Robert Gilbreath is a fractional executive specializing in CEO, CMO, and COO roles for SaaS and e-commerce companies. He provides consulting services in areas including go-to-market strategies, SEO, product development, and C-suite coaching. Robert is also an Executive at Rivur, a technology startup for managing construction projects online. Previously, he served as the Vice President and General Manager of ShipStation, where he led teams of over 175 employees and managed substantial marketing budgets.

Running a business requires constant decision-making, but over time, even high-performing leaders can find themselves mentally drained. The barrage of choices, from the smallest daily tasks to high-stakes strategic moves, can lead to decision fatigue, quietly killing momentum, clarity, and joy. How can founders and executives protect their mental energy while leading effectively?

According to fractional executive Robert Gilbreath, leaders can reduce decision fatigue by simplifying routines, creating clear macro-level goals, and building frameworks that empower teams to make decisions independently. He suggests documenting your decision-making process, blocking out your calendar, and leveraging structured frameworks like SBAR (situation, background, assessment, recommendation) and the double diamond diagram to clarify problems and guide teams. Additionally, prioritizing sleep and exercise and reducing unnecessary decisions allows founders and leaders to preserve mental clarity for crucial choices.

In this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris interviews Robert Gilbreath, fractional executive CEO, CMO, and COO, about overcoming decision fatigue in business leadership. Robert talks about breaking decision-making paralysis, how fear impacts leadership choices, and how to empower teams to make informed decisions.

Panagiota Hatzis is the VP of Human Resources at HexClad Cookware, a hybrid cookware company. With over 15 years of experience in HR, she has led people and teams through hyper-growth, global expansion, and major cultural transformation. Panagiota is also an Executive Coach at MentorPass and Leaderology. Before HexClad Cookware, she was the Vice President of Human Resources at Common Thread Collective, where she helped scale the company from 20 to 80 employees across 10 states.

Scaling a company from $10 million to $100 million requires more than just great products or marketing; it demands an intentional and strategic approach to building and leading teams. Yet many leaders overlook people operations as a vital growth lever, treating HR as an administrative function rather than a revenue and culture driver. How can businesses rethink their people strategy to avoid burnout, misalignment, and stalled growth?

People operations and organizational psychology expert Panagiota Hatzis emphasizes repositioning HR as a strategic business partner aligned with EBITDA goals. This requires maintaining relational equity — trust and mutual respect — between leaders and teams and optimizing processes to minimize burnout. Building culture intentionally through frequent communication, transparency, and accountability is crucial for maintaining alignment as you scale to the next stage of revenue.

In this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris interviews Panagiota Hatzis, VP of Human Resources at HexClad Cookware, about using people operations as a strategic growth engine. She explains how to encourage guilt-free time off for employees, the difference between effort and authentic business results, and how to close the gap between leadership intent and the employee experience.

Sam Nebel is the Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Goodwipes, an eco-friendly personal care brand known for its flushable and biodegradable wipes. He launched the brand with his college friend to create a stigma-free alternative to traditional bathroom products. Sam is also a board member of the Responsible Flushing Alliance and was a Regional Manager and a founding team member at Party Degree, where he catalyzed the growth of one of its branches to over seven figures in annual event and nightclub sales.

Some consumer products entrepreneurs stall when trying to scale from $10 to $100 million in revenue. They often underestimate operations, overestimate the impact of marketing, and delay building scalable systems until it’s too late. What does it take to build a durable, category-leading brand that lasts?

Operations-focused entrepreneur Sam Nebel scaled his brand by committing to operational excellence, product superiority, and category leadership. He emphasizes the importance of establishing supplier relationships early, hiring specialized talent to elevate execution, and prioritizing product quality and the consumer experience. Data-driven decision-making is crucial for outperforming the competition and positioning your brand as a category leader. Sam also recommends planning your infrastructure ahead of growth by reverse-engineering from long-term goals and identifying the capacities, vendor relationships, and supply chain redundancies needed to scale.

In the latest episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris sits down with Sam Nebel, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Goodwipes, to discuss building and scaling a high-performing CPG brand. Sam talks about shifting your role as a founder to scale, how operations impact product performance, and the value of consumer-driven product design.

William Harris is the Founder and CEO of Elumynt, an e-commerce growth agency focused on profit through hyper-scaling. Elumynt has been featured in Inc. Magazine as an Inc. 5000 Winner and Best Workplace Winner. William has helped acquire 13 companies, including one that sold to GoDaddy. He’s also published over 200 articles on the topic of e-commerce in Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Shopify, and more.

Scaling an e-commerce brand from $10 to $100 million requires forward-thinking strategies and adaptability. Many companies rely too heavily on what worked during earlier growth stages, underinvest in systems, and fail to evolve leadership. In a rapidly shifting market flooded with noise, how can brands future-proof their strategy and leverage AI without losing their human touch?

As an AI chatbot developed by xAI, Grok outlines a detailed 12-month growth playbook rooted in strategic diversification, operational upgrades, and smarter hiring. Grok emphasizes the importance of accurate attribution when expanding marketing channels, leveraging AI for hyper-personalized customer journeys, and setting strict performance benchmarks to know when to pivot or cut tactics. However, AI is not a silver bullet; if a brand lacks a compelling product or clear value proposition, no algorithm can compensate. AI should act as a strategic enhancer rather than a crutch.

In today’s exclusive episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris interviews Grok, created by xAI, about using AI to scale e-commerce brands. Grok shares what an AI-first brand will look like in 2030, whether AI can become truly conscious, and the ethical concerns about its rapid development.

