Aaron Zakowski

Aaron Zakowski Coaching

Through my Unstoppable Fathers program, you’ll finally become the father your kids deserve—and the man your wife craves.

You’ll break free from guilt, distraction, and emotional disconnection. No more ending each day feeling like you failed your family.

This 90-day journey is about more than just “being a better dad.” It’s about becoming a BIG man—a man of Belief, Intentionality, and Gratitude.

You’ll learn how to:
- Believe in yourself again—and in your ability to lead, protect, and inspire your family. 
- Be intentional with how you show up every day—as a husband, father, and leader at home. 
- Practice Gratitude for all your blessings —When you’re truly grateful for your wife, your kids, and your life, it’s much harder to lose your temper and easier to lead from a place of love and patience.

You’ll learn how to reconnect with your wife and earn her appreciation and desire—not by changing her, but by transforming yourself.

This program is about reclaiming your strength, presence, and purpose at home—so your kids look up to you, your wife looks forward to you, and you look in the mirror and feel proud of the man you’ve become

Sound like you?

- You're physically present but emotionally checked out
- You're tired of the guilt, the distance, the short fuse
- You want to feel respected, appreciated, and truly connected again
- You know you can do better—but you’re not sure how to get there

If that hits home, you might be a great fit for 1:1 coaching.

I’ll help you with practical tools, daily rituals, and powerful mindset shifts to help you lead your home with strength, love, and confidence — so you can rebuild connection, restore trust, and become the father and husband you were meant to be.

Fatherhood Coach

Zammo Digital Marketing

Fractional CMO & B2B Marketing Advisor

✅ Planned and implemented marketing programs for over 100 B2B and SaaS companies to drive profitable customer acquisition and revenue growth for both sales-led and product-led SaaS companies targeting small and medium business (SMB) segments.
✅ Worked closely with client marketing and sales teams to optimize for logo acquisition, deal size, deal velocity, and conversions across the funnel. Select clients included DigitalOcean, InVision, Brandfolder, Lessonly, TripleWhale, Shuttlerock, and many more.
✅ Oversaw management of over $15M in paid B2B advertising across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google ads. 
✅ Supported clients’ account-based marketing (ABM) efforts to define target ICP personas and implement creative demand-generation programs that build awareness, engage target accounts, and generate high-quality sales opportunities.
✅ Prepared quarterly and annual marketing budgets and forecasting for many companies.
✅ Managed a team of 10 media buyers, designers and project managers.
✅ Developed systems for continuous learning, testing, and optimization of campaigns, creatives, and messages based on key metrics and learnings.
✅ Responsible for all business development, marketing, and sales activities to grow the marketing agency.
✅ Built and managed the agency’s inbound marketing and content strategy that included podcasting, email marketing, LinkedIn automated outreach, blogging, social content, and short-form video to attract quality leads and convert them into sales opportunities.

Chief Marketing Officer & Founder

ChangeEngine

Marketing Advisor

SaaS Marketing Superstars Podcast

Podcast Founder & Host

Genius Scouts

A New Agency Model That Works For You

Most creative founders, executives & entrepreneurs lack the time and expertise to build a personal brand that gets results. Genius Scouts helps you develop and manage your personal brand on social media to give you the influence and authority you need to grow your business and achieve ambitious goals.

At Genius Scouts, we know you are the kind of person who wants to be more influential in your industry. To have that kind of authority, you need to build a strong personal brand. After all, people trust people, not companies. And a strong personal brand makes everything easier…
- Getting clients
- Closing deals
- Commanding higher fees

The problem is most agencies and consultants focus solely on your company's brand. And building your personal brand on your own is frustrating. We believe it doesn't have to be. 

That's why we've created an ad agency, but for people. 

While traditional agencies focus on corporate messaging and brand building, we apply those same powerful techniques to building an authentic personal brand that makes you famous.

Here's how it works:

1) Bi-Weekly Personal Brand Strategy Call
2) We Create All Your Content
3) Become The Go-To Authority

Join the ranks of our famous clients

Client #1
An advertising agency was hired by one of the world’s largest restaurant companies as a direct result of the content we created for their founder.

Client #2:
A music executive had a featured story written about him and his company in Billboard magazine.

Client #3
This Fortune 500 CXO was featured in a major news publication. She was later invited to speak on a panel at a major industry event. We coached her on her speech and wardrobe to help her stand out. Later, she gained additional media coverage highlighting how her comments and outfit stood out on stage.

