the apprenticeship model dying is the real reason the industry can't produce great talent anymore. ⚡ IN THIS EPISODE → Why you can teach someone to be adequate at creative strategy, but not great → The 3-tier skill stack: tactical for beginners, business for intermediates, psychology for experts → The one skill that separates good copy from copy that actually moves people → Why an intermediate at your brand will out-perform an expert off the street → The real reason 40,000 people signing up for bootcamps still won't fix the talent gap ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 The skill nobody can teach (but every great strategist has) 01:30 Sarah cashes in $1,000 of free consulting from Nate 03:30 What an expert creative strategist actually knows (it's not what you think) 05:30 Where intermediates fall short — and the business knowledge gap 06:45 Copy that sounds cool vs. copy that moves people 08:00 How to actually vet creative strategist candidates when you're hiring 10:15 The Connor Rowan question every strategist should be asking themselves 11:30 Why the apprenticeship model dying is killing the industry 14:00 The agency vs in-house debate (and who actually wins) 15:30 The one piece of advice for anyone trying to level up right now 👉 Join Sarah's Creative Strategy Community: skool.com/tether-lab ─────────────────────────────────── 🎙 CO-HOSTS ─────────────────────────────────── Sarah Levinger 🌐 tetherinsights.io 🐦 x.com/SarahLevinger 💼 linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger 📸 instagram.com/sarah.levinger ▶️ youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg Nate Lagos 🐦 x.com/natelagos 💼 linkedin.com/in/natelagos 🎧 Tactical & Practical Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tactical-practical/id1752915534

    17 min
  4. The Psychology Trick That Makes Your Price 26% More Persuasive

    1 May

    The Psychology Trick That Makes Your Price 26% More Persuasive

    In this episode we break down the science behind price font size, why hiding your price reads as "embarrassed about the value," and how to use category psychology and price anchoring to justify premium pricing in crowded categories like supplements, meat snacks, and beyond. We also share a live test we're running this week on Meta ads and why most brands are still pricing like it's 2022. ⚡ IN THIS EPISODE → Why bigger price fonts can make your product feel 15% cheaper → The Walmart yellow-tag principle hiding in plain sight → Why most DTC brands shrink their prices (and why that's a confidence signal to customers) → How to anchor a $60/month supplement against "another sleepless night at 3 AM" → Why you should be price testing year-round, not once every 18 months → The "staple a teddy bear to a wall for $6M" lesson on category perception ⏱ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 The mullet, the headphones, and why Sarah is anxious about AI 04:15 The pricing quiz: what makes a price 26% more persuasive? 05:30 The answer nobody guesses right 07:00 Why small price fonts read like you're hiding something 09:00 The product categories where this works (and where it might not) 10:30 The car dealership test that proves the limit 12:15 Why we're still price testing in 2026 (and you should be too) 14:30 The hot tub infomercial trick: $3/day vs. the full price 15:45 Category psychology — why a Maserati and a Corolla both just "drive" 17:30 Be proud of being the most expensive brand in your category 18:30 Purposeful price anchors vs. the Amazon default 19:30 Reframing your category instead of competing inside it Source: https://app.sciencesays.com/p/numbers-in-larger-fonts-are-more-persuasive 👉 Join Sarah's Creative Strategy Community: skool.com/tether-lab ─────────────────────────────────── 🎙 CO-HOSTS ─────────────────────────────────── Sarah Levinger 🌐 tetherinsights.io 🐦 x.com/SarahLevinger 💼 linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger 📸 instagram.com/sarah.levinger ▶️ youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg Nate Lagos 🐦 x.com/natelagos 💼 linkedin.com/in/natelagos 🎧 Tactical & Practical Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tactical-practical/id1752915534

    22 min
  5. The New Avatar Framework (How to Build Avatars That Scale in 2026)

    16 Apr

    The New Avatar Framework (How to Build Avatars That Scale in 2026)

    The customer avatar wasn't invented by a marketer. It was invented by a software developer in 1983 who just wanted to know how someone would click through his app. And yet, we've built entire marketing strategies around it. In this episode, we're gonna question everything we know about avatars so you can too. 😅 We get into why obsessing over WHO your customer is (age, gender, zip code) might actually be the wrong starting point and what we think marketers should be focusing on instead: When → Why → Who. Market to the moment first, understand the emotional driver second, and let the demographic details do the last 5% of the work. From OG watch brand case studies to the Taco Bell drive-through at midnight, this one was just a brain dump of consciousness around one simple question: how should we be building avatars that scale in 2026 and beyond? ⚡ IN THIS EPISODE → Why the customer avatar was designed to understand *behavior*, not predict who would buy → The difference between psychographic avatars and avatars that actually tell you what to do → How the same ad made men and women buy the exact same watch for completely different reasons — and why that's the whole point → The "when" framework: how to map customer wins first, emotions second, and demographics last → Why Taco Bell's "open late" campaign is a masterclass in marketing to the moment, not the person  👉 Join Sarah's Creative Strategy Community: skool.com/tether-lab  ─────────────────────────────────── 🎙 CO-HOSTS ─────────────────────────────────── Sarah Levinger 🌐 tetherinsights.io 🐦 x.com/SarahLevinger 💼 linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger 📸 instagram.com/sarah.levinger ▶️ youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg   Nate Lagos 🐦 x.com/natelagos 💼 linkedin.com/in/natelagos 🎧 Tactical & Practical Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tactical-practical/id1752915534

    19 min
  6. We're Back! 🎉 And We Need to Talk About What's Happening...

