At Empiric, our Expert Panel brings together specialized, industry-leading professionals to support each project, ensuring strategic recommendations grounded in real-world expertise. This month, we highlight Brett McGrath, one of our OG experts who is launching his new business, Stacking Slabs. 

Meet Brett McGrath

Hello, I'm Brett McGrath, former marketing leader for tech companies turned into a small business owner who gets to talk about sports cards every day for my job. I'm still asking myself how did this happen?

My absurdly niche sports card media company is called Stacking Slabs, it's the hobby's content alternative specifically focused on collectors. Stacking Slabs started as a passion project during the pandemic. I’ve always been a collector—sports cards, memorabilia, and almost anything else that sparks interest. When everything slowed down, I saw an opportunity to pair my love for collecting with my skills in content creation. What started as a creative outlet quickly turned into something much bigger than I expected.

The audience for Stacking Slabs grew faster than I could have imagined. Looking back, it happened because I wasn’t trying to speak to everyone in the sports card hobby. I focused on long-time collectors who had been overlooked as new personas started dominating the space. I invested years of time, energy, and my own money into building Stacking Slabs without making a dime. I did it because I loved doing it. Along the way, I built a global network of collectors who shared my passion.

When I was let go from my last startup because of budget cuts, I decided to focus on turning Stacking Slabs into a business. By November, I realized I had created enough opportunities and secured enough sponsors to leave the tech world I’d spent nearly 15 years in. I’ve always wanted to work for myself, but I never imagined I’d be making a living talking about sports cards.

I loved my experience in technology and maybe I'll go back some day. For now, I'm focused on building a brand that deeply resonates in the hearts and minds of sports card collectors who are busy professionals, spouses, and parents and escape into the world of collecting in the sliver of free time they have every day. 

The biggest lesson for me has been this: great things happen when passion and consistency align.

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Things That Inspire Me

Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy: This is one of my favorite marketing books of all time. It's a classic that I continue to go back to for inspiration. This book has my favorite marketing quote of all-time in it: "Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing to each of them a letter on behalf of your client.”

Collector Gene Radio: I seek inspiration from not just collectors of sports cards, but collectors of anything. I'm really big into the psychology of collecting and most of my episodes center around this topic. I really enjoy the Cameron Ross Steiner podcast because it helps me think deeply about why we do the things we do as collectors. 

MJ Lenderman's "Manning Fireworks": Music is a big inspiration for me. I don't just collect sports cards. I've a massive collection of vinyl, too. MJ Lenderman released "Manning Fireworks" this year and I can't stop listening to it. His creativity and approach to writing his songs fascinates me and has helped me think differently about my own content creation.

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