Podcast: Limited Supply
Episode: S14 E1 — How Affiliates and Creators Are Redefining Brand Marketing (with Aaron Paul, Co-founder of Paul Street)
Date: October 1, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Nik Sharma sits down with Aaron Paul, co-founder of Paul Street, for a no-nonsense deep dive into how affiliate marketing and creators are reshaping brand marketing in the DTC world. The discussion challenges outdated industry dogma around PR, explores tactical shifts in affiliate strategy, and reveals why the most successful brands now blend PR, influencer, and affiliate efforts into a seamless engine for growth. With real-world examples and candid advice, this episode serves as an actionable guide for DTC founders ready to cut through the noise and accelerate growth.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Aaron Paul: Background & Paul Street’s Approach (02:09–02:56)

• Background: Aaron has been in the affiliate space for six years, generating $500M+ in affiliate revenue. Paul Street specializes in PR, affiliate, mass media, celebrity partnerships, and sports collaborations for consumer brands like Hexclad, Todd Snyder, and Liquid IV.
  • “My bread and butter is affiliate. I've been in the affiliate space for about six years... We've done a little bit over 500 million in just affiliate revenue.” — Aaron Paul (02:22)
• Unique Model: Unlike big agencies, Paul Street bridges the gap between celebrity partnerships and challenger brands, executing what larger, traditional agencies have failed to do.

2. The Evolution (and Decline) of Traditional PR (04:54–07:21)

• PR Used to Be Everything: Traditionally, brands would spend $25k–$30k/month on PR for high-impact coverage in outlets like Fortune or Bloomberg, expecting direct revenue and traffic spikes.
• Shifting Value of PR: Today, PR serves less for discovery, more for building credibility and social proof. The classic PR model is fading, and its overlap with affiliate marketing is growing.
  • “PR in the way that we have known it to exist is… quickly dying and this Venn diagram of PR and affiliate… it's becoming its own thing.” — Aaron Paul (05:36)
• Modern PR as a Sprint: PR is better used as a campaign-based tool during launches, funding rounds, or celebrity partnerships—not as a month-to-month grind.
• Middle-of-Funnel Importance: PR’s new role is providing consumers and affiliates with validation and proof, helping them feel comfortable converting.

3. PR, Affiliate, and Social Proof (09:13–12:19)

• Affiliates Mirror Brand Health: A successful PR initiative can create the social proof necessary to recruit high-quality affiliates and publishers, as both are reluctant to work with unknown or unvalidated brands.
  • “[Affiliates] do not want to figure out your business for you… anything that we can do to solidify it as a brand… in the beginning, like having some of those… PR initiative[s] to go get some editors to care, do a review maybe about the founders, you know, what their story is or, like, why they're building this.” — Aaron Paul (10:05)
• PR = Affiliate Enablement: Early PR sets the stage for affiliate scaling by demonstrating credibility to both consumers and partners.

4. Creators as the Future of PR and Affiliate (13:20–14:52)

• Creators as Next-Gen Publishers: High-influence creators now shape credibility and discovery, acting as the new outlets (podcasts, Substacks, TikTok, Instagram).
  • “Creators are like the next… evolution of publishers, by way of podcasts and substacks and you know, their tech talks and Instagram.” — Aaron Paul (14:19)
• Dynamic Creator Deals: Brands engage creators via CPA, CPC, revenue share, or flat fees, actively incorporating them into holistic PR and affiliate strategies for compounded credibility and reach.

5. When Should Brands Start Affiliate? Best Practices & Pitfalls (15:29–20:14)

• Timing and Risk: Brands have one shot with affiliates; bad experiences or poor conversions mean affiliates won’t return.
  • “You always will have just one shot with them… if it for some reason doesn't convert or it's just a negative experience for their audience, they're not coming back.” — Aaron Paul (16:15)
• Reducing Friction for Affiliates: Affiliates are described as “equal parts lazy and greedy”—you must equip them with messaging, angles, assets, and incentives so they can easily succeed.
• Priorities for Affiliates:
  1. Conversion: Landing pages and offers must work.
  2. Timely Payment: Pay out on net 7 or 15, not net 90.
  3. Flexible Payouts: Don't set blanket 10–15% commissions; negotiate based on value and context, especially for key partners.

6. Advanced Affiliate Strategies & Media Buyer Affiliates (23:14–32:34)

• Complex Compensation Models: Advanced programs use a mix of revenue share, CPC, whitelisted ad deals, percentage-of-spend, exclusivity, and SKU-level incentives—far beyond standard “10% for all.”
  • “Every deal is going to be completely different from like the payout structures to exclusivity, the creative styles.” — Aaron Paul (32:36)
• Media Buyer Affiliates 101 (24:13 onwards):
  • Who They Are: Highly skilled individuals or teams who buy traffic on any ad channel and drive conversions for a CPA.
  • Their Edge: These affiliates are masters of CRO, landing pages, and offer optimization—many now outgun brands at media buying.
  • Scale and Results: With the right offer, one affiliate can drive hundreds to thousands of sales per day (e.g., Goli Nutrition, Onnit).
  • Case Study: One YouTube affiliate earned $20M in a year as Golden Hippo’s top partner (30:58).
  • Modern Tactics Originated in Affiliate: Advertorials, whitelisting, and advanced funnel testing all stem from practices pioneered by these affiliates years before becoming DTC trends.

7. Human-Driven, Not Machine-Driven (32:34–33:32)

• Affiliate Marketing Is About Relationships: It's not plug-and-play like Facebook ads, but about personal dealmaking, building rapport, and meeting affiliates/creators where they are.

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On PR's Evolution:
  • “PR in the way that we have known it to exist is… quickly dying…” — Aaron Paul (05:36)
• Media Buyer Affiliates:
  • “These are guys that can run traffic on… any channel… they're arbitraging that differential and just making so much money off of that.” — Aaron Paul (24:30)
  • “One of [Golden Hippo’s] top YouTube affiliates last year… took home $20 million. Right. It's insane.” — Aaron Paul (30:58)
• The Affiliate Mindset:
  • “Affiliates are equal parts lazy and… greedy… Give them everything they need to do the least bit of work to talk about you.” — Aaron Paul (16:15)
• Relationships, Not Algorithms:
  • “Affiliate is not like a machine like Facebook. It's not like an algorithm. With affiliate, you're dealing with people…” — Aaron Paul (32:34)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:09 — Aaron Paul’s background & Paul Street’s specialty
• 04:54 — Traditional PR’s historical role and its decline
• 07:21 — PR’s new middle-of-funnel function (social proof, credibility)
• 09:13 — Why affiliate success follows brand health and early PR
• 13:20 — Creators as a dominant force in affiliate & PR strategies
• 16:02 — When/how brands should start investing in affiliate (first attempts, best practices)
• 20:39 — Compensation models for advanced affiliate programs
• 23:14 — Media buyer affiliates explained; deal structure, scale, and tactics
• 30:58 — Case study: top YouTube affiliate earns $20M in a year
• 32:34 — The people-first, relationship-driven nature of affiliate marketing

Final Takeaways

• PR is no longer about traffic spikes, but about building foundation and credibility, both for consumers and affiliates.
• Affiliate programs have graduated from one-size-fits-all to personalized, negotiated partnerships—especially with elite “media buyer” affiliates.
• Creators are the future of both PR and affiliate success: treat them as publishers, not just influencers.
• Affiliate isn’t a self-optimizing algorithm; it’s people, relationships, and creative dealmaking.

For actionable strategies or questions, Aaron Paul can be reached at aaron@paulstreet.co or on Twitter @aaronpaulos.