Jake Abrams

I help 7-9 figure DTC brands with revenue & CAC | I write The Process, a newsletter about modern growth marketing | Sold 100K+ personal cooling devices

Consumer Marketing & Growth Leader.  

Brands I've worked with:

Caraway
Jones Road Beauty
Skylight
Canopy
Insurify
Naked Wines
Rugiet
Sundays For Dogs
Momofuku
Sunday Lawn Care

100+ others

Book a discovery call in the featured section below 👇

Founder

The lean DTC growth marketing partner that I wish existed when I was an in-house marketing lead. 

At Odyssey, we help 7 & 8-figure DTC brands increase revenue & ROAS by finding the right combination of:

- Messaging
- Audience targeting
- Media channel allocation
- Creative

https://www.growodyssey.com/

I built a 40-slide deck about the winners & losers of paid social in 2026. 

🏆 THE NEXT ERA OF PAID SOCIAL: 40 Slides Outlining How To Actually Win At TikTok, Meta, And Creative Diversity In 2026. 

I believe it invalidates 75% of what most marketers are doing right now.

4 shifts happened:

1. Infinite good ideas
⤷ AI can scrape customer reviews, analyze signals, and generate insights in seconds. The number of good ideas you can come up with is now infinite.

2. Unlimited Distribution
⤷ There's no limit to the amount of content that can be posted. Every new video is an opportunity to generate net value for your business.

3. Aligned Incentives
⤷ Creator compensation finally matches value created. TikTok Shop ties pay to sales. CPM and view-based models tie pay to reach. Performance-based compensation is now functional & accepted. 

4. The Feed Is Everything
 ⤷ People don't go to websites for education anymore. They spend 6+ hours a day on social media. Consideration, nurture, and education all happen in the feed now.

In a world of unlimited at-bats, the brands that exercise operational willingness to hit the quality bar at volume, win. 

What this looks like:
- An aggressively intentional use of creative diversity 
- 4-tier content model from Elevated through AI-generated
- Network of 20+ owned and affiliated social accounts
- All publishing daily
- All feeding the algorithm
- All generating halo

All competing for a chance to become your best performing paid ads for zero upfront media cost. 

This 40-slide deck is every 8-9 figure brand's roadmap to reaching more accounts on Meta & TikTok and actually growing profitably. 

Want the deck?
→ Like this post 
→ Comment "SLIDES" and I'll send it over (must be following)

---

EDIT: you can just grab the deck here: https://lnkd.in/eTxSxauP

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Creative-led growth for 8-9 figure consumer brands | Writing about AI & advertising | Sold 100k+ personal cooling devices

I found a travel brand driving 15M+ views / month across 11 TikTok accounts. 

One account has 683 followers, with multiple videos over 170k views.  

Most marketers have no idea how this strategy works. Their effectiveness is decaying rapidly. They are quickly becoming dinosaurs. Don't be like them.

This travel brand has a full-on content ecosystem: the brand account, multiple employee accounts, affiliated accounts, and more.

All publishing daily. All feeding the algorithm. All generating halo. All competing for a chance to become their best performing paid ads for zero media cost. 

The old model: 
→ Budget determined creative volume 
→ Ads launched straight into paid testing 
→ Creatives competed for spend 
→ Losers generated zero value 
→ Insights came from paid data only

The new model: 
→ Every video gets posted organically first 
→ The algorithm tests everything for free 
→ Every post generates signal and net value 
→ Winners earn their way into paid 
→ Your best-performing ads are pre-validated

Do you understand that the bottleneck does not exist anymore?

It's no longer "what should we say this month?"

It's "how do we say everything, everywhere, all the f*****g time?"

What I found when I dug into this brand: 
→ 11 separate TikTok accounts, all active 
→ 1000+ videos published per month across the network 
→ Hundreds of videos with 100K+ views
→ Micro-accounts outperforming accounts 100x their size 
→ Minimal correlation between followers and views 

I recorded a full Loom breaking down: 
→ How this brand structures their multi-account strategy 
→ The content formats getting 100k+ views from tiny accounts 
→ Why this works with TikTok's algorithm 
→ How to replicate this for your brand for organic and paid

Want the full breakdown?
→ Comment "TikTok" 
→ Like this post

And I'll send it over (must be following so I can DM)

This AI agent watched 291 viral skincare TikToks and broke down the winning hooks, visual themes, and messaging.

If you're running a skincare brand in 2026, this is a cheat code to winning ads. 

