Kent Wilson

It’s boxing day, it’s -28 outside, and there’s no Flames hockey to discuss. So instead here’s the story of how my family started a company in our garage 6 years ago that is projected to break 8 figures next year.

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@iamshackelford Our fix: negotiate with the manufacturer and convince them to make and keep all inventory and only invoice us once it's been shipped (net 30).

Watched more CPG brands get killed by scaling than by failing, and it's almost always the same moment. Ads start working too well and the cash flow can't catch up. Ran it up with BREZ from $0 to $90M+ in 3+ years. Sprouts, HEB, Wegmans, Now Walmart. Deployed over $50M through ads along the way. The whole climb taught me one thing people don’t talk about until they're inside it. When you're spending hard, that money is gone the second the campaign runs. The revenue from those sales doesn't fully settle for 5-7 days. So at any given point during a real scaling stretch, there's a meaningful gap between what you've already spent and what you've collected. That gap is where brands die. The worst part is everyone else expects payment inside that gap. Co-packer wants 50% to start the next production run and the next run has to be bigger than the last because demand is bigger. 3PL invoice hits regardless of what you've collected. Payroll hits regardless. Retail orders need to ship before you see a dollar from them. The only player in the entire chain who isn't pushing is the card processor. So you end up sitting on a stack of obligations with six figures parked at Stripe and your bank balance is making you sweat even though the P&L looks great. Lived this firsthand. Came off a season staring at accounts payable that would have made most people's eyes water, and the business was winning the entire time. The cash just hadn't shown up yet. That's what scaling actually feels like from the inside, and nobody warns you. The reason no one talks about this is because it isn't sexy. No course on it. No thread on it. No clean hook in it. It's the boring math that quietly kills CPG brands at the exact moment they're winning on paper. By the time you need to think about it, it's usually already a crisis. Plan for it 60-90 days out, every time. Build the cash flow model before you need it. Know when money leaves and when it comes back. Size your credit lines or reserves for the worst week instead of the average one. This is the unsexy operational shit that decides which brands actually survive the thing they were trying to build.

@mikey_starts ugc

Your feed is getting flooded with AI content. That’s exactly why real UGC is a moat now. We put together a whitepaper on how brands can scale authentic creator content on TT / IG including the Tech / Canvas UGC model and sub-$1 CPM. Comment “UGC” and I’ll send it to you!

@brillaas pixel

I hate poor people. Most businesses spend $300-500+/day on ads, and yet their prospects are broke and unqualified… Leads don't pick up their setter's calls They constantly no-show And it's EASY why this is happening Your pixel is trained on the wrong set of people. I spent the past weekend packaging EVERYTHING I KNOW about conditioning your pixel to eliminate unqualified leads and train Meta to find your best buyers… Into a 15-page master pixel conditioning masterclass. NO FLUFF or theoretical BS This is pulled from our ad accounts and is quite literally a step-by-step blueprint People pay us 5-figures $ to implement this stuff. Inside, I reveal: - The core problem most businesses ignore when running paid ads - How to write ad messaging that filters bad leads BEFORE they ever click - The landing page congruence rules that qualify prospects before they book - How to structure your Typeform to route + reject unqualified leads automatically - The exact pixel event setup that trains Meta to find “buyers.” - CRM-triggered CAPI fires and warm audience exclusions for advanced signal quality - The full pre-launch pixel conditioning checklist - Plus TONNES more stuff I've used this EXACT framework to fix lead quality for businesses spending $5k-$100k+/mo on ads. (and now I'm giving it away FREE for the next 48 hours) To receive → Like + Comment "Pixel" [Must be following or I can't DM]

@peterczepiga loolllll

Just saw something in an ad account audit I have never seen before. Skincare brand spending $50k+/mo at a sub 1x ROAS. All adsets are targeting the same interest: “Beautiful Skin”. The media buyer thought it was an interest, but accidentally selected fans of Beautiful Skin, a punk band from the ‘90s. You can’t make this stuff up.

@SP_ecom Check out Flighted.co @peterczepiga

We’re hiring a creative agency! Beauty/wellness space. $1M+/mo brand, scaling on Meta. Need killers for all types of ad formats (UGC, AI, statics, video, etc) Looking for a small/boutique team that does exceptional work for a few clients vs. servicing 50+ brands. Strong DTC beauty or wellness experience preferred. Drop recs below or DM me 🙏

@McCullough_747 @RyanNPike Leafs say no. McKenna has is mana from heaven for a new management regime under siege in the press.

@Kent_Wilson @RyanNPike Who says no? flames offer leafs; coleman, whitecloud, frost, 6th overall, the Vegas first + rangers 2nd rounder to move up to 1. That’s 3 players that could help leafs win now & picks to move for 2 more win now pieces to retool in their window to win.

@shaunathan Parekh (9th) Tkachuk (6th) Bennett (4th) Monahan (6th) Phaneuf (9th) Krahn (9th) Fata (6th) Tkaczuk (6th) Stillman (6th) O'Brien (6th)

@Kent_Wilson Who were all of the top 10 picks??

The Flames have picked inside the top-10 just 10 times in their history. Six of those times they picked 6th.

@BumfOnline Not sure Flames would have enough to entice them.

@Kent_Wilson I’m thinking San Jose might trade down.

@Woodguy55 Yeah I'd take it.

@Kent_Wilson I'm sorry your team never got the chance to piss away a generational talent like mine has. That's sincere too.

Sigh.

@BumfOnline From 6th? That almost never happens.

@Kent_Wilson I’m thinking they trade up at the draft.

@Woodguy55 At some point I hope that the lack of a team's historical top-3 picks gets weighted at the lottery, but that's completely self serving.

@Kent_Wilson Oilers had Prime Hall and won McDavid. Much like EDM, TOR will fuck it up. Matthews is better than Hall and McDavid and McKenna are in different zip codes but the analogy holds imo.

@Woodguy55 The Leafs having prime Matthews, fumbling the bag in historical fashion, and then being rewarded with McKenna is...something.

@Kent_Wilson I'm sorry brother

@HireFireTeam The demo would feature people who are concerned with keeping peace in the family/managing family relations so the story of inter-generational strife resonates.

Ok creative strategists... what are your theories with this one... We have a top ad with thousands in spend. 56% thumb stop (very good) 15% hold rate (weak) Avg watch time, 15s. But what's interesting is that the % of women watching goes up as the demo get's older. That's not normal for the account. What do you think is going on here? Why would that be the case? Is there an opportunity to iterate? I have my theories, but I'd love to hear yours... lmk! 👇

14 years ago yesterday, @Kent_Wilson recruited me to work for @FlamesNation. And then we immediately got hit with a half-season NHL lockout, truly a sign of how smooth my tenure was going to be.

So McDavid requests a trade this summer right?

@Brittingham1 "top spenders" without the concurrent sales I imagine.

This week on Meta has been the worst for CatBox that I've seen since the mid March click attribution update It's been bad since then but fairly manageable. Now I'm seeing: 2x higher CPC 4x higher cost per ATC Random ads are becoming top spenders 3x higher CPA So brutal

@ashvinmelwani Meta spent +80% over of one of my account's total budget yesterday.

Really thought performance was improving. Then bam 3x CPA!