We're Taking a Break: What's Next for Brain Driven Brands

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Brain Driven Brands

Episode: We're Taking a Break: What's Next for Brain Driven Brands
Host: Sarah Levinger (B)
Co-Host: Nate (A)
Date: January 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Sarah Levinger and her co-host Nate candidly announce a pause in the Brain Driven Brands podcast. They reflect on their personal and professional growth, share behind-the-scenes insights into their own brands and roles, and outline their reasons for this break. Rather than a farewell, this is a contemplative stop to reassess priorities, reposition their brands, and plan what’s next for Brain Driven Brands. The episode is rich in transparency, strategic thinking, and a dose of their signature humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why the Break? Personal and Professional Growth

• Recent Hiatus: Sarah apologizes for not posting in recent weeks due to illness, travel, and family commitments.
  • “I haven't posted mostly because we got crazy sick, traveling a lot, went to Disney with the kids... And then of course, you get to the beginning of the year, you reset a lot.” (00:12)
• Re-evaluating Priorities: Both hosts share how personal growth and professional responsibilities have led them to reconsider how and why they produce the show.
  • “You take a look at your priorities. And I think both Nate and I have been like, we've been changing a lot. I feel like we've been growing as people.” (00:23)

2. Origins and Evolution of the Podcast

• Podcast Beginnings:
  • Sarah recalls starting the podcast as a "pet project," crediting Scotty for believing in her.
    • “Shout out to Scotty if you're still listening. He's lovely, lovely gentleman. Took a chance on me and was like, let me produce your, your podcast for you...” (01:27)
  • Nate joined almost immediately as the only co-host candidate.
    • “You are my top pick and my only pick. I was like, if I can't have Nate, I'm not going to do [it]” (01:59)
• Growth and Impact:
  • The podcast grew organically from casual Friday conversations to a consistent, successful show with advertising and a strong following.

3. Reasons for the Pause & What’s Next

• Reflection on Fit and Future:
  • Sarah explains the need to regroup and ensure the podcast aligns with their evolving goals.
    • “The toughest part about branding and marketing is, though, does it fit where we want to go next?... I want to sit for a second. I think we should pause the podcast and think about what we want to do with it next.” (02:43)
• Assurance to Listeners:
  • It's a pause, not an end. Past episodes and their other content remain accessible.
    • “Obviously not the end, but it is a pause. We're going to take a minute just to be contemplative for a minute and see what happens next.” (10:48)

4. Personal Projects and Brand Updates

Sarah’s Focus: Personal Brand & Tether

• Rebranding and Streamlining:
  • Sarah plans to elevate her personal brand, making it more streamlined and cohesive.
    • “I kind of want the personal brand to become something a little bit more streamlined so it's easier for me to manage. But also I kind of want to work on the packaging.” (04:17)
• Clarifying Tether’s Purpose:
  • Nate gives a succinct summary of Tether Insights, underscoring its value in understanding deep consumer motivation.
    • Nate: “Insights is a consumer research analysis firm. What it does, it unlocks the real insights as to why people are buying from you. Insights that you cannot unlock from a normal post purchase survey.” (05:36)
  • Sarah admits she’s struggled with communicating Tether’s value and is using this break to regroup on messaging.
    • “That's why I'm working on Tether... I have not been describing it that way to my customers almost at all for the entirety of like my journey here in D2C.” (06:51)

Nate’s Focus: CMO at Adapt Natural, Startup & Messaging

• CMO Role at Adapt Natural:
  • Excited about driving "very quick and very profitable growth," building out teams, and leading the brand to new heights.
    • “Our plan is very quick and very profitable growth. We're doing that already our year over year comps look... so green from last year. It's awesome.” (07:26)
• Building His Own Brand:
  • Nate details the challenge and excitement of going from "zero to one" as a founder.
    • “It was a really started out as kind of like a passion project, but now I'm seeing that like it's got the legs to be something real... I never went from 0 to 1.” (08:17)
• Specialization in Messaging:
  • He emphasizes the transformative power of customer-centric messaging and growth-focused copywriting.
    • “Most... call it copywriting, but I call it growth. I joke internally with the Adapt team that CMOs right now stands for Chief Messaging Officer.” (09:13)
  • Tangibly, he’s been able to generate $7 million in incremental revenue through his copywriting work at one brand.
    • “I can prove an incremental $7 million from copy I've written at one brand in the last, like, 16 months.” (09:32)

