How to Sell a Product You Can't Talk About: The Nowadays $1M Growth Hack

Hey everyone,

Welcome back for another bite to chew on.

How do you sell a product you can't even mention in your ads?

That's the challenge Nowadays faced with their THC-infused spirits. Yet they somehow hit $1M in sales within 90 days from a single viral TikTok.

We sat down with founder Justin Tidwell to unpack the exact strategies they used – from crafting compliant messaging (that still converts) to building a seeding program that gets 70% of influencers to post organically.

If you're marketing in a regulated industry (or just want to stand out in a crowded space), you'll want to steal these tactics.

On the Menu:

• Selling What You Can't Say: Messaging that works in regulated industries

• The 3-Part Strategy: How they turned viral success into sustainable growth

• The 70% Creator to Content Hack: 1,000-sample-per-month approach driving their expansion

• The Ultimate Takeaway: What every founder should learn from their journey

• ⭐️ BONUS: A special offer from Applovin in our Operators Toolbox

Check out our full conversation with Justin on how he turned a side hustle into a high growth brand:

You can also listen to this episode on:

Spotify 🎧
Apple 🍎
Youtube ▶️

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🤐 Selling What You Can't Say

The Challenge → Nowadays can't mention THC, cannabis, or even hint at the actual ingredients in their marketing. This regulatory hurdle would cripple most brands.

Justin explained their workaround: "We sit in a room and ask, 'How else can we say this that's a better way to communicate to consumers without risking our marketing?'"

Their Solution → Focus entirely on consumer benefits and emotional outcomes.

Examples of their messaging framework:

• Instead of: "Try this cannabis-infused spirit"

• They say: "Try this plant magic that will give you a lift"

• Instead of: "Contains THC for a relaxing high"

• They say: "Experience the feeling of drinking without the downsides"

This strategy extends across their entire marketing ecosystem:

Their first viral TikTok embodied this perfectly: a woman simply holding a cocktail glass with the caption "Drinking without a hangover" and an engaging tune.

It hit 100,000 views in 30 minutes.

🔑 Why this works →  This method doesn't just avoid regulations. It resonates better with potential customers who might be intimidated by cannabis terminology.

"Most of our customers have never tried cannabis before," Justin explained. "They're not looking for a cannabis product. They're looking for a way to socialize without feeling terrible the next day."

📈 The 3-Part Growth Strategy

When their TikTok went viral, Nowadays had only $80K worth of product to fulfill $1M in demand. 😬

So they pivoted to a pre-order model with a 90-day wait time. They got buy-in by being up front and transparent with their customers: 

"We're a brand new business. We'd love to send this to you, but we just can't. Are you willing to support us and wait?"

Most people waited. Crisis averted.

But, more importantly, they needed a sustainable plan beyond viral moments. 

Here is their 3-part growth framework:

1. Build a profitable DTC foundation

• They collected 500,000+ email subscribers from viral videos

• Used this engaged list to test messaging variations and identify what resonated

• Focused on first-purchase profitability before scaling ad spend

Justin shared: "The beautiful thing about starting organically is that it gave us a profitable base. We could use those profits to test and experiment without external pressure."

2. Create an evergreen paid strategy

Their channel breakdown:

• 70% of budget goes to Meta with a focus on refreshing content constantly (weekly)

• Recently added Applovin** which offers fewer restrictions for THC products

• Built a diversified approach where each channel serves as a backup for others

"When customers find us through paid, we're super focused on compliance. We ID-verify every purchase, which actually increases trust and conversion."

** Scroll down to our Operator Toolbox section to find a special offer from Applovin for Chew On This readers 👇🏽

3. Use DTC profits to fund wholesale

Unlike brands that raise capital for retail expansion, Nowadays flipped the model:

• Used DTC profitability to self-fund wholesale expansion

• Treated online data as proof-of-concept when approaching distributors

• Leveraged online customer insights to determine which markets to enter first

"Wholesale is extremely expensive – you need sales reps, you have returns, rebates, the whole nine. We use today's profits to build what we see as the future of the category."

🔑 Don't put all your growth eggs in one basket. Design each channel to be independently profitable while creating a system where they strengthen each other. Virality is a springboard, not a long-term strategy

The 70% Influencer → Content Conversion Hack

Nowadays sends 1,000+ product samples to influencers monthly. But their approach differs from typical influencer marketing:

❌ The Traditional Way: Pay influencers + provide rigid briefs = inauthentic content The 

✅ Nowadays Way: Free product + zero expectations = authentic endorsements

Their super simple 3-step process:

1. Send the product

2. Educate on proper usage

3. Say "speak your mind"

That’s it. They empower their creators with full control and honesty. 

That leads to 70% of recipients organically posting about the product without being paid.

Justin's insight: "We'd have a video with 100,000 views where an influencer said 'Buy this drink, it's delicious' and it wouldn't convert. But when someone posts their real experience – those generate way more sales."

🔑Trust your product enough to let influencers form their own genuine opinions. Authentic content converts better than scripted promotions.

Join us in Miami on April 25th!

Commerce Roundtable is just around the corner. 

We’ll be there with some of the biggest names in DTC (and we might even be throwing an event ourselves).

Don’t have a ticket? Use code CHEWONTHIS for 25% off, and you can be there too.

This offer WON’T last…  

Grab your ticket here. 

🏆 The Ultimate Takeaway for Founders

Despite their explosive growth, Justin's advice is refreshingly grounded:

🧪 Their success formula:

• Product first, marketing second (18 months spent perfecting the first release)

• Transparent customer communication (even when it means admitting limitations)

• Balancing short-term wins with long-term investments

• Willing to pivot quickly when needed

"We didn't want to be a one-hit wonder. It's about every single day improving our business, tweaking it."

🧰 Operator Toolbox – Tools in our growth stack

⭐️ Applovin – Heads up! We were able to get $250,000 in Applovin credits to give to our community for qualifying brands. Interested? Just fill out a 15-second questionnaire (link below), and we'll follow up with the next steps.

No strings attached. Purely free to test!

 See if you qualify for free Applovin credits →

🔹SARAL – Our influencer management platform. The key to our seeding and UGC growth engine. Evolve your influence program with SARAL → 

🔹 Aftersell – Optimizing AOV post-purchase with smart, flexible upsell offers — critical when margins are under attack. Grow your AOV  with Aftersell →

🔹 Stay AI – Subscription programs are not just set it and forget it. Stay AI helps us maintain and evolve subscription offerings over time. Optimize subscriptions for better LTV → 

Some of these are referral partners. We only share what we actually use or would recommend to a friend.