Health as Strategy

by Matt Frary | Jul 18, 2025 | Brand Building, Growth as a Service, Stillness in the Feed

The health of the founder sets the rhythm for the health of the company. For years, I thought wellness was a personal matter — something to manage on the side while you pursued your real work. But the longer I’ve been building Chief of Chaos, the more I’ve realized:...

Issue #8 — How Zombie Affiliate Programs Are Born (and Why You Don’t See It Happening)

by Matt Frary | Jul 15, 2025 | Adventures in Growth, Affiliate Management, Brand, Brand Building, Growth as a Service

Last week, we talked about Zombie Affiliate Programs—those undead channels limping along with no strategy, no partner engagement, and no growth. This week, we go deeper: Where do these zombies come from? And why don’t brands realize they’re raising the dead—until it’s...

Building a Brand While Learning Who You Are

by Matt Frary | Jul 4, 2025 | Adventures in Growth, Brand, Brand Building, Digital Marketing, Growth as a Service, Stillness in the Feed

Brand building and self discovery aren’t separate journeys. They’re the same road, just different mirrors. When we launched Chief of Chaos, we didn’t start with a perfectly polished brand. We started with a pulse. A few clear values. A desire to do things...

Post 3: The Productivity Trap I Stepped In (and What I Chose Instead)

by Matt Frary | Jun 28, 2025 | Adventures in Growth, Digital Marketing, Growth as a Service, Stillness in the Feed

You can be busy all day and still feel like nothing important happened. Before starting Chief of Chaos, I spent years in solution sales—working with and inside Fortune 500 organizations. From the outside, it looked like high performance. Calendars packed. KPIs...

Human First, Tool Second — My Personal Philosophy on Using AI

by Matt Frary | Jun 20, 2025 | Conversations Around AI, Growth as a Service, Stillness in the Feed

Most people ask what AI can do.I start by asking what I want to do—and where I want support. When the latest wave of AI hype hit, I felt the familiar startup pressure: act fast, integrate tools, automate everything. The feed was full of “top 10 prompts” and “AI will...

Issue #8 — How Zombie Affiliate Programs Are Born (and Why You Don’t See It Happening)

Issue #4 — Your Funnel Is Lying to You

by Matt Frary | Jun 16, 2025 | Adventures in Growth, Digital Marketing, Growth as a Service

Funnels are sexy in pitch decks. Top. Middle. Bottom. Convert. Scale. But here’s what they look like in real life: Traffic sources firing in 12 directions Disconnected landing pages built by interns A CRO test from 6 months ago still “running” Attribution models that...