What follows below is a running list of tips, tricks, and thoughts from my time (so far) building ANCORE’s business, brand and marketing from the ground up. This is the fifth installment and covers the content creation and working with creative talent. Each new installment will be published periodically. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #101

Before hiring a videographer, hire yourself. Shoot content on your phone. If you have access to a camera, use it. If not, rent one. You can't know what you're looking for in a videographer until you've been in their shoes. Plus, the experience will build empathy and give you a better eye for quality content.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #102

Always shoot more b-roll than you think you need. Nothing kills a content piece faster than running out of supporting footage. Those extra shots of products, hands working, or ambiance will save you in the editing room. Plus, you can always repurpose them for different projects later.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #103

Natural light is your best friend when starting out. Find a window, face your subject toward it, and watch how the lighting instantly elevates your content. No fancy equipment required.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #104

Sound matters more than picture quality. Viewers will forgive slightly blurry footage, but they'll click away from bad audio instantly. Invest in a decent microphone (there are plenty that work with a smartphone) before you even think about upgrading to a camera.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #105

The best camera is the one in your pocket. Your iPhone is more than capable of shooting great content. Don't overthink it or wait until you can afford fancy gear. Just start shooting.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #106

Learning basic composition (rule of thirds, leading lines, framing) will instantly make your iPhone footage look significantly better and more professional. These fundamentals are free to learn and will serve you better than any expensive camera.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #107

Never start a shoot without a plan. Create shot lists, gather reference images, or build mood boards whatever works for you. But have something concrete to show and share. "I'll know it when I see it" wastes everyone's time and burns through your budget.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #108

Don't overcomplicate your shot list. Focus on getting solid A-roll (your main footage or interview) and B-roll (supporting footage) first. You don't need fancy drone shots or complicated transitions when you're starting out. Master the basics, then level up.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #109

Always have more SD cards and hard drives than you think you need. Memory cards fill up fast, and running out of storage mid-shoot is a rookie mistake you can't afford to make. Pack extras of everything.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #110

Back up your footage in at least three places: local hard drive, external drive, and cloud storage. No excuses. Lost footage means lost time, lost money, and lost trust. You can recover from bad footage, but you can't recover from no footage.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #111

Charge all your gear the night before a shoot. No exceptions. If you're charging batteries the morning of, you're already behind. Dead batteries will kill a shoot, the vibe, and your momentum.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #112

Always have backup batteries and keep them charged. One battery isn't enough, two batteries aren't enough. The second you think you have enough batteries, buy one more. You'll thank yourself later.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #113

Organize your equipment, even if it's just dollar store bins on a shelf. Separate phone gear from camera gear. Keep batteries with chargers. Sort cables by type. The more organized your gear, the faster you can work and the less likely you are to forget something crucial.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #114

When working with videographers, aim for partnership, not dictatorship. Give them a clear vision of what you want, then let them work their magic. The best creative work happens when there's trust on both sides. And don’t forget to offer to buy coffee, lunch, dinner, or any meals that might happen while shooting. They are helping you so you need to help them.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #115

Create a brief for your videographer that outlines your goals, vision, and must-have shots. Then step back and let them add their creative expertise. You hired them for a reason, so let them show you why.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #116

The best clients get the best work. Be organized, respectful of their time, and clear with feedback. When videographers love working with you, they'll go the extra mile to make your content shine.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #117

Always ask your creative partners: "How can I be the best client for you?" It's a simple question that no one asks, but it sets clear expectations and creates a roadmap for success. The best relationships start with understanding what each side needs and all it takes is just asking the question to get there.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #118

As a shoot manager, your job is simple: keep everyone happy. Don't hover over the camera or micromanage. Instead, focus on making sure your talent is comfortable, your videographer is supported, and the overall vibe stays positive. A relaxed set produces the best content.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #119

When filming someone, emphasize that you're just having a conversation. No one's looking for perfection — we're looking for authenticity. Let them know it's okay to stumble, restart, or take a breath. The best content comes from relaxed conversations, not stressed performances.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #120

Something will go wrong during your shoot. Accept this truth now. Equipment will break, weather will turn, audio will fail — it's inevitable. Don't let it derail you. Take a breath, assess what you can still accomplish, and keep moving forward. The show must go on.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #121

Always buy lunch for your shoot team. It's not just about food — it's about taking care of your people and maintaining positive energy throughout the day. A well-fed crew is a happy crew, and happy crews create better content. Don't think twice about this expense; it's an investment in your shoot's success.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #122

Always review a videographer's past work before hiring them. Don't be afraid to ask for examples and references. You need to see if their style matches your vision and, more importantly, verify they can actually deliver quality work. A great portfolio means they can do the job. No portfolio usually means no hire.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #123

Think in planes when shooting: tight, medium, and wide. Get detail shots that show what the eye can't normally see. Capture medium shots for context. Add wide shots to set the scene. Master these three perspectives and you'll have all the footage you need.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #124

Zoom with your feet, not with your camera. The zoom function on your camera is your enemy. Want to get closer? Walk up to your subject. Want a wider shot? Take a few steps back. Your footage will look cleaner and more professional.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #125

Always mind your backgrounds and surroundings. A clean, distraction-free environment lets viewers focus on your subject. But a messy background, random people walking through shots, or cluttered spaces will ruin even the best content. When you get it right, no one notices. When you get it wrong, everyone does.

It's February in Bloomington, Indiana. The weather's been teasing us with the occasional warm day, but mostly I'm doing what Midwest golfers do in winter: dreaming of green grass instead of seeing it.

I'm at the gym, grinding through another workout designed to add yards to my drive and stability to my swing. The No Laying Up podcast is playing through my earbuds—a small dose of golf to get me through these cold months.

They're talking about Neil's evolving game, specifically his short game improvements. Between sets, I find myself completely drawn in as he casually mentions how switching to Vokey wedges has transformed his control around the greens. I catch myself nodding along, relating a bit too hard. My hand-me-down wedges, reliable as they've been, have probably seen better days. The grinds are well-loved from every manner of pitch, chip, and skulled shot in my arsenal.

Then it hits me, somewhere between my final set and wiping down the bench: Was that marketing?

Maybe. Probably. I don't care. It didn't feel like marketing. Because it didn't feel like marketing. It felt like listening to a friend who happened to find something that genuinely improved their game. That's the magic trick.

This is what great marketing feels like today. It doesn’t interrupt, it integrates. Instead of pitching, it participates. And instead of pushing, it pulls—drawing you in so naturally that by the time you make a purchase, it feels like your own idea.

Did Vokey need a splashy Super Bowl commercial about their wedges? No. They just needed to get their products into the hands of people we trust, people who would naturally share their genuine experience. That's gravity-style marketing. Like gravity itself, you don't notice it working until you realize you're already in its orbit.

The Illusion of Non-Marketing

Take No Laying Up's Strapped series (which I highly recommend if you love golf, btw). It's a beloved show where Neil and Randy travel around playing golf on a budget, creating what amounts to a golf-themed buddy comedy. Countless golfers tune in to watch two friends navigate new courses, local culture, and the endless challenge of stretching a slim budget.

But watch closely, and you'll notice something interesting: Titleist golf balls rolling across greens. Vokey wedges appearing in need-to-have-it moments. Even special black Foot Joy shoes making a cameo for a West Texas episode—a perfect nod to Friday Night Lights football culture.

Is this marketing? Absolutely. No Laying Up has a partnership with Titleist. But here's what makes it different: The products are natural parts of the story. The show works because Neil and Randy's friendship, adventures, and struggles are real. The gear they use is simply what they use, appearing organically in moments where it makes sense.

This is what makes golf content creators so effective at invisible marketing. They've built trust through entertainment and authenticity first. By the time you notice what equipment they're using, you're already invested in their journey. You trust their judgment because you've watched them succeed, fail, and learn like any golfer playing on any muni on the weekends.

And golf equipment isn't trivial either. We're talking about purchases that can run hundreds or even thousands of dollars. These aren't impulse buys like grabbing a candy bar at checkout. They're considered investments that golfers research extensively before pulling the trigger. Yet when you've watched someone like Neil demonstrate genuine improvement with their Vokey wedges over multiple episodes, that research phase feels different. The trust is already built. The proof is in the countless shots you've watched them hit.

If traditional advertising is a hard sell, this is gravity marketing at its finest. No one's telling you to buy anything. But when you're finally in the market for new wedges or golf shoes, you already know what works for the people you trust. That's the magic of marketing that doesn't feel like marketing: If it doesn't look like an ad but gets you to act like one, that's a win.

The Art of Brand Storytelling

I just rewatched the Nike ad featuring Tiger and Rory, and I'm sitting here with goosebumps. Even now, typing about it, I can feel that familiar tightness in my throat. Yes it’s an ad about golf, but it tells it through the universally relatable lens of legacy, about the thread that connects generations of players, about the moments that make this game beautiful.

