Justin Oberman

Freelance Creative Director

Oberman & Partners

Publicity & Promotions for Creative Leaders and Brands

Publicist, Promotor and Advertising Impresario

I am a copywriter. People who cannot write or do not want to write hire me for only one conceivable reason: to transmit to some audience a message or impression that will get them to react in a way that is to the person who hired me's advantage. 

In order to do that I help people and brands write things worth reading, or think of things worth writing about. Sometimes, even both at the same time.

Copywriting and Creative Coach, Creative + Brand Consultant for Hire, Available for talks + workshops.

Freelance Copywriter & Ghostwriter

The LA Jewish Home

Oversee (and sometimes even create) the advertising placed in the magazine
Oversee the marketing of the magazine
Write a column on marketing
Oversee the contest section
Oversee cover art

Marketing Director / Editor 

Laetro

Designed specifically for creatives by creatives, 
Laetro.com is a pay-as-you-go proprietary collaborative platform that seamlessly connects  businesses and brands with top-tier creative talent.

ECD Partner

Insign - Agence de communication

Collier.Simon

Generate Life Sciences, Cord Blood Registry, Community Colleges of Los Angeles, LastPass

(also worked a little on PayPal & Experian TikTok campaigns)

Associate Creative Director, Copy

Freelance

I use all the the extra knowledge I accumulate as a copywriter to write, research and verify thousands of questions for trivia apps, shows, websites, periodicals and quiz databases.

Freelance Quiz and Trivia Writer

The Adcom Group

Cleveland Clinic, GetGo, ACCO, New Business

Associate Creative Director, Writer

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Hershey's (Whoppers Candy). Now ask me how I got the gig.

Freelance Senior Copywriter

Obercreative 

Here's the shpiel.

Whether it's with a click or a smile (or both), I'm a senior-level advertising copywriter, and content strategist with a knack for creating the kind of brand stories, content "gamification" and cheeky/satirical messaging that moves both people and products. 

What I love most about my job is the ability to collaborate with cool people to conjure up creative solutions for brands.

With over 10 years experience I prefer to inspire rather than dictate. As a senior creative, I've lead teams of copywriters, content and product managers, UX and graphic designers, front-end developers, and video producers... I believe strongly in treating every member of my team exactly how I would want to be treated and translating that level of attention to the consumer. 

Beyond TVC's & taglines, my specialties include 
• new business pitches 
• web & interactive copy
• experiential
• brand messaging
• content strategy 
• Direct Marketing copy (especially email and Facebook Ads)
• Game shows
• Crypto & ICO launches
• and writing. Lots and lots of writing

•Agencies: CP+B, Drumroll, Davis Elen, Crypto Media Group, Quigley-Simpson, Phenomenon, The Woo, Contend, Mosaic, Razorfish, Euro RSCG, MotherNY, EO Interactive, Bocca Digital, Lesli Ink, Bancs Media, and Street Attack

•Brands: Hershey’s, Spartan, Fannie Mae, Capital One, GreatCall/Jitterbug, Kiddie Academy, Chase Marriott Rewards, Chase Freedom,  Intuit, Lenovo, Motorola, DeLonghi, Microsoft, Oracle, Welches, PlutoTV,  Google, Citibank, Target, Verizon, Jaguar, Commonwealth Bank Australia, Virginia Lottery, Clearasil, AOL, Gagosian, COLD-EEZE, Blackwing Pencils, YINC, Pura D'or & 2-Minute Club, Caffe Furia, I am Yusani.

Freelance Copywriter / Creative Director

Brand Response Copywriter, Creative Director - I can talk like a direct marketer ✓ and create brand awareness ✓ at the same time. 🤯 DM me to learn how. | Advertising | Branding | Strategy |

I started an ad agency in 2020 during the pandemic.

Quietly grew it to 7 figures using nothing but organic LinkedIn posting and word of mouth.

Then, in 2023, I burned out.

So, I closed my agency.

But before I did that, I had a stark realization. 

Besides the influx of business, my following on LinkedIn had grown to over 30k. 

I also realized that most of the people and brands that hired me did so because they liked my Linkedin posts. 

They liked the way I thought. 

I did this without taking classes from the gurus, paying attention to my metrics, or writing for the algorithm.

I figured, if I could do it for me, I could probably do it for other people as well.

So, I started offering ghostwriting services to high-level ad executives and solopreneurs in early 2023.

And the results were pretty phenomenal.

In just 6 months, I grew from zero clients to over 15

And on November 1st, 2023, I closed my ad agency for good. 

Since that day, I’ve taken my unconventional approach to branding and advertising  and started using it to ghostwrite and manage the personal brands of several high-profile executives, founders, business owners, and solopreneurs (but I can’t tell you who).

To scale the business, I partnered with LinkedIn B2B ad whisperer Aaron Zakowski to form Genius Scouts.

My Mission is to help people and brands write things worth reading and do things worth writing about.

Here are all the ways you can work with me:

GENIUS SCOUTS THE AGENCY

Need help building and managing your personal brand? Let the world's only full-service ad agency (but for people) do it for you. 

