Single Grain

I manage sales, operations, marketing, culture and the overall vision.

Chief Operating Officer

Leveling Up with Eric Siu

Founder

Growth Everywhere is a weekly interview series where I interview world-class entrepreneurs on business and personal growth. 

Past guests on the show include Marketo co-founder Jon Miller, Eloqua founder Mark Organ (sold to Oracle for >$1B), Jason Lemkin from SaaStr, Andy Johns from Wealthfront, and Ron Klein (inventor of the magnetic credit card stripe).

To learn more, go to http://www.growtheverywhere.com

Member

Marketing School Podcast

Marketing School is a daily marketing podcast where Neil Patel and I provide actionable bits of marketing advice for 10 minutes a day.

Listen at marketingschool.io

Co-host

University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business

Guest Lecturer

ClickFlow

Chairman

Entrepreneurs'​ Organization

Pepperdine University

Treehouse Island Inc.

Responsible for acquiring users and growing overall revenues.

- Conversion Optimization
- SEO
- Social
- PPC
- Media buys
- Affiliate program management
- E-mail marketing
- PR
- Video advertising
- Content marketing
+ more

User Growth Lead/Head of Marketing

Team Rubicon, Inc.

Online Marketing Strategist (P

Founder @ Growth Marketing Agency - Single Grain, Podcaster @ Marketing School + Leveling Up

Single Grain is a digital marketing agency focused on driving scalable and predictable revenue growth using Facebook advertising, Google Ads, YouTube advertising, SEO, video production and content marketing. 

We've worked with companies such as Amazon, Uber, Nordstrom and venture-backed startups to create and execute on custom-tailored growth strategies.






-> For those of you that are interesting in marketing and personal growth tips from top entrepreneurs, please visit http://www.levelingup.com for our free podcast. You'll hear from billionaires, authors, and other high performers.

-> For my daily marketing podcast, go listen to Marketing School at https://www.singlegrain.com/marketing-school-podcast



Skills:
SEO
Paid Search (Pay per click advertising)
Affiliate Marketing
Display Advertising
Mobile Advertising
Remarketing/Retargeting
Facebook Marketing
Video Advertising
Twitter Marketing
Google Analytics
Conversion Rate Optimization
Sales
Strategic Partnerships
Content Strategy/Development
Business Development
Social Media
Community Development
Operations
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate program management
Retargeting
Growth Hacking

Most B2B marketers are invisible.

That's why Adam Robinson ($25M ARR bootstrapped company) and I thought it'd be good to trade notes LIVE with you all.

We're going to be covering:
- AI systems that actually scale pipeline
- How we're growing pipeline without adding headcount
- Outbound that still works today
- The truth around AEO/GEO and how to win
- A secret recruiting system that's helping us recruit the best of the best talent

If you're in b2b and you want more pipeline asap, you should come hang out with us. Join us Nov 19th at 9 AM PT for a fun time. 😉

Eric Siu ✓

The 5 AI tools I'm actually paying for (and why they're worth every penny):

Most AI tools are noise. These 5 drive actual revenue.

**Granola AI ($14/mo):** Listens to every call and surfaces blind spots I'm missing. Asked it last week: "What hard conversations am I not having?" Found 4 high-leverage conversations that will unblock us from growing faster.

Speed = $peed.

**SuperWhisper ($8.49/mo or $249.99 lifetime):** Dictation that actually works (plus everything stays on my device). I draft messy prompts whenever, wherever. While I'm walking and even when I'm in the car. 10x faster than typing.

The amount of strategic back and forth I do with LLMs and dictation now allows me to make better decisions.

**Cursor + Claude Code ($20/mo):** My vibe data analysis stack. Pull CSV, ask questions, get insights in seconds. No more waiting for analyst reports. Direct access to what matters. For more advanced users, you can spin up subagents in seconds that pull from various data sources such as HubSpot, Google Analytics, Ahrefs, and more.

Faster decision making = more $$$.

**Superhuman ($30/mo):** Email at scale without losing my mind. Find any conversation instantly. Plus get pre-drafted responses to e-mails that you missed. More sales $$$ that you otherwise would have missed.

**Google Gemini ($19.99/mo):** Custom gems for script creation. Their YouTube integration is the secret weapon - pulls directly from video content since Google owns both. My long-form scripts went from 3 hours to 30 minutes.

Nano banana is 🔥 for thumbnail creation while Veo 3.1, their video generation model, does wonders for bringing your ad ideas to life. 