This is what happens when marketing transcends selling and taps into something deeper. I play in Nike spikes, yes, but that's not why this ad works. It works because it understands that golf isn't merely about what’s in your bag. Golf is about connection. Between fathers and sons. Between legends and their successors. Between every player and the game itself.

When you're watching, the world around you starts to shrink. Everything else fades away until it's just you and this story unfolding on screen. That's gravity marketing at its most powerful: It doesn't push a message at you. It creates a gravitational well of emotion that pulls you in. You find yourself leaning forward, completely absorbed, not wanting it to end.

Think about that feeling. If Nike had simply listed the features of their golf apparel or compared their polos to competitors, we'd scroll right past. Instead, they told a story so compelling that we seek it out, share it, and return to it again and again. By the time Tiger and Rory appear together at the end, you're nodding along, fully invested in the journey.

This kind of brand storytelling is as old as humanity itself. Before we had billboards or banner ads, we had stories painted on cave walls. The best marketing has always understood this: When you want to move people to action, don't sell to them—tell them a story that makes them feel something. Let them come to you.

That's the real magic here. Great brand storytelling doesn't feel like marketing because it's not trying to sell you something. It's inviting you to feel something. And when a brand can make you feel deeply, make you lean in closer, make you wish the story wouldn't end... well, that's when gravity takes over.

A Case Study in Gravity: Wrexham AFC

Want to see gravity marketing work on a massive scale? Look at what Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have done with Wrexham AFC. In 2021, they purchased a struggling football club for $2.2 million. Today, in 2025, it's worth an estimated $169 million and they just became the first team in English football history to achieve three successive promotions and if that’s not crazy enough the club is one good season away from playing in the Premier League (arguably the world’s top soccer league).

But here's what makes this a masterclass in invisible marketing: They started by telling Wrexham’s story.

Through Welcome to Wrexham, they invited the world into the heart of a working-class Welsh town where football is the lifeblood of the community. The docuseries was a window into authentic moments, real struggles, and genuine passion. Like our friends at No Laying Up, they understood that trust and authenticity had to come first.

The storytelling followed the same gravitational principles we saw in the Nike ad. Instead of pushing merchandise or asking for support, they tapped into something universal: the underdog story. Every episode pulled viewers deeper into Wrexham's orbit, making them care about a team they'd likely never heard of before.

The results speak for themselves. Beyond the staggering valuation increase, Wrexham's become a genuine global phenomenon. The club reported record revenues of £26.7 million ($34.5 million) in 2024—a 155% increase from the previous year. Even more telling: more than half of their revenue now comes from outside Europe, primarily North America. Think about that. A small Welsh club is generating most of its revenue from fans who've never set foot in Wales.

Fans worldwide aren't watching because they were marketed to—they're buying jerseys, planning pilgrimages to Wrexham, and following match results because they've become genuinely invested in the story.

This is gravity marketing at scale: Create something authentic, tell its story well, and let people naturally gravitate toward it. Yes, Wrexham is a product—whether you're talking about sponsorships, merchandise, or match tickets. But people aren't buying because they were sold to. They're buying because they've been pulled into Wrexham's orbit, and they want to be part of the story.

The Pull of Authenticity

Great marketing works like gravity—silent but undeniable. While others blast "Buy Now!" messages into the void, true gravitational pull comes from something deeper: authenticity that attracts rather than interrupts.

Look at No Laying Up's natural integration of equipment, Nike's generational storytelling, Wrexham's global community building. None of these scream for attention. They create genuine gravity wells of value and connection so strong that resistance feels pointless. But more importantly, they create something sustainable both in message and economics.

Think of traditional "buy now!" marketing like a rocket ship. Sure, it'll get you somewhere, but it burns massive amounts of fuel just to fight gravity. Meanwhile, authenticity-driven marketing works with gravity. Each customer you attract makes it easier to attract the next. Your message doesn't wear out because it's built on real value, not artificial urgency. The economics improve over time because you're not constantly fighting for attention, you're accumulating trust.

In a universe of marketing noise, the strongest force isn't the loudest voice. It's the one that creates a gravity well so natural, so authentic, that falling into orbit feels inevitable.

"Don't just be a marketing guy."

That's what my uncle—a former public company CEO—told me over dinner, just days before I started my first marketing internship. We were sitting in a restaurant across from his Dallas apartment, where I'd be living that summer, and he was doing his best Yoda impression (though he didn't know it at the time). Like any fresh graduate with a marketing degree, I was eager to put my classroom knowledge to work. But his advice caught me off guard.

"You have to understand every element of business," he continued. "You can be a marketer. But you’ll be truly valuable only if you learn outside of those boundaries"

That conversation has stuck with me for years, shaping how I approach marketing and business. It's also the foundation of this guide. What you're about to read isn't just another marketing syllabus. It's an ongoing record of my attempt to not "just be a marketing guy." Yes, you'll find wisdom from marketing legends. But you'll also discover resources that stretch far beyond traditional marketing boundaries, designed for people who want to think bigger, move faster, and understand the whole game, not just one position on the field.

Consider this your anti-textbook textbook. A guide for the marketer who wants to be more than just a marketer.

The Foundation: Your Essential Marketing Reading List

Think of these books as the steel and concrete of your marketing foundation. They weren't chosen because they're trending on Twitter or promising the latest growth hacks. They made this list because their insights are timeless and as relevant today as they'll be a decade from now. Some are marketing classics, others are from completely different fields. But each one will help you build that broad base of knowledge that separates great marketers from good ones.

The GOATs

• Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

• Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

• Day Trading Attention by Gary Vaynerchuk

• The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries and Laura Ries

• How to Make Your Advertising Make Money by John Caples

• Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan

• My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins

• The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert

Timeless Wisdom

• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

• Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charles T. Munger

• Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos edited by Walter Isaacson

• Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein

• Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly

• The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

• Same as Ever by Morgan Housel

• ReWork by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Write Like a Pro

• On Writing by Stephen King

• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

• Very Good Copy by Eddie Shleyner

• Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

Fiction for Marketers

• The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson

• Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson

• Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

• The Martian by Andy Weir

• Salem's Lot by Stephen King

• Dune by Frank Herbert

• Watchmen by Alan Moore

• Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Lectures: Podcasts and Audiobooks

Not all learning happens at a desk. These podcasts and audiobooks are like having coffee with the smartest people in business. They're perfect for your commute, your workout, or that midnight walk when your brain needs feeding. Consider this your walking and talking classroom.

Podcasts

• Acquired —You will not find a higher quality, more well-researched podcast. Every single episode is a master class.

  • Must-listen episodes:

    • Berkshire Hathaway

    • Amazon

    • Costco

    • Nike

    • Nintendo

    • LVMH

• Founders — Listening to David will fire you up. You could spin a random wheel of all the episodes and it would be a banger listen.

  • Essential episodes:

    • Any of the David Ogilvy deep dives

    • Anything pertaining to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger

    • The Story of Raising Cane’s Founder Todd Graves

    • The Autobiography of Michael Dell

• Colin and Samir — The go-to source for understanding the creator economy, platforms, and modern digital media landscape.

• Invest Like the Best — Patrick O'Shaughnessy's conversations with business leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs offer invaluable insights into business strategy and decision-making.

• The Rewatchables — Bill Simmons and friends break down classic movies. Their discussions about what makes scenes work, character development, and cultural impact offer surprising insights into storytelling and audience engagement.

Audiobooks

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

• A Man for All Markets by Edward O. Thorp

• Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

• The Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor

• Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby

• The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 Into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport by Joshua Robin and Jonathan Clegg

Film Room: Watch and Learn from the Pros

Sometimes you need to see it to understand it. This collection of videos, shows, and movies breaks down complex ideas into visual stories you won't forget. But it's more than just marketing case studies, it's about developing taste through exposure to great art and storytelling. From classic films with unforgettable dialogue to TV shows that became synonymous with the term bingeable, these selections will make you better by osmosis. Think of it as having both game tape and masterclass for marketing.

YouTube Videos

• Runnin’ Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love

• Strapped: West Texas

TV Shows

• Billions — A masterclass in power dynamics, negotiation, and high-stakes decision making wrapped in some incredible writing.

• The Last Dance — Michael Jordan and the '90s Bulls teach unforgettable lessons about excellence.

• Succession — This is basically Shakespeare in the corporate world. It’s darkly funny and written sharply.

• Game of Thrones — Prestige TV at its finest even though they didn’t stick the landing.

• Sherlock — More great writing and plot development. Plus, each episode is a like puzzle for your brain in the best way.

• Ted Lasso — Leadership, team building, and emotional intelligence in action.

• Silicon Valley — A satirical but surprisingly accurate look at startup culture and tech business. It’s peak workplace comedy.

