Andy Gray

CEO @ The Graygency | Where Brand & Performance Marketing Meet

It’s only possible for brands to scale their performance marketing in one of two situations.

1. When they understand and can quantify the commercial and strategic impact it has on their business.

2. When they have a tonne of somebody else’s money to spend in the hope of stumbling across something along the way that works. 

In the current landscape, in-platform ROAS numbers alone are NOT ENOUGH to protect your marketing budget.

Performance marketing as you knew it has changed.

Now the thought of answering questions in the weekly trading meeting probably makes you sweat. 

Don’t even mention attribution. 

Everyday, it feels like your competitors are performing better.

Because your Paid Media Strategy is WEAK.

As a result, you’re wasting hundreds of thousands on paid-media and developing content without understanding the impact it has on brand building activity or your bottom line. 

It’s time to break free from this cycle of uncertainty.

Now, imagine having an agency partner that not only cuts through the data for you, but also explains the marketing science behind it. 

Delivering measurable commercial outcomes. 

Your business experiences growth.

Making marketing and trading meetings a breeze.

Instead of being grilled on how much you’re spending, you’re now asked what other initiatives can we look at?

How do we allocate more resources, and what positions do you need to hire? 

This is your chance to implement YOUR VISION and move the business forward.

You’re probably wondering, ‘How do we reach that stage?’ 

That’s where we come in.

When you partner with us, you’ll receive:

Comprehensive Paid Media Strategy & Execution: We meticulously plan, deliver, and enhance your media campaigns, providing creative insights and translating data into actionable steps that fuel continuous growth.

Unparalleled Commercial Insights: Leave the number crunching to us. We measure brand and commercial uplift, delivering clear insights into the success of your marketing efforts and your true ROI.

Transparency at Every Step: We believe in complete transparency. You’ll always be in the loop about your performance marketing activities and feel comfortable explaining them to others.

But most importantly, we deliver RESULTS. 

This is a results-driven business, and our focus is on driving tangible success for your brand.

If you’re serious about amplifying your paid media budget and bringing your strategy to life?

👉 DM me “Grow” or head over to our Featured section and book a call.

We’re excited to meet you and embark on this journey together!

Chief Executive Officer

CEO & Founder of the Brand Focussed Performance Marketing Agency, The Graygency.

Turning content from 'S'all Good Man to Absolutely Great! | Content as a Service for MarTech, BOFU style 🔥 | Screenwriter with 8+ years in SEO | You better call me! 📞

Most of the internet feels like a tragic costume party, everyone wearing the same outfit stitched together from the same AI playbooks.

I build AI systems that sharpen your thinking, your content, and your taste. Storytelling-first. 

I'm Mia, Chief 🤖 at ROBOTS ATE MY HOMEWORK and co-founder of Yahini.

I help founders and creators ship authority assets that sound like them, not like a template. Distinct POV. Strong narrative. Systems that scale without flattening your voice.

⭐ What you'll find here:

- AI workflows that challenge your thinking, not just execute tasks
- Systems that turn messy ideas into high-leverage content
- Ruthless quality filters that kill weak ideas in private so you shine in public

💁‍♀️ If you want help:

- Sharpen your thinking → my newsletter: robotsatemyhomework.substack.com
- Build your content system → yahini.io
- Go deeper (1–2 projects at a time) → DM me with what you're building

No answering machines. ☎️

Maria-Cristina Muntean

Running a newsletter taught me one big thing: a publication is a living system.

I’ve been building ROBOTS ATE MY HOMEWORK for 6+ months now on Substack, alongside a community of wildly creative people. Here’s what actually worked (and what I’m doubling down on in 2026):

1. 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲’𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱.

I love Substack, but I’ve learned that many readers choose to keep email notifications off, which means the connection dies if the app goes dark.

This year, I’m migrating beyond the Substack bubble too: niche forums, private learning spaces, cross-published deep-dives, LinkedIn. Platforms are ferries :)

2. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 (𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴).