→ GO HERE: https://www.geniusscouts.com/?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=JustinProfileLink

LAETRO 

Need help creating an ad campaign or with a marketing project? Let me put together a team for you. 

→ DM me

HIBACHI COPY

Just need copywriting help? Me, you (and whoever you think should be in there as well). Two days. All the copy you need. Done. 
→ GO HERE: www.hibachicopy.com

Email: justin@justinoberman.com
X: @obercr8ive

Creative Director / Copywriter

Oberman & Partners is a creative consultancy for brands and agencies that still believe in the magic of advertising. 

Known as the guy that brands and agencies call when they’re stuck or need a little extra creative juice, OBERMAN diagnoses the problem and (if necessary) puts together a unique team of PARTNERS (freelancers or other agencies) to solve them.

Wow. This Substack thing really works. Below are my results after just one day of rebranding my newsletter as OberThinking  and activating payment subscriber mode. 

Of course, and this is extremely important, I am not just rising from the earth like Adam. 

I’m totally leveraging my 58k followers on LinkedIn. 

But still. 

Since starting on Substack I have 

• Grown my newsletter from 700 subscribers to almost  4k in three month

• Gotten most of leads either directly from the newsletter or from people who have read it. 

• Earned almost 1k in subscriber fees on my first day of activating it. 

• #19 Rising in Business category 

That’s enough to convince me where I should start shifting my (and my clients) attention. 

Don’t get me wrong. I still plan on using LinkedIn.  Abd evennpksn to start using Facebook more. 

But just differently. 

It’s no longer the end goal. 

Getting oeople to subscribe to my newsletter is. 

I’ve got 3 clients that have already made the shift. 

Anyone want to be the fourth? 

Link to my newsletter in comments

Copywriter, Ghostwriter, Personal & Corporate Brand Advisor, Manager & Impresario. | I help people and brands write things worth reading and do things worth writing about. | I also teach how to write like a human with AI

Whitney Ruben: Our ads aren't working

Bill Bernbach: Where are you advertising?

Rubin: In the NY Post

Bill: Why?

Rubin: Because it has an 80% Jewish readership 

Bill: Why does that matter?

Rubin: Well, rye bread is a Jewish staple. 

Bill: So?

Rubin: So, shouldn't we advertise where the Jews are? 

Bill: That's lazy thinking. 

Rubin: How so?

Bill: Look, Levy's Jewish Rye is a great Jewish Rye... but from one Jew to another, let's face it, it's a packaged Jewish Rye. Every Jew knows that the only place t get good rye bread is fresh from the baker.

Rubin: So, how can we convince them to buy our packaged Jewish rye?

Bill: You can't. At least not without spending millions of dollars.

Rubin: Oy! So what do we do?

Bill: Appeal to a wider audience

Rubin? You mean Gentiles? 

Bill: Why not? They already buy packaged bread. And they'd probably love the novelty of a rye one. 

Rubin: I guess so, but how do we do that? Isn't that expensive?

Bill: Not at all. Simply relocate all your current Jewish-targeted advertising to papers with a higher gentile readership. 

Rubin: Great! Let's do it.

FLASH FORWARD 3 YEARS

Rubin: Your plan worked. Should we make our ads less Jewish, looking to increase sales?

Bill: Not at all. In fact, I suggest doubling down on it. Let's add the word "Jewish" to Levy's Rye Bread so that it reads "Levy's Real Jewish Rye." 

Rubin: I don't know. People are liable to be anti-Semitic. Plus, "Jewish" could be a real turn-off to retailers. 

Bill: I think the opposite will happen. 

Rubin: How so?

Bill: I think people will associate the best rye bread with Jewish rye bread. And they'll ask for you by name. 

Rubin: I don't know if I want to be so Jewish.

Bill: For goodness' sake, Whitney, the bread's name is Levy's. They're not going to mistake you for being High Episcopalian. 

Rubin: So what do you suggest?

Bill: Let’s blast Jewish message all over New York

Rubin: You mean the New Yorker?

Bill: Well, there too. But no. I mean New York.

Rubin: The City?

Bill: Yes... Specifically in the Subways. 

Rubin: Why the Subways?

Bill: Because everyone uses subways. It will make your bread seem as ethnic as New York.

Rubin: OK, Bill

With some creative liberties, that's how the great Levy's Bread campaign came about. 

No 23 slide deck about DDB's philosophy. 

No 75-slide consumer insight deck 

No 55-slide media plan. 

Just a client with a problem, a young ad executive who knew how to look beyond the obvious, and a young agency filled with highly talented creative people to make it happen.  

The result was a campaign that didn't just usher in a new creative revolution in advertising and make DDB the hottest shop in town. 

But also became a significant symbol of diversity in the 60s. 

Even Malcolm was a fan.

You don't need to be DDB to know what good advertising is ;-)

RIP DDB.

👍 to share
#oberthinking
#advertisinghistorytoday

#advertising #creative #marketing #copywriting

Levy's Bread DDB Ads

It took three months meeting over 4,000 people before Volkswagen chose DDB  as their agency.

They were not impressed by what they’d seen.

Which was hardly surprising.  

The year was 1959. 

US advertising was infatuated with data, research, focus groups, and the like. 