• Mr. McMahon — A fascinating look at how Vince McMahon built the WWE through savvy marketing and relentless ambition.

Movies

• Jaws — The movie that created the summer blockbuster and wrote the playbook for mass market appeal.

• Margin Call — A taut thriller about decision-making under extreme pressure. It’s the financial world’s version of Jaws.

• Air — The incredible story behind Nike's biggest marketing coup.

• A Few Good Men — Masterful dialogue and character development.

• The Terminator & T2 — Game-changing storytelling and world-building.

• Star Wars: A New Hope — The hero's journey perfectly executed.

• John Wick franchise — Style and world-building at its finest.

• The Social Network — Sorkin's writing at its peak against the backdrop of a generation-defining business.

• Steve Jobs — Another Sorkin masterpiece with incredible structure.

• Moneyball — How to think differently when the odds are stacked against you.

Marketing Practicum: How to Apply Your Knowledge

Theory without practice is just trivia. This section is where rubber meets road and involves the tools, techniques, and tactics I use every day to put all that knowledge into action. Think of it as your laboratory for experimenting with everything you've learned.

Tools I Love and Use Everyday

• Figma — Pretty universal design tool. If you need to make something visual, start here. From quick mockups to full presentations, Figma's features and intuitive interface make it the Swiss Army knife of design tools. The best part? The free tier is more than enough for most users.

• Adobe Illustrator — Great for learning how to make vectors like logos, stickers, and icons. While Figma is great for quick designs, Illustrator is where you go when you need pixel-perfect vector work. Understanding how to use it, even at a basic level, will make you dangerous in any creative environment.

• Edits by Meta — Free and intuitive video editing app that's perfect for social content. Most video editing software feels overwhelming, but Edits strips away the complexity while keeping the features you actually need. Perfect for quick social cuts and content creation when you don't want to use Premier Pro or Final Cut.

• Kindle — Where I do all my reading. It's perfect in pretty much every way. The e-ink display, the ability to highlight and export notes, the instant dictionary lookup, and the fact that it's always with you make it the ideal learning tool. Plus, the battery lasts forever and it won't distract you with notifications.

• Audible — The best way to listen to audiobooks. Worth every penny of the subscription. Turn your commute, workout, or chores into learning or story time. The production quality is consistently high, and their return policy means you never waste a credit on a book you don't enjoy.

• ChatGPT — Learning AI is an essential skill and this one gives you the most value for features and functionality. It's like having a research assistant, writing partner, and brainstorming buddy available 24/7. The key is learning how to prompt effectively. Treat it like a tool to enhance your thinking, not replace it.

A Few Thoughts on How to Get Better

• Practice Relentlessly — The only way to get good at marketing is to practice it every single day. Be steeped in it. Live it. Take tons of shots on goal. There's no shortcut around putting in the work.

• Embrace Being Bad — Your first attempts will be terrible. Accept it. Move on. I look back at some of my early work and want to permanently delete it from the internet. That's good—it means you're growing. Your best work is always ahead of you.

• Get Moving — Go for a walk, run, or hit the gym. Some of your best ideas will come while listening to podcasts during movement. You don't need to train for a marathon—just move a muscle. Even doing laundry or cooking can help your mind process and connect ideas.

• Read 20 Pages Daily — This has been my most life-changing habit. Fiction or non-fiction, doesn't matter. The practice of daily reading is ludicrously helpful for developing your thinking and creativity.

• Prioritize Sleep — Don't burn yourself out. Quality rest is as important as quality work. Get your eight hours.

• Balance is Key — It's okay to watch The Bachelor or other "fun" content. Don't feel like everything you consume needs to be educational. Finding your own mix and remixing different influences is where the magic happens.

• Layer Your Learning — Read books before listening to podcast episodes about them. When Acquired or Founders covers a topic you've studied, the overlap helps cement the knowledge. Deep dives on subjects create lasting understanding.

• Follow Your Curiosity — Let it be your guide. This syllabus is what worked for me, but you need to follow your own interests to build your curriculum. The best learning happens when you're genuinely excited about the subject.

Becoming a Business Utility Player

Growing up playing baseball, I wasn't known for my bat (my apologies to my parents for all the wasted time and money spent driving me to the batting cages). I was known for something else: I could play any position on the field. Not at a gold glove level, mind you, but solidly enough that my coaches knew they could trust me wherever they needed me. That versatility was my value.

That's exactly what this syllabus is designed to build: business utility players. We're not trying to turn you into the CFO who can recite GAAP standards in their sleep, or the supply chain wizard who dreams in SKUs. What we are doing is giving you the foundation to hold your own in any business conversation—whether it's about finance, operations, strategy, or yes, marketing.

The goal is to make it so that your eyes don’t go cross when someone puts a balance sheet in front of you and you don’t feel a throbbing in your skull when someone mentions lead times. You need to build a broad base of knowledge that makes you valuable across the entire field of play.

Remember what my uncle said about not just being a marketing guy? This syllabus is your roadmap to being so much more. It's your guide to becoming the kind of marketer who understands the whole game—not just one position.

Now get out there and start learning. The whole field is waiting for you.

You can read last year's reflections here.

Five years ago, I was eating sandwiches in a garage on the north shore of Boston, taking breaks between building a website for the first time and hand-assembling ANCORE units. Our "shipping department" consisted of daily trips to UPS, and our "headquarters" was a basement workspace that was also a product testing space and also a workout space. We were the definition of scrappy—a small team with big dreams and a panini press.

Today, we have a proper HQ in Salem. There's a production floor where our incredible team crafts each unit by hand with precision. We've grown from that basement operation into something real and tangible. But the most valuable things I've learned aren't about scaling operations or improving processes. They're about the fundamental truths that only reveal themselves when you spend enough time in the trenches.

Here are five reflections from five years of building ANCORE's marketing from the ground up.

1. It's Not the Tool, It's the Person Wielding It

Early in my time at ANCORE, I fell into a common trap: the allure of fancy tools and complex systems. I thought having access to the latest design software, analytics platforms, and marketing tools would automatically translate to better results and look cool as hell, too. I was wrong on both accounts.

The truth is, tools are only as good as the person using them. You might be better off with fewer tools than you think. I learned this lesson the hard way, spending many hours researching elaborate systems when simpler solutions would have worked better.

Simplicity is criminally underrated in business. While there's certainly a time and place for sophisticated tools, if you're questioning whether that time is now, it's probably not. Some of our best early work came from basic tools wielded with clarity and purpose, and some of our best work today flows from nothing more than a Figma subscription and a dream.

2. Master the Numbers That Matter (And Ignore the Rest)

As a marketer, you'll drown in metrics if you let yourself. Click-through rates, conversion rates, ROAS, CPMs – the alphabet soup of marketing metrics is endless. But here's what I've learned: just because you can measure something doesn't mean you should.

Sometimes you need to fire certain metrics, just like you occasionally need to fire customers. Pick your North Star measurements and build your philosophy around them. The rest is just noise.

When it comes to those North Star metrics, focus on two key buckets: actions and revenue. Are customers taking meaningful steps—signing up, engaging, sharing? Are they converting and generating sales? If your metrics track behavioral actions and dollar amounts, you're on the right path. Everything else—open rates, impressions, vanity metrics—is secondary.

Our job as marketers is to drive action and sales; if your measurements align with those goals, you're focusing on what truly matters.

And one last thing to remember on this subject: metrics can be manipulated to support almost any narrative. What matters is choosing the metrics that align with your core business objectives and building your strategy around those. Everything else is a distraction.

3. Build Marketing That Can Take a Punch

If your marketing strategy is a house of cards—if it can collapse from a single algorithm change or depends too heavily on one social platform—it's not a strategy, it's a liability. Over these five years, I've learned the importance of building marketing systems that can weather storms by maintaining control of our own channels: email lists, customer databases, and direct relationships that aren't at the mercy of third-party platforms.

At ANCORE, we've built durability through diversification. We collaborate with coaches, seed products with creators, and yes, we use paid advertising. But here's the crucial part: if any of those went away tomorrow, we’d be okay. Yes, it would hurt and give me a few extra gray hairs trying to solve the problem, but that would likely be the extent of it.

The key is to never let any single channel or tactic become your Achilles' heel. Marketing needs to be as tough as the brand it represents.

4. Don't Define Yourself By Your Role

"I'm just a marketer" is a phrase that limits your potential. In five years at ANCORE, I've designed packaging (thanks, YouTube tutorials!), dived deep into product development, and recently spent three months experimenting with AI integration across our marketing stack.

Your real job isn't to be a marketer—it's to be a problem solver. The moment you start defining yourself strictly by your role is the moment you start limiting your impact.

Some of our biggest breakthroughs came when we stepped outside our comfort zones and into unknown territory. That willingness to learn and adapt isn't just helpful – it's essential.