Total: ~$93/month
ROI: $50K+ in recovered time and faster decisions

You don't need to use 124 AI tools. Using a few tools like these will yield exponential ROI.

What's your core AI stack?

Omnicom just cut another 4,000 people, bringing the total to over 10,000.

This isn’t random. It’s the old agency model breaking down.

For years, holding companies were built on labor arbitrage: big teams hired cheaply and billed heavily.
AI is removing the advantage of that structure. Not slowly. Directly.

Smaller, elite teams with the right technology are now outperforming giant orgs.
Lovable went from zero to $200M revenue with around 500 people.
Cursor hit $500M revenue with around 300.
Before AI, those numbers would have required thousands of employees.

This is why these cuts will keep happening.
The era of scaling by adding bodies is over.
The next wave of agencies will operate more like product companies: lean, AI-first, and powered by tech they build internally.

This is what we are focused on at Single Grain | Start Growing.

If you were affected by the layoffs or you want to work inside the agency model that is coming next, we are hiring. 

We are building the marketing partner B2B companies never outgrow - powered by elite, AI-forward teams.

And if you need a referral elsewhere, I am happy to help.

DM me.

I've built my network with founders at every wealth level over the past decade.

Here's what I learned about how they think differently:

Millionaires celebrate quick wins. They're optimizing for the next deal, the next exit, the next opportunity. It's about momentum.

Deca-millionaires want to cash out and repeat. They've figured out a formula. Build it, sell it, do it again. Rinse and repeat is the game.

Centimillionaires say compound, never sell. They've learned that selling your best assets is how you stay stuck. The real wealth is in holding what works.

Billionaires look for monopoly, pricing power, and longevity. They're not chasing deals. They're building systems that can't be replicated and markets they can own for decades.

Your mindset sets your ceiling long before your bank account does.

You can't afford to hire people who aren't AI fluent. Doing so is shooting your company in the foot.

And no, ChatGPT alone isn't enough.

When we interview, we ask two uncomfortable questions:

1. "How much of your own money do you invest in AI tools monthly?" The usual answer is $0 or $20 for ChatGPT Plus. The real players? They are putting in $100-$500/mo personal capital.

"But Eric, what if they can't afford it?" We talk to talent in developing nations investing $300+/mo because they know it's their leverage. If you aren't investing in your stack, you aren't serious about your craft.

2. "Show me your stack." I don't want to hear about prompts. I want product DEPTH. "You use Gemini 3? Show me what you built." "You like MCPs? Walk me through your config." "You build agents? Screenshare your workflow right now."

We don't tolerate a culture of haves vs. have-nots. Not being AI fluent today is akin to showing up to work without an internet connection.

At Single Grain | Start Growing, we are building the marketing partner B2B companies never outgrow. To do that, we only hire the obsessed.

We are looking for:

Leaders: Paid Media & SEO (Must be able to lead AI-first strategies)

Builders: GTM Engineers & AI Automation Specialists

Strategists: Marketing minds who understand the new playbook

If you are spending that $300/mo and want a team that matches your intensity, DM me.

Go From This, To This In 1 Hour? 🤯

Follow for more real-world AI marketing systems that save you weeks of work!

We gave everyone Claude Code access. 98% still can't use it properly.

They're treating it like ChatGPT with a different logo. Copy-pasting code snippets. Asking basic questions. Missing 95% of what makes Claude Code actually powerful.

The real AI adoption gap isn't access - it's knowing what to do with it.

What most people do:
- Ask Claude to "fix this bug"
- Generate boilerplate code
- Use it as a fancy autocomplete
- Give vague prompts and wonder why outputs suck

What actually works:
- Creating subagents for different tasks (data analysis, CRO recommendations, SEO recommendations)
- Tying it in with MCPs that connect with tools you pay for (HubSpot, Ahefs, etc.)
- Chaining subagents together


I watched our team go from 5 hours saved per month to 60 hours. The difference? They stopped using AI tools like Google and started using them like actual business partners.

The companies winning with AI aren't the ones with the most tools. They're the ones where employees actually know how to leverage them.

Be in the 2% who gets it. 😉

What’s the number 1 way to generate enterprise customers?

Believe it or not, events.

I remember when I attended an executive program ran by Singularity University.

One person ran hundreds of restaurant franchises in Mexico, another was high up in the Navy, another was a chief executive at Unilever, and another was part of an investment group that also happened to own football club Juventus. 

