Futurpreneur

As a Futurpreneur Canada mentor, I’m paired with a Canadian
entrepreneur who has just started their business. As a Business Mentor, My role is to provide marketing advice, as well as support and encouragement, to help entrepreneurs remain focused on what is important for the success of their business.

As part of ongoing 1:1 mentorship support, my activities include:
• Provide an objective perspective;
• Question, challenge and support the entrepreneur;
• Coach in a non-directive manner, letting the entrepreneur
come to their own conclusions with guidance;
• Help the entrepreneur to reflect on their learnings from
business launch and beyond.

Marketing Mentor

Yaletown Integrative Clinic

• Increased clinic monthly revenue by 725% in 10 months by implementing and optimizing
marketing campaigns.
• Cut marketing expenses by over 15% while growing lead generation volume.
• Team leadership: Directed a team of freelance marketing professionals.
• Transformed brand image to from naturopathic clinic to one-stop-shop wellness destination
with brand identity overhaul project, increasing website traffic by 30%

Marketing Director

Cheam Wellness Group

• Leading the marketing team vision and strategy. Managing a team of marketing coordinators
incldung social media interns.
Managed a digital marketing budget of $13K per month, overseeing campaigns across five
major platforms.
• Achieved a 60% increase in social media engagement for Cheam by launching an influencer
partnership program and leading strategic collaborations.

Digital Marketing Manager

Serotina Media Inc.

Drove $6.9M in sales pipeline for a multinational B2C Ecommerce client (~$1.36M annual
spend)
* Improved an eCommerce client's ROl year-over-year:
* 2021: $3.7M revenue / $940K spend (3.95:1)
* 2022: $6.87M revenue / $1.36M spend (5.05:1)
* ~10,000 leads/mo generated & re-engaged using CRM marketing automation via the
HubSpot marketing platform.

Growth Marketing Manager

Worked with various B2B & B2C clients; Scaled client campaigns utilizing search, display,
remarketing, social, video, landing page creation, conversion rate optimization, etc.


Performed Google Analytics audits for 11+ clients in addition to setting up tracking
implementation. Using tools such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Data
Studio, Google Spreadsheet but also Tableau, Supermetrics, SQL, API call, etc...

Freelance Digital Marketing Consultant

LM Global Enterprises LTD

- Implemented and managed PPC campaigns across a variety of Search engines (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo)

- Monitor and analyzed the performance of global campaigns, ensuring their continued growth and optimization

Head of Digital Advertising

Perform daily account management of pay per click accounts on Google AdWords, Bing and other. In addition to developing new campaigns across multiple channels. More:

Manage the maintenance and monitoring of keyword bids, impressions, quality score and other important account metrics.

Monitor and administer web analytics dashboards, reports and key reporting tools.

Communication to team and management on project development, timelines, and results.

PPC Specialist

Dear Marketing Student

Founder, Managing Editor

My City Movers ltd

Managed 15 paid search campaigns, Driving 50 high-quality leads per month. performed keyword targeting and bid management as well as overall account optimization.

Paid Search Specialist

Digital Economy Forum

Identifying and executing on opportunities to grow traffic for the
publications through AdWords.

Marketing Coordinator

SkipTheDishes

I Aided the sales team's push to build restaurant supply in Winnipeg and Edmonton by contacting potential new restaurant partners.Successfully developed partnerships with over 12 restaurants such as Kenko sushi, Tutti Frutti and Simple Simon pies to name a few.

Inside Sales Associate

I’ve spent years executing strategic advertising campaigns across Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Meta Ads for brands like Quickbooks, Perfectlens & Cheam Wellness.

With expertise in paid media and marketing leadership. One of my proudest wins was increasing a client’s monthly revenue from $8K to $58K MRR in just 10 months by optimizing and implementing marketing campaigns.

Now, I work as a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), helping businesses grow through paid ads and SEO to scale revenue past $1M and grow brand authority by organizing resources and building marketing systems.

I also mentor up-and-coming business owners through Futurepreneur, helping them avoid the same marketing mistakes I made when I was first starting out.

Ready to level up your marketing?

I’m opening up 2 spots for March to provide personalised marketing consulting:

✔️ One-on-one consulting calls (ask questions, present problems)
✔️ $60 for 60 min (or $1 per minute—your call)
✔️ Unlimited 1:1 chat with me via text or email with 24-hour response guarantee (or your money back)

If you’re a business owner who’s serious about scaling and wants clear, actionable advice tailored to your business, I’m here to help.

Ayo Afolabi

Evio

Currently strategizing, building, and creating the LinkedIn personal and company brand ecosystem for Evio's leaders and venture fund brands.