5. You Can Do More With Less Than You Think

Our marketing operation started with zero budget. No fancy tools, no massive ad spends—just please and thank you, a genuine product, and the willingness to get creative within our constraints. We weren't competing with big brands' marketing budgets (we still aren't), but those initial limitations forced us to think differently.

When you strip away all the fancy tools and big budgets, you're left with what really matters: clear communication, genuine relationships, and the ability to solve problems creatively. Those constraints didn't limit us—they focused us. They forced us to find sustainable, creative solutions instead of throwing money at problems.

Five years later, this lesson still holds true. You can do more than you think, and you can do it with less than you imagine. Sometimes the greatest marketing breakthroughs come not from having more resources, but from being forced to think creatively with what you have.

The Next Five Years

Looking back at that garage where we started, eating sandwiches and making daily UPS runs, I'm grateful for every lesson learned. But what excites me most isn't just where we've been—it's where we're heading. The marketing landscape keeps shifting: AI is reshaping how we work, social platforms rise and fall, and consumer behavior evolves at lightning speed.

Yet these five lessons remain timeless. Because when you strip away all the complexity and fancy tools, marketing is still about connecting real people with products that can help them. That won't change, whether we're working from a garage or a gleaming office tower.

Sometimes the best way forward isn't about having more—it's about doing more with what you have. That's the kind of work that lasts. And that's the kind of work we'll keep doing for the next five years and beyond.

The sun's hanging low over Scottsdale, painting the mountains that weird shade of purple they only get during spring break. Windows down, warm air rushing through the car, my dad steers us into the drive-thru lane.

I'm nine, maybe ten, slouched in the backseat while Dad navigates towards a speaker box I’ve never seen before. We’re visiting my grandparents for spring break and tonight has been talked about like some kind of rite of passage. Why? My nine-year-old brain cannot even begin to comprehend. All I want to do right now is get back to my grandparents’ house for a night swim in their pool—everyone knows cannonballs are more fun after 8 P.M.

The smell of grilled onions hits before we even place our order. It's the kind of aroma that makes your mouth water and your stomach growl—even if you didn't know you were hungry. Everything around us looks like it was handpicked from a technicolor time before I was born—maybe even before my parents were born.

Dad pulls up to the speaker, and that's when the real show begins. No endless menu board cluttered with limited-time offers. No elaborate combo meals with confusing numbers. Just burgers, fries, shakes, and drinks. Simple. Clear. Impossible to mess up—even for a kid who'd rather be doing cannonballs.

That drive-thru visit became my first lesson in what makes great marketing work: When you do something simple incredibly well, marketing stops being marketing. It becomes memory.

A Drive-Thru Marketing Classroom

As I write this, I realize that the drive-thru lane was my first real marketing classroom. Every detail delivered a lesson on how to build something people love—not by shouting about how great you are, but by taking simplicity seriously.

The white paper hat-wearing teenager at the window greets us with a smile that doesn't feel forced. Dad orders something called a “Double-Double” that sounds straight out of that morning’s SportsCenter, and nobody bats an eye. The red and white striped uniforms, the crossed palm trees, those yellow arrows pointing towards heaven—it all feels both frozen in time and completely timeless.

This, I'd learn years later, is what happens when you nail the fundamentals so completely that marketing becomes indistinguishable from experience. In-N-Out wasn't trying to sell us on anything. They were just being themselves, doing what they'd always done, exactly the way they'd always done it.

It's marketing so good it doesn't feel like marketing at all. It feels like tradition. Like belonging. Like coming home—even if, like me that night, you've never been there before.

Quality You Can Touch

The food arrives impossibly fast—so fast that my nine-year-old brain wonders if they knew we were coming. Dad pulls into a parking spot, and I notice something else: we're not alone. The lot is filled with other cars, a mix of Arizona license plates and spring break escapees like us, families perched on tailgates in the warm evening air, some still in their golf gear, others dressed for another night at spring training games. This is fast food you want to eat slowly. This isn't fast food meant for a rushed commute home. This is an event.

I unwrap my burger with the careful precision I usually save for opening baseball cards, and even the packaging feels different. The paper's sturdy, folded with origami-like precision—nothing like the soggy, thrown-together wrappers I'm used to from other fast-food places. Those red palm trees dancing across white paper that somehow makes a simple hamburger feel special. Everything about it whispers quality without having to say a word.

A Father's Lesson

Between bites, Dad starts explaining what makes this place different, his voice carrying that same excited energy he gets when explaining why the Cubs will definitely win it all this year. The simple menu board, he tells me, has barely changed since he was my age. But then he leans in like he's about to share state secrets, the way he always does when he's passionate about something—whether it's baseball stats or burger joints.

"Want to know something cool?" His eyes light up the way they did earlier today when we watched batting practice at HoHoKam Park. "There's this whole other language here."

He tells me about "Animal Style" burgers with secret sauce and grilled onions. About 3x3s and 4x4s that stack patties sky-high. About "Wish Burgers" that aren't even burgers at all. Each revelation feels like being inducted into a special club—a kind of culinary speakeasy hidden in plain sight.

"See, they keep it simple on the surface," he explains, gesturing with his burger the way he does when he's really into teaching me something. The Double-Double in his hand is juicy, melty, and quite possibly the best burger I've ever tasted, but right now he's more excited about explaining the genius behind it than eating it. "But they let their biggest fans create this whole stealth menu around it."

Between stories of secret menu items, he explains how every location is carefully picked and every burger flipper is carefully hired—all because they refuse to expand too quickly. They won't even open new stores unless they're close enough to their beef suppliers to guarantee freshness.

"See how happy everyone working here is?" he asks, gesturing toward the window where crew members are laughing while keeping orders flowing. "That's not an accident. They pay better than other places, treat people well. It makes a difference."

I'm nodding, but honestly, I'm more focused on these french fries that taste like they were pulled from the potato about 30 seconds ago. Still, something about what he's saying sticks. It's a masterclass in knowing exactly who you are and refusing to be anything else.

What I Learned in the Drive-Thru

Many years later, I'd find myself in marketing classes learning about brand consistency, customer experience, and value propositions. But none of those textbook lessons hit quite as hard as that evening in the In-N-Out parking lot.

That nine-year-old kid absorbed three fundamental marketing truths that night (even if he didn’t know it):

Marketing is everything (and everything is marketing)

Remember those fries that tasted like they were pulled from the potato moments ago? The immaculate crunch that only fresh-cut potatoes can deliver? That’s marketing. The carefully wrapped burgers, the genuine smiles, even those families lingering in their cars making memories—every detail told the same story: quality never needs to shout.

Simplicity is sophisticated

That stark menu board stood as a declaration of confidence. While other chains chased trends and stuffed their menus with limited-time gimmicks, In-N-Out had mastered the art of saying no. That "secret menu" my dad revealed? It wasn't printed anywhere, but spread through whispers and knowing nods, turning customers into collaborators. Sometimes the most sophisticated marketing move is having the courage to say no and keep things simple.

Culture creates experience

Those genuinely happy employees weren't just the product of good HR—they were marketing gold. The crew's joy, the lightning-quick service, the whole operation moving with purpose—it showed how culture creates experience. When everyone believes in what they're doing, from the person grilling onions to the one wrapping burgers, marketing stops being a department and becomes a feeling that fills the whole place.

Marketing That Matters

I did get my cannonballs in that night, splashing well past bedtime in my grandparents' pool. But here's the funny thing: I can't remember if I did three cannonballs or thirty. What I do remember, with crystal clarity, is that drive-thru lesson in marketing excellence—even though I didn't know that's what it was at the time.

Looking back, that spring break evening taught me more about marketing than any textbook ever could. Because textbooks teach brand consistency and customer experience, but they miss the magic of marketing so good it vanishes into pure experience. When it transforms from a business strategy into a nine-year-old's core memory—one that sticks with him long after the wrapper's been tossed away.

I'm crying while running, and it's not because my legs hurt.

Let me explain. I'm on my usual lunch time route, listening to a podcast about The Masters golf tournament (shout-out to Kevin Van Valkenburg and the No Laying Up crew—if you want to feel something yourself, go listen to their Masters Special Projects episode). In the beginning of the episode, KVV is describing his most memorable Masters—his is the 1997 iteration where Tiger captured the first of his five green jackets—and his relationship with his father. You can hear the soul in KVV’s voice as he talks about the hug Tiger shared with his father on the 18th green and that moment of connection so many fathers and sons share with each other.

And here I am, getting choked up not even a quarter of a mile into my run. Not because I've hit the wall or because my shoes are too tight, but because this story—this simple story about golf and family—made me feel something. It made me think of my dad and our connection through golf. It made me want to stop my run and call him right there to just tell him I love him and that I’m so excited to follow the Masters together.

