To maintain an intimate customer connection while scaling, Way's leadership team intentionally pursues unscalable marketing efforts. They balance mass campaigns with high-touch, manual activities like creating small superfan communities, believing the most authentic brand relationships are built through non-scalable actions.
Differentiate marketing channels by their purpose. Use online platforms for broad reach and repeated touchpoints. Reserve offline, in-person events for fostering the genuine, vulnerable connections that are difficult to replicate digitally and are critical for building strong relationships.
If branding dilutes your high-touch founder sales process, the problem isn't the market. The solution is to "scale the unscalable" by creating a small, elite team trained to replicate the founder's one-on-one approach, even if they only perform at a B-minus level.
True scaling isn't about increasing tactical output like more content or funnels. It's about elevating your perceived authority and value. Your audience mirrors your truth and worth, so authentic messaging that subtracts "noise" is more effective than "performing productivity."
As AI automates content creation, the ultimate differentiator becomes authentic human connection. This means prioritizing "reading the room," sharing personal stories, and even being inefficient to foster genuine relationships. While AI optimizes for output, marketers who optimize for humanity will build more resilient brands.
Contrary to the belief that businesses must appear flawless, sharing behind-the-scenes struggles and unpolished content can build stronger community and loyalty. This raw authenticity resonates more with audiences than a curated image, humanizing the brand and making customers feel like part of the journey.
Unlike previous eras focused on broad, mass-market appeal, today's winning marketing strategy builds and mobilizes deep, committed tribes of followers. This 'cult and tribe' approach, exemplified by Elon Musk, secures capital, customers, and talent by fostering a phalanx of true believers.
True community building is a relentless tactical execution of engagement. Gary Vaynerchuk dismisses abstract strategies, citing his four-year practice of replying to every single tweet. The failure of most brands is ignoring the small-scale, consistent engagement that actually builds a loyal fan base.
A core brand-building strategy is to "do for one what you wish you could do for many." By creating deeply meaningful experiences for individual fans, such as supporting a grieving family, they generate powerful stories that define the brand's character and create an emotional connection that mass marketing cannot replicate.
Counter to the "growth-at-all-costs" mindset, Faberge deliberately built her business around a non-scalable core: one meaningful human connection at a time. She believes her role is to "ignite a fire" that spreads organically, rather than trying to control and meet everyone herself.
Way's CEO observes that while they once focused on a consistent brand aesthetic, today's social media algorithms favor inconsistency. They now operate like an in-house content machine, creating a mix of expensive, polished campaigns alongside "unpolished, rogue" lo-fi content tailored to each platform's unique culture.