Word of Mouth

Social Snowball
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

The emotional support pod for ambitious founders, marketers, and creators

Episodes

  1. Aug 5

    The One Hack Left in Growth Marketing

    What happens when the person running growth at nine-figure brands decides the entire growth marketing industry is broken?Cherene Aubert knows a thing or two about it. She spent nearly two decades in growth, scaled Bobbie from zero to nine figures in two years, and then ran the full digital business at ILIA Beauty — DTC, Amazon, global advertising, data, and customer experience. She walked away from what she calls her dream job to start Growth Capital, a brand-led growth agency staffed with senior operators, because she watched brands hand million-dollar-a-day budgets to people in their first or second job and then ask why the business wasn't growing.In this episode, our host Robyn Nissim sits down with Cherene as she shares why social commerce is the flywheel that separates the brands still scaling from the ones stalling out, the step-by-step TikTok Shop playbook from P&L to creator community, and how she learned to quantify brand during a national infant formula crisis by tracking share of voice instead of sales.Presented by Social Snowball.KEEP IN TOUCH 👋📲 Follow Cherene Aubert on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/chereneetemadi/ )📲 Follow Cherene Aubert on X (https://x.com/chereneaubert )📲 Follow Robyn Nissim (https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/ )📲 Follow Word of Mouth (https://www.instagram.com/wordofmouth.pod/ )☃️ Learn more about Social Snowball (https://www.socialsnowball.io/ )💌 Join our community (https://wom.beehiiv.com/ )CHAPTERS00:00 - The problem nobody in growth marketing will admit01:04 - Meet Cherene: Bobbie, ILIA, and two decades in growth02:24 - Why growth marketing has no apprenticeship05:13 - How the pandemic finally made organic matter08:09 - What a performance marketer learns inside a brand-first company09:30 - The one thing every fast-growing brand has in common11:35 - Quantifying brand during the infant formula crisis13:21 - Shutting down the business to protect subscribers14:40 - Share of voice, the White House, and the Ashley Graham campaign16:37 - The brand love finance teams refuse to count18:45 - How TikTok collapsed the beauty funnel19:53 - TikTok Shop as a content and awareness engine22:14 - Step one: where your brand actually fits on TikTok Shop23:43 - The Javy coffee story and the omnichannel proof26:54 - Why Super Bowl ads are usually a bad investment27:30 - Unexpected white space and the TikTok-to-Amazon halo29:36 - Building the P&L before you build the program32:27 - Recruiting creators and running them like a sales force34:43 - Why social and influencer should be their own function35:41 - The Sephora field sales lesson behind every affiliate program36:14 - Scaling a community from 17M to 24M with education38:27 - What's really stopping brands from doing this39:08 - The only two growth hacks left40:31 - The new pipeline to CMO42:21 - If your ad isn't made for that screen, it fails43:19 - The Ulta program that hit $1M in six months44:34 - Retail media versus paying influencers to go in store47:55 - Organic as the testing ground for paid48:56 - The burnout that put her in bed49:44 - You are in control of your rest52:48 - Her father's rule: work fits the container you give it53:39 - Nine months in: delegation and resourcing the opportunity55:00 - Building an agency of senior operators57:22 - Fixing the broken apprenticeship in growth58:09 - Her word of mouth: respected, loved, appreciated59:18 - Kindness is the biggest cheat code

