Helping your customers to care & convert | Senior Creative Copywriter | Get a free 20-min copy audit👇

I used to forget the best ideas the moment a call ended.

As a Copywriter, I need to remember stuff. Who knew? I work on 20 things a day from brand voice to campaign ideas to making sure our emails don’t sound like they were written by a bot.

But honestly, like most creative creatures, I spend a lot of time in calls and I've got an awful memory (not a great combo). I’d leave a meeting full of ideas… and forget half of them by lunch.

Now, Fyxer is the one to:

1. Record my meetings
2. Note everything down
3. Draft a follow-up email afterwards (and draft all my other emails too tbf)

So I can actually concentrate on meetings without having to think about noting anything down.

It's ridiculously helpful for customer interviews and briefing calls. Especially because you can ask the transcript questions to find the bits you need.

If you’re a copywriter or creative juggling multiple projects and a to-do list longer than your forearm, I'd recommend using Fyxer. 

(And if you ever want to chat ideas, creativity, or why I think most AI copy still sounds like wet cardboard, drop me a message.)

Guy Thornbury-Phillips

The best tube ad I've seen.

I literally thought it was a typo.

I was rushing to catch my train home from Euston when I noticed the weird spelling.

In true copywriter fashion, I stared at it for longer than most...

Until I looked down and literally said out loud "holy shit".

That's the first time I've seen a brand takeover the actual tube signs.

Let alone in January when most of my mates are "taking a break" from drinking.

Props to the creative team who came up with that idea.

Anyone seen this done before?

Copywriters & creatives will get mentally flabby if we don't put some brakes on asap.

Hear me out.

ChatGeepety, Claude, and many other AI tools are great for getting stuff done, faster - especially life admin (my categorised weekly shop would blow the Romans' minds).

But if we outsource thinking to AI every day, here's what I believe is happening:

- Your expertise erodes
- Creative brain gets flabby
- Average becomes acceptable
- Acceptable becomes the norm

I noticed it in my own brain last year. Thinking without AI feels slower after I've over-used AI.

And that's terrifying.
Anyone else feeling that?

(If you're like "Nah mate, my brain's all cushty" you can stop reading because it's obviously a me problem).

Your brain's a muscle after all. Imagine using a forklift to lift every weight at the gym.

Sure, you’d record some mad results on MyFitnessPal, but you’d be weak as shit.

So I'm proposing 2 rules on AI to protect my precious gooey brain:

Rule 1.) Only use AI for closed questions > That includes facts, summaries, and checking stuff.

Example: 
When's the deadline for Self Assessment?

Rule 2.) Open questions are a no-no for AI. That includes fresh-out-the-box strategy, original ideas, and opinions.

Example:
What would make this campaign genuinely unforgettable?

Because if you let AI do the reps that make you great, don’t be surprised when you wake up average.

Let's protect our precious gooey brains from going flabby 🧠 

Hope it helps x

Copywriter confession: Orange rhymes with door hinge in the right Northern accent. Oh, and Fyxer's rebranded.

I remember having "what if" lunchtime chats with Lucy last April, throwing around half-formed thoughts about what Fyxer could become.

Today, that thinking finally has a home.

Huge credit to Red Antler for helping turn a lot of thinking, debating, obsessing, and Slack threads into the best Fyxer yet.

The email assistant that turns your inbox into your competitive advantage.

Also, finally meeting Rohan in the flesh confirmed what I suspected... some people are just unfairly good at this stuff.

Fyxer is here to help you get ahead of your emails. Not just through them.

(FYI we'll be banging that drum for years to come)

This is the best Fyxer yet.

Sharper drafts that sound like you. Smarter labels for your inbox. Team scheduling for meetings, removing the back-and-forth. Oh, and a new look inspired by the simple ways people bring order to chaos in their everyday lives.

No one calls for help anymore.

Calling your Mum because your boiler says 'low pressure' and you desperately need a warm shower.
Calling your Uncle because he's weirdly obsessed with Ford Fiesta engines.
Calling your mate because they're more dab-handed at DIY than you.

Instead, you can just Google it. 
Or AI it... is that a verb? Sounds weird.