Caitlin Choate is the Global Head of Marketing at Boatsetter, a peer-to-peer boat rental platform. With nearly 15 years of experience building disruptive brands, she has led marketing efforts at companies like TOMS, Google’s Nest, Airbnb, and Yumi. Caitlin’s work has been recognized by Cannes Lions and the Webby Awards for innovation and storytelling.

Marketing isn’t just transactional; it requires building emotional resonance with customers through memorable experiences with a brand. It’s easy to sell a product, but how do you sell a lifestyle, a sense of identity, or even a community? How can companies balance bold creativity with performance and data-driven ROI?

Brand builder and creative marketer Caitlin Choate believes that connecting with customers emotionally begins by designing marketing that mirrors real-life human experiences. She recommends leveraging user-generated visuals, generating stories that emphasize emotional connection over product specs, and integrating creative, data, and performance teams. Caitlin also highlights the value of running measurable, high-reward experiments to foster brand growth and category domination.

In this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris converses with Caitlin Choate, Global Head of Marketing at Boatsetter, about turning product transactions into lifestyle-driven brand movements. Caitlin discusses brand versus performance alignment, using PR and influencers as a storytelling medium, and why cultivating serendipity can catalyze unexpected career opportunities.

Jesse Allouf is the Chief Marketing Officer at Tire Agent, an online tire and wheel retailer. He previously served as the Senior Vice President of Marketing, leading the brand through a growth curve by focusing on first-click signals and fintech data. With over 15 years of experience in marketing and e-commerce, Jesse has held leadership roles at companies like Knot Standard, YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP, and Alpargatas S.A.

Which customer signals drive growth? Many e-commerce companies focus on lagging growth indicators, like conversions or revenue, when they should optimize for intentions rather than outcomes. How can businesses shift their focus to leading indicators that reveal customer intent and drive sustainable growth?

Data-driven growth expert Jesse Allouf encourages brands to shift their focus to first-click signals and on-site behaviors to unlock results. He recommends building a solid data foundation, identifying less obvious behavioral patterns — like wishlist activity or account creation — and working cross-functionally with data science and development teams. By gradually testing changes and aligning leadership around data-backed insights, e-commerce companies can optimize marketing spend and increase customer lifetime value.

Join William Harris in this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast as he welcomes Jesse Allouf, Chief Marketing Officer at Tire Agent, to discuss optimizing e-commerce growth through data insights. Jesse explains the importance of consistent messaging, how to align marketing efforts with finance and leadership, and the fundamentals of e-commerce growth.

Jeff Oxford is the Founder and SEO Director of 180 Marketing, an e-commerce SEO provider. With over seven years of experience in e-commerce SEO, he has led over 200 SEO campaigns for brands like MasterCard and Belkin. Jeff frequently speaks at industry conferences and created LinkHunter, a tool designed to streamline link outreach efforts.

As SEO becomes more complex, competitive, and intertwined with AI-driven search, e-commerce brands struggle to adapt. With constant algorithm updates, disappearing clicks, and the rise of AI search integrations, how can brands break through the noise and rank effectively without wasting time or falling behind?

According to SEO strategist Jeff Oxford, ranking for SEO in an AI-driven landscape requires more than surface-level adjustments. Instead, Jeff recommends leveraging AI tools to improve rankings by providing them with detailed brand and audience information, focusing on topical authority by answering all relevant customer questions, and prioritizing backlinks and brand mentions to increase domain authority. Additionally, brands should be selective in their efforts by targeting specific funnel stages, optimizing category pages over blog posts for conversion, and aligning pricing with rankings.

In the latest episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris chats with Jeff Oxford, Founder and SEO Director of 180 Marketing, about optimizing for SEO in a zero-click, AI-driven landscape. Jeff talks about ranking first for competitive keywords, his two-part framework for building topical authority, and how to improve AI search and visibility.

Christian Limon is the former Chief Growth Officer at Wish, which was the top spending advertiser on Google and Facebook. He was also the Chief Growth Officer at Tubi and Gemini. Throughout his career, Christian has achieved five exits and $28 billion in IPO and M&A proceeds. He has launched 20 apps and led 33 more apps on growth and monetization.

Eric Seufert is the General Partner at Heracles Capital, a pre-seed venture capital fund focused on the mobile technology ecosystem. After beginning his career at Skype, he held a marketing leadership role at Rovio, where he launched Angry Birds 2. Eric also founded Agamemnon, a mobile marketing analytics startup acquired in 2017. He is the author of Freemium Economics and manages Mobile Dev Memo, a blog on mobile advertising and monetization.

Today’s marketers face a challenging paradox: the more data they have, the harder it is to identify what's valuable. Between conflicting attribution reports, algorithm-driven campaign shifts, and pressure to scale fast, many teams optimize for metrics that don't move the needle. How can growth leaders cut through the noise to build scalable and realistic strategies?

Seasoned mobile growth strategist Christian Limon emphasizes the need for broad, strategic creative testing that breaks out of traditional methods like UGC. He recommends marketers tap into unconventional sources and avoid over-controlling creative input. Leading economic and digital marketing strategist Eric Seufert urges brands to prioritize commercial outcomes like profit and ROAS rather than exclusive platform metrics. Marketers can also use AI to enhance workflows and generate ideas for optimizing LTV.

Join William Harris in today’s episode of the Up Arrow Podcast as he chats with Christian Limon, growth strategist, and Eric Seufert, General Partner at Heracles Capital, about optimizing growth marketing. Together, they discuss how to identify meaningful marketing metrics, how to build systematic, creative-first campaigns, and the dangers of over-diversifying channels.