I've been like a full sponge recently. Paying for consultants, watching videos, asking for demos, asking for audits.

Right now, I’m actively trying to build a zero to one TikTok program. Shops, creators, affiliates, built from scratch for one of the brands I'm supporting.

And I've been trying to play with the words for what this season is, cause it's executing, educating and then practicing..and executing is technically practicing, so really it's executing and educating.

(feeling a bit rambly today, bear with me)

I go back and forth between them, sometimes it's educating first and then executing, sometimes it's executing first and the education is right behind it. Depends on the season.

But the mechanics of it aren't foreign.

It's essentially two full funnels. Seeding funnel to acceptance rate → to posting rate → to scalable ad creative rate.

Same thing as when I'm going to create a funnel, get this customer to opt in, and hopefully convert that customer.

The only difference is it's dual-sided. On one side, you've got to get creators in to make the content, and that part leans on work we already did..the briefing on Meta and Instagram, the margins for understanding CPA targeting, the history on who works best for us, and what demographic works best for us.

It still is its own little micro ecosystem though and I love it. It's something to go back in the trenches on and it's going to be impactful for the business.

Cause if you're going back into the trenches to learn something net new, it should be tied to revenue generation or revenue preservation.

Something net new that makes you more money? Go do it, spend as much of your time as you can doing that so you can go and do that well.

Or you're sitting there going “dude, I am bleeding cash over here, I've got to go optimize margins and COGS.” 

Okay dude..go do that. Put it as the number one fcking thing you need to focus on and don't do anything else.

And hopefully you don't have to do both at the same time, which is why being a solo founder is so difficult. 

So pick your battles.

And then I'm integrating into a brand new team.

So you have to really learn communication styles: 

Can I press here? 

Can I make a decision here? 

Do I want to piss this person off? 

Do I care enough about fighting for this specific thing?

I'm actively learning to contribute to a brand new group, which is something I haven't necessarily needed to do in a while. And I really, I really don't love doing that. I really kind of like to execute in my own little area in the world.

Cause it's nice to have some sort of control over yourself and being able to work on the things that you're wanting to work on..with the people you want to work with.

The channel I went and picked. The people came with the season.

And if you want to lead something large, you really do have to kind of plug in for the time being.

Other than this, I'm not looking to start something new right now. It's that the most recent season I'm exiting forced me into new relationships. 

So now it's closing the book and getting back to some sort of consistency with the same routine of people.

And one more thing. Commerce Roundtable is September 21-22 in San Diego (just a few days away). As of right now, I got 12 brand new speakers who have never touched one of our stages and they’re bringing a mountain of value. 

Everybody in the ecosystem will be here.

Last year we did 615 people, this year we’re pushing for 750. One of our biggest events yet. 

If you're going to be there, grab your spot: https://commerceroundtable.com/ 

Otherwise, I’ll see you next week.

- Shack