339 | Defining Brand Identity Before Launching New Channels | with Jess Berman

Jess Berman is the Chief Brand Officer and co-owner of BodyBio, a family-owned supplement brand redefining cellular health through premium, science-backed formulations. Built at the intersection of clinical credibility and modern digital commerce, BodyBio is helping bridge the gap between practitioner-trusted products and direct-to-consumer wellness, making elite cellular health accessible to more people than ever before.

After spending years deeply connected to BodyBio’s practitioner roots, Jess stepped into a leadership role during a pivotal shift: moving the business from B2B-only to a thriving DTC brand. What began as a family legacy focused on scientific excellence evolved into a broader mission of education, access, and brand storytelling, bringing cellular health out of the doctor’s office and into everyday routines.

Though she didn’t come from a traditional DTC background, Jess brings strategic clarity to every stage of growth, navigating channel tradeoffs, building dual B2B and DTC ecosystems, and balancing hyper-targeted paid media with high-trust organic growth.

Whether discussing how BodyBio fixed its reliance on branded traffic, why affiliate funnels outperformed typical influencer playbooks, or how brand guidelines helped unify internal teams and external agencies, Jess offers a transparent and tactical perspective on scaling a modern wellness brand without sacrificing trust.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• [00:43] Intro
• [01:52] Rebuilding websites to unlock conversions
• [03:16] Growing brand awareness through omnichannel
• [04:26] Bootstrapping marketing with a two-person team
• [05:40] Managing fulfillment while scaling DTC
• [07:18] Finding new customers through authority partners
• [09:31] Testing creative angles to convert cold traffic
• [11:34] Leading growth through transparency and story
• [12:21] Episode Sponsors: Electric Eye, Reach & Zamp
• [15:52] Defining brand guidelines before scaling online
• [17:52] Testing incrementality before scaling Amazon
• [18:48] Skipping short-term wins for long-term brand health
• [20:48] Preparing for shoppable AI disrupting search

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• Supplements Made From Science https://bodybio.com/ 
• Follow Jess Berman https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesshkane 
• Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect
• Level up your global sales withreach.com/honest  
• Fully managed sales tax solution for Ecommerce brands zamp.com/honest 

If you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

 

Transcript

Jess Berman

Take people's advice, but take it with a grain of salt and go back to what your intuition tells you with regards to your own brand. Because I listen to people a little bit too closely. And there were some mess ups along the way.  

Chase Clymer

Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, a podcast dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. And I believe running a direct-to-consumer brand does not have to be complicated or a guessing game. 

On this podcast, we interview founders and experts who are putting in the work and creating  real results. 

I also share my own insights from running our top Shopify consultancy, Electric Eye. We cut the fluff in favor of facts to help you grow your Ecommerce business.

Let's get on with the show.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Honest Ecommerce. Today, I'm welcoming the show Jessica Berman. She is the chief brand officer and co-owner of the family-owned BodyBio. Jessica, welcome to the show. 

Jess Berman

Thanks for having me. 

Chase Clymer

Awesome. For those that don't know, what are the types of products that you bring to market over there at BodyBio? 

Jess Berman

We make some really esoteric weird stuff, but it works really well. So it's very well respected by doctors. Most of what we make are things that pertain to cellular health, which is very specific. But we are hearing so much more about it now because we're thinking about the impacts of microplastics and PIPAs and all these toxins in our world. So it started as something that was very direct to doctors only in the 1990s and it's evolved.

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. Absolutely. And so if I go to bodybio.com, what types of things would I be buying?  

Jess Berman

You've got random minerals. So you've got electrolytes and minerals, which I like to call self-food. So you know how important it is probably to filter your water. People aren't drinking as much out of plastic. They're not drinking tap water. We have a great product called Remineralize. And then it extends all the way to things like phospholipids and essential fatty acids, which are some of the components of what makes up your cells. 

Chase Clymer

That's amazing. Now we talked about this a bit offline, but I love knowing the answer before I ask questions, which is how much of the business was comprised of Ecommerce before you jumped in and took the helm? 

Jess Berman

Zero. So in 2017, my husband was recruited to come work for the family business, my grandfather's company that he started in 1998. My husband had actually grown FIJI Water in Europe, Middle East and Africa. We were based in London. And then he was recruited by PepsiCo. 

So he was working through the corporate and my grandfather said, look, I need some help here. And they just sold to doctors through conferences. So they would host these conferences and they would sell to doctors. But the actual amount they used their website was, I remember it was hosted on Volusion and it had a WordPress site that was basically a very extensive blog. 

