Some of the best business ideas don’t come from a boardroom. They come from a slow conversation, a shared experience, and a product that forces you to sit down and actually talk. In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with Brandon Wells (aka Cigar Mechanic) to break down what a cigar broker actually does, how cigar brands grow without in-house reps, and why the cigar industry is still one of the most relationship-driven markets left. Brandon explains how he accidentally turned an Instagram handle into a real business, how cigar manufacturers choose between brokers vs in-house reps, and why “story” sells more than packaging in premium categories.

This is also a surprisingly practical episode for anyone in e-commerce, DTC, or brand building, because the cigar world exposes a truth most modern marketers ignore: People don’t buy products. They buy the experience behind them.

What You’ll Learn

- What a cigar broker actually does

- The 3 ways cigar brands sell

- Why relationships beat packaging

- How Brandon built Cigar Mechanic

- The key question he asks brands

- Why cigar lounges are loss leaders

- What most cigar shops do wrong

- How placement drives sales

- Why limited releases fail

- The real “cigar culture” advantage

- The surprising psychology of memory + products

- Why the cigar industry is behind in marketing

- How demographics really work in cigars

- Why value is personal (even at $300)

This episode is brought to you by:

- Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits

- House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/

- 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co

- Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/

- Levanta: Get 20% off Levanta's gold plan and book your call today - https://get.levanta.io/misfits

Timestamps:

00:00 What Is a Cigar Broker?

03:54 Meet Brandon Wells

05:07 How Cigar Mechanic Started

06:41 The “God Moment”

08:43 Cigar Broker Explained

09:28 3 Ways Brands Sell

12:30 Brandon’s Territory Strategy

13:44 The Interview Filter

15:59 The Million-Dollar Question

18:12 The Worst Cigar Lesson

23:11 Story Beats the Product

28:12 The Cigar Culture Effect

33:49 Why Canada Kills Lounges

49:56 How Lounges Make Money

Guest: Brandon Wells (Cigar Mechanic) Cigar broker, marketer, and founder

Instagram: @cigarmechanic

YouTube: Cigar Mechanic

YouTube: Voodoo Monkey Garage

About Marketing Misfits Marketing Misfits is hosted by Norm Farrar and Kevin King and features real conversations with operators, founders, and marketers. New episodes every Tuesday.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Entrepreneurs don’t burn out because they lack ideas. They burn out because they stay stuck doing work they should have left years ago. In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Norm Farrar and Kevin King sit down with James Friel, founder of 57 Hats, to break down why growing businesses start bleeding time, money, and energy and how founders can systematically escape roles that are holding them back.

James Friel explains why most businesses suffer from waste, poor role clarity, weak systems, and misaligned hiring, and why entrepreneurs must treat themselves like temporary “special forces”: build the system, extract yourself, and move on to the next constraint.

This is a practical, operator-level conversation about systems, hiring, delegation, performance management, and building businesses that can actually run without you.

If you’re wearing too many hats, struggling to hire, or wondering why revenue keeps growing but profits don’t, this episode will feel uncomfortably accurate.

Chapters

00:00 Entrepreneurs Die Inside

01:04 The Spider Prank Story

03:39 Meet James Friel

07:20 Businesses That Are Bleeding

08:32 Value vs Waste Explained

11:01 The Hiring Rollercoaster

12:11 Work Your Strengths

14:09 Know Your Real Profits

16:04 Build Systems First

18:47 The Special Forces Role

21:48 Buy Back Your Time

23:41 The Five Business Pillars

27:26 Agency vs In-House

31:09 Teams Aren’t Families
36:18 Fixing Broken Businesses
48:31 Inside 57 Hats
59:17 Why Letting Go Is Hard

What You’ll Learn
- Why entrepreneurs “die inside” when they stay stuck too long
- The difference between value creation vs waste in a business
- When to hire, outsource, or automate (and how to decide)
- Why founders should buy back their time aggressively
- How to identify $10, $100, $1,000, and $10,000 tasks-
- Why most entrepreneurs are bad managers and what to do instead
- How to escape the hire–fire roller coaster
- Why systems matter more than effort
- People, processes, and tools explained clearly
- How poor role clarity kills otherwise good teams
- Why managing outcomes beats managing tasks
- The truth about “we’re a family” culture at work
- Why teams must change as businesses grow
- How poor performance management causes massive waste
- Why almost no business is ever “perfect”
- How clarity fixes most operational problems
- Why letting go is the hardest (and most important) skill
- Why most small businesses never sell and how to avoid that fate

About the Guest
James is a systems-focused operator and the creator of 57 Hats, a hands-on framework and physical product designed to help founders identify which roles they should keep, delegate, or eliminate entirely.

About Marketing Misfits Marketing Misfits features honest, unfiltered conversations with founders, operators, and marketers who build real businesses without buzzwords or fluff.

Hosted by Norm Farrar and Kevin King.
New episodes every Tuesday.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Amazon sellers are waking up to a reality shift. Owning customer data. Building lifetime value. Controlling email, retention, and repeat buyers. And unlocking Shopify’s edge as AI, LLM search, and agentic commerce change how people shop. In this episode of Marketing Misfits, Shopify expert Scott Cunningham breaks down why Amazon sellers are moving to Shopify, how to build a real brand instead of chasing products, and how storytelling, hooks, and ad positioning drive sustainable growth.

We dive into Shopify vs Amazon, email as an ATM, lifetime value economics, ad testing frameworks, TBIF storytelling, AI-powered copywriting, AEO optimization, and the future of ecommerce discovery through ChatGPT and agentic browsers. If you sell on Amazon, Shopify, TikTok Shop, Walmart, or DTC, this episode gives you a blueprint to build brand equity, retention, and scalable growth.

Chapters

00:00 Why Amazon Sellers Need Shopify

02:29 Shopify vs Amazon Business Models

05:13 Meet Scott Cunningham

07:25 Amazon vs Shopify Mindset Shift

15:08 The Shopify “Scrappy Middle”

16:02 Email as a Revenue Engine

17:09 Why Shopify Beats Other Platforms

20:18 Shopify Apps and Store Flexibility

22:42 Founder Storytelling for Sales

24:07 TBIF Offer Framework

32:25 Ad Testing Like “Omelet Experiments”

34:38 Creative Testing Tools vs Ads

39:52 Meta Ads vs Google Strategy

41:36 AI Search, AEO, and Shopify Advantage

45:03 The Future of AI-Driven Shopping

59:00 Building Community and Retention

1:04:00 Scott’s StorySelling AI Tool

1:07:36 Shopify Growth Takeaways

About Marketing Misfits: Marketing Misfits features unfiltered conversations with operators, founders, and marketers who build real businesses through trust, distribution, and execution. Hosted by Norm Farrar and Kevin King. New episodes every Tuesday.

This episode is brought to you by:

- Sellerboard: https://sellerboard.com/misfits

- House of AMZ: Elevate your brand today at https://www.amazonseo.com/

- 8fig: Get 25% off 8fig off at https://8fig.co

- Stack Influence: Use code MISFITS for 10% off at https://stackinfluence.com/

- Levanta: Get 20% off Levanta's gold plan and book your call today - https://get.levanta.io/misfits

Resources & Mentions

Scott’s StorySelling AI https://merchantmastery.io/gpt

Merchant Mastery Program https://merchantmastery.io

Marketing Misfits Podcast https://marketingmisfits.co

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.