In this episode, Doug and Logan Karam discuss:

• Surface-level vs. deep AI adoption in organizations
• Blending structured and unstructured data with AI in workflows
• Leadership, culture, and task forces for AI enablement
• Why tool access and training alone don’t drive adoption
• The power of AI champions and security-first AI rollout

Key Takeaways:

• Many companies stall at surface-level AI use because they don’t invest the time to deeply understand capabilities or rethink how work is actually structured.
• Real AI impact comes from redesigning workflows, identifying where time is lost, standardizing processes, and embedding AI directly into how tasks get done.
• Adoption is driven by culture and leadership: curious, hands-on teams combined with leadership that mandates rethinking work will move faster than any one “type” of department.
• Measuring AI success requires looking beyond basic usage metrics and focusing instead on cycle times, output volume, performance improvements, and behavior shifts.
• Individual power users and AI champions can dramatically shape how an organization adopts AI, but they must be supported by strong security practices and a cross-functional partnership with IT.

“My thinking has really shifted from adoption is not just an educational problem, but it's a design problem. You have to really change how the work actually happens, and there's a lot of work that goes into that.”  - Logan Karam

About the guest, Logan Karam:

Logan Karam is a Program Director, AI at Fabletics, bringing expertise in program leadership and strategic operations within the apparel retail sector. Their background demonstrates a focus on driving program initiatives and optimizing business processes. Within Fabletics, Logan has progressed through several roles, including AI Program Lead and Operations & AI Program Lead Senior Manager, Strategy. Earlier, at TechStyle Fashion Group, they served as Senior Manager, Strategy & Operations, contributing to strategic planning and operational improvements within the apparel and accessories retail environment.

Logan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University and graduated from Lutheran High School of Orange.

Connect with Logan Karam:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/logan-karam/ 

Fabletics: https://www.fabletics.com/ 

SubSummit will be in Kansas City, May 13-15, 2026

Attend SubSummit FOR FREE Here: 

https://subsummit.com/hosted-merchant-meetings-program/ 

You can also register here: https://subsummit.com/tickets/ 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: 

https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Doug and Domonique Brown discuss:

• AI’s role in retention and post-purchase experience
• Turning voice-of-customer data into real-time CX improvements
• Understanding churn drivers beyond price and discounts
• Automating CX with chatbots while preserving human touch
• Experimentation and strategy for AI-first retention workflows

Key Takeaways:

• When brands obsess over front-end offers and ignore the post-purchase journey, churn rises and lifetime value drops.
• To truly own the customer experience, teams need shared success metrics and a steady drumbeat of customer data flowing across the organization.
• Relying on discounts as a catch‑all fix is a mistake; most cancellation attempts are rooted in UX friction, convenience issues, or lack of education—not just price.
• AI chatbots are ideal for handling high-volume, repeatable, time‑sensitive requests, which lets human agents focus on the nuanced, emotional, and complex situations where they add the most value.
• Whether you’re a fast-growing newcomer or a long‑established brand, you must keep experimenting with AI and iterating your systems to stay aligned with evolving customer behavior and expectations.

“No matter where you are as a brand, whether you are just getting started or whether you are a legacy brand, we're all in the same place. We're experimenting to learn and meet our customers wherever they are.” - Domonique Brown

About the guest, Domonique Brown:

Domonique Brown is the Head of Customer Experience at Liquid I.V., where she has spent the past seven years leading customer support operations, CX technological innovation, voice of consumer data and analytics, and AEO/GEO initiatives. She brings nine years of experience in the direct-to-consumer subscription space, primarily across beauty, health, and wellness brands. At SubSummit 2026, her expertise centers on AI in customer experience, strengthening collaboration between CX and retention teams, improving the end-to-end subscription experience, and building loyalty programs that drive deeper customer engagement and long-term retention.

