I help brands eliminate operational bloat by deploying context-aware AI agents that replace high-cost, repetitive workflows with intelligent, modular systems.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:
☑️ $52,000/month in savings unlocked for a $1.5M/month DTC brand, by replacing:
☑️ 55+ hrs/mo in ad setup tasks with a Google Ads Playbook Agent
☑️ 60+ hrs/mo in reporting with a Snapshot-to-Strategy Companion
☑️ 50+ hrs/mo in comment scraping with a Creative Mining Bot
☑️ 40+ hrs/mo in UGC scripting with a Copy Blueprint Generator
☑️ 35+ hrs/mo in ticket triage with a Support Classifier

Plus hidden delays, review rounds, and QA.

These agents aren’t chatbots or experimental tools—they’re production-ready automations that plug directly into marketing, media, and ops teams to drive measurable ROI.

Most brands at scale suffer from the same hidden inefficiencies: bloated campaign workflows, fragmented creative processes, endless manual reporting, and decision paralysis due to siloed data. 

I build systems that solve those problems at the root—using LLMs, workflow automation, and business-first design.

My edge is clarity.

I know how to translate technical capability into business value—and I only build systems that ship fast, get used, and deliver results.

You don’t need more headcount.

You need systems that do the work, so your team can focus on thinking, creating, and scaling.

Ayo Afolabi

I'm a writer who thinks for herself. 

On LinkedIn, I talk about:

1/ Building an original mind
→ Generalist thinking & narrative
→ Intellectual independence 
→ Creating philosophy  

2/ Unraveling the human condition
→ Our responsibility as makers
→ Humanity vs. AI, and related dogmas 
→ The soul, cognition, the psyche, God

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

Find deeper essays on my newsletter, The Oyster—written for curious people who refuse categorization:

www.readtheoyster.com

I also run Boldface: 

An independent narrative design practice for emerging enterprises building in experimental areas, including technology, fine art, and digital culture.

If that interests you, inquire: 

www.withboldface.com

See you on the other side,

Taylor

Taylor Barnes

Not enough people admit this, but:

You will never achieve anything outrageously meaningful, personally vindicating, or bloodlettingly beautiful unless you're obsessed beyond belief with the idea of achieving that one thing.

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com

Writer. Exploring what builds an original mind.

I’m only 30. 

But, I feel both much younger than that, and much older. 

I feel drawn towards ancient works of art more than modern media. I crave silence and solitude more than the company of most. Always have. I never liked going out to parties, or talking to most people. Classical music always spellbinds me in the way other music can’t. 

In the same breath, my love for animated films will never go away. My appreciation for silliness will never stop. I love listening to people tell me about what they’re passionate about, instead of hiding. I’m very sensitive, and it’s taken a lot of work to not take things personally. I have a lot—and I mean a lot—of energy, but it’s only available when I’m in control.

We’re all amalgamations of thoughts, dreams, and ideas. 

The next ten years, I want to create marvelous things—novels, more essays, more ideas, maybe future businesses, etc.—and share them with others at lightning speed, while also trying to enjoy the moments that I’ve never really been able to appreciate before. 

I think there is a balance to find here.

Just not sure what it is yet.

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com

The strongest people I’ve met are always the gentlest, yet the firmest.

They have a quiet, tangible power to them. 

Their posture is straight and their eyes are honest. 

They’re confident, but not hyperbolic. 

They carry themselves with grace, but aren’t afraid to deliver hard truths. 

They’re intellectually and emotionally intelligent, but they don’t judge others for not being on the same ground.

Iron-willed. 
Calm-tongued. 
Bold-minded.

This is the type of person I believe most humans should try to learn from.

Not to copy exactly, but learn which attributes they can mold to their own individual paths.

The Internal Mentor. 

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

There’s no point to sharing your thoughts on the internet if you’re going to copy everyone else. 

Write from your eyes. 

Your mind. 
Your soul. 
Your scars.