Every idea does not need to be original. You can just find what's already working on organic TikTok and remake it for your brand.

That's a big part of the strategy I've used for years across 250+ brands. 

This database does the hard part for you. The agent analyzed:

- Hooks that stop the scroll
- Visual styles that perform
- Messaging that converts

And the analysis isn't generic. It's specific enough that you could take 30 of these videos, adapt them, and have a month of content ready to test.

I'm giving away the full database & analysis of these 291 videos.

To get the full Airtable database: 

1. Connect with & follow me
2. Comment "DATABASE" below 
3. I'll DM you the link to access it

---

I originally built this flow myself using N8N, Apify, Gemini, and Airtable. It works great, but it took some time to set up.

If you're not into stitching together automation tools, you should check out Snowball: it does this way easier out of the box.

https://lnkd.in/eGCw2k35

I know a growth marketer driving 3.6M views / month on TikTok.

To me, this is the #1 arbitrage opportunity in paid social in 2026. 

I almost didn't want to write this, but most people won't take action anyway. 

Here's essentially how it works:

50 TikTok accounts
3 posts per day / account
4,500 posts per month
800 average views per post
3,600,000 average views per month

The algorithm is meritocratic now. Best content wins. 

Also...
we have infinite access to intelligence now. 
which means there are infinite good ideas. 

So if you're good at AI, the advantage isn't in having good insights & ideas. 

The advantage is your distribution. 

An Attention Engine should be part of every brand's creative strategy in 2026.

Comment "ATTENTION" and I'll send you my 40-slide deck that explains exactly what I'm talking about.

In 1 slide, this is what format diversity looks like...

How to think about it:

Creative diversity is made up of 2 things:

1. Micropersona diversity 
 Who are you talking to?

2. Format diversity 
How are saying it?

Process to use:
- Go uncomfortably deep on your micro personas
- Start testing with easiest formats (statics, faceless)
- Once those land, activate winning messaging across the full spectrum (native, scripted, cinematic, elevated)

This helps you:
- Scale your ad account
- Reach new audiences
- Reduce wasted spend & creative production costs
- Turn 1 win into 100 wins

That's the systematic approach. 

One insight. Many micro personas. Every format.

I know a freelance CS who 100x'd their creative output using AI.

He's shipping 25+ unique concepts every week. 
He's writing briefs in minutes that used to take hours. 
He's making a lot of money.

How he does it: 

"I use AI to find viral TikTok's in my category, and run a system that generates infinite variations while preserving what made the original content successful."

Here's the exact process he uses:

1. Find a viral organic TikTok in your category using Snowball

Not ads. He's looking for organic content that's already proven to resonate. Snowball makes it easy to find this and extract the key elements. 

2. Bring that format into Octo

Octo has vision into your ad account. It already knows what's working and what's not for your brand.

So he uploads the reference video and provides his micro personas.

Example: If he's working on a health supplement for dogs. One of his micro personas might be "Old Dog Mom." She has a senior dog that's starting to have health issues like joint pain or less energy. She's worried.

3. Tell Octo to write the script for that persona

Let's say the TikTok he found was a staged moment video. So it's a person behind camera talking to person on camera, educating them about this supplement that's great for older dogs. 

Octo writes the script in that format, for that persona, informed by what's already working in the ad account.

4. Rewrite for different micro personas

Once the script is dialed for Old Dog Mom, he has Octo rewrite it for:
→ New Rescue Dad
→ Active Dog Mom
→ Skeptical Switcher

So he gets more ads from that one original format that already worked. 

5. Format multiplication

Now he takes that same insight and multiplies it across formats:

The staged moment becomes:

→ Podcast clip (same banter, different setting) 
→ Street interview (same objection/solution dynamic) 
→ Word wall (just the key lines, way easier to produce)

Infinite executions if you have your format system dialed in. 

6. Use Wispr Flow the entire time

He doesn't type anything. He just talks to Octo through Wispr. 

---

Here's what this really means for creative strategists in 2026:

The primary skill set is essentially this:

Creative Taste
- You have to find the references and know what to do with them.

Operational Speed
- You have to be a psycho about moving fast. Because if you want to, you can.

Communication Skills
- Other people get involved: creators shooting the content, clients approving the ideas. You have to sell the vision and protect it through execution.

---

You can operate 100X faster with this flow.
And you can make a lot of money.

i just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly....

going from $0M to $15M in DTC is basically just:

1. you start with a product that actually solves a real problem. 