    8 Apr

    We're Back! 🎉 And We Need to Talk About What's Happening...

    We're back from a 3-month break to break down the three "storms" reshaping the industry: Meta's algorithm quietly flipping the paid ads playbook upside down, an AI-fueled brand identity crisis draining trust faster than anyone expected, and something we're calling "AI gentrification" and why it might be the most dangerous shift of all. We're all feeling the pain. But there's a path through and it's not what most people are doing. ⚡ IN THIS EPISODE → Why running more ads is making your performance worse → The organic vs. paid reach gap nobody's talking about (99% vs. ~80%) → How AI is destroying the apprenticeship model in DTC → What "conviction" actually looks like in a brand and why almost no one has it → Our contrarian take on what comes next A Renaissance is coming and it's going to be built by the anti-AI crowd!   👉 Join Sarah's Creative Strategy Community: skool.com/tether-lab  Sarah Levinger 🌐 tetherinsights.io 🐦 x.com/SarahLevinger 💼 linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger 📸 instagram.com/sarah.levinger ▶️ youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg   Nate Lagos 🐦 x.com/natelagos 💼 linkedin.com/in/natelagos 🎧 Tactical & Practical Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tactical-practical/id1752915534

    29 min
  7. We're Taking a Break: What's Next for Brain Driven Brands

    6 Apr

    We're Taking a Break: What's Next for Brain Driven Brands

    After years of weekly conversations unpacking consumer psychology, growth strategy, and how brands actually make decisions, they step back to talk candidly about priorities, growth, and what it looks like when your work evolves faster than the containers around it. They unpack why Brain Driven Brands started, what it became, and why it's time to pause and rethink what comes next. Along the way, they reflect on personal growth, career shifts, and the behind-the-scenes realities of running fast-growing businesses without pretending it's all tidy or linear. You'll also hear: Why "packaging" matters just as much as skill when it comes to brands and personal brands What Tether Insights actually does, and why most research misses the real reasons people buy Nate's work scaling supplement brands, building from zero to one, and treating messaging as a growth lever, not "just copy" Why pauses can be strategic, not stagnant This isn't a goodbye it's just a pause for now. A reminder that growth sometimes means stepping back to build the next version properly.

    12 min
  8. 41 Things Every (Senior) Creative Strategist Learns Too Late

    30/12/2025

    41 Things Every (Senior) Creative Strategist Learns Too Late

    In this episode of Brain Driven Brands, Sarah and Nate play a rapid-fire game of Smash or Pass with some of the most overused, misunderstood, and quietly dangerous ideas in modern marketing. We tear into things most teams can't say out loud… and the ones they're afraid to admit: – Why you can't optimize an emotion that was never there – Why most "testing" is really just for the founder's ego – How beautiful creative can hide a serious idea drought – Why iteration can be growth (but usually isn't) – And how creative fatigue is often just leadership fatigue in disguise This isn't a how-to episode. It's a how-are-you-thinking episode. We talk about idea tracking vs. concept hoarding, empathy vs. data, AI vs. taste, speed vs. depth—and why most ads fail because they're answering questions no customer ever asked. If you're running paid media, managing a creative team, or quietly wondering why "doing more" keeps working less… this one will feel uncomfortably familiar in a good way. (Listen for the moments where we disagree. That's where the real insight lives.) Original tweet:https://x.com/SarahLevinger/status/1994428068220273056?s=20 👉 Join my community: skool.com/tether-lab CoHost: Nate Lagos Twitter: https://x.com/natelagos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natelagos/ Tactical and Practical Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tactical-practical/id1752915534 CoHost: Sarah Levinger Learn more at: https://www.tetherinsights.io/ Twitter: https://x.com/SarahLevinger Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah.levinger/ Watch me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg

    22 min
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About

Host Sarah Levinger breaks down the advanced neuromarketing secrets of 9-figure brands (like True Classic, Spotify, and Plants vs. Zombies) to show you psychology tactics any e-commerce brand can use today to cut costs, boost sales, and captivate the masses.

Information

  • Creator
    Sarah Levinger
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    135
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2024
  • Show Website
    Brain Driven Brands

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