I lived it: 2 weeks in a Hollywood Hills party mansion

All good dogs go to heaven, and all good content creators go to Hollywood. Here's everything I learned about content in the craziest two weeks of my life:

Once you’re done with school/college, that’s normally the *end* of your friends group.

You’ll keep one or two best friends, but the “squad” disperses and you basically never see them again.

Anyone can open a dating app and find somebody to love, but how do you solve the friends problem?

Everyone is too busy with their hustle jobs, then at the gym to look peak in Instagram shots, then de-pressurising from it all on Netflix, or trying to find love.

Spending time away from the above to hang out with “Friends” feels like some hippy idea out of step with the digital world we live in.

However…

There is a time to be a monk and make money (stack season)

March 2020-October 2022 I lived full “monk mode”

Basically didn’t leave the house for over two years, didn’t drink one sip of alcohol for over 800 days, saw no friends, went out for no meals, went on no dates, *nothing*

When that ended, I had one of those “What is this all for if I don’t have people to share it with”

A girl I’d met years ago (Ayo Zara!!!) happened to hit me up asking for business advice towards the end of my monk mode life.

Being that she’s English, I got the feeling she would go out any night of the week for any reason, and I told her we need to hang and party when I return to America.

We had many fun nights out and eventually got invited to “Hyperpunk Estate” a creator house of musicians and content creators/managers.

I became friends with the creators who lived there, and ended up living with them recently.

Can you imagine how mind-blowing this was for me to be here:

< When this picture was taken, I was in the hot tub at midnight as my birthday began. Best start to a birthday ever!

« Every day we woke up to this view. Every time I walked someone out to show them this view, I said the same thing “Once you experience this, you will never wanna go back to being broke again!”

I’m not fake hyping for excitement by the way, I really mean it when I say how good I feel about being here:

I was born on a housing project in West London - Drug dealers shot someone in the kneecaps (and killed his dog smdh) the week I was born and brought home from the hospital.

I was on welfare/benefits 10 years ago before I started doing this business “stuff”

So to even be at a Hollywood Hills mansion was unreal - I don’t take any of it for granted.

99% of people who start a business shut it down within 10 years.

I’m about to hit my 10-year anniversary of running my own businesses, but I never lose that gratitude for how far I’ve come.

Also, I love partying, soooo….I started hanging out at the mansion last winter on my “leaving monk mode” American trip last year, before moving in a couple weeks ago.

2.5 years without leaving the house is a bit much, but I still believe you need to work all day everyday on your project if you want to do what you love full-time.

EDM producer Martin Garrix once said he makes music “for about 8-10 hours every day” - If you make music, he is your competition

Elon Musk said “If you work 80 hours a week and your rival only works 40 hours, within a year you are twice as far ahead of him. After a few years of doing this your rivals will never catch up with you”

So I decided this year I would mix monk mode “deep work” sessions in Cabo (Mexico) where I worked on my projects, with wild times in Los Angeles.

So two weeks ago I moved into the Hyperpunk Estate mansion with seven strangers.

Today I can honestly say all of them are amongst my best friends, let alone all the other “gremlins” who hung out with me in the house.

Imagine waking up and heading to the kitchen and all your best friends are laughing their ass off at the chaos that happened the night before.

It sure beats waking up alone and quietly making breakfast.

There’s a giant backyard, swimming pool, and hot tub and almost every day is blazing sunshine.

You’ll feel like you’re in paradise, that’s for sure.

Every single day and night, creators and fit people are coming through to the house so you’re making new friends seven days a week.

People are collaborating on music or making content all day every day

(I did my first stream on Twitch at one of our parties the last night I was there lmao)

We had all the cliche’s of Hollywood (everyone is young and beautiful, parties every night, everyone sleeping with everyone else)

without all the bad parts

(people being snobs and looking down on people, girls hating on each other, sleazy guys harassing everyone)

The people who lived at the house have done an amazing job creating a welcoming community for everyone.

no one is chasing clout, no one is trying to make money off people at every chance they can get (like most creator houses in Hollywood)

Hyperpunk estate is a window into a better world.

It’s so easy to be cynical and hate the world when you’re on your phone all day.

At the house, we don’t talk about celebrities, the news, people we don’t know - We were the stars in our own lives and our best friends were the supporting actors.

Though all of us used social media to grow our brands, we didn’t live our lives scrolling - So much is going on everyday in this house which is better than anything an algorithm can serve you.

A lot of people get caught up trying to “game the algorithm” on social media

The simple truth is most of those tricks don’t work now - Every post on every platform hits the explore feed so if your content is great, you will grow.

Amberr, one of the girls who doesn’t live in the house but is part of the clique (We call the clique “gremlins” lol) gets around 2,000+ new followers every single time she live streams for 30-45 minutes.

Another girl who lived in the house started streaming on Twitch and within two weeks is now going to start getting paid every time she streams.

One reason is: If you’re in the right environment, content is easy.

Sitting there with a blank page and thinking “ok I need to come up with content ideas” is a drag.

Like Gary Vaynerchuk said “Don’t create content, just document your life”

< Amberr on the right here. She had 1300 people watching her live stream when this picture was taken lol

The seven or eight people who live at the house came together to create a hub where there would be things happening to film content 24/7

(Fun fact: Viewers of my Instagram stories trebled in the two weeks I lived there - I didn’t create any special content pieces, just documented what was going on around me. Open camera, point, no edits, send to Instagram.)

If you’re in the right environment, it’s not hard to put great content out.

If you’re a full-time content creator or musician who has the songs written and is ready to grow their brand, getting a house with other creators is one of the best things you can do.