Connect with Domonique Brown:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/domonique-brown-42229baa/ 

SubSummit will be in Kansas City, May 13-15, 2026

Attend SubSummit FOR FREE Here: 

https://subsummit.com/hosted-merchant-meetings-program/ 

You can also register here: https://subsummit.com/tickets/ 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: 

https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Doug and Robbie Giles discuss:

• Meta CPM inflation and AI-driven algorithm shifts
• Building creatives that grab the attention of the right people, not just anyone
• Sequencing performance, precision, and trust at scale
• Messaging and visual congruency from ad to landing page
• Rethinking metrics: CTR, CVR, and the power of funnel rate

 Key Takeaways:

• As Meta gets more expensive and algorithmically sophisticated, brands must move beyond simple hook swaps and build genuinely distinct creatives for different audience segments.
• The path to scalable growth starts with precise performance marketing to identify what resonates, then layers on trust through believable promises, proof, and product quality.
• Creatives that win don’t just grab attention; it filters for the right intent so algorithms learn from qualified engagement instead of noisy clicks.
• Consistency between the ad message, landing page copy, and visual identity builds trust and can drive meaningful conversion lifts, especially at scale.
• Evaluating click-through rate or conversion rate on their own can mislead teams; optimizing for the combined funnel rate from impression to conversion is far more powerful.

“I've learned that you can find similarities and learn lessons from companies that actually are very dissimilar.” - Robbie Giles

About the guest, Robbie Giles:

Robbie Giles is the SVP of Consumer Marketing at MasterClass, where he’s turning clicks into customers and marketing into momentum. He leads big-budget campaigns across Meta, Google, TV, and more—mixing sharp data with bold creative to fuel serious subscriber growth. Before that, he helped build the marketing engines at Fandango and Vudu, and got his start at Disney.

Since 2015, MasterClass has been the place where you don’t just learn—you learn from the best. One membership gets you in the room (virtually) with world-class instructors across business, writing, sports, and more.

Connect with Robbie Giles:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robbie-giles-a16a5b29 

SubSummit will be in Kansas City, May 13-15, 2026

Attend SubSummit FOR FREE Here: 

https://subsummit.com/hosted-merchant-meetings-program/ 

You can also register here: https://subsummit.com/tickets/ 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: 

https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Doug and Adam Pivko discuss:

• Creative ladder framework
• CPA–LTV performance metrics
• Scaling creative with feedback loops
• Continuous testing and 1% daily improvement
• Media buying as data acquisition

Key Takeaways:

• Treat creatives like a ladder, not a lottery, and that means ranking assets by effort and forcing every idea to “earn” its way up by proving performance at lower rungs first.
• Clicks and surface-level engagement can mislead; what truly matters is how efficiently you acquire customers and what they’re worth over time.
• Build a tight feedback loop between data and creatives.
• Chase 1% daily improvement instead of home runs because compounding small wins through continuous testing will move your business further than rare “hero” ads that you hope will save the quarter.
• When you see each dollar spent as a way to acquire better, richer insight, you expand what you’re willing to test, learn faster, and unlock more profitable scale.

“To me, media buying is the acquisition of data, and the byproduct of buying better and better data is more profitable revenue.” - Adam Pivko

Adam Pivko at SubSummit:

Adam will be at SubSummit in May. His session is presented along with Phoenix Ha, catch her episode on The SubSummit Podcast as well. The title of the session is “Building & Deploying High-Volume, High-Value Creative Engines.”

About the guest, Adam Pivko:

Adam Pivko is the Chief Marketing Officer at Direct Meds and a long-time operator in the recurring revenue and subscription space. At Direct Meds, he focuses on building and scaling high-volume, high-value creative engines, leveraging a “creative ladder” framework to systematically test and improve ad performance. Adam is deeply driven by an ethos of getting 1% better every day, using continuous experimentation, CPA-to-LTV metrics, and data-driven media buying—where he views media buying primarily as the acquisition of better data. A frequent participant in the Sub Summit community, Adam shares his expertise with founders, CMOs, and growth leaders who are scaling paid media and creative at significant daily spend levels.

Connect with Adam Pivko:

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

Company: https://www.tryautumn.com/ |  https://directmeds.com/ 

SubSummit will be in Kansas City, May 13-15, 2026

Attend SubSummit FOR FREE Here: 

https://subsummit.com/hosted-merchant-meetings-program/ 

You can also register here: https://subsummit.com/tickets/ 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: 

https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

In this episode, Doug and Reba Hatcher discuss:

• Transition from subscription to retail
• Customer data and Voice of the Customer
• Packaging, labeling, and on-shelf presence
• Loyalty programs and in-person customer experiences
• Retention signals and subscription flexibility

Key Takeaways:

• Going from subscription to shelf, ButcherBox leaned into retail because a huge portion of shoppers still decide dinner at 4 p.m., a moment the subscription model alone can’t reach.
• A tight, disciplined brand story has to live on a tiny piece of packaging. 
• Channel-specific behavior should shape your product format, and after a failed experiment putting boxes on shelves, ButcherBox realized they needed to sell like the rest of the meat aisle—individual cuts, familiar presentation—while still signaling they’re different through design and claims.
• Real loyalty comes from embedding into everyday meals, not just special occasions. 
• Human conversations can be your most advanced data tool, and through Sizzle Society and Chef’s Table dinners, Reba’s team hears unfiltered stories about freezers, family drama, and failed defrosts—context that reframes how ButcherBox designs experiences, messaging, and support.

