Hey, I'm Obaid 👋🏼

Here's my journey, so far:

☎️ started off in sales, scaled a content writing company from $1.7M ARR to $7.2M ARR in 2 years (this was also my intro to content writing/SEO)

🎭 bootstrapped a 5-person content & animation team to $35k MRR, and edited 3,000+ blog posts, grew 6 websites to 150k+ in monthly search traffic, trained 40+ content marketers, wrote and directed 15 animated explainer videos, and closed $1M in sales along the way

💤 got bored of that side of content marketing (I didn't it find it challenging anymore nor was I learning anything new), so I moved on from running an agency in late 2021, gradually quit all my writing gigs, and began transitioning to demand gen

🎨 started posting more on LinkedIn in March 2022, began exploring new marketing concepts, and creating a variety of content (marketing music, marketing/gaming content, skits, etc.) that got some traction

📚 created a framework that grew a marketing agency's LinkedIn presence (872% increase in views, 917% increase in likes, 104% increase in shares, 64% increase in followers, and $274k in new MRR) in 4 months

🎮 started a podcast called Cheat Codes (which became one of the top 20% most-shared podcasts in the world) and co-created The Easy Mode Framework, which helps B2B SaaS companies turn their in-house marketing team into creators & establish a content engine built on their company's goals, narrative, product, and audience

🎯 implemented the Easy Mode framework at Cognism over a 4-month period, helping them craft a strategic narrative, ideate and create a wide variety of content, and refine their content engine (Alice de Courcy, their CMO, wrote a book and talked about me in it, FTW)

🔮 started 2023 tired of jumping around from place to place all of 2022 (and having stumbled upon something I really enjoyed doing with the Easy Mode framework), I took a break from job hunting, deciding I'd choose what kind of work I did and which companies I worked with from that point on

🐐 after a 3-month break and passing on a few companies, I was convinced by Emir Atli to join HockeyStack as their first full-time marketer in March 2023, and it's been the perfect place for me to learn, experiment, and make an impact

I'm a life-long fan of music, anime, the Philadelphia Eagles, and my wife and kids.

Feel free to connect if you want to talk about HockeyStack, The Flow, marketing, design, consultation, video games, or space. ✌🏼

Obaid Durrani

Founder & Creative Director

Helping B2B SaaS companies increase ARR through strategic media engines

Hey, I'm Obaid 👋🏼

Here's my journey, so far:

☎️ started off in sales, scaled a content writing company from $1.7M ARR to $7.2M ARR in 2 years (this was also my intro to content writing/SEO)

🎭 bootstrapped a 5-person content & animation team to $35k MRR, and edited 3,000+ blog posts, grew 10+ websites to 150k+ in monthly search traffic, trained 40+ content marketers, wrote and directed 30 animated explainer videos, and closed $1M in sales along the way

💤 COVID hit, the world changed, so I moved on from running an agency in late 2021, gradually quit all my writing gigs, and began focusing on learning B2B GTM 

🎨 started posting more on LinkedIn in March 2022, began exploring new marketing concepts, and creating a variety of content (marketing music, marketing/gaming content, skits, etc.) that got some traction

📚 created a framework that grew a marketing agency's LinkedIn presence (872% increase in views, 917% increase in likes, 104% increase in shares, 64% increase in followers, and $274k in new MRR) in 4 months

🎮 started a podcast called Cheat Codes (which became one of the top 20% most-shared podcasts in the world) and co-created The Easy Mode Framework, which helps B2B SaaS companies turn their in-house marketing team into creators & establish a content engine built on their company's goals, narrative, product, and audience

🎯 implemented the Easy Mode framework at Cognism (their CMO Alice de Courcy wrote two books and talked about me in them, FTW), and parts of the framework at Meta. The Easy Mode Framework is now being used by 20+ B2B SaaS companies, such as Intercom, Directus, and more

🔮 started 2023 tired of jumping around from place to place all of 2022 (and having stumbled upon something I really enjoyed doing with the Easy Mode framework), I took a break from job hunting, deciding I'd choose what kind of work I did and which companies I worked with from that point on

🚀 after a 3-month break and passing on a few companies, I joined HockeyStack as their first and only marketer in March 2023. I created a media engine from scratch that drove millions in pipeline and resulted in the company growing from 0 to 7 figures by December 2023

✈️ in Dec 2023, I moved back to the US and in March 2023, moved on from my role at HockeyStack

🏔 after taking some time off and settling down in Colorado, I joined Clay to help build out their influencer marketing program

I'm a life-long fan of music, anime, the Philadelphia Eagles, and my wife and kids.

Feel free to connect if you want to talk marketing, video games, or space. ✌🏼

Creator Advisor

Cognism on Easy Mode.

"IF I WAS THE HEAD OF MARKETING AT A $70M+ ARR COMPANY, HERE'S-"

but you're not

are you?

so i dont wanna hear it

Senior Social Media Manager at Motion

Howdy 🤠 -- I'm Trav!

I produce scroll-stopping digital content for technology companies.

Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it's educational. And hot-dang, sometimes it's both!

I'm a creative marketing & communications professional with 8+ years of experience working in B2B SaaS. I work judiciously with in-house teams, creative vendors, freelancers, and agency partners to bring revenue-driving, community-building campaigns to life on LinkedIn & YouTube.

Travis Tyler

Do me a favor and follow AirOps if you're seeing this.

