Nick Shackelford

BRĒZ

Partner - Head of Retention and Subscription

Structured

Co-Founder - CRO

Commerce Roundtable

I lead the content development and speaker procurement process that allows for the highest quality conversations to be had in an e-commerce centered live event space. From in-person to digital, the focus on content will always remain the most valuable thing we can provide.

Partner - Content and Education Lead

Konstant Kreative

Top 1% of performance focused ad designers and editors from around the world.

Lucyd Media

Partner

GeekOut Events

Geek Out Education is all the elements of events we love combined into one. 
Our only rules, No ego and don't be a jerk.

We speak with each attendee, we hand select the teachers and we work hard to create environments that produce conversation, debate, and ultimately future business growth. We are paid media experts across multiple channels, multiple industries, and

Triple Whale 🐳

Marketing Advisor

Motion (Creative Analytics)

Angel

PostPilot

MarketerHire

Drinkbrez.com Structured.agency Konstantkreative.com Wearelucyd.com

Proven Track Record of Scaling Social Focused Campaigns consistently past 8-figures through Programmatic buying, Influencers, E-mail and Adwords. 

Learning and growing businesses in this ever changing age of customer acquisition.

Knowing that I had more to offer, I applied that same drive to work with established brands as well as brands looking to make that pro jump. 

Let's Connect at 

nick@structured.agency

The American Dream isn't dead. It's just different.

My parents' version meant a stable job, big house, and retire at 65. I respect it, but that's not mine.

I don't need the biggest house on the block. I want the ability to pick up and go. To give my family experiences my parents didn't have.

We barely traveled growing up. My wedding was the first time many of my family left the country.

One day, I want a base abroad so my children can know another place and speak another language as citizens of the world.

Money still matters, but only because it funds the freedom.

• The old dream: Build wealth, then live.
• The new dream Build a life worth living now.

My parents sacrificed adventure for security. I'm trying to have both.

That's my version of the American Dream.

You choose yours.

Drinkbrez.com Structured.agency Konstantkreative.com

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Turned 35 a few weeks ago and did a thing...

It was one of those “I want to try this.. anyone else in?” texts that you expect no one to respond to. Ended up 11 of us did IV’s together in my living room (b’s glutathione etc). Kinda cracked me up. Also kinda told me where my head’s at.

Taking care of my health is literally the only thing keeping me from crumbling. I’m tired. This has been the craziest season of my life.. financially, emotionally, mentally, physically. Every dial pegged at once.

Usually a season pulls you in one hard direction, maybe two. This one said “all of the above” and jammed it into a year and a half. Ever since Kingsley was born I’ve felt like I’m hanging between gears, legs pumping, waiting for the chain to catch.

Health-wise, I was never totally off the rails. I’m not the same version of me from the pro days, but I’m not gone either. I invested time early to make the money, so now, when time is the scarcest thing I have, I can spend to take care of myself. Trainers, protocols, whatever actually helps. I can’t live in the gym like before, but I can buy it back in small pieces.

I can’t control whether a day hits me financially or emotionally or mentally, but I can control whether I move, whether I sleep, and whether I keep the floor from dropping out underneath me.

That’s the choice you make when every other part of your life is a knife fight.

If you're just starting out in ecom right now / or doing it solo... I’m not gonna lie to you,  it's not easy and it’s gotten harder in a lot of areas.

Yeah the complicated tactics are one thing, but the main thing is you have no relationships, no partnerships, no mentors giving you feedback.

You're just listening to everybody chatting sh-t on the internet.
 
Where do you even go? 
Who do you follow? 
What do you listen to?

Who's going to spend time with you without charging you money you don't have?

Yeah, there are tools now - to find mentors and stuff while you hit people up on different channels. But getting somebody invested enough in you takes money and time from that person.

People will overcomplicate this because at the beginning, you actually have nothing.

