Mike Bolton

2023 was the best year of my life. But it wasn’t all sunshine, rainbows, kittens and lollipop gumdrops. 2022 was my most successful year in restaurant marketing... Even though most restaurants didn’t have the budget to afford my services. And so, in January of this year, I crunched the numbers... I came to the realizations that I should pivot. Once that idea was planted in my mind, I couldn’t get rid of it. I was fixated on making a change. I was part of a program called Client Ascension at the time. And through that program I met Dakota Robertson who ran the Twitter Growth call every Wednesday. It ended up being one of my favourite calls. I found myself taking an interest in Twitter for the first time. One day Dakota mentioned he was going to be launching a cohort of his own. A ghostwriting cohort that would teach people how to do what he had done. Dakota was one of the most successful ghostwriters on Twitter. And not only was his skill and knowledge tangible, but he backed it up with a CRAZY guarantee: “I’ll get you to 10k/pm in 90 days or work with you for FREE until you do.” On top of that, he had case studies and testimonials. He'd already helped his buddy Taylin Simmonds get to 40k/pm in 6 months time. (‘UGE) So, I said to myself — if you take the skills you've learned from restaurant marketing and apply them to this new vertical, you'll probably hit it out of the park. And so, after 5-6 years in the restaurant marketing space, I decided to switch things up. On Feb. 5th, one week after the launch of Growth Ghosts (Cohort 1), I asked Dakota if I could still get in... He said it wouldn’t be a problem as long as I was sure about my decision — at this point I was. So I joined. I played catch up and watched all of the pre-recorded group coaching calls. I rebranded from @ growyourresto to @ wordstodollars. I executed on everything that was laid out for us. Getting to my first 1000 followers was the hardest part. But after that everything got easier. I tweeted every day and hit the comments hard. I launched auto-dm giveaways. I wrote 2-3 threads a week. I hit 7000 followers in about 3-4 months. Now all of this sounds great, but there was a big problem. I was down to my last restaurant marketing client. I had purposely let that business die. That was all part of the plan. The universe gave me exactly what I asked for — to get out of restaurant marketing... The only thing is, it all happened way too fast. I didn’t have any ghostwriting clients yet. And then I received a message from my last restaurant marketing client. He told me they wouldn’t need my services after April 13th. I had seen this one coming. Me and him had a bit of a falling out haha. He was a psychopath. Many chef/resto owners are... But back to our story, this meant that I had to make something happen QUICK. There were about 10-14 days where I didn’t know where my next dollar was coming from. Now, I could have let it get to my head. I could have let myself go into a downward spiral of negativity. I could have thrown in the towel. But instead, I focused on solutions. I asked myself — “What can I do right now that will greatly weigh the odds in my favour?” We all know that testimonials and case studies are important, right? I knew that I needed to find a way to get my first case study for a client — and FAST. So I came up with a plan. There was a buddy of mine who I’d met through Client Ascension. He had about 34 followers at the time. We’d been talking back and forth and he was quite impressed with my Twitter growth since being in Growth Ghosts. I’d been giving him some small tips that he could implement to grow his account… But then it hit me... Why don’t I just directly: 1) Help him with a post 2) Grow his account 3) Use that as a case study Win/Win. I sent him a DM and asked if he was into the idea. He was all about it. So we scheduled a call and got to work. I helped him create an auto-dm giveaway and when he launched it, he grew from 34 followers to 304 in 48 hours. This was the WIN he needed. And the WIN I needed. I took those results. Grabbed some screenshots. Turned it into a small case study. I hit “post” on Twitter and sat back in my chair. This is the moment things changed. 15 minutes later, I received a message. "I'm interested in growing my brand. Can you help me?" This was from a guy I'd spoken to before. I’d even helped him with some editing for free… But hadn’t ever offered him coaching or anything like that. I saw this as the universe handing me business on a silver platter. "Sure, I'd love to help you with that, man" — I said. We booked a call the next day — April 22nd. The call went well. He signed on as a coaching client. One time payment. Paid on the call. This was my 1st big win. My immediate worries were over. But what happened next was incredible. 2nd win: April 28th Ghostwriting client — through an agency. 3rd win: June 6th Ghostwriting client — inbound lead. 4th win: July 2nd Ghostwriting client — referral. 5th win: July 11th Ghostwriting client — referral. 6th win: July 20th Paid discovery project with an 8-figure consulting company — inbound lead. 7th win: August 6th SEO content writing gig — through an agency. 8th win: Dakota Robertson named me the top performer in the cohort and flew me out to visit him in Panama. In August I traveled to: • Panama • Colombia • Jamaica Three amazing countries. A trip that I’ll always remember. And you’d think it would have scratched my travel itch, right? But no, instead it’s only inspired me to travel more. That’s why I’m back in Colombia RIGHT NOW. I'm in Bogota. I'm writing this post from the top of Monserrate (Mountain). I’ve wanted to travel while working online for a long time. Now I’m finally putting this lifestyle to the test. So far I’ve been loving every minute of it. FREEDOM is the one thing I value the most. • Family • Friends • Freedom And nothing will make you feel more free than travelling to far-off, exotic lands. I’m not going to tell you that it was a walk in the park to get where I am today. And there are still challenges every day: You’ll lose clients. Your income will fluctuate. You’ll feel like an imposter at times. You’ll feel like there are a million skills you want to learn, but only so much time. But it’s all so worth it. I almost forgot one thing. The best thing about Twitter/X and 2023 is NOT just my financial/biz accomplishments or the opportunities I’ve had. No no, it’s the people I’ve met and befriended along the way. People like: • Zach Ryle • Nick Dyer • Gage Eller • Thomas Ball • Anselmo Vargas • Dakota Robertson • Taylin Simmonds • Elina Temiraeva • Sarah Larsen And many more. This list could go on much longer. Some of these people I still haven’t met in person yet, but I can tell a lifelong friendship has been made. Two of these guys might even come meet me in Medellín this February. You know who you are. Happy New Year, everyone. Make 2024 your best year yet. Cheers. 🥂

