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Hi, I’m Travis. I'm a tech expert with over two decades of experience in the custom…
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Travis Cook shared thisI've seen many people furious that Elon Musk is now a trillionaire. (Or soon will be again) I get the reaction. A single person with that much money while so many others are just trying to make ends meet. It feels like he should share. (Isn’t it wild that a person with ordinary income is closer in their net worth to Bill Gates than Bill Gates is to Elon Musk? Haven’t been able to get that out of my head.) But here’s the thing: if he made it legally then what’s his is his. America is free. Nobody should be able to tell you what to do with your money. Even if Elon stops giving free internet to countries in need, solving climate change and advancing the human race to become interplanetary, he has made this money by giving millions of people amazing products and amazing jobs. I’d like to see more generous donations from the anti-Elon crowd - why does it feel like they want to give away other people’s money but they’re not willing to take the first step and give away their own? You make $100k a year. Did you put 20% toward a homeless shelter? Did you go feed anyone in Africa? Or did you post about it from your couch and rant about how broken our systems are? And this fantasy that we could just take all of Elon’s money and fix the world - come on. It would fund the US government for like a week. Bureaucrats and politicians would lose most of it, skim a chunk, and hold a photo op with the 17 people they helped. I trust the guy who actually builds things to do more good with that money than the people who only know how to spend yours. Elon is just a guy who decided to start building. He started with nothing. Same as you and me. I’m proud to live in a country that rewards that. What’s your take? I’m sure no one disagrees with me ;)
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Travis Cook shared thisMy experience also.Travis Cook shared thisA few months ago, I reached out to one of the top entrepreneurs in Utah and offered to write six LinkedIn posts for free. No strings attached. I have a lot of respect for him and I thought it would be cool to help him with a new initiative he launched. My only ask was that I could tell people I'd written for him. He said sure, why not - which surprised me, since he was already paying one of the top agencies in New York to run his LinkedIn. He wasn’t terribly thrilled with the way things were going, though. So we got to work. We parsed through recent podcast interviews, pulled the hottest insights and most memorable stories that would promote his product, and built posts around them using our tried-and-true Ghostbird templates we’ve developed over the course of posting thousands of times for clients. The results were beautiful: - Even against his ten best posts ever, our posts drove 2.4x more engagement - and 3.8x more than his recent posts. - Three of the ten highest-reach posts in his last 2 year LinkedIn history were from the 6 we wrote. - Five of his ten highest-engagement posts were ours - all in a single month. Then he and his assistant said something I wasn't expecting: "Ryan, maybe you should just run this. Please send us pricing.” It's been a good reminder of something I write down every morning before I start work: “I give and give, expecting nothing in return.” Good karma is real. No matter how hard you try to give without getting anything back, it always seems to find its way back to you. In the short term and long term. This framework is a super power and I don’t know exactly why. I believe Ghostbird is on its way to becoming one of the absolute highest-performing LinkedIn agencies out there, and this was an exciting signpost that we’re hopefully on the right path. PS - let me know when you're ready to turn your LinkedIn profile - and your executives' profiles - into vehicles for brand recognition, industry authority, and lead generation. I’d love to show you what we can do. Book 15 mins on my calendar!
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Travis Cook shared thisMost founder burnout doesn't come from working too much. It comes from managing things that were never yours to manage. Most of the founders I coach are exhausted. Not from the hours - from working on things that were never theirs to work on. I see the same pattern over and over. A founder will run 80-hour weeks and tell me they're about to burn out. When I ask what's actually eating them, almost none of it is something they control. It's what their cofounder did. What an investor said. Whether the market will turn. Whether their next hire will work out. Whether the algorithm will favor them. They're working hard. But they're working on someone else's business. There's a concept I picked up from Byron Katie a long time ago. She says there are only three kinds of business in the world. Your business. Someone else's business. The universe's business. You're in your business when you're focused on what you actually control. Your effort. Your reactions. The next move you make. You're in someone else's business when you're worrying about what your cofounder is doing. What your investor is thinking. What your partner should be saying. You're in the universe's business when you're stressing about the market, the economy, the weather, the algorithm, the news cycle. The peace and the suffering in your life come almost entirely from which of those three you spend your time in. You can only control one of them. If you're burned out right now, try this. Look at what's stressing you out. Ask yourself - is this even my business? If it isn't, give yourself permission to walk out of it. Peace shows up faster than you think. If you're a founder running on empty right now, this is the conversation I have most often with the people I coach. DM me if you'd like to talk.