They had some actual great organic traffic, but very minimal Ecommerce orders because there was no way to kind of convert them. They weren't actually thinking about CRO optimizations in any way. So it's really interesting that in about 2018, we launched Direct-to-Consumer, opened up a new website, shortly thereafter moved to Shopify, which was a big move. And now, our business is split completely down the middle, 50% Ecommerce, D2C, and 50% to practitioners, distributors, retailers.

Chase Clymer

I think a lot of people are scared about opening up channels that might compete with existing channels. Yeah. Did you see it take a percentage away from that trust you had built through your wholesale network? Or did it just add to the overall size of the pie? 

Jess Berman

Obviously, there was some feedback from doctors. So we went in the same year, 2018, launched a D2C site, went on Amazon, which was unheard of for a practitioner brand to do. We did it at the exact same time. I think the only other brand that was going on Amazon was Thorn. And I saw them do it and I said, we need to be on Amazon. 

And we got some flack and some heat from these doctors because they were saying, well, you were once only able to buy it through our offices. So of course you're going to take a hit to the  actual B2B side of the business, but it's grown so exponentially because the brand awareness has grown so much.

And so in being omnichannel and having multiple channels for sales, the brand presence has grown tremendously. And now the whole thing, the whole pie has grown so much larger. Whereas before, it was so siloed that nobody had even heard of us. 

Chase Clymer

You said something amazing right before the call. And you mentioned you're like, we're like a 30-year-old startup.

Jess Berman

Yeah. 

Chase Clymer

Because you're launching this new direct consumer channel, which is these days what almost every Ecommerce business does first. What were some of the other  challenges at figuring out direct-to-consumer 30 years in?  

Jess Berman

We had nobody on the team who had Ecommerce experience. And  2018 Shopify stores were a little different. The themes and the custom dev. We actually hired early on a really close partner that I still work with. It's my dev team. And they helped us to build a custom theme, figure out which apps were really important, and get us on board with Klaviyo. They were like my partner in all this. So I super bootstrapped it was myself, my brother-in-law, working on all of our marketing, essentially, it was just the two of us. We were writing all of the blog content, we were doing all the emails, we were doing the design, were, mean, soup to nuts. 

And I look back on that time and I think people are afraid to jump in and start. I think now it's so much easier to do these things because you have AI that can help you with so many of these optimizations. And so much of the writing and the copywriting and image creation. And so it's a really different space. 

Chase Clymer

Yeah, I think staring at a blank page is the hardest thing in the world. And AI helps you go from like zero to one in such a quicker way. Maybe it's not the best, but it still gets the ideas out there so it can get your creative juices flowing. 

Jess Berman

For sure. 

Chase Clymer

Now, you launched Amazon, you launched Direct to Consumer through what eventually became your Shopify store. Were there any growing pains in figuring out fulfillment? Or did you guys have that pretty dialed in because of your existing network with these doctors? 

Jess Berman

The growing pains at the beginning were that we saw we had a lot of gains from branded search terms. So both in organic and paid, the attribution was skewed because people were specifically looking for a brand. The biggest pain point was finding the new customers that are looking for the benefit solution. So let's say they're looking for a gut health supplement or a brain health supplement.

How do we tie in those keywords into our marketing and into what we're doing so that we're showing up in the right places? So that was an early pain point. In the last two years, we've seen about 40% growth year over year. And the pain points there come from operations. They come from fulfillment. We actually fulfill out of our own headquarters and we manufacture most of our supplements. 

So the actual supply chain and the backup that COVID created and everything. It took a couple years to get out of it. It also took hiring the right people to really help us with our operations so that we could forecast and have the right amount of supply and  be able to fulfill the demand. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. I think that there are definitely listeners out there now that are still trying to figure out how to find new customers. They're like, yeah, people that know about us love us and they'll buy the product. So, any insights into trying to break in and find new customers out there on the wild web?  

Jess Berman

This is my year of findings 2025. In 2024, I hired a lot of consultants and worked with a lot of great consultants that had built some incredible brands. And I would say, take people's advice, but take it with a grain of salt and go back to what your intuition tells you with regards to your own brand. Because I listen to people a little bit too closely. And there were some mess ups along the way.

One of those that was really interesting is so many people had said to us last year, looking at our media buying and running audits on our account, saying, it's like you're taking your foot off the gas. You're not spending enough. Well, the algorithm and the beast that Meta has created, you have to spend up in certain ways. And one of the metrics that we were really searching for was that CAC to LTV ratio.

And what we ultimately discovered was that is not the way that we are going to find new customers. We had to abandon ship on that one and go back to really what BodyBio, how we grew in the first place from kind of 2018 onwards, which is double downing on education. So leaning on partners and creators, key influencers that are practitioners, that are doctors, that can speak from authority, leaning on those, leaning on our affiliate channel, which has been really interesting for me. 

