In this episode of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, Reed Hansen sits down with Paul DiMuzio, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of Locklab, the telehealth brand helping thousands of men stop hair loss and regrow hair with a once-daily prescription pill.

This isn’t just a conversation about hair.

It’s about identity.
It’s about confidence.
It’s about selling something deeply emotional — in a market flooded with snake oil.

Paul breaks down how Locklab built a fast-scaling DTC telehealth brand by leaning into authenticity, real patient testimonials (not actors), and social-first marketing strategies that convert skeptics into believers.

💡 If you’ve ever wondered:

Is hair loss really about vanity — or identity?

How do you market in a scam-filled industry?

What actually works in direct-to-consumer telehealth?

How do you scale paid social without losing authenticity?

This episode delivers.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• The Psychology of Selling Confidence – Why hair restoration is emotional first, logical second
• Marketing in a Skeptical Industry – How Locklab wins trust using real patients in every ad
• Telehealth at Scale – How to sell prescription products online without killing the user experience
• Competing with Hims, Keeps & Transplants – Where Locklab differentiates
• Authenticity as a Growth Lever – Why community-driven comments outperform TV ads

👉 Key Highlights:

✅ Why most hair loss solutions don’t work — and how misinformation fuels the industry
✅ The strategic advantage of social-first DTC telehealth
✅ Why Locklab only uses real patients in their advertising
✅ The surprising relationship between hair transplants and medication
✅ The cultural debate: looksmaxing vs. embracing the bald

🌐 Learn more about Locklab:
👉 https://locklab.co

🎙️ About Inside Marketing with MarketSurge

Hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, this podcast breaks down what’s actually working in marketing today — minus the fluff.

If you’re a founder, marketer, or operator who wants real growth strategies (not recycled LinkedIn advice), you’re in the right place.

📈 At MarketSurge, we help you turn tools into systems — and systems into growth.

If you want automation that feels personal and performs like a team of 10, you’re in the right place.

🧠 Want to talk strategy or see it in action?
🎯 Book your 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee

🔗 Useful Links

🌐 Website: https://marketsurge.io

📘 Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio

🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/

🎙️ Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

🎧 Podcast Guest Placement (SurgeCast): https://marketsurge.io/surgecast

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a founder who still thinks shampoo is the solution.

Most entrepreneurs say they want freedom…

Then they build a job.

In this episode of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, Reed Hansen sits down with Chris Kille — founder, operator, and successful multi-seven-figure exit — to unpack what actually separates founders who scale from those who stay stuck.

Chris didn’t just “hire a VA.”

He rebuilt his entire business around systems.

After spending years buried in admin, stuck doing $10/hour tasks, and slowly starting to resent the business he built, Chris discovered something powerful:

👉 Hiring help isn’t the solution.
👉 Systems are.

By installing operational structure, delegating intentionally, and leveraging global talent the right way, he built one of the leanest businesses his acquirer had ever seen — and walked away with a life-changing exit.

Now, he helps founders stop being the bottleneck and start operating like real CEOs.

This episode is packed with tactical insights on delegation, global talent, micro-niching, and building a company that doesn’t depend on you to survive.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

Why hiring a VA without systems will fail (almost every time)

The 7-day time study that exposes where founders waste hours

The difference between an Operator and a CEO

Why “80% done by someone else” beats 100% done by you

How Chris built the leanest business his buyer had ever acquired

Why micro-niching changed everything in his exit strategy

Realistic expectations about global talent (and what most founders get wrong)

The books that reshaped how he builds and delegates

📚 Books Mentioned:

Who Not How

Buy Back Your Time – Dan Martell

Surrounded by Idiots

🔗 Connect with Chris Kille:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamchriskille/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chris.kille.9/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskille

📩 DM him the word “REED” on Instagram for his free Ultimate Guide to Virtual Assistants.

🚀 About Your Host – Reed Hansen

Reed Hansen is Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge and a seasoned digital marketing executive who has helped scale startups to Fortune 500 companies through innovative, data-driven strategies .

At MarketSurge, we help businesses turn scattered tools into scalable growth systems:

👉 A Customer Relationship Management platform built for service and product businesses focused on growth.
👉 Never miss a customer message.
👉 Manage all communications and contacts in one place.

