Jack Lorge 🇺🇸

@FreddyLA7 — I recommend staying completely within the bottom right quadrant of the map, where It Just Means More. Georgia @ Bama A&M @ LSU OU TX in Dallas LSU Ole Miss Tennessee @ Vandy in Nashville Etc. Enjoy!

@DanTreacyASN Thanks for the hard hitting reporting Dan.

Tony Romo told police he was on his way to see “grandma and grandpa” when he was arrested. Per publicly posted obituaries, all four of his grandparents appear to be deceased. sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/to…

@Brett_McMurphy Yes, because SEC have to play basically an NFL schedule and are bruised and bartered by playoff time. Big 10 relax against a nothing burger schedule and then are ready to go.

In last 3 years, College Football Playoff records vs. the other Power 4 conferences Big Ten 9-3* ACC 3-3 SEC 2-7 Big 12 0-3 *Won 3 national titles

@justinsliao Very cool.

kicking off a four day on horseback trip from vail to aspen

Great story, and did a service to the wine industry as well!

Been an interesting ride for $CBRL over last 1 year. At first read, Deno seems like a better fit overall.

@RolandGunnTN @AccentsSouthern Beautiful.

Porch-maxxing

That’s step 1. Step 2 is build even bigger to $100M rolling up mom and pop. Step 3 is put AI in to increase to 50% margins. $50M free cash flow and $250M - $300M of equity. Then delete your calendar app. Your family and friends can only spontaneously run into you. Freedom: achieved.

Build a business to $10M+ with 30% margins and no other financial decisions matter. $1.5-2.5M cash flow and $15-25M of equity. Exciting considering SMB liquidity is only increasing.

@PrestonRuther10 Loved Chubbies back in 2012 and remember special ordering certain editions like USA ones thru a friend called Batch. Now our @RolliShades office is right across on Oltorf. Didn’t realize how $ successful the biz was too. Great stuff

we founded Chubbies in 2011, and sold it almost 10 years to the day later for > $100M. of all the things we did to try to grow the brand, only a handful of things actually made a difference from a marketing and growth perspective. 1. content for content's sake 2. making little interactions memorable 3. special in box inserts 4. a couple fun organic campaigns -- 1. content for content's sake - so many people who were/are into the brand would say they loved the emails as the first thing they mentioned about the brand - we tried to make every email a piece of content that could stand on its own, but in particular, for a long time, we sent a Friday email called the Weekender that had the singular intention of making our customers laugh, and being the official kickoff to the weekend. - no revenue goal. no links to product. just intending to make our customers laugh - it gave value (or at least that was the goal), not expecting anything in return - it wasn't the intention, but people would forward it to friends, and it turned into a little bit of a customer acquisition tool - i look back and see how much that simple thing built so much goodwill - 10/10 would recommend 2. making little interactions memorable - we spent a bunch of time trying to come up with funny product names and product descriptions - we put little easter eggs on the site, and showed funny little messages if you took an action we wanted to build a positive association with (e.g., add to cart) - it provided a breath of fresh air and a clear differentiation from the blah experiences you found on most other sites at the time and took something (a product name or product description), often seen as a box to check, to something that could feel special; feel memorable - we also thought a lot about how people would talk about Chubbies when they talked about it to their friends, and providing memorable product names was one of the ways to change something from 'hey nice 5.5 inch inseam khaki shorts with an elastic waistband' to 'hey nice Khakinators' - it also gave people more branded terms to search for if/when they wanted to come buy 3. special in box inserts - we spent a lot of time coming up with ideas on what the 1st order should get in their box, and how the 2nd order should be even better, 3rd even better, and 4th, EVEN BETTER. - people would take pictures of all the stuff they got in their order and post em on the internet, and other people who had already purchased as well would ask how they got X gift, and they'd found out that's the gift for the 3rd order, etc -- and it just added a tiny additional reason to come back and purchase - obviously it was a solid LTV driver, but more surprisingly, it became a new customer driver as well 4. a couple fun organic campaigns - things like the man model search created a great opportunity to shine a light on our amazing community, and ...gave them an easy, light weight way to share the brand with others without feeling sales-y - it was a campaign to find the customer who would be the Chubbies man model, and they'd get free shorts for life and get flown around to different awesome locations to do photo shoots with us if they got the most votes - it felt great to be able to do this, not only for us, as the folks putting this on, but i think it felt great to the people who participated, and provided such an awesome introduction to the brand in a super non-salesy, fun, authentic way --- what i saw, and what i continue to see today, is that it's so easy to get into the day to day machine of facebook ads and ROAS and CAC and sending the next batch and blast, etc etc that we miss the things that truly make the difference and set a brand apart in the mind of your customer everyone's doing the same stuff, so for the brands who can go in a slightly different direction and create those tiny (or big) special moments, those little wins compound and act as the rising tide that lifts all boats, and can serve as the most powerful force in combatting the increasing costs of the basic playbook of direct response performance marketing hope this helps party on wayne

Very performative. Outside of Silicon Valley in the Midwest/South you run into many guys who are "post financial" and legitimately bad with technology (unlike this technology investor). They have a polite EA who handles emails. Only answer what they want to. Total control over schedule and life. None of this BS.

I don’t know a single person, nor do I know of a single person (except for being on an email chain w a team owner one time) who watches the WNBA. Am I in an extreme bubble? What are the customer acquisition metrics for WNBA and ESPN’s massive investment in it?

@FactsAboutTexas Texas is the King state of America. Georgia is the queen.

Wisconsin Is known for Cheese, Florida is known for oranges and Georgia is known for peaches. What is Texas best known for? 🤠

@TheAmRev Agreed, and remember the first time I saw that one of my x great grandmother’s first husband died at Shiloh and realized the destruction it brought to the country as a whole.

