Turning uncertainty into opportunity

When Bryan Shetsky (BSBA ‘06) first arrived at the University of Florida, he thought he’d graduate prepared for a career in medicine. 

Growing up in Coral Springs, Florida, Shetsky watched his family navigate serious health challenges that led to financial instability. His mother survived brain cancer twice, and his father became ill when Shetsky was a young teenager and later passed when he was a junior in college. 

“I grew up with a lot of love in my family, but not a lot else,” Shetsky described. “What I saw my parents go through was hard, and I saw being a doctor as a pathway to financial stability while also being a way to help people in situations like my parents and make an impact at the highest stage.”

While he initially considered the University of Miami’s 6-year BS/MD program, after touring Miami and UF’s campuses, Gainesville seemed to be a more authentic college location. Coupled with better financial support and more educational opportunities, Shetsky decided that the University of Florida offered the college experience he wanted. 

“I wanted to ‘grow up’ during my time in college,” Shetsky said. “Being from South Florida, Gainesville was far enough away that I felt like I could do that while still being close to home.”

While he was initially on the pre-med track at UF, one of Shetsky’s friends pointed out that medicine didn’t feel like a natural path for someone who had been entrepreneurial since he was a teenager. 

“I’d been working since I was 13-years-old and knew that I wanted to get to work quickly after I finished my degree,” he said. “Studying business felt like it would still help me accomplish my goal of financial stability while also being able to help people.”

From pre-med to finance

After shifting his studies to the Warrington College of Business, Shetsky chose finance because it offered the most career flexibility. He saw finance as the most challenging of the business disciplines and believed that it would offer him the greatest number of career paths, whether that be on Wall Street or in some other field. 

“I always saw finance as the pinnacle of business,” he said. “It would give me options for my career and lay the foundation for really being able to do anything in business.”

While his career path ultimately led him to marketing, Shetsky credits his finance education with helping make him a stronger business leader. 

“I think about many aspects of my business through a finance lens,” he said. “That’s a big part of how I’ve been successful.”

An unexpected path to entrepreneurship

After finishing his degree from Warrington, Shetsky made the choice to not pursue a finance career in New York City. With his father’s passing, Shetsky knew his family would need him to remain close, and he ultimately decided to return to South Florida. 

Shetsky was able to secure a role as an account executive in marketing. While it wasn’t the finance role he had envisioned, it would lead him to building his own company. 

Because Shetsky had a marketing title in his role, the then-budding company “The Facebook” offered him access to its beta advertising platform on the social media network. Through this opportunity, Shetsky saw first hand the measurable impact of digital marketing for brands. 

This sparked an idea to create a digital marketing practice within the company that he was working for, but his boss never brought the idea to fruition. Rather than let the opportunity pass, Shetsky decided to bring it to life himself.

Leaving a stable job wasn’t easy, especially as someone who grew up with financial challenges. 

He spent several years saving money, and understood the financial risks and long hours that would be required to build a successful company. Shetsky believed so much in his idea and knew he needed to keep challenging himself in order to achieve his goal of helping others through a great business. 

In late 2008, Shetsky launched Lamark Media with an original focus of serving as “the marketing agency’s agency,” by offering them wholesale services in digital marketing. 

The business evolved twice more over the years while retaining each of its original business areas. In 2015, seeing the success of his firm’s campaigns and return on investment, brands came directly to Shetsky to request his services. The more his team worked both directly with brands and with marketing agencies, they became internally proficient at different marketing practices, including offering their own in-house creative services.

Each of these jumps came thanks to continual growth and strategic expansion, which was further enabled through partnership with private equity, most recently helping build Lamark’s own portfolio of proprietary technology products. 

Leading through change

Today, almost 18 years after its founding, the company continues to evolve as artificial intelligence reshapes the marketing landscape. 

While Shetsky believes that AI will fundamentally change the future of marketing, he doesn’t think that students should spend too much time trying to predict the future. The value, instead, is on developing their abilities to adapt. 

“If your mission is to create value, then everything you’re doing should be focused on that,” he said. “If you’re willing to fail and pivot fast, then you can be successful by focusing on activities that will create value and not on an arbitrary outcome. If you’re not learning, then you’re not evolving.”

Advice for entrepreneurs

For aspiring entrepreneurs, Shetsky believes the best advice is based on a realistic perspective. While owning a business can provide freedom, it also comes with a significant amount of responsibility. Business owners answer not only to themselves, but also to their clients and employees and their families. 

“No, I don’t have a boss [in my company], but I have a lot of bosses in each of our clients,” he said. 

Success requires conviction, a willingness to make sacrifices and a perspective grounded in reality, he believes. 

“If you want it and it really matters, then you can do it,” he said. “But you have to know what you signed up for. Everything has a cost.”

Reflecting on his own experience, one lesson stands out to Shetsky in particular. 

“Investments and expenses both cost money,” Shetsky explained. “But the difference is that investments have ROI and expenses don’t. Your goal should be to maximize your investments while mitigating your expenses. 

“In life experiences, your outcomes depend on your reactions. In those situations, you can turn what could be an expense into an investment by taking mistakes and viewing them as a learning experience.”

Success beyond business 

Outside of the office, Shetsky’s priorities revolve around his family. He and his wife of almost 12 years are raising their sons together, turning ages 10 and 7, being sure to spend as much time with them in the early part of their lives as possible. 

Fitness also plays an important role in Shetsky’s life. Witnessing his parents’ health struggles, and experiencing some of his own while building his business, Shetsky has made staying healthy a new priority. 

He hopes that setting an early example for his sons will encourage them to keep healthy habits throughout their own lives. 

“Someone told me you don’t get in shape, you stay in shape,” he said. “This applies metaphorically to more than fitness; it’s about setting the example.”