Almost every ad, commercial, and billboard was tested before, during, and after it ran. 

All of it was deeply analyzed in an attempt to make the message mean all things to all people. 

But more often than not, the results meant nothing to anyone. 

Except at least to the agency and the client.

The ad below was one of many ads for that campaign that changed everything. 

It turned an ugly German car (funded by Hitler, no less) into an icon. 

It didn’t just move needles. 

It changed minds.

It was magic.

And it spawned a creative revolution that changed the world of advertising forever. 

Well, at least for the next forty years. 

Our industry has again fallen under the spell of data. 

We spend days creating digital ads that are tested in real time. 

The only difference this time is that…

Instead of trying to make one ad mean all things to all people, now we try to make many ads mean something to just one person.

But once again…

More often than not, the results mean little to anyone.

Sounds like a ripe opportunity for disruption. 

I’m excited to see the ad that will spark the next creative revolution.

Hopefully, it will be yours. 

RIP DDB

👍 to share

#oberthinking
#advertisinghistorytoday

#advertising #creativity #marketing

The best marketing books aren’t about marketing.

This week I read  “No More Mr. Nice Guy”  (and before you judge, it’s not what you think). 

The book is ostensibly about men who’ve spent their lives seeking approval, avoiding conflict, and wondering why their relationships feel hollow. 

But if you strip away the therapeutic framework and you find something fascinating: 

A study in learned inhibition.

Most of the men who come to Rober Glover already know how to get what they want. 

They knew as children. Watch any three-year-old negotiate for ice cream and you’ll see sophisticated persuasion at work. 

You’ll see a human that understands (or is at least figuring out) attention-seeking, emotional leverage and strategic persistence. 

But somewhere between childhood and the cubicle, we learn that wanting things openly is unseemly. And that drawing attention to yourself is vulgar. And that the proper way to get what you need is to be so helpful, or so accommodating, or so relentlessly pleasant that people volunteer to give it to you.

(They rarely do.)

Which brings me to LinkedIn and personal branding, or even regular branding for that matter, and that word we keep using: 

Authentic.

When we talk about “being authentic” on social media, we usually mean sharing vulnerable moments or admitting our failures. And that can be valuable. But I think  we’re defining the term too narrowly, and in doing so, missing something important.

The three-year-old asking for ice cream is being utterly authentic not  because she’s sharing her deepest vulnerabilities, but because she hasn’t yet learned that desire is something to disguise.

She’s willing to be visible in her wanting. 

Being authentic doesn’t mean broadcasting your every unfiltered thought. 

It means not being afraid to do the things you need to do to get what you want.

Most of you who have problems making social media work for you are having these problems because you have spent decades learning the opposite lesson. 

You’ve been taught that the sophisticated professional doesn’t ask directly, doesn’t draw attention, doesn’t seek things like fame. 

So you wrap your ambitions in self-deprecation and soften your expertise with qualifying phrases and post tentatively, as if apologising for taking up space.

And that’s why your ideas don’t spread, why your businesses don’t grow, and why the opportunities go to people who seem somehow less qualified but inexplicably more visible.

What we call authenticity in adult discourse is often just inhibition wearing a respectable mask.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Being authentic doesn’t mean broadcasting your every unfiltered thought. 

It means not being afraid to do the things you need to do to get what you want.

If this resonated and you want to learn how to snap out of it sign up for my upcoming free masterclass. Or subscribe to my newsletter. 

Link to book in comments. 

#onebookaweek

No alternative text description for this image

Personal branding has nothing to do with authenticity. 

According to her birth certificate, the woman in the picture below’s name was Josephine Esther Mentzer. But as a child she went by a nickname based on her middle name. 

Born in Corona, Queens, she was the daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants and worked in her father’s hardware store alongside eight siblings.

When she and her husband launched the company with four products in 1946, she added an accent mark to her nickname to make it sound French and began pronouncing it the way her father had, with his Hungarian accent.

She hinted at European aristocratic descent and told people she’d been raised by her Viennese mother in a sumptuous home in Flushing, Queens, with stables, a chauffeured car, and an Italian nurse. 

None of it was true.

But everyone suspected it. 

And yet the beauty brand she founded flourishes until today. 

Because she understood the one thing that most people who build personal brands miss. 

That the mythology around her wasn’t meant to replace an authentic product experience.

It was there to get people’s attention and give that experience meaning. 

That brands built purely on mythmaking, without substance, tend to collapse when reality disappoints. 

And that a fake aristocrat selling ineffective cream would have been forgotten by 1950.

She first learned the formulation of her products as a little girl, watching her chemist uncle in Queens. 

She and her husband manufactured them in a converted Manhattan restaurant. 

She’d make products during the day, sell them to beauty salons where she’d demonstrate them to women under hair dryers, and then continue making products through the night. 

As it turned out, her creams actually improved women’s skin.

And that’s how  “Estée Lauder” (a name that never quite existed, belonging to a woman everyone knew was never quite who she said she was) became one of the most authentic brands in cosmetics.

Because the reputation didn’t belong to her. 

That’s just how she got people’s attention. 

