Being 28

I graduated from Northeastern ~ 6 years ago, but I still have this memory stuck in my head.

On the day I left Boston, I packed up the trunk of my Ford Expedition with everything I owned.

I pulled out of Mission Hill and turned left off of Mass Ave onto I-90 headed back to New Jersey.

And then it hit me.

College was done. No more living with 6 roommates. No more basement parties. No more living on the same block as 100’s of people I knew and saw every day.

That was it. And I remember being very upset about that.

But as time passed, I also realized how great of a college experience I had. Sold a business. Traveled to 30+ countries. Joined a frat and made 100’s of friends during my time there.

That being said, the feeling of that time in my life being “over” stuck with me a lot.

And as I approach 2026, I’m realizing I’ve got 18 months left of “Being in my 20s”.

That same feeling of turning onto I-90 is beginning to sneak up again.

There are some things that you can only do (or better said, should only do) in your 20’s. Things like:

• Solo Hostel Hopping In Europe

• Staying out until 4 AM at bars with friends

• Saying yes to every ski trip, kite trip & opportunity you get

• Saying yes when someone invites you to dinner last minute on a Tuesday

• Starting new projects or changing careers without the fear of a mortgage or extra mouths to feed

I think life is best lived in stages.

And personally, I don’t want to be that 50 year old man chasing the opportunities he passed on in his 20’s.

So it’s something I’m thinking a lot about now.

Really enjoying my time living in NYC and trying to make the time slow down a little bit.

✏️  Sketching

I’ve been looking for more creative outlets lately so I bought a sketchpad + a few pencils on Amazon.

Safe to say it’s been a really fun & relaxing outlet over the last 2 weeks.

Would love to take a few classes or get more into this in 2026.

New Business Stuff

ConstantHire

We started a consumer brand recruiting company, ConstantHire, in September of last year. This was our first official year in business.

Highlights:

• We grew our team to 10 full time team members

• Grew revenue YoY by 750%

• Finished the year profitable

• Worked with brands like Javvy Coffee, Starface, ARMRA, & 30+ more.

Lowlights:

• Running a service based agency is really hard. There were a lot of times this year I honestly wanted to quit. And times when I felt like our work wasn’t what I promised clients, it hit my ego hard.

• We had 4 new hires quit this year despite the growth of the team and it taught me so much on things like how to hire, how to comp people, how to manage & more.

Atlas Storage

• We bought 1 deal in Saugerties NY this year. (you can read about that here)

• Revenue is up 16% on the portfolio from last year.

• With the new deal, revenue is up 65%

Every year prior to this, we tried to play the get rich fast game in Real Estate, thanks to low interest rates & quick 1031s.

Coming off of last year, I think we’re doing an excellent job of getting back to the fundamentals & making real estate a boring, slow, compounding machine.

I’m excited for 2026 to be a boring year of compounding in this asset class where 10-20% revenue growth next year is a good thing for us.

E-commerce Brand

• Grew revenue by 10% YoY (our biggest year yet)

• Bottom line relatively flat.

• My partner Nick managed the bulk of the day to day here while I focused on growing Constant Hire.

• Thinking through where I want to take this company next year. Feel like we’ve been relatively steady & profitable for the last 3 years. Getting the itch to do something bigger though.

Writing

Lately my days have been blurring together quite a bit. 

So, I started using a digital journal (I’m using Day One) to answer the following 3 questions at the end of each day:

1. What did I do?

2. What did I learn?

3. What’s on my mind?

It takes ~ 5 minutes and is very worth the time.

Enjoy the rest of your year — I’m going to try & write more on this newsletter in 2026!

Connor

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