Why do so many of us founders try to do the equivalent of building a flatpack house without the instructions? And then beat ourselves up internally when it turns out to be harder than expected? Or when you make mistakes that anyone would in the same situation? Would you spend years trying to make it work with no instructions — just half-torn pages you’ve collected along the way, doing your best to stitch them together?

Not just the furniture mind you - The foundations. The skeleton. The plumbing. The electrics. The legal and safety stuff too....

... and while you're trying to build it, you're also trying to market it, sell AirB&B rooms and put the entire place up for sale?

Would you spend 50-500k of your own money doing this, not to mention your unpaid time?

That’s effectively what we do as consumer packaged goods founders.

After a tough few years, after countless marathons, we often end up with good products, and a brand we feel passionate about.

Perhaps we get some early D2C wins, and some early retailer traction too.

But then the stakes get higher.

We need to making pricing, channel, hiring and funding decisions without ever being able to see how the whole system fits together.

So decisions get made in isolation - without us realising they are joined up. (think pricing decisions and customer or channel read-across - and if you don't know what that means, ask below and I will tell you from my own experience, mistakes and learnings!)

Problems get fixed as they appear.
But the cost shows up later - in margin, stress, or decisions that need undoing.

This is happening to thousands of us, everyday.
How ridiculous is that?
We're all making the same mistakes, incurring the same costs, getting more and more stressed - without ever asking:

Why am I not looking for a set of instructions for this?

Why am I beating myself up for not getting it right without them?

After 25+ years working inside and alongside consumer brands - from global blue-chip FMCG to fast-scaling challengers, I kept seeing this pattern repeat.

So I built the decision-making framework I needed and I wrapped it up inside the BGH Mini MBA.

With a peer and expert network, so you don’t have to carry this level of complexity on their own.

Stop thinking you *should* be able to do this on your own.

Fi Fitz ⚡ 💛

Applications for the Brand Growth Heroes Mini MBA 2026 cohort are now open.
https://www.brandgrowthheroes.com/mini-mba-2026

Ep144: Dana Look Arimoto | Founder and CEO of Phoenix⁵