Just simplify it as easily as possible before you start listening and consuming all this type of content

Or you're just going to fall into analysis paralysis and have a lot of conflicting information flooding into your workday.

That's where you're going to get stuck.

MASTERCLASS approach to running a subscription-focused brand straight from the shack sack.

SUBSCRIPTION WITHOUT KILLING TRUST
Pre-select subscription with crystal clear transparency. Show savings in immediately understandable terms and compare one-time vs subscription side-by-side. 

Brands love to hide their subscription offers or make them confusing - successful brands do the opposite.

OPTIMIZE FOR SUBSCRIPTION ADOPTION
Position subscription as a smart consumer choice, not a trap. Use social proof about subscriber percentages to show it's the popular option. 

Highlight flexible pause/skip/cancel options prominently so customers feel in control from day one.

ELIMINATE CHECKOUT DROP-OFFS
Emphasize permanent savings at checkout and visualize the long-term savings impact. Stress customer control over subscription management throughout the entire flow. 

The moment someone feels locked in, they bounce.

NAIL POST-PURCHASE ONBOARDING
Send a detailed subscription management welcome email immediately after purchase. Provide easy subscription modification access points and reinforce benefits to prevent buyer's remorse. 

The first 48 hours are critical for retention.

PREVENT CHURN PROACTIVELY
Send pre-billing reminders before renewals so there are no surprises. Enable email adjustments without login barriers - make it stupidly easy to modify subscriptions. 

Offer pauses instead of immediate cancellations whenever possible.

WIN-WIN CANCELLATION PROCESS
Keep the cancel button visible and accessible - hiding it destroys trust. Present alternatives to complete cancellation, like pausing or reducing frequency. 

Track cancellation reasons religiously to improve the experience for future subscribers.

LONG-TERM SUBSCRIBER RETENTION
Escalate perks for loyal subscribers to reward their commitment. Use personalized win-back flows for churned customers based on their specific usage patterns. 

Test various renewal incentives continuously - what works today might not work next quarter.

The people who ask the right questions are worth 10x more than the people who just execute what you tell them.

You only find those people after you've hired and fired enough to know the difference.

These are going to be the people who win with AI or the teams who win with AI usage.

There's nothing more important than planning for Black Friday. 

there's also nothing more important than realizing whether you should or shouldn't partake in Black Friday. 

here's 50 days of how to do it right for your Brand


Wayflyer and I teamed up to bring fresh content for this major moment.

We charged $40 for a 6-pack.

People thought we were insane. But you can’t price a category moment like a commodity SKU. And you definitely don't want undercut your future retail partner from your own .com.

We were premium on purpose.

Here’s why..

1 - DTC needs to sit above shelf price. If your online price boxes you out of retail, you just built your own ceiling.

2 - We overspent to pull demand early. Paid to turn curiosity into repeat. Then leveraged those receipts for retail conversations.

3 - If COGS + freight crush you, no amount of clever creative will save the unit economics.

4 - Timing matters. Five years ago this lane didn't exist. The anti-alcohol wave and regulations created it.

Most founders think price architecture is about vibes. It's not. DTC, Amazon, and brick-and-mortar need a plan that makes sense across all three from day one.

Model retail pricing before you launch. Focus on contribution margin.

Let everyone else race to the bottom.

AMA..

The first time I saw a 5-figure rebill batch fail, I almost threw my laptop.

Stripe error. Processor was down.
No fallback. No warning.
Thousands in MRR... gone overnight.

That’s when I realized most brands treat subscriptions like a nice-to-have.

Until rebills fail. Or churn spikes. Or you try to sell your business and the buyer starts poking holes in your LTV.

What you actually need is:
✅ Intelligent rebill routing
✅ Built-in sub billing tools (not bolted on)
✅ Self-serve churn controls
✅ Customizable upsells tied to product logic
✅ Predictable cash flow + stronger exit multiples

That’s why I’ve been pushing brands toward Checkout Champ 

It’s not just faster checkouts.

It’s full-stack subscription infrastructure.