2. you make sure the product(s) provides ongoing value so that you grow LTV instead of always chasing new customers.

3. you nail your foundational messaging before you make a single piece of content. build a story that spreads. 

4. you ensure your audience can easily understand the problem deeply enough to explain it to someone else. that's how ideas move through networks instead of dying on the feed.

5. you use tools like Snowball and Adology.AI to watch the top 1% of content in your niche and extract content ideas. 

6. you rip the structures of high performing creators, in your niche or not, and bring in your own powerful brand message. 

7. you create voice-of-brand content yourself. make strangers want to buy from you. 

8. you pick up your phone, start making TikTok's, and you can have 20k followers in like 2-3 months and be your own TikTok affiliate. 

9. you voice record your thoughts with Wispr Flow and have Claude turn them into scripts for videos (organic or paid)

10. you layer in reaction hook + product videos. you or someone at the company on camera for 5 seconds, then show the product for 10 seconds. 

11. you build a "hybrid" content tier: AI-assisted edits + real footage.

12. you run elevated shoots quarterly or monthly. this is your best-looking stuff, but it still needs to feel native, not like a TV commercial.

13. you build a controlled creator layer...your 5-15 core creators you tap repeatedly.

14. you build a facilitated creator layer underneath that. this is your influencer program down to TikTok Shop affiliates.

15. you align incentives with performance. small retainer + CPM tiers and/or commission on sales. if they only win when you win, quality goes up.

16. you manage all of it inside a Discord. 

17. you cultivate a community of real customers, not actors. 

18. you tap into the stay-at-home mom economy. there are thousands of them who'd love to make an extra $500- $1.5k / month making slideshows and word wall videos for brands they actually like.

19. you give them the tools, the playbook, and the incentive structure...then get out of their way.

20. you use tools like Motion (Creative Analytics)and Octo once you're running ads to turn each win into 20 new wins.

TLDR:
Story
Ops
Community
Aligned incentives
Flywheel

That's the whole machine.

22 thoughts about the next era of paid social in 2026 🎥

2026 is the best year in history to be a creative generalist.

You now have a superhuman suit for the entire creative process.

And most people aren't:
- Smart enough
- Motivated enough
- Disciplined enough

To actually use it. 

So there's this massive gap forming between the people who figure this out and everyone else.

This year belongs to the people who can see the big picture and make it happen fast.

The 4 Tier Content Matrix

In a world with unlimited at-bats, every brand should make these 4 types of content in 2026 ↓

1. Hero Content: 
High-production brand moments. Quarterly campaigns. Elevated UGC. Done with in-house team and a small roster of cinematic creators. This is your traditional stuff for brand or DR that looks nice. 

2. Controlled Creator Content: 
You have a managed roster of creators. You feed them the angles, the talking points, often the scripts. You get high quality, predictable output. But there's management overhead so it doesn't scale infinitely.

3. Facilitated Creator Content: 
This is your Discord channel, your seeding program. Community-driven and hands-off. Creators own their angles and language. Quality varies, but it's very authentic. Pay commissions or pay per million views.

4. AI / Hybrid Content: 
Slideshows, faceless videos, text-on-screen. No creators required. Infinitely scalable. Fills the feed, generates signal, and occasionally produces surprise winners for organic and paid. 

What am I missing?

There’s an uncomfortable gap forming between the top 1% of creative operators and everyone else.

Because you now have a superhuman suit for the entire creative process. And most people aren’t smart, motivated, or disciplined enough to actually use it. 

Within e-commerce and marketplaces, specifically, this shift is happening incredibly fast. 

Photoroom just released their State of GenAI in Marketplaces 2026 report, based on interviews with 10 AI experts and a survey of 2,000 consumers. 

Some findings I found interesting: 

→ 55% of consumers say poorly executed AI-generated images actually decrease trust
→ 75% of workers say AI improves their speed or quality
→ Wolt reclaimed 100+ human hours per day after automating image QA
→ 64% of organizations are still in experimentation phase of AI adoption

If you want to go deeper on this and become part of the top 1% of creative operators, you should join Photoroom’s State of GenAI in Marketplaces live event this Wednesday (1/28).

You’ll get to learn from the people who are actually building the AI infrastructure behind visual content at scale.

