There's no growth metric attached to this newsletter and no calendar I'm behind on. Nobody's making me write it this week, or next week. I do it because I believe what I'm about to tell you.
Last time I named off the seasons I'm running through right now. The fast-moving one hitting a wall, the older one turning a corner, the partnerships taking shape, learning how to actually show up as a dad/husband. All of that's still true. This is more of the deeper ‘seasons’ I move through within them.
I believe in the opportunity of where this whole industry is going. Almost like the whole space hit a “start over” button and no one REALLY has a head start unless you have an established reputation and a string of wins… thankfully I sit in that bucket.
That doesn't cancel out the calls I don't want to be on, the stress doesn't go away just because the belief is real. They just sit right next to each other, all day, every day right now.
I just got back from a 315 person gathering in Mykonos, Greece for our yearly performance summit and it was a reminder that there is so much opportunity out there and there is so much more to do every. Single. Day. (I’ll go deeper on this next time)
It's that I love growth. I love being responsible for a business unit that everyone needs to perform.
I love being in the brand, actually in it. I love executing. That's the thing keeping me here.
Right now it's a WARTIME season for us. Elbows out, ready to rock, my whole team understanding exactly what we're doing this for.
This is the right thing to do, we see where it needs to be, and it's not easy.
Last July, BREZ and the leadership team put me in a place where I was unexpectedly capital called, our CC went down and my hold co card was the only one unbanned from spending, we popped off on $400,000+ on google and the team didn’t have a way of paying me back… then we needed money to float payroll… this is another $300,000 floated into the business… of which I am a minority owner in which also makes things a bit sticky because none of this was planned for and I sure as FUCK didn’t plan on putting out close to a million bucks into a business to keep it moving forward and you can imagine what happened next…
My own cash flow got tight enough that I had to take on MASSIVE paid promotional posts for SaaS companies just to keep things moving. I’m talking full blown whore’d out because there was no salary from the agencies, no salary from BREZ nothing but my own bankroll and a massive looming debt owed. Not a growth flex, but that’s what it took to get through a rough stretch.
Way back when BREZ was just getting along, Aaron and I made a call to be as public as humanly possible about it. Shared our numbers every single month, out in the open. Then we got real feedback that it didn’t make sense to keep sharing at that depth cause the only people really benefiting from it were competitors deciding if the space was worth jumping into.
I still believe being public is important and I'm going to continue to do so on as many businesses as I possibly can that I have majority ownership in.
On top of the capital call but in 2021, I made more money than I've ever made and wasn't ready for it. The improper tax structure, improper company formulations, the beauty and the beast of living in California, and all the tax burdens that come along with it. We really do pay that sun tax here.
I have been negotiating with back taxes and filing abatements for amounts that should or shouldn’t be paid and was able to come to an agreement to have it finished by middle of this year.. Last month to be exact
The last season I've exited has been a looming financial stress, all put upon myself, my wife, and our newborn. I hope to never have to get back into that area or allow others to put me there again.
So would I do it the same way again, knowing everything I know now?
There's a graduation point somewhere in all of this. You lean on what you built early, the face, the audience, the relationship people feel like they already have with you, and at some point you're supposed to grow past needing to be the face of it at all.
I don't know when that point is for me yet. Soon I hope because it’s exhausting. The good news is I have a win in the making that took just about 10 years to get there.
I'll be able to share soon. You guys are here first. Thanks again.
See you next week.
- Shack