You’ll automatically start creating phrases and thoughts from a place that started somewhere different compared to literally everyone else. 

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

Be brave enough to be disliked.

Be proud your convictions are offensive to someone’s sensibilities in a way that incites dialogue, questioning, and momentum. 

Be actionable—but smart—with your opinions. Open ears and quiet tongue. 

Be open to having your mind changed; there’s no such thing as an intelligent person who stayed the same their whole lives. 

Be endlessly curious. Investigate the uncomfortable and confront the mass-liked. Ignite fires and exhale the smoke.

Be empathetic. Humans need to detach enough to open their minds, and strong enough to support others who may not agree with them.

Be a “no” in a “yes” world and a “yes” in a “no” world—as long as the contrarian views are authentic to who you are. 

Be dangerous. Competition is healthy, not a threat. Humans achieve remarkable things when we challenge each other—not when we downsize everyone to be on “equal” ground. 

Be individual. Communities are healthy. Cults are not. Learn and develop values you can call yours before adding complexity to someone else’s universe. 

P.S. My friend Stephen Klein always gets the gears in my head turning and sparking like crazy when we talk. 

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

Narrative design for enterprises building at the intersection of technology, art, and culture. | Writing The Oyster: a newsletter for intellectual creatives building minds, worlds, and new ideas.

The more you “study” what you want to master—art, creativity, business, fitness—the more obstacles you place.

By all means, please—educate yourself. 

Use your love of learning, appreciation for the world, and insatiable thirst for knowledge as an advantage. 

(More people should) 

But, don’t let the cycle of studying become a cycle of inaction.

What we learn only shows proof of value when we do something about it.

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

I don't think it's possible to be—or build—anything interesting if you try to fit into any one mold, concept, belief system, or idea. 

You have to start from a place of raw, uncomfortable honesty to notice the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

(And sometimes the ugly is what shapes the most interesting parts of you, not the most "beautiful" or the most "perceptively perfect") 

The problem isn't that no one is capable of coming up with anything original. 

The problem is we encourage tribalistic thinking.

A toxic cesspool where people are so attached to their beliefs, politics, religions, etc. that the thought of shifting away from those categories puts them into a mental and spiritual danger zone. 

Most people believe they're being "raw" when they're actually being 99% safe and 1% throwing random curse words. 

(I used to be this, too; the hypocrisy is clear) 

It takes courage to make yourself vulnerable. 
It takes vulnerability to create meaningful work. 
It takes meaningful work to build anything interesting.

The builders, thinkers, and leaders of the future won't be dogmatic. 

They'll be endlessly curious, always asking questions, and refusing to hide behind the uncomfortable details of their belief systems, traumas, and failures. 

Otherwise, we'll all start sounding the same. 

Oh, wait...

That's already happening. 

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

Competitiveness is beautiful.

If you want to win, go for it. Train the fuck out of your brain, your muscles, your personality. Commit to the part of you that’s aching to sink its teeth into yet another passion, topic, or domain of interest—not to simply try it, but to chase it, practice it, and own it with voracious obsession.

I was raised by athletes. My sister is an athlete. 

I was a competitive tennis player for over a decade, and that feeling doesn’t die.

The lessons you learn in a competitive environment that tests your physical and mental tenacity will stick with you forever.

Athletic competition doesn’t just teach you how to “win.”

It teaches you how to build a resilient mind, body, and spirit.

It teaches you how to master your greatest first and last opponent:

Yourself.

So you can build a machine, a temple, and a place of intelligent action and discipline all in one form that the rest of the world can’t fuck with even if it tries.

For some people, it starts in business.

For me, it started on the court.

Pick your starting line. 

Then go.

//

Get deeper → readtheoyster.com

I don’t believe you were put on this planet just to waste your brain space liking someone else’s “content” on LinkedIn for hours at a time. 