Genealogy has changed how I see the Civil War. My grandfather’s Kentucky family fought and died on both sides. His Virginia family lost their father, their farm, and everything they had built. The deeper I dig, the more I believe the Civil War was America’s greatest tragedy. Whatever the disagreements, it never should have come to Americans killing Americans on that scale.

@Michaelfiore Lookin good!

Starting to look like Bass Pro in here. Last year’s mount (left) just came back. All of these are low fence bucks near Wichita Falls. I hunt on a property with no feeders or attractants. It’s a fun way to feed the family and makes for great memories.

@max_gagliardi Congrats.

Two years ago, we made the biggest bet of our professional lives: we sold and merged the company we had spent 10 years building (Ancova) with AEGIS Hedging. Yesterday that bet paid off. Goldman Sachs Alternatives is investing in AEGIS. More capital. Faster product. Bigger ambitions. Same obsession with the customer. Grateful to our clients and the team that made this real. Chapter three starts now. Onward and Upward

@PEoperator Where in Australia?

A few days ago I posted about my life and career so far and one reply caught my attention. He said his mother had recently passed, his father had left them and he needed help. Below is what he DM’d me. I offered to post his story in hopes someone from Australia could possibly help him. It’s a remarkable story and if you are inclined or able to help, I’d encourage you to reach out to him. @nonibeeny — Hi good morning, thank you so much for taking time out to just listen to my story and offer me some advice. I dont remember the last time anyone has done this for me. I’m sorry in advance bc this might be really heavy to hear and if you feel uncomfortable by it you dont have to reply to me ill completely understand. So i just turned 18 this year, this past year has been possibly the hardest year of my entire life. Life was normal, I was just like any other high school kid, had aspirations to become a dentist, always put in the work and studied really hard in school, and then last april my mum was diagnosed with a late stage terminal cancer. They thought she had maybe 2-3 years left. Around this same time, my dad walked out on us i guess because the news of my mum being sick was too much for him and it was easier to just run away. I have never heard from him since. Over the last year i started working two jobs most overnights just to help my mum pay for rent because she couldnt work, put food on the table for us and my two little sisters, and pay for her chemo which wasnt covered under australian healthcare for her. We were barely surviving pay check to pay check, werent really eating, but i poured my everything into just stepping up to be the man of the house while in my final year of high school. Gave up most of the aspirations i had of going to uni because i cant afford it and also my grades dropped a lot the final semester of hs due to working overnight shifts everyday before class. And then in december i couldnt afford to pay for the chemo anymore and my mum shortly passed away. Doctors say it was a mix of all the stress she was under and stopping the chemo. Now its just me and my little sisters left. Ive been working overnight shifts at an amazon warehouse and mcdonalds during the day just to make ends meet and barely get by on rent and making sure at least my little sisters are fed and taken care of. But this week my entire team was laid off from the warehouse and now i have no way to pay my rent, im facing eviction, and i just feel so lost in life. I dont know what to do. No matter how much ive sacrificed my body, put aside my pride, put aside my own dreams and goals, to make sure the ppl around me are taken care of, i just cant catch a break. I have a week before i get evicted with no one else in my life to rely on and two little sisters and i just dont know what i should be doing at the moment. Im so sorry if this was a lot heavier to read than you anticipated and im sorry for burdening you with my weight, but as someone who has beared the weight of this world and knows what its like to be a strong man for your family, i was wondering if you have any advice for me on what to do? I just dont know how long i can keep doing this.

@MichaelDBrandt I like Ketone man but Stella Artois vs. Heineken for your beer example?! Those 2 guys are just 6 months apart on trying to harness their cool Euro vibe. Are you Lonestar, Old Milwaukee - or are you Stella or 1664? I am a Ketone man though regardless!

Categories with the least technical or product differentiation have the strongest brands. Without meaningful product moats, the brand is the moat. Think about beer. Highly commodity, no real moat on product. So the brand *is* the differention. “Are you more of a Heineken person or a Stella Artois person?” Winning a customer comes down to how well the brand builds a world — through media, irl experiences, etc. On the other hand, if you invent a flying shoe, it doesn't matter what you call it. If you have hard technical superiority that solves a real problem, that’s your moat. Brand is optional. Think about Google, especially in the early days. So if you are looking to study great brands, look at crowded, mature categories like beer, soda, apparel, candy, laundry detergent, etc — commodity spaces where brand is the primary way to standout, and leads to Darwinian development of great brands.

@returntoquality Very cool website and concept. Hope this becomes huge!

I need to level with you guys. There are some (unproven) side effects of owning a Made in America Blanket from unslop.shop. You may experience: 1) Increased national pride 2) Guilt for putting American Patriots to work 3) More invitations to snuggle with your spouse 4) More people laughing at your jokes 5) A better golf game 6) Approval from your father 7) Capitulation from your enemies 8) House guests asking "Where did you get that blanket?" To which you can smugly reply, "Unslop, but they're no longer for sale." After Friday at 5pm, these are GONE FOREVER. Act accordingly.

Funny phenomenon esp w/ labor force participation falling to 50yr low (>105M NILF). Americans - including many of my kin - used to be migrant workers shifting btwn Midwest to South w/ harvest seasons. It is honest work and played a huge part in cultivating American identity (eg Merle Haggard). Now our leaders sell out to corporate farmers that rely on >40% migrant / illegal labor and yell at people on X. Coherent policy that leads to higher wages for legal, domestic migrant laborers aligned with the value of their work is desperately needed for multiple reasons. The farm bill and this type of attitude towards American workers is not.