Graham Christian

If your messaging is out of touch with the market, you lose millions. I help fix that. Read my newsletter to learn how. ⬇️ ⬇️

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

I’ve spent 120+ hours analyzing over 500 ads with combined $500 million in spend.

Here’s what I found.

Great ads:

- Hook the viewer
- Connects with the pain point quickly
- Establishes credibility early on
- Focuses on broad, then gets specific
- Delivers value

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

@SohomScalesX thx Sohom

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Beware of gurus who promote “life design.”

It is tempting to believe you can “think” your problems away.

It is a TRAP.

A rabbit hole…

Trying to solve every problem by planning, thinking, and strategy…

Creates the illusion that YOU are the master of your destiny.

Instead of finding freedom….

You find anxiety…

Too many variables, too many options…

Leaving you in a state of analysis paralysis.

“But,” you might ask, “what are we to do?”

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here.

The way I’ve solved this in my life is to rely on methods and actions for living with a strong “proof of concept…”

The rest of the time I just figure it out as I go.

In relationships and morality, I practice Christianity even though I have days of doubt…

Because the overarching principles of Christianity ultimately play out to my (and others) benefit.

But Christianity does not provide all the answers.

You must still decide how to manage your finances, work, and health.

For each area, I subscribe to the most prevalent points of view with the most research.

Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint diet for health (his diet has cross-support from multiple points of view).

ACT / Attachment Theory / Therapy for marriage and relationships.

Jordan Peterson and Dan Koe for understanding flow states, career success, and goal setting.

Dave Ramsey and financial consultants for wealth.

I approach each domain of my life with the best possible literature and thought leadership I can find and implement what I learn.

And then I play. Iterate. See what works. Repeat the cycle. Make improvements.

As a final point, I take all of the emotional stress I experience as a signpost for an area of improvement.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned—it’s that every adversity we face in life is an opportunity to grow, learn, and overcome.

It’s how I’ve managed to earn six figures over the last 3–4 years in my career.

Maintain a healthy body weight in spite of grueling work schedules, parenting, and life.

Pay off over $30K in debt over the last year (paying off another $30K this year).

I’m not a millionaire.

But I’ve come farther than I ever believed possible.

And it all starts with choosing to face your problems head-on.

Having faith in your abilities.

Trusting in the guidance of people who have gone before you.

And not being afraid of mistakes.

The point: pick your allegiances and just move forward.

Stop overthinking things and use what you have and what makes sense.

If something isn’t bringing you a better life, cut it off.

But don’t cut off the hard things.

Hard things don’t make you happy.

They make you BETTER.

A better life isn’t a happy one.

It’s a fulfilling one.

Know the difference.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Every brand, product, services, or business needs a structural-functional organization (SFO).

What is SFO?

A set of constraints, values, and organizing principles that persist even as day-to-day work, demands, and tactics change.

Most operators and founders mistake KPIs for this structure. But KPIs do not create coherence. They measure the downstream effects of coherence already in place.

This is why strategy is not results-first, but structure-first. Results matter, but they are emergent properties of a system aligned around a clear SFO.

Early on, this structure often exists without material proof: a disciplined vision with internal coherence, directional pull, and testable implications.

KPIs validate or falsify that structure over time. They cannot replace it.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Progress isn't fast or free.

It costs something.

It takes work, but beyond all of that, it requires patience.

Life is not a direct line.

It's a process.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Here are 10 harsh truths only founders would know:

1. What you don’t do is more important that what you do
2. Your anxiety creates more work than actual problems
3. Your team doesn't need your founder-level stress
4. You can't think your way out of a broken nervous system
5. Your job isn't doing more work - it's blocking wrong work
6. If 10-minute changes take 10 days, your company is bloated
7. Shots never taken cost more than shots that bomb
8. Messaging needs speed, not committees
9. No one fights for you except YOU
10. Mental health isn't separate from success. It IS success.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

There will always be pain because your nervous system is longing for love it never received.

But here's what I've learned:

I'd rather spend my life fighting for a 5-10% increase in real attachment and connection with others than chase another high from approval, substances, or quick fixes.

Even when you're still broken, even when the craving never fully disappears, connection with others pays back tenfold compared to anything else.

That's why I choose the discomfort of sitting with the ache rather than numbing it with substitutes.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Your company is bloated if changes that should take 10 minutes take 10 days.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Trying to do too much can actually be a form of hiding from what really matters.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Value is gained through leverage, not hours worked.

