#245 - Growing Your Brand with Influencer Marketing with Joybyte
The Startup CPG Podcast
Startup CPG
4.9 • 642 Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Myriah Castillo, president of Joybyte, and Val Ponce De Leon, head of influencer at Joybyte, to dig into one of the most talked-about topics in the Startup CPG Slack: influencer marketing. Not the celebrity post-and-pray version — but the strategic, scrappy, content-engine approach that actually moves the needle for early stage CPG brands.
Myriah opens with a reframe that changes how you think about the whole category: stop thinking about influencers as a conversion tool and start thinking about them as a content engine. From there, she and Val walk through what a real creator-led growth strategy looks like — from nano creator gifting and first-round testing to long term ambassador relationships, content repurposing through whitelisting, and the brief that took a creator who wasn't converting to $10,000 in sales in a single weekend.
They share real brand examples — including Jackson's Chips and Ice Barrel — that show what it looks like when the strategy actually works. And they get into the specifics brands at every stage need to hear: what nano and micro creators actually cost, how to set expectations from day one, when to introduce budget, and how to get the most out of every piece of content you commission.
Whether you're a founder who has never run a creator campaign, a brand that tried influencer marketing and wasn't sure if it worked, or someone trying to figure out how to stretch a limited budget, this episode is the foundation you need.
Listen in as they discuss: Why long term creator relationships beat one-off posts — and how to get there through a structured test and learn approach — What nano and micro influencers actually cost, what gifting can realistically get you, and how to set clear expectations from day one — How to repurpose creator content across paid media, organic social, email, and PDPs through whitelisting and collaborative posts — Why the content itself is the ROI and how to think about creators as a content engine rather than a conversion tool — The brief that actually works: how Joybyte analyzes a creator's existing content to find the storyline that will perform — How TikTok Shop differs from influencer marketing and why Joybyte treats them as two completely separate programs — What Joybyte's retainer model looks like and why they pass through creator costs directly to brands with no overhead markup — Ice Barrel and Jackson's Chips: two real examples of what it looks like when creator-led growth catches lightning in a bottle
Episode Links:
Myriah Castillo – President, Joybyte
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myriah-castillo-b646b8168/
Val Ponce De Leon – Lead Strategist, Joybyte
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-ponce-de-leon-3a962a143/
Joybyte Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joybyte/
Website: https://joybyte.com/
Download the free Creator-Led Growth Playbook: https://joybyte.com/creator-led-whitepaper
Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think it's easier for brands to understand the value when you think about the creators as a content engine. |
| 0:17.6 | I think when you compare to video shoot or a photo shoot or graphic design or even |
| 0:25.3 | AI, like when you compare those content vehicles to explain your brand to others, like creators |
| 0:32.0 | have a tremendous amount of value that is very clearly tracked. The advantage of the creators is that they can also |
| 0:38.9 | get a conversion instantaneously from their content. They can also drive geo-targeted traffic to |
| 0:45.9 | retailers. They can also get traffic to the website. They can also help with PDP pages, all the |
| 0:51.5 | stuff that that was talking about. Like, I think those are the sprinkles on the cake. Welcome to the startup CPG podcast. It feels like every year |
| 1:00.9 | influencers become more and more integral to brand strategies. So I'm really happy that |
| 1:05.1 | today's episode is a deep dive into influencer marketing. It's how early stage brands can plan and execute creator campaigns and how to make the |
| 1:13.3 | most use out of the content that they're able to generate. |
| 1:16.2 | Today's episode features our partners at JoyBite. |
| 1:19.1 | They do this for a living. |
| 1:20.1 | They have tons of experience working with so many brands like Jackson's Chips, Egglands |
| 1:24.6 | Best, and Baja Gold. |
| 1:26.3 | They work with micro creators at scale to generate authentic content, real audience Best, and Baja Gold. They work with micro creators at scale to generate authentic |
| 1:29.4 | content, real audience signals, and social proof, building smarter creative, stronger paid |
| 1:34.5 | performance, and demand across channels. We cover a ton in this episode, but there's so much more. |
| 1:41.1 | You can download their creator-led growth playbook for free. The link is in the show |
| 1:45.6 | notes and definitely reach out to the Joy Bite team if you'd like to learn more about working with |
| 1:50.3 | them. I was super excited to hear that they work on a retainer basis and then pass along to you |
| 1:55.3 | the true cost of the creators. I like that a lot better than some of the opaque, high overhead models I've seen in |
| 2:01.5 | the past. Okay, let's get into it. Here we go. All right, welcome everybody to the podcast. |
... |
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