a Merry Christmas note 🎄

Hey Reader,

I’m writing this from my home office on December 19th.

The last project of the year is wrapping up. My family’s getting ready for Christmas. And I’m sitting here thinking about what has honestly been the hardest year of my entire life.

Loss. Grief. Big, unexpected changes. The biggest ones, actually.

This year shaped me as a man, personally and professionally, in ways I never would have seen. If you want to read more about some of that, I wrote about it here.

And here’s what I want you to know about my business as we close out 2025:

After losing the biggest sponsorship deal in my career, I pivoted. I trusted my gut. I relied on the skills and abilities I’ve spent the past decade and a half building as an entrepreneur.

And I launched Build with Brad, my mentorship program, to generate recurring revenue while I rebuilt my agency from the ground up and consolidated all of my work under one single brand.

Just “BRAD”

Still a work in progress. But it’s mine. And it’s working.

Build with Brad has surpassed my initial goal.

In only three months, we have 26 paying members.

Working professionals. Studio owners. Busy freelancers. Solo entrepreneurs running content businesses.

And I get to serve them every week. In our mentorship calls, in our Friday recap emails, in our Friday accountability check-ins.

I’ve been grateful to see these faces each week. To be of service. To share my experiences and whatever wisdom I’ve managed to pick up over the years.

But honestly? I also love facilitating the conversation and watching the members help each other out.

This is the exact polar opposite of communities I’ve built in the past with thousands upon thousands of members, but no real place for people to actually connect.

Build with Brad is intimate. It’s 26 people. And that brings in modest recurring revenue for the time being, but more importantly, it’s shown me signal.

This is worth pursuing in 2026.

My goal is to get the mentorship to 100 paying members, and generate around $100,000 annually. We’re 25% of the way there!

Achieving this would generate healthy recurring revenue source in a really scalable, maintainable way. Weekly calls. Very lean. I appreciate that very much.

And the agency side? Also so grateful for the growth so far.

I pivoted and rebranded my agency to Authority Engines, a marketing agency where we build adaptive marketing & communications systems for busy content brands, nonprofits, and expert businesses. We offer strategy and personalized email marketing systems, websites, newsletters, and ad funnels.

We specialize in RightMessage personalization and Kit (among other platforms).

Deep-dive strategy. Segmentation. Understanding the psychology of my clients and their audiences. Then we plan and implement smart personalization that actually works.

Our clients have enjoyed revenue increases, improved ROI, higher response rates to their email newsletters, better ad campaign performance, and completely hands-off automated marketing and communication systems that feel human.

And in just three months, I’ve booked myself solid out until Q2 2026.

Which means I’m hiring a couple specialists to help with project management, implementation, and to allow us to take on more clients.

That’s a good sign.

My objective for Authority Engines is to scale it to a million-dollar per year agency while keeping it lean and manageable for my lifestyle, which is family-first, always.

Everything I do serves my family.

The work I do matters to me. Which is why I pivoted. No sponsors. No distractions. Just my own independent pursuits.

As I wrap up my last projects for the year and take a little time off to be with my family and celebrate Christmas, I wanted to extend the warmest wishes to you.

May your season be joy-filled, full of love, and restful.

Merry Christmas.

See you next year.

BRAD