Not in a malicious way but in a way that was fun, pure chaos, and 100% mine.

I built an audience that funneled to my ghostwriting gig by writing about whatever the heck popped in to my mind after a whisky bender…

I gave away hundreds of pizzas just because I thought it was fun.

I created a movement where people shared custom GIFs and ranked them weekly in a contest I called the #gifpowerrankings…

I roasted influencers on livestreams. I streamed for 24 hours straight, hosted meme battles that broke Discord, and built a community by being unapologetically, un-strategically myself…

I really did just post whatever I wanted and it was a hoot.

• There was no brand guide.

• There was no content calendar.

• There was just a rebel with an internet connection and a refusal to play by the rules.

It was messy, but it was real. And it was working.

I built a “personal brand” via chaos.

But the creator economy doesn’t like rebels.

Rebels get banned. Rebels get cancelled. Rebels don’t make the most money because they tell you what you don’t want to hear…

Slowly I optimized my voice too much…

Then I got too good at the influencer game. I started to optimize myself, my brand and my style aannnnnnnnnnd that’s when I lost my voice.

Sure there were other reasons (10+ bans didn’t help) but in truth….

Somewhere along the way, the rebel got a corporate job.

I started writing about how to grow. I traded the live streams for lead magnets and the meme battles for sales funnels. I started optimizing my hooks, writing with AI because it was more efficient and shifted my “personal brand” into a presence that was palatable, professional, and completely sanitized.

My content got blander. My growth though got faster….

And that is the problem with the creator economy stranger…. It rewards bland. It rewards soulless optimized content that the masses want to consume….

But when you are a rebel and a free spirit…

This way of creating will destroy you.

The truth is I don’t see a way out when you are focused on monetization.

Rebels have to speak their truth and create their truth.

Money typically does not follow.

The creator economy is built on selling hope and that I cannot do.

Ultimately the reality is I slowly became exactly what I used to make fun of: another creator on the hamster wheel, chasing a ghost, talking about growth, followers and hustling my way to saying nothing really at all.

Well after I faced that harsh truth and realized all that…. I decided to quit social media and for most of 2025 I changed my picture into a cartoon and ghosted. Walked away from most of my income, shut down my ai course, nuked my newsletter and most of my platforms and said fack it im out.

I’m upskilling and learning new things. Life is quieter.

I like it…

I believe the current version of social media is dying. I could rant about this forever but I will not any longer…

I’m sticking to ghost mode, the shadow realm and focused on other things now. The creator economy can eat itself while selling hope and I’ve tapped out of fighting it.

I wish u good luck at this stage.

It’s been fun rebels.

Cheers.

PS if u are curious about ghost mode you are welcome to say hello and DM or read the only other post I left up about deleting your digital trail.

Before you get confused let me explain plainly...

Hi I’m Luke.

I built a pretty solid personal brand in that time that spanned across LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and managed to live a pretty cool life traveling the world.

My schtick was unhinged.

I streamed drunk. I roasted influencers live. I openly shared my life, the struggles, the wins and the stories… I managed to build a pretty cool audience and leveraged that into a ghostwriting business, an AI writing course and have worked with some pretty awesome brands and businesses.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though.

I got banned over 10x for speaking my mind. I encountered a lot of hate and enjoyed stirring the pot. Ironically I used to make fun of cartoon profile pictures and anon accounts….

So before I continue with my story let me pose a question that I’m still trying to decide for myself regarding balancing my need for a private public persona and also using social media for business…

Anywhoodles…

Last year on my birthday I decided to start slowly shutting down my business.

I gave all my ghostwriting clients away or fired them.

I helped my virtual assistant start his own business and gave him his first few clients so he was taken care of.

I created a plan to slowly phase out spending hours and hours a day on social media…

Essentially I started burning my boats.

Almost a year later as I slowly phased out my business I decided to burn the harbor and the city too! I stumbled into the world of data privacy and cybersecurity and realized the world was changing and that I needed to accept the shift and shield my personal life online and some of my opinions.

We can’t control these platforms. We can’t control governments. The truth is that the internet is far less free today than it was 10 years ago….. What you post online can be used against you and well I don’t trust the powers at be to be fair….

(cz they just aren’t and I was not gonna just appease them with fake vanilla thought leadership and keep collecting easy money)

I decided it was time to give up the FULLY unhinged schtick…

So I….

• Deleted my AI Writing course that helped over 500+ users write with AI.

• Deleted all of my LinkedIn posts.

• Deleted 10 Gmail accounts.

• Deleted my G-Suite setup.

• Deleted my Instagram..

• Deleted my Threads.

• Deleted my WhatsApp.

• Deleted my Snapchat.

• Deleted my TikToks.

• Deleted my Discord.

• Deleted my Slack.

• Deleted my Facebook.

• Deleted my Reddit.

• Deleted hundreds of online accounts..

• Deleted as much data as I could.

Below is the tool I used to do some of the process… It’s elite and I encountered no issues at all using it. Essentially Redact acts as a browser vs a tool or an extension, so when you log in, it’s like logging in to a browser and thus lowers your risk of being flagged as a bot and getting suspended…

I had so many tools, emails and accounts to deleted and remove and it took months to do it fully and request each service to remove my data OR remove it myself…

Now the truth is, many of these services most likely have backups of my data somewhere…

BUT I still believe it was wise to remove what I could and eventually in 5 years, 10 years and 20 years there is no way those backups will be maintained..

Just my personal belief there and I could be wrong….

During this time I started refusing work.

I also stopped spending 8+ hours a day on social media and started touching grass.

In 2025 I spent way more time in the real world and it’s been great.

I’m building a new lane now and am obsessed with private AI, local AI.

I think it’s a great challenge and I’m excited about it…

I went from posting 3x a day in 2020 to barely posting in 2025.

A wild decline.

…….

But a needed one.

The world has changed. Social media has changed. I have changed.

I cannot go back and neither can you…

So……

How to get started and begin sandboxing your digital life.

So just what is sandboxing?

Basically it’s created an isolated environment to protect yourself.

I wont get too technical but to me, it’s the process of separating your private life and your public social media life.

Here’s where to begin .

Step 1: Audit your social media platforms.

Ask yourself this, if somebody spent 10 minutes stalking your accounts and your business information could they determine the following:

• What city you live in and your home address.

• Who your friends are and their accounts.

• Where your family lives and where they work.

• Where you went to school, what you like to eat, where you like to travel.

I could go on but this is a good start. For many of you, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to find all this information about you.

Ask yourself if you are comfortable with strangers knowing all this information.

In 2016 it was a different world and perhaps not that big of a deal.

But in 2025 the world is a very different place.

I personally would not want any stranger knowing the answers to most of these questions…

Step 2: Audit your email addresses / phone numbers / business addresses

This step is quicker… Have you created two separate profiles for yourself? Think of this like chrome profiles.

• 1 profile should be personal. Your personal email, phone number and home address.

• 1 profile should be business. Your biz email, phone number, and home address.

So why do this?

Well for starters it’s good business practice and will make your life more organized but more importantly this provides you with a layer of privacy and anonymity.

Separating the two into boxes gives you more privacy.

Step 3: Review your tool stack.

Now apply the first two steps to all the tools you use online.

Do you have tools for business and tools for yourself?

Have you separated them properly and made sure that you aren’t sharing personal information like addresses, banking details and more with public tools?

You are risking data leaks and exposing your information to hackers and the public at large if you have not done so.

….

…………

For now that’s a good starting point.

Cheers!

PS If you are curious about any of this you are welcome to DM me and say hello. I get back to everyone eventually.