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Travis Cook shared thisMy family is about to have four grandsons under the age of three. Two new ones are joining the Cook family this year. That's 100% YoY growth, for those keeping score. Not too bad, I know. I cannot wait. If you had asked me 10 years ago what I'd be most excited about at 55, I might have said something about my next business, my next exit, my next trip. Now? It's a baby grabbing my finger. A two-year-old pointing at lizards. A pile of small humans yelling "Papa!" when I walk in the door. Nothing else compares. Building companies was fun. Selling them was rewarding. But all of it was just a warm-up for this. Anyone else have grandkids on the way?
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Travis Cook shared thisMy son Ryan Cook and his partner did this amazing meet up yesterday about how to crush it on LinkedIn. I didn’t get to do a shout out in the meeting so I’m doing it now. If you want to know how to actually succeed at this platform you should follow him. Or better yet get a couple free posts and try out his services. I’ve been on for 18 months now and he has absolutely put rocket fuel into my LinkedIn strategy. SpaceX mode unlocked. He has the right mix of personal posts plus the ones that will drive your business. He’s also an absolute stud to work with. And I’d be saying this even if I wasn’t his father. Go Ryan! And go Ghostbird !
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Travis Cook shared thisAI companies are missing the plot. And some are making it worse. The public conversation around AI has become dominated by fear: → Job loss → Robot takeovers → Society collapsing under automation It’s the wrong message. And honestly, it’s understandable why people are pushing back. We’ve seen this movie before. When cars replaced horses, entire industries disappeared. But far more industries were created. The same happened with electricity and the internet. And smartphones. Progress is disruptive. But fighting AI makes about as much sense as fighting the automobile in 1905. That doesn’t mean “no rules.” We absolutely need transparency, oversight, and public involvement. For example, Utah’s recent data center debate deserved more community input. But it also deserved accurate information. A few facts: • AI is helping doctors catch disease earlier and reduce medical errors. • AI is accelerating drug discovery, scientific research, and breakthroughs like AlphaFold. • AI is eliminating repetitive work and making professionals more productive. • AI is improving climate modeling, energy optimization, and resource efficiency. • AI-powered transportation is already demonstrating dramatically safer driving performance than humans. 10x safer to be precise. And some common myths deserve scrutiny: • Data centers are not draining entire communities of water. • AI doesn’t have to increase local energy costs. • Data centers create long-term, high-paying jobs—not just construction work. • Environmental impacts are real, but so are the benefits. Will AI disrupt jobs? Absolutely. Just like every major technological breakthrough before it. Some jobs will disappear and many new ones will emerge. And the long-term gains will likely dwarf the short-term disruption. The real question isn’t: “Should we stop AI?” The real question is: How do we build it responsibly while maximizing its benefits? Because AI isn’t coming. It’s already here. Are you for progress or against?
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Travis Cook shared thisFor years when people asked how my wife was doing, I lied. For context, my wife Ashlee has been through two brain surgeries and radiation. Most people who know her know that. Before this she went through years of intense depression and chronic fatigue. When they'd ask how she was doing, my answer was always the same. "We got this." "She's going to be fine." "Everything's up and up." It wasn't true. Not really. It was what my ego needed people to think. I wanted to be seen as strong. I wanted everyone to know I had it under control. That I was a tough guy handling hard things. That whole identity is just a costume. I'm 55 now. I don't need to wear it anymore. When someone asks me about Ashlee now, I tell them the real answer. "Not good. It's been hard. We don't have great news right now. We don't know what's going on, but it's tough and I feel beat down sometimes." You know what happens when I say that? They show up. They actually care. They ask better questions. They want to know the real deal. The people who genuinely love you don't want the highlight reel. They want the truth so they can be there for you. The image of having it all together costs more than it gives. Wish I would have learned this earlier in my life. If you're going through something hard right now, you don't have to be strong for everyone. Telling the truth about where you actually are might be the most relieving thing you can do. To everyone who has asked about Ashlee - thank you. We're hanging in there.