We're entrepreneurs banding together with a mission near and dear to my heart: 

1. Demystifying mental health & mental illness for entrepreneurs 
2. Investing in mental health innovators (by a team who gets it) 
3. Disrupting the VC space with raw & real narratives

Could not be more honored to be a part of this team. 

Let's see what we build.

Branding & Content Manager

Taylor Barnes

I was tired of building a personal brand that wasn't mine, so I decided to start breaking the rules and build a brand on my terms.

I bring the same philosophy to my clients.

I help disruptive investors & founders:

• Clarify their brand story, message & identity
• Gain credibility through authentic content
• Turn their knowledge into stories 
• Build real relationships

Personal branding is an art, a science, and a long-game strategy.

I help these ambitious professionals translate their wisdom, origins, and passions into irresistible LinkedIn stories that drive authentic connections.

If that sounds great to you, book 1:1 mentorship with me through Hubble in my Featured Section.

In the meantime, DM and/or connect with me.

Would love to get to know you and your story.

- Taylor

LinkedIn Personal Brand Advisor & Ghostwriter

Viome

Was the senior copywriter at this small-but-mighty longevity health tech startup. Wrote campaigns. Conducted website audits. Developed messaging decks. Good words for an impactful cause.

Senior Copywriter

Revolut

Worked with the US Product team at Revolut as the team's first-ever senior copywriter and content design lead. Wrote some words, including their app, emails, landing pages, and other projects.

Content Design Lead & Senior Copywriter 

Content Designer | FinTech // Checkout 

Nike

Was recruited through Boly:Welch to work with Nike's Core Commerce team to help with UX writing, content design, copy strategy, and other epic collaborative work. Amazing team. Miss it sometimes.

Senior Copywriter (ETW)

Wave + Pulse

A boutique copywriting and brand marketing agency I founded  because the sky was the limit and I was blissfully delusional about who I wanted to be, and who I wanted to write for.

Founder | B2B SaaS Copywriter + Brand Marketing Strategist

USTA Pacific Northwest

Was a part of the facilities and fundraising team at the USTA. Did copywriting work, marketing planning, and other strategic efforts to give this awesome tennis organization a boost in the Pacific Northwest.

Marketing Coordinator 

Fizz & Bubble

Everything word-wise, I did here. All you need to know.

Copywriter & Brand Marketing Associate

I'm a multi-hyphenate writer carving a path in the cobbles of life, thought, art, and humanity. 

You'll find notes from me 3-5 days a week (for now) talking about all of these things through various lenses and perspectives. 

I'm not a philosopher, just a woman who likes to think and create with an imagination that refuses to be strapped down, bones and all.

I'm building multiple projects for myself in the meantime, and I may talk about those, too. 

On my journey to creating this generalist identity of mine, you might see me talk about my second life as a wedding photographer. You might see me talk about my upcoming podcast, Substack, and YouTube (fingers crossed). You may see me waxing poetic, like this, all the time. 

My point is:

I'm not building a brand anymore.

I'm (re)building myself. 

And you're welcome to come along.

Find deeper essays on my Substack, The Oyster:

www.readtheoyster.substack.com 

Check out my photography here:

www.living-ghosts.com

See you on the other side,

Taylor

If it doesn’t exist…

Build it.
Write it.
Create it.

It’s your responsibility—not anyone else’s—to make what you’ve always dreamed of.

No one needs to give you permission.

Only you do.

// 

readtheoyster.substack.com

Fractional writer. I design narratives for future luxury enterprises.

You should deeply care about what you’re consuming. 

Mindless consumption will rot your brain, dismantle your identity and depress you faster than you can blink.

Some people will get defensive when they read this. They’ll feel attacked. 

They don’t know how to build a life of their own with purpose and meaning and creativity—so they waste it.

They waste it through shallow social feeds, braindead AI-curated slop, and constant comfort rotating in a carousel that never ends.

Always take time to work your brain.

To write. To learn something new. To take both typed and handwritten notes. To expand on an old theory you never took proper time to investigate. To understand. To know. To be curious.

The most impactful people in history—artisans, makers, visionaries—always explored beyond their limits.

Their consumption was mindful.

If we don’t follow this example…

I fear for the society we’ll create.

//

readtheoyster.substack.com

Challenge yourself to grow—or else. 

Grow, or suffer insignificance. 
Grow, or suffer obsoleteness. 
Grow, or suffer incompetence.
Grow, or suffer pointlessness.
Grow, or suffer unfulfillment.
Grow, or suffer stagnancy. 
Grow, or suffer boredom.
Grow, or suffer.

//

Read: readtheoyster.substack.com
Work: withboldface.com

Fractional writer | I design narrative systems for experimental enterprises at the intersection of art, technology, and culture.

I love how much I do not know.

I listen to hyper-intellectuals daily—on podcasts, in articles, in books, in YouTube videos propped up in the background—and every single time I tune in, I’m reminded of how little I still understand of the world and its offerings.

