Firstly, though, we need your help!
As 2025 wraps up, we’re excited to announce something new for the DTC Live community, our first ever DTC Live Magazine.
To make sure it actually reflects what’s happening on the ground, we’re asking the DTC Live community to look ahead.
Share your predictions, priorities and perspectives for 2026 - your insights will shape the data, themes and stories we feature in the magazine.
It takes just 2 minutes to complete. Ready to add your voice?
On DTC Live on Air, we sat down with Maria Korhonen, co-founder of Pulse of Potential.
In a short space of time she’s turned her own experience of high-functioning anxiety into a mental wellness brand built with therapists, powered by data and growing steadily.
Here’s how she’s doing it…
Pulse of Potential launched at the end of 2023 with one hero product: guided journals created with therapists and psychologists.
“Pulse of Potential really started from my own struggles with high-functioning anxiety… On the outside you can seem very collected, high achieving and organised, but on the inside it can be a very different story.”
Therapy felt out of reach, traditional journaling wasn’t sticking, so she built something she could actually use: a journal that doesn’t start with a blank page, but therapy-informed prompts.
What began as “the journal brand” has already evolved into a wider lifestyle offer.
“This year we added the weighted stuffed animals… over 80% of our sales come through those. We’re no longer just a journal brand. We’ve expanded into something more.”
Weighted animals now drive most sales and have helped lift average order value, while still feeling completely on brand.
Maria’s clear that mental wellness tools shouldn’t feel like a luxury, but the brand has to be commercially sound.
“We’re always looking to add free resources, donate to mental health organisations and build in different price points… to make sure that all people can really afford the tools they need.”
Behind the soft category there’s a very structured growth engine.
“It’s more the ‘boring’ work of actually looking at what the market needs - market metrics, trend analysis, customer feedback and surveys - and combining all of that to come up with the next idea we can predict will have good product-market fit.”
“Meta creative strategy has always been our key driver… more customer personas, more variety in our content, and more creative volume has given us a really good boost.”
Meta is the main performance channel, backed by Google, with new products, new personas and higher creative volume driving growth.
One of Maria’s biggest lessons is how closely systems, mindset and growth are linked.
“Growing a business is all about the systems and just showing up.”
She leans on the 80/20 rule, writes tasks down, checks they’re actually moving the needle and tries to step out of the “I must be at 110%” headspace.
Pulse of Potential is built to help people treat mental wellness like physical health - something you maintain, not just fix in crisis.
Watch the full session here.
Can we talk about “best practices” for a second?
Everywhere you look there’s a list promising higher conversions. Add urgency. Move reviews. Change your CTA colour.
Some of it is fine as a starting point. The problem is, most of it ignores actual context.
What worked for a £15 impulse skincare product will not behave the same way on a £120 wellness bundle where trust, depth and education matter more than speed. When a brand simply “copies” the checklist, and implements these “proven” tactics, they wonder why nothing is shifting?
A few classics we see in audits:
The issue isn't necessarily the tactic. It’s more the lack of expert eyes on when and where to use it.
That is where heuristic and expert evaluations come in. You get a structured review of your site through UX principles, plus someone who can read your data, understand your customers and say:
If you want something actually actionable, start here:
If too many answers are “us”, you have a conversion problem, not a traffic problem.
If you want help, our CRO team can run a full heuristic evaluation on your store, highlight friction, missed trust signals and quick wins, then prioritise what to test.
Rhode has finally landed at Sephora UK and it is using London’s grey cabs as its launch pad. For three days, “Rhode grey cabs” are parked up in Notting Hill, inviting fans in for a quick touch up, a filmed content moment and a printed cab receipt they can swap in Sephora for a free Glazing Milk sample with purchase.
It is a simple loop done well. Spot the cab, step in for a small Rhode moment, then head straight to Sephora to redeem the receipt and see the full range. Instead of a quiet “now available” message, the launch becomes something you can see in the city, experience in real life and then shop the same day.