⚫ jeff strauss - Head of Imaging, Photoroom (ex-Wolt) 
⚫ Sonia Biddle - Chief Product Officer, Depop 
⚫ Anne-Claire BASCHET - Chief Data/AI Officer, Mirakl 
⚫ Laura McGinnis - Partner, Balderton

You can register (for free) with my link: https://luma.com/8wgjjupp

If you're a:
→ Marketplace operator
→ Creative strategist 
→ E-commerce operator 
→ Brand marketer 
→ CMO

Really anyone who works with product visuals at scale, you should show up to this.

The session is on Wednesday, January 28th at 12:00 PM ET / 9:00 AM PT.

Even if you can't attend live, still worth registering for the recording.

See you there: https://luma.com/8wgjjupp

#PhotoroomPartner

Test your creative without spending $1 in your Meta ad account.

CONTEXT:

Good ideas are free now. 

AI can scrape customer reviews, TikTok, Reddit, any signal that exists.
With the right systems, a talented human with good taste can transform these ideas into native content 10x faster that before. 

NEW INSIGHT:

So the constraint isn't "what should we say test month?"
The question is: "how do we test everything, everywhere, all the time?"

Followers don't matter anymore. The algo shows your content to whoever it thinks will care. Good content finds its audience. Bad content dies. That's it.

So this is a game of executional quality & volume. 

ACTION TO TAKE:

Build the network for unlimited at-bats:

Brand Voice Accounts:
- "Josh at [brand]"
- "Maria at [brand]"
- "Marketing team at [brand]"

Verticalized Accounts:
- "Zach Travel Stories"
- "Alex Nomad Life"
- "Caleb Travel Finds"

Faceless Accounts:
- "Insane Travel Stories"
- "Your Travel Inspo"
- "Travel Deals Central"

All posting daily. All testing messaging. All letting the algorithm tell you what works.

By the time you put $1 into paid, you already have the answers. Plus a massive halo that lifts the performance of all your ads. 

The algorithm is the first test.

The best creative teams operate on 7-day cycle.

→ What got deployed 7 days ago? 
→ What's actually getting spend? 
→ What's working?
→ What's not? 
→ What are we changing for the next 7 days?

When you compound that weekly process over a long period of time, that's where the magic happens. 

But so many weekly creative strategy meetings devolve into this weird habit of staring at the same group of highest spending ads and wondering what to do about it. 

I like Motion (Creative Analytics)'s new Week over Week trends reporting because it makes the ideal weekly workflow much easier for creative teams: 

→ Automatic 7-day vs previous period comparison 
→ Spend, ROAS, and softer metrics 
→ AI that you can ask about what changed and what to do next

Creative reporting should map to this 7-day cycle.

Matthew McConaughey was right about private LLM's. Broad AI is out. Narrow AI is in. 

For performance marketing, 90% of the AI tools I've tried have been useless. Because all they do is make it faster to generate a higher volume of mediocre output. Nobody needs that.

Octo has been my best experience so far with a Performance Marketing LLM, in which the product is connected to the ad account and actually understands the ad account like a senior-level performance marketer.

3 opening slides from our 25-person team offsite in Austin this past week. 

Last year, I totally failed as a leader to provide daily purpose. 

As I was thinking through our collective "why" for this year, had a thought...

For some reason, the world's most valuable skill is creating things for the internet that gain attention from the right people. 

If you join the top 1% (or even the top 20%) of people at this skill, you get:

- Freedom & flexibility
- Money & opportunity
- Leverage & access
- Creative fulfillment

I know this is true, because it's exactly what's happened to me these last 3 years of finally creating content. 

So in 2026, Odyssey will be the best place to work for anyone hellbent on joining the top 1% of humans for the most important skill in the world. 

Oh, and we're hiring for:
- Full-time content creators
- Growth marketers
- Creative strategists

You don't understand that the bottleneck doesn't exist anymore. 

One account posting daily = 30 pieces of content per month.

An ecosystem of 20 accounts posting 3x per day = 1,800 pieces of content.

All feeding the algorithm. All generating halo. All competing for a chance to become your next best-performing paid ad for zero media cost. 

The old model treated organic as a single channel you "managed."

The new model treats organic as a testing ground you flood with volume, then promote the winners into paid.

Your brand account alone will never generate enough at-bats. You need the ecosystem, and you need operational willingness to hit a quality bar at volume.

Matthew McConaughey was right about private LLMs.

You could also call them "vertical-specific LLMs" or "professional class LLMs". 

These are going to dominate in 2026.. I'm already seeing it happen outside of marketing. Harvey is doing it for legal.

Broad AI is getting replaced by narrow, expert AI.