5. Signature Banter & Human Touch

• Playful Exchanges:
  • Their friendship and wit shine throughout, such as the running joke about age and closing the show on a light, “weird” note.
    • Nate: “What else are staples of the show? I got to make fun of your age at some point.” (03:16)
    • Sarah: “Mentally. I think you're there already.” (03:36)
  • The episode ends with Nate teasing Sarah, and a mutual appreciation for the listeners.
    • Nate: “Sarah's 40.” (11:38)
    • Sarah: “Why do I end it on such a weird note every single time?” (11:40)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On growth and pausing:
  “Sometimes you gotta prioritize. So I would love to hear from you though, because I know you, we talked about this, of like the reasons that I want to kind of take a step back. What is your year kind of looking like?” — Sarah (06:54)

• On Tether’s deeper insights:
  “Unlocking the real reasons that people are choosing to buy your category and ultimately buy from your brand. I mean, has literally helped me take brands from 20 to 40 and 50 and 60 million dollars a year.” — Nate (06:27)

• On messaging as growth:
  “Most, you will call it copywriting, but I call it growth. Like, I joke internally with the Adapt team that CMOs right now stands for Chief Messaging Officer.” — Nate (09:13)

• On gratitude for listeners:
  “We honestly have a lot of good things to be very grateful for. Like, we're very blessed as people and we love that you guys have listened to us for so long, just yapping away.” — Sarah (10:48)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:12 — Sarah shares why there’s been a recent gap in episodes and how both hosts are re-evaluating.
• 01:27 — Origins of the podcast and why Nate became the only co-host.
• 02:43 — Sarah reveals her wish to pause and reassess the show’s direction.
• 03:16–03:40 — Playful host banter about age.
• 04:17 — Sarah explains her plans to streamline her personal brand.
• 05:36 — Nate succinctly describes what Tether Insights does for e-commerce brands.
• 07:26 — Nate discusses his growth strategy as CMO of Adapt Natural.
• 08:17 — Reflection on building a brand from scratch and past scaling experiences.
• 09:13–09:32 — Insights on messaging and its measurable impact on brand performance.
• 10:41 — Affirming the podcast is on pause, not ending, and gratitude for listeners.
• 11:38–11:59 — The episode closes with their trademark humor and endearing awkwardness.

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Closing Thoughts

This episode is an authentic, valuable window into the lives and minds behind Brain Driven Brands. Sarah and Nate candidly discuss the realities of personal transformation, business evolution, and the sometimes hard decisions needed to grow. Listeners are encouraged to revisit previous episodes and follow their continued work across platforms, with the promise of more to come after this strategic pause.

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Transcript

[A]

Five, four, three.

[B]

Part of five times. Usually we started three. We needed extra seconds. Composure.

[A]

Welcome back to Brain Driven Brands.

[B]

I haven't posted for the last two weeks. I am so sorry to everybody who listens to us religiously. I haven't posted mostly because we got crazy sick, traveling a lot, went to Disney with the kids. It was just one of those, like, I just don't even have time to get to these episodes. And then of course, you get to the beginning of the year, you reset a lot. You take a look at your priorities. And I think both Nate and I have been like, we've been changing a lot. I feel like we've been growing as people did a lot of personal growth over the course of the last couple.

[A]

And what's so funny is, like, we talk a bunch on this podcast. Obviously we don't really talk about ourselves and like, what we're up to.

[B]

Not a lot.

[A]

And like, it's so funny to think, like, Sarah owns two businesses that both make a lot of money on the CMO of 8, soon to be 9 figure brand. I have a brand that I own 100 of, that I run. I'm the advisor for companies. Like, we got shit going on.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Not to mention spouses and kids and yes, drinking whiskey time. But like, we've got going on. That is to be real honest and hopefully not weird. It's going really well. And like, we, we just kind of, kind of like put our heads down on it for a little.

[B]

Yes. But I, I, it comes down to not just priorities, but also like, where do you want to go? What do you want to be? So Brain Driven Brands started as kind of a pet project that I had way back in the day. Shout out to Scotty if you're still listening. He's lovely, lovely gentleman. Took a chance on me and was like, let me produce your, your podcast for you because I think you'd be really great personality. I think you do a really good job. And so I was like, all right. I've never done my own podcast. Like, I did bits and pieces before, but I've never really dedicated time to this. So he took a chance and then I brought Nate on almost immediately. I was like, I can't do this without a co host.