Read an old book, or start a new one. Listen to instrumental music. Draw. Write. Go on a walk. Get your blood flowing. Laugh at something new. Talk to an old friend. Experiment with fiction, not just journaling. 

Over-consuming leads to under-thinking.

Start creating, and it fills you up like nothing else. 

It’s (thankfully) impossible to over-create.

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com

My goals for 2026:

(From someone who's terrible at making concrete plans, has failed a fuck-ton, and is prioritizing ruthless self-education)  

1/ Grow my newsletter to 30,000 subscribers
2/ Make The Oyster my main source of income 
3/ Finish and publish my first novel 
4/ Get in the best shape of my life
5/ Read & annotate 50+ books 
6/ Reprogram my mind 
7/ Create happiness 

To be honest, "small steps" never worked for me.

It's either ruthless, reckless, relentless action, or nothing. 

Without this mindset, I wouldn't achieve anything meaningful. 

What about you?

//

Subsribe: readtheoyster.com

To think for yourself is a fucking gift and I swear most people take it for granted. 

Be thankful your mind is yours. Be grateful to disagree with conviction and honesty. Be delighted that you can engage in deep conversation with someone smarter than you who challenges you to broaden your horizons. Be aware of how much of a blessing it is to have topics and things and people you care about that no one else can love or hate the same way. 

I’ll never understand people who wish everyone thought the same. 

It’s not utopian. 

It removes the reason for living. 

//

I’m a writer who thinks for herself.

Get deeper → readtheoyster.com

Social media has conditioned most humans to be performative machines.

Wait—I have it backwards.

Humans have turned themselves into performative machines while blaming everything on social media, AI, etc. 

It’s a choice.

It’s always a choice.

Been thinking a lot about the people I admire most, and how they work, think, and operate.

They’re private.
They’re insatiable.
They’re opinionated.
They’re independent.
They’re impatient/patient.
(Yes, I think both are powerful)

Most of all:

They’re so obsessed with their individual paths, creations, and doing whatever the fuck they can to make interesting things they care about that, for a long and uninterrupted period—maybe even years, or decades—they’re completely absent from the social media sphere.

I don’t know a lot of people like this today. Mostly I’ve read about them. I want to meet more people like this. 

People who are brilliant and creative and know how to distance themselves from social human pressure in order to build the human they want to be. 

Original thinkers. 

Now, imagine this person integrating into social media after developing such a powerful and resilient mind. 

Learning the patterns of independence, creative fulfillment, and human artistry before they get wrapped up in a million voices. 

Social media is powerful. 

It’s actually pretty cool. 

We all know this. 

I don’t think it’s the enemy. I value writing on LinkedIn and Substack and in my newsletters.

What I don’t subscribe to is the idea that we must act like collectivist robots in order to achieve what we want through social media—if we use it at all. 

It makes me wonder:

Are the people who become obsessed with their paths outside of social media integration more likely to retain their individuality vs. people who rope themselves into social media before they discover what they actually care about? 

Have to wonder what the people we look up to will look like in five years or less.

Will they feel real, performative, or a strange and uncomfortable hybrid of both?

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

Founders,

I hope you build something extraordinary—to grow it from a brainchild into a universe both beautiful and beautifully ugly. 

I hope you lose dreams you thought you wanted, only to pivot once the dream becomes only a dream, and your body reminds you what’s worth fighting for.

I hope you feel the pain that comes with loving what you create so much that to not work on that project brings you agony. 

I hope you give everything you have into building something, so you can learn what it feels like to push your limits.

I hope you forgive yourself, for the hardships and problems and firings and misunderstandings and brutal honesty and difficult decisions. 

I hope you bleed—not for anguish, but for sacrifice, dedication, obsession, rest, hustle, drive, taste, and love. 

I hope you never stop.

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

If we ignore our individual callings for the sake of group moral superiority, we’re causing society to regress—not progress.

Writing completely from intuition is criminally underrated.

No frameworks.
No formulas.
No structure.