I'm not a technical AI expert. But here's what makes sense to me:

If something is giving you an answer in 5 seconds, it probably helps for it to have a narrower, more specialized view of the information it's pulling from. Only the validated, expert-level stuff. Not an unlimited ocean of everything.

For performance marketing, 90% of the AI tools I've tried have been useless. Because all they do is make it faster to generate a higher volume of mediocre output. Nobody needs that.

What performance marketers actually need:

- AI trained on ads that actually won, and why they won
- AI with vision into their ad account data
- Agents that analyze performance like an expert media buyer
- Micropersonas specific to the brand they're writing for
- Voice and messaging guidelines baked in

So when you ask "how do I improve this supplements ad?" The answer is actually valuable.

This is what AI looks like in 2026 for performance marketers. 

---

P.S. Octo has been my best experience so far with a Performance Marketing LLM. I'm gonna drop a link to it in the comments.

Octo

Do you understand there is zero bottleneck to good content ideas anymore?

Ask AI for ideas based on real ad account performance with Octo
Scrape TikTok and automatically watch with Snowball
Utilize god-view signal collection of Reddit and Instagram with Adology.AI
Analyze hundreds of customer reviews with an agent in Claude

Do all of it without ever typing a word by using Wispr Flow

Multiply every single good idea with format multiplication. 

I honestly get so frustrated when people struggle to come up with a high volume of good ideas based on real insights, because it's so easy to do now. 

If you're a brand in this world with unlimited good content ideas, you need to think about 2 things:

Diversification
Distribution

The brands that win in 2026 will master both, deploying a high volume of intentional creative to generate halo, signal, net value, and trackable revenue.

Co-founder at Meetadbox.com | Analysing over 9500 fast-growing brands every week at Adbox | Performance Advertising Expert | Elevating eCommerce Ad Creatives 🚀

Most people think productivity is about doing more.

For years, I thought the same. I worked in digital projects, built tools, and helped brands grow. My days were filled with deadlines, notifications, and “just one more task.”

But here’s the truth I learned the hard way:

Productivity without balance leads to burnout.

Now, I share a different approach.

✅ Practical frameworks to get more done in less time
✅ Lessons on balance and building habits that actually last
✅ Personal stories on how to design a life that feels good, not just busy

I still love creating digital projects and exploring new ideas. 

But my focus here is simpler: helping professionals live with more clarity, energy, and happiness.

If you’ve ever…

👉 Ended a week exhausted but unsure what you achieved

👉 Felt guilty about resting

👉 Wondered if this pace is sustainable

Then you’ll find something useful here.

Follow along if you want productivity tips that respect your time, and your life outside of work.

Alex Faini

The one type of meeting I never try to optimise away.

One thing I learned last year while building PixFocal:

If you want to get the best out of an idea,

you need to get close to the people using it.

And that means feedback.

Now, here’s the funny part.

You know I’m obsessed with optimising time.

And honestly…

meetings are not my favourite thing.

They mess with your schedule.

They break your focus.

And sometimes you walk away thinking

“Cool… but what did we actually get from this?”

Still, when it comes to feedback, I do the opposite.

I intentionally leave space for meetings with customers.

It became a priority last year.

And it still is.

Because as inefficient as meetings can be,

this is one place where cutting corners doesn’t work.

Those conversations led us to real changes:

Better colour handling for product photography

Improvements around labels and details

New ways to make ghost mannequin images look more natural

And next week, we’re shipping something new.

A new version that allows brands to create high-quality lifestyle photography for their products.

That didn’t come from guessing.

It didn’t come from dashboards.

It came from talking to people.

Yes, some meetings go nowhere.

Yes, sometimes you spend an hour without getting honest feedback.

But if you’re building something new,

this is a bet worth taking.

You know I’m always about optimising processes.

And ironically, this one... messy, imperfect, time-consuming...

might be the most important of them all.

If you want to build something that actually works,

make time to listen.

#fashion #ecommerce

Exploring productivity, happiness & the art of building things online ⚡ Building Pixfocal.com

A long time ago I realised something simple:

The most important thing we have isn’t money.

It’s not cars.

It’s not stuff.

It’s time.

That’s why I’ve always been obsessed with productivity.

With organising my days.

With removing friction.

With making space for the things that actually matter.

And that’s also how I’ve always seen AI.

Not as a replacement for people.

But as a way to save time and protect our focus.

Let machines handle the repetitive parts.

So humans can think, create, and decide better.

That idea is exactly why I started PixFocal.com.

The goal was never “cool AI”.

