When Leslie Ann Hall, CEO of Iced Media and one of TikTok Shop’s first U.S. agency partners, kicked off the Lead Summit session, she didn’t waste time with pleasantries.
“You have two of the most brilliant minds in TikTok commerce on stage,” she told the audience. “You’re walking out of here with a real playbook.”
That playbook came from Stormi Steele, founder of Canvas Beauty and the #1 live seller on TikTok Shop in the U.S. and U.K., and Jonathan Cohen, CMO of Pure Daily Care and Aquasonic, a brand that consistently ranks in TikTok’s top 100 beauty sellers.
What followed wasn’t a strategy session. It was an unfiltered blueprint for how to build product velocity and brand loyalty on a platform where every scroll is a storefront and every click is content.
“The Algorithm Is My Merchandiser”
For Cohen, TikTok’s model flips traditional retail logic.
“TikTok is content-first, not follower-first. People aren’t logging in to see their friends. They’re looking to be entertained,” he said. “We didn’t design the New Derma Wand for TikTok. But it glows, it makes sound, it works and TikTok chose it.”
Rather than cherry-pick SKUs, Pure Daily Care puts its entire catalogue on TikTok Shop and lets the algorithm surface what converts. Their visual, results-driven products, like the Derma Wand, resonated early and creator content amplified it.
“The algorithm merchandises for us. It decides what wins,” Cohen said.
From Collapse to $1M Livestreams
Stormi Steele took a very different path.
After doing $20M in sales in 2020, she nearly lost her business by 2022. Rebuilding started with a single TikTok in August 2023, her first ever, telling the story of a kitchen-formulated brand trying to rise again.
That video exploded. Her new “gladiator product,” Body Glaze, became a hero item: a highly sensorial, fragranced moisturizer that disrupted how beauty is marketed on social.
“People were enamored by it. It performs. It smells good. It looks different. And I shared my journey every step of the way,” she said. “We now have over 56 scents of Body Glaze. People can keep discovering new versions of what they already love.”
The 7-Figure Power of Live Selling
What sets Steele apart is live selling. Not just her dominance but her total rejection of convention.
She casually mentioned her first livestream cleared $150K in four hours. Then she dropped the real record: over $2 million in one session. A U.S. TikTok Shop first.
The secret? No scripts. No sales tactics. Just full-energy authenticity.
“I curse a little. I joke. I’m just shooting the shit. I don’t try to sell,” she said. “I focus on connecting with the person on the other side of the screen.”
She coined the term “edutainment” educating while entertaining. Her scent pitches sound more like characters than ingredients: “If Missy Elliott wore this, she’d be in the club. She’d be on a date.”
This relaxed but dynamic approach helps viewers imagine where, when, and why they’d use a product. And it works because it's real.
Building a Movement, Not Just a Brand
Steele’s not just converting sales. She’s cultivating a tribe.
Her Canvas Click community shows up every time she goes live commenting, correcting, co-selling.
“They catch what I miss. They tell new people what glaze to try. They work for us but they’re not working. They’re having fun,” she said.
For brands without a founder-led presence, she offered clear advice: “Find your face. Train someone who embodies your brand.”
She even launched an agency to help brands crack the live format. During a recent “live live” event with 400 in-person attendees, every brand on stage cleared $30K in under 20 minutes. Newer brands with no traction? $2K+ in 10 minutes.
“There’s a formula in the fun. And we know how to teach it.”
Scaling Content Through the Crowd
While Steele built her platform through raw connection, Cohen scaled by unleashing affiliates.
“We have fewer than 10 full-time people running two brands,” he said. “Over 80% of our TikTok revenue comes from creators most we’ve never spoken to.”
Through open creator programs and TikTok’s affiliate tools, Pure Daily Care fuels thousands of short videos weekly. Creators earn commission on every sale. Many have under 5K followers but have driven six figures in sales.
His team nurtures creator communities in Discord, encourages feedback, and uses TikTok’s Spark Ads to boost standout posts into high-performing ads.
Discounts vs. Scarcity: Two Approaches to Pricing
On pricing, Cohen and Steele split again.
Cohen leans into TikTok discounts and subsidies, saying, “The platform is still very promotional. It helps people convert.”
Steele? The opposite.
“I price to scale, not to sell,” she said. “We use flash offers on live for 5 minutes max. No guarantees. You either catch the deal or miss it. That’s what creates urgency.”
Final Take: There Is No Template
In the speed round, the panel dropped a few final truths:
Best time to go live? “Test everything.” Steele’s done 2 a.m. and crushed it.
Best format? “Get ready with me” beat unboxing.
AI creators? “Try it, but no.”
Most annoying trend? “Complaining for engagement,” said Steele. Cohen added: “Over-saturation of shoppable content.”
But the message that resonated most?
There’s no perfect playbook. Only your voice, your product and your willingness to show up.
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