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

No alternative text description for this image

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

eCom Email Marketer

Your weekly dose of retention strategy, actionable insights, & exclusive industry news brought to you from the minds of experts Chase Dimond & Jimmy Kim.

CBF Labels Inc.

Marketing

Houzz

Manage advertisement packages for 1000 accounts
Optimize professionals profiles to generate leads and increase exposure 
Request testimonials from clients on the professional's behalf

Support Specialist

The Ticket Group

•	Accurately add and manage season seat inventory for 40 venues
•	Communicate and solve problems with the fulfillment department
•	Organize contracts and various documents to increase efficiency
•	Run weekly sales reports to present to the President
•	Traveled to venues across the country to enhance relationships with the representatives
•	Recruited and trained an assistant to expand the department

Inventory Manager

Belle & Bunty

•	Provided content for blog/social media sites and helped reach 10,000 Instagram followers
•	Updated and enhanced their look book and initiated new projects
•	Adapted to and independently navigated new country

Marketing Intern

Ensyd

Social Media Intern

Live Nation Entertainment

•Helped set up the VIP lounge before events
•Worked with a team to solve problems
•Assisted with ticket shipments to season ticket holders

Premium Seat Intern

CBF Labels, Inc.

•	Increased proficiency of order processing by training staff in new software  
•	Enhanced brochures and catalogs resulting in higher brand awareness
•	Shadowed members of different departments and attended and observed meetings with clients

Intern

Sales and Marketing at CBF Labels

I'm passionate about sharing content & ideas on sales + marketing to help you level up your professional knowledge.

Outside my main role, I've been helping Ecommerce SaaS and AI companies with distribution and promotion.

If you’re looking to advertise to my audience, please send me a message so we can chat further. Thanks!

Jamie Dimond

Hiring great people is hard.

Letting them lead is harder.

Most companies bring in great talent...

Then spend half the week telling them what to do.

That’s a colossal waste of time, energy, and money.

The whole point of hiring great people is to let them show you a better way.
To bring solutions you wouldn’t have thought of.
To push your thinking, not just execute it.

Here’s how I think about it:

→ Hire great people.

→ Give them space - to learn, observe, and understand.

→ Align on where you’re headed - and where they want to take you.

→ Then get out of the way.

If they’re really the right hire,
they’ll tell you what to do — not the other way around.


Credit: David Manela

One of my favorite leadership quotes:
"Train people well enough so they can leave.
Treat them well enough so they don’t want to."

This is exactly what happens when you teach your marketing team to speak finance.

Train them well:
→ Show how cohort data translates into company revenue
→ Explain how revenue and margin flows through P&L
→ Teach the principles of variable vs. fixed expenses
→ Demonstrate how investment shifts impact short- and long-term outcomes

✅ Now they understand the impact of the investment they deploy and how it maps to the company financials.

Treat them well:
→ Make sure they have clear targets
→ Stop having strategy meetings without them
→ Let them own the north star and give them the tools to track progress
→ Actually listen when they share what’s working

✅ Now they’re challenged, trusted, and empowered to execute the how while working with you on the what.

In turn, as CMO you elevate yourself to focus on what matters - the why
1️⃣ Challenge the company’s long-term assumptions and investment strategies with CEO
2️⃣ Brainstorm with the CFO on new ways to win
3️⃣ Have a real seat at the board table

Everyone working toward the same goal
That’s when marketing turns into growth.

Credit: David Manela

Most people stop at “I can’t.”

But the real breakthrough happens when you switch it to “I’ll learn.”

That small shift rewires how you face challenges:

Obstacles turn into opportunities
Failures become feedback
Effort becomes progress

The truth is, you don’t need to know everything right now.
You just need to be willing to learn.

👉 What’s one skill you once thought you couldn’t do - but later learned?

Marketing looks fun… until you’re five years in.

Welcome to real-life marketing: 
Where creativity meets chaos.

Everyone thinks it’s just coffee, brainstorms, and clever ideas.

But five years later, you’re managing clients, chasing deadlines, fixing broken links, and still explaining why "going viral" isn't a strategy.

If you know, you know.


 Image Credit: Jeremy Scott

Why Do Employees Really Stay? It’s Not Just Money...

While salary matters, it’s not the main reason people stay.

Here are 10 powerful motivators that make people commit:


1. Feeling valued

 Recognition builds loyalty and long-term
 emotional commitment.

2. Strong leadership

 Good leaders create trust, vision, and
 consistent support.

3. Growth opportunities

 People stay where they see a future for
 themselves.

4. Respectful culture

 Toxic environments push people away - 
 respect keeps them.

5. Work-life balance

 Burnout kills motivation; balance builds
 sustainable performance.

6. Meaningful work

 Purpose drives passion more than perks ever
 will.

7. Team camaraderie

 Feeling connected at work creates strong
 emotional ties.

8. Fair treatment

 Consistency and justice boost morale and
 build trust.

9. Autonomy and trust

 Empowered people feel proud and stay
 committed longer.

10. Good communication

 Clear, honest dialogue prevents confusion
 and builds unity.


Don’t just hire. Build reasons for people to stay.


Which of these matters most to you as an employee or leader?


Let’s open the conversation - drop your thoughts below.

Credit: Robertson Hunter Stewart

The smartest people I’ve met have one thing in common —
they’re teachable.

