Apply this to your brand today, and you'll make more money almost immediately.

Hey, it’s Alex.

Today, I want to make you this guarantee:

If you apply what I’m about to teach you in this email, your business will make more money - almost immediately.

Bold statement - I know.

Let’s dive in.

The Reality: You Are in the Business of Sales

It doesn’t matter what type of business you run - if you sell something, you are in sales.

Whether you sell a product, a service, or an experience, the formula is the same: you make a profit when demand for what you offer is greater than the available supply.

Profit lives in the gap between these two forces - and you want to be living with profit, full-time.

While there are many ways to drive demand, most founders rely on the obvious: run ads.

Unfortunately, this is where things can break down for many brands.

Businesses spend heavily on traffic and agencies, putting their growth in the hands of companies who focus largely on the "sale" - but not on delivery, positioning, or clarity.

Results rarely match, let alone exceed expectations.

Should you spend money on ads for your business? Hell, yes.

But if you don’t have clarity, then there will be no profit, and you’re operating at a 2/10 instead of a 10/10.

Traffic is not your problem.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: you probably don't have a traffic problem.

If you didn’t increase your traffic at all, and you suddenly had 10 in every 100 site visitors buy your product or service - what would your business look like?

Exactly.

The sharper your positioning on your website AND outside of it - in your digital ecosystem - the higher your conversion.

If your positioning isn't sharp, everything else starts to slip.

Your conversion rates drop.
Your average order value stalls.
Your retention suffers.
Your emails get ignored.
Your ad dollars feel wasted.

But when you get positioning right, it's a completely different story.

Suddenly you see higher conversion.
Your brand commands premium pricing.
You build real loyalty.

Your messaging does the heavy lifting for you - even while you sleep.

What Good Positioning Actually Unlocks

Clarity here creates transformation.

You start speaking in a way that instantly resonates with your ideal customer.

Your business stands out, not by being louder, but by being unmistakably different.

The result?

Customers start trusting your story - and choosing you - even when you're up against cheaper alternatives.

You own something far more valuable than market share.

You own a category in your customer's mind.

We call this - a category of one.

Why Most Brands Never Get Here

Why do most brands never cross this chasm?

Because they look and sound the same as everyone else. They focus on features, avoid taking strong stances, and never tell a transformation story worth paying for.

The difference with breakout brands is obvious once you see it.

They solve a specific problem no one else can.

They tell a narrative their customers actually want to join. And underpinning it all is a philosophy - a reason to exist that's more compelling than just making another sale.

That's the kind of clarity that our P.O.W.E.R. Positioning Framework is designed to create.

The P.O.W.E.R. Framework

It starts by understanding the real pain or frustration your customer feels.

What is the problem they wake up with?

Why did you create this brand in the first place?

What's your founder story - the origin that gives your business purpose beyond profit?

Then ask yourself: why you, specifically?

What is different about your product, your philosophy, or your approach?

Consider the emotional payoff. How should your customer feel after using your brand?

Finally, plot the roadmap to results. Can you clearly articulate how your product delivers transformation, step by step?

Work through each of these honestly, and you'll have the bones of positioning that actually sells.

Build Your Brand's Villain

One of the most overlooked drivers of loyalty is this: every strong brand has a villain. Not a cartoon bad guy, but a real-world enemy - something your brand stands against.

Maybe it's fast fashion.

Or harsh chemicals.

Or the "big box" mentality of faceless corporations.

Maybe it's slow shipping, or hormone-disrupting fragrances, or synthetic materials pretending to be premium.

Make your villain clear and your fans will rally for you. A defined enemy creates stronger loyalty than almost anything else.

My enemy?

Brands being mislead that ads will solve profit and conversion problems.

Ads don’t solve a conversion problem, they solve a traffic and awareness problem.

In my growth scorecard I see the problem over and over - brands are spending money on ads, but they don’t know a how to scale profitability.

That’s because, to focus 90% of your efforts on ads, is to ignore UX, CRO, Design, Email Marketing, SEO, Tone of Voice, Content - the list goes on - do you think any of these will impact your profit and conversion if you improved them?

I hope at this point, it is dawning on you that you need a better plan, not a hail mary. 

Your Brand Manifesto

As you dial this in, your brand manifesto emerges naturally.

This is more than a list of features or values. It's a set of beliefs - what you stand for, what you stand against, the philosophy that runs through your products, and the lifestyle you represent.

Your manifesto becomes the backbone of every campaign, piece of website copy, and social post. It's what makes your PDPs convert higher. It's what makes your email flows feel authentic instead of salesy.

It's what transforms a customer into an advocate.

The Transformation Statement

How do you articulate all this for your market?

Start here:

"We help [AUDIENCE] achieve [TRANSFORMATION] without [PAIN] using [UNIQUE MECHANISM]."

For instance: "We help men over 30 rebuild confidence with clean, minimalist skincare that actually works."

Or: "We help women with hormonal acne feel beautiful again using barrier-first formulations."

The formula is simple, but the effect is transformational.

Once you have this statement, everything else follows - your messaging, your positioning, your entire go-to-market strategy.

Your Next 15 Minutes

I want you to take 15 minutes and work through this.

Go to your calendar right now, and lock in 15 minutes within the next week to revisit this email and work through it.

This isn't optional if you want results.

Build a clear transformation statement for your brand. Define the villain in your story. Draft a manifesto you'd be proud to see above the fold on your site. Let your beliefs shape your marketing, not the other way around.

Before next week, challenge yourself to complete this exercise. Build out your villain. Draft your manifesto.

Share your biggest struggle - I'll get back to you personally.

What to Watch

Finally, remember to keep an eye on what really matters: the clarity of your messaging on your homepage, the coherence of your brand story across your product pages, the consistency of your voice in email, and the power of your first impression everywhere your customer encounters you.

That's where profit lives. That's where it's been hiding the whole time.

You've got this.

The Waitlist

This email touches on week 1 of my private coaching program for lifestyle brands on Shopify starting in January 2026.

Spaces are limited to 5 brands at a time, who I will personally work with weekly to transform their brand clarity and help boost their profit and conversion, all without additional ad spend.

To get notified first on when spaces are available, before the other 1500+ brands on this newsletter, reply “Waitlist”, and you’ll be added to the waitlist and be notified once I open up access.

Thanks for reading!

See you next week.

Alex Murton
Shopify for Lifestyle Brands
Co-Founder @ Studio Almond & Almond Labs.