Because your next breakthrough shouldn’t be a guess.

🧠 Want to grow smarter, faster, and louder?

🌐 Website: https://marketsurge.io

🎙️ Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

📘 Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio

🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/

🚀 What does flying Apache helicopters have to do with building the digital backbone of the U.S. cannabis industry?

More than you think.

In this episode, Reed Hansen sits down with Socrates Rosenfeld, CEO & Co-Founder of Jane Technologies (iHeartJane) — the platform quietly powering the majority of legal cannabis transactions in the United States.

From Army combat veteran to MIT MBA to cannabis tech pioneer, Socrates shares how discipline, mission clarity, and human-centered leadership helped Jane scale across 39+ states with 13 software patents and millions of SKUs.

This isn’t just a cannabis conversation.

It’s about:

• Building infrastructure in highly regulated industries
• Creating moats with clean data
• AI-powered personalization at scale
• And why complexity is often the opportunity

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• The leadership frameworks Socrates brought from the military into startups
• Why cannabis may be the most complex retail environment in the world
• How Jane built a master catalog of millions of SKUs (and why that matters for AI)
• The “Spotify Effect” of commerce personalization
• Why infrastructure > middleman in regulated industries
• What the future of digital + brick-and-mortar retail looks like

🧠 Big Takeaways for Founders & Marketers

✅ If it’s hard, lean into it — that’s where your moat lives
✅ AI is only as powerful as your dataset
✅ Shared “why” beats top-down execution
✅ Clean attribution > spray-and-pray marketing
✅ Regulated industries are innovation incubators

🔗 Connect with Socrates Rosenfeld & Jane Technologies

🌐 Website: https://www.iheartjane.com
📩 Email: info@iheartjane.com
🔎 LinkedIn: Search “Socrates Rosenfeld”
📱 Social: @iheartjane on LinkedIn, Facebook & Instagram

📈 Want to Grow Smarter, Faster, and Louder?

At MarketSurge, we help businesses build scalable marketing systems that actually convert — using automation, AI, and CRM tools that work together.

🌐 Website: https://marketsurge.io
📘 Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging
🎙️ Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/
📅 Book a Strategy Call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/marketsurge/demozvwcxw

🎧 Subscribe to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge for unfiltered conversations with the entrepreneurs, technologists, and operators shaping the future of business.

In this episode, Reed Hansen sits down with John Gumas, President of Commit Agency and the marketing strategist who literally trademarked the term Challenger Brand Marketing.

With over 40 years of experience, John has helped brands competing against much larger, better-funded “gorilla” competitors discover and defend positions no one else can own. From financial institutions to highly regulated industries, his methodology is built on one principle:

👉 You don’t win by being slightly better.
👉 You win by being meaningfully different.

🎯 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• What “Challenger Brand Marketing” really means
• Why most marketing campaigns fail before they start
• The 5-step challenger brand framework
• Why discovery is the most important (and skipped) step in marketing
• How to compete against brands with 10x your budget
• Why niche positioning beats trying to be everything to everyone
• A real-world credit union case study that transformed growth
• How to turn customers into loyal brand advocates

🧠 Key Takeaway

Most companies start marketing at step 3 or 4 (creative or media spend).

John explains why real growth starts with deep discovery — uncovering the true emotional reason customers choose you over competitors.

When you know that?

Your strategy becomes obvious.
Your messaging becomes clear.
Your growth becomes predictable.

📖 About John Gumas

John Gumas is the President of Commit Agency, formerly founder of Gumas Advertising (est. 1984), and the author of two books on Challenger Brand Marketing.

He has advised brands across financial services, regulated industries, and competitive markets — helping them shift from commoditized players to meaningful, differentiated brands.

Learn more about Challenger Brand Marketing:
👉 https://commitagency.com/challenger-brand-marketing/

Connect with John on LinkedIn:
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gumas-08046/

🎙️ About the Show

Inside Marketing with MarketSurge is your front row seat to bold business insights, marketing breakthroughs, and entrepreneurial real talk.

Hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, this podcast dives deep into what’s actually moving the needle in today’s marketing world.

🔥 Want to Grow Smarter, Faster, and Louder?