They ask questions.
They listen more than they speak.
They’re not afraid to say, “I don’t know — but I’ll find out.”

Being teachable isn’t a weakness.
It’s a superpower.

Because when you think you already know everything, you stop growing.
But when you stay curious, you keep evolving.

👉 Stay humble. Stay open. Stay teachable.

Stop wasting your budget.

Marketing without data is reckless.

You lose your edge.

Old-school marketing relied on gut feelings and guesswork. 

That era is over.

Today, data is everywhere. 

Every click, every view, every purchase leaves a trail.

Here’s how to open your eyes and win with data-driven marketing:

✅ Know why data matters:

- Data shows what your customers want.
- Data reveals what works and what fails.
- Data helps you spend less and earn more.
- Data gives you proof, not just guesses.

✅ Analyze and act:

1. Review your numbers weekly.
2. Spot trends and patterns.
3. Double down on what works.
4. Cut what doesn’t.
5. Test new ideas, but always measure results.

✅ Avoid common mistakes:

- Never trust your gut alone.
- Don’t ignore small data points.
- Don’t drown in too much data, focus on what matters.
- Don’t forget about privacy and consent.

✅ The best marketers are data-driven:

- They know what works, and why.
- They move faster and smarter.
- They build trust with real results.

Think of data as your marketing GPS.

It guides every move:

• Who to target
• What message to send
• When to launch
• Where to invest
• How to adjust

If you are still marketing without data, you are not just behind.

You are lost.

Marketing is changing fast. 

Data is your edge. 

Use it well, and you’ll never drive blind again.

Marketing without humor
is like pizza without cheese

You can serve it 

But 

No one’s coming back for seconds.
Funny doesn’t mean unprofessional.

It means relatable.
It means human.

People don’t remember the product.
They remember how you made them feel.

So make them feel good.

Add flavor to your brand. 
Not just features.

Career growth isn’t just about getting better.

→ It’s about learning what actually matters.

10 Things No One Tells You About Growing Your Career

1. Your manager isn’t tracking your progress.
→ If you don’t document it, no one else will.

2. Promotions are rarely about skill.
→ They’re about trust, timing, and visibility.

3. Quiet loyalty will cost you more than leaving ever will.
→ The market rewards movement more than tenure.

4. You will outgrow your manager before your role.
→ Don’t wait for them to notice—it’s on you to move.

5. Feedback is filtered through fear.
→ What they say isn’t always what they mean.

6. Most team culture problems are leadership problems in disguise.
→ And the fix usually starts at the top.

7. Growth won’t always feel good.
→ Sometimes it feels like boredom, frustration, or confusion.

8. If you don’t build leverage, you’ll be stuck in output.
→ Effort alone doesn’t scale.

9. You’ll regret not asking for more.
→ The people who ask, grow. The people who wait, stay stuck.

10. The right move will rarely feel “safe.”
→ But staying too long feels worse.

The rules aren’t written down.
You learn them late—or you learn them now.

Which one hit hardest for you?

Credit: Ryan Yockey

Creativity is evolving faster than production ever could.
What used to take teams and timelines — now takes a single prompt.

Google’s Veo 3.1 changed how we generate cinematic video.
But invideo is changing how we create with it.

Here’s what that means for marketers, creators, and teams:

Realistic visuals — Veo 3.1 gives you film-quality lighting, motion, and consistency.

Story integration — invideo connects those clips into structured, finished stories.

Full production — scripting, editing, pacing, sound, and polish — done automatically.

It’s not about skipping the process.
It’s about removing the friction.

Because great ideas shouldn’t sit in drafts waiting for resources.
They should move — fast — from imagination to impact.

Watch Amber Crest, a full commercial created entirely using Veo 3.1 inside invideo.
Every frame and transition generated end-to-end in AI.

The takeaway:
Veo 3.1 gives you the realism.
invideo gives you the storytelling.
Together, they redefine what creative execution looks like.

Try invideo today → https://invideo.io/s/jamie
Comment “VEO” to know how to access Veo3.1 on invideo

Brand partnership • Sales and Marketing at CBF Labels

A few nights ago, I watched a car commercial that stopped me mid-scroll.
The lighting, the reflections, the motion — everything looked real.
But it wasn’t filmed.

It was made entirely inside invideo using OpenAI’s new Sora 2 model.

And that moment changed how I think about what’s possible for creators.

Sora 2 can generate lifelike scenes that feel like real shoots.
But invideo turns that raw capability into full-length, cinematic stories — ads, films, branded content — all created from a single prompt.

No watermark.
No time limit.
Just a finished story in minutes.

invideo doesn’t just build visuals.
It makes creative choices — hundreds of them.
Writing, pacing, sound, emotion, edit.
All the things that used to take a full crew.

And somehow, the final result feels human.

I’ve spent years in the creative space — working with tools that made things faster or easier.
But this is different.
This feels like what happens when imagination finally meets its match in technology.

Try invideo today: https://invideo.io/s/jamie
Comment “SORA” and I’ll DM you the setup I used to test it.
Select Ultra Mode for best results.

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The Battle

Nick Shackelford

Jamie Dimond

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The Battle

Nick Shackelford

Jamie Dimond

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nick Shackelford's LinkedIn Performance

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