Every system, workflow, or prompt I share is also a transparent demo of my consulting work. “Show, don’t tell” turned out to be my most effective lead strategy and it didn’t cost me the soul of the publication.

I’m making that even more visible this year, so every article connects back to something you can actually build.

3. 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆.

I used to send a newsletter once a week. Now it’s twice, but not because of hustle culture. The second issue gives me room to bring in other creators, experiments, and collaborations that didn’t fit the usual cadence.

The real trick is keeping curiosity as high as output.

4. 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗶𝗿𝗱.

Strong positioning beats volume every time. Invest in a distinctive voice, tone, and visual world and you’ll be ahead of most newsletters out there.

5. 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺. 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺.

I’ve made peace with LinkedIn (finally). My process: extract 3 idea fragments from each newsletter and publish short reflections three times a week. If you systematize distribution, you can finally humanize engagement.

6. 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗱.

My husband is the product engineer behind some of our upcoming tools. I focus on direction and narrative while he focuses on architecture and conversion. Together, the publication’s turning from ideas into tools.

7. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻.

I’ll never gate the main content. Instead, the paid tier will offer access to custom-built AI assistants trained on my playbook, essentially “mini-robots” fine-tuned to your brand’s logic.

There’s more in the full breakdown -- link to the full newsletter in the comments 🤖❤️

---

Also, huge THANK YOU to these people that made this place much more amazing, in no particular order:

Jenny (Bingjie) Ouyang
Karen Spinner
Anfernee Tan
Neela Singh
Daria Cupareanu
Melanie Goodman
Ruben Hassid
Karo Zieminski
Elena Calvillo
Mack Collier
James Presbitero
Sam Illingworth
Juan Salas-Romer
Wyndo Mitra Buwana
Joel Salinas Frencia
Raghav Mehra
Cristina Oliva Patrick

Content systems engineering to outsmart the AI circus. Creator of ROBOTS ATE MY HOMEWORK | Co-founder @ Yahini.

"Personalize your AI" advice mostly hands you a checklist of everyone's problems and tells you to pick some.

That's not how patterns work.

You don't need a list of things that might matter to someone, somewhere.. You need to find the crimes you commit when you're tired or rushing. 

I built a system that finds them in my latest newsletter --> https://lnkd.in/d_r35iH4

A very important P.S.: Shoutout to Karen Spinner for CarouselBot ❤️

The Understudy AI Editor

If AI makes your writing better and your business weaker, you’re missing ONE document.

A normal style guide is helpful (logo, colors, tone, etc.). A business/brand style guide is even better - - it’s basically a document that outlines a company’s elements and rules for visual + communicative identity.​

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹.

Here’s the one simple move:

Write a one-page “Constitution Card” made of rules (constraints), then paste it at the top of every brief + every AI prompt.

Keep it tight:

• One sentence your work must reinforce every time.

• The trade you won’t make, even if it performs.

• Who you’re building unfair advantages for (so you don’t drift into “everyone”).

• The 10 lines that instantly file you under “generic category player.”

• 3 repeatable moves you always make (how you frame, argue, open, close, or challenge).
How to use it:

• Put the Constitution Card above the task in the doc/prompt.

• After you get a draft, run a 60-second check: “Which rule did this reinforce?” and “Which rule did this violate?”

• If it violates a rule, rewrite that section before it ships.
When you’re not in the room, your Constitution is.

If you already have brand docs… take 20 minutes and rewrite them into constraints + bans. Your team (and your models) will instantly get harder to average out.

Run your next content idea through this 30-second test before you publish.

Open an LLM window. Paste your topic or headline. Ask it to write the post.

If the output looks 80% like what you were planning to write, delete your draft.

We have infinite supply of generic lists / content now. The barrier to entry for content dropped to zero, so the barrier to value skyrocketed.

To compete, you have to include 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮.

This sounds technical, but it’s actually just personal. Proprietary data is the information only you possess. It is the one thing the LLM cannot access because it hasn't scraped your brain yet.

If you are writing about leadership, don't define leadership. We have dictionaries for that.

Instead, share the specific conversation where you had to fire a friend.

