Nick Shackelford

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

Partner

Three years ago, BREZ was at zero.

Today it's at $75M+ and we're managing $100M/month in Meta spend across the portfolio.

None of that happened by accident. It happened because we had a real operating system: clear economics, a creative testing machine, and a distribution strategy that compounds.

On March 14-15, I'm teaching that system live in a free 2-day workshop with the Foundr team.

Ben Radac is going to walk through a real brand case study with actual dashboards. Phoenix Ha is going to show you how high-volume creative testing transformed performance for Instant Hydration. And I'll walk through the complete ABCD framework we use to manage spend at scale.

This is the most practical Meta ads event I've ever been part of.

If you're an ecom founder spending on Meta and you want to see what a real operating system looks like in practice, come join us.

Register free: https://lnkd.in/gf--_e7S

Drinkbrez.com Structured.agency Konstantkreative.com

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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

Many people feel scared when this moment comes:

Someone joins your team who is better than you.

The higher the position, the bigger the fear.

Yes, it can feel like a threat.

But think again.

Having access to smarter people is a blessing.

Which company will achieve more:

The one where the manager hires mediocre people,

or the one that hires just top stars?

Doers, believers, and hungry to learn and work.

The answer is clear.

The top people:

Bring new ideas and fresh perspectives.

Can teach you so much.

Drive companies to new heights.

Their strengths can lift the whole team.

You grow when you surround yourself with talent.

It’s an opportunity to learn and improve.

Embrace their skills.

Together, you can achieve more.

Remember, success is not a competition.

It’s about collaboration and growth.

So, don’t be afraid.
Celebrate their talent.
We’re all on the same journey.
Welcome them with open arms.
Help them thrive; one day, they will help you.

Credit: Igor Buinevici

I’ll choose remote work > higher salary.

It’s really simple.

More rest, less stress.

I’ve been remote ever since COVID but up until that point, I prioritized $.

Now, I prioritize my mental health, peace of mind, and well being. 

WFH has personally made me:

✔️ Richer
✔️ Happier
✔️ Healthier
✔️ More Productive

It’s about flexibility and choice.

Give people an OPTION to choose what works for them.

Credit: Jean Kang

Surround yourself with ambition.

It changes you.

Fast.

The line “Surround yourself with people who have bigger goals than you. Ambition is contagious” is not hype.

It is a career strategy.

Because your goals do not live in a vacuum.

They live inside your calendar.
Your standards.
Your daily conversations.
Your sense of what is normal.

And nothing shapes “normal” faster than the people around you.

When you sit near big goals long enough,

You start to borrow them.

Not by copying.
By upgrading.

Here is how influential networks quietly drive professional growth:

1. Ambition resets your baseline
 → In a low-aim room, average feels safe 
 → In a high-aim room, average feels expensive 
 → You stop asking for permission to grow

2. High performers create healthy pressure
 → Not toxic pressure 
 → Clear pressure 
 → The kind that makes you ship work, not talk about it

3. Mentors compress time
 → Mentorship is not motivation 
 → It is direction 
 → A good mentor helps you skip avoidable mistakes 
 → And raises your standards without raising your stress

4. Peers shape your pace
 → Your peers decide what “normal effort” looks like 
 → If your circle learns, you learn 
 → If your circle builds, you build 
 → If your circle settles, you settle

5. Culture multiplies behavior
 → In ambitious cultures, high expectations are not personal 
 → They are the air 
 → People plan better 
 → Communicate clearer 
 → And take ownership faster

6. Social proof does the heavy lifting
 → Humans copy what works 
 → When you watch someone set a high goal and hit it, your brain files it as possible 
 → You start to act like it is possible too 
 → Because now it feels real

7. Strategic networking opens hidden doors
 → Not “collecting contacts” 
 → Building real relationships with people who move 
 → Ambitious people share opportunities 
 → They spot talent 
 → They connect dots 
 → They pull you into rooms you did not know existed

8. Ambition spreads through language
 → Big-goal people talk in plans 
 → Not excuses 
 → They talk in timelines 
 → Not someday 
 → That language rewires how you think about your own work

9. You gain better feedback, not more praise
 → Influential networks do not clap for everything 
 → They sharpen you 
 → They challenge your thinking 
 → They raise the quality of your decisions

10. You start playing the long game
 ↳ Ambitious circles respect consistency 
 ↳ They reward craft 
 ↳ They build reputations 
 ↳ They understand that real growth compounds

This is the real point.

