AI, Influencers, and Unified Brands Drive Niche Product Growth

How I Built This with Guy Raz · January 01, 2026 · Listen to Original Episode →

Original Title: Advice Line: Tapping AI as a Resource for Your Business

TL;DR

Leveraging AI for influencer identification can strategically allocate marketing budgets by pinpointing medium to micro-influencers with high engagement, optimizing reach for niche products like Moji Masala spice blends.
Consolidating distinct product brands under a unified social media parent account, as advised for jigsaw puzzle companies, can increase discoverability and purchase potential by presenting a cohesive brand story and broader product offering.
Interactive, AI-driven plush toys that engage children with cultural and historical information can create a novel product category, potentially justifying subscription models and R&D investment for Modi Toys.
Prioritizing in-person product sampling and experiential marketing, as suggested for Moji Masala, builds deeper customer loyalty and purchase intent by allowing direct sensory engagement, which paid media alone cannot replicate.
Developing animated content, even with AI, can serve as a cost-effective strategy to expand reach for culturally specific products like Modi Toys, tapping into the high demand seen on children's YouTube channels.
Focusing on a core product offering and avoiding menu bloat, exemplified by Raising Cane's, can lead to long-term success by maintaining brand clarity and operational efficiency, even in competitive markets.

Deep Dive

Founders seeking to grow their businesses must strategically leverage sampling and influencer marketing to drive product trial and build brand awareness, particularly when facing limited marketing budgets. Furthermore, the integration of AI presents a significant opportunity to enhance product interactivity and create engaging digital content, which can reignite growth and foster deeper customer connection, especially for niche or culturally specific brands.

The first challenge addressed is Shireen's Moji Masala, a family-owned business selling Indian spice packets. Her success with in-store demos, boasting a 90% sell-through rate, highlights the power of direct product trial. However, scaling beyond physical locations to reach a broader audience is a hurdle. Randy Hetrick, founder of TRX, advises prioritizing organic sampling and influencer partnerships over broad paid advertising. The implication is that tactile experiences--smelling and tasting--are crucial for Moji Masala’s product, making it difficult to replicate online. Therefore, the focus should remain on getting the product into consumers' hands, even if it means a slower, more organic growth path. Guy Raz expands on this, suggesting a strategic investment in micro-influencers. By allocating a budget of $20,000 over 15 months to collaborate with a select few food influencers, Moji Masala can generate authentic content and reach engaged audiences, a more cost-effective approach than general paid media buys, which are less effective for products requiring sensory experience. This strategy aims to create a more impactful brand presence by tapping into trusted voices within the food community.

Next, Valerie from Boise, Idaho, with three distinct jigsaw puzzle brands--Large as Life, Learn About Life, and Laugh With Life--grapples with social media strategy: one unified account or separate ones for each brand. Todd Graves, founder of Raising Cane's, advocates for a single, unified social media presence. His reasoning is that while the puzzles have distinct themes, the uniting force is the shared experience and enjoyment of puzzling and spending quality family time. By consolidating, Valerie can create a richer content stream that appeals to a broader audience interested in puzzles and family activities, rather than fragmenting her reach. This approach allows for cross-promotion and exposes customers to her full product range, potentially increasing overall sales by making it easier for consumers to discover and purchase multiple items. The implication is that a cohesive brand story centered on the emotional experience of puzzling and family connection will resonate more strongly than siloed brand identities.

Finally, Avani Modi Sarkar of Modi Toys, a brand offering plush toys and books inspired by Hindu culture, faces declining sales despite new product launches and increased marketing spend. May Xu, founder of Chesapeake Bay Candle, suggests leveraging AI for animation and interactive content. Modi Toys' existing animated book videos on YouTube have garnered hundreds of thousands of views, demonstrating a clear demand for this type of content. Xu proposes using AI to create short, animated morality tales or stories around the characters, which can drive engagement and brand awareness. The second-order effect is that this content can act as a powerful marketing tool, similar to how Paw Patrol's animated series drives sales of merchandise. Furthermore, Xu introduces the concept of an AI-driven conversational doll. This would transform the static product into an interactive learning tool, offering personalized engagement and potentially creating a subscription model. The implication is that by embracing AI, Modi Toys can move beyond a traditional product offering to a dynamic, educational platform that fosters deeper cultural connection and opens new revenue streams, addressing the need to reignite growth and scale strategically.

