The Andrew Faris Podcast

Patrick Coddou, COO and engineering-minded builder at AJF Growth, builds custom ops software called AJF OS. He explains vibe-coding, replacing multiple tools with one platform, and prioritizing real operational pain points over shiny AI demos. They discuss centralizing brand assets, automating routine tasks, and building durable systems that keep humans in the loop while scaling creative consistency.

Cody Plofker, CEO of Jones Road Beauty and co-host of Marketing Operators, shares hands-on ecommerce and media-buying experience. He breaks down Meta reach problems and bidding history. He explores value optimization tradeoffs and measuring long-tail impression value. He champions Reels-first creative, partnership ads, and building organic creative systems. He also touches on balancing CEO duties with family life.

Lara Guevara, CEO of Move Supply Chain with 17 years in sourcing and freight strategy. She breaks down how the war in Iran is driving fuel surcharges, rerouted shipments, and sudden price hikes. Short, tactical moves are highlighted: audit freight invoices, map tier‑two suppliers, prioritize SKUs, and prepare negotiation data to protect DTC operations.

Cherene Aubert, founder and CEO of Growth Capital and former growth lead at Common Thread Collective and Bobby, shares DTC tactics for beauty and wellness brands. She discusses how sampling and trials revealed demand, why bundles lift first-order value, the trade-offs between conversion and AOV, and when subscription incentives help or hurt long-term growth.

Andrew Foxwell, founder of Foxwell Founders and Foxwell Digital, is a digital marketing expert who studies agency trends. He discusses surprising findings from the State of Agencies report. He digs into how agencies use AI for research, creative production challenges, client reactions, when AI helps versus creates chaos, and why only a small share see clear AI ad winners.

David Gaylord, cofounder and CEO of BushBalm, built a $30M, bootstrapped hair removal brand that started DTC and scaled via salon-first wholesale. He explains building a pro portal, low-friction wholesale signup, trade show plus digital acquisition, and community-driven loyalty. Topics include targeted product assortments, limited drops to energize pros, and reallocating spend from ads to product and service.

A deep dive into how AI will magnify both strong and weak agency methods. Discussion of why documenting repeatable processes and operationalized knowledge will decide winners. Warnings about automated landing pages and convincing but harmful outputs. Practical pointers on what brands should ask agencies and which playbook elements matter most.

Drew Marconi, founder and CEO of IntelliGems and A/B testing expert, breaks down where most experiments go wrong. He explains why premature wins mislead, why longer, replicable tests matter, and how pricing, offers, and shipping thresholds move the needle. Practical testing strategy and automation get plenty of attention.

Patrick Coddou, COO and product lead at AJF Growth who builds AI tools like AJF OS. They dig into agency revenue models and pod staffing. They debate whether clients value dedicated strategist time. They explore AI’s impact on capacity, creativity, and team wellbeing. They describe building AI tools, avoiding feature noise, and choosing sustainable growth over frantic scaling.

Gregg Carey, founder and CEO of More Staffing and former ecommerce operator, builds lean teams by pairing top Filipino talent with tight workflows. He discusses hiring higher-caliber offshore professionals, creating SOPs, dashboards and KPI triggers, and using AI to automate decision escalations. The conversation focuses on operational leverage, inventory and financial discipline, and tooling that scales a small team’s impact.