It would be a real shame to lose those moments of support from our friends and family.

I bet they would love it if you called them for help more often.

This is mainly a reminder to myself but if you resonate with this, let's call for help more often.

I'll start.

I'm going to call my Mum at lunch because our boiler literally did say 'low pressure' this morning and there was no hot water and I panicked and left the house in a stink and showered at work.

I hope she knows what to do 🤞

Otherwise I will have to Google it. Soz Mum x

I help business leaders and tech sales teams use LinkedIn and Sales Navigator to grow their network, find opportunities and build a stronger professional voice.

Whether the challenge is time, skills or confidence - or a mix of all three - I help people get more value from LinkedIn by making it feel authentic, not awkward.

I focus on three areas:
⭑ Social media strategy and point of view development
⭑ LinkedIn and Sales Navigator coaching for individuals and teams
⭑ Ghostwriting and content creation

I’ve worked in PR and marketing for well over 25 years, mostly agency-side in the tech sector. Having built and led B2B agencies, I found I missed the hands-on work with clients.

So in 2020, my wife Jo and I launched Brightside to help businesses tell better stories through people, not just brand social media channels. We now work with a small group of trusted associates and partner with larger agencies as their exec comms and LinkedIn specialists.

My claim to fame: I founded the sport of ‘extreme ironing’ back in 1997. My competitive days are behind me now, but I still enjoy coaching an under-9s football team and hosting a retro gaming podcast.

Let me know if I can help you or your business get more value from social media, or if you'd just like a chat about your communications challenges. We're here to help!

Phil Szomszor

Best client-agency team ever? I have lots of favourites, but working with Cisco is still up there for me. 

Here's a few of us at some awards thing or other - circa 2016. Can't remember which one it was at, or whether we won or not. 

What I do remember is the people and the sense of teamwork. And being proud of the work we did together across PR and social media. 

Everyone's gone on to do lots of other interesting stuff since then, but they're all still connected on LinkedIn. 

My only regret is not taking more photos through my career. Even the seemingly unimportant stuff, like team photos around the office, my desk or how I got there each morning. 

My Friday message: record the moments, and stay in touch with the people who are part of them. 

📸 Picture credit: Lucas Betés (I think) with Liam Thomson, Sophie Robinson, John Crossley, Yatin Vyas, Abi Bashorun, Samantha Binns, Katie Owen and Sarah Wilson. And hat tip to everyone at Cisco and in the extended team who I worked with 2016-2019.

Helping leaders sharpen their skills and get better results from LinkedIn and Sales Navigator | Co-founder, Brightside

Highlight of the week for me so far: presenting the Winter lecture to the Socially Mobile alumni group.

I was invited by Sarah Waddington CBE CDir ChartPR and Stephen Waddington to run a free workshop, entitled, "How to get LinkedIn to work for you (not the other way around)". 

Socially Mobile is a brilliant initiative tackling one of PR’s long-standing problems: the lack of social mobility and diversity in the industry. They’re helping talented practitioners from all backgrounds build confidence, networks and careers that reflect the society our industry serves.

I won’t lie, seeing the feedback and receiving the follow-up responses has been heartwarming. But it’s also a two-way street, as I got the chance to try out some new material post-360Brew launch.

If you’re curious, Stephen’s written a great summary of the lecture here on the Socially Mobile blog: https://lnkd.in/e6mQbeFk

Massive thanks to Sarah, Stephen and the Socially Mobile team for the invite and everything they’re doing to open up opportunities in PR. My only regret was not meeting everyone face-to-face. Next time.

Doing this also gave me a spark to do more free workshops. I enjoyed helping people with 1:1s last year, but this way I can help more people. Definitely want to do something for freelancers and people between roles, so watch this space.

What happens when you’ve built your career around being really good at one thing, then suddenly find yourself running the business?

That’s what happened to an old friend of mine, Steve Pickering.

Steve left school in the late 80s and worked in his father’s family business selling beds. After decades on the shop floor, it was time for his dad to step back. In 2014, Steve became CEO, working alongside his younger brother, cousin, and other family members at Sussex Beds.