It belonged to the millions of women who built it in their own heads, from their own experiences, and most importantly, the evidence on their own skin.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Lesson: It’s OK to humbug people to get their attention, provided that the thing you are getting their attention for is of greater value than the humbug. 

If you ask me, that’s kind of what all good advertising does anyway. 

But more importantly, as this story proves, it applies to your personal brand just as much as to your corporate ones. 

Do you really believe that Musk, Bartlett or any of the people you admire with strong personal brands are truly being themselves? 

Acting like they do at home? 

They are not. 

Some of may be acting more natural than others. 

But they are  all acting. 

They are putting on a show. 

And the sooner you accept this and start building your character, the more successful you will be. 

Have fun 

#advertisinghistorytoday

Since everyone's impressions are down, I created a Mad Libs post generator for LinkedIn. Have fun. Link in comments.

I have bad news for every marketing professional reading this.

We're probably still going to be using LLMs to create content in 5 years.

I've talked to VCs. 
I've talked to private equity. 
I've talked to the "disruptors."

Nobody wants to take on OpenAI, Claude, or Google.

The sales cycle is too hard. 
Companies won't leave.

So here's the question: If we're stuck with LLMs, how do we make it work FOR us instead of us working THROUGH it?

What if the answer isn't another clone of my voice to create a LinkedIn posts platform?
What if the answer is building around it?

• Pulling yourself out of the LLM 80% of the time
• Build our own workflow tools that actually make you think differently
• Create an idea that helps you create more original content.

I'm not talking about trying to replace your LLMs
I'm trying to make it more irrelevant to your daily content creation.

Introducing Mad Links (A Mad Libs generator for your LinkedIn posts).

Is it a solution to any of the issues I discussed above?

No. 

But it's a lot of fun. 

Which, by the way, is an underappreciated technique for creating better content.

Link in comments

One of the interesting things about politely disagreeing with AIfluencers on social media is that they probably won't see it. 

The whole purpose of AI, from their point of view, is to let them avoid actually spending time on the platforms and communicating with people. 

I do not think that Ruben Hassid is one of those people. 

But oddly enough, it is also one of the reasons AI cannot do many of the things it claims it can. 

Like, for example, make your content feel more human. 

That's because language is not a delivery system. It's a collaboration. 

It's time to hold AInfluencers and AI companies philosophically accountable for the things that they say.

I talk about this and more in today's OberThinking newsletter. 

And speaking of collaboration, I created a fun ChatGPT to help prove this point. 

It's Mad Links, and it's essentially a Mad Libs post Generator for LinkedIn.

Link in comments 

On Thursday, I will release my Drunk Prompting guide for paid subscribers. 

If you'd rather avoid my philosophical musing on AI, you can just skip down to the bottom like a Craxker Jack Box and have some fun.

Link to newsletter in comments

This is the "Apple 1984 ad of political advertising.”

The year was 1964. President Johnson needed an agency for his campaign against Barry Goldwater. 

His choice? 

The creative revolutionaries at DDB are the same folks behind Volkswagen's groundbreaking "Think Small" campaign.

The legendary audio engineer Tony Schwartz was brought in to work on the project.

What they ended up producing stunned America.

On September 7, 1964, during NBC's Monday Night Movie, viewers watched as a little girl counted daisy petals. Suddenly, her innocent counting transformed into a missile launch countdown. 

Then... nuclear apocalypse.

No mention of Goldwater. 

No direct accusations. 

Just pure, raw emotion that played on voters' deepest fears about nuclear war.

The backlash was immediate. Johnson pulled it amid fierce criticism. 

The "Daisy" ad aired exactly once. But here's the twist - news stations nationwide couldn't stop replaying it. 

The ad went viral before "viral" existed.

Tony Schwartz called it "the first Rorschach test on the American public." 

He wasn't wrong. 

The spot revolutionized political advertising by showing the raw power of emotional storytelling over facts and figures.

Johnson won with 90% of the electoral votes. 

And whether or not the ad had anything to do with it, he, DDB, and Tony Schwartz wrote the playbook for modern political advertising: 

People don't vote for a candidate. They vote against the other guy. 

Sometimes, the most powerful message is the one that taps into what voters are already thinking.

Fascinating fact: JFK had actually spotted DDB's potential first. He told Bobby to "Get me the agency that does the Volkswagen advertising" for his planned '64 campaign. We'll never know what they would have created for Kennedy. But we know the revolution they sparked for Johnson.

RIP DDB

I held my breath while punching until I felt dizzy.

Then I did it 30 more times.

That's how Jackie Chan invented drunken kung fu.

Turns out, if you want to use AI to help you be more creative, that's also how you should be prompting AI.

But nobody's teaching you that part.

Until I wrote the below Substack

Link in comments

Brian Sykes

theBrianSykes

Harness the Power of AI to AMP + RAMP your Creative Productivity!

As a trusted AI strategist and consultant, I guide you in leveraging the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for your Creative Agency. I will help you unlock new opportunities, drive innovation, and stay ahead in today's fast-paced digital landscape.

My AI services are designed to address the unique needs of your Creative Business, whether you are a one man shop looking to leverage AI to multiply your individual efforts, or a Creative Director with a whole team on in-house Creatives you want to enhance. From AI strategy development to implementation and optimization, I provide comprehensive solutions that align with your goals - amplifying the Creative output.

