I'm sick of writing hooks

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I can't get anything to land this week.

I’m publishing stuff but I can’t direct much traffic to it.

I know what you’re going to say. Lex, LA is on fire. It snowed in Atlanta. Attention is elsewhere.

Actually before I get into my stupid marketing bullshit, let me acknowledge that some of us are actively in crisis right now. I compiled a quick list of useful info because I lived in LA for 15 years, much of which was spent with people who had lost their homes. If you personally need anything or have questions, I’m just sitting around writing newsletters and I know how to help. 

—Back to my bullshit—

It’s sadly not true that all attention is on *insert crisis here* so it really is just me being bad at social media posts.

I complained about my latest LinkedIn flop in a Slack and fellow creator Chris Nguyen chimed in to help me like the generous soul he is.

Chris just nails it on pretty much every channel. He’s sold over $90k in sponsorships, primarily on his social accounts. It's fun to watch him play with marketing formulas and he's always an open book about his findings. 

In the social media realm, Chris is NBA all star Steph Curry. Rock solid and predictably great.

And I’m Draymond Green.

Super passionate. A little unhinged. And great at setting up the plays so other people can score.

Late last year, I decided to make the leap to newsletter writing full time.

Turns out I really like writing newsletters.

I write three main newsletters, including this one. I have 110 paid subscribers (shout out to you!), a couple related speaking gigs in the works and over $11k in committed partnership revenue for 2025 already. The rest of the money I need to make will come from…somewhere.

The revenue side is fine. For now.

The distribution on the other hand...it's not distributing.

Before this current season, I ran a growth experimentation membership called Growthtrackers where I taught entrepreneurs how to test marketing options.

If you are a Growthtrackers alum, you remember me saying you can choose ANY visibility channel you want.

I stand by that. It's true when you're selling services. Maybe even products.

But it's not true for newsletters. I'm not going to network my way to 50,000 readers.

I keep thinking I need social media to pop off but that might be a trap of my own design. Why do I put so much weight on social? Is it ego? FOMO? Unresolved childhood trauma?

Thank god Facebook was invented after I graduated high school 💀

Anyway, if I release myself from this trap for a minute, here’s how I should be thinking about audience growth. 

The distribution channels I have in front of me now are:

• Social media
• Reader referrals 
• Earned media
• Google search
• Paid ads

Let’s go through them and talk about their potential.