[A]

Was I the co host from the jump?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Let's go.

[B]

You are my top pick and my only pick. I was like, if I can't have Nate, I'm not going to do huge. I was like, just Nate, he's wicked smart, like, good marketer who could understand what the hell I'm saying, and translate it into good, tactical things that people will actually take away and make money from that. From the start, it was just you and me kind of figuring out Scotty helping us with podcasting and producing. And it really started as just like, we just want to meet every Friday and talk about the things that we're interested in. And it kind of grew from there. Now, over the course last few years, we've put some effort into it. We've tried some advertising. We've really tried to, like, be consistent with episodes, and it's been so fun, and it's actually grown really well. The toughest part about branding and marketing is, though, does it fit where we want to go next? And I think that's the reason why I came to Nate today and was like, I want to sit for a second. I think we should pause the podcast and think about what we want to do with it next because it's so fun and I love what we talk about and our readers and our listeners, like, really enjoy it. I kind of want to sit for a second and see what's the next for brain driven grit.

[A]

So, yeah, good news for you guys. Tactical and practical still going strong.

[B]

Okay. Jesus Christ.

[A]

Is this the last time that I appropriately plugged my own podcast on this show?

[B]

You got to make sure it happens, though. That's definitely on brand for pr.

[A]

What else are staples of the show? I got to make fun of your age at some point.

[B]

Well, yes.

[A]

Which I can only do for a little while longer because I'm turning 30 in a couple months.

[B]

You're gonna join the ranks.

[A]

That'll be 30's old.

[B]

30. I get to make fun of you when you turn 30? That's my question.

[A]

I mean, you can, but you'll be.

[B]

40, so I hope you're still at 40.

[A]

Mentally. I think you're there already.

[B]

Yep. Wow. I am, though. I'm really tired, honestly. Okay. Yeah.

[A]

Do you want to give the people a little couple hints about what you're working on, what you're going to be spending your time on?

[B]

I am about to kind of embark on a brand new venture for myself. I. I have noticed that, like my personal, personal brand, the businesses that I run, unfortunately, people don't understand them very well. They, I think here for their great vibe. Right. We should work with Sarah. So I get a lot of great referrals. Thank you. Thank you to anybody who has referred us. But one of the issues that I've always struggled with is I'm very, very good at Noticing things for other people's businesses, issues within my own business or things that I need to optimize just don't come up very often until they like hit me in the face. And that's kind of something that's really happened this week is I want to elevate a little bit this year. I kind of want the personal brand to become something a little bit more streamlined so it's easier for me to manage. But also I kind of want to work on the packaging. And this is something that every brand should be thinking about. No matter what you're doing is do you present what you want to present in the world? And up until now, I think I've been doing a pretty good job about that. But I changed. I morphed last year. I grew. I had some hard times and I had some good times and I finally figured out a little bit about what I want from, from life in this particular period. So I'm going to be working on personal brand stuff, including really just like the way it looks, the content that I post, what I put out, who I connect with, those type of things. But then secondary, I'm splitting up the brands in particular. So Tether has been kind of like a offshoot, like sponsor of the podcast for a while. That particular brand is about.

[A]

Let's be clear because you're still terrible. I'm so glad you're taking a break to work on your pitch because it's been bad since day one. I have paid Tether tens of thousands of dollars.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

For brands that I work with to do work for us. And Sarah's like, it's this thing that helps. Shut up for a minute. Let me take this.

[B]

That's why I'm working on Tether.

[A]

Insights is a consumer research analysis firm. What it does, it, it unlocks the real insights as to why people are buying from you. Insights that you cannot unlock from a normal post purchase survey. Insights that these customers might not even know how to put into words like you guys have heard us talk enough about on the podcast about like, hey, the reason that I got a Dairy Queen Blizzard delivered to my house last night at 10pm isn't because I wanted it. It's because I've had a little bit of a frustrating week.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Yep. And when I pressed that order button on Uber Eats, I was not thinking like, I am coping with the stresses of a four month old daughter at home right now. Like that. That did not go through my brain, but that is what caused it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So unlocking the real reasons that People are choosing to buy your category and ultimately buy from your brand. I mean, has literally helped me take brands from 20 to 40 and 50 and 60 million dollars a year. That's what I've been paying Sarah for. To be honest, that's why I wanted to do the podcast because I was like, maybe I'll get free consulting every Friday. But anyways, that's the pitch for Tether Insights.

