204: Scaling a $100M+ Beverage Brand in an Industry Few Survive with Aaron Hinde
Release Date: 11/27/2025
217: How $100M DTC Brands Actually Measure Growth with Lomi Founder, Gareth Everard
Beyond A Million
In this episode, , founder of and co-creator and former CMO of ($100M+ in 2 years), explains why revenue growth can be misleading and what serious DTC operators track instead. We unpack Gareth’s 4-lever framework for building a profitable eCommerce business, how to calculate allowable CAC before you truly know LTV, and why relying on future LTV assumptions can quietly break your financial model. We also get into his preference for funding via revenue over venture capital, why bundling often beats subscriptions, and the launch mechanics that helped Lomi generate $3M in its first 72 hours on...
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216: Amy Jo Martin on Quitting Her Job to Multiple 8-Figure Companies
Beyond A Million
Amy Jo Martin built one of the first social media agencies because Shaq told her to. True story. Seven years later, she shut it down. Not because it failed, but because it worked in a way that locked her into a life she didn’t want. Walking away gave her the freedom to decide what to build next. Since then, she’s scaled multiple 8-figure companies, written bestselling books, and hosts the Why Not Now? podcast where she’s interviewed countless celebrities. This conversation is packed with value for entrepreneurs building at every stage. We also go deep on what building a social...
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215: Brian Luebben's Path from $750K to $10M in 3 Years
Beyond A Million
Two years ago, Brian Luebben was doing $750K a year. Now he’s posting million-dollar months. In this conversation, we break down what actually changed. It wasn’t a new tactic or growth hack. It was a shift in how he thinks about goals. That might sound a little woo-woo, but Brian explains why most entrepreneurs unknowingly limit their own growth, and outlines how a single shift in your thinking could completely alter the trajectory of your business. Not only does this conversation challenge how you think about growth, it also unpacks the operational decisions he made that supported...
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214: Why Most Content Fails (And How The Algorithm Decides What Wins) with Pedro Jerez
Beyond A Million
If you’re running content and ads without proof of what converts, you’re gambling. Today I’m talking with Pedro Jerez, an entrepreneur and growth strategist who’s led marketing for multiple 8- and 9-figure companies and spent years as a top 1% sales closer inside Tony Robbins’ organization. Pedro breaks down how a single, well-built offer can scale past 9-figures — and how to validate it in days, not months — instead of burning time and money on ideas that don’t convert. We get into the biggest content mistakes entrepreneurs make, the one metric algorithms use to decide...
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213: The Proven Formula That’s Driven Over $1 BILLION in Sales with Jeff Walker
Beyond A Million
Today, I’m talking with Jeff Walker—the creator of Product Launch Formula® and the pioneer behind the modern launch model that’s driven over $1B+ in documented sales—to break down why product launches fail… According to Jeff, it almost always comes down to one thing: the offer. Not only does Jeff break down where failed launches miss the mark, but we pull on that thread to explore how launches have evolved over the years. What no longer works? What role does AI play? And how can entrepreneurs adapt as buyers get smarter and attention gets harder to earn? Jeff’s been doing online...
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How High-Performers Decide What to Ignore (Behind the Scenes with Stu McLaren)
Beyond A Million
For a long time, being in rooms (masterminds, events, paid groups) were incredibly valuable for me. That’s where relationships were built, perspective expanded, and a lot of growth came from. But lately, I’ve been wrestling with whether that value still outweighs the cost—time, energy, relationships, broken routines, stepping away from the business, and more. And I know I’m not the only entrepreneur who struggles with this. That’s why I’m sharing this unreleased, behind-the-scenes footage from my interview with Stu McLaren. In it, Stu explains the exact rules he’s put in place to...
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212: The Recurring Revenue Model Used by 20,000+ Entrepreneurs with Stu McLaren
Beyond A Million
If your revenue resets every month, growth is harder to predict, and harder to scale. That’s why so many companies are moving toward a membership model. A lot of businesses assume recurring revenue doesn’t apply to them. Today’s guest has spent nearly two decades proving that assumption wrong. Stu McLaren has helped more than 20,000 entrepreneurs to launch, grow, and scale membership-based businesses across nearly every industry imaginable—and in this conversation, he breaks down how to identify where recurring revenue already exists in your business and how to structure it into a...
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211: How a “Boring” Business Sold for 2x Market Value with Will Duke
Beyond A Million
Physical security is a brutally competitive, commoditized industry. Most companies look the same, act the same, and sell for the same. Will Duke did things differently. And when it came time to sell, buyers lined up. He didn’t just exit the core business. Along the way, Will built an internal software platform to manage and track thousands of security devices for customers. That platform eventually became its own SaaS company, and both businesses were sold as part of the same exit, at roughly double market value. In this episode, we break down how he differentiated in a crowded market, what...
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210: How to Build a Luxury Brand That Attracts the Ultra Wealthy with Larry Walshe
Beyond A Million
Today, I’m sitting down with Larry Walshe, founder of , a global event design firm producing large-scale, luxury weddings and private events for ultra-high-net-worth families, celebrities, and royal households. While Larry’s roots are in floristry, his work goes far beyond flowers. His studio designs fully customized experiences—shaping the creative vision, transforming spaces, and defining how guests experience an event—while bringing together specialized artisans from around the world to execute complex, high-stakes productions. In this episode, Larry breaks down what it actually...
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209: How Amy’s Ice Creams Became Austin’s Most Beloved Brand with Amy Simmons
Beyond A Million
Amy Simmons is the founder of Amy’s Ice Creams—a beloved Austin institution with 19 locations built over 41 years—not through franchising or rapid expansion, but through deep community roots, creative culture, and an unshakeable commitment to people first. In this conversation, Amy shares how she grew the company without franchising, avoided national rollout, and even allowed each store to operate with its own personality. We get into the role theatrical customer service plays in the brand, how open-book management teaches financial literacy and strengthens decision-making, and why...
info_outlineStarting a business is hard. Starting a beverage company is almost impossible. With a 95% failure rate in year one and 99% by year five, most founders never make it out alive.
That’s what makes Aaron Hinde’s story so compelling. As the Co-Founder of FITAID, a clean-ingredient beverage brand now valued north of $100M, he’s navigated a landscape that destroys nearly everyone who steps into it.
In our conversation, Aaron breaks down the truth behind building in one of the harshest categories in consumer goods, from the retail relationships that quietly drain millions to the dozens of moments his company nearly went bust.
If you’re building a brand, scaling a team, entering a competitive market, or simply trying to figure out how to keep going when the pressure of entrepreneurship hits, this episode will reframe what’s possible.
Key Takeaways with Aaron Hinde
00:00 Intro
01:40 The Hidden Retail Fees That Kill Beverage Brands
05:09 The Most Important Metric Beverage Founders Should Track
07:56 The Real Differentiator Behind FITAID Energy Drinks
10:34 “Clean” Energy Brands That Aren’t Actually Clean
12:16 Deciding When to Launch (or Kill) a Product Line
17:13 Why Entrepreneurship Isn’t for Most People
21:12 Dean Jackson’s Framework for Defining Success
24:01 Resourcefulness, Persuasion, and Relationships at Work
31:29 How to Save Your Company When the Market Collapses
35:36 How Great Leaders Keep Their Teams Aligned
38:59 Facing Your Blind Spots As a Leader
45:24 The Non-Negotiable That Would Kill a $500M Offer
48:28 What He’d Do Differently If He Started Again
52:06 The Freedom That Comes From Dropping the Mask
53:39 Aaron’s Advice for New Entrepreneurs
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