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We'Re super excited to announce the launch of our slack community for D2C pod. This is a space exclusively for D2C founders and operators to connect, share ideas, ask questions and support each other. You'll be able to engage with the best minds and operators and consumer and currently we're on a wait list and it will open up the community Once we reach 150 members. So apply using the link in the description and we hope to see you on Slack. So before we kick off today's recording, I've got one more for you. Keeping up your momentum this year starts with the right selling tools and if you're looking to increase revenue, grow faster, build more pipeline and close more deals, check out the all new sales hub from HubSpot. You'll be able to manage your whole sales process plus my favorite part, the reporting. It's super intuitive, powerful and customizable.

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What is going on DTC Pod Today we are joined by Caleb Alvarez, the founder of shadowlight Studios, a creative studio specializing in high converting paid and organic content. Caleb has worked with some of the biggest D2C brands and just big consumer brands that you would know. Maybe like Monster Energy, Snapchat, Samsung on the brand side, and some big names like Tony Hawk, Logan Paul, Rob, Ice Cube and many more to help refine their creative strategies and maximize return on all the content that they're putting out. In today's episode we're going to break down how to create better content, how to build and scale a content engine, and how to find the right balance between organic content and the content that you're using to then run your ads. We're going to unpack everything from finding the right creators to optimizing creative briefs, measuring campaign success and why so many brands are leaving money on the table by ignoring organic content. And Caleb's also going to help us unpack how he helps scale nectar seltzer from 2 million to 5 million in revenue just using organic content without any paid ads. So I know there's a lot I'm really excited for this convo. Caleb, I'm going to let you kick us off.

Why don't you tell us a little bit about your background, how you got into this space in the first place, and then we'll jump into everything. Content.

Perfect. I love that. I appreciate the kickoff for myself. I originally got into content out of a spark of curiosity. Honestly, I played sports my whole life. I genuinely didn't believe I was creative. If you asked me going through school, I would have told you I'm not creative whatsoever. And then as I was playing sports, I started to realize if I were to break it down through a sports lens, I was actually very creative.

I was doing things playing on the field that I couldn't even recreate. I couldn't tell you how I was doing these things. And I was like, wow, that is like a form of creativity. As I started to learn more, I mean, go through my personal development of just learning more about myself, right? And so I got here playing soccer, I had a variety of different scholarships, decided to not take any of the scholarships and go and work at a diner and make waffles for $12 and 50 cents. And it was very interesting because what I decided to do is the opposite of what everyone else was doing, right? It was go to school, get a job. And this was around 2018. And I just saw this lens of Instagram and social media, and I was like, there's going to be this huge break where this is such a high demand and it's going to be needed. And it hit me when I was watching the super bowl, and I said, wait a second.

Someone has to create these commercials that I'm not paying attention to. And I realized that there's so many different responsibilities when it comes to the creative world and film. And I said, you know what? That's what I want to go and pursue, right? I want to find something that I get lost and I can sit and edit videos and be creative, right? And so I decided not to go to school and pursue film. And through that job, I bought my first camera, started editing videos on my iPhone. I didn't have the proper gear. I didn't have the proper tools at the time. But through. Through compounding time and results, like, I acquired the right tools and acquired the right skill sets.