The goal was simple:

Save time for fashion brands.

Because when you save time, you also save money.

And resources.

And mental energy.

And when you have more time, something interesting happens.

You build better relationships.

You make better decisions.

You create better work.

And honestly, life feels lighter.

The same applies to content.

If you can create high-quality visuals in a fraction of the time and cost,

you don’t just get images faster.

You get freedom.

Freedom to test more ideas.

Freedom to focus on strategy.

Freedom to work on the parts of your brand that actually move the needle.

Productivity isn’t about doing more.

It’s about doing what matters, with less friction.

That’s the mindset behind everything I build.

One lesson I learned the hard way:

Don’t make big decisions on Fridays.

For a long time, I treated Fridays like a deadline.

The last chance to finish things.

The moment to push just a bit more.

That mindset cost me more than it helped me.

Over the past 5 weeks, while developing Pixfocal, I started noticing a pattern.

Every time I rushed to “close” something by Friday…

I ended up with mistakes.

Week one:

I implemented a solution just to be done.

It didn’t work.

Week two:

I let myself be guided by a single customer interview.

Changed part of the UI based on that one opinion.

The following week, multiple other customers proved it was unnecessary.

That’s when it clicked.

Fridays aren’t for big decisions.

They’re not a last opportunity.

They’re the beginning of rest.

And rest is not wasted time.

It’s what gives you perspective.

It’s what prevents rushed thinking.

It’s what makes Monday decisions better.

Now, Fridays are lighter for me.

Review.

Reflect.

Small tasks
.
No big calls.

As they say…

you live and learn.

And sometimes, learning means knowing when not to decide.

Why “better” isn’t always better in product design.

One thing that still surprises me...

 even after building multiple products

is how differently people value “quality” compared to builders.

While working on Pixfocal, we spent a lot of time chasing perfection.

Pixel-level accuracy.

Studio-like results.

Details only other creators would notice.

It felt like the right thing to do.

Then real users showed up.

And what they cared about was very different.

They didn’t want to think.

They didn’t want to wait.

They didn’t want to manage complexity.

What they wanted was:

consistency across many products

fast turnaround

a workflow that just flows

When we simplified things:

( fewer options, faster output, more repeatability)

Usage went up.

Even though, by our original standards, the result wasn’t “better”.

That changed how I think about building things.

People don’t optimise for perfection.

They optimise for their bottlenecks.

And most of the time, the bottleneck isn’t quality.

It’s time.

It’s mental load.

It’s friction.

This applies to products.

To work.

To life, honestly.

The “best” solution isn’t always the most advanced one.

It’s the one that makes it easier to move forward.

Curious if you’ve seen this too.

Have you ever built something you loved…

only to realise users just wanted it simpler?

Back to work after a good couple of days resting.

It feels good to slow down…

and it feels just as good to come back with clarity.

That’s what I was doing during those days away.

Organising my goals.

Planning the year ahead.

Getting things out of my head and onto paper.

For me, the first step to a productive year isn’t motivation.

It’s organisation.

Clear goals.

Simple plans.

Fewer open loops.

When you organise your priorities, everything feels lighter.

Decisions get easier.

Focus comes back.

Rest gives you energy.

Organisation gives that energy direction.

Ready for what’s next.

Exploring productivity, happiness & the art of building things online ⚡

I’ve been thinking a lot about AI and photography lately.

As most of you know, I’ve loved photography for years.

I’ve practiced it.

Studied it.

Felt it.

So when AI image generation first appeared, I won’t lie...

I felt angry.

Even betrayed.

Those images felt empty to me.

No depth.

No intention.

No real feeling.

And then there’s the irony.

I’m building an AI product myself. (PIXFOCAL.COM)

For a few weeks, that contradiction really messed with my head.

How could I love real photography…

and at the same time work on something like PixFocal?

Eventually, something clicked.

AI isn’t here to replace meaning.

It’s here to remove friction.

It works best on repetitive tasks.

On production bottlenecks.

On helping small brands, small teams, and early ideas bridge the gap.

In terms of value, nothing beats the real thing.

A real shoot.

A real moment.

A real photographer behind the camera.

But the more I’ve worked with AI,

the more I’ve realised this doesn’t have to be a fight.

Both can coexist.

Both can be useful.

Both can make each other better.

And maybe that’s the real opportunity,

using AI where it helps,

and protecting the human parts where they matter most.

#fashionphotography #retail

After talking about getting back to work, I wanted to share the other side of the story.