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Travis Cook shared thisI'm going to say it. I hate VASA. I pay them every month to wait in line at a chest press. Every cardio machine. Every bench. The business model is to jam as many bodies into the building as possible and then upsell them into the more expensive memberships. But they’ve made the basic service of their company just terrible. Even my AirPods cut out in there because of so many people. So not only can I not work out the way I want - I can't even listen to anything. For three months in Bali, I worked out at a gorgeous, spacious gym for $100 a month. Better equipment. No lines. I'm done. Going to exercise outside until something better shows up in Utah. Any gym owners in Salt Lake reading this - the bar is on the floor. Let me know if you can help me out here.
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Travis Cook shared thisThe software moat is dead. For 20 years, the way you built a software company was simple. Raise money. Hire great engineers. Out-code your competitors. Ship a product nobody else could ship. That gave you a one-year head start on the market. Sometimes that head start was the whole company. That moat is gone. People are starting to call what's coming the SaaSpocalypse. And they aren't exaggerating. If you have an idea for software today, you can sit down with Claude or any other AI tool, describe what you want, and have working code by morning. Real code. Production ready. Your competitor can do the same thing the same night. Speed is no longer the differentiator. Code is not the differentiator. The 30-engineer team isn't either. So what is? The moat now is the stuff AI can't replicate. 1 - Customer relationships you've spent years building 2 - Distribution channels you actually control 3 - Proprietary data nobody else has been able to train on 4 - Trust in a market where most software suddenly looks the same If you don't have one of those, you're competing with everyone who can prompt well. This is why a lot of VCs are quietly panicking right now. Their portfolios are full of high-margin SaaS companies whose moats just evaporated. This is the biggest shift in startup economics since the internet. What do you think the moat is now?
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4d
Wow that’s really cool!
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Travis Cook liked thisTravis Cook liked thisIf you’ve seen me the last few months, you know I’ve been limping around. Turns out I had a large cyst in my femur. Grateful for doctors and modern medicine who can help you make a full recovery. You can now call me the bionic man.
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Travis Cook liked thisTravis Cook liked thisWhen great brands come together, fun things happen. We're excited to see the collaboration between Swig, florence by mills, and Millie Bobby Brown come to life with The Pineapple Paradise 🥤 Available at all Swig locations today and tomorrow only ‼️ 🥤 And a special thanks to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for featuring and sampling it the night before! 🙏 Enjoy! 🍍
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Travis Cook liked thisTravis Cook liked thisThanks so much for 10k followers, everyone. Been gaining about 500 followers/month, and I've loved getting to know so many new people. In case you've seen me on your feed but still don't know what I'm about, here's a little about me: - 31 years old - Grew up in Alpine, Utah. Went to Lone peak high school. - Served a mission in Concepcion, Chile - Married Kat Hawley Cook on Friday the 13, 2020, the literal day the pandemic life went into effect (would not recommend) - I have a 2-year-old named Arlo and a two-month-old named Lewis - Started Quartz Marketing while I was at BYU. I took a class taught by a young guy who showed us how to do Google Ads and decided to try doing that for other people - Agency grew little by little until I decided to go all in on our highest ROI service: social media ghostwriting for lead generation - Rebranded Quartz Marketing to be Ghostbird - Work with a team of four and run the accounts of 16 executives here on LinkedIn - Teaching a class at BYU this fall: How to Grow and Monetize a Social Media Audience (Still not showing up right on the class roster, stay tuned) - Published my first novel in September: The Absurdly Clever Yet Morally Questionable Interpreter Worst fun fact about me: Sometimes I pound handfuls of spinach before meals to prevent a glucose spike I post about my day-to-day thoughts, experience growing Ghostbird, and advice for how to grow on LinkedIn and generate leads here. Would love to connect if we haven't yet!