Action Items

Create AI-driven content strategy: Identify 3-5 micro-influencers (10-50k followers) for a 20k budget over 12 months to drive product trial and engagement.
Design unified social media strategy: Consolidate 3 distinct brand accounts into one parent brand to leverage shared audience interest in puzzles and family experiences.
Develop interactive AI doll prototype: Explore conversational AI integration for plush toys to enable real-time Q&A and create a subscription model for ongoing engagement.
Implement animated content series: Produce 3-5 short animated videos (45-120 seconds) leveraging AI to explore cultural themes and drive demand for related products.
Audit paid media spend: Reallocate 20-30% of current Google and Meta ad budget to influencer partnerships and animated content creation for increased ROI.

Key Quotes

"The hardest part of Indian food is actually aggregating the spices having a recipe for the blends and then just like knowing what to do with it our product packaging is very informative it has like a shopping list on the back and a qr code that goes to uh the actual recipe and a cooking video so there's no guesswork there's no leftover spices you're literally just using our product to create like kind of a magical dish and experience is so seamless that i think it's almost alarming to people to actually have this experience"

Shireen explains that Moji Masala simplifies Indian cooking by providing pre-measured spice packets and clear instructions, eliminating the common barriers of sourcing multiple spices and following complex recipes. This approach aims to make authentic Indian cuisine accessible and stress-free for home cooks.

"Look you can spend a lot of money putting your your foods avatar in front of me but if i can't smell it and i can't taste it it's lost in the noise whereas if you put it in my mouth and i'm like oh my gosh this is delicious now you've got me"

Randy Hetrick emphasizes the power of direct product experience, arguing that sampling is more effective than paid advertising for food products. Hetrick suggests that allowing potential customers to taste the product creates a memorable and persuasive connection that digital ads alone cannot replicate.

"What you're uniting force is are people that like puzzles yes and and like to have fun right and like to do things i think the people that would like the you know the trivia based or the fun side would also love to see some beautiful puzzles of of bison that are life size i think all that can go together and actually creates more content for an interesting content for your audience versus i'm just watching the one that done with the whole homeschool group and this is educational they're missing out on seeing the bison they're missing out on seeing these other ones and i think the core goes together"

Todd Graves advises Valerie to unify her three distinct puzzle brands under a single social media presence. Graves believes that the shared interest in puzzles and fun creates a common thread that can tie the audiences together, allowing for cross-promotion and richer content.

"And to me it seems like there's an opportunity to really try and reach especially audiences in in canada and the united states and the uk where you've got a huge hindu diaspora that have you ever thought about trying animation absolutely so in fact um the board books that we have to correspond with the plush toys we've um they're available on our youtube channel completely for free we've turned them into animated videos but just off of those those like seven books that we have um but those videos have garnered you know hundreds of thousands of views so we know that there's definitely a demand for that"

May Shiu suggests that Modi Toys leverage animation, particularly for their board books, to engage the Hindu diaspora. Shiu notes that animated content based on their existing books has already achieved significant views, indicating a strong demand and potential for growth through this medium.

"What if you make this an interactive ai driven conversational uh doll because just making a doll at some point you know there if there's no interaction with people um they get tired of it and you can't really expand on just a doll but what if you make it so that it's interactive a kid can ask questions about what do you what is this god stand for and why are you important in the history of the culture and how does that relate to each other and what would you do if i have this situation what would you do so that using ai it becomes a talking god"

May Shiu proposes that Modi Toys explore creating an AI-driven, interactive doll. Shiu suggests that this would move beyond static products and allow children to engage with the dolls by asking questions about Hindu culture and deities, potentially creating a more dynamic and educational experience.

Resources

External Resources

Books

"How I Built This" by Guy Raz - Mentioned as the title of the podcast series.

Videos & Documentaries

TRX workout video - Mentioned as a resource to understand how to use TRX.
Moji Masala cooking video - Mentioned as a resource linked via QR code on product packaging.
Animated videos of Modi Toys books - Mentioned as content available on the Modi Toys YouTube channel.

Research & Studies

Data from Pro Football Focus (PFF) - Mentioned as a data source for player grading.

Tools & Software

AI - Discussed as a tool to help find and identify medium to micro influencers.
Google Ads - Mentioned as a platform where Moji Masala pays to highlight their website.
Meta Ads - Mentioned as a platform where Modi Toys spends marketing budget.

Articles & Papers

"Advice Line: Tapping AI as a Resource for Your Business" (How I Built This Lab) - The title of the podcast episode.