Head over to:
👉 https://marketsurge.io

See how MarketSurge helps businesses scale with:

• SEO & Organic Growth
• CRM Implementation
• Paid Ads Management
• Marketing Automation
• Full-Funnel Strategy

Because your next breakthrough shouldn’t be a guess.

Inside Marketing with MarketSurge | Featuring Jordan Dean Gordon

Email has been declared “dead” for years — yet it continues to outperform almost every other marketing channel when done right.

In this episode of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, Reed Hansen sits down with Jordan Dean Gordon, a 25-year veteran of ecommerce, email CRM, and customer retention. Jordan has held leadership roles across startups, successful exits, Amazon, and Realtor.com, and today leads teams at PilotHouse while hosting the World’s Best Email and Retention Podcast.

This conversation dives deep into why email remains one of the most powerful drivers of profitability, how it improves paid advertising ROI, and what most brands get wrong about funnels, metrics, and customer experience.

If you care about retention, scalability, and building an audience you actually own, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why email and SMS are more relevant today than ever before
• How email directly improves paid media ROI and lowers acquisition costs
• Why most brands chase the wrong metrics in email and CRO
• The role of abandonment, lifecycle flows, and long-term follow-up
• The 120-second psychological journey every website visitor goes through
• Which metrics matter at each stage of the funnel and which are overrated
• Why investing in the bottom of the funnel creates compounding growth

Key Takeaways:

• Email touches every stage of the customer lifecycle at a lower cost than ads
• Retention channels unlock revenue without increasing ad spend
• Conversion rate optimization can double revenue without more traffic
• Funnels fail when clarity, speed, and intent are ignored
• Brands that invest in email and CX scale faster and more profitably

Guest Links:
Jordan Dean Gordon on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordangordon/

PilotHouse
https://www.pilothouse.co

At MarketSurge, we help you turn tools into systems — and systems into growth.
If you want automation that feels personal and performs like a team of 10, you’re in the right place.

Want to talk strategy or see it in action?
Book your 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee

Useful MarketSurge Links
Website: https://marketsurge.io
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15wpKr1WmN/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/
Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

Because your next breakthrough shouldn’t be a guess.

Inside Marketing with MarketSurge | Featuring Jeff Coleman

Google Ads should be printing leads — so why does it feel like a money pit for so many businesses?

In this episode of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, Reed Hansen sits down with Jeff Coleman, founder of Factor Four Marketing, to break down what’s actually broken in Google Ads today — and what still works incredibly well when done right.

Jeff has been managing Google Ads since 2004 (back when it was simple, cheap, and didn’t require a 40-page dashboard) and now oversees more than $4 million in annual ad spend for businesses ranging from local service providers to Fortune 500 companies.

If you’ve ever been told to “trust the process” while your ad budget quietly burns, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why most Google Ads campaigns underperform, even when managed by agencies
• The number one conversion-tracking mistake that kills ROI
• Why “trust the process” is bad advice and what to trust instead
• Vanity metrics versus metrics that actually grow your business
• How to turn Google Ads into a predictable lead engine
• When Google Ads isn’t a good fit and when it’s a goldmine

Key Takeaways:

• Focus on the right conversions, not cheap distractions
• Separate branded and non-branded traffic to see real growth
• Know your numbers or Google will gladly spend your money
• Differentiation wins — “great customer service” doesn’t
• Results beat dashboards every time

Guest Links:
Factor Four Marketing: http://factorfour.com/
Jeff Coleman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcoleman21/

At MarketSurge, we help you turn tools into systems — and systems into growth.
If you want automation that feels per

🚀 Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge
Your front-row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies in the marketing game.

In this episode, host Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, sits down with Alan Kopelman, CEO and Co-Founder of Nationwide Payment Systems and the creator of the B2B Vault Podcast.

Alan’s entrepreneurial journey started early, working behind the cash registers in his family’s clothing stores in Miami. From there, his path took several unexpected turns — culinary school, becoming an executive chef, running food and beverage operations for major hotels, opening his own restaurant and catering company, and eventually finding his way into merchant services in 2001.

Alan co-founded Nationwide Payment Systems with a simple but powerful mission: deliver concierge-level service in an industry known for being confusing, transactional, and impersonal. Today, Nationwide Payment Systems serves over 1,000 clients nationwide across payments, fintech, SaaS, and regulated industries.