Being disciplined also means being disciplined about resting.

Over the past two weeks, I was fully disconnected.

No work.

No emails.

No Slack messages.

That didn’t happen by accident.

I was able to do it because I organised my days off in advance.

Loose ends closed.

Expectations set.

Nothing hanging over my head.

But the real discipline started once the holidays began.

I know how easy it is to “just check” your email.

Or open Slack out of curiosity.

Two minutes turns into ten.

And suddenly your brain is back at work.

So I made a few rules for myself:

I logged out of work apps.

I turned off notifications completely.

I kept my laptop closed and out of sight.

And I reminded myself that rest only works if you actually disconnect.

At first, it feels uncomfortable.

Like you’re missing something.

Like you should be doing more.

But after a few days, something changes.

Your mind slows down.

Your energy comes back.

You start thinking clearer, without forcing it.

It’s exactly like training.

As athletes, we love the workout.

We chase the effort.

But without recovery, progress stalls.

Work is no different.

Rest isn’t a reward.

It’s part of the system.

If your goal is to start the year strong, don’t just plan how hard you’ll work.

Plan how well you’ll rest.

Because the quality of your work depends heavily on how well you disconnect.

And that, too, takes discipline.

We often confuse being busy with being productive.

If we’re always working, always running, always “on”…

we feel like we must be doing something right.

That’s how society taught us to measure value.

But I’m starting to think the opposite might be true.

Being busy all the time can be a warning sign.

A sign that something isn’t organised.

That priorities are off.

That life is happening somewhere else.

Real productivity creates space.

Space to stop in the middle of the day.

To sit still.

To hold your dog while he naps. (example below)

To go for a walk.

To say yes when a friend shows up unexpectedly.

That flexibility?

That’s value.

Of course, there are seasons when things get busy.

Deadlines.

Projects.

Moments that require intensity.

But those shouldn’t be the default.

The goal isn’t to be busy.

The goal is to build a life where work supports living , not replaces it.

Because at the end of the day,

productivity means nothing

if you forget to actually live.

I once heard that the way your apartment looks
is often a reflection of how your life feels.

I don’t know if that’s always true…

but I do know this:

Cleaning and organising is incredibly therapeutic.

Putting things back in place.

Clearing surfaces.

Creating space.

It quiets the mind a bit.

And somehow, everything feels lighter after.

A good reset for the weekend.

Last year, I hit pause on building. Not because productivity wasn't enough, but because it made room for new ideas and balance.

Productivity, for me, means the freedom to take on new projects without losing sight of everything else that matters.

Over the last 7 months, I started digging. I wanted to find real problems worth solving…

the kind you only spot when you scratch where it itches.

Surprisingly, I found my answer in fashion.

I kept seeing brands and agencies struggle to create clean, consistent product photos. 

Too much time editing. 

Too little control over quality. A constant gap between beautiful imagery and real sales conversions.

So I got to work.

That's how Pixfocal.com took shape.

It's an AI tool designed for ghost mannequin photography, built to make fashion brands' lives easier.

But wait, you may be wondering…

What is ghost mannequin photography?

Well, t’s a simple technique, removing the mannequin so the garment looks like it's floating. But the impact for brands is huge.

- Product-first: No distractions, just the garment's shape and details

- Clear fit: Shows how clothing sits on a body, not just flat on a table

- Consistent look: Uniform style across all products and seasons

- Scalable and cost-efficient: Faster, cheaper, and repeatable for big catalogues

- Timeless and neutral: No issues with models, works for every market and trend

- Easy integration: Simple to drop into sites, ads, or lookbooks

- Premium feel: Signals technical quality and a focus on construction

If you're trying to level up your brand's content, this is a style you shouldn't ignore.

This journey started last October, with a month-long validation project.

Since then, the last two months have brought strong organic growth. Real feedback has been pouring in, and it's shaping every decision I make.

It's clear this is just the beginning.

The results so far, and the conversations with users, are shaping how I'll be spending the next few months.

I'm genuinely excited to share this process as it unfolds.

If you're curious about the future of product imagery in fashion, stay tuned.

There's a lot more to come.

The meeting mistake I made while building Pixfocal.

While talking to fashion brands and marketing agencies last year, I learned a simple but important lesson about meetings.

In theory, batching meetings sounds great.

Pick a day.

Stack them back to back.

Get them done.

In practice?

It’s a recipe for disaster.

Meetings never go exactly as planned.

Some finish early.

Some run long.

