shaan

want advertisers to spend more?

charge for creative ideas, pitch multi touch campaigns, offer tiered packages, float long term deals, use ROI, and let happy clients do your selling.

your welcome email isn’t enough.

a 7-step nurture sequence: welcome, top articles, personal story, quick check-in, surveys, and a year-one gift-can cut unsubscribes by 50%.

VW’s 1959 “Think Small” campaign flipped the script on big flashy cars by owning the Beetle’s smallness with humor and honesty.

lesson: sometimes less is more... and self-deprecating is smart.

Wittier started as Podcast Weekly, morphed into a product incubator, tanked as a media company, then came back swinging.

nothing’s ever a straight line, and that’s the beauty of it.

got leftover ad slots?

fill ’em with remnant partners at a discount. It’s like the clearance rack of advertising... but classier and more profitable.

agency life lessons from clients like The Beatles & Prada: no one path, sweat the details, be an amoeba (flexible), disagree but commit, and most importantly... have fun or fake it well.

own your ad content or watch your audience tune out. Don’t let advertisers hijack your voice with cookie cutter copy.

write your own ads, allow limited edits, and be ready to say no. Trust is everything.

i think AI tools have definitely given us superpowers to build and scale 10X… but I also remind myself that I need to avoid dependence to keep my creativity.

i never want to lose that.

YouTube video by shaan vlog: a busy month of projects

youtu.be/bkwavJSnzNk?...

i love spring in phx

when things are good, don't get complacent

if Webflow doesn't move faster, they're screwed with Framer, Cursor, Replit, Lovable, etc...

they need to be relentless in product releases

i learned these lessons the hard way so you don't have to. Your team will thank you, your mental health will thank you and eventually, you'll thank yourself.

work for others. not everything is in a tidy neat box.

you have to be willing to change how you lead constantly. the first step is to be willing to do that. the second step is to actually do it. be an amoeba.

no one is going to fire you if you take a step back and really think about things before you go into execution mode. you’ll save yourself from a ton of problems and a huge headache (literally and figuratively).

3. be willing to adapt

everyone on your team is different. one approach may not...

to do things your way and create your own path (within reason). make sure you’re concise in your approach.

the best teams have a leader like this.

2. pause

take a moment before you give feedback or make a decision. you’re not on a 10 second timer, so you shouldn’t approach your role that way.

shaan chagan bluesky post thunderbird

3 leadership lessons i wish at knew at 25 (when i was managing a team of 14):

1. cut the fluff

your team is smart. so treat them that way. they can sniff bullshit from a mile away.

be direct and tell them like it is. you don’t always have to follow the “company playbook.” it’s important...

harder. go the extra mile.

but i promise you, that “a-ha” moment comes eventually.

that you hear are “lightning in the bottle” clickbait.

this product secured 100,000 users in its first 30 days. that agency landed a 7-figure client as soon as they spun up...

but for the other 99%, that doesn’t happen. it’s just not reality.

for the rest of us, we got to work a little bit...

some of the feedback was tough to swallow).

because I knew i had something that people wanted/needed. but how BAD did they need it? was it pivotal for their business growth? was Wittier invaluable for them? those are the questions i would ask myself (and my clients) every day.

the only stories...

clouds in phoenix shaan chagan bluesky post

not all MVPs last...

unless you keep reiterating.

for Wittier it took me nearly 2 years to define what my flagship products looked like.

tons of trial and error. a lot of missteps. but the most important thing was that I kept trying to polish.

sought feedback from clients constantly (even if...

it’s that simple.

if the pros outweigh the cons and you can stomach it, take the leap.

white. that’s fitting a square peg in a round hole. everyone's story is different.

like mine. i made the "brilliant" decision to quit a lucrative job and start a business.

was that the right decision? yes, but it’s nuanced.

if you’re at this fork in the road, weigh out your pros and cons.

...

following “guru” advice can be helpful sometimes (no shade Gary Vaynerchuk)

but if you’re looking for answers, you need to go with what’s inside you. you need to go with your gut.

the experts say “start a a side hustle and then when it makes enough money, quit!”

but not everything is black and...

wasn’t about the money... it was a way to prove my “mvp” to myself.

now I run an agency that does nearly half a million a year and it all stemmed from that moment.

to get them into a meeting with me. I knew something could come from it.

it took a few weeks, but finally got a meeting with the C-suite at Dribbble. less than a few weeks after that, a deal closed and it was game time for Wittier

i’m the type of person that needs some sort of validation. it...

email before you leave. you built those relationships, not the company you worked for)

and started emailing every CEO like a bat out of hell.

i had no credibility, no testimonials... so I had to rely on knowledge from past work, and the skills that I had built up to sell myself. I just needed...

because you know, the company took it back haha.

then I sat at my desk and my smile turned upside down. honestly, panic set in.

who the hell is going to work with me?

i started sifting through past relationships over the years (pro tip: always always export your contacts from your company...

shaan bluesky post

i’ll never forget landing my first legit client.

i had just quit a high paying job. knew I couldn’t work for anyone for the rest of my career.

looked at my best skills, spun up a website around those skills.

came up with a business plan, bought all the software in the world. bought a new laptop..

at the table.

but i’m glad i did, because it challenged me to think differently.
there were other things out there.

and i had finally come up for air to realize it.