Most brands think they need more traffic. Nikita says they’re already sitting on a goldmine.In this episode, email & SMS strategist Nikita Vakhrushev, founder of Aspect, breaks down how direct-to-consumer brands are quietly leaving $200,000–$400,000 a year on the table by ignoring the “boring” retention channels: email and SMS. After helping over 100 DTC brands and turning broken automations into $40,000/month profit engines, Nikita reveals why the real leverage isn’t in your next ad campaign—it’s in how you follow up.Junaid and Nikita go deep into the exact flows, systems, and mindset shifts that separate brands who coast from brands who compound. If you’ve ever wondered why your Klaviyo is “set up” but not really printing money, this episode is your wake-up call.In this episode, you’ll learn: How Nikita turned a failing email setup into $40k/month in just a few months The core email & SMS flows every brand needs (and how most are set up wrong) Why constant discounting destroys your brand and your margins How to prepare for Black Friday/Cyber Monday like it’s the Super Bowl of retention What a real retention flywheel looks like when email, SMS, and paid traffic finally work togetherTimestamps[[[[[[[Key Takeaways Your email list is “owned land” — and most brands are farming it like a hobby garden. Nikita argues that while ads live on rented land, email and SMS are where you build durable, compounding revenue. One case study changed everything: rebuilding a client’s automations took them from “a couple hundred dollars” to ~$40,000/month in email revenue, purely from their existing list. Flows matter more than blasts. Welcome, abandonment (site, product, cart, checkout), post-purchase, cross-sell, win-back, and sunset flows form the backbone of serious retention. Most brands “have” them—but set up in a way that quietly loses money. Discounting is a trap. Constant sales don’t just crush margins; they rewire your customers to only buy on discount and to treat the “sale price” as the real price. Value-driven, objection-crushing emails win long term. Black Friday/Cyber Monday is a system, not an event. The best brands start in July, test through Q3, warm their list, run VIP presales, and turn Q4 into the make-or-break recovery quarter—with email doing the heavy lifting.Guest LinksWebsite:https://aspektagency.com/Social Media Links:instagram.com/nikitavakhrushvlinkedin.com/in/nikita-vtwitter.com/nikitavakhrushvyoutube.com/@nikitavakhrushevtv