  2. Aug 5

    Every VC Rejected Him — Then He Sold His Company for $35M at 26

    What happens when every VC says no—and you build a $35M company anyway?Noah Tucker knows a thing or two about it. At 26 years old, he sold Social Snowball—the creator-affiliate platform used by thousands of ecommerce brands—to publicly traded Dotdigital in a deal valued at $35 million. A nontechnical founder who started by hiring engineers on Fiverr, Noah went on to build Safe Links, solve one of affiliate marketing’s biggest attribution problems, and help creators earn more than $25 million through the platform in a single year.In this episode, our host Robyn Nissim sits down with Noah as he shares why being rejected by every VC turned out to be a blessing, what selling a company really looks like behind the scenes, and why real customers matter more than expert opinions. They also unpack the number one mistake brands make with creators, the future of performance-based affiliate marketing, and how founders can keep moving even when they feel completely defeated.Presented by Social Snowball.KEEP IN TOUCH 👋📲 Follow Noah Tucker on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-tucker-%E2%98%83%EF%B8%8F-71a294154/) 📲 Follow Noah Tucker on X (https://x.com/noatuck) 📲 Follow Robyn Nissim (https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/) or (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rnissim) 📲 Follow Word of Mouth (https://www.instagram.com/wordofmouth.pod/)☃️ Learn more about Social Snowball (https://www.socialsnowball.io/?utm_source=wom) 💌 Join our community (https://wom.beehiiv.com/)CHAPTERS00:00 - Introduction: Trust Your Gut and Keep Jumping00:57 - Meet Noah Tucker: Founder of Social Snowball03:19 - How Safe Links Solved the Honey Coupon Problem09:40 - The #1 Affiliate Marketing Mistake Brands Make12:19 - How to Build a Gamified Affiliate Program16:08 - Turning Creator Partnerships Into a Performance Channel18:00 - $25M Paid to Creators & $250M Generated for Brands19:33 - The 30 VC Rejections That Changed Everything24:30 - Why Not Knowing What He Was Doing Became an Advantage25:27 - The Early Hiring Mistake He’s Still Paying For27:29 - Selling Social Snowball at 26: “Maximum Hard Mode”31:56 - The 200-Page Agreement & 72-Hour Closing Sprint35:36 - The Moment the Deal Finally Closed38:34 - Why Dotdigital Chose Social Snowball40:46 - Life After the Exit & Becoming Chief Influencer Officer42:49 - Building the Future of Creator-Affiliate Matchmaking49:16 - Advice for the 19-Year-Old Founder Everyone Doubts52:34 - How to Keep Going While Feeling Defeated54:56 - Word of Mouth: The Legacy Noah Wants to Leave

  3. Jul 15

    How Hannah Perez Built a $40M Brand and Stayed Sane

    Is it possible to scale a brand to $40M without burning out? Hannah Perez knows a thing or two about it. At 28 years old, she is the co-founder of SEEQ, the clear protein brand that is rapidly taking over shelves at Target, Sam’s Club, and Vitamin Shoppe. With a lean team and a massive vision, she’s redefining what it means to build a category-leading brand without sacrificing her well-being. In this episode, Hannah shares her framework for the “energy audit,” why she believes the secret to hustle culture is actually taking breaks, and how founders can navigate the delicate transition from working in their business to working on it. Our host Robyn Nissim. Presented by Social Snowball. KEEP IN TOUCH 📲 Follow Hannah Perez: https://www.instagram.com/hanxperez/ 📲 Follow Robyn Nissim: https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/ 📲 Follow Word of Mouth: https://www.instagram.com/wordofmouth.pod/ ☃️ Learn more about Social Snowball: https://www.socialsnowball.io/?utm_source=wom 💌 Join our community: https://wom.beehiiv.com/ CHAPTERS 00:00 — Introduction: The Secret to Scaling Without Burning Out 01:03 — Meet Hannah Perez: Co-Founder of SEEQ 03:28 — The “Energy Audit” Framework Explained 09:30 — Scheduling Your Life Around High and Low Energy Blocks 13:03 — Building a Business That Fits Your Lifestyle 14:59 — Operating in Your Zone of Genius vs. Zone of Excellence 18:35 — The Door-to-Door Sales Internship That Built Hannah’s Resilience 23:31 — Is Success a Mindset You’re Born With? 26:57 — Recognizing the Signs of Burnout 31:49 — Reframing “Busy” and Protecting Your Nervous System 36:34 — SEEQ’s Explosive Growth and Preparing for $40M 42:12 — Hiring a VP of Marketing and Letting Go as a Founder 47:49 — When Viral Content Doesn’t Drive Sales 49:37 — Navigating the Co-Founder Relationship and Psychological Safety 56:20 — Advice to the 25-Year-Old Founder Grinding 90 Hours a Week 59:51 — Word of Mouth: What Hannah Wants Her Legacy to Be