Guy on LinkedIn said, "AI comments are rampant, so your thoughtful comments hold much less weight." And he couldn't be more incorrect. The increase in AI comments gives comments written by actual humans even more weight. Think about it logically. With all of the slop on the internet, it's easier for real people to stand out. If you go to the grocery store and 80% of the meat is lab-grown slop (it isn't yet, just an example), real meat becomes more valuable, not less valuable. Obviously. The same is true here on Twitter as it is on LinkedIn.

I started writing Danger in the Valley on December 4th, 2025. The original idea was two cartel bosses sitting on opposite sides of Medellín's Aburrá Valley. One who stuck to old, predictable criminal operations. The other testing the limits in more dangerous territory. Drugging and robbing tourists. The novel has gone through multiple changes since its initial conception. Three manuscripts and 72,000 words later, I'm three to four months away from finally publishing it. Thanks to Jeremy Thone for helping me create this video. He's your go-to guy for video content.

I have a LinkedIn client who books sales calls while he sleeps. He doesn't send any DMs himself. He doesn't reply to comments on his posts. He isn't chasing down cold prospects who have never heard of him. And half the time his computer is turned off, but the system is still working. Full story here: mikeboltonwrites.substack.co…

The easiest way to get extra reach without spending a second more time? Start a Substack account. Start a LinkedIn account. Start a Threads account. Start a Twitter account. Post the same content to all of them. If one platform starts causing you problems, throttling your reach, for example, you have options. Be platform agnostic.

Once you get out of the GTA, you see the true politics of the country.

I recently had a tough conversation with some friends over dinner about sending outreach on LinkedIn. It taught me something about the type of friends you should keep around. The success of my business has mostly come from inbound and referrals. I've not only survived off that for the last three or four years. There have been certain times where I've thrived on it. So it would be easy for a friend to tell me: "Nah, you're good, man. I'm sure inbound will pick up. You're fine." And maybe it will. But the friends who will really make you grow are the ones who ask: "Okay, how are inbound and referrals going for you these days?" Not quite as good. "Okay, so what are you going to do about that?" Well, I've been thinking about doing more outreach. "You've been talking about outreach for the last year. Are you going to do it? What's holding you back?" Those conversations aren't always fun in the moment. But those are the friends who force you to grow. Everyone else might be telling you a nice story that makes you feel temporarily good about yourself. The friends who really push you to the next level are the ones who hold you accountable. They care about you enough that they're not satisfied with your bullshit answers. Those are the type of people you should be surrounding yourself with. As tough as those conversations might be in the moment, they're the ones that force you to level up.