Just plugging in some ambient music—if you need it to focus, like I do—and rip those thoughts out of your brain and onto the screen.

Follow the flow.

Paint the canvas with chaos.

Then, if needed, poke and prob with surgical tools and connect the frayed threads.

Or, don’t.

Think everyone who writes should learn what it feels to write with absolutely no plan at least once in their life.

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

I operate in extremes. 

This puts me in a place most "experts" don't want to accept.

Typical advice has put me in a corner:

Time-blocking. 
Creating lists. 
Taking notes. 
Journaling. 
Meditating.

Etc. and etc.

These just... never work.

Look:

I go through episodic highs and lows. 

Periods of distraction. 
Cyclones of obsession. 
Whirlpools of creativity. 
Dreamscapes of stories. 
Marathons of competition. 

Most days, I love how my brain works. 

It's never bored, for one.

(After all, we live in such a beautiful world with so many amazing things, people, ideas, and concepts to explore. How can anyone truly be bored?) 

But, it comes at a (very, very steep) cost. 

I'll start a business one day and want to set it on fire the next. 
I'll start another fiction project while my other 1,000 sit, waiting. 
I'll start another passion project when I have zero energy to give. 
I'll start investing in one course without completing the other. 
I'll start new commitments without processing loss. 

My curiosity takes no prisoners.

It self-sabotages and self-rewards. 

Yin and yang.

I'm still trying to understand myself. 

But, even at 30 years old, I feel a little behind. 

Or, perhaps, a product of self-betrayal. 

Still trying to make this whole "life by design" thing work. 

(Man, the influencers make this sound so easy, don't they?) 

What I do know so far:

Writing fiction makes sense. 
Designing narratives makes sense.
Trying out music makes sense. 
Close friends make sense.
Loving art makes sense. 

(Trying so many ideas to validate for a potential hybrid AI-driven app experience, too, but that will never work until I figure out the cognitive science-based problems humans are facing with AI at the moment) 

I'm at a point where I might need more intense psychological intervention, whatever that may look like, but I'm so grateful that my energy, when activated, can feel so unstoppable. 

This is a lot for a Sunday, but...

Anyone else feel the same? 

If you're up for it:

Share your inner chaos, and the good/bad/ugly you feel along with it.

(Would love to read) 

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com
Work: withboldface.com

In a modern world obsessed with speed, scale, and sameness, the most revolutionary act humans can commit to is building an original mind.

The artistry of story matters more than ever, because it teaches us to think in narrative, emotion, beauty, pain, and the multifaceted realities in-between—not algorithms.

Human creation is the LAST FRONTIER.

[Read the full piece → https://lnkd.in/g8PHdBkX]

Open article: THE LAST FRONTIER. by open.substack.com

If you make only one choice today:

Ignore people who would rather victimize themselves, get off to their pain, and romanticize blaming others, than take action to change their life.

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com

Being an athlete gives you an advantage over everyone else.

It’s not an “unfair” advantage.

It’s an earned advantage.

Learning how to detach yourself from beating your opponent, power through extremely difficult mental and physical training, cement advice from coaches without taking it personally, and learning to fight for yourself when all odds are stacked against you are unbelievable points of value the majority of humans do not learn unless they’ve been competitive athletes at some point in their lives.
If you don’t know what any of this feels like, start training.

Challenge yourself physically.
Commit to a new athletic challenge.
Make it a new dedicated system.

You’ll surprise yourself how much it changes you for the better.

//

Substack: readtheoyster.com

If you believe a hive mind "utopia" is worth the cost of your soul, personality, opinions, relationships, love, passions, obsessions, intelligence, flaws, strengths, and every single reason to be a human on this planet—then you have no idea what it feels like to lose those things.

taplio

The Battle

Ayo Afolabi

Taylor Barnes

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreTaylor Barnes's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ayo Afolabi

Taylor Barnes

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Taylor Barnes's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreTaylor Barnes's LinkedIn Performance