  4. Jun 30

    How Daniel James Scales Fashion Brands Past $100M

    What separates good marketers from the ones who build iconic brands? Daniel James knows a thing or two. He has turned fashion and apparel brands into nine-figure ecommerce giants. In this episode, we’re unpacking the principles behind breakout growth, why creative has become the ultimate growth lever, and how AI is changing the way the best teams operate. Hosted by Robyn Nissim. Presented by Social Snowball. KEEP IN TOUCH 📲 Follow Daniel James https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieljamesgraham/ 📲 Follow Robyn Nissim: https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/ 📲 Follow Word of Mouth: https://www.instagram.com/wordofmouth.pod/ ☃️ Learn more about Social Snowball: https://www.socialsnowball.io/?utm_source=wom 💌 Join our community: https://wom.beehiiv.com/ CHAPTERS 00:00 — Preview 01:21 — Meeting Steven Bartlett and Learning the Power of Obsession 05:22 — Why Focus Beats Doing Everything 07:38 — Building a Fashion-First Growth Agency 10:50 — The Biggest Mistakes Fashion Brands Make 14:25 — Why Creative Is the New Targeting 16:04 — Paid Partnership Ads and the Future of Meta 21:00 — How to Test Creative That Actually Performs 23:08 — Why Paid Marketers Should Pay Attention to Organic Social 26:32 — When Brands Should Start Investing in Brand Marketing 32:09 — How Great Creative Briefs Are Built 33:48 — Using AI to Run a Smarter Business 35:26 — AI, Forecasting, and Inventory Planning 37:59 — Getting an Entire Team to Embrace AI 42:33 — Why Performance Marketing Is So Unforgiving 45:30 — The Emotional Reality of Agency Life 49:03 — What Entrepreneurship Really Demands 52:56 — What Daniel Wants to Be Remembered For

  5. Jun 25

    AI Gives Everyone the Same Tools. How Do You Make Your Output Original? With Nate Schlimme

    AI is making it easier than ever to create. The challenge is making something worth paying attention to. Nate Schlimme is the CMO of MOSS, the functional beverage brand co-founded by Michael B. Jordan. With a lean team and a growing brand, he's using AI to move faster, create more, and rethink how modern marketing gets done. In this episode, Nate shares his framework for authentic intelligence, why taste may be the ultimate competitive advantage, and how marketers and creators can use AI to amplify their creativity—not replace it. Hosted by Robyn Nissim. Presented by Social Snowball. KEEP IN TOUCH 👋 📲 Follow Nate (https://www.linkedin.com/in/schlimmenate/) 📲 Follow Robyn (https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/) 📲 Follow Word of Mouth (https://www.instagram.com/wordofmouth.pod/) ☃️ Learn more about Social Snowball (https://www.socialsnowball.io/?utm_source=wom) 💌 Join our community (https://wom.beehiiv.com/) CHAPTERS 0:00 — Preview 1:10 — Meet Nate Schlimme 3:17 — AI as a competitive advantage 4:19 — Nate’s AI tech stack 6:17 — Using AI without outsourcing your brain 8:02 — Are marketers cooked? 9:16 — Getting started with AI 12:14 — Building a campaign workflow with AI 13:02 — Projects vs. chats 14:01 — Prompting AI to prompt you 15:35 — Where human judgment still matters 16:43 — What differentiates the output? 17:31 — Authentic Intelligence 18:55 — Taste as a competitive edge 21:19 — Can junior marketers use this framework? 24:03 — The Age of Authorship 26:17 — Building a personal brand with AI 27:34 — Climbing Cringe Mountain 32:00 — Turning product shots into hundreds of assets 34:29 — AI-generated lifestyle imagery 37:18 — Empowering teams with AI 38:31 — Why companies still need designers 40:31 — AI agents and the future of work 43:02 — The real cost of using AI 45:36 — Taking a day off from AI 46:03 — Why touching grass still matters 49:20 — What AI still gets wrong 50:05 — Why you need to triple-check the work 52:28 — Finding better creative references 53:05 — AI, copyright, and business safety 58:11 — Using AI to understand customer feedback 58:32 — Nate’s word-of-mouth message 59:19 — Where to find Nate

