Life Itself

A Buffalo chaga brand with a strong product and no growth system. I built one, from strategy through execution, and online sales grew nearly twice as fast as the business overall.

Growth Strategy, Email Marketing, SEO and Content, Social and Influencer, Store Conversion

+44%

Online store sales

01 / Context

Life Itself hand-forages wild chaga in the mountains of Vermont and turns it into concentrates, tinctures and mushroom coffee. Founder Josh Zimmerman started with $200, a hand grinder and a crockpot. The product earned a loyal following at markets and in about 20 independent shops. What it lacked was a way to grow online. Sales depended on in-person channels, the mushroom category was getting crowded, and supplement ad rules make paid acquisition a hard road for a small brand. I set the strategy around channels the brand could own, then built each one myself. Email marketing. Blog content aimed at what chaga buyers search for. Google visibility. An Instagram system that sells. An influencer program built from scratch. Changes to the Shopify store so new traffic turned into orders.

02 / System

Since July 2025, compared with the same period in 2024: gross sales rose 23%. Online store sales rose 44%. Website visitors grew 34% and the conversion rate improved 21%. Sales from Google nearly doubled, and Instagram revenue grew 490%. Blog content now ranks and brings in steady traffic. Life Itself is an early-stage business, so these are gains on a small base. What matters is that every part of the system moved in the same direction at once. That happens when one person owns the plan and the build. No handoffs between a strategist, an agency and a freelancer. Decisions turned into work the same week, each channel fed the others, and one person answered for the number.