And sometimes you get really valuable feedback,

the kind you can’t just cut off because “time’s up.”

That happened to me more than once while gathering feedback for Pixfocal.com.
Great conversations.

Great insights.

And then… the next meeting started clashing.



So I changed my approach.

No meetings back to back.

Always a buffer in between.

Time to think.

Time to take notes.

Time for conversations to breathe.

I also became stricter about when I schedule them.

For me:

Tuesdays and Wednesdays only.

Mondays don’t work.

Everyone is catching up from the week before.

Thursdays and Fridays are tricky too.

People are either rushing to finish things…

or already thinking about next week.

Building Pixfocal taught me that good meetings aren’t just about availability.

They’re about timing, energy, and context.

When you organise meetings around how people actually work,

you get better feedback,

better decisions,

and far less friction.

And that makes building anything, especially a new product, much easier.

Today, my girlfriend and I decided to paint something.

They were bad. (don't tell her)

But that is okay. 

No pressure, just an excuse to do something together. 

In the middle of the week, sometimes this is all you need to recharge.

Less screens.

More moments like this.

By the way, guess which one is mine.

Kicking off the year? 

Here's how I stay balanced and focused, no matter how many projects I'm juggling.

This year, I have big plans. 

- I want to develop Pixfocal.com 

-Set up an AI-powered translation agency

- Prepare for a crossfit competition. 

- I also aim to swim 2K nonstop and get fitter overall.

But I know that taking on so much can quickly lead to overwhelm. 

Whenever I start feeling it, I return to my top strategies for managing productivity and maintaining balance.

Right now, I'm easing back into my rhythm. 

The Pomodoro technique helps me focus, but I also believe in breaking tasks into manageable chunks.

Whenever a task feels overwhelming, I pause and switch to something different. 

This refreshes my mind and helps me avoid getting stuck.

Building endurance, whether for exercise or work, takes time. 

Today, I start with 10-minute focused sessions. 

As I get more comfortable, I'll gradually extend those.

The secret isn't doing everything at once. It's about taking strategic breaks, setting manageable goals, and protecting your energy.

That way, you keep making progress without burning out. Consistency is key.

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At the start of the year, it’s tempting to rush.

Fresh energy.

A clean slate.

New goals.

After the holidays, it feels like you can take on everything at once.

And yes, that energy is real.

It’s a great moment to build momentum.

But that’s also when burnout quietly starts.

Because in the rush to “start strong,”

we often forget the habits that keep us stable.

Today, for example, I did something very simple.

I went for my usual walk.

Stepped away.

Let my mind rest.

Then came back to work.

I try to do this every day.

It keeps my creativity up.

It keeps my head clear.

And it stops the year from becoming a sprint that never ends.

A new year means new opportunities.

More things to build.

More goals to reach.

But none of that works if we forget the basics.

Balance. Rest. Movement.

Time away from the computer.

Start the year with ambition.

But keep it sustainable.

That’s how you actually make it to December feeling proud, not exhausted.

Goal for next week:

Less screen time.

More cooking.

More walks.

More real conversations.

More time away from notifications.

Honestly, this might be the best goal for 2026 too.

Simple things.

Better days.

Why content production breaks small fashion teams first.

One thing I’ve learned after speaking with many small fashion brands:

Content production is often the real full-time job.

On paper, the focus is design.

Patterns, manufacturing, drops.

In practice, a modern fashion brand is a media company that happens to sell clothes.

And this is where small brands struggle the most.

They need to compete with big brands.

They need fresh visuals all the time.

But a single photoshoot can take days... sometimes weeks.

And budgets disappear fast.

So they adapt.

Most small brands don’t create content daily.

They batch it.

One or two intense days per month.

A “content marathon”.

One shoot becomes:

Website banners

PDP images

Social posts

Emails

Everything reused as much as possible.

Even then, content still eats a lot of time.

Planning, shooting, editing, posting.

Easily 6 to 10 hours every week.

And that time comes from somewhere.

Usually from the part they actually love.

Designing.

If you’re a creative person, you know the feeling.

You didn’t start a brand to spend hours fixing images.

You started it to create.

That’s why tools like AI, and projects like Pixfocal, make sense to me.

Not to replace creativity.

But to remove repetitive work.

Content is a must for eCommerce.

There’s no way around it.

But it shouldn’t be the limiting factor.

It should be part of the process, not the thing that slows everything down.

#fashion #productphotography

Apparently purple pancakes are actually real...

Happy Saturday, everyone!

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