Nate Mal

The Walter White of natural products. Creator of the world’s 1st remineralizing chewing gum

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@drewfallon12 Its easier than ever to go from 0 to 1

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

Still so far from being done but already the hardest thing I've ever done.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@davidsenra I have such immense respect for builders, those who make great products. It’s super hard to manufacture anything.

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@t35la5ux Sounds like they got to choose. I'm happy for them.

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

Remember when they tricked women into thinking they should contribute to society by getting a job instead of raising their kids

Good times lol

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@N1ghtmareMo0n_ Samez❤️

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@s47487948 Record-breaking sales 2 days in a row
Guess you're right ❤️

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

Buddy, I'm saying they should get to CHOOSE.

Convincing women to work was the fastest way to double the amount of taxes collected.

Increasing taxes ensured they'd be stuck there. Now most have NO CHOICE but to work.

They gave them a job and called it independence. They did the same thing with cigarettes via the "torches of freedom" campaigns

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@Goodcitizen71 You people are crazy
And wrong.

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

Spruce was Americas first chewing gum. The early native Americans chewed it for its teeth cleaning and gum soothing properties. But by the 1960s the big gum companies switched to a synthetic plastic and rubber gum base and now every brand uses garbage ingredients and chewing gums no longer have any benefits. It’s sad really.

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@theisaacmed Food is super easy tho
Especially candy

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@willnitze Simple, they want them to be bad
Thats the only way any of these hot piles of garbage make sense

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@ERodz3 @theisaacmed Indulgence and aesthetics

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@theisaacmed Oouf, I feel your pain

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@michaelpatron0 The privilege of being an Amazon seller should be enough 🙂

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

Creating buyer personas is a waste of time

Instead, create product and creative that’s so compelling it pierces through personas to the person swiping

Exhibit A: Pineapple Pizza

[Sarah 🦕 @SarahLevinger]

𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀. 😅

Age, income, hobbies, favorite podcasts, emotional pain points…

We build entire strategies around persona data, hoping it’ll help us craft campaigns that resonate, so we can capture attention, drive conversions, and scale brands.

😡 But here’s the part that bugs me:

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗼’𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝘂𝘁. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝗶𝘀.

And those two are NOT THE SAME THING.

A creative strategist friend of mine recently ran a test to see which of internal "self" might purchase more.

1 ad targeted the customer’s "Ideal Self".
1 ad targeted the customer’s "Ought Self".
1 ad targeted the customer’s "Actual Self".

Same product. Same creative framework.
But they each had completely different outcomes. 🤯

Here's what we saw when we tested this in the ad account:

→ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 ��𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁.

Great CTR, tons of carts...but the lowest AOV and the worst LTV.

→ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱.

Lower conversion rate… but they bought more overall and kept coming back.

→ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘆𝗽𝗲…

Entirely. Those ads didn't do much in the ad account at all.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 “𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆” 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘂𝘀𝗲.

They optimize for surface-level clicks, not behavior that compounds, and it's all because we've over inflated the importance of a "persona" in marketing.

Don't get me wrong...knowing who you're selling too is important...

But the typical "persona" only tells you who your buyer is on 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳. It says nothing about which self shows up at the moment of decision.

If your ads don’t match the self most likely to buy (and buy BIG) you might win the click…

But you'll lose the customer.

𝗦𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗳��𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝘀, "𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮 [𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮] 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 [𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹]?"𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳:

1. Am I writing to a persona?
2. Or am I speaking to the self that actually swipes the card?

Because only one of those builds a brand that lasts.

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

Spooky stuff

It’s times like this that I feel good about going through the pain and suffering of

- being my own manufacturer
- not taking on debt
- staying lean
- saving every extra grain of powder

The biz could drop by 95% and we would survive.

[Taylor Holiday @TaylorHoliday]

Is our industry collapsing?

If you aren’t a night owl you probably missed a really good conversation between

@rishabhmjain
@JeremiahPrummer
@aaronrubin
@seanfrank
@YardenShaked
And even @harleyf

About the stuff of the DTC ecosystem.

So I threw together a quick “TaylorReacts!” Mini to give you a recap.

All original tweets LinkedIn thread.

What’s your take?

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

I have a 30 page deck of these if you guys want to work together @david_protein

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@DOGE

USPS mails me a pile of refund checks for lost packages every week.

It’s cool…. but there has to be a better way.

Plz fix

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@KevinEspiritu Pugs, and it would be a pleasure

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@AsyncCollab @SMB_Attorney Ending income tax is the only way I’d be able to stomach these tariffs

[Nate Mal @chewsbetter]

@oshalchemy They should do this. I say this as full blown addict of these snax and a frequent visitor on the site.