A 22-year-old influencer just called them cringe (and you def don’t want to be cringe). You used to drink your coffee before breakfast. That was until a muscle-y fitness creator yelled at you for having caffeine before protein (oh, and also morning sun). If social media’s taught us anything, it’s that we’re doing everything wrong. From the way we sleep, exercise, treat our friends, it’s all up for analysation. And honestly, it’s made it pretty dang hard to make decisions about, well, anything, when a voice is constantly whispering in your ear, “psst—that’s not how you do it.”

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

(btw - If you’re already using Claude Code or Cowork daily, scroll on by bc this isn’t for you)

But if you’ve just dabbled in using AI, maybe you’re using ChatGPT to help you look up recipes, write basic emails, or attempt to diagnose that insect bite you just got, stay with me for a sec.

When it comes to AI, there’s a lot of “bro you’re so behind” messaging out there. When, in reality, within just a couple hours, you can learn how to use AI better than 95% of people you know. And this why we put together the Beginner’s Guide to Claude AI course.

It’s a 4-week cohort where you learn how to go from using AI as a glorified Google to getting it to actually help you with the sh*tty admin (life or work) you hate doing every day.

We kick off our second cohort on 22 June, so if you want to go from feeling behind to using AI to make your life better, this is for you 👇

It would be insane of me not to mention The World Cup, which started last Thursday, not only as a marketing girl, but as the little girl who once spent every Wednesday and Saturday covered in mud, on a cold pitch, running for her life to beat the other teeny humans in oversized shirts and cleats. The great tournament is finally here and is the largest it will ever be. Hosted by three countries: Mexico, Canada, and the US. The games will be played in stadiums across all three. There are 48 teams competing this year, instead of the usual 32, which means there are significantly more games. 104 games, actually. So, here’s how to watch them (courtesy of Wired.)

YouTube: FIFA has partnered with YouTube as its “preferred partner” for streaming the games. You’ll need YouTube TV’s sports plan ($55/pm.)

Other paid options: Fubo ($46/pm) and Hulu’s live sports option ($90/pm).

Satellite TV/ cable service: via Fox Sports in the US or FoxOne streaming service for $20 per month.

Otherwise, some of the games will be streamed for free on the FIFA+ streaming service. You’re welcome.

It would also be insane to not make note of the fact that Elon Musk is now the world’s first trillionaire. Because having a trillionaire in general is normal. And makes perfect sense. And is necessary (???)

It also seems super reasonable to give the chainsaw-wielding, ketamine-loving, rocket-owning, concerning-political-view-having tech overlord more money than anyone else in the world. Alas, his net worth crossed the threshold last Friday when SpaceX completed its initial public offering. Public trading began around midday with a starting share price of $150. It quickly jumped by a double-digit percentage and sent the company’s valuation above $2tn. I have nothing nice to say about the matter, so I best not say anything else.

Lastly, if you’ve ever asked one of the LLM chatbots to tell you a story, it’s likely you’ve come across the character Elias Thorne. Though depending on which one you ask, he may be a lighthouse keeper, a clockmaker, or a librarian.

This strange phenomenon was first discovered by software engineer Daniel May when he noticed searches for the name spike at the beginning of this year. In May, researchers at Cornell University’s Department of Information Science published their paper, “Elias in the Lighthouse, Again?” after sampling 20,000 total stories from ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and the Allen Institute for AI's chatbot using five prompts. They found that the same 11 words (names like Elias, Mara, and Elara, and occupations like lighthouse keeper, clockmaker, and librarian) appear in over 88% of generated stories. So, who tf is Elias? And why do the chatbots keep talking about him??? Maybe we’ll never know.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Now, think about the last time you made a decision - completely by yourself. I don't mean a massive life choice like changing careers or buying a house.

I mean something beautifully small and mundane. The way you fried your eggs this morning. The direction you blended your bronzer. The frequency with which you watered the fern sitting in the corner of your living room.

No matter what niche of the internet you inhabit, whether you are on Fitness TikTok, Interior Design Instagram, or Culinary YouTube, you are being subjected to an unrelenting barrage of absolute certainty. Everyone is a self-appointed expert. Everyone is treating their highly specific, completely unverified method as a foundational law of the universe.

And the most ludicrous part is they are all completely contradicting each other.

One fitness creator swears that lifting heavy is the only way to save your joints; the next one insists that low-impact Pilates is the true holy grail. One plant influencer tells you to mist your soil daily; the next claims that if you don't bottom-water with filtered rain, you are committing botanical murder.

It’s a crisis of hyper-instruction. We are being pulled in a million different directions simultaneously. And, in the process, we have developed a severe case of Intuition Atrophy.

Human beings used to learn things through a beautiful, chaotic, and necessary process called trial and error. You bought a plant. You watered it too much. The leaves turned yellow. You thought, “Ah, right, probably shouldn’t do that again,” and you adjusted. You engaged with reality directly and developed a localised, experiential wisdom called intuition.

But the interest-based algorithm has completely intercepted that loop.

Now, before we even attempt an action, we search the feed. We consume twenty different tutorials before we even pick up the spatula or the makeup brush. We have been conditioned to believe that there is a correct way to do literally everything, and that our raw, uneducated instincts are fundamentally broken.

When you spend four to six hours a day absorbing the aggressive, conflicting certainty of strangers, your brain becomes a noisy, crowded room. Your gut voice doesn’t get out-voted; it simply gets drowned out by the volume of the crowd.

We have outsourced our taste, our confidence, and our basic human agency to people whose only actual qualification is that they own a ring light.

If we want to stay sane in an era of infinite advice, we have to treat our intuition like a muscle that has gone completely limp from underuse. Reclaiming it requires a deliberate, aggressive act of digital defunding.

1. Embrace the "bad" result

The fear of doing something "wrong" is the trap that keeps you tethered to the tutorials. Give yourself permission to make a terrible meal, wear a weird outfit, or mess up a project. Failure is the exact raw material that your intuition uses to build itself, not a waste of time, or resources.

2. Put your phone elsewhere while you create

The next time you sit down to do a hobby, get dressed, or cook dinner, banish the screen. Force yourself to look at the materials in front of you and ask a question that has become entirely foreign to the modern mind: “What do I feel like doing right now?” It will feel uncomfortable at first. Sit with the discomfort. That is your inner voice waking up.

3. De-amplify the so-called “experts”

Remind yourself that the creator yelling at you about the proper way to contour your nose doesn't actually care about your face. They care about their watch time. Their certainty is an algorithmic survival mechanism, not a reflection of objective truth. On social media, nuance is invisible and nuance gets scrolled past. Loud, unyielding dogma is the only thing that pays the bills.

For the marketers and founders reading this, the saturation point of the "Expert Economy" hath arrived. We’re all exhausted by being told we are doing everything wrong.

The next generation of industry-defining brands won't be the ones that provide more instructions. It will be the brands that celebrate the amateur:

But in doing so, it made us forget that we already had the questions.

Whenever a 20-something-year-old creator on your feed tries to tell you that the way you're living your life is completely incorrect, I want you to swipe away.

Look down at your own hands, listen to the quiet, dusty corner of your own mind, and remember that nobody on earth knows how to be you better than you do.

Stay safe out there, soldiers x

-Sophie Randell, Writer

She always has gossip on someone, and though I'm usually annