Podcast Summary: Why the Smartest Brands Don’t Chase Customers Anymore | Jon Davids

Podcast: Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice
Host: Ryan Alford (The Radcast Network)
Guest: Jon Davids (CEO of Influicity, Author of "Marketing Superpowers")
Date: January 13, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode centers on the shift in marketing philosophy from chasing customers with paid advertising to building communities and owning demand through magnetic brand movements. Jon Davids joins Ryan Alford to share actionable insights into how brands can harness this new era of marketing—where attention, community, and authentic value trump “messy math” performance ads. The conversation slices through industry hype, offering street-level wisdom for founders, marketers, and hustlers tired of one-size-fits-all business playbooks.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Lessons: Grabbing & Monetizing Attention

• Jon's Origin Story: Learned attention-hacking in college, monetized by building a content business before the advent of Facebook/YouTube.
  • Quote: “Figured out how to get attention on the Internet in college and was able to turn that into a $300,000 business.” – Jon Davids [04:23]
• Evolution of Influence: Influence is increasingly fragmented; the internet creates millions of “brand bubbles” where each user’s feed is unique.
  • Quote: “Influence in our culture is incredibly niche. It’s incredibly fragmented. We all live in our own brand bubbles.” – Jon Davids [05:49]

The Modern Influencer Landscape

• Role of Influencers Today: Influencers are the new TV networks; individual personalities have become “channels” akin to CBS, ABC, and NBC.
  • Quote: “It’s almost like reality TV meets social media meets authority meets celebrity.” – Ryan Alford [06:38]
• Micro vs. Macro Influencers: Not all influencers are alike; true value lies beyond follower counts and flashy lifestyles.
  • Quote: “Most influencers...make no money, they’re poor and they don’t have any money. There’s no way of making money just because someone’s got 100,000 followers.” – Jon Davids [08:26]
• Monetization Myth: Content alone doesn’t pay unless it serves a genuine audience need. Build something meaningful before focusing on influence.
  • Practical takeaway: Start by delivering value to a focused audience and community; then connect content to commerce.

Building Movements, Not Just Marketing

• Start With “Why”: Successful brands lead with purpose and emotion, not features.
  • Quote: “The biggest thing I see, Ryan, constantly, is there’s two things you gotta talk about. There’s the how and the why, and people get them reversed… Always start with the why.” – Jon Davids [11:17]
• Minimum Viable Concept (MVC): Emphasizes testing big brand ideas with messaging before building the product, as demonstrated by Liquid Death.
  • Quote: “It wasn’t build it and they will come—it was promote it and then they will come and then you can build it.” – Jon Davids [12:40]

Notable Example: Liquid Death

• Created brand buzz and gathered 50,000+ emails by advertising a product before it existed—validating demand before investing in inventory.

Beyond Performance Marketing: Owning Demand

• Pitfalls of Paid-Only Growth: Many brands suffer by relying solely on rented demand (ads)—once algorithms change, their business model collapses.
  • Quote: “There’s a graveyard of e-commerce companies that thought they had figured out the Facebook algorithm…” – Jon Davids [14:47]
• Brands With True Magnetism: When you see lines out the door, it’s not about paid ads but about movement, FOMO, ritual, and real community.
  • Features of Movements: Scarcity, urgency, rituals, and habit-building (e.g., Crumbl Cookies' drops).

Community Building & First-Party Data

• Channel Hierarchy:

  1. Rented: Paid impressions (Google, social ads)
  2. Social: Organic but algorithm-dependent (Instagram, TikTok)
  3. Owned: Direct access (email, SMS, podcasts)
  • Quote: “Ultimately you want to get as close to first party data as you possibly can...That comes down to phone and email.” – Jon Davids [16:06]

• Habitual Touchpoints: Even without subscribing, an audience can be present through habitual content consumption (podcasts, social).

Timeless Business Advice for the Future

• Think Long-Term: The fragmentation of attention and rise of micro-communities will only deepen over the next 5, 10, 20 years—every brand must adapt.

  • Quote: “This is the way the world is going…If you want to be around in 5, 10, 20 years and still be relevant, this is what you need to do today.” – Jon Davids [17:20]

• Lifetime Value over One-Off Sales: Building relationships, not just transactions, is the only way to escape the endless acquisition treadmill.

  • Quote: “If you only make one sale to a customer…you will never get where you need to go. And that is the superpower.” – Ryan Alford [18:11]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Figured out Buzzfeed before Buzzfeed came along.” – Jon Davids [04:23]
• “The why is because you desperately want to lose weight so you can play with your kids...so you can live to 85 and be healthy and happy.” – Jon Davids [11:17]
• “I hate performance marketing. I hate the term...You can’t have performance when you don’t have a movement. You can’t have sizzle without the steak, baby.” – Ryan Alford [14:30]
• “There’s a graveyard of e-commerce companies that thought they had figured out the Facebook algorithm...” – Jon Davids [14:47]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Jon’s Background & Early Hustle: [04:04] – [05:08]
• Defining Influicity & Influencer Evolution: [05:08] – [07:16]
• The Influencer Economy & Monetization: [07:17] – [10:14]
• Community Building vs. Vanity Influence: [10:14] – [11:05]
• The Power of ‘Why’ in Branding: [11:05] – [12:29]
• Minimum Viable Concepts (Liquid Death Example): [12:40] – [13:44]
• Beyond Performance Marketing/Rented Demand: [13:54] – [15:47]
• Owning Community/First-Party Channels: [15:47] – [17:14]
• Final Advice & Future-Proofing: [17:14] – [18:36]

Where to Find Jon Davids

• Book: marketingsuperpowersbook.com – Free sample chapters available.
• Website & Socials: johndavids.com

Final Takeaway

Don’t build your brand on rented land. The smartest brands start with why, engage communities, and own the connection—turning fleeting attention into lasting demand, lifelong customers, and genuine movements.