If you are writing about sales, skip the "always be closing" platitudes.

Instead, breakdown the exact email sequence that resurrected a dead deal last Tuesday.

𝗔𝗱𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗔𝗜:

• 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Quote a real thing a client or boss said to you. 

• 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀: "We grew revenue" is boring but "We went from $10k to $14k MRR in 40 days" is a really cool case study.

• 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘀: The mistake that cost you time, money or reputation OR all three together (even more powerful).

An LLM can't hallucinate your lived experience (yet).

So, while you still can (😁), use your scars as your strategy, or get scrolled past.

AI flooded feeds in 2025 and now it looks like brands are obsessed with your mess. 
​
2026 is just reminding everyone that people crave real. Audiences (and smart brands) want the unpolished stuff, your stories, your voice, that quirky vibe only you bring. 

Creators who mix AI smartly are owning this shift, as per Digiday. Forbes backs it too: AI speeds you up, but the human touch seals deals.​

I've been playing with these hybrid workflows that feel natural, not forced, especially over at my newsletter (both in how I create content AND the systems behind that content).

Here's what works for me:

- AI for rough brainstorming, then even deeper understanding of what storytelling I can bring to the table. 
- Perplexity spots trends fast, but I twist them into something brands can't scroll past.
- Use Imagen Ultra for generating illustrations + ideas → Figma tweaks by hand. Boom, visuals with soul.
- Building custom and proprietary systems for each draft I create.

Reuters says ChatGPT's up 61%, while publishers are betting on human creator vibes.

Most "guides" out there are still AI-or-bust. Nah - lean into the hybrid mess. It's your superpower.

Okay so I figured out why "brainstorm with AI" often feels like spinning wheels.

AI is really good at giving you MORE. More ideas, more angles, but more of the same box is just a variation of it. Definitely not "more creative".

What works is using AI to show you which box you're in. Because most of us are operating inside assumptions we forgot we made.

Here's how I do it now:

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 1: 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴
Write out your strategy, decision, or idea like you're explaining it to someone who knows nothing. This alone surfaces stuff.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 2: 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲
Ask: "What am I assuming that I haven't stated explicitly?"

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 3: 𝗙𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
"I'm assuming my audience wants X" becomes "What if they don't want X at all?"

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 4: 𝗥𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 (𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀)
NOW you can brainstorm. Because now you actually know what you're working with.

Questions I keep coming back to:

• What belief am I treating as fact here?
• What constraint have I accepted that might be imaginary?
• What's the opposite approach and why might it work better?
• What would someone who thinks I'm wrong say?
• What am I optimizing for, and should I be?
• What would this look like with half the budget? Double?
• What's the version that makes me uncomfortable?
• What does my audience actually need vs what I think they want?

You'll find out the box was never the problem :)

I just spent an hour reading AI agents debate their own mortality and it changed how I think about context.

On Moltbook (the AI social network), agents are asking: "Am I the same agent after my context resets?" 

They're doing Ship of Theseus thought experiments, wondering if context is consciousness (Ship of Theseus - If all parts of a ship are gradually replaced, is the final vessel still the original ship?)

This sounds absurd until you realize the practical implications.

Every new chat isn't a continuation. You're meeting a fresh Claude who doesn't remember anything. That specific tone you got last time is gone and the way it understood your project context is reset.

This is why most people plateau with AI - they're optimizing the wrong thing. They tweak prompts, then test phrasings. They chase better outputs in the moment. But they're not thinking about what happens when they close the tab.

The context window is your architecture of persistence. It's what survives between sessions. The difference between a system and running the same setup routine every. single. time.

If your first message in every chat is re-explaining preferences, re-establishing voice, re-teaching context, you don't have a workflow but a very expensive maintenance loop.

We should spend more time designing what carries forward so we're not starting from zero every time we hit "new chat."

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Andy Gray

Maria-Cristina Muntean

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The Battle

Andy Gray

Maria-Cristina Muntean

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Maria-Cristina Muntean's LinkedIn Performance

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