As I keep running, my mind starts ping-ponging between all these Masters moments they're discussing. Nick Faldo's victories. The Tiger Slam. That electric Sunday when Tiger and Phil were paired together. Beyond the shots and scores, the feeling sticks with me. The way Augusta National turns into this time machine every April, connecting generations through shared memories. The way my heart rate quickens when I hear the soft piano of the Masters theme song. The way my dad and I can talk for hours about a single tournament from decades ago.

And that's when everything clicks: Augusta matters because it makes us feel something. The Masters matters because it stirs something in our souls. It becomes an emotional touchstone, bringing people together and creating unforgettable moments.

Right there, in the middle of my run, it all becomes clear: This is what we should be chasing. Not just in marketing or content creation, but in everything we make. Every story we tell. Every experience we build. We should be pursuing that same electric feeling you get when Jim Nantz's voice carries you back to your childhood living room. That spark of connection that makes you want to call someone you love. That moment when something stops you dead in your tracks—or makes you cry during your lunch run.

Maybe it’s similar to what Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said about obscenity: "I know it when I see it."

Or in our case: I know it when I feel it.

I'm calling it The Masters Test, because like Augusta National, the best things we create should stir something in people's souls. It's not about metrics or algorithms or whatever's trending—it's about that raw, honest moment when something breaks through and makes us feel truly alive. When was the last time you made something that stopped someone in their tracks? That made them reach for their phone to share it with someone they love? That maybe, just maybe, made them tear up during their lunch run?

Because here's the truth: In a world where we're all drowning in noise, the only signal worth sending is one that makes people feel something real. Something that matters. Something that lasts longer than a scroll.

What Makes Something Pass The Masters Test?

The beauty of Augusta National goes beyond its perfectly manicured fairways or the azaleas in full bloom. It's in how these elements come together to create something greater than the sum of their parts. The same goes for anything that passes The Masters Test.

Here's what I've noticed about content, campaigns, or experiences that make people feel something real:

They become units of conversation

Great content transforms consumption into connection. When something passes The Masters Test, people can't help but share it (credit to Samir from Colin and Samir for coining this phrase). Not because they want the likes or because it's trending, but because they genuinely want someone else to feel what they felt. Think about it: How many times have you and your dad rehashed that final round from 2019? How many times have you shared that one commercial that made you tear up? Or even a TikTok recipe because you wanted to cook it with your partner? It's that instinctive urge to grab your phone and text someone "You have to see this." It's the way great content transforms from pixels on a screen into conversations over coffee, debates at dinner tables, and messages between old friends. When something truly resonates, it becomes currency in our relationships—a shared experience that brings people together. The best things we create spark discussions, debates, and sharing between people who care.

They tap into something bigger than themselves

The Masters weaves together golf, tradition, family, excellence, and the passage of time. When Tiger hugged his dad in '97 and then his son in 2019, we were witnessing the universal story of fathers and sons, about coming full circle, about legacy. Think about the best Super Bowl commercials—they're rarely about the product. They're about love, ambition, family, or triumph over adversity. Or consider how Apple doesn't sell phones; they sell the ability to capture life's precious moments. When we create something truly meaningful, we tap into the stories and emotions that make us human. The stuff that moves us always connects to these bigger, universal human truths.

They respect their audience's intelligence

Augusta National doesn't need to tell you why it's special—it shows you. The best content works the same way. It doesn't beat you over the head with its message or dumb things down. It trusts that you'll get it, that you'll feel it. It's like pretty much every single Jim Nantz call at the Masters—he knows when to speak and, more importantly, when to let the moment breathe. This respect for the audience shows up in the details: the subtle storytelling, the space for interpretation, the trust that viewers will connect the dots themselves. It's the difference between screaming "THIS IS EMOTIONAL" and creating something that actually makes people feel emotions. Great content doesn't explain the joke; it trusts you to get it.

They prioritize feeling over formula

There's no "hack" to create emotion. No framework that guarantees goosebumps. The Masters doesn't follow a social media playbook or optimize for engagement metrics. It simply focuses on creating moments that matter, on maintaining traditions that mean something, on telling stories that resonate. Everything else follows naturally. This might seem counterintuitive in our data-driven world, where every decision needs to be backed by metrics and KPIs. But the truth is, the most impactful things we create often come from a place of genuine emotion rather than strategic calculation. It's not about ignoring the metrics entirely—it's about understanding that true engagement starts with genuine feeling. When you make something that matters, the numbers tend to follow.

The Masters Test in Action

The beauty of this test is that it works across the entire emotional spectrum. Just like Augusta National can make you feel joy, tension, heartbreak, and triumph—sometimes all in the span of a single hole—great content can stir any genuine emotion. Let's look at some examples that pass The Masters Test in different ways:

The Joy: The Good Good Par 4 Hole-in-One

Sometimes magic happens when you least expect it. If you haven't seen the Good Good guys nail a hole-in-one on a par 4, stop reading this right now and go watch it. I'll wait. This video is feeling over formula at its finest—no fancy production tricks, no manufactured drama. Just pure, unfiltered joy when the impossible becomes possible. The reactions are real. The excitement is contagious. The high-fives and celebrations feel like you're right there with them. You immediately want to share it with your golf buddies. Even reading the YouTube comments years later, you can feel the electricity of that moment and find many a golfer sharing stories of their own on-course adventures.

The Heartstring Pull: Any Humane Society TikTok

Every time I scroll past one of these, I immediately have to go find my cat, Winnie, and give her an extra squeeze (she definitely thinks I'm crazy, but I don't care). You know the ones—where they show the before and after of a rescue, or the moment when a scared shelter animal finally trusts their new family. These videos become perfect units of conversation—you can't help but share them with fellow pet lovers or tag that friend who's been thinking about adopting. They spark discussions, drive donations, and create real-world action not because they're designed to go viral, but because they naturally connect people who care. Each share becomes a mini-conversation about compassion, responsibility, and the joy of giving animals a second chance.

The Adrenaline Rush: Nike's "Failure" with Michael Jordan

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career..." That voice. That truth. When Jordan talks about all his failures—the missed shots, lost games, game-winning shots he didn't make—it hits differently. This ad taps into something much bigger than basketball or sneakers. It's about resilience, perseverance, and the universal human experience of falling down and getting back up. Nike isn't selling shoes here—they're selling permission to fail on the way to greatness. It's bigger than sport; it's about the human spirit.

The Laugh That Lands: Andrew Luck's Mic'd Up Moments

Ever seen those mic'd up clips of Andrew Luck getting absolutely demolished by defensive linemen? Most quarterbacks respond with choice words that need to be censored. Not Luck. He's out there complimenting the very guys trying to crush him: "Nice hit, big man!" "Hey, nice hit buddy!" and my personal favorite “You’re a menace out here, boy!” This is respecting your audience's intelligence at its finest. NFL Films didn't need to explain the joke or voice it over with the gruff narrations of Liev Schreiber. They just let Luck's genuine, oddly wholesome personality shine through while he's getting pummeled.

You Know It When You Feel It

I finished that run that day and all I wanted to do was call my dad. Not to analyze metrics or debate strategy—just to tell him I love him. That's what great experiences do: they move us to action, to connection, to feeling something real.

Whether you're building a brand, designing an event, launching a startup, or creating content, The Masters Test isn't just about marketing—it's about making things that matter. Things that stir something in people's souls. Things that create moments people never forget.

Here's the thing about The Masters Test: beneath all our strategies and frameworks, beneath all our metrics and KPIs, we're humans trying to connect with other humans. Whether it's through laughter, tears, inspiration, or that can't-quite-name-it feeling you get when Jim Nantz whispers "Hello, friends" on a Sunday in April.

So before you put your next creation out into the world—whether that's a piece of content, a campaign, a product, or anything else that matters to you—ask yourself:

• Does it make you feel something?

• Would you share it with someone you care about?

• Does it tap into something bigger than itself?

• Are you trusting your audience?

• Are you choosing feeling over formula?

Because at the end of the day, the best things we create aren't measured in likes or shares—they're measured in goosebumps, in tears, in that instinctive urge to grab your phone and text someone "You have to see this."

Just like The Masters, the best of what we make doesn't need to explain why it's special. The magic is in making people feel it.

And trust me, you’ll know it when you feel it.