This doesn’t discourage me.

It excites me.

What a privilege to have millions of brilliant books, waiting to be read.

What a privilege to have thousands of films, waiting to be watched.

What a privilege to have countless pieces of art, waiting to be made.

What a privilege to have endless ideas, waiting to be crafted.

What a privilege it is, to not know—

—and to yet, be so curious that you know you will do whatever the hell it takes to learn, create, and pour back the learnings of your creations into the universe over and over and over again.

Most people dread how the world is so vast and endless…

For me, it’s an eternal gift.

//

readtheoyster.substack.com

When I’m afraid of something, I don’t shy away from it.

I dive into it and understand it through every possible angle with reckless abandon. 

I refuse to be ill-equipped when it comes to self-education, creativity, and intellectual growth. 

If you’re letting your fears dictate how you learn—that’s your first obstacle.

Overcome that barrier, and watch how the world takes on an entirely new light.

//

readtheoyster.substack.com

Most people are intimidated by the sacrifice of likability to achieve remarkable things. 

If you have big dreams—build them. 

You’re operating on another level. 

A level most people don’t like, won’t understand, and will project onto you with their insecurities.

It’s not for everyone, but you know it’s for you.

//

Read: readtheoyster.substack.com

No one worth following complains. 

They shut up and make. They create. They build. They learn. They’re brutal on themselves because they understand the consequences of being too soft. They kill their darlings without hesitation.  

Admirable minds have zero interest in learning from people who are addicted to victimhood. 

//

readtheoyster.substack.com

Despite what most skeptics preach:

It's a beautiful thing to be curious. 

It's even better to be inspired. 

It's beyond important to be creative. 

If you're curious, inspired, and creative at every stage of your life—through blood, sweat, tears, and dreams—you'll build a cycle that receives, builds, and returns to you in a never-ending gift. 

These muscles you build with your brain, soul, and heart are the bones of future remarkable things. 

No true visionary ever remained passive. 

(AKA they never relied on "luck") 

They were curious. 
They were inspired.
They were creating.

Simple. Effective. Timeless.

Think that says enough. 

//

Read more: readtheoyster.substack.com 
Work with me: www.withboldface.com

There are two groups of dogmatic parasites in the AI landscape:

1// The Worshipers—people who view artificial intelligence as their new god, their new king, and their new baseline. 

They refuse to challenge the long-term conditions and potential detriments of using AI to govern their lives, creativity, and entrepreneurial projects. 

They view AI as the ruler, maker, and changer of all future human-oriented decisions. 

They will ignore blatant scientific research that promotes problems associated with cognitive decline, a lack of agency, and hallucinatory responses tied to the misuse of AI. 

Most of all, they will ignore the problems of educational lacking with top executives who would rather outsource through AI themselves, rather than hire formidable talent to do the work for them using similar, if not the same, tools.

2// The Blinded—people who view AI as the eternal enemy of everything. 

They refuse to acknowledge the considerable change AI has impacted in both positive and negative ways. 

They don’t want to acknowledge the potential good AI has brought to the economy, the arts, and the improvement in market competition. 

They criticize without educating themselves, leading to pinball machine arguments that spiral into a corner where no one moves, no one makes a change, no one learns, and no one creates.

I’ve never been a Worshiper...

But I have been a Blinded.

I’m at a place where I’ve written several passionate articles, social posts, and even notes to myself about AI’s relationship to humanity and the arts.

Yes, I’ve been immensely critical of AI.

I’ve also been brutally honest about how humanity’s role in putting AI on a pedestal of uneducated scrutiny and uneducated worship has led to the downfall of intellect, organic creativity, and innovation.

[Read the entire article here → https://lnkd.in/gfztdVd7]

P.S. Mentioned the brilliant Stephen Klein and Curiouser.AI, who I highly recommend you investigate if you want real thought leadership on this topic.

Open article: AI is my servant, not my god. by readtheoyster.substack.com

"You're so dramatic." 

An ice-cold punch to the gut. 
A broken nose in a boxing ring.
A noose around my throat. 

That was what these words did to me growing up. 

Every tear, criticized. 
Every passion, humiliated.
Every interest, demonized. 
Every thought, imprisoned. 
Every emotion, invalidated. 
Every idea, threatened. 
Every dream, crushed.

From the moment I could walk, I had "been too much." 

I always cried in the classroom when we had to watch a documentary concerning the death of innocents. 

I always held my emotions together at home to avoid burdening others. 

I always had to keep my writing to myself, as the mere mention of my daydreams, imagination, and characters would cause someone I really, really wanted to trust, to lash out with bloodletting teeth.

I still carry those scars. 

I still feel like a burden to most people. 

This "dramatic, over-emotional, way too much" of a girl.

