I just celebrated my third anniversary at
@ridgewallet
.
This is a post about how it’s been since the inception of Forged Ember, up until today with
@MKBHD
…
I am EXTREMELY grateful for my time at the company thus far. This post is a reflection of that gratitude. The people,
@mikebeckhamsm
If I understand right—people get taxed for any assets they own that are illiquid?
Meaning, they will have to find the cash to afford the taxes they're charged on their illiquid assets?
Today is my two year anniversary at
@ridgewallet
.
It's been the biggest thing to happen to my career. Thank you Twitter.
And did I ever imagine I'd work here? Nope.
I'm not typically a thread kid but let me tell you my favorite parts of my last two years:
...
NEW INTERVIEW
@DaveRekuc
was an absolute pleasure to talk to. He dove headfirst into DTC cashflow management and forecasting.
One of the most organized thinkers I've spoken with.
Learn a new take on a super important topic:
🚨announcement:
Retention is behind me..
Tomorrow I start with
@couuor
and the team in a business analyst/marketing manager-ish role
I'll watch performance and do high-level reporting across channels.
I want to grow into a SUPER valuable asset in this area, so wish me luck 💪
I think I found a new best friend
Theophilus (Theo) Walter Hanes everybody.
"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him." Psalm 103:13
Welcome to the world buddy.
We have amazing team at Ridge…
There is lots of momentum this year:
-The partnership announcement with MKBHD, one of the worlds biggest YouTubers.
-luggage is getting restocked and will be our most exciting lever this year.
-product roadmap. Lots coming.
-our leadership
@mbertulli
@SeanEcom
Taking on an extra job doesn't mean trust is broken unless you signed a waiver that says you can't have an extra job
If anything it means they're faithful enough to stay despite lower pay. He probably doesn't want to be working two jobs haha
We are now a single income household... by choice.
It hit me:
1. Dual income households make a LOT more money than single income households.
2. My work ethic just got bigger—as long as my wife wants to be home with the kids I'll make it happen.
Baby number two due in July!
Here we go.
I talked with Head of Brand at
@triplewhale
—the one and only
@AlexaKilroy
.
(One L, it's not violent.)
We talked about her transition from high school english teacher to ecom, the goal of Triple Whale, and brand image.
Super fun talk! Enjoy:
I had a hard conversation with my wife about my professional life last night.
Conclusion: I know who I want to be, but I don't know what I want to do.
Anyone else finding themselves in the same boat with their long-term plans?
The bigger Ridge gets the more I realize
-50% of my work is producing,
-50% of my work is talking about what we've produced.
-50% of my systems will help,
-50% of my systems will die in less than 30 days.
These are the traits of our well-oiled machine. And that's okay.
The echo chamber lifestyle:
-get dressed into your cuts clothing and kiziks
-sell wallets at work
-get home only to hang your Carte Blanche hat on the coat rack, cook up a truff sauced omelette in a Ramsey-approved pan
-And after a long, DTC day you conk out with mouth tape.
I need to talk to somebody who:
-Is in DTC,
-Does high level reporting broken down by year/quarter/month/week goals (for things like aMER, by product, by channel, etc),
-And monitors this type of report setup for a living.
I need to see your setup. Do I know anyone?
Communication is the
#1
skill you should have
Years of marketing and marriage counseling has taught me that
So I just preordered The Vault from
@blackhatwizardd
to learn how to communicate, specifically over cold email
Can't wait to dive in 🤘
just had a chat with
@chrismeadej
for the channel
Chris gave a quick rundown on the many aspects of
@crossnetgame
that he's navigating rn
He's wayyyy ahead of me, probably you, and 99% of other entrepreneurs out there too
Trust me: he's worth listening to. interview soon 🏐
This week has been MAD
-Wife is 11 weeks pregnant (1st trimester is not kind to her)
-Work at The Ridge is busy—good busy
-Solomonhanes .agency is in motion (!)
-0 to 5 inches of snow today (still dumping)
Mad, nuts, busy, crazy..the whole shebang
But thankful, SO thankful.
New Interview is Out
Episode
#28
-
@couuor
is my manager and the CMO at
@ridgewallet
We sell wallets, phone cases, and other stuff. You may have heard about them
Connor's awesome. He shared a unit economic profitability calculator with you
Enjoy 👍:
A good time with
@itsrandymcq
on the podcast!
He runs an awesome retention agency
We talked apple mail, email/SMS best practices, and things most people miss in their retention strategies.
Watch it here:
I don’t know Mike personally, but I feel like I know him intimately because of his faith and the outpouring fruit he exudes on this platform!
His heart sounds both good and ready to give.
One Sunday morning many years ago, a few people went to a graveyard and discovered something shocking and wonderful.
They found an empty tomb.
Suddenly, two things were obvious:
God is stronger than our biggest enemy
God loves us more than we imagined
I'm only two months into my new role and I'm loving every part of it
I asked my wife to "look over the numbers" in my sleep last night 💀
It feels like I've been doing this forever.
I haven't been, but I've DEFINITELY been preparing for this over the last 10 years.
The team at The Ridge has given me 12 weeks paternal leave. I'm insanely thankful.
But they conducted a flawless launch in a new vertical without me.
Feeling both proud and like I missed out. 🥲
3. We promote from within.
Klaviyo is neat but it wasn't where I wanted to stay. I wanted my hands in data.
@couuor
saw that and put me in a new role he made from scratch. (Thank you connor)
He could have replaced me. He had ingenuity to make both parties happy like that.