  6. Jun 17

    10 Questions with Robyn Nissim on Influencer Marketing, AI, and Burnout

    Everyone wants influencer marketing to work. But nobody tells you what to do when your CEO wants ROI in 30 days, creators stop responding, and you're running three jobs at once. In this solo episode, our host, Robyn Nissim, answers the questions she gets most often from influencer marketing managers. You'll learn how to measure influencer success, manage burnout, navigate AI, improve creator outreach, and build programs that actually drive business results. Presented by Social Snowball. KEEP IN TOUCH 👋 📲 Follow Robyn (https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/) 📲 Follow Word of Mouth (https://www.instagram.com/wordofmouth.pod/) ☃️ Learn more about Social Snowball (https://www.socialsnowball.io/?utm_source=wom) 💌 Join our community (https://wom.beehiiv.com/) CHAPTERS 0:00 — Preview 1:36 — Proving influencer ROI in 30 days 3:46 — Getting your founder off your content calendar 5:01 — Should marketers be worried about AI? 6:23 — Surviving as a team of one 8:05 — Working with creators on a small budget 9:26 — The metrics leadership actually cares about 10:48 — Why creators keep ghosting you 13:02 — Starting on TikTok 14:22 — Knowing when it's time to leave your job 15:16 — The biggest mistake brands are making right now

  7. Jun 10

    How Wildling Beauty Built a Cult Brand for $40K, and Why That Became a Problem

    Consumers don’t just buy products. They buy rituals, identities, and stories. Wildling Beauty helped bring Gua Sha into the mainstream, but building a category-defining brand turned out to be the easy part. Gianna De La Torre is the co-founder of Wildling, the wellness brand that transformed an ancient skincare practice into a multimillion-dollar business. In this episode, Gianna shares what happened after Wildling exploded in popularity, the challenges of scaling a bootstrapped brand, and the tools that have helped her navigate entrepreneurship, parenthood, and burnout. Hosted by Robyn Nissim. Presented by Social Snowball. --- KEEP IN TOUCH 👋 📲 Follow Gianna De La Torre (https://www.instagram.com/gianna.delatorre/) 📲 Follow Robyn Nissim (https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/) 📲 Follow Word of Mouth (https://www.instagram.com/wordofmouth.pod/) ☃️ Learn more about Social Snowball (https://www.socialsnowball.io/?utm_source=wom) 💌 Join our community (https://wom.beehiiv.com/) --- CHAPTERS 0:00 — Preview 1:21 — The chance encounter that sparked this conversation 3:44 — Becoming known as “the gua sha girl” 8:03 — From acupuncturist to Wildling co-founder 10:02 — Educating consumers before gua sha was mainstream 12:04 — The pandemic growth boom 14:05 — Scaling a business faster than infrastructure can keep up 17:19 — Why Wildling had to reinvent itself beyond gua sha 20:16 — Influencer marketing and creator partnerships that actually work 24:59 — Evolving from a beauty brand into a wellness brand 27:08 — Neuroplasticity and learning as a founder 28:12 — Psychedelics, grief, and personal healing 33:14 — Rewiring thought patterns and building resilience 35:33 — Applying healing practices to entrepreneurship 37:03 — Burnout, motherhood, and finding recovery in micro-moments 40:50 — Signs of a dysregulated nervous system 42:43 — Meditation, yoga nidra, and modern stress 44:17 — Navigating cultural appropriation conversations as a founder 47:54 — Community, growth, and lessons learned along the way

