HI! This is me with my wife, Sarah, during a mastermind event in Spain. I still remember that day with so much detail.

We were anchored up in a little bay with an old cave that used to be a chapel. We had to jump off the boat to swim over to it.

There was no worry about business and life was good.

Our apparel brand, Cute n Country, had done $6.4 million in sales in 3 years. Shirt sales were slumping… but it wasn’t a huge deal at the time because the money from posting content was making up for it.

But then it happened

I committed the fatal error of all business owners. The Rule of 1!

I should have never depended on 1 platform/client to be responsible for too much of my revenue. With Cute n’ Country, that platform was Facebook. I had invested over $1.5 million into Facebook ads for that brand. This built an audience of around 1.7 million followers for Cute n’ Country and it became my #1 (and pretty much only) platform giving me results.

Facebook changed the rules on how to share content and get paid for it. When that happened, my other small mistakes in managing inventory and cash flow were suddenly more important.

While Cute n’ Country is still very much alive, it’s not what it was. In order to survive with a toddler, I had to make a tough decision to find a job and bring in more income while I rebuild.

Blessing in Disguise

It felt like the end of the world was upon filling out applications and going to interviews. No one wanted to hire me due to my previous entrepreneurial tendencies. I got one offer to be a “Digital Marketing Coordinator” for a company in Irvine, BringPro.

3 months after starting that job, I was driving to work and heard on a Frank Kern podcast that his agency, CardoneKern, was hiring a media buyer to manage Facebook Ads accounts for clients.

Only 3 years after that photo was taken and here I am with 2 full-time jobs to keep my bills paid. I could have admitted defeat, but that’s not me. Instead, I’m looking at from a learning standpoint.

What I’ve Learned

Going through these experiences has given me a unique view on my talents and what I really want to do and be the best at.

I LOVE MEDIA BUYING

Doing the coordinator job with BringPro has taught me that I don’t want to become a jack of all trades in the marketing world. It’s not exciting to me. I have no interest in putting together a marketing calendar or writing emails. It’s not what I’m good at and I don’t like doing it.

My passion is the actual process of running ads and producing a return on ad spend. The math and testing of it all just does it for me.

Managing almost $35k a month again in ad budgets feels so right.

Knowing this, I’m going to put all my attention into managing media buying starting with Facebook Ads and Google Ads. Those are the two platforms I feel most confident in building campaigns that will get results.

If you would like to jump on a strategy call with me regarding media buying on these two platforms then please fill out the form below and I will give you a call.