Because my new job is to now grow their socials.

Excited to see what we can do together Jessica Rosenberg!

And special thanks to Ryan Quindlen 🦇 and Connor Lewis 🎬 for helping connect me to this incredible opportunity.

Today is my last day Motion (Creative Analytics). 

And so we're retiring the "Ad Dad."

It's been a fun 2-year ride, but it's time for something new.

My wife said, "Aw but I love the Ad Dad"

I do too.

So much love and appreciation for the team who took a chance on me back in 2024. These humble Canadians are true ad tech nerds who just let me be me and celebrated my goofyness. Never trying to stifle me.

What a breath of fresh air it was for me to join after I had really struggled to be myself in my previous role.

Hoping whatever companies I end up at in the future will become Motion customers because the tool is a no-brainer for anyone who's serious about paid social and nothing even comes close.

More information on my next role coming soon (or you can DM me to find out sooner).

Today I turn 35.

And I want to use my day to promote sobriety, going to therapy, and getting on psych meds.

Some of us should be a little less worried about our engagement rates or our product launches and a little more about our untreated mental illness.

If you are sober curious I recommend checking out the Reframe app, the Sober Awkward podcast, and DMing me.

If you’re frustrated with a bad therapy experience I’m sorry about that. But there are some incredible ones out there, don’t give up on it yet.

Love you guys.

Keep going, you’re never as alone as you might feel.

PSA my baby isn’t going to smile at you because he does not know you. 

To him, you are a stranger to observe.

It’s not because he’s “shy” or “grumpy”.

I don’t smile at people that idk either. 

I nod. Maybe.

You wanna make him smile?

Give his dad a tech CEO who understands the power of brand marketing 

and do some peek a boo for cryin out loud

No alternative text description for this image

the only way i survive my job

is by deleting every single social app from my phone on Friday at 5pm

and then re-downloading them monday morning

this stupid digital detox is my non-negotiable

I talk to 50+ B2B social media managers regularly.

Here's what they're seeing but won't say publicly:

Which one pisses you off the most?

2026 B2B SaaS marketing is going to make you mad.

In 2014, a therapist handed me this worksheet and I laughed in his face.

"It's called the wheel of life," he said.

"Uh ok" I replied.

But I shut up and did it anyway.

And then I realized it was actually pretty helpful for someone with a crippling amount of anxiety 

My all-or-nothing thinking made it feel like I was failing in all aspects of life.

The stupid chart showed me that I was actually flourishing in some areas.

And it helped me zero in on where to focus right now.

So I'm sharing it with all of you now just like I did with Alina Dallal from Oktopost during our podcast recording earlier this month.

Use it to map out 2026 both professionally and personally.

That is a much more effective way for setting up goals you want.

--

Give it a listen and maybe it'll help you too
https://lnkd.in/epECyAUQ

Can you guess which thumbnail won in this A/B/C test?

The results surprised me.

A = 37% watch time share
B= 18% watch time share
C= 44% watch time share

I thought for sure B would be the winner.

But no, it was me dressed up as a gold-miner made using Gemini 😂

AI slop ftw??

Keep testing my marketing friends!

ayo ElevenLabs 

can you build us a chrome extension/app or whatever where we can get decent voice narration for any article we come across on any website?

like for example,

i'm walking my son for 30 minutes in a stroller

I don't wanna be looking down reading this article the whole time

would love to have an elevenlabs voice to read the article to me over my airpods

Substack you gonna get in on this auto-narration or nah?

this hack for mining reddit for ad angle ideas is genius

⏰ TIMECODES ⏰
0:00 - Why Market Research Is Too Expensive & Slow
0:14 - Brennan Tobin's Free Reddit Workflow
0:43 - Step 1: Start with the Problem, Not the Product
1:26 - Using Reddit Answers Feature
1:54 - Step 2: Dive into Real Reddit Conversations
2:40 - Step 3: Build Your Quote, Emotion & Hook Database
3:12 - Step 4: Feed Your Database into Claude/ChatGPT
3:51 - Reviewing the AI-Generated Market Research
4:42 - Step 5: Turn Research into Ad Hooks & Briefs
5:23 - Final Result: 9 Ad Clusters Ready to Test


s/o Brennan Tobin and Konstantin Prodanovic this workflow is what AI is meant to do for marketers

B2B leaders will have $40M in VC 

But will cap their paid social budget at $15k a month to promote ebooks and demo requests

That is SUCH a huge problem.

And I’m looking around the b2b SaaS ecosystem like why tf is no one talking about this!?

For the last two years I’ve seen how the best in B2C run their paid social programs

Ngl it makes b2b just look embarrassing

And b2b has soooo much capital

Please make it make sense.

Someone drop this rant in a public slack channel at your company where your CFO and CEO hang out 

That way they can hear me SHOUTING IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS 

You need to be pushing $150k-$250k in meta ad spend per month or you should just pack it up and close up shop.

Your growth engine is stalling because you’re not investing serious resources or the right people to tackle it

Have your growth marketing team and brand team work together to launch 5 new ads each week (at a minimum) and constantly be testing new ideas new angles new visual formats

Put some got dang spend behind it

And go do this to promote your biggest tentpole moments of the year (should have at least one huge GTM moment each quarter)

taplio

The Battle

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Travis Tyler

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taplio

The Battle

Obaid Durrani

Travis Tyler

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Obaid Durrani's LinkedIn Performance

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