2 of these became pitches after a few years and I still keep in contact with a few.

Yesterday, I was hanging with a friend that does 9-figures annually. I asked him why he came out to LA for an event.

He said last year, this event got him a $4M deal with a Berkshire Hathaway company and that has now led to more pitches with Berkshire portfolio companies.

On the other hand, I was recording Marketing School with Neil Patel and he said that they invest maybe $1-3k to host small events with senior marketers at enterprises with around 20 people when he travels.

He speaks for 30 min while his team speaks for 15 min. They provide appetizers and drinks and typically book out a conference room at a 5-star hotel after breakfast but before lunch.

This eventually builds enterprise pipeline that closes in the next 3 years.

Ultimately, events are great for seeding new relationships that take time to sprout, but when they do, they’re worth all the effort you put into them.

Ranking AI Marketing Tools ⚙️

Follow for more AI marketing breakdowns, what’s actually working, what’s not, and what’s worth your time!

How will B2B marketing actually look in 2026? I just spoke to Adam Robinson and we thought it'd be cool to chop it up live to talk about the NEW b2b playbook guaranteed to drive ROI in 2026.

We'll cover:

- Our secret cold e-mail weapon that's driving enterprise deals
- The LinkedIn ads play that's quietly printing money 
- AI-powered workflows that both Adam and I are using to save time without sacrificing quality
- Proven content formats that stop the scroll and drive conversions

plus more!

This is happening LIVE tomorrow at 9am PT (Weds Nov 19).

Leave a comment for the link. ;)

How many new AEO trackers are there now? 20?

$170M in funding has gone to these in the past year, which is more than what the SEO software incumbents have raised.

A lot of these AEO software founders seem to think that they discovered something new, but they have never seen the sheer horror from having a site's traffic nuked due to spam.

Is this a bubble? If not, what is the moat?

One of the highest leverage things you can do is to audit your time every 6 months.

Look at the first 1-3 months vs months 4-6 and determine the highest leverage things you should continue and ruthlessly cut low leverage items.

Watch your productivity and happiness skyrocket. 🙂

The truth about being a CMO in 2025 👀

Follow for real examples of how AI is changing marketing!

AI SEO Bubble Alert?... Amplitude pivots to 'AIO', Profound snags $58M from Sequoia, Ramp spams to 120K visitors/month.

But it's recycled 2000s SEO stuff - it works til Google/OpenAI nukes it.

If businesses want to survive, they must play the 'search everywhere optimization game':

- Diversify (YT, shortform clips, Reddit, X, etc.)
- Build real value, not spam

Old SEOs know the pain of losing all their hard work. 

New AEO entrants are in for a rude awakening.

Happy "AEO'ing". ;)

How To Rank Higher on Google 📈

Follow if you’re tired of guessing what Google wants, and want to start ranking where it matters!

Brand Vs. Community 🙌🏼

I went from data entry to an 8-figure agency + 100M+ podcast listens. Follow for proven strategies to get the same results!

ChatGPT SEO is wide open in 2025, and almost no one is capitalizing on it.

Here’s what’s working right now:

1. Target bottom-funnel keywords. Comparisons and “alternatives” queries = the highest-intent traffic you can get.

2. Earn real citations on YouTube, Reddit & Wikipedia. These are the sources LLMs trust. If they mention you, ChatGPT will too.

3. Track every LLM brand mention, then feed models with consistent multimodal content so your brand becomes the “most authoritative” choice.

AI discovery is the next wave in Search Everywhere Optimization 

The winners will be the brands that optimize for it now.

5 Levels of AI in Companies 🆙

Follow if you’re done learning AI, and ready to leverage it!

The penalty for being average has never been so severe, but the payout for being extraordinary has never been higher.

This isn't a theory; it's a measurable reality inside my company:

Massive Efficiency Gains: Our internal SEO tool, ClickFlow, initially saved our team 20 hours per individual per month. It now saves 55 hours per month per individual. 

More Automation Coming: We're adding new workflows that will save an additional 30 to 40 hours a month.

When people leverage these internal products and tools, they become way more efficient, and our gross margins go up. These are the 10x or 100x employees that we, as business owners, would be stupid not to reward.

AI and automation don't just create efficiency; they create a massive performance gap. The employees who adopt these tools become extraordinary, and the ones who don't face the harshest penalty yet: irrelevance.

So the question is are you rewarding your employees who are leveraging new tools to become 100x more efficient? Or are you letting average performance drain your energy?

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