For founder-led Shopify brands running Meta ads
If you founded a Shopify brand and you're spending on paid social right now, this page is for you. Sports, fitness and athlete-driven brands first.
I'm Ray Dietrich, co-owner and CMO of Phenom Elite, a football performance gear brand. I've led our marketing since the first online order, and together our team has grown Phenom into a company worth eight figures. Direct-to-consumer alone is a multimillion-dollar business, and our products are in Dick's Sporting Goods, Academy and Scheels.
I'm a systems and AI guy. I build the machine once, put AI agents on the repeat work, run Meta and Google against what the store actually earns, and stay on top of the numbers every week. That's how we run with a lean staff.
I do the same work for a small number of DTC founders: as a consultant or equity partner, or by building the AI automation that runs your capture and follow-up for you. It starts with a free DTC Leak Report on your store.
Free · DTC Leak Report
Send me your store URL. I go through what any shopper can see in public and send back the three leaks costing you the most, ranked by dollars, with the math shown and the fix for each.
What I check:
I never need a login. Every leak is verified before it goes in the report. If I can't verify it, it doesn't go in.
Or send it to ray@ardentexecs.com with "DTC Leak Report" in the subject.
The thesis
Everything before that moment is traffic you rented. Everything after it is a list you own. Most brands spend their money on the first half and leave the second half to chance.
Every brand I look at gets the same three questions: Who's showing up? What do we capture? What happens to them after?
Five leaks, five machines
Leak 1 · The front door
Visitors leave without giving you an email or a phone number. I build the email and SMS signup and product pages that convert, fed by Meta and Google ads, content shoots and athlete content.
Leak 2 · Abandoned money
They got to the cart or checkout and left. Cart, checkout and browse abandonment by email and SMS bring them back.
Leak 3 · Silent reputation
A review request after every order, with drafted replies to every review, including the bad ones.
Leak 4 · The dead list
Past buyers you paid to acquire and never mailed again. Win-backs, reorder and next-season triggers, and an audit of every discount code you have running.
Leak 5 · The fog
One weekly report across your store, email, SMS, Meta and Google: what came in, what it cost, and next week's moves.
Built with AI
AI does the drafting, the reporting and the grind. That is how Phenom runs with a lean staff, and it is how your system will run.
Proof, from my own brand
8 figures
A company worth eight figures. I've led its marketing since the first online order
Multimillion
Direct-to-consumer sales alone
3 majors
In retail at Dick's Sporting Goods, Academy and Scheels
Lean
A lean staff, with AI agents on the repeat work and a weekly brief on the numbers
75+
NIL deals done as the brand owner
$68,081
Bleeding through 129 public discount codes over 24 months. Found in one AI sweep, shut off in an afternoon
Where Phenom sells today: direct-to-consumer, team sales, and retail at Dick's Sporting Goods, Academy and Scheels, plus the marketplaces.
Systems, not headcount
Phenom didn't grow by hiring. It grew by automating everything that doesn't need a person, so the people we have spend their time on what does.
That is the system I build for you.
What I handle
What it costs
Free start here
Three verified leaks in your store, ranked by dollars, built only from public signals. Send me your store URL and I send back the report.
Free 30 minutes
I go through your store, your email and SMS lists and your ads and show you where the money is leaking. You keep the plan either way.
$1,997 one-time build + $497/month Autopilot
I build the five machines. Then Autopilot keeps them running, sends your weekly brief, and goes hunting for new money every month. Month to month, cancel any time.
by invitation
I take on a few brands a year. As a consultant, I run your marketing: strategy, email, SMS, Meta, Google, NIL and content. Or, for a founder-led brand with a real product and real customers, I take an equity stake and run growth with you.
Free checklist
Five checks, sixty seconds each. It is the same list I start with on every store I look at.
Questions
Founder-led DTC brands on Shopify that are running paid social right now. Sports, fitness and athlete-driven brands first. I don't take brands that compete with Phenom Elite.
Three leaks, ranked by dollars, with the math and the fix for each. I build it only from what's public: your live Meta ads in the Ad Library and the pages they land on, your welcome flow (I subscribe and grade it), discount codes that have leaked onto coupon sites, how you capture email and SMS, and how you ask for and answer reviews. Every leak is verified before it goes in, and I never need a login. Send your store URL to ray@ardentexecs.com.
No. I'm an operator. I'm not an agency and I don't sell software. I take a small number of brands so each one gets me, not a junior account manager.
Yes. For a founder-led brand with a real product and real customers, I take an equity stake instead of a fee. Otherwise I work as a paid consultant. Either way, I only take a few brands a year.
Thirty minutes. You leave with a plan you can run yourself whether we work together or not.
Ray Dietrich · Co-owner & CMO, Phenom Elite · Ardent Executive Consulting.