If you’re doing $100K+/mo in subs, this pays for itself in avoided headaches.

Want to make subs a growth lever instead of a liability?

Start here →  https://lnkd.in/ea6HPHWS


#ad #checkoutchamppartner

There are tons of business intelligence tools out there. Everybody has access to them. We've invested in them too and there are a few we have some brands using but all have different scenarios or usage types. 

But having the person doing the job is where I really think this goes. I'm not sure we want a fully AI team with no humans or severly less humans involved atleast not the things I am involved in or building - but it should be an incredibe human supported by an incredible tool that can communicate what needs to be done is the MASSIVE unlock.

We're building:

- forecasting tools
- projection dashboards
- inventory tracking
- retention revenue analysis

ALL INTERNAL.

For example -  Jay and Jake built a super good tool for internal creative team dashboards measuring speed to execute, revisions, and cost of execution. 

More than just creative analysis. We get even the true mechanisms of the people doing the work.

My favorite time of year is when a lot of the partners that we work with start producing some content that is actually pretty valuable. 

Here's one of them that I noticed and did a little bit of breakdown on what it is the perfect Black Friday - Cyber Monday email.

Especially since I know a bunch of you are going live with your EeArly BirD SaLe's starting Nov 1.


Check out the Omnisend crew and if you are just starting out, they have a free plan for the first 250 contacts or 30% off your first 3 months through the link below

https://lnkd.in/gtKR3Epk
#ad #omnisendpartner

Real $$$ is in understanding your customer lifecycle better than acquisition.

THE CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE PLAYBOOK 👇

Phase 1 - Discovery

For us, our highest-value customers discover us organically. They buy a 6-pack - either 7.5oz or 12oz.

They're self-selecting instead of coming in from discount offers. 

This is VITAL. The customers who choose you > customers you bribe with discounts.

Phase 2 - First Upgrade

Over 2-3 email campaigns, we talk about other products and larger pack sizes.

They upgrade to a 12-pack.

Now they've doubled or tripled their cart value with us.

Phase 3 - Segmentation

We segment our list into 4 buckets:
- Never heard from us, haven't bought
- Bought once, not twice
- Bought twice, not subscribed
- Active subscribers

We don't over-segment because then you have to create content for every tiny slice. These four buckets get the majority of messages with small tweaks.

Phase 4 - Acquisition Intel

Once we know the journey our highest-value customers take, we tell the paid media team who spends the most with us.

Then it's on the paid team to construct offers that attract those customers at a cost-effective rate.

We have people who've spent $10,000 with us since launch. Others spend around $1,000.

Our job on retention is to keep them. 
Our job on acquisition is to find more of them.

Across channels - paid, email, TV, retail - each drives a certain type of customer worth a certain dollar amount.

It's a difficult game to play. But when you see clear wins, you exploit them as hard as you can.

tl;dr

- Map your best customer's journey
- Segment smart, not complicated
- Tell acquisition what to look for
- Repeat what works

There's a problem with business education that very few people speak of.

A lot of people try to build something, can't take it further for whatever reason (money, time, skill, effort, etc) so they start teaching instead.

For the sake of this we're going to assume everyone teaching has actually done what they're talking about but when you try to share context on Twitter or LinkedIn..

it's damn near impossible to give the depth needed.

I can only really segment down by:
- type of business
- industry
- revenue level

That's it.

When people take my posts and throw them into ChatGPT asking for summaries or action plans, they're missing CONTEXT

They don't have the lived experience to gut check things. 
They don't know the real timeline. 
They don't know that the message I wrote came from being a dozen years in, at every level of growth.

There's context that matters. 

"I am inside and building a $75M company" goes way harder than "I am inside and building a $75M company, married with an 18-month-old son."

Different demographic
Different association
Different life

AI might help you make better decisions if you're good at prompting it. But you need real people in your life to have conversations with, otherwise it's not going to be what you hope it'll be

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