People

Guy Raz - Host of the Advice Line podcast.
Randy Hetrick - Founder of TRX, guest on the Advice Line.
Shireen Kadri - Co-founder of Moji Masala, caller on the Advice Line.
J.D. - Husband of Shireen Kadri and co-founder of Moji Masala.
Todd Graves - Founder of Raising Cane's, guest on the Advice Line.
Valerie Abenroth - Co-owner and co-founder of three jigsaw puzzle companies, caller on the Advice Line.
Courtney - Sister-in-law of Valerie Abenroth, who conceived the idea for life-sized animal puzzles.
May Shiu - Founder of Chesapeake Bay Candle, guest on the Advice Line.
Avni Modi Sarkar - Co-founder of Modi Toys, caller on the Advice Line.
Ramel Wood - Producer of the Advice Line episode.
Ramtina Ramboui - Composer of the music for the Advice Line episode.
Andrea Bruce - Editor of the Advice Line episode.
Sina Lafredo - Engineer for the Advice Line episode.
Casey Herman - Production staff for the Advice Line episode.
Sam Paulson - Production staff for the Advice Line episode.
Alex Chung - Production staff for the Advice Line episode.
JC Howard - Production staff for the Advice Line episode.
Carrie Thompson - Production staff for the Advice Line episode.
Catherine Safer - Production staff for the Advice Line episode.
Niva Grant - Production staff for the Advice Line episode.
Elaine Coates - Production staff for the Advice Line episode.
Larry - Friend of Guy Raz who started Weee!.

Organizations & Institutions

Wonderry - Platform where subscribers can listen to "How I Built This" early and ad-free.
Moji Masala - Family-owned business making authentic Indian food spice packets.
Citarella - Seven-store chain where Moji Masala is sold.
Fresh Direct - Online retailer where Moji Masala is sold.
A We - Online retailer where Moji Masala is sold.
Amazon - E-commerce platform where Moji Masala and Modi Toys sell products.
TRX - Brand of workout equipment.
Raising Cane's - Fried chicken tender chain.
Learn About Life - Jigsaw puzzle company.
Large As Life - Jigsaw puzzle company.
Laugh With Life - Jigsaw puzzle company.
Modi Toys - Brand creating plush toys and books inspired by Hindu culture.
Chesapeake Bay Candle - Candle company founded by May Shiu.
Pro Football Focus (PFF) - Mentioned as a data source.
National Football League (NFL) - Mentioned in relation to sports analytics.
New England Patriots - Mentioned as an example team for performance analysis.
Weee! - Online retailer selling Asian and Latino food products.

Courses & Educational Resources

How I Built This Lab - The podcast series where the Advice Line episodes are featured.

Websites & Online Resources

guyraz.com - Website where listeners can sign up for Guy Raz's newsletter.
hibt@wonderry.com - Email address for submitting voice memos to the podcast.
Wonderry App - App where subscribers can listen to "How I Built This" early and ad-free.
Apple Podcasts - Platform where subscribers can listen to "How I Built This" early and ad-free.
Substack - Platform where Guy Raz's newsletter is available.
Wonderry.com/survey - Website for filling out a short survey.

Podcasts & Audio

How I Built This - The podcast series featuring the Advice Line episodes.
Advice Line - The segment of the podcast where business challenges are addressed.

Other Resources

AI - Discussed as a resource for growing businesses and identifying influencers.
Hindu Culture - The cultural inspiration for Modi Toys products.
Hindu Mantras - Sung by Modi Toys plush dolls when squeezed.
Hinduism - Religious tradition that inspires Modi Toys products.
Hindu Gods and Goddesses - Characters represented by Modi Toys plush dolls.
Ganesh - Elephant-headed god in Hinduism, represented by a Modi Toys plush doll.
Hanuman - God of strength in Hinduism, represented by a Modi Toys plush doll.
Durga - Goddess of protection in Hinduism, represented by a Modi Toys plush doll.
Social Media - Discussed as a platform for promotion and engagement.
Paid Media - Discussed as a marketing strategy.
Influencers - Discussed as a strategy for reaching broader audiences.
Micro-influencers - Discussed as a specific type of influencer with 10-50k followers.
User-generated content - Mentioned in relation to HelloFresh's marketing.
AI-driven conversational doll - A concept proposed for Modi Toys.
Subscription program - A potential business model for interactive AI dolls.
Digital downloadable asset - A product Modi Toys is developing from social media content.
Morality tales - Suggested content for animated shorts.
AI-driven interactive content - Suggested future direction for Modi Toys.