Your network is not just who you know.

It is what you start to believe is possible.

Choose circles that stretch you.

Because ambition is contagious.

And so is settling.


Image credit: Colby Kultgen

Ever notice who claps when you win?

And who goes quiet?

Here’s something I’ve learned the hard way:

People who truly want to see you win
don’t compete with you.
They contribute to you.

They send the intro.
They share the opportunity.
They recommend your name in rooms you’re not in.

Real support isn’t loud.
It’s consistent.

And it shows up in actions, not emojis.

The right people don’t just celebrate your success.
They help build it.

Image credit: Itsletters_ on Twitter/X

Most people quit right before it works.

Because effort and reward do not move at the same speed.

Years 1 to 2:

You are bad.
You know it.
Everyone else knows it.

Good.

You are building muscle.

Year 3:

You are decent.
Still invisible.
Doubt gets louder.

This is the danger zone.
Most people exit here.

Year 4:

Your skill is real.
Your voice is clear.
Your network trusts you.

Now one catalyst matters.

A post.
A partnership.
A product launch.

And it looks sudden.

But here’s what really happened:

You compressed 4 years of learning into 30 days of output.

Example:

Builder ships 50 small tools over 4 years.
None break 1k users.

Tool #51 solves the right pain at the right time.
Hits 100k users in 2 months.

People call it overnight.

They did not see the first 50.

The playbook:

1. Treat early years as paid training.
2. Ship in public.
3. Build assets, not moments.
4. Stay until the math flips.

The lag is the price.

Pay it.

If you are in year 2 or 3, this is your sign to keep going.

Be delusional about your potential.
Be delusional about your potential.
Be delusional about your potential.
Be delusional about your potential.
Be delusional about your potential.
Be delusional about your potential.
Be delusional about your potential.

Credit: readswithravi on Twitter/X

Toxic workplaces don’t lose talent overnight.

They lose it one person at a time.

At first, the best employees try to fix things.
They speak up.
They work harder.
They try to protect the culture.

But when nothing changes, something else does:
their decision to stay.

People rarely leave because the work is hard.
They leave because the environment makes the work unbearable.

Common warning signs:
• good employees becoming quiet
• innovation slowing down
• high performers burning out
• increasing turnover of your best people

By the time leadership notices the problem, the damage is often already visible in the numbers.

Healthy workplaces do the opposite:
They keep talent by building trust, respect, and psychological safety.

Because in the long run, culture isn’t just a “soft factor.”

It’s a business strategy.

It's pointless spending time and money attracting top talent if you're not considering the work environment they're joining. 

To retain new hires, make sure your company culture is worth staying for.

Your brain is sick and tired of content.

It wants you to be creative.

Over the past 6.5 years, I've written:

- 3,559 LinkedIn posts
- 4,107 Tweets
- 789 Instagram posts
- 456 Threads
- 278 Substack notes
- 266 newsletter issues

And here's what I've learned:

1. The more you create, the happier you are:

On the days I'm sharing my creations, my mood is incredibly elevated. There's nothing better than learning something and sharing it with other people.

2. The more you consume, the more pessimistic you become:

Whenever I go down a rabbit hole on LinkedIn or X, I get bummed out. Culture wars, fighting, lack of empathy for our fellow humans. It's gross.

3. The longer you write, the better at your craft you become:

If you write every single day for a long time, you will eventually become a relatively decent writer. And there's no better way to communicate your thoughts.

4. The more you outsource creative work to AI, the dumber you become:

The more AI does your creative work, the more you forget how to be creative and original. You sound like everyone else. You blend in. You're not interesting.

TL;DR:

1. Create daily
2. Consume less
3. Write until you're good
4. Don't outsource creative


Credit : Justin Welsh

The people you admire didn’t succeed because everything worked.

They succeeded because they kept showing up after things didn’t.

We romanticize success.

We rarely talk about the boring middle:

The failed launches.
The awkward drafts.
The ideas no one clapped for.

BUT

Momentum belongs to those who don’t disappear.