“We know we are the healthiest option for protein on the planet that you can get delivered... and we're here to transform the meat industry and become the world's first beloved meat brand, because there isn't one—that's our reason for being.” - Reba Hatcher

About the guest, Reba Hatcher:

Reba Hatcher is the Chief Commercial Officer at ButcherBox, where she leads top-line revenue growth and develops new, innovative revenue streams. She oversees pricing, merchandising, revenue retention, and partnerships for the direct-to-consumer meat brand, which recently expanded from a 100% subscription model into major retail channels, including Target and Costco. With a strong focus on being customer-obsessed, Reba champions data-driven decision-making, robust Voice of the Customer programs, and analog, in-person customer experiences such as ButcherBox’s Sizzle Society loyalty program and its Chef’s Table dinners. 

Connect with Reba Hatcher:

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

SubSummit will be in Kansas City, May 13-15, 2026

Attend SubSummit FOR FREE Here: 

https://subsummit.com/hosted-merchant-meetings-program/ 

You can also register here: https://subsummit.com/tickets/ 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: 

https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

• Subscription retention and LTV
• Community-driven social commerce
• Authentic, high-performing creative
• Future of live selling
• Building high-volume, high-value creative engines

Key Takeaways:

• Brands obsessed with front-end acquisition but neglecting retention are essentially pouring customers into a leaky bucket, and real LTV power comes from keeping people past months 3, 6, 9, and 12.
• What used to be dismissed as “soft” brand or engagement data now clearly drives repeat purchase and advocacy, as seen in her examples of sneaker culture, TikTok discovery, and constant but thoughtful touchpoints.
• Authenticity in creative outperforms overproduced content. 
• Churning out hundreds of weak iterations isn’t a creative engine; the operators winning are those who build systems that generate many high-quality variations rooted in real consumer behavior and self-skepticism (“would I actually buy this?”).
• Live selling is an under-exploited frontier for subscriptions. 

“The biggest currency is to be able to monetize off of a very authentic and genuine moment. And that's very difficult to do.” - Phoenix Ha

About the guest, Phoenix Ha:

Phoenix Ha is an e-commerce growth operator specializing in building high-velocity creative and performance marketing systems that drive scalable revenue for subscription and social commerce brands. She previously co-founded and led Ad Beacon, a first-party data platform built for the post–iOS 14.5 ad landscape, and helped scale social commerce at Instant Hydration, drawing on a background that spans media buying, SaaS, experiential brand building, and influencer/community management.

Known for her focus on retention, community, and authenticity in creative, Phoenix challenges brands to ask, “Would I actually buy this—and keep subscribing?” Her work centers on turning real consumer behavior into high-performing creative engines, with a sharp eye on the future of live selling and long-term LTV growth.

Connect with Phoenix Ha:

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

X (Twitter): https://x.com/_phoenixha 

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

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@phoenixha 

SubSummit will be in Kansas City, May 13-15, 2026

Attend SubSummit FOR FREE Here: 

https://subsummit.com/hosted-merchant-meetings-program/ 

You can also book your tickets here: https://subsummit.com/tickets/ 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: 

https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

• Brands excelling at subscriptions
• Whisker’s data-driven subscription and engagement strategy
• Subscription conversion experiments and UX changes
• Discount and offer testing for subscriber acquisition
• The feedback loop: community, CX, and continuous optimization

Key Takeaways:

• Whisker’s growth engine is its own app ecosystem, which converts litter box buyers into highly engaged subscribers by feeding behavior and device data into CRM. 
• The “hide buy-once” experiment shows how small UX changes can massively shift subscription mix without hurting revenue. 
• Discounting is treated as a testable lever, not a default growth tactic, and Mike’s team is carefully watching whether aggressive first-order offers (35% sitewide and 50% off litter) deliver durable subscriber value or just front-load signups that quickly churn.
• Whisker’s active Reddit base and close partnership with the CX team surface real-world friction in the subscription experience, directly informing roadmap and UX changes.
• A subscription program is managed more like a living product than a one-time setup. 