With my guidance, you can navigate the complexities of the AI landscape and make informed decisions when it comes to selecting and deploying AI technologies. By integrating AI into your business processes, you can enhance operational efficiency, automate repetitive tasks, and gain valuable insights from your data. My services encompass AI-driven solutions such as natural language processing, computer vision, predictive analytics, and machine learning.

I understand that AI implementation can be a daunting task, which is why I offer personalized support tailored to your organization's needs. I will work closely with your team, providing training, workshops, and ongoing consultation to ensure a smooth and successful integration of AI into your workflows.

Together, we will future-proof your AI strategy and adapt to changing market dynamics.

AI Catalyst

HeadSpace Branding

HeadSpace Branding provides clarity to business leadership for brand transformation - solving complex business problems through Brand Strategy, Identity & Marketing.

Founder / Principal

AdJourney

AdJourney crafted effective strategies, memorable branding, targeted interactions and extraordinary storytelling - helping businesses connect with their ideal clients. With 23 years in operation, it served as a cornerstone to my creative career. At one point, you could not drive a block through our hometown without seeing something I had a hand in designing. A fantastic foundational part of my history and core to my next steps in branding, marketing and generative AI.

A.I. Whisperer | AI Business Strategist | Generative AI Expert | LinkedIn Top 100 AI Artists | Brand Architect | Keynote Speaker

Seasoned strategist in Branding and Marketing with almost 3 decades of experience, amplified by Generative AI. Leveraging my depth of knowledge, I guide Creative Pros to transform and innovate by harnessing the power of AI. As the founder of AdJourney (1999-2022), I provided bespoke Branding and Marketing solutions for SMBs in various fields, driving growth and raising brand awareness.

My commitment to education in AI extends to my role as a Teacher & Consultant for the US Small Business Administration, NC-District. Here, I develop and deliver custom Business Classes and provide one-on-one consultation around Branding, Marketing, Advertising, and AI.

As an author and educator in Generative AI, I've produced multiple books and extensive resources, including 'A.I. Explore: Prompt Fundamentals,' a comprehensive guide to AI art generation that sold over 1000 copies. My work in this domain is also evident in my YouTube channel and podcast, where I share insights on AI and its potential applications in the business world.

Notable career highlights include the growth and marketing of brands such as Sandhills Pediatrics, Tex Racing, and Longworth Industries - XGO, among others. These experiences have equipped me to deliver high-value strategies that result in tangible business outcomes.

Now, I am focusing on a new venture as an AI Business Strategist. I provide tailored AI integration solutions for Creative Pros ready to embrace the future. I'm excited to work with forward-thinking companies and help them unlock the transformative power of AI in their operations.

Most people think AI is replacing creativity.
It isn’t.
It’s replacing the parts of creativity that were never creative.

This is the uncomfortable truth no one wants to say out loud:
Skill ≠ Meaning-Making.

The carousel shows it plainly.

AI automates execution.
It accelerates style.
It removes friction from every technical task we used to consider “creative.”

But AI cannot choose what matters.
It cannot assign meaning, intention, judgment, or taste.
It can only expose the absence of those things in the people using it.

The missing ingredient in today’s creative teams isn’t capability.
It’s meaning-making.
The human layer.

And the cost of not having that layer just went up.
Dramatically.

Because if everyone now has infinite output at their fingertips…
the advantage no longer belongs to the team with the best tools.
It belongs to the team with the best discernment.
The best clarity.
The strongest point of view.
The most human operating system.

Winning designers won’t design the rules the AI follows.
Winning designers will design the meaning the AI expresses.

This is the true center of competitive advantage in the AI era.
This is the (Hu)man Element™ in action.

A Human Operating System enhanced by AI.
Not displaced by it.

If you want early access to the framework, drop “Hu” in the comments.
Or follow along — tomorrow we go deeper.

Brian Sykes  |  AI LAB

AI LAB • [Hu]man ::: 2

Creator of The (Hu)man Element™ | Equipping Creative Enterprises to Harness AI Without Losing the Human Touch | Keynote Speaker | Author

AI LAB • [Hu]man ::: 2

Most YouTube creators don’t have a content problem. 
They have a workflow problem.

That is why today I’m kicking off a 14-day experiment called -
YouTube, Upgraded.

Short lessons. Smart tools. Daily moves you can actually use.
The goal is simple.
Make better decisions. Produce faster. Measure real progress.

Day 1 is live now. Your baseline begins today.
The rest of the series will run on my Substack, and I will drop each day’s link in the comments.

If you share your YouTube channel in the comments, I will give you one month of my Substack for free.
I want you to test these upgrades on your own channel... and share your results after 1 month. I want to see what happens when creators stop guessing and start using AI with intention.

Let’s see how much better your next two weeks on YouTube can actually get.
Brian Sykes

Have a YouTube channel? Your baseline begins here. Take the first steps toward a smarter AI workflow. Start the experiment. Measure the change. Day 1.

