How do you run many brands without losing focus?

I have five main brands under 8th Replay, and they're all priorities. I'd still call it two total priorities.

"[The four local media brands] are all one thing, and Texas AI Lab is technically outside of it. Really, I would call it two total priorities, even though it's five different brands."

Under both sits my AI workforce. It's the foundation.

Am I actually focused?

Not as much as I preach. I'm spread thin across software and 20-plus newsletters, hopefully 50 someday. When I ask myself why my Austin newsletters aren't making enough money, the answer is that I'm not focused on them enough. I work very hard, just not solely on those.

The guests on my podcast keep proving the point. Marissa, who runs From Boise, told me her best change in 2025 was dropping the podcast, merch and products to focus only on sponsorships, and she was projecting $250,000 for the year. Travis, another guest, quit his full-time job, puts in 25 to 30 hours a week, and said his Instagram doubled since. Another operator in Canada who makes a lot of money told me his biggest advice was that this is all he does.

The people making six figures or more are working it about 40 hours a week, or they have employees who do, especially on sales. A few hours a week per location makes it hard to get anywhere.

Why build several products at once, then?

Because they all serve the same customer. A lot of people tell me to stop doing so many things. But almost everything I'm building is in the same vertical for the same client: a newsletter builder, a signup form system that helps newsletters make money, and a website system with a local directory and job board. Those are three things a local media brand needs, so I can sell multiple things to the same people.

The cost is real. It's chaotic to keep several projects straight. AI is what makes it possible at all. I had good ideas before, but pulling them off was unrealistic for one person, so you focused on one thing because that's all you could do. That's not the case anymore. I still can't do everything.

How do I keep from chasing whatever's loudest?

These are the rules I give the people and agents who work with me:

• Attention, recency and how much we talk about something don't equal importance.
• Exploring an idea is not deciding to do it.
• What I've said the priority is now beats anything you'd infer from history.

Focus on what you can control. In mid-2026 I told my team that for the next 60 to 90 days we'd concentrate on making money in the markets where we live, because remote markets weren't paying off. The rest got a smaller push on advertisers.

How do I keep more brands from multiplying the work?

One system, many brands. My goal is 500 locations running the same design and the same system. When two overlapping systems made it unclear which one to change, I asked for them to be consolidated into one home.

• Operations: build the whole workflow in one pilot brand, then save it as a template for every other brand.
• Websites: when I launched state-specific AI consulting sites, I duplicated one approved design and changed the logo, colors and state icon. Content came later. First, the sites went up.
• Contact: every brand gets a greetform as the way people get in touch with us.

Some things don't make financial sense to build for one newsletter, like a directory site. Doing it when you know you can copy it 50 times does.

Don't sweat matching every brand's design today, though. Some of my brands have different designs, and I don't think anybody even cares. Big consumer companies don't make every sub-brand look the same either. What matters for selling is packaging the brands together in one media kit.

How do I run a brand without running it day to day?

Who, not how. When you hit a problem or a new idea, don't try to solve it yourself. Find the person to solve it. People who run many businesses aren't responsible for each one day to day. Each has a team.

My advice for spinning up something new, like an ad agency: find somebody really good who isn't crushing it yet, offer them a revenue target or some equity to run it, and help them three or four hours a week. Do the hard work to get it off the ground, then hand it off. It's harder than it sounds.

If an idea is the one that brings in revenue, take time from the thing that already works but isn't earning, and give it to the new one.

Should each brand have its own name?

That's my unsolved headache. If a separate brand doesn't match the others, it sucks, and I'm running into that a lot. I gave the AI brand its own name, then wondered whether it should have been a sub-brand of the B2B brand, while also launching the main brand for the area. In my words: "It's honestly a nightmare. A fun puzzle to solve."

One rule I did settle: everything I do myself for local media (the podcast, the newsletter, the community, the offers) lives under Local Media HQ. Multiple brands were confusing even my own team. You only get one LinkedIn, too, so pick the highest-value topic and go all in. I can't talk about local media on my page and then switch to insurance.

How do I filter new ideas?

Can it 10x, does the math work, can AI handle 80%? Then commit, test, park or stop. More in how I decide which business idea to pursue.