In this conversation, we dive into entrepreneurship, scaling service-based businesses, customer retention, payments risk, compliance, AI, fraud, and what Alan has learned after decades of building companies the hard way.

🎙️ Topics Covered in This Episode

• Growing up in a family business and learning the value of money early
• How hospitality and restaurant experience translate into better customer service
• Why most payment processors fail business owners
• Scaling a service business through referrals and long-term relationships
• The shift from traditional merchant services to fintech and SaaS
• How AI is impacting payments, fraud, and identity theft
• Understanding compliance in regulated and high-risk industries
• Why customer retention matters more than customer acquisition
• Using podcasts to build authority, trust, and relationships
• Lessons learned from 25+ years in entrepreneurship

👤 About the Guest

Alan Kopelman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Nationwide Payment Systems, a full-service payments and fintech company focused on transparency, compliance, and real human support.

He is also the host of the B2B Vault Podcast, where he interviews entrepreneurs and business owners about scaling, compliance, leadership, marketing, and real-world business challenges.

🔗 Connect with Alan Kopelman

Website: https://nationwidepaymentservices.com
Podcast: B2B Vault (available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube)
LinkedIn: Search “Alan Kopelman”

📈 About MarketSurge

MarketSurge is a customer relationship management platform built for service and product-based businesses focused on growth. Manage all your contacts, conversations, and automation in one place without losing the personal touch.

Website: https://marketsurge.io
Pricing: https://marketsurge.io/pricing
Photography Solutions: https://marketsurge.io/photography

🎯 Book a 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffeecg1hf1

🎙️ Inside Marketing with MarketSurge Podcast:
https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

📺 YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@surgingwithmarketsurge

📘 Facebook Business Page:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654

👥 Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15wpKr1WmN/

💼 LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio

🐦 X / Twitter:
https://x.com/marketsurging

📸 Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/

👍 Like, subscribe, and share if you want smarter, faster, louder marketing strategies without the fluff.

Welcome to Inside Marketing With MarketSurge — your front row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies in the marketing game.

In this episode, host Reed Hansen sits down with Skip Wilson, CEO of Draft Media Partners, to break down what actually works in advertising when budgets, expectations, and reality collide.

Skip shares his unconventional start in advertising at age 16, how a job meant to impress a girl turned into a lifelong career, and what he learned working at scale with brands like CNN, Clear Channel, and iHeartMedia. This conversation cuts through bad ads, bad assumptions, and bad marketing advice to get real about data, paid media, branding, AI, and why advertising is always a draft, never a final.

What you’ll learn in this episode:
• Why small businesses should think differently about branding versus direct response
• The real differences between six-figure and seven-figure ad budgets
• How to diagnose a “broken” ad campaign using data the right way
• Why AI is making organic marketing harder and paid advertising more important
• What needs to be in place before you should spend a dollar on ads
• The draft mentality and why great advertising is always a work in progress
• A hard truth about advertising most business owners don’t want to hear

Guest information:
Skip Wilson
CEO, Draft Media Partners

Website:
[https://www.draftadvertising.com](https://www.draftadvertising.com)

LinkedIn:
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipwilson/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipwilson/)

About the show:
Inside Marketing With MarketSurge is hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge. Each episode dives into what’s really working in marketing today, with unfiltered conversations, real-world insights, and strategies you can actually use.

MarketSurge links:
Website: [https://marketsurge.io](https://marketsurge.io)
Pricing: [https://marketsurge.io/pricing](https://marketsurge.io/pricing)
Book a 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
[https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee](https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee)

Podcast:
[https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/](https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/)

YouTube:
[https://www.youtube.com/@surgingwithmarketsurge](https://www.youtube.com/@surgingwithmarketsurge)

Facebook Page:
[https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654)

Facebook Group:
[https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15wpKr1WmN/](https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15wpKr1WmN/)

LinkedIn:
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio)

X / Twitter:
[https://x.com/marketsurging](https://x.com/marketsurging)

Instagram:
[https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/](https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/)

Want to grow smarter, faster, and louder?
Visit [https://marketsurge.io](https://marketsurge.io) and see how MarketSurge helps businesses turn marketing into a system that actually works.