Open article: YouTube, Upgraded: 14 Days of AI Power Moves • Day 1 by Brian Sykes • 3 min read

YouTube, Upgraded: 14 Days of AI Power Moves • Day 1

SOLVED: The "2-Character Problem" in AI Video • how to create a seamless conversation between two AI characters without "glitches" or "hallucinations."

If you have tried to create an AI video with two people in the same shot, you know the pain...

You upload your script. 
You generate your characters. 
You hit "Animate." 
And then... chaos. 

The wrong mouth moves. The characters swap voices. Or, my personal favorite, the AI hallucinates a random "third arm" floating in the middle of the table.

This is the "Two-Character Problem."

Most current AI video tools with voice capabilities, are built to deal with one face at a time. When you introduce a additional faces, the model gets confused about who is speaking.

In today’s video breakdown (a small clip is shared here), I walk you through the exact workflow I discovered to fix this completely—resulting in a perfectly lip-synced, multi-character scene. 

For the FULL 20-minute tutorial, click the link to my YouTube video in the comments. Let me know what you think! 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Brian Sykes

Stop learning AI tools.
Start building a system.

The market is flooded with "tool-first" AI tutorials. 
They're missing the point.

This is what creative leaders are actually struggling with:
• "My team's outputs feel generic. How do I protect our unique voice?"
• "Clients expect 'faster, cheaper.' How do I protect our creative value?"
• "What are our IP, licensing, and QA policies for AI?"

These aren't tool problems. 
They're workflow and governance problems.

The barrier to solving them isn't skill; it's psychology. 
We're stuck in "I'll learn it later" mode. 

I've written a short manifesto on the one mental trap holding our industry back and introduced the system for "micro-wins"  that solves it. 

I'm building the framework for creative teams that moves beyond prompts and into production.

It’s called the (Hu)man Element.

Read the attached PDF. 
If you're ready for a real framework, comment "I'M IN" below to get on the waitlist for the founding cohort.

Brian Sykes  |  AI LAB
#GenerativeAI #CreativeOperations #AIStrategy #AIEthics #DesignLeadership #AILAB

(Hu)man Element • AI LAB

The human hand controlling the puppet.

These images were created for my post on the [Hu]man Element, focused around the idea that AI doesn't remove the human layer, it exposes it.

For the visuals, I turned myself into a felt puppet in various Spider-Man poses. Not to show off prompt engineering. 
To make a point about agency.

A puppet is useless without the hand controlling it. 
AI is powerful, but meaningless without human intent.
The winning designers won't just design the rules AI follows. 
They'll design the meaning AI expresses.

The most human company wins.
Brian Sykes | AI LAB



So, why the Spidey-posed puppet images?

They're a visual metaphor for my Day 2 thesis: 
I literally put yourself (as a felt puppet—already a human-controlled analog object) into dynamic, impossible poses. 

The Spidey reference isn't about "cool comic book imagery" (though it is...)
It's about power and responsibility. 
It's about the human hand controlling the puppet. 
It's about agency.

AI LAB • Using Pose References in Nano Banana Pro

Most companies think they have an AI problem.
They don’t.
They have a Human Operating-System problem.

Giving your team access to AI tools doesn’t mean you get lift.
It means you exposed your existing limitations.

This is the silent truth no one wants to say out loud:
Access ≠ Implementation.
>>> The carousel shows it plainly. 

Teams aren’t struggling because the tools are bad.
They’re struggling because tools don’t change people.
Tools only reveal them.

AI removes friction.
But it also removes excuses.

And in that exposure, you find the real competitive advantage:
The most human company wins.
The one that understands identity, judgment, taste, clarity, intention, and the psychological patterns that drive behavior.

That’s what I’m launching next:
The (Hu)man Element™.
A Human Operating System enhanced by AI.

If you want early access to the framework, drop a “Hu” in the comments.
Or just follow along — things are about to get interesting.

Brian Sykes  |  AI LAB

AI LAB • [Hu]man ::: 1

Not a deep dive... just 2 quick samples from the Nano Banana 2 waters - sharing a bit of what it can do. 
1 • Text in Image (yeah, it is really good at that)
2 • Detail Detection & Incremental Changes

Brian Sykes

What can the great Nano Banana 2 do? Here are just a couple things... with more highlights to come. I have not gotten specific into what Nano Banana 2

Open article: Google Nano Banana 2 by Brian Sykes • 1 min read

Owning Your Audience: Why I Chose Substack for AI LAB (and What I Learned Along the Way)

After publishing 170+ editions of my LinkedIn Newsletter (and reaching over 175K article views in a year) + 588 Substack Posts (averaging 33k views a month), 100+ articles on Medium (averaging 2k views a month), testing multiple different platforms… one truth stood out: 
--- if you don’t own your audience, you’re just renting attention.

I’ve tested them all—LinkedIn, Medium, Podia, and Substack—and each plays a different role in how I teach and connect with creative professionals learning AI.

Here’s what worked, what didn’t, and why Substack became home base for the AI LAB.