Sometimes, I think about the person who said these things...

And I have to wonder where that vilification came from. 

I can only assume it's because they were deeply hurting inside, too. 

That they wanted to inflict hurt to comfort their own. That in their subconscious, they believed they had no choice but to eliminate what they found weak. 

That, for some reason, they found me to be their enemy. 

Today, I'm beyond grateful I never stopped being who I was.

My melodrama is rooted in creativity.
My passion is rooted in imagination.
My drive is rooted in belief.

These are not faults. 

They're simply not for everyone.

And the more we embrace these pieces of ourselves that ignite that fear, that curiosity, that desire in insecure people to take you down simply because you have so much strength and vibrancy within you...

The more value we'll create as a species. 

I may be "dramatic."

But at least I'm fucking interesting.

//

readtheoyster.substack.com

Writer. I design narratives for future luxury enterprises.

Art is the only way to achieve immortality.

We study Auguste Rodin for not just his art, but his mind.

We look at The Thinker and wonder how something so emotive and palpable could be forged by human hands.

We observe The Gates of Hell and gawk at the years of dedication, abstract thinking, and vision poured into every inch of bronze and plaster.

We consider the shape of his work for the emotion, the depth, the melancholy carved into every slope, mask, and silent voice.

Artists like Rodin reveal the truth of the real value of artistic expression:

The physical manifestation of thought, exploration, and creativity come to life.

More importantly, the undeniable importance of what it means—feels—to make a piece of work that connects you to that embodiment, and to those who wish to understand you through that embodiment.

The less we acknowledge how crucial this is for humans to remain relevant, the more in danger we are of losing what gives us purpose. 

So please, whatever you do...

Make. Create. Be. Architect. Design. 

Be artful. 

It's the only footprint you can truly leave behind.

//

Read: readtheoyster.substack.com 
Work with me: withboldface.com

AI should never be the bulk of your workload. It shouldn’t be your first stop. 

When it comes to visual creations, relying on AI to drive most of the work completely saps your ability to think with long-reaching vision. 

This is extremely damaging, and every real artist will recognize that.

The more AI-generated work I see, the more of a gap I’m spotting.

The gap between real taste—

—and real vision.

//

readtheoyster.substack.com

In the luxury world, desire is the new "problem." 

That wealthy CEO isn't purchasing an Aston Martin because he's sick of his Mercedes. He's picking Aston Martin because the car is promising a stellar vision and experience no other car promises. 

That celebrity couple isn't choosing a $50,000 wedding photographer in Paris because they're stressed. They're choosing that photographer because they specialize in documenting a once-in-a-lifetime experience in a beautiful, aesthetically gorgeous destination.

That Instagram darling making six figures in six hours isn't buying that Louis Vuitton handbag because she's secretly suffering. She's buying that Louis Vuitton handbag simply because she can. 

This market operates on another level. 

Yes, there are still problems to solve. 

But, the shape of those problems are dramatically different compared to more traditional markets. 

When you sell 90% desire, you still sell the transformation state. 

You just also get to paint the most impossible-made-possible picture.

This is why Tiffany & Co will convert new customers with 50-page catalogs waxing poetic about their fine art jewelry.

This is why Aston Martin will invest cash into a beautifully designed digital magazine you can download straight from their website. 

This is why Prada will spend time, money, and creative energy on a short film lovingly crafted by real Hollywood talent. 

Because in the luxury world...

You're not easing your pain.

You're buying to be part of a legacy. 

//

readtheoyster.substack.com

Open article: The Oyster | Taylor Barnes | Substack by readtheoyster.substack.com

Predicting this now—the luxury brands who want to become legends will accept when they need to change. Even when it hurts. 

They'll adapt. 
They'll pivot. 
They'll listen.

Younger consumers are getting smarter. 

The luxury sector is no longer about highly affluent older generations. It's becoming ripe with young minds, young visionaries, and young pioneers.

Gen Z, in particular, is much more interested in purchasing luxury items from brands who are honest, real, and grounded. 

They still want the experience—they just won't tolerate bullsh*t. 

And if luxury enterprises want to remain relevant, they need to learn how to connect with savvy, digitally educated generations. 

Scarcity and hype marketing is not as effective in the luxury sector. 

We certainly don't need more liars in this market.

We need more, tangible, and relatable stories. 

Real humans. 
Real products.
Real missions. 
Real concepts. 
Real ideas. 

That shouldn't be too much to ask. 

//

Read: cultoure.substack.com
Work with me: withboldface.com

taplio

The Battle

Ayo Afolabi

Taylor Barnes

Followers

Posts

Engagements

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Performance ScoreTaylor Barnes's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Ayo Afolabi

Taylor Barnes

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);}Taylor Barnes's LinkedIn Performance

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