What follows below is a running list of tips, tricks, and thoughts from my time (so far) building ANCORE’s business, brand and marketing from the ground up. This is the fourth installment and covers the budgeting and planning process. Each new installment will be published periodically. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #076

When planning for the new year, quarter, month, etc, start with a calendar and spreadsheet. It’s easy to want to use some fancy planning software, but you must resist. The best plans are simple, so start simple. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #077

When budgeting, start by listing everything you’re paying for and how much you’re paying for it. No need to group stuff or get fancy with it. The planning process can feel daunting, and this will give you momentum to begin. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #078

When planning campaigns, start by filling in the key dates on the calendar. When does the campaign start? When does the campaign end? Is there a holiday to plan for or plan around? The easiest way to start is to start. Don’t get bogged down in making it pretty. You can go back and make edits later. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #079

If you don’t have a good number or need to add in a projected total, always overestimate. Rarely does a budget survive contact with the real world and end up perfect. You’ll thank yourself for wiggle room. Plus, if you manage to get close to your actual projected budget, you’ll have a little extra cash to deploy. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #080

The best planning system is one that is simple and works for you. People will brag about their fancy templates or automations, but don’t listen to them. It’s performative work. Keep it simple and do what is best for you. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #081

Embrace reality with your current spending. It will suck to realize you’re overspending on something or leaving value on the table. Acknowledge those emotions and then channel them toward cost cutting. The money has already been wasted and all you can do now is to ensure more isn’t wasted going forward. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #082

For any subscriptions that charge you based on usage (Klaviyo, Gorgias, etc), check and see if you’re still reaching those usage levels. Don’t depend on the company to fix your bill. They are banking on you, not doing anything about it. It’s on you to fix and monitor it.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #083

Spend and budget every dollar like it’s your own. If you personally wouldn’t pay for it, then odds are it’s a waste.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #084

When it comes to content, be an over-planner. You’ll have more ideas for later or when you’re in a pinch.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #085

Over-communicate about your plan. So much of our plans fail to make it to the page. By sharing your assumptions, thoughts, contingencies, and process, you keep everyone on the same page and will frequently find areas of improvement. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #086

Expect success, but plan for something to go wrong. Best case, you’ll cut off a problem before it can really get bad. Worst case, your neurons got a little extra exercise. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #087

Don’t plan everything in one day. Taking time to sleep on your plans, kick them around in your head, and not think about them will strengthen your plans. A good plan, like an excellent wine, needs to breathe. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #088

When you cut something from your budget, resist a need to add something new. Challenge yourself to work with what you have before adding new line items. I promise you will amaze yourself.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #089

Minimize your overhead. More overhead means less flexibility. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #090

Maximize your working dollars. These are dollars that aren’t overhead and are actively being used to bring in more revenue. This can include, but are not limited to, advertising spend, free product for influencers, and sponsorship/partnership money. The more money you can put into this category, the better off you will be.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #091

Once your plan has been implemented, take time to reflect on what went right and what went wrong. This will make you better for the next time around. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #092

The best way to learn from your plans is to turn those learnings into checklists, SOPs, templates, and documentation you can use in the future. This allows you to compound your learnings, get better, and make your life easier. Your plans are useless if you never get better from them. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #093

It’s okay to call an audible and change your plans on the fly if things aren’t going right. Changing your mind based on new information is a strength, not a weakness. Reformulate, find a new path forward, and learn from it. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #094

Expect your plans to change and require adjustment. You will uncover new ideas and be presented with new opportunities. Don’t say no just because you didn’t plan for something.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #095

Focus is a force multiplier when planning. Don’t try to do too much. Figure out the single most important thing you need to do and then plan around that. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #096

Check in on your budget once per week, create a P&L at the end of every month, and reflect on your progress every quarter. This will allow you to make course corrections and minimize any surprises. Plus, it keeps you accountable to your work. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #097

If I could boil the budgeting process down to a simple phrase, it would be this quote from Andrew Carneige, “Gentlemen, watch your costs.”

That is the whole game here. Watch your costs like a hawk and cut ruthlessly wherever you can. There is a lot of waste and spending inertia out there. Avoid it like the plague. You can do more with less and find incredible success. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #098

The quickest way to put your plans into action is to create a list of tasks you need to do every day, every week, every two weeks, every month, and every quarter. It doesn’t need to be exhaustive, but this will give you a roadmap toward making progress on your plans and turning them into something concrete. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #099

Hewlett Packard co-founder Dave Packard once said, “More companies die of indigestion than starvation.” If your plans and budget feel heavier than a Thanksgiving meal, dial it back or face certain doom. A little hunger is okay and incredibly motivating. Hungry dogs run faster. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #100

Throughout the planning and budgeting process, you must constantly ask yourself one question: 

“Is this smarter, better, and more focused than last year’s plan?” 

This is how you’ll know if you’re improving upon your work. Your work does not need to be orders of magnitude better. It just needs to be a little better each time.

What follows below is a running list of tips, tricks, and thoughts from my time (so far) building ANCORE’s business, brand and marketing from the ground up. This is the third installment and covers Black Friday and holiday promotional tactics. Each new installment will be published periodically. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #051

Begin planning for Black Friday in August. It will feel early, but that’s okay. Preparing to win starts with planning and putting in the work. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #052

Don’t make your Black Friday deals crafty or complicated. Make it insanely easy for the customer to understand. They are seeing hundreds upon hundreds of deals. You know you’ve hit on it correctly when every single relative at Thanksgiving can understand it.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #053

Expect to work three times as hard to get your message across during Black Friday. Inboxes are packed to the brim with deals. Social media feeds are clogged up with ads. And homes are typically flooded with relatives. The noise is turned up to 11 and cutting through it is going to take a lot of effort.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #054

Make a setup and takedown checklist for your Black Friday promotion. This will help you streamline your thinking and focus on what matters during the week: selling a crazy amount of product. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #055

Keep your website pop-up up during Black Friday. Obviously, you’ll want to change the offer (or not depending on your deal), but keeping a pop-up active will allow you to collect emails and phone numbers for your list. A ton of people are heading to your site and you need to capture as much of that value as possible. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #056

Educate your customers about your deals beforehand. We usually block 7-10 days to tell prospective customers what the deals are, when they are available, and how to know first. Plus, we make our customer service team members (who are wonderful) available as personal shoppers to help pick out the best setup. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #057

Use your network to promote your deals. It could be influencers, brand ambassadors, or friends of the company, but use the channels you already have built out to spread the word. It’s cheaper and the leads are typically warmer. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #058

Make a dedicated webpage for your Black Friday promotion. Put all the info here and share it out to everyone. This gives you a central hub for any updates or adjustments, plus it’s a wickedly effective communication tool. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #059

Embrace your routine. Black Friday is crazy, and the best way to fight the chaos is by following your everyday routine. It will put you in the driver’s seat each day.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #060

Don’t forget about the holidays. It can feel like the year is over once Cyber Monday ends, but it’s only getting started. There’s the Christmas shipping cutoff, then the post-Christmas push when people are loaded up with cash or gift cards. If you’re a health and wellness product, prepare for the New Year too, which means having everything ready to go through at least mid-January. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #061

Know your Christmas shipping cut-off time and yell it from the mountaintops to everyone — including those in your organization. Don’t be the reason someone has a crappy Christmas morning. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #062

Where possible, make some Christmas magic. If someone needs a rushed order to get it there in time or a gift message for a loved one, don’t think twice. Do it. You will generate enough goodwill to make the nice list ten times over. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #063

Give your customers the tools to share out your deals or drop a hint if it’s on their list. All you need to do is make it easy for them to text a link to someone or forward on an email to a colleague.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #064

Offer to help your customers Christmas shop. We all need a helping hand finding the right gift. If your company is lucky enough to be on someone’s list, do everything you can to help that person find the perfect gift. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #065

Your Christmas and holiday marketing should be fun. This time only comes around once each year (and for only a few days) so embrace the season and lean in. You don’t even need to do a hard sell either. Just have fun!

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #066

Tell your customers how much they are saving during your promotions and make it easy for them to see at every stage of the journey. It’s a little thing, but it helps prevent buyer’s remorse. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #067

Wherever possible, show red slashes through your non-promotional prices. There’s something satisfying about seeing a big slash when hunting for a bargain.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #068

Take advantage of Small Business Saturday. Typically, if you have less than 500 employees and make under $40 million in annual, you qualify as a small business. So, tell everyone. We all love to support small businesses and hear their story. This is an advantage over the bigger brands.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #069

Emphasize the scarcity of your deals. Other than price, this is your biggest lever to generate demand. Display countdowns, send last-minute messages just before the deals end, repeat the end date until you’re blue in the face or you can type the date with your eyes closed. Scarcity turns window shoppers into customers. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #070

Don’t think about holiday shopping in terms of share of the market. Think about it in terms of share of the wallet. Everyone has a list and a budget for their holiday shopping. Your goal is to make it on that list over everything else, not just your competitors. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #071

Don’t “surprise extend” your deals. This is usually a sign of not hitting your goal and it comes off as disingenuous and corny, which hurts your brand. Channel your inner viking and meet your fate with honor.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #072

Provide a 4-5 day grace period for people who missed the deals, but reach out asking for them. This doesn’t mean to keep it on the site. Only honor it if a customer asks. We all get busy during the holidays and you just might make someone’s day. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #073

Selling product is only half the battle. You must fulfill it as well. Do whatever it takes to fulfill every order as quickly as possible. Pack orders. Buy lunch for your fulfillment workers. Drive to UPS to drop off packages. Nothing matters if you can’t get product out the door and on front porches. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #074

Check. Check. And recheck everything. Click links in emails, tap buttons on landing pages, add items to your cart. This is not the time to trust the system (even if you know it’s bulletproof). Take a fine-toothed comb to everything and then do it all over again. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #075

Get a little better every year. Add new bundles. Test new deals. Hone your messaging. Try new ad creative styles. Think of yourself as a pitcher. Having a blow away fastball is awesome. But, you need other pitches to go from good to great.