“From the SubSummit conferences I've been to in the past, I've always garnered a lot from hearing from the speakers and from different companies about their successes as well as their shortcomings.” - Mike Woodall

About the guest, Mike Woodall:

Mike Woodall is the Director of CRM & Subscriptions at Whisker and an experienced digital marketing leader with over 12 years of expertise in email, CRM, and retention lifecycle marketing. He has built and optimized high-performing customer engagement programs for both startups and established enterprise companies. Mike has deep experience working with leading CRM and marketing automation platforms, including Braze, Oracle Responsys, Klaviyo, and Iterable. Known for his strengths in client retention strategy, growth forecasting, and cross-functional leadership, he effectively collaborates with executive teams while guiding marketing initiatives that drive long-term customer engagement and business growth.

Connect with Mike Woodall:

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

Website: https://www.whisker.com/ 

SubSummit will be in Kansas City, May 13-15, 2026

Attend SubSummit FOR FREE Here: 

https://subsummit.com/hosted-merchant-meetings-program/ 

You can also book your tickets here: https://subsummit.com/tickets/ 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: 

https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

• What SubSummit is and who it serves
• How SubSummit differentiates itself from other conferences
• The “Crossroads of Commerce” theme and changing omni‑channel expectations
• Key trends in recurring revenue and customer experience
• Who will be at SubSummit and how to attend

Key Takeaways:

• Sub Summit is built by people who have actually run subscription businesses, so its content is grounded in real operator experience rather than theory, and attendees leave with practical playbooks and solutions they can plug directly into their own recurring revenue models.
• Sub Summit is designed for intentional, problem-solving conversations, especially through daily industry roundtables where 6–10 merchants dig into specific challenges together. 
• “Omnichannel” is no longer a buzzword at Sub Summit—it’s treated as a baseline expectation that brands truly live across product placement and marketing.
• Flexible options like visible pause/cancel features, buy-now-pay-later, and value-adding partnerships are presented as core levers for long-term retention and higher LTV.
• Sub Summit emphasizes relationship-building as much as learning, with examples of attendees forming ongoing peer groups and mentorships that persist long after the event. 

“We’re not talking theory, we’re not talking ambiguous ideas. It’s really practical knowledge, and you’re walking away with those playbooks that you can immediately apply to your business.” - Jennifer Cline

About Jennifer Cline:

Jennifer Cline is a data-obsessed marketing leader who turns audience insights, engagement metrics, and behavioral trends into high-impact strategies. As Chief Marketing Officer at SubSummit, she focuses on growing and supporting the global recurring revenue ecosystem—spanning subscription, membership, loyalty, and rewards. Jennifer thrives at the intersection of DTC, e-commerce, and retail, using data to refine messaging, optimize content, and uncover the next big shifts in consumer behavior. At SubSummit, the only event dedicated to the $3 trillion recurring revenue economy, she leads the charge in creating experiences where brands connect, learn, and leave with actionable strategies that drive real results.

Connect with Jennifer Cline:

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

SubSummit will be in Kansas City, May 13-15, 2026

Attend SubSummit FOR FREE Here: 

https://subsummit.com/hosted-merchant-meetings-program/ 

You can also register here: https://subsummit.com/tickets/ 

Book your meeting with Christopher George from SubSummit here: 

https://meetings.hubspot.com/chris3306/linkedin-profile?uuid=0c103e97-4adc-4c16-bbe6-794c92ab9c61 

About SubSummit:

SubSummit brings together thousands of executives and operators from established enterprises, direct-to-consumer, fast-growing startups, innovative tech companies, active investors, and more. These pioneers come from across a broad range of industries, including e-commerce, media, publishing, retail, streaming, SaaS, digital, automotive, and beyond.

From FabFitFun to Walmart+ to MasterClass, the world’s leading brands leverage SubSummit to remain catalysts in consumer engagement and product experiences.

Simply put, if you’re in subscription, membership, or recurring revenue, you’re at SubSummit.

Website: https://subsummit.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/subsummit/ 

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

Show notes by Podcastologist: Hanz Jimuel Alvarez

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.