Since going through a recent transformation of sorts - fueled by intense mental anguish that was the product of two “men” named Brandon Kleinman and Blake Barton screwing me over royally to the tune of my entire life savings and about $300,000 I raised from investors - I can’t help but notice the many masks people wear.

And the few who wear thin ones, myself included.

After going through what I did, I can’t stop noticing the false bravado worn by many men, the false cutes-y attitudes adorned by many women, the fake smiles and the real ones, the Instagram bios and usernames designed to create a sense of status for the creator, and god, they’re just everywhere.

One of the most interesting to me is men who I feel wear muscles as armor, attempt to speak very audaciously at all times, wear many insignias to swoon the ladies and impress their fellow man (or very little to appear not...

I wrote the below entirely whilst listening to Rick Ross and Meek Mill, on a flight to Singapore, on my way to see my friend Balaji (of Coinbase, a16z, and the “Network State” concept, amongst other things), at his conference that’s basically about violent robots, in a way, lol. Enjoy:

I want to really start understanding the true nature of being a king that the kings, pharaohs, etc embodied because I think living truly freely is such an important interesting concept.

I think that kings weren’t free from their own minds, but they were free of most shackles, metaphorically, so there are probably many interesting lessons buried within analysis of their lives.

I mean look, they were free… financially… but still probably had fear of perception. Except for the ones that understood the concept of maya/the other side. They were probably more wise than those white mfs in the UK and Greece or...

I think I was in Serbia when I started to develop a real appreciation for true pain, and how valuable it was.

You see.. I know true pain.

For about 5 years as a kid, from the middle of 7th grade, until almost the end of 12th, I had zero friends. It sucked.

My number one childhood trauma, developed out this void. I was devoid of human interaction, in “real life”.

The Serbs I was with, I could tell, also knew true pain. And their company, I like to say, taught me the value of “brotherhood”.

One of my favorite things to say about my boys out there is that, “it’s not a company, it’s a brotherhood”.

These traumas we all experience, it’s really funny, they really do turn into our biggest strengths.

One of my new close friends, Cyan Banister, said once in an interview:

“I can’t go to a conference without noticing the coffee creamers and sugars, because that was a complete meal when I...

It was my first day in Paris, the start of what I would soon realize was going to be the most important trip of my life.

I was at a Paris Fashion Week event my friend Valentin was co-hosting, and I was wholly unprepared for what was about to happen.

When I arrived, I said hi to Val, a few of the other friends in my Paris crew (mostly members of Val’s team for Unlockt & Exposed), and soon found someone I was looking for - Pierre.

Before I tell you what happened, I have to first tell you that Pierre and I have what I would call a special bond. We’ve shared crazy nights together in Paris (here you’ll find a video of us opening a wine bottle at ~2am from a previous trip), and long days in LA bouncing between locations like the Chateau Marmot & my friend Ben from Wombo’s.. uh.. castle, in Culver City, lol.

And I also think you should know, Pierre recently became the youngest ever creative...

1. AI SEO
2. Traditional SEO via Organic Reddit Content
3. LinkedIn Organic
4. LinkedIn Paid
5. Short-form via agencies that create large proprietary creator networks and software to optimize the practice
6. Streaming platform SEO (Spotify, Soundcloud, Prime Video, etc.)
7. Delivery app SEO (UberEats, DoorDash, Gopuff, etc.)

If you’re exploring interesting marketing or growth concepts, I’d love to hear from you and trade notes.

If you’re interested in chatting generally or potentially becoming a client of Growth Partner Network, drop me a line at sam@growthpartnernetwork.com.

This one’s on a different type of growth.

Growing up so isolated from human interaction and I’ll say.. friendship.. definitely changed me for the better.

Because of my lonely childhood, I have what I would call an intense appreciation for people who are nice to me. I didn’t experience that often as a kid.

But with high highs, come low lows.

So when a human disapproves of something I do, especially one I’ve known for a quite a bit, it’s what I would describe as a vivid, emotional experience.

So, imagine working with about 200 startups, and having the vast majority of your campaigns fail, after typically an exciting 1-2 months filled with joy and anticipation, only to quickly be thrust into – well, you know. The opposite…

It was about 10 years in someone told me that the large digital agencies in LA – like Adquadrant, Hawke Media, and MuteSix, retained clients for an average of 3...

I have a friend who, for the sake of this blog post, I’ll call Todd. He’s a very accomplished “growth guy”, or as I like to say “attention guy”.

He once told me the story of how he got to where he is now, and I have to say, it’s probably one of the most jaw-dropping entrepreneurial stories I’ve ever heard.

So, I’ll share it here, because I figure it would probably help anyone interested understand the way I look at growth, and that’s one of my main purposes with this “blog”.

Long story short, “Todd” bought up ~1,500 sponsored articles, mostly back in 2017 & 2018, that soon started making him around $3.5m/mo from the affiliate links in them. And I assume his costs to maintain the operation… minimal.

By “bought up”, I mean he paid a contributor at a publication to write a “piece” that’s usually just a listicle plastered with affiliate links. For those unaware of the term, a listicle...

It took me a long time to “wake up” to the realization that I was scared of being perceived.

I’ll do my best to explain, but it’s relatively complex.

I grew up with no friends, and so devoid of human interactions, that I was scared to be seen eating alone in the lunchroom at my high school (2,000 students, ~500 per grade), that I used to eat lunch alone in a bathroom stall then go to the library use the computers during lunch period.

But to do so, I need to brave the lunchroom floor to get to the person in charge of allowing students to “sign out” to go to the library, and ask for their blessing.

I can’t really describe it, so I’ll just say it sucked. Big time.

But, as I’ve come to realize more about the true nature of reality as we know it, I’ve come to the conclusion you must rid yourself of as much fear of perception as possible.

One way I practice is by wearing sunglasses...

Don’t worry all day about keeping your mouth closed.

People stare, so what?

It makes life 100x more enjoyable.

Relax. Trust me. They stare in a good way, lol.

Been doing this shit for about 6 months. Trust lol.

P.S. I recommend getting comfortable wearing sunglasses at night so you get over your fear of perception problem.

You’re almost definitely trapped, in your own mind.

Good luck.