They had big ambitions for where they wanted to take the business. What they didn’t yet have was a clear understanding of the mechanics: KPIs, structure, financial control, and what it really takes to run a growing organisation.

In this short clip from my latest Brightside Podcast interview, Steve talks candidly about that moment, realising what they didn’t know, and the changes they made that set the business up for long-term success.

Jo and I have put much more focus on the commercial side of our own business recently, including appointing new accountants in 2025, so this part of the conversation really resonated with me.

You can watch the full interview on YouTube, where Steve also talks about his LinkedIn journey and his approach to running meetings that actually move the business forward.

If you’re working in retail or running a family business, Steve shares a lot of this stuff openly on LinkedIn and it’s well worth a follow.

Have you cracked the code for which LinkedIn posts will fly, and which will die?

Me neither. And I’ve been doing this for myself and clients for over six years.

I put the question to my latest podcast guest, Steve Pickering, CEO of Sussex Beds. He’s been sharing his journey as a retail business owner for a couple of years now and enjoyed the ride so far.

But he still can’t predict 100% which posts will take off.

What Steve does know (and he’s right) is that the ones that do best are always the most authentic. Not just in terms of reach or likes, but in how they shape your reputation and how people see you over time.

Sure, there are some weighting factors. Posts with natural people photos usually outperform AI-generated ones. And spacing your text is better than writing in blocks. But that’s just optimisation, not a crystal ball.

So if anyone says they know for sure what will work and what won’t, I’d call BS on that.

Can you relate to what Steve says here?

🎧 Search "The Brightside Podcast" on YouTube for the full interview.

The Edelman Trust Barometer 2026 is out. And if last year’s was sobering, this one feels resigned. But there was a ray of light in the gloom.

If you've read the report or seen any of the coverage, you'll know the core theme this year is that our societies are becoming more insular. A reaction to economic strain, misinformation, culture wars and all the other dark stuff happening around us.

But one idea stood out as an antidote: “trust brokering”.

Edelman uses the term to describe people who build bridges. Those who stay curious, listen across divides and bring others into dialogue instead of retreating into echo chambers.

I saw this in practice yesterday in a conversation with a US entrepreneur. He’s an active Republican, though not a Trump fan (to put it mildly).

He was thoughtful, measured, and surprisingly open-minded about what’s worked and what hasn’t under different administrations. While deeply worried about recent ICE developments, he even acknowledged that some of Trump’s ideas had merit, and understood the fears from both Republican and Democrat voters.

It reminded me that trust doesn’t just happen through leaders at the top of organisations. It’s built one conversation at a time, usually when you least expect it.

This isn’t about giving Trump or any populist a free pass. It’s about trying to understand what makes people think the way they do, and finding the common ground you share.

Let me know what you think of this idea, and how you think it can be applied in practical ways.

Did you know LinkedIn is now the second most-cited domain by large language models?

That’s according to research from Semrush, which analysed over 230,000 prompts across ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode and Perplexity.

No surprise to see Reddit and Wikipedia near the top; they’ve long been the go-to training sources for open discussions and factual grounding. But LinkedIn’s rise is the interesting bit.

Semrush’s team spotted a sharp drop in Reddit and Wikipedia citations on ChatGPT in September, which some SEOs linked to a Google change (“removing the num=100 search parameter”, for the technically curious). 

Whatever the cause, LinkedIn quietly gained share while others dipped.

This shows that LinkedIn isn’t just influencing buyers on the platform itself, but it’s having an even stronger effect within LLMs, where buyer research is also happening.

I know I’m biased, but LinkedIn should already be a priority for gaining influence - whether that’s for profile-building or sales. I’ve seen first-hand its impact in search engines, and now LLMs are coming to the fore.

Worth keeping an eye on Semrush for updates and adding its blog to your bookmarks. 

---

Thanks to Austin Brailey for flagging this research to me. The research was actually out before Christmas, but I missed it at the time. Noticed a few social media big guns like Hootsuite's CEO Irina Novoselsky and Becca Chambers sharing it this week, so it's getting the attention it deserves.

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