How to Craft Novel Marketing Ideas with Matt Epstein

Listen to this episode from The Boring Ecom Podcast on Spotify. Matt Epstein’s story is a crash course in modern entrepreneurship. At just 23, he's been through the wringer—he launched a custom product business, lost money despite massive sales, and ended up in debt. But rather than tapping out, he regrouped. Dropshipping helped him regain confidence, and now he's building an agency and new e-commerce ventures.Matt keeps it real about the agency game: most ideas suck until they don’t. What separates winners is how fast you can test, adapt, and pivot. He’s spent millions on paid ads, learning firsthand what works and what doesn’t. One of his big takeaways? Positioning is everything. Take Mary Ruth’s vitamins—same basic ingredients as hair serums, but packaged differently, and suddenly it’s a hit. It’s less about reinventing the wheel and more about how you sell it.He also emphasizes cutting through the brand fluff. Early-stage companies obsess over logos and color palettes when they should be focused on getting results. Speed beats perfection. Brand guidelines shouldn't hold back progress—especially when nobody really knows or cares about your brand yet.Matt is a big believer in the power of the right angle. You’re not selling filtered water—you’re selling better skin. He’s also bullish on AI-powered SEO, seeing platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity as new search engines in disguise. If you're not thinking about how to rank in AI, you're already behind.Bottom line: move fast, test everything, tell a great story, and don’t get precious about your brand.Key Topics:(03:38) Matt Epstein’s Entrepreneurial Journey(08:06) Creating Winning Products with Unique Positioning(16:38) “Ideas Are Just Ideas”(25:30) The Pitfalls of Over-Indexing on Brand(33:38) Why Founders Need to Tell Their Story(35:32) Ranking on ChatGPT and Other AI Platforms(40:51) Training AI Models to Put the Spotlight on Your Brand(42:42) Who Will AI Replace?Thank you to our sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AfterSell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Parker⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Rivo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Postscript⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Richie (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) and Joe (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) for more e-commerce insights and to join the conversation.