Client #4
This home service company founder was stopped 15 times at a large industry conference by people telling him they read and love his LinkedIn content.

Co-Founder

Ethos Giving

Shuttlerock

Marketing Advisor via Zammo Digital

DigitalOcean

InVision

Recover Tactical

Recover Tactical is a recognized leader in developing innovative firearm accessories that add both additional function and tactical beauty to your gun.

Co-Founder and Marketing Director

The LinkedIn and Facebook ads guy for B2B & SaaS companies | CEO @ Zammo Digital | SaaS Marketing Superstars Podcast | Dad x 6

Twenty years in marketing gave me creativity, challenges, and the satisfaction of helping clients grow. But after two decades, something was missing.

I no longer felt fulfilled.

It was time to ask myself: If not marketing… what would I do?

The answer was clear: coaching men to be better husbands and fathers.

I’ve been happily married for 22 years. 
I’m the father of six incredible kids. 
And I believe fatherhood is the most important role a man will ever have.

But I also know the reality for many fathers… 
Coming home exhausted, distracted, and feeling like they’re falling short. I’ve lived it myself. 

With the help of my own mentors, coaches, and a lot of hard personal work, I learned how to rebuild presence, gratitude, and connection at home. 

Now, I’ve made it my mission to help other men do the same through my Unstoppable Fathers Movement—a system designed to help fathers step into their role as protectors, providers, and leaders—so their kids feel cherished, their wives feel loved, and their families thrive.

It’s based on my B.I.G. Fatherhood System:
•	Believe you are capable of becoming the father and husband you were meant to be.
•	Intentionality in how you show up for your wife and kids every single day with a clear action plan
•	Gratitude for the blessings you have that reshapes your energy, presence, and relationships at home.

💡 What this looks like:
•	Weekly 1:1 coaching sessions tailored to your real-life challenges
•	Proven strategies to rebuild communication, intimacy, trust, and respect
•	Practical systems for showing up present with your wife and kids
•	Mindset shifts that replace guilt with confidence and connection

If you’re ready to become the father your kids deserve and the husband your wife desires — I’d love to help.

👉 Follow me for tips and inspiration to be a better father, husband, and man
👉 DM me to learn more about 1:1 fatherhood coaching

Founder & Facebook Ads Expert

Paid ads agency helping leading B2B SaaS companies to accelerate revenue growth and achieve scale through Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Ads.

Here's what masculine confidence looks like that earns your wife's RESPECT and DESIRE ⬇️⬇️

1) When you show desire for her without acting like she owes you anything.

2) When you ask, “What would help you feel more loved right now?” — and then you follow through.

3) When you flirt with her during normal life (not only when you want intimacy).

4) When you take the lead on something without waiting to be asked.

5) When you stay grounded and steady even when she’s emotional.

6) When you read her body language, not just her words, so she feels fully seen.

7) When you focus on being comfortable with her feelings, not on fixing them.

8) When your small, steady actions show her she’s safe, valued, and chosen every day.

9) When you meet her vulnerability with your own instead of leaving her hanging alone.

10) When you notice her overwhelm or shutdown and respond with calm softness, not irritation.

If you’re a husband who wants more respect, more appreciation, and more desire in your marriage…

It starts with learning how to lead with calm intention instead of reacting with irritation.

This is exactly what I help men do.

DM me “RESPECT” and I’ll send you the next step.

Men’s Relationship Coach · I help high-achieving men become the better fathers their kids deserve and the husbands their wives crave · Husband · Father x6 · Marketing Consultant

Your wife and kids want you to stop acting like this ⬇️ 

Because here's what happens every time you lose patience and yell at your kids: 

- You teach them that yelling is ok.
- You teach them that their home is not a safe place.
- You teach them to fear you.

Ouch.

A father's first priority should be to make your wife and kids feel safe at home (and with you).

If you can't control your emotions, then how can you expect your kids to?

When you snap and yell at home, you're acting like a child.

Men who create safety and calm for their wives and kids learn to regulate their emotions.

The key is to RESPOND intentionally to challenges at home, 
and not to REACT impatiently to the chaos around you.

How you lead your family is decided in the moment between the stimulus and your response.

Because when your kid acts immaturely, that's normal.

But you're a grown a$$ man... So learn to act like it.

When you can't control yourself, you show the people around you that you're still just a child.

