6 Growth Leaders on the Non-Hacks That Actually Work

Humor Is Your Most Underutilized Growth Channel

Cheong Jones, VP of Brand Marketing at Kajabi, thinks most brands have forgotten how to be funny. That's a mistake.

I think humor is underutilized now. I think it used to be, there was an age around late '90s, early 2000s where humor was that thing. But when you do it right, it's a powerful, powerful way because that's something people want to tell someone else about.

— Cheong Jones, VP of Brand Marketing at Kajabi

The bar is high. What's funny to one audience falls flat with another. But when you nail it, people remember how you made them feel. And they tell their friends.

Too many brands have replaced personality with position statements. Jones isn't saying every brand needs a comedy routine. But if it fits, lean in. Entertainment beats earnestness when you're fighting for attention.

Turn Product Marketing Into a Science

Diana Dong, former Head of Product Marketing at Writer AI, brings growth marketing rigor to a function that's often treated as purely creative.

My non-hack for PMM is actually something that growth marketers do a lot, which is to frame things as hypotheses and thinking of ways to test them. I think that brings a lot more credibility to that function that I don't think is maybe best practice.

— Diana Dong, former Head of Product Marketing at Writer AI

Messaging isn't just art. It's a testable hypothesis. You can validate whether your positioning resonates before betting the farm on it.

This mindset shift transforms product marketing from subjective wordsmithing to systematic experimentation. Frame your messaging ideas as hypotheses. Design tests. Learn what works. Rinse and repeat.

Seek Truth, Not Tactics

Ian Young, former SVP of Revenue at Tonal, has zero patience for growth hacks that worked for someone else in a completely different context.

If you just take that and just try and like copy it, like that's probably not going to work. It's more important to actually understand why something worked or didn't and use that insight and knowledge to direct where you go with what you want to do.

— Ian Young, former SVP of Revenue at Tonal

Young calls it "seeking truth." The LinkedIn post about winning lottery numbers isn't actionable. The insight behind why a tactic worked in a specific context? That's gold.

Same goes for A/B testing. Are you running experiments using the scientific method—hypothesis, validation, iteration? Or just throwing spaghetti at the wall and picking the higher number? The tools work when you use them as intended.

Build the Foundation Before the Fun Stuff

Laura Brooks, co-founder of Foundation Collective, literally named her consultancy after the principle most startups skip: laying groundwork before chasing shiny objects.

You need a strong product that people love and buy at full price. A supply chain that works. Content that cuts through noise. A website that converts. Customer experience you can trust. A funnel you understand cold.

Only then, once you lay that strong foundation—right target, right message, right creative—then you can start testing into those 1 to 2 shiny pennies like influencers, affiliates, etc. But trust me, your dollars will work so much harder for you when you have that strong marketing foundation.

— Laura Brooks, co-founder of Foundation Collective

Influencers and affiliates aren't strategies. They're tactics that amplify a foundation. Without the foundation, you're burning money.

The Brand vs. Performance Cage Match Nobody Wants to Have

Shane Pitson, co-founder of So-and-So Venture Studio, tackles the thorniest question in marketing: how to balance brand advertising and direct response without tearing your team apart.

Are you building something that sells widgets tomorrow, or a brand people love in 20 years? The answer shapes everything: media budgets, team structure, investor expectations.

Going through that type of exercise opens up a lot of, I would say, marketing 101 type questions I think people don't ask often enough. These questions can sometimes provoke like really hostile environments between operators and their executive teams and their investors.

— Shane Pitson, co-founder of So-and-So Venture Studio

Pitson points to underutilized tools: matched market testing, geographic holdout tests, post-purchase surveys, customer census data. You can measure brand lift and direct response without choosing sides.

It's not sexy. It's hard. But aligning your team around this balance unlocks growth that compounds for years, not quarters.