My top-performing LinkedIn post generated 43+ inbound leads. 17+ sales calls. 10 new clients over the next 60 days. And led to my highest month in ghostwriting. $22k/month. I've put together a 15-minute Loom video breaking down how I wrote it and why it worked. Want me to send it over? Comment the word "LEADS." (If we're not following each other, follow so I can send you the video.)

I'd been back in Canada for three months since my first trip to Medellín, Colombia. I sat there on a Friday night sipping a cold beer and decided to rewatch Fight Club for the fifth time. It hit differently that night. My apartment at the time was great. A two-bedroom place. I turned one of the bedrooms into my office. The Wi-Fi connection was perfect, no interruptions. The kitchen was spacious. The neighborhood was peaceful, off in the country, and I was a 10- to 15-minute drive away from my family. What more could I ask for? That's when Edward Norton's character started narrating a slow pan across his apartment, the one with the catalog-perfect layout. My apartment wasn't like that. It was comfortable, but not as uniform. But my life had become almost as predictable. At least that's how I felt at the time. It was the fall of 2023. That summer, I had hit my first 10K per month in ghostwriting. Things were going all right. A couple clients had churned since that peak. I kept thinking about that trip. It started in Panama. I had gone down to visit one of my mentors. I had just gone through his ghostwriting cohort, had a lot of success with it, and he named me the top student out of 45 people. As my reward, he flew me down to Panama to visit him and his two ghostwriter buddies. I had a good time with those guys and got to see a very humid but interesting Panama City and the old town for a night. After around three to four nights sleeping on his couch, I didn't want to overstay my welcome. Him and his buddies had spent a lot of time in Colombia, particularly Medellín, and had told me stories about the city. I looked it up on the map, checked flight prices. The price was right, and it wasn't far away. I figured, what did I have to lose? So I booked a flight. I stayed in Medellín for five to seven nights. Enjoyed the place, the weather, the culture, the people. When I got back to Canada, instead of the trip scratching that itch, it just made me realize what I was missing out on. I had gotten into online business so I could travel while working remotely, build a business while seeing the world. But the opposite had happened. I'd been in online business for five years and had never been outside my home country for more than one month at a time. I started thinking about the future. I realized when all was said and done, that apartment wasn't going to matter. Neither would the car downstairs in the driveway. The only thing that would matter is the experiences I have, the people I meet, the stories I make along the way. I took another sip of beer. I grabbed my phone and searched flights to Colombia. Booked a one-way flight to Bogotá.

"Is all of this really possible?" 3 years ago, a buddy of mine asked me that. At the time, I didn't know who he was. He was just some Aussie dude who slid into my DMs on Twitter, but he did so in a way that was different than most. It wasn't the usual, "Hey, can I pick your brain?" For the record, I don't think anyone likes having their brain picked. Most people don't willingly opt into brain surgery unless it's absolutely necessary. No, what he said was a little bit different. "Mike, I just watched your case study with Dakota. You've achieved a lot of success here. You've landed clients, hit $10k/month. I know you're actually doing this... but I just keep asking myself, 'Is all of this really possible?'" Me and this dude were in the same ghostwriting cohort. I'd been in the program for one year. He'd been in the program for about a month or so. His compliment + genuine curiosity + handsome jawline is what made me respond. And not just with a 2 to 3 sentence answer, but with a couple paragraphs and three 7-minute-long voice clips. I can't tell you exactly what I said to him because I'd have to scroll for about a day to get back to that thread. I can, however, tell you it went something like this... "Hey man. Thanks for reaching out. Yeah, it's absolutely possible. It's hard work, of course, but there's so much opportunity out there..." etc. etc. etc. yadda yadda yadda Today, me and this dude are very good friends. We continued to talk after that initial exchange. The interesting thing is, he never did become a ghostwriter. And that's a good thing. He ended up taking a hard look at what he wanted. He had a background in corporate sales and eventually decided he might be chasing after the wrong business model (for him). Instead, he decided to become a remote sales closer. He joined another program. Got connected with a bunch of guys in that industry. Landed a role with a company in the US. 3 to 4 months later, he flew from Australia to Medellín, Colombia, for two main reasons: 1) He had to be on Eastern Standard Time for the role. 2) To meet me. I was there building my business remotely. He's still a remote closer today. He's worked in a handful of different roles and has become an even better salesperson since I first met him. The coolest thing is he now makes $13,000 to $15,000 USD/month consistently. All because he took that leap of faith. I'm not selling you on anything here. Except for one thing: All of this really is possible. It just starts with the right mindset, pulling the trigger, and taking massive action. Sometimes we just need someone who's a little bit ahead of us to give us that boost of confidence and show us the way.