Your goal isn't to work more, but to get leverage from every hour.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

You're not being a hard-ass. You're being a leader. Define success, show it's possible, ask them to meet it.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Before every meeting write at the top of your notes:

"My job is to find the 1-2 biggest problems, not to solve everything."

Your role isn't to fix every issue. It's to decide which ones matter.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

The Hidden Currency of Leadership Most People Miss

Here's something that hit me hard this week: your role as a leader isn't what you think it is.

Most people think leadership is about working harder, doing more, being the first one in and last one out. They think it's about having all the answers and controlling everything.

That's not leadership. That's anxiety disguised as productivity.

Real leadership is becoming a chaos filter.

In any growing company, there are infinite things that could be done. Infinite problems to solve. Infinite opportunities to chase. Infinite fires to put out.

Most leaders try to do it all. They become the bottleneck because they think that's what leadership looks like.
But the best leaders I've observed do the opposite. They become filters, not doers.

Your job isn't doing more work. It's blocking the wrong work from happening.

Here's what this looks like in practice:

When someone brings you a problem, instead of immediately jumping in to solve it, you ask:

"Is this helping our company meet our KPIs, or a distraction?”

(Another way to put it: “is this problem worth more than $10-100 million in potential revenue opportunities or no?”)

When your team wants to add another project, another process, another meeting, you ask: "What can we delete first?"

When people are spinning on something that should take 10 minutes but is taking 10 days, you step in and cut through the committee mentality.

The currency of leadership isn't hours worked - it's clarity provided.

I learned this the hard way. I was bringing intensity into meetings with people who didn't need to deal with that. I was exposing my team to unnecessary anxiety because I thought that's what "caring about results" looked like.

But here's the thing: the people underneath leadership don't need to carry your founder-level stress. They need clear direction and the space to execute.

Your job is to coach and guide them, then let them build and create.

The exhausting element of trying to control everything is that you want a specific outcome, but you can't fully control all the variables. Better to own a metric you can control, deliver one visible win, and use that as leverage.

Leadership currency is built by establishing yourself as the filter of chaos - the one who keeps the team profitable instead of distracted.

That's promotable. That's compensable. That's valuable.

Because at the end of the day, companies don't pay for more work. They pay for better decisions. They pay for clearer thinking. They pay for someone who can see through the noise and focus on what actually moves the needle.

Stop trying to outwork the chaos. Start filtering it.

Your team will thank you. Your results will improve. And you'll finally understand what leadership actually means.

Peace comes not from outworking chaos but from reframing your role as the boundary against chaos.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Alex Osborne invented brainstorming, but here's what most people get wrong about it.

When he created the process, people coming to brainstorming sessions were expected to read up, study up, learn and bring knowledge.

There are massive misconceptions about what creativity and idea generation actually is.

The reality is that the best creatives operate with discipline, creative constraints and structure.

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

“The road to hell is not paved with good intentions. It is paved with lack of intention.” ​— Dr. Gabor Maté

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

What makes brainstorming actually work:
• Come prepared
• Identify the problem
• Work with clear constraints
• Have a specific goal

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Messaging doesn't need a committee. It needs clear direction and fast turnaround.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

My jet fuel is positive energy.

It's very hard for me to want to write ads if the energy is “I have to make more money.”

The real motivation is thinking about the customer on the other side of the ad and what they’re going through and speaking to them.

That gives me much more positive energy.

Sometimes as a culture, we get focused on just getting things done because “the board” or “our boss” said so.
That's not the right motivation and it creates a toxic environment.

Do this because you have something bigger your trying to achieve for your customers.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

Stop saying: "Look what we've done."
Start saying: "Here's how we're solving your problem."

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

CS Lewis said it beautifully: "The truth is that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life."

The "interruptions" you're avoiding ARE your real life:

- Your kids wanting attention
- Your body asking for rest
- That project you keep postponing

Ignore these at your peril, lest you wake up in old age years from now and realize you never even lived.

[Graham Christian @GrahamCSkaggs]

How to create more winning ads:

I took a couple days to get sales calls with our customers and used AI to break down their most common pain points.

Then I dimensionalized those pain points further using AI.

From those longer sections, I wrote hooks and attached them to control ads.

This usually works because it meets your customers where they are at using their own words.

I’ll find out how they work in a week.