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Travis Cook liked thisTravis Cook liked thisA few months ago, I reached out to one of the top entrepreneurs in Utah and offered to write six LinkedIn posts for free. No strings attached. I have a lot of respect for him and I thought it would be cool to help him with a new initiative he launched. My only ask was that I could tell people I'd written for him. He said sure, why not - which surprised me, since he was already paying one of the top agencies in New York to run his LinkedIn. He wasn’t terribly thrilled with the way things were going, though. So we got to work. We parsed through recent podcast interviews, pulled the hottest insights and most memorable stories that would promote his product, and built posts around them using our tried-and-true Ghostbird templates we’ve developed over the course of posting thousands of times for clients. The results were beautiful: - Even against his ten best posts ever, our posts drove 2.4x more engagement - and 3.8x more than his recent posts. - Three of the ten highest-reach posts in his last 2 year LinkedIn history were from the 6 we wrote. - Five of his ten highest-engagement posts were ours - all in a single month. Then he and his assistant said something I wasn't expecting: "Ryan, maybe you should just run this. Please send us pricing.” It's been a good reminder of something I write down every morning before I start work: “I give and give, expecting nothing in return.” Good karma is real. No matter how hard you try to give without getting anything back, it always seems to find its way back to you. In the short term and long term. This framework is a super power and I don’t know exactly why. I believe Ghostbird is on its way to becoming one of the absolute highest-performing LinkedIn agencies out there, and this was an exciting signpost that we’re hopefully on the right path. PS - let me know when you're ready to turn your LinkedIn profile - and your executives' profiles - into vehicles for brand recognition, industry authority, and lead generation. I’d love to show you what we can do. Book 15 mins on my calendar!
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Travis Cook liked thisTravis Cook liked thisThe energy at StartFest is incredible. Yesterday I got to teach a room full of founders how to reframe the way they think about building a business with AI. I taught how to use AI to refine and validate an idea in moments, and then how to start building demand and interest before you ever build a product. Because building is so easy now that finding something people actually want is the whole game. And it’s not worth guessing. Thank you to Clint Betts and Lindsey Ivie and Silicon Slopes for having me, and to everyone who came and listened and asked questions, and to everyone who came up after to talk through their idea. That’s the best part. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi, I’m Cameo 👋 I build innovative software for SaaS companies. If StartFest got you thinking differently about your product, let’s talk.
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Joshua Eimer
Most business owners don’t need more software. They need fewer things breaking. A lot of IT stress comes from years of “just add one more tool.” That creates confusion, recurring issues, and wasted time. At StratIS, we start with Simplify: clean up what’s unnecessary, straighten out what’s messy, and make the day-to-day smoother for your team. Less noise. Less downtime. More focus. DM ASSESS and I’ll send our quick stability checklist.
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John Huston
It feels like every month the AI conversation is doubling in speed, scale, and seriousness. What used to be a novelty a few years ago — something we all experimented with out of curiosity — has now moved into full-bore application mode for many Utah businesses. We’re seeing companies use AI not as a “future idea,” but as a practical tool that’s improving productivity today. From drafting communication to summarizing meetings to structuring documents and workflows, AI is becoming woven into the daily operations of the modern workplace. The launch of Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is accelerating that shift even more. For the first time, small and midsize organizations with under 300 users have access to an affordable, secure, enterprise-grade AI platform built directly into the apps they already use. At Brivy IT, we’re helping local businesses navigate this moment with the right deployment strategy, governance, and training — because the real value comes when AI is implemented correctly. And from my perspective as a business owner, one thing is becoming clear: Utah companies that embrace AI now will gain an operational advantage that compounds every single month. If you’re exploring whether Copilot is right for your team, I’m always happy to share what we’re seeing on the ground and help you think through next steps.
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