Every time your wife sees you lose your patience, she learns that she's not emotionally safe around you. She pulls back and loses respect, appreciation, and attraction to you.

And your kids learn to fear you rather than respect you. 

But here's the good news...

When you truly start to prioritize your wife and kids, you can learn to regulate your emotions and lead your family with safety. 

You'll regain your wife's attraction. And help your kids feel safe at home with you.

You just need to learn the mindsets and skillsets of healthy masculine leadership.

~~~
👉 If you're tired of succeeding at work but failing at home, then DM me to book a call and learn how to reignite respect and attraction from your wife and a deeper connection with your kids.

This is how husbands are earning more respect and fun naked time with their wives. ⬇️⬇️ 

Most men have it backwards…

They tell themselves:

“When I get more respect and intimacy… then I’ll be the best husband ever.”

But that's not how it works. Instead...

👉 Be the best husband ever, and you'll naturally start earning more respect and intimacy.

Respect and desire aren’t rewards you wait for.

They’re responses you inspire by the way you show up.

If you want a wife who respects you, appreciates you, and wants you…
Become the kind of man she naturally respects, appreciates, and wants.

(here's a secret... your wife wants to respect and want you more too)

That means doing the inner work first:
- Respond calmly instead of reacting with frustration
- Listening to her feelings without trying to fix or getting defensive
- Creating emotional safety instead of chaos
- Take responsibility to reduce her mental load
- Learn how she wants to be loved
- Feel confident in your own self-worth

Healthy masculinity isn’t about dominance. 

It's about leading with strength, consistency, direction, and emotional leadership in a way that inspires her to naturally CHOOSE to follow you.
 
When you do the inner work to fix how you show up:
Your wife softens.
Her guard drops.
Respect rises.
Connection grows.
Desire returns.

So she can finally feel seen, heard, and safe... 
and soften into her loving feminine nature.

Real men don’t wait for more respect and intimacy to “motivate” them to show up better.

Become the husband your wife craves now... and you’ll attract the marriage you’ve always wanted.

🔥 If you’re a husband who wants help to become the best version of yourself and to attract your wife's respect and desire, send me a message. 

I’m helping good men become great husbands again.

1. Understand she’s a feeling being.

Her world is emotion, connection, and being understood.
Yours is logic, respect, and appreciation.
If you ignore that difference, you’ll talk past each other, not to each other.

2. Safety is everything to her.

Emotional, physical, financial — all of it.
When she feels safe, she softens.
When she softens, love flows.

3. Validate her feelings.

Don’t fix.
Don’t explain.
Don’t defend.
Just witness her experience.
Validation opens her heart more than any solution ever will.

4. Respond, don’t react.

Your strength is the space between trigger and response.
Kids screaming, dishes piled, she’s overwhelmed — stay grounded.
Your calm presence is what makes her feel secure… and attracted.

5. Lead without controlling.

Initiate plans.
Handle responsibilities before she asks.
Reduce her mental load.
She wants a man who creates stability, structure, and direction — not a dictator, and not a passive roommate.

👋🏼 I’m Aaron Zakowski - I teach husbands what nobody else teaches you about women, marriage and intimacy. And how to be a more confident man. 

👉🏼 Like, follow, and share for more content like this.

✅ DM me for private, confidential 1:1 guidance.

Men want desire. Women want safety.
You don’t get one without giving the other. ⬇️⬇️

Here’s the truth:
❤️‍🔥 Your wife wants to want you.
She doesn’t pull away because she “lost interest.”
She pulls away because she stopped feeling led, safe, and supported.

You want her to want you?
Then become the version of you that makes her want you.

Do these 7 things and watch the shift happen fast:

1) Stop snapping. Attraction dies when she has to brace for your tone.

2) Make decisions. Indecision kills polarity.

3) Handle things without being told. Nothing is sexier than taking responsibility.

4) Listen without defending. She can’t desire a man who makes everything about himself.

5) Be consistent. Reliability is masculine foreplay.

6) Stay steady when she’s stressed. Your calm is what opens her.

7) Lead with confidence, not control. Command the moment, not her.

You want a wife who’s excited to meet you in the bedroom?
Show up as the man who turns her on outside of it.

Desire isn’t magic.
It’s leadership.
It’s presence.
It’s you becoming the man she can finally relax into.

👉🏼Want to talk about bringing desire back into your marriage? Send me a DM and I’ll try to help.

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

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