Not every attempt will win.

But every attempt builds skill, confidence, and clarity.

And that compounds faster than talent.

Image credit: WisdomStoics on Twitter/X

Mission statements can inspire.
Core values can guide.
But only your daily decisions build real culture.

Eric Partaker's post on healthy company culture got me thinking about what actually builds strong teams.

I've noticed all 7 of these patterns in teams with healthy cultures:

(Credit: Amy Gibson)

1️⃣ They address toxic behavior, even from top performers

• Talent doesn't excuse toxicity when it harms the team
• One bad person can poison the entire team

2️⃣ They promote based on merit, not politics

• Wrong promotions make your best people start looking
• Performance and values should both matter

3️⃣ They don't play favorites

• Everyone sees it, even when no one says it
• Favoritism makes trust start to break down

4️⃣ They grow people-first leaders

• Technical skills matter but aren't enough alone
• Leaders who can't grow people shouldn't lead them

5️⃣ They make it safe to speak up

• When people fear feedback, problems grow
• Feeling safe to speak isn't optional

6️⃣ They give recognition regularly

• People don't leave because of the work
• They leave when they don't feel valued

7️⃣ They apply values consistently

• Not just to some people but to everyone
• No exceptions for title, time, or revenue

Culture isn't built in the big moments.

It's built in the daily decisions about who you protect, who you promote, and what you tolerate.

That's where trust lives or dies.

One thought that hit me recently:

A lot of people are afraid to spend money on experiences.

Travel.
Events.
Conferences.
Trips with friends.

But they’re not afraid of something much scarier.

Waking up years later and realizing…

the only place they ever went was work.

I’ve noticed this after talking with a lot of founders and marketers.

The things people remember aren’t the extra hours at the desk.

It’s the random trip.
The conference where they met someone interesting.
The event that sparked a new idea.

Those moments change how you think.

They expand your world.

Work matters.
Ambition matters.

But life can’t be only work.

Because time passes faster than we think.

And one day the question won’t be:

“Did I work enough?”

It’ll be:

“Did I actually live?”

Curious to hear from others:

What’s one trip, event, or experience that changed your perspective the most?

There are two types of people: those in marketing and those who give the marketing department advice.

Credit: Jay Schwedelson

What if the real skill isn’t pushing harder…
but knowing when to pause?

For years, I thought momentum meant constant motion.

Post more.
Launch faster.
Reply instantly.
Say yes.

But here’s what experience taught me the hard way:

Burnout doesn’t come from working hard.
It comes from working without reset.

The highest performers I know don’t just grind.

They rest on purpose.
They step back before they snap.
They protect clarity like it’s revenue.

Because clarity is revenue.

When you’re tired, you make emotional decisions.
When you’re scattered, you chase the wrong metrics.
When you’re overwhelmed, you mistake noise for progress.

Rest.
Reset.
Restart.
Refocus.

Not once a year.
Not when you’re forced to.

As many times as you need to.

In business, the edge often isn’t who works the most.
It’s who recalibrates the fastest.

Image credit: WisdomStoics on Twitter/X

Bad marketing:

• Here's my product
• These are the features

Good marketing:

• Here's your problem
• This is how you can solve them
• These are the benefits of using the product
• This is how it can help you
• Here is what you can achieve

Bookmark it and never forget

Credit: pmitu on Twitter/X

Life as a marketer:

Credit: Rana Bassiouni

The older I get, the less I want to be impressive.

I want to be steady.

Impressive is external.

Peace is internal.

There is a season for pushing hard.
For chasing titles.
For building reputation.

But at some point, the question changes.

Not “How do I look?”

But “How do I live?”

Here’s what shifted for me:

I stopped optimizing for optics.
I started optimizing for energy.

Because energy drives everything.

Energy affects thinking.
Thinking affects decisions.
Decisions shape life.

Example:

High status project.
Big visibility.
Constant pressure.

Versus

Focused project.
Clear scope.
Room to think.

One feeds ego.
One feeds longevity.

You can design a life that does not require constant explanation.

That is real leverage.

Impressive impresses others.

Peace compounds for you.

Choose the metric that lasts.

Image credit: 2lastvibes on Twitter/X

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The Battle

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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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