I was just watching Tom Green on YouTube. One of his recent comedy shows. Yeah, apparently he's still doing stand-up comedy. I'm as shocked as you are. Not that he's that old. The guy could still have a long career ahead of him. But it did get me thinking. As I was watching the man on stage, he just seemed really nice and welcoming. He did a great job getting the audience talking, with a little bit of ribbing for good measure. I think back to the good ol' days and ask myself, "Wasn't this guy super offensive back in the day?" Did I ever find him particularly offensive? Nah, not really. Absurd? Zany? Wild? Most definitely. But offensive? Not really. And now here's this guy today bringing a rescue dog from the Bahamas on stage and comforting her and all that as the show moves on. Guy actually just seems like a saint. I think back and remember all these people freaking out over his videos and stand-up routines and just think, this guy is like the sweetest hippie Canadian dude I've seen in a while. I'm 15 minutes in. Give it time.

You just don't know what goes into writing a novel until you try to write one yourself. But my God, what a worthy cause.

I had a post that generated 43 inbound leads in 2025. Today it would be a gigantic flop. You used to be able to sell on the timeline. Now the algo throttles anything that looks too “promotional.” The post I’m referring to outlined exactly: 1) What I do 2) Who I help 3) How founders can work with me I expected good things, but I couldn’t believe how well the post performed. 60,000+ impressions. 250+ comments. 43 inbound leads. 17 sales calls. 11 new clients. Not bad for a random Monday in January, eh? I wish I could take a time machine back to 2025. Because that same post today would flop. HARD. Don't worry, though. There is still hope for those who want inbound leads here on LinkedIn. The strategy is just 100% different from what it was then. Today you need to take a top-of-funnel approach. Storytelling, opinion posts, industry news and trends, things you believe that might ruffle some feathers. Even memes. Yes, memes. Since business-related content is getting suppressed now, you have to use these types of posts for traffic and let the spillover and new connections find your middle- and bottom-of-funnel content later. It works. I know from experience. My reach is higher than ever right now. I've had single weeks with 400,000+ impressions. And more importantly, I have figured out a way to still get inbound leads while most people have been forced into a life of sending 50+ AI-written cold DMs per day. In 2025, a simple offer post got me 43 inbound leads. Today? The best lead gen posts don't look like lead gen.

Big part of success is just not needing anyone's approval anymore.

"I wasn't trying to be a prick there." "You don't have to try. It comes naturally."

I've spent way too much time on LinkedIn over the last year. Don't get me wrong, I still hop on Twitter from time to time. But I realized something tonight, Money Twitter—because it does still exist—is much better for your mindset. Saw a few posts that immediately pumped me up. Far better than listening to corporate drones.

I've earned $250,000+ as a ghostwriter. I'm launching a community to show you how. But first let's address the elephant in the room. Most of what's being taught about ghostwriting right now is outdated. • Built for algorithms that no longer exist. • Strategies that worked in 2021, but don't now. • Markets that have completely changed since your coach had a client. Almost no one is teaching what's actually working today. That's why I got the idea for The Modern Ghostwriter. Here's what you'll get when you join: 1) Two group coaching calls per month We tackle the problems you're facing today in your ghostwriting business. 2) One mastermind call per month I'll bring in heavy-hitting guest speakers covering everything from sales, lead gen, copywriting, paid ads, video and more. 3) Private community Share your wins, challenges, questions, and even a laugh with other ghostwriters in your position and those ahead of you. Most ghostwriting programs cost $5,000 to $10,000. Not cheap. But because this is my first cohort, I'm launching at $2,000 USD for 6 months. The program starts on July 1st. Limited to 30 people. If you're a ghostwriter who is serious about building a real business, having fun while you're at it, and not struggling like most are today — DM me the word "GHOST." The right community changes everything.

LATAM Safety Tip #695: Choose an Airbnb within a 5-minute radius of a police station.

Standing in front of a rented Lambo doesn’t work anymore. Your best bet in 2026 is the complete opposite. Tell people, “This is going to be really fucking tough, but if you put in the work, this is possible for you, man.” People are tired of being sold a lie. Sell them on the reality.