Hey there,

This newsletter is going to be a personal one and isn't 100% about business, but hopefully it gives you something to introspect on.

As always, just reply to this email with questions or comments.

1. On my mind: Personal narratives and how they drive us

I make one thing very obvious on all my online profiles. It’s on my website, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. I tell everyone I meet. I’ve mentioned it in one of my last emails.

I’m Cambodian American.

Let me tell you why that’s important for me to share and I'll get to why I'm writing about this in a newsletter about business and marketing.

If you ever look up anything about Cambodian culture or history, you’ll learn about the civil war and genocide. Most people don’t know these things happened.

Due to the trauma previous generations had to endure, the new generation of Cambodians inherited trauma of their own to deal with (transgenerational trauma).

I knew a lot of Cambodians growing up and heard a lot of stereotypes. Some were even perpetuated by Cambodians. We were poor and either end up in jail, in gangs, or became teenage parents. You know, those things.

Unfortunately, census data reflects an unfavorable economic situation.

Now let me tell you why I’m writing about this in my newsletter.

(I’ll tie this back to you regardless of your ethnicity. By the way, if you’re Cambodian, let’s connect.)

For decades, these narratives defined Cambodian Americans.

There’s a power in narratives and how they shape us.

At some point, the narratives we see and are told about ourselves and our families influence how we see ourselves.

The the narrative that many Cambodian Americans grew up with was that we weren’t going to amount to much.

It was reflected in what we saw (or the lack of it):

1. Any stories about Cambodian Americans were about gangs, deportation, genocide, and/or trauma.
2. No Cambodian representation when you look at business, movies, or any category of successful people.

I share this all because this is one of my primary drivers in life and business.

To be the antithesis of that narrative.

I strive to be a successful Cambodian-American entrepreneur and lift up those around me.

As my generation of Cambodians are coming of age, those stereotypes and limiting beliefs are deteriorating.

We’re working through and processing our parents’ trauma and the trauma passed on to us. We're going to therapy. (Mental health is not a thing in most Asian cultures so this is a big deal).

Over the last few years I’ve been fortunate to meet other Cambodians in business and we always say, "Wow I rarely met Cambodians in our line of work.”

So that’s a little about my personal narrative.

What’s your personal narrative that’s driving you? In business? In your personal and professional growth?

2. Business Update

We had our team offsite at INBOUND two weeks ago and now we’re prepping to triple revenue next year.

Almost everyone I’ve spoken to has told me that the journey from $1-5 million in annual revenue is the hardest part of scaling a business. It’s what Greg Crabtree calls “no mans landing” in his book Simple Numbers.

It’s the phase of growth where many businesses get lost. Some don’t grow out of that phase and ultimately get stuck.

I’ll give a larger update later but this means we’re hiring.

We’re hiring for an SEO Content Strategist. Know anyone?

I’ll pay you $2000 if we hire the person you refer.

3. Created

• ​Road to Mastery - This is an event that we’re putting on, organized my Karissa on my team. She’s gotten an amazing lineup to help people drive more conversions with content.
• Podcast: How to lead an early-stage company with Eric Hann - Got to sit down with a good friend and chat startup leadership, demand gen programs, and building a team.
• ​Why I Left a High Paying Tech Job to Build a Marketing Agency - It’s been nearly 4 months since I jumped into building Omniscient Digital full-time and I haven't looked back.

4. Consumed

🎧 Music: Chill Tracks on Spotify - A great playlist I found after listening to different Spotify playlists to break out of listening to only Peaceful Piano and Late Night Jazz while I work.

📚 Book: Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed or Fail - (in progress) I read Ray Dalio’s Principles a few years ago and been meaning to pick this up. He does a great job laying out frameworks for understanding the current dynamics of international politics and wealth and how they’re intertwined.

🛠️ Tool: Raycast - I believe most productivity optimizations and tools are marginally beneficial and mostly a waste of time. But one valuable tool I’ve used is Alfred which I recently replaced with Raycast. It lets me quickly search for files, grab screenshots, control Spotify, do a Google search, search Notion, and more in seconds without touching my mouse. Here’s a quick video walkthrough of it. I'm a big fan.

Cheers,
David

P.S. Find out what I'm up to on my blog and reading list and connect with me on Twitter.

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​​About me: David Ly Khim is a founder of Omniscient Digital, a content marketing and SEO agency helping B2B software companies grow.