So the influencer affiliate channel, not like traditional affiliate, Rakuten, RetailMeNot, but the actual partners channel has been really great for getting us into new customer funnels and  growing the top of the funnel. But it's also really double downing and looking creative. If your Meta is not working, I think creativity is the number one thing to blame. And I think you have to go back to basics and really take a look at what creative you're running and take a look at what landing pages it's going to.

We've used Reflow, we've used Vermont, we've used so many different things. But really dialing in that whole process and the whole funnel that a customer is going through. 

Chase Clymer

Yeah, I think that it's the offer  and the positioning of. It's just all about what is the value. Is this thing solving my problem from a consumer's perspective? It's like a yes or no thing. But then it's like, is the value also there? And that comes from how you're positioning that offer and that product against whatever your price point is or what else they're getting for it. 

Jess Berman

Yeah. 

Chase Clymer

I think oftentimes, people don't realize that on the other end of these ads are human beings. They got to understand what it is. It's got to solve their problem. And it's got to seem like a good deal. 

Jess Berman

Yeah. 

Chase Clymer

Or it's got to seem like the value there is worth the price of admission. 

Jess Berman

And you can know that your brand is really beneficial to people. You can know that your product is effective or yours is better than X, and Z. But to convey that in an ad is really hard. 

Chase Clymer

Yeah, especially trying to find new customers who have never heard of you. 

Jess Berman

Yes. 

Chase Clymer

You got to get creative about how to show that to people. And you already said it before, using authority with  these doctors and having them  as influencers or affiliates for you to talk about it through their channels. 

Its social proof is tried and true. Testimonials, reviews, other customers talking about how to themselves, help them solve their problems. 10 years ago, you could put a picture of a product on a white background on Facebook and make money. 

Jess Berman

So true. 

Chase Clymer

You cannot do that anymore. You have to think creatively and test a bunch of different things. People like to call them hooks and angles and whatnot when you're talking about ads.

Jess Berman

Oh, yeah. 

Chase Clymer

You have to get creative in it. Really, you have to understand what resonates  with your customers. And I just think it's extremely hard for a net new business to do something that doesn't have the 30 years of backing that yours had to be able to learn and pivot and it not be as, quote, dare I say, expensive as a startup can afford. 

Jess Berman

It's true. And I think you look at brands now who are successful. I think we're kind of seeing the phase out of the influencer brands and now you're seeing brands as creators bringing you along the journey and storytelling. And I think that that's really something that's inspiring to me. And that's really kind of my North Star of what I'm looking at right now. How do we bring a face to a supplement brand? How do we bring humanization to something that is typically, you walk into your doctor's office or you walk into a CVS or you go into Erewhon and purchase your supplements.

How do we bring that  element behind the scenes and let people into the supplement industry a little bit more? And you see a lot of very successful brands like Ritual. Not so much seed doing that. They lead with a lot more education. But you see some of the more successful D2C brands doing that today. 

Chase Clymer

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Chase Clymer

Obviously, we  mentioned this at the beginning, but I'm gonna bring it up now. Obviously, this is a  family-owned business. And now the third generation and you dove into Ecommerce. I'm sure there are maybe a few other family-owned businesses out there listening to this and they're looking to expand into Ecommerce be your top 3 pieces of advice for them. 

Jess Berman

Really hone in on your brand guidelines, your mission, your vision, your values, your brand tone, your brand voice. Once you  decide on that, which for family business can be difficult because sometimes there's a lot of different players that have different opinions on it.  

Chase Clymer

I don't think that most legacy family businesses, it's never been quantified. 

Jess Berman

No, they probably don't. And so one of the key things we did was really lean on strategy. So how do we take a look at this strategically and put together plans. So who is BodyBio? Who your company is is a really important definition to nail. And then once you have that feeding into whatever it is that you think is the way to educate or promote your product. And for us, our North Star has always been education, even if it's super technical,  it leads back to education. And that's what works for us when we've pivoted and tried to go.

You know, to be kind of more of a mass market, it doesn't work. And so I always just go back to that. I think intuition is a really important thing. You know your brand more than anyone else, but also creating the assets so that you can give those to your team and to your agency partners so that they can act in the same way that you would is also very important. 

So having those brand guidelines, having the tone of voice of the brand, having a copy bank, having creative asset recommendations and art direction recommendations. These days, you don't need to hire an expensive art director to do that. You just need to be able to solidify it and know who your brand is. So I think all of it actually comes back to really brand building. I think it's really critical, particularly for an older business that is looking to pivot and get into something new. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. And you mentioned earlier that you launched on Shopify and on Amazon within the same year.  

What would you say are the most notable differences between those two  avenues of direct-to-consumer business?  