👇 Read the full breakdown and real numbers:
Brian Sykes

Substack... now that is a great question, and one that requires some insight on my decision I actually tried a number of things simultaneously: Linked

Open article: Owning Your Audience: Why I Chose Substack for AI LAB (& What I Learned Along the Way) by Brian Sykes • 5 min read

Owning Your Audience: Why I Chose Substack for AI LAB (& What I Learned Along the Way)

Got another "Rajib" message yesterday.
"I can fix your YouTube SEO and grow your channel!"

Rajib's selling the wrong medicine.

SEO is dead last in YouTube's priority list. Literally. Last place.
While creators obsess over keywords and tags, the algorithm obsesses over something else entirely.

I mapped out YouTube's actual growth sequence:
1. Avatar & Value (Who watches? Why should they care?)
2. Packaging (Thumbnail + Title = Click or scroll?)
3. Hook & Retention (First 30 seconds = stay or leave?)
4. Satisfaction (Did you deliver the promise?)
5. Session Time (One view becomes three?)
6. SEO (YouTube needs context. That's it.)

Notice where SEO sits? 
After everything that actually matters.

Your thumbnail stops the scroll - or it doesn't.
Your hook keeps them watching - or it doesn't.
Your content creates binges - or it doesn't.

SEO just helps YouTube categorize your video. It doesn't make anyone watch.

I've built two YouTube channels. Run a 23-year agency. Taught this to hundreds of creators.
The ones who grow focus on Identity > SEO.
The ones who struggle chase keywords like it's 2010.

Rajib's template pitch treats YouTube like Google Search.
But YouTube isn't a search engine anymore.
It's a recommendation engine.

And recommendations follow satisfaction, not keywords.

Day 10 of YouTube, Upgraded drops tomorrow.
Visual identity - the thing that makes your videos recognizable before anyone hits play.

That's what grows channels.
Not SEO.

Brian Sykes  |  AI LAB

Link to the full breakdown in comments.

Ideate - a Nifty New Feature in the Adobe Universe of AI

We have seen canvas-based creation in the AI space before. 
Did Adobe do it better? 

I believe Adobe's potential competitive advantage is through interface design rather than just raw AI capabilities.

Dive into the product (and my perspective) in today's Substack.
Brian Sykes

Meta’s images will suddenly look very familiar.
     Turns out, they should.

Midjourney’s DNA just went mainstream—inside Meta’s free AI.
     What used to cost $30/month now costs nothing to millions of Meta fans.

The question isn’t who has access anymore.
It’s who has taste and knows how to wield it - professionally.

Get the scoop on my Substack.
     Link in comments.

Brian Sykes

#Meta #Midjourney #ImageGeneration #GenAI

I had a few people text me on the side and say they missed the interview I had with Big Al Gruswitz on The Main Event... so here it is. 

The LINK (in the comments) is to a Substack post with the YouTube embedded - and of course, some note and takeaways from me to help lend clarity around the content shared.

1. The Pivot to “Back to Basics” • [08:26]
2. Adobe Firefly: The “Trojan Horse” of AI • [13:28] 
3. The “Ideate” Workflow • [20:23]
4. “Dirty AI” vs. Commercial Safety • [27:35]
5. The AMP vs. RAMP Philosophy • [36:19]
6. Live Demo: Conversational & Iterative Editing • [46:08] – [51:29] 


Link in comments...
Brian Sykes

If you think SEO grows your channel… you’re building the wrong channel.
And you are definitely focusing on the wrong thing.

I break the myth in today’s bonus lesson.
Short. Direct. Necessary.
Linked.

Brian Sykes | AI LAB

Creators obsess over SEO. The algorithm doesn’t. The audience doesn’t. YouTube sure doesn’t. If you chase SEO… none of my 14 Days of YouTube Lessons -

Open article: BONUS: The One Thing That Will Break Your YouTube Channel (If You Don’t Fix It) by Brian Sykes • 4 min read

BONUS: The One Thing That Will Break Your YouTube Channel (If You Don’t Fix It)

Most creators think they need better gear.
🔥 No 🔥 
They need a better system.

I just spent 14 days tearing YouTube creation down to the studs…and rebuilding it into a workflow any creator can run. If you make videos, this might be the most useful thing you save all year.

📌 SAVE THIS if you make YOUTUBE videos.

I pulled every core lesson, every prompt, every workflow, and every optimization into one place.
14 Days.
3 bonus deep dives.
A complete creator operating system.

Save it now so you don’t lose it later.
Your future self will thank you.

Brian Sykes
___

💬 Want a Video Course Instead?

If all of this feels TL:DR, and you’d rather watch a full video-based course with every prompt included, just comment “YOUTUBE” below.

If there is enough interest – I will produce it, and share details as soon as it’s ready.

Assetization • 'examines how assets are constructed and how a variety of things can be turned into assets; analyzing the interests, activities, skills

Open article: The YouTube Creator's AI Workflow: System & Assetization by Brian Sykes • 3 min read

The YouTube Creator's AI Workflow: System & Assetization

Day 2 of YouTube Upgraded (the AI amplifier). Today’s post is about the 5-tool set for “Right Ideas, Not Just More” Research Stack Creator-First Workflow.

