306 | Product First: Why Product Quality Outshines Marketing | with Justin Wolff

Justin Wolff is a Social Entrepreneur who has built his career by blending commerce with cause. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Junk Theory and former Co-Founder and Chief Giving Officer (CGO) at Yoobi, Justin has built impactful brands by transforming narratives and driving change.  At Yoobi, Justin created and oversaw the Buy One, Give One program, building meaningful impact centered around what students needed most, and what teachers were most likely to spend money out of pocket for. To scale the giving program at Yoobi, Justin forged strategic partnerships to ensure donated school supplies reached those in need nationwide. He infused a giving spirit into Yoobi’s culture, influencing decisions across design, marketing, and operations.  By its second year in business, Yoobi was providing more than 1 million kids per year with free sets of school supplies, right here in the U.S. To date, Yoobi has provided more than 7 million kids across the US, and counting.  In 2023, Justin launched his second brand, JunkTheory, which aims to end the plastic era in beauty – a category that produces over 120 billion pieces of plastic packaging per year. Clean skincare, he believes, should start with healthy formulas, but must also consider what those formulas come packaged in. JunkTheory is the first clean skincare line where nothing goes in the trash, and everything is packaged in metal – the most recycled material on earth.  Prior to his life as an entrepreneur, Justin was a project finance attorney – leveraging his passion for the environment by specializing in the clean energy space, where he helped develop utility-scale wind and solar farms around the world. In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:41] Intro[01:51] Building impact brands with purpose and innovation[03:44] Redefining sustainable & ‘clean beauty’[05:05] Solving recycling challenges with aluminum[07:16] Why great products outweigh great packaging[09:24] Combining sustainability with original formulas[10:19] Launching organically with limited resources[12:34] How product efficacy drives customer retention [13:16] Episode sponsors: StoreTester and Intelligems[16:28] Digital strategies with performance marketing[18:43] Building impact partnerships for brand awareness[19:32] Organic growth sets the stage for paid success[21:33] Growing a genuine audience without shortcuts[22:37] Time for paid ads and time to let products speak[24:06] Try Junk Theory and contribute to a cleaner planet Resources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeMost recyclable, earth-powered skincare junktheory.com/Follow Justin Wolff linkedin.com/in/justin-wolff-6b563913/Book a demo today at intelligems.io/Done-for-you conversion rate optimization service storetester.com/ 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!