What follows below is a running list of tips, tricks, and thoughts from my time (so far) building ANCORE’s business, brand and marketing from the ground up. This is the second installment. Each new installment will be published periodically. You can read Part 1 here.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #026

Look for creative tension. These are ideas, concepts, etc that feel opposite each to other, but when combined create magic. Beethoven and basketball. Murder mysteries and natural deodorant. Kettlebells and fine Italian cooking. These are just ideas, but you get the point. There’s tension between those ideas, and that tension creates energy. When harnessed properly, that energy transforms into the only thing that matters in marketing: differentiation. Seek creative tension. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #027

Whenever you are feeling stuck, get moving and get outside. Walk, run, grab coffee, I don’t really care. Just get out from behind your computer and into the great outdoors. Your brain and body will thank you. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #028

Your packaging is your only marketing that has a 100% open rate. Treat it like holy ground.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #029

Get yourself a cat or dog. Our business — both bootstrapping and marketing — can be a grind and feel like we are emergency trauma surgeons. We’re not. And nothing reminds of you that like an animal. They love you unconditionally and anchor you to the real world. Plus, I believe taking breaks for belly rubs or to play chase the laser pointer is time well spent for all parties involved. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #030

Do things that compound and do them early and often. It won’t pay off for a few years, but you’ll thank yourself that you did it. Compounding activities include, but are not limited to, the following: writing a blog, creating videos for YouTube, posting on social media, search-engine optimization, asking for reviews and reading widely.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #031

Get good at writing. Marketing is writing at scale. Becoming a good writer will make everything you do at least 10x better. You don’t need to become Mark Twain. You just need to be good enough to get your point across and nudge customers closer to purchasing. After that, it’s all about practice. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #032

To get practice and become an excellent writer, you only have to do two things: write a lot of words every single day and absorb a lot of great writing. Most people are good at the second thing and ignore the first. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #033

Get out in the field and start selling. If you can get face-to-face with your potential buyers and talk to them, do it. Your marketing will get better and you’ll be able to see what resonates. Plus, I’ve never regretted meeting a customer and thanking them for their business. I always leave recharged. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #034

Take care of yourself. Odds are you are working many different roles as a one-man or tiny team. Because of this, there will be moments when you feel worn down. The best antidote to this is to eat right, get plenty of sleep, and break a sweat. You are no good to anyone (even yourself) if you’re tired all the time. Exhaustion isn’t a badge of honor — longevity is. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #035

Test every link and QR code. Nothing takes the wind out of great marketing like a broken link or a QR code that doesn’t work. Take the extra minute and save yourself the pain.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #036

Ask for proofs on print projects before approving the designs. If you thought a bad link or dead QR code stung, a misprinted design will hit you like Muhammad Ali. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #037

You can never have too many reviews or testimonials. Always ask and always share them with your customers. No one ever purchased because there were too many glowing reviews. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #038

One message for one moment. If you’re launching a new product, talk only about that product during launch. If you are running a sale, tell people only about the sale during the promotional period. You only get a few of these golden moments each year. Don’t waste them by talking about everything at once. There is plenty of time to do that at other points in the year. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #039

When everything is rolling and the cash register can’t stop ringing, enjoy it. Inevitably, there will be slow stretches and times when it feels like nothing is working. Soak up the wonderful moments and preserve those feelings to get you through crappy ones. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #040

There are many people on social media, at trade shows, or attending conferences who will talk about how great their business is doing and how they are crushing it. Ignore them. Odds are it’s for show. This business is tough and true success is being able to stay around for a long time. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #041

Creativity is the heart of excellent marketing. If you keep creativity at the center of all your work, you will succeed. Plain and simple. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #042

Make YouTube and Google your best friends. You’re going to run into problems you can’t solve on your own and projects where you don’t know how to do anything. A quick search or video should get you going in the right direction. If I can learn packaging design from YouTube with zero prior experience, you can do anything.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #043

The best marketing is a great product. You can’t polish a turd and expect folks to buy, let alone tell their friends about it. Before you do anything, make sure your product is great.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #044

A great product does not mean it has all the features and functionality you dreamed up one day while scribbling on a whiteboard — just be great at solving the customer’s problem simply. The other bells and whistles can be tacked on later. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #045

Invest in a good pair of headphones. Our work requires hours of pixel pushing (making graphics, cutting videos, designing emails, crafting messaging) and lots of face time (video calls, phone calls, other customer-facing activities). A good pair of headphones will get you through it all and leave you time to unwind at the end of the day with music, an audiobook, or a podcast. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #046

Build your email list. This is a customer base you can take with you anywhere. Don’t become reliant on social platforms or marketplaces to grow revenue. Your business could become irrelevant overnight if you do. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #047

Use one great pop-up and a good offer ($50 off your first order, gift with first purchase, etc.) to build your email list. The list will grow quicker than you think and the pop-up will generate a good chunk of revenue, too.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #048

This can be a lonely endeavor. Find people you ask for help and go to for guidance. At the very least, you’ll get out of your own head for a little and feel better.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #049

When building your website, focus 80% of your time on your product pages. This is literally where the sale happens. Make sure it’s clear, answers frequent customer questions, and showcases many product images. If Amazon highly values their product pages, so should we. 

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #050

Fancy gear and flashy things are overrated. Your time and money are much better spent doing simple things better than anyone else.

What follows below is a running list of tips, tricks, and thoughts from my time (so far) building ANCORE’s business, brand and marketing from the ground up. This is the first installment. Each new installment will be published periodically.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #001

Oscar-winning director James Cameron is famous for being able to do every job on a set. We should strive to be like this in our approach to marketing.

It will be painful, but being able to know and do all the functions of marketing will make you better in the long-run — even if you decide to outsource it or bring in a new team member.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #002

Get comfortable with the numbers. No one is asking you to be a spreadsheet wiz, but you should know the core financial metrics of your business. Marketing’s supreme goal is to drive an economic action (aka purchase). Not understanding this and all its subcomponents is like a mechanic not knowing how an engine works.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #003

The father of modern advertising Albert Lasker once said:

”Advertising is a very simple thing. I can give it to you in three words: Salesmanship in print.”

Today, the goal is the same: sell, sell, sell. The only difference is now we do so across all types of media (video, billboard, graphic, postcard, packaging, etc).

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #004

Marketing is just selling at scale. Never forget that the goal is to make the cash register ring.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #005

When starting, do the simple things first. Build out your email flows, spin up a basic product page, communicate clearly on your homepage. You can get fancy with it once you have some time and feedback under your belt.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #006

Treat your customers like you’d want to be treated. Be friendly, say thank you, and don’t let policies get in the way of helping another human being.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #007

Study the greats — David Ogilvy, Claude Hopkins, Albert Lasker, Charlie Munger, and more. Marketing channels and methods may change, but human behavior has not. You can find the answers to selling just by looking at what worked in the past.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #008

Marketing is about two things: driving revenue and building brand love. You should only do things that fall into one or (preferably) both of these categories.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #009

Views, likes, and shares don’t keep the lights on. Marketing is about making money. You have permission to embrace it.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #010

Be accountable for economic outcomes. It’s not enough to say that brand affinity or awareness increased. Tie it to cold hard cash.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #011

When dealing with vendors (software, marketing materials, etc), always ask for a discount. The worst they can say is no. A dollar saved is a dollar-earned.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #012

Don’t play for industry awards. Play to make the cash register ring. The best trophy is a business that lasts for more than a hundred years.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #013

Never forget that you are communicating with humans. Ditch the jargon. Ditch the lingo. Ditch the fluff. Just tell it like it is and be direct.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #014

Do things that don’t scale. We include a hand-written thank you note in every order. It doesn’t scale and isn’t fancy. It is just us thanking another human for supporting our business. We will never stop doing it either.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #015

Remember the rule of three’s. It’s a magic number for our short-term memory. Say everything in three’s and I guarantee you’ll be a better communicator.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #016

We forget that we forget. This means that in order to get your message across, you have to say it over-and-over again for a long time. To get someone to remember something, repeat it 10x more than you think.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #017