Just by living there, I got “lifestyle” content which was the cherry on top of my “I came from nothing, now I’ve made it to the top of Hollywood” storyline.

I didn’t have to set anything up or plan it, the following just happened:

> A trailer filmed for a reality show pilot being pitched to major TV networks

> Hot people in the hot tub almost every night

> Twitch streams happening every day

> Creators with millions of followers and touring musicians coming through almost every day

> GOT A LIMO TO THE CLUB FOR MY BIRTHDAY (Free, just offered from one of the influencers in our clique in return for us filming social media content in the limo)

> Bottle service given to me for my birthday at Hollywood’s hottest new club night “Blackout” from notable emo “Hair Jordan”

> Kitchen full of Brazilian girls twerking like it’s a favela in Rio de Janeiro 🤣

> Hype dubstep DJ (Pixel Terror) creating music 24/7 with a view of Hollywood from his window

> Red carpet events: Silly but fun:

> When the dubstep wasn’t pumping, two other musicians in the house (ATHRS and Owen Rivers) were writing music all day every day. CREATION happened everywhere and it was so inspiring to be around/document. Here is ATHRS and Noah Cunane writing a song at 7.36am in the morning!!!

> My second birthday party (V.I.P’s only) had a massive YES RSVP rate as soon as people knew it was at the Hollywood mansion.
That’s the other thing: when you have a location, you don’t need to go anywhere: Everyone wants to come to you.

Here’s me dressed as a cowboy about to blow out my birthday candle:

> And of course, THAT view of Downtown LA from Runyon Canyon…

Some of you might read that and be like “So what, what’s that got to do with what you do for a living”

These people are the same people who say “the algorithm hates me”

Nah

As Mr. Beast says “Replace the word “algorithm” with “people” - If “people” don’t enjoy your content, the algorithm won’t.

Simple.

You can’t be “all business” on your social channels - it’s boring

People buy people - Showing the life you lead warms people up to you, and naturally brings leads if you’re in the right niche.

One of the girls in the clique Tay, cuts hair, and I kept seeing her haircuts popping up on my stories, so when I needed my haircut, guess who I called?

Noah Cunane is building his fanbase in Hollywood and selling out shows in Hollywood partly by being in this scene/community
- My main advice to all artists is normally “sell out a show in your home town - just about everything else can be faked.

If you can move tickets you are on the way to a touring career, whether “gatekeepers” pick you or not.

And my business audience might still be thinking “meh but I do business stuff, is all this relevant?”

Because there are so many “thirty thousand dollar millionaires” online, if you’re telling people you make money & can help people make money, you better be posting *something* that proves you’re not broke/faking it.

I have travelled almost constantly for the past seven years, mainly across America - you don’t do that if you’re broke.

People pay me $250 to speak to me for less than an hour (you should too, info here!)…I often consult people on content, so for me to be amongst content creators proves I’m “in the scene” and not just repeating things I’ve heard online.

Your “thing” probably isn’t Hollywood Hills mansion parties (lol), but you need to have a “thing” if you want people to trust you to give you their money.

Hate to say it but this is the reason people be posting with them Lamborghinis, big houses, on yachts etc - People (rightly or wrongly) think “they must have money, I trust them)

This has started an awful sub-industry of people renting cars and houses to look rich, but as ever, don’t hate the player, hate the game - I wish I could say that stuff doesn’t work but I’ve seen the numbers of some of the bro’s at the top who do the cars/houses flex 🥲😮‍💨

The house I lived at is an experiment in creating a place where everyone is chasing their dreams and can create amazing content.

Social media content is the lifeblood of all small businesses ‘cos if you don’t have that, your only option is to spend on ads, influencer shoutouts etc. to get seen.

If you get the content right and are growing a personal brand, you only need ads to scale your business once it’s already making money.

My agency grows massive Facebook and Instagram audiences for companies to run ads to, and every potential client asks the same thing:

“How do I know our content and ads will convert once you’ve grown the accounts”

And the short answer is:

If your content or offer is working organically, it will work well once ads are switched on.

You need great content

It has dragged me and millions of others out of poverty

My two weeks at the mansion was a metaphor for everything I write about on this Substack:

> Don’t be “all business” - show personality too

> Prove you have *some* money to differentiate yourself from the many liars who are your competition

> Put yourself in situations where you just document what’s going on - easier than coming up with ideas from fresh

> Don’t try and do it alone - The mansion rent is huge, but between a bunch of people it is achievable

> Be nice to those around you - They aren’t your competition, they are your collaborators. The house was an ego-free zone and there wasn’t much drama

I’ve just arrived back in Cabo for my next stretch of “monk mode”

I pray there is a space in the house for me when I next come back to L.A.!

With thanks to all the friends I made on this trip:

Cindy, Owen, Bentley, Mike, Tatum, D.C., Tay, Zara, Jess, Noah, Ceara (Sierra?), Bee, Brooke, Austin, Poppy, Mari, Hair Jordan, Juliette, Serj, Swift, Moira, Leon Zellers, Poppy, Jaxen, Melanie Veronica, Vikabear, Alice, Tayler Joos, Georgia, Kayla, Dilan, Annie, Bambi, Amber, Austin, Al, Bo Electra, Elina, Marissa, Molly, Rosemary Kisses, Biscotti, Steven Michael Quinn, Chris the director, Tut/tuk/whynotcordell, jess indigogo, Michelle Reamer, Ysabella, Savannah, Nick Tello, Julia S, Seth Bishop, Lethal Battie, Aly, Zach Villa, jordan Raye, Kennzie, Raj

…there may be more but that’s past 50, which shows you how magic this house was for MAKING NEW FRIENDS which is one of the meanings of life.

Don’t get so busy building your business that you forget to build a life ✅

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