Jess Berman

One, you know in the customer information, you can talk to those customers. The other, you can't.  And  I often wonder if we had held out on Amazon. And if we were to look at incrementality testing and really evaluate the costs of selling on Amazon and how critical it is.

I think that there's a lot of businesses that have been incredibly successful just launching on Amazon. And just running good ads on Amazon and double downing on that. For us, we did both at the same time, which was a lot looking back on it. It was an important pivotal moment for us to build brand awareness at the time. 

Chase Clymer

Absolutely. And obviously, the customers are there and the velocity goes. 

Jess Berman

How often do you see an ad for something? I do it myself. I see an ad, I go to their website, and then I'll forget about it. And a day later, I just go and buy it on Amazon. It's too easy. 

Chase Clymer

It does. It does make it way too easy. Now, looking back on bringing BodyBio to the 21st century or whatever we call it these days, launching the direct consumer part of the business, any mistakes you guys made along the way? 

Jess Berman

Oh my god. So many. I truly believe in failing fast and learning. Take those findings. None of them, in my opinion, are things that I regret. I think that those are the times that you learn the most  and they're really, really helpful. So even through supply chain issues, things that were out of our control, tariff things right now,  potentially a partner that just doesn't work out and is not the right fit for the brand.

You learn through each of those experiences. So I like to go full force into every relationship or any new account that we launch. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, you take those learnings and you move on. 

Chase Clymer

Yeah, I think that a lot of brands get too caught up in making the perfect choice and it stops them from making a choice. 

Jess Berman

I'm sure. Yeah. Right now, we are looking towards  larger retail expansion and...

I've listened to so many podcasts, the How I Built This on Chomps, going into Costco and the ups and downs of entering into some of those large retailers, which that's not going to be for my brand. Really looking at it from a strategic lens and staying true to that, I think is critically important too. 

Because along the way, as you get larger and as you start to have people reaching out to you, things might look appealing, but it might not ultimately be good for the brand. 

Chase Clymer

Yeah. I think that as businesses grow,  so do the opportunities that you  get positioned, get put in front of you. But you need to also understand, keep the main thing the main thing and don't get distracted.  Because it's easy to take your foot off the gas and make a few choices that maybe weren't the best in hindsight. 

Jess Berman

Sure. Yeah. Agreed.

Chase Clymer

I asked you a bazillion questions. But is there anything I didn't ask you that you think would resonate with our audience? 

Jess Berman

So I think this year on my horizon is that it's super important to actually really look and evaluate. And we had one audit done recently. I love these audits. I love when some professional comes in and just gives me their thoughts on my accounts. And they said, we were seeing great ROAS on Pinterest. 

I think you can hold out on Pinterest. I think you can stop running ads on Bing, we oddly get like a great return on. I think you can stop running on Bing. I think you can hold out on Google. And I think you'll see the same revenue. And I was like, tell me more. These are expensive channels, right? And so this year is the year of incrementality testing for me and really just optimizing the amount of money we're spending, taking a look at really looking at contribution margin, how it's affecting overall business.

I think it is really important as you get in there and grow. So at the beginning, it's kind of like, let's make sure we're just known, right? Let's get the brand out there. And that used to be so much more on Google and on Amazon and less so, and definitely on Meta before iOS changes, it was great. 

But it wasn't as kind of stringent on social media and all these things. So it's really interesting just to see how it's affected. Also, I mean, ChatGPT today launched being able to shop on ChatGPT, that's going to completely change the landscape for Google. And so that's like the next step of how that's going to evolve. And that'll be really interesting to see shoppable AI. I'm a little nervous about that, but I think that just staying ahead of what they're doing and making sure we can adapt to it will be great. 

Chase Clymer

Yeah, it's gonna be really fun to see how that plays out. I think it's gonna become like a line item level of expertise. Now you've got search engine optimization, you're gonna have AI engine optimization or something like that in the future. 

Jess Berman

Yeah. 

Chase Clymer

But I'm excited to see how it plays out. Obviously, third generation, you guys have amazing products over there. Again, like where should I go to learn more about these products? Let me know. 

Jess Berman

Our Instagram, BodyBio is very informative, very educational. You're going to see a lot of anecdotes about how to use the product. Same on TikTok. We do a lot as well. Our blog is phenomenal. We've just got amazing writers. We have amazing contributors and medical reviewers who are taking a look at everything. We do things from a more alternative holistic lens.

But it's really, really insightful information that's going to help you learn more about the world that we live in, how it affects our health, and how you can live really a lot better for longer. 

Chase Clymer

That's amazing, Jessica. Now,  I can't thank you enough for coming on the show and sharing all those insights today. 

Jess Berman

Thanks so much, Chase.  

Chase Clymer

We can't thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey with us. We've got a lot to think about and potentially add into our own business. You can find all the links in the show notes. 

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Until next time!