Strive for depth instead of breadth when working with influencers. We’ve seen influencers with less than 50k followers outsell people with over 1 million followers. The biggest fish is not always the best fish.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #018

When starting off, focus on the things that will make money while you sleep. This includes, but is not limited to, email flows, website/product pages, asking for reviews, digital ads, content, and more. Your marketing cannot depend on what you do between the hours of 8 am - 5 pm, Monday through Friday.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #019

To find new ideas, combine different ideas. For example, I love to read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi books. In one of our emails, I described our product as forged from metal in a dying star, made from the same materials as Thor’s hammer, and more. The numbers on it were great. New ideas can come from smashing together ideas in your own world.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #020

Customers don’t remember as much as you think they do. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. And repeat some more. It won’t be as repetitive as you think.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #021

People will have opinions on your marketing. That’s okay and expected. We see marketing every day, so we feel we understand it better. This is also why you don’t see everyday people criticizing heart surgeons.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #022

We naturally gravitate toward people who are passionate about what they do. Bring that joy and love to your marketing. People will buy if they can feel your excitement. You can’t bore someone into swiping their credit card.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #023

Before hitting publish, read your copy aloud. It may look grammatically correct, but if it doesn’t sound conversational or like an actual human would say it, revise it until you get to that point.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #024

Focus hard on your headlines and headers. Most of your customers will skim your content and these elements will bring them in. Good body copy is pointless unless someone reads it.

Bootstrapped Marketing Almanack #025

Read frequently and read widely. It doesn’t always have to be business or marketing — though, it will be useful to mix them in every once in a while. Pick up anything that gets you excited to read and just start. Your writing, marketing, and communication will improve instantly.

Four years ago, when I joined ANCORE, we were a small, scrappy unit in a garage on the north shore of Boston. Because this was in the midst of COVID, it was tough for all three of us (myself and the two co-founders, Isaac and Nathaniel) to get together regularly. So, I spent most of my time in the early days on Zoom, trying to film content (while practicing social distancing, of course), down at the park by my parent’s house, and trying to learn as much as possible about building a marketing operation from scratch. It was and still is one of the most fun challenges I’ve ever taken on in my life.

As I enter year four, the more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same. We’re still small and scrappy (just not as small as we used to be). We’ve also traded in our garage for a much larger one in our Salem-based HQ. Yes, there are offices now and four dogs roaming the halls, but it still has that garage feel. You can walk right out onto the production floor and watch everything get hand-assembled and fulfilled. Our production crew is the best in the business and are the engine that keeps our operation running. They aren’t just good; they are the best.

I’ve made it a goal this year to write more (better late than never) because I don’t want to forget all the hard-earned lessons I’ve been grateful to receive. There is no playbook for building out a marketing function from scratch, and this is certainly not a playbook. However, I’m a firm believer in the Charlie Munger quote, “The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.”

So, in that spirit, here are four actionable reflections from four years building ANCORE’s marketing operation from zero to one. 

Read and Listen to the Greats

This is one that I learned in the last year and, honestly, I wish I would’ve learned it earlier. It’s super easy for us to look at what’s working right now and pull your lessons from there. You can open Twitter or YouTube or listen to any of the many marketing podcasts and get a peek at the strategy everyone is using right now. This is not a bad way to go about learning. 

However, you don’t want it to become the only way you learn and find new ideas. What you really need is to spend 80-90 percent of your time studying business history and reading biographies of the business greats. Then, you can sprinkle in what’s new.

The reason I’ve found this so helpful for me is because business history plays out over several decades. You can’t fall victim to shiny object syndrome when you are measuring your lessons over a 50+ year time horizon. Shiny objects or fads can’t last that long. This will give you an excellent BS detector when you learn about a trending strategy or the fad du jour. 

You’ll be able to separate the signal from the noise because you’re learning the condensed wisdom of decades of experience from people at the highest level of their practice. If you’re looking to get started, I highly recommend picking any of the books from David Senra’s Founders podcast and listening to Acquired (they also recommend different books and include their sources for each episode). 

Get Comfortable with the Numbers

Whether you’re building a marketing operation from scratch or running it within a larger organization, you have to get comfortable with the numbers side of the business. This means knowing your ROAS, AOV, gross margin, CAC, revenue, etc and understanding how they affect your business. I know a lot of us got into marketing in the first place to avoid the numbers, but trust me when I say there’s power in understanding your numbers. 

I’m not saying you need to become fluent enough to become a CFA or CPA or whatever certifying acronym is out there. You just have to learn to think like a capital allocator and not break out in hives when you look at an income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. There were three things I did to help me overcome my fears here. 

The first was reading a lot of Warren Buffett’s writings. The Oracle of Omaha is the best teacher of finance on the planet. He writes in plain terms and sounds like your favorite teacher. If you take a little time each day to read his shareholder letters, you’ll be a capital allocating weapon in no time. 

The second was looking at a lot of financial statements. This book was recommended to me by an entrepreneurship professor while I was a graduate student at Babson. It’s the clearest, simplest, and most concise explanation of the key financial statements. Plus, it’s not terribly long so you can demolish it in a weekend and come to the office on Monday with your finance fears conquered. 

The last thing was just starting. Create a spreadsheet with your last six months’ worth of key metrics. Input every number and watch the trends. It’s going to feel super foreign and uncomfortable, but if you push through, the rewards will be there. The expectation isn’t that you become investment-banking-analyst-level talented. The goal is to become competent and to build confidence. Keep it simple and think at a single-unit product level. You can do this. 

Stay Lean and Mean

One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from steel titan Andrew Carnegie when he summed up some key business advice by saying, “Gentlemen, watch your costs.” The ability to continually reexamine costs in the name of keeping them low is a critical skill to develop. 

The best area to develop these skills is by inspecting your fixed costs. This could be anything from your email/SMS provider, tracking software, app plug-ins, or whatever else you need to run your business. The reason we start here is that items like ad spend, affiliate commissions, and even agency payments are (or at least should be) direct drivers of business growth. Cutting costs here can be dangerous to the business and kneecap growth. 

Fixed costs, however, can be negotiated, decreased, or cut out completely, with almost zero downside to the business. Plus, the business can lock in those savings for each month from now on. This turns $200/mo savings into $2,400 over the course of a year. Here are a few examples of what’s worked for me. 

• Every December, I reach out to the software vendors who really help our business grow and see what pricing is available if we lock in for a full year right now. This unlocks at least $2,000 of extra cash every year that we can use elsewhere in the business. Yes, I realize that’s small, but every penny counts. 

• If I haven’t used something in the last three months, it’s cut immediately. The key here is not to think twice and just cut it. You haven’t used it in the last three months, so the odds of you using it in the next three months are slim to none.

• For usage-based softwares (i.e.; Klaviyo), clean your lists. There are probably emails on there that will never convert for you, so by removing them, you can instantly lower your monthly bill. The easiest way to do this is to create a low or no engagement segment and then suppress (or just outright delete) those emails. From there, you should be able to lower your plan and BOOM instant monthly savings. 

And what could you do with all those savings? I’d recommend just sitting on them if that’s possible. Keeping your powder dry to go all-in when a big moment (Black Friday, Prime Day, new product launch, etc) arises gives you a massive advantage over competitors. You can go bigger and get bigger returns when it matters most. 

Become a Learning Machine

What is the one thing that makes Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger two of the greatest business minds of all-time? It’s not access to the best investing tools in the world. It’s not an ultra fast connection to real-time stock prices. Nor is it predictive-AI modeling or some other piece of hyper-futuristic technology. 

It’s their ability to be learning machines. Both were and are voracious readers. The accumulation of knowledge from books and your innate curiosity for a topic are compound interest for your brain. Everything you learn builds upon everything you’ve learned. After a while, you’ll be able to connect topics from different areas of study and find insights others can’t see. 

Yes, it will be hard work. You’ll have to sit down and read each night (or morning, depending on your schedule). However, if you can commit to just 20 pages per day, you’ll have read over 30 books over the course of a year. Not bad. And it still leaves time for some streaming, playing the New York Times games, or however else you want to spend your time. 

Speaking from experience, the 20 pages per day threshold has worked wonders for me and there were even stretches where I happily exceeded it. As with everything, the most important thing is to just start reading and learning. And if you’re wondering what to read first, here’s an extra pro-tip: The best book to read is the one that is interesting to you right now.

Onward to Year Five

I’m so excited for year five and what it holds. What makes me most excited is that I’ve only done things in four-year increments in my life so far (high school and college). I feel like there’s magic in doing something for five years or more. This is where the effects of compounding really come into play. The time horizon is stretching more and more into the unknown. 

When I sit down to write this same piece next year, what will I have learned? I have a few guesses, but that would spoil the surprise of my upcoming writing. What I know, though, is that I will have failed at some things, succeeded at others, and learned a lot along the way. And really, that’s all that matters.