Consistency Is the New Currency: Insights from a Leader in Wellness Marketing

Join Molly Baker, founder of Indie Consulting, and Eleah Portillo, as they dive into how trust, consistency, and loving the brands you work for fuel purpose-driven careers. They explore how showing up consistently for your brand builds credibility over time and why internal belief is the key to building lasting loyalty. Whether you’re building a wellness brand, scaling your marketing efforts, or simply looking to lead with integrity—this episode offers practical advice and insights to help you stay true to your mission in a fast-paced world. And be sure to catch all the hot takes featured in the episode!

MB (Molly Baker): What’s top of mind for you professionally right now?

EP (Eleah Portillo): Honestly, I’ve got a few hot takes. Let’s start with this: I’m tired of the industry obsession with CAC and CPA. Don’t get me wrong—tracking efficiency is important. But we’re often so focused on lowering acquisition costs that we lose sight of the bigger picture: customer quality.

Just because someone’s cheap to acquire doesn’t mean they’re the right fit for your brand. If they don’t stick around, if they churn after one purchase, or they were never aligned with your values or offering—that’s not a win. That’s a waste.

Instead, we should be asking: how many profitable customers can we bring in? Not just how many cheap customers. Quality over quantity, always. That’s what drives real, sustainable growth.

MB: Is there a single metric you think people should chase?

EP: I don't believe there’s one magic metric. Business success isn’t a single number. It’s a blend: revenue, profitability, retention, lifetime value—how they all work together. Focusing too narrowly can cause more harm than good.

Let me tie that into another issue: how we manage our agencies. I had a conversation with the CEO of Pilot House Digital—super smart guy—and he gave me this great analogy that I’ve since borrowed.

Right now, brands treat agencies like car parts: we hire one for Amazon, another for Google, another for UGC, affiliates, creative, etc. It’s like building a car by outsourcing each part to different manufacturers who don’t know what the final vehicle is supposed to be. Are we building a race car or a minivan? Something fast, efficient, luxurious? No one knows.

That’s the disconnect. And unless you, as the brand, are clearly communicating the bigger picture—your revenue goals, your vision, your profit targets—no one knows what they’re really working toward. Everyone’s optimizing in isolation.

MB: So the whole structure is kind of backwards?

EP: In a lot of ways, yes. And I say that with empathy—because I’ve been on both sides. Agencies are often incentivized in a way that works against long-term brand health. Take the percentage-of-spend model, for example. It encourages agencies to spend more, not smarter.

Then you have tech partners also charging by media attributed or seats used. Add in your creative agency, affiliate spend, UGC contracts—it’s a tangle of fees and metrics, most of which you can’t even trace in your Ads Manager or attribution platform. So how are you supposed to know your true MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)? It’s chaos.

And here's the kicker—everyone has their own incentives, which makes it hard to trust whether a recommendation is what's best for the brand or just what gets someone their bonus.

MB: Sounds exhausting. What’s the solution?

EP: Alignment. Clear vision. Unified goals.

If everyone—agencies, tech partners, brand stakeholders—is aligned around the same outcomes (revenue, profitability, customer quality), then we’re all building the same car. We’re not working in silos. And when we hit those goals? We all pop champagne together.

MB: Do agencies need to change, or do brands need to change how they manage agencies?

EP: Both. Agencies need to stop operating in narrow verticals. And brands need to be better at letting people in. Share your goals. Share your roadblocks. Don’t make your partners guess what’s happening internally. That’s how you get misalignment—and bad results.

For example, if your retention team isn’t talking to your acquisition team, you’re missing huge opportunities. Messaging that resonates on the front end should carry through the entire customer journey. Otherwise, you're leaving people confused—or disappointed—once they convert.

MB: There’s a take out there that brand managers have become glorified project managers. What’s your view?

EP: The bad ones? Maybe. But strong brand managers are leaders. They set direction, trust their teams, and know what they need—and don’t need. It’s not about managing timelines. It’s about owning the vision and driving outcomes.

MB: Alright—can you tell us who you are and what you do?

EP: I’m Eleah Portillo, VP of Marketing at Wellness. We’re a performance supplement and functional foods brand co-founded by Phil Mickelson and his long-time friend and performance coach Dave Phillips. Phil had a health scare—psoriatic arthritis—that left him in intense pain despite having access to the best medical care. Dave created a concoction to help him manage inflammation, and it worked so well that Phil said, “Let’s share this with the world.” And here we are.

I never thought I’d work in golf. But I love this brand and these products. That’s my #1 advice: work for a brand you believe in. You’re going to live and breathe it—so it better excite you.

MB: What’s most challenging about working in the wellness space?

EP: Trust. It’s never been easier to fake it—AI-generated content, fake UGC, fake reviews. Consumers are skeptical, and they should be. So it’s on us to prove credibility.

You need real certifications, digestible clinical proof, and authentic partners. You can’t cut corners. That trust-building work is harder now than ever—but it’s also what separates brands that last from brands that flame out.

MB: What trends do you think are overhyped?

EP: Hacks. I’m over them. Biohacks, ad hacks, content hacks. People chasing the “next big thing” instead of doing the hard, consistent work of knowing their customer and showing up for them in the right places.

Not every trend is for you. You can’t be everything to everyone. Focus matters more than flash.

MB: What’s your take on ecommerce today?

EP: We run DTC and Amazon, but retail is next. If you’re in CPG, you have to go retail to scale. There are exceptions, but they’re rare.

What matters most is consistency. Whether someone finds you through Amazon, a store shelf, or Instagram, the experience should feel the same. Same voice. Same visuals. Same emotional payoff.

MB: You gave us a killer analogy off-mic. Want to share it?

EP: Sure! Think of Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco. She’s stunning. He’s... maybe less conventionally so. But he shows up as himself—quirky, funny, confident—and he makes her feel amazing. Safe. Seen. Sexy.

That’s what brands should do. Be consistently you. And make your customers feel something. When your product solves a real problem—whether it’s energy, health, peace of mind—you want your customer to feel empowered by that solution. That feeling is what keeps people coming back.

MB: What do you wish you knew earlier in your career?

EP: That it’s okay to change your mind. Explore. Flex. Chase something hard, then walk away if it’s not for you. Careers are fluid.

You don’t need to know exactly what you want. Just show up, learn, and collect experiences that shape your path. That’s how you grow.

MB: MBA—worth it?

EP: It’s worth it if you work it. Don’t go for the stamp. Go for the people, the stretching, the self-discovery. Join the weird clubs. Do the internships. Meet people outside your bubble.

That’s where the value is—not the textbooks. You can livestream Ivy League lectures for free now. What you can’t replicate is the network.

MB: Last piece of advice for someone building their career?

EP: Just get in the room. Do the note-taking. Do the spreadsheets. Be the one who volunteers. No one feels passionate about entry-level work—it’s about getting close to the action.

If you see a gap, fill it. If no one else is figuring something out—you figure it out. That’s how you become indispensable. Be useful. Be curious. Be bold.

MB: Did you think you'd be here at 21?

EP: I knew I’d be moving and shaking in the creative and marketing space. I’ve always loved this world. I thought I’d start my own agency or maybe go the brand management route.

I didn’t know the exact shape it would take—but I knew I wanted to build something meaningful. And I’m doing that. So yeah, I’d say I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.

Find Eleah on Linkedin!

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