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Good morning!
In today’s newsletter,
Know what works before you spend
How to scale creative output
Your Chinese Shipments Just Got $120/Container More Expensive
One of life’s most important decisions
Save time on board notes with Wispr Flow
This issue takes 2 minutes to read.
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Know what works before you spend.
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Growth Playbook
How to Scale Creative Output (Start With the Numbers)
Taylor Holiday and his team at Common Thread Collective (worked with some of the have produced tens of thousands of ads over the past decade.
When brands struggle to scale their creative output, it's usually because they're starting from the wrong place. They'll gather the team, brainstorm a bunch of concepts, produce a handful of assets, and then try to figure out if the budget works.
But Taylor does the opposite.
He starts with the financial goal and media budget first. Before anyone opens Figma or starts filming, the team uses their spend/aMER model and retention model to set channel allocation and efficiency expectations.
This is what gives you the constraints to actually build a creative plan that makes sense.
Because once you have that financial clarity, you suddenly know how many ads you actually need, what formats to prioritize, and which moments in your calendar require the most creative support.
The full system Taylor built has 5 steps that take you from financial modeling all the way through to tracking performance in a way that basically eliminates the silos between your creative strategist, media buyer, and growth team.
P.S.: I just did a super interesting podcast with Taylor last night. Will be live next week. Taylor breaks down the entire process of building your plan out for 2026. This is a must watch for every founder.
Fulfillment Friday
Your Chinese Shipments Just Got $120/Container More Expensive
Every container from China on a Chinese-built ship costs an extra $120 minimum now.
The fee structure:
Chinese-built vessels: $18/net ton OR $120/container (whichever is higher)
Chinese-operated vessels: $50/net ton
This stacks on top of your existing freight costs.
For reference, most 40' containers weigh 3-4 net tons empty.
What to do:
Check your ocean freight invoices from October onward. These fees should be itemized separately.
If you're planning Q1 inventory orders from China, factor this into your landed costs. A $120 fee on a $5,000 container shipment = 2.4% increase.
Your 3PL or freight forwarder can't waive this - it goes directly to the US Treasury.
Ship the message as fast as you think
Founders spend too much time drafting the same kinds of messages. Wispr Flow turns spoken thinking into final-draft writing so you can record investor updates, product briefs, and run-of-the-mill status notes by voice. Use saved snippets for recurring intros, insert calendar links by voice, and keep comms consistent across the team. It preserves your tone, fixes punctuation, and formats lists so you send confident messages fast. Works on Mac, Windows, and iPhone. Try Wispr Flow for founders.
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