Episode 05 - Is this the end or the beginning? | Jethro Rothe-Kushel

What happens when you lose everything and choose to build anyway? Jethro Rothe-Kushel, Founder and CEO of Ritual Ads, joins Nate on the Second Order Podcast to share the story behind one of the most disruptive AI-native creative studios working with major brands today. From his early days working on ad campaigns for Apple, Adidas and American Express — where 14-hour shoots and million-dollar budgets still delivered only a 40% success rate — to founding Ritual Ads on the premise that cinematic storytelling could be produced faster, cheaper and better simultaneously, Jethro walks through how the technology finally caught up with the vision. The Reebok campaign featuring Angel Reese, which sold out product within hours of launch, is just one example of what that engine is capable of. But this episode goes well beyond the business. When the Altadena fires swept through in January 2025, Jethro and his family evacuated with one day of clothes and two cars — and watched their home burn to the ground. The conversation that follows is one of the most honest explorations of resilience, identity, and second order thinking you will hear from a founder. Jethro unpacks how his daily rituals — from 4:30am wake-ups to marathon training — gave him the mental infrastructure to ask, in that moment of total loss: am I a victim or a victor? The answer became the foundation of Ritual Ads. Key Takeaways: The traditional ad industry runs at a roughly 40% success rate despite enormous investment — AI-native production changes that equation by allowing faster iteration and measurable performance Ritual Ads operates at the intersection of Madison Avenue, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley — combining cinematic storytelling with the speed and scale of software Culture has a documented 754% ROI over 10 years; leaders build it through vulnerability, not perfection You do not control events — you control the meaning you assign to them and what you do next When faced with the most difficult moments, Jethro's framework is simple: is this the end or the beginning? Am I a victim or a victor? Rituals are not just habits — they are actions imbued with meaning that form identity, and that identity shows up in the moments that matter most AI is not replacing human creativity; it is freeing humans from low-value work so they can solve higher-order problems — from homelessness to cancer The emerging field of narrative medicine suggests cinematic stories may have measurable physiological effects, pointing to the longer-term vision behind Ritual Ads' creative engine Connect with Jethro Rothe-Kushel: LinkedIn:   / jethrofilms   Website: https://ritualads.com/ If this episode resonated with you, share it with a founder, creative, or marketer who needs to hear it. Subscribe so you never miss an episode of the Second Order Podcast, and leave a review if this conversation added value to your week. I hope you enjoy this episode! Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly. – Nate and the Second Order podcast team Connect with Nate Dinet on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nathanieldinet Visit The Step Manager website here: https://www.thestepmanager.com #secondorder #natedinet #thestepmanager #operationspodcast #deliveryoperations #founderbottleneck #scalingoperations #techstartups #saasoperations #businessoperations #operationalexcellence #startupscaling #revenueoperations #businessleadership #podcastforentrepreneurs Second Order is a podcast for technology founders, COOs, and operations leaders who want to understand what actually happens between closing a deal and delivering on it. Hosted by Nate Dinet of The Step Manager, each episode features honest conversations with CEOs, heads of business operations, and senior executives at SaaS companies, AI-native startups, and tech services firms - people who have built delivery systems under pressure and lived to tell the story. The podcast sits at the intersection of operational execution and company growth, covering the challenges most business podcasts skip over: delivery chaos at scale, the founder bottleneck, bespoke traps that erode margins, and the ongoing question of when to invest in technology versus people. If you're scaling a technology business and the gap between selling and delivering is where things get messy, Second Order is where you'll find the frameworks, stories, and hard-won insight to close that gap. Series Keywords (to be added to the channel): Second Order podcast, Nate Dinet, The Step Manager, delivery operations, operational scaling, SaaS operations, founder bottleneck, technology startup podcast, business operations leadership, revenue operations, scaling delivery, operational execution, AI startup operations, boutique consulting operations, operational architecture, post-sale delivery, Sprint Zero, technology services operations, COO podcast, operations podcast for founders