Five stages. Five tools. Each chosen because it solves a specific part of the research process.
• Gemini for the Landscape
• Perplexity for the Precision
• NotebookLM to uncover Patterns
• Claude to Humanize
• ChatGPT for Frameworks

This is the cleanest, fastest, most reliable way to find stronger ideas, not just more ideas, and uncovering the videos worth making.

Images are from a Midjourney anchor image (with me as an OmniReference), with varying camera angles created with Googles Nano Banana.

Brian Sykes

Link to the Substack post in the comments.

Why do audiobooks sound stilted?
Why do podcasts feel robotic?
Why do videos sound 'written'?

The problem isn't the voice.
It's that we write for readers, not listeners.

Speech is messier. More rhythmic. More emotionally punctuated.

Today's article shows you 4 shifts to fix this:
1. Rhythm over grammar
2. Vocal punctuation
3. Strategic emphasis
4. Commanded emotion

The lesson isn't just about AI. It's about better writing.

[Link in comments]

Brian Sykes | AI LAB

Editing doesn’t take hours because it’s hard.
It takes hours because you’re doing it out of order.

Day 7 in my series YouTube, Upgraded: AI Power Moves, I show how AI handles the “boring 70%” of your edit.
Pre-cut your timeline. Clean your A-roll. Auto-fix your sound.
Generate the B-roll you never captured.

If Day 6 helped you film better.
Day 7 helps you finish faster.

Full breakdown inside the AI LAB Substack (link in the comments).
Brian Sykes

Comment with your YouTube channel to get featured + a free month of my Substack.

Knowledge is power.
Information control is power.

But we've reached an absurd inflection point: humans now modify and contort their language to appease algorithms and avoid censorship bots.

Technology is meant to serve humanity - not the other way around.

Scroll through social media. Notice what's missing. 
People aren't murdered - they're "unalived." 
Suicide becomes "sewerslide." 
Death is reduced to skull emojis.

We have words for these things. Real words. Words that carry weight, demand attention, force acknowledgment.

Instead, we get linguistic baby-talk and bizarre coded language where serious topics get marginalized into juvenile-sounding euphemisms. Why? Because platforms have trained us to fear the invisible hand of content moderation.

Here's 3 modified to pass the algorithm's test (revised for your safe reading):
• Shakespeare Sonnet 139: "Yet do not so, but since I am nearly 💀, / Finish me outright with looks, and end my 😢"
• Exodus 20:13: "You shall not 🚫👤"
• R.D. Laing: "Life is transmitted through spicy time and everyone eventually 💀"

There it is. Shakespeare reduced to emojis. Biblical commandments turned into rebuses. Profound philosophical observations about human mortality sounding like a teenager's TikTok caption.

Those don't bear the same weight as:
• Shakespeare - Sonnet 139  - "Yet do not so, but since I am near slain, / Kill me out-right with looks, and rid my pain".

• Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder."

• R.D. Lang - "Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent".

The essence isn't just stripped - it's obliterated. The gravity, the poetry, the precision of language that took millennia to refine... replaced by symbols and baby-talk because we're terrified of the algorithm's invisible hand.

This causes real harm:
• Trivializes serious issues ::: suicide prevention resources become unfindable
• Creates algorithmic gaslighting ::: punished without explanation
• Inverts the power dynamic ::: we serve the system, not vice versa

We're contorting human language to appease systems that were supposedly built to serve us.

This is linguistic dystopia.

The cruel irony? 
This censorship doesn't actually prevent harm. People still discuss these topics - they just do it in ways that are harder to track, harder to study, and harder to provide resources for.

What makes this particularly insidious is that it's not even transparent censorship. It's shadow bans, algorithmic suppression, demonetization - systems that punish without explanation.

--

So while I talk about technology and the beauty of its usefulness, there are topics on the converse side worth bring up. Where do you see this heading if it continues?

Brian Sykes | AI LAB

Tools for Video:
Gemini 2.5 ::: scripting lyrics
Suno V5 ::: music
LTX Studio ::: Images & Video
How To ::: I will share on YouTube + my Substack
Links in comments.

Your videos aren’t slow because you edit poorly.
They’re slow because you film blind.

Day 5 fixes that.
Repeatable shot lists.
Clear purpose.
Faster production.

Full article in today’s newsletter & the AI LAB Substack.

Brian Sykes

Over the past five days, I’ve been breaking down a creator-first workflow for making better YouTube videos using AI. Not shortcuts. Not gimmicks. Actu

Open article: YouTube, Upgraded: Days 1–5 Recap (& why today’s lesson changes everything) by Brian Sykes • 2 min read

YouTube, Upgraded: Days 1–5 Recap (& why today’s lesson changes everything)

If filming feels exhausting, it’s not you.
It’s your prep.
Day 6 shows how AI fixes that before you hit record.

This is the next step in my 14-day series, YouTube, Upgraded, where I’m walking creators through the exact workflows I use to plan, structure, film, edit, and publish videos with far less friction.

Days 1–5 took us through baselines, research, scripts, storyboards, and shot lists.
Day 6 breaks open the one thing every creator struggles with.
A-Roll that actually sounds like you.

Full article inside the newsletter.
Drop your YouTube channel in the comments to get featured and get a month free to my Substack.

Link in comments to Day 6.

Brian Sykes  |  AI LAB

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