  8. Jun 2

    The Real Reason Most Employee Advocacy Programs Fail, with Lia Haberman

    Consumers trust people, not brands. So why are most companies still hiding behind a logo? Lia Haberman is the brains behind employee advocacy strategy for organizations like Google and Robert Half. In this episode, she breaks down why most advocacy programs fail, what employees actually need to get engaged, and how the smartest brands are turning employees into creators, thought leaders, and growth engines. --- KEEP IN TOUCH 👋 📲 Follow Lia (https://www.instagram.com/liahaberman/) 📲 Follow Robyn (https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/) 📲 Follow Word of Mouth (https://www.instagram.com/wordofmouth.pod/) ☃️ Learn more about Social Snowball (https://www.socialsnowball.io/?utm_source=wom) 💌 Join our community (https://wom.beehiiv.com/) --- CHAPTERS 0:00 — Preview 1:06 — How Robyn and Lia met through LinkedIn 3:12 — Why consumers trust people more than brands 4:08 — Why most employee advocacy programs fail 5:51 — Building a culture employees actually want to share 6:54 — The training gap holding companies back 9:09 — The three models of employee advocacy 10:22 — From Chick-fil-A to Staples: employee creators done right 13:21 — Building internal influencers and a North Star employee 15:58 — The first three steps to launching an advocacy program 18:34 — The biggest mistake companies make in the first 90 days 21:00 — Legal, compliance, and content ownership 22:08 — Why approvals kill great employee content 23:21 — Product launches, prompts, and content frameworks 28:29 — Why B2C brands are sleeping on LinkedIn 29:20 — How Lia landed a partnership with The RealReal 32:14 — Building a personal brand while working a 9-to-5 34:11 — Corporate creators, exclusivity, and conflicts of interest 39:20 — The dark side of visibility and online influence 43:25 — The real cost of building a personal brand 47:16 — Why bringing your whole self to work matters 50:21 — Difficult conversations and social media expectations 52:54 — What happens when employee advocates leave? 55:19 — Word of Mouth: Nice, Smart, and Get Sh*t Done

  9. May 27

    Earn Attention: Zack Honarvar on the New YouTube Brand Deal

    What happens when brands stop treating creators like ad inventory — and start treating them like storytellers? In this episode, Robyn sits down with Zack Honarvar to unpack why the future of marketing belongs to creators who know how to build culture, not just drive clicks. Zack breaks down the massive shift happening inside YouTube brand partnerships, why most companies are still structuring creator deals completely wrong, and how the best creator campaigns today look a lot more like Hollywood productions than influencer ads. They get into: Why most brands kill creator partnerships before they even startThe problem with measuring ROI on a 24-hour timelineWhy creators need long-term partnerships — not one-off sponsorshipsHow YouTube creators are becoming modern-day studiosThe real reason social, influencer, and performance teams struggle internallyWhy “making the brand cool” is actually a valuable KPIHow a Pizza Hut creator campaign turned into a Super Bowl commercialWhat YouTube’s new DBS (Dynamic Brand Segments) ad product could mean for the creator economyWhy creativity is the greatest unfair advantage in modern marketing If you work in influencer, creator partnerships, media, social, or performance marketing — this episode is a masterclass on where the industry is headed next. --- KEEP IN TOUCH 👋 📲 ⁠Follow Zack 📲 ⁠Follow Robyn⁠ 📲 ⁠⁠Follow Word of Mouth⁠ ☃️ ⁠Learn more about Social Snowball 💌 ⁠Join our community⁠

  10. May 19

    What Brands Are Actually Paying For. Sophie Jaffe on 15 Years of Influencer Work.

    Sophie Jaffe has been an influencer since before the word existed. She built Philosophie, a superfood brand, in her kitchen 15 years ago, ran it for over a decade, and made the call to shut it down on her own terms. She's done 8 brand deals a week to buy a house. She's hit the wall. She's come back. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on what creators actually say about brands in the group chat: how comp should really work, why one creator can't carry the whole revenue line, and what brands keep getting wrong about cold outreach, attribution, and sales transparency. She also gets honest about the personal side. The hustle that bought her family's home, the panic attacks that followed, losing her mom, closing Philosophie, and what it looks like to come back from full burnout without losing yourself in the process. For founders, marketers, and creators trying to figure out the human side of this work. Follow Sophie at https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jaffe Follow Robyn at https://www.instagram.com/igobyrobyn/

  11. Trailer

    Introduction: Welcome to Word of Mouth

    Most eCom marketing content out there is just the highlight reel.The wins.The viral campaigns.The “overnight” successes.This show is about what’s underneath that.Each week, we sit down with world-class founders, marketers, and creators to explore the stuff we don’t talk about enough.The 2am anxiety.The big bet that flopped.The negotiation that changed everything.We'll go behind the scenes with the people building the brands you know and love to uncover what it really takes to create something great.But this show isn’t about storytelling… Our guests show their work.The blueprints. The untold strategies. The hidden costs.Each episode, you’ll walk away with something tactical you can apply to your business right now.Welcome to Word of Mouth.New episodes weekly. Subscribe and spread the word.

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The emotional support pod for ambitious founders, marketers, and creators

Information

  • Creator
    Social Snowball
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    11
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Social Snowball
  • Show Website
    Word of Mouth

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