Somebody sent me a clip this week from a podcast I went on not so long ago, and as I watched it I saw myself bring up if I would do all of this again. The posting, ranting about intimate details and just having my life out there for anyone to see while I'm building.

And I said that if I had to do it again, I would not be as loud as I am. I’d still yap cause it's fun to yap, but I don't think I would go this deep on a lot of things.

When BREZ was just starting out, Aaron and I made a call to be as public as humanly possible about it and shared our numbers every month, out in the open.

And it works, your CAC comes down while you're doing it, you get the tech deals, the retail conversations, people who want to come work with you..and then there's a disproportionate loss when you stop. Take a break, have COVID, just get tired one quarter, and the thing you built the number on starts sliding the other way.

Then there's key man risk, which is what it sounds like… You go to sell the company and you get dinged because the company is a person and this is outside of just one thing I’m involved with.

This is like 14-15 years of how I've been.

When I told you about Mykonos the other week I said that the thing I loved most was picking the talks, the quirky ones, the ones where English isn't as perfect, the people who don't usually get a stage. 

That's the closest thing I've got to a full answer on this because when I actually sit with the question, the part of being loud that never wore me down was it bought. 

- A platform big enough that I can point it at other people

- Someone who doesn't usually get the stage gets the stage 

- Endless opportunities to work with and meet people in this space

And that's what I keep coming back to when I ask myself what I'd do differently.

Being loud is the best growth decision I ever made, and I'd tell any founder the same. If you have any appetite for it at all, the math says do it.

What I'd redo is how I entered it.

At no point did I sit down and choose where the line was..which parts of my life were content and which parts were mine. The momentum basically chose for me, I kept rolling with it..and by the time I understood what the visibility could cost I was already paying for it. 

When you build in public the asset is you, and you don't get to clock out of being the asset.

So if you're earlier in this than I am…

Sit down and pick which parts of you are for sale. 

Your numbers? 

Your face? 

Your family? 

Your bad quarters? 

Your record months?

Your friendships?

I said I wouldn't do it this loud if I had to do it again. But I don't have to do it again. I built it this way on purpose, and the only door out is the same work that got me here.

That's the part I didn't say on the podcast.

I'll see you next week.

- Shack