The One Question Every Brand Needs To Answer
And why looking branded is not the same thing as having a brand...
Starting Line
Mattie Sims, the co-founder of Courier and Mate the Agency, joins the podcast this week. Originally we thought we’d have a great check-in about Courier, since it’s been about a year and a half since we’ve checked in on the pod. But Mattie had so much more to share; this conversation is loaded with some incredible insights for entrepreneurship, brand building and beyond. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did!
Courier x Second Nature
To celebrate this episode and the Second Nature community (not to mention the second appearance of a Courier co-founder on the podcast), Courier is giving a 15% discount to Second Nature listeners. Use code SECONDNATURE15 at checkout!
The One Question Every Brand Needs To Answer
Mattie Sims has built brands at Lululemon, Electronic Arts, Reef, and Rally Pickleball — and along the way developed a framework for brand building that most founders skip entirely. Now she's applying everything she's learned to two ventures at once: Courier, a performance sock brand built around the idea of the "Renaissance athlete," and Mate the Agency, a brand strategy firm working with founders across industries.
In this conversation, Mattie walks through the muse framework she learned at Lululemon and has refined across every role since — why the most important question isn't "who buys this product" but "what is this person worried about when their head hits the pillow at night." She also gets into why looking branded is not the same as having a brand, what happened when Rally discovered their customers weren't there for pickleball, and why having her son was the thing that finally convinced her she could be an entrepreneur.
Here To Help
The most common refrain we hear from friends working at brands is “we need to find content creators, but we are strapped on time”. This is the exact problem that Popfly has solved. If you’re working at a brand that needs this kind of help, you need to check this out (and tell them we sent you), it’ll be worth it. And…if you’re an athlete or creator, you should definitely get on this platform - there are brands, ready to support you and looking for your talent. We’re using it outside of the podcast and having a lot of success with it - and this is exactly why we wanted to partner with Popfly in the first place. Highly recommended!
Job Of The Week
🚀 The Athletic is looking for a Head of Social and Off-Platform Growth.
📲 Aravaipa is hiring a Social Media Manager.
🏔️ This Area Community Director (USA) role at Arc’teryx is still open. Check it out!
Article Of The Week
Every article that Seth LaReau drops is an instant read - we’re forward to seeing him at TrailCon and having these kind of in-depth conversations in real life!
Show Notes
BPC - Brand, Product, Content
BPC is our closing segment where we share Brands we’ve discovered, Products we’re using and Content we love.
🎯 Seniq: Mattie shared this clothing brand that is absolutely nailing it with their muse, which was perfectly in line with our discussion about brands on the podcast. Stay tuned, the co-founders of Seniq will be on the podcast soon!
😎 Summer Edition - Red Bull: There’s a wild story behind the original Summer Edition (different flavor than this year), if you haven’t listened to the podcast episode yet, it’s worth sticking around to hear this story.
🤯 Billy Oppenheimer’s newsletter: One of Aaron’s favorite weekly reads - the latest issue had a story about “treating everything as extraordinary”, which is a great reminder for all of us.
See You At TrailCon!
Only a few more days until we head to Tahoe for TrailCon, please come up and say hello if you’re there - and join us Wednesday morning at 9am for the Second Nature Social in the Alpenglow room. See you soon!
absolutely loved this episode. Super useful advice on brand building and such an inspiring story 💪🏻
Thanks for the shout-out and see you guys at TrailCon!