A dream interview for the Youtube channel?
@iamshackelford
.
I want to chat with you one day man
In 5-10 years I'd love to be running marketing events and inner circles and he's one of the few I've seen do this well
In the meantime, I'll be learning to ask better questions
1. Twitter is the origin story.
@JoshJDurham
told me to get on here. I tagged a few operators in search of a job and Connor messaged me about a few roles he was looking to fill.
Josh was a huge influence. Thanks sir.
It's cliche but it shouldn't be, connections are important.
I got married at 21 and had a kid at 24.
Getting married and having kids early in life is not mainstream. But doing so can make you
1) stronger
2) a well-balanced person
3) nicer, more patient, more grateful, and humble.
It's not for everyone, but it definitely was for me. <3
Not going to The Whalies?
I'm hosting The Anti-Whalies Support Group in Indianapolis starting tomorrow
It's only a flight away just like the Whalies but it's better
We will share tears over drinks
Taken from
@moizali
and
@mrsharma
's latest episode of Limited Supply using TW data for 2,500 stores:
*BF '21 VS BF '22*
sales: ⬆️28%
orders: ⬆️18%
avg AOV: $160
FB spend: ⬆️23%
GA spend: ⬆️43%
TT spend: ⬆️25%
Pinterest spend: ⬆️29%
snap: ⬇️30%
thanks guys
2. Ridge is growing fast.
TLDR: I started as an email marketing newb on a two person team.
I learned what day to day operations looked like in a company where everyone is very serious about their work. This is what I dreamed of.
We're all business. No one wastes time at Ridge.
Ramsey. Kardashian. Donaldson. Paul. etc... now MKBHD.
A figure we have history with and love working with so far.
This industry is being led by creators now and Ridge has been known as "the" partnership company for over half a decade.
It was time.
I started out as an email marketer. Then I started business analysis.
Now I'm being pushed into data science.
All roads lead to code. What is this nonsense
Thank you
@DiscoverPraxis
for making me read "The War of Art" to graduate.
Because of you I'm re-discovering the concept of "resistance" and how to overcome it 4 years later
CRITICAL!
@thewarofart
Y'all are going to want to see this interview.
-27 y/o
-Owns advertising for almost every watch brand you can think of
-Runs a YouTube channel with 140K subs talking about luxury watches
He asked to speak on networking.
Juicyyyyy
If you look at dashboards you NEED to be better at math than 99% of others.
I use these three formulas on a daily basis:
----------
Percent Change...
...is helpful when there's a direct before-after or expected-actual relationship.
Answered Question: "How much larger is this
Minneapolis is bonkers
Every building (and I mean every building) is connected by skyway
Today there was a snowstorm outside and no one was worried.
They grab lunch without grabbing coats or even going outside 😯
@HireFireTeam
Everyone at The Ridge is encouraged to have a VA
I have one who compiles articles for our weekly newsletter, then I just do one round of corrections and the writing then send 'er off.
I'm also in the process of hiring another to do data entry in a reporting role.
@heyitsalexP
To add:
1. Make a key with those traits
2. Use supermetrics to pull in a weekly feed of Shopify SKU data
3. Derive pivot tables from the data to analyze on a weekly basis
@kaleighf
warm lighting. an aesthetic shelf with my watches and wallets. and all my favorite books visible on the shelf from my desk chair
and plants. my favorite plants
Just found out one of my best friends since high school was paid to talk about Ridge Wallets on Tik Tok
He didn't even know I worked there
INSANE world we live in
I’ve been an accessories guy since long before Ridge.
Looking back on 2023 I can't take credit for the work our Ridge product team has done, but this was my favorite release of the year:
Amazing build quality and the colors? sheesh.
@vibhu
I get the sentiment. And you're probably right.
But I bet a totally different thread could be made about the good that DTC has done as well. The ones that have made it are awesome.
It was SO fun at
@EduGeekout
, yet I'll humbly say that I felt in over my head.
Surrounded by hustlers and GREAT media buyers when I am a slow analyst high-level kinda guy.
What that means for my "entrepreneurial spirit"? TBD.
Yet I felt honored to attend!
Amazing crowd. 🔥
I love programs like
@Superhuman
They're such cool concepts in the tech world that make the mundane FUN again
Same with other programs like
@BearNotesApp
Fantastical and
@trello
At one point the contacts on Ashley Madison were leaked
Social scientists did a study that found that the leaked people had lots of *other* ethical business issues, too
If someone's willing to cut corners with their spouse, they're willing to cut corners with their business.
4. My all time favorite part started six months ago: Working with our marketing data.
-watching marketing results
-creating better marketing data infrastructure
-& making our teams' results come to life.
We are so far from where we could be but that's the fun part. Game on.
This post is about what
@elonmusk
calls "the algorithm".
Out of all the material in his biography, this was the most hands-on. Every Tesla, Space X and Twitter employee needed to know it. It's 5 steps he would use for getting his companies' workflows to operate at a maximum
@iamshackelford
Expecting my second child-
Got bad news 2 years ago for our first one at an ultrasound, and the baby passed a week later -
This morning, hundreds of prayers were answered as we went to our first ultrasound for our current baby.
Got great news: baby is doing great.
Grateful!
Interviewing is a great excuse to get to know people.
Just had a bomb call with
@AlexaKilroy
She's super personable and if you ever get a chance to talk to her,
100% do it! 🐳