[B]

Yes. Well, and that's half the reason why Nate can describe it incredibly well, because he's a very good communicator, very good marketer. However, I have not been describing it that way to my customers almost at all for the entirety of like my journey here in D2C. So I'm taking a step back, honestly from the things that like I love and enjoy to focus on the things that are like this has real world impact and these are the things that I'm going to leave behind hopefully on this planet. And sometimes you got to prioritize. So I would love to hear from you though, because I know you, we talked about this of like the reasons that I want to kind of take a step back. What is your year kind of looking like?

[A]

Yeah, so the majority of my time right now is spent CMO of Adapt Natural supplements. I've been there for months now, really starting to kind of like understand the business and like the growth plans becoming clear to me. Building out, building on top of an already solid internal team, hiring a couple more roles. But our plan is very quick and very profitable growth. We're doing that already our year over year comps look by the way, I'm so glad it's the beginning of the year because all the numbers are just so green from last year. It's awesome.

[B]

That's amazing.

[A]

But yeah, my goal is to build that brand into an absolute just monster of a brand. That one, provides amazing, you know, quality products that actually work and two, prints money for everyone involved. So yeah, that's what I'm saying. The majority of my time on. Other than that, I launched a brand myself last year. It's going pretty well. We've been profitable last two months in a row, so watch out. But crazy for me, like it was a really started out as kind of like a passion project, but now I'm seeing that like it's got the legs to be something real. I in my career have taken brands from 1 million to 8 a year and I've gone from 6 to 12 to 23 to 40. And I've consulted for brands as they've gone from 4 million a year to 120. But I never went from 0 to 1. And I think at each one of the brands that I have worked on that I didn't found, I wish there were some things done differently in the founding moments of it to make growth from 1 to 10 to 100 much easier. So I'm excited to kind of build something from the ground up and like I said, is going well. And then lastly, the last kind of only thing I've been working on for the last couple of years is overhauling and refining how brands talk to their customers. Most, you will call it copywriting, but I call it growth. Like, I joke internally with the Adapt team that CMOs right now stands for Chief Messaging Officer. Yeah, the way we talk about our products, the way we talk to our customers at different stages of the funnel at different moments in their lives, like, that's what growth is and that matters so much. And last year I was doing a keynote speech at a conference and I went back and was like, let me try to quantify, like, how much money we've made off copywriting this year. And I can prove an incremental $7 million from copy I've written at one brand in the last, like, 16 months. And I was like, oh, this is something that's like, super real. And, like, I enjoy it. So it doesn't feel like work to me. Like, it's like just a passion. I go, I like to write cool things, but I mean, it turns the money printer on. That's kind of what I'm up to. Adapt full time, working on my own brand and picking my spots. Really, just like one brand at a time to kind of help overhaul their messaging to unlock new growth channels for you.

[B]

And I got a lot of really cool things. Obviously, Nate and I are still going to be around. We're going to be posting on Twitter. We're still going to be posting on LinkedIn. Like, we're still guys.

[A]

What you don't know? We got in a huge fight. No, it was about manual bids. And we were just like, that was it.

[B]

It was just like, I can't work with you. I'm really sorry. Like, we can't be friends anymore. No, everything's going great. Like, we honestly have a lot of good things to be very grateful for. Like, we're very blessed as people and we love that you guys have listened to us for so long, just yapping away. Obviously not the end, but it is a pause. We're going to take a minute just to be contemplative for a minute and see what happens next.

[A]

Yeah. It's a pause for now. There's a hundred something episodes that are. Yes. So go check them out. Closing in on a hundred episodes of technical and practical in case you guys are interested. But yeah, anything else? Thank you guys for listening.

[B]

Thank you. Thank you. You guys are the best.

[A]

Yeah. Please follow us. We're not going away. Neither of our personal brands are going away. We'll be, if anything, more active in the near future. But for now, just taking a little break from the pot.

[B]

Love it, love it, love it, love it. We'll see you guys. You guys are great. Yeah.

[A]

Sarah's 40.

[B]

Why? Why? Why do I end it on such a weird note every single time?

[A]

Sorry, that's actually probably what we were talking about earlier. Shouldn't. Should be more serious.

[B]

You can't end it on, like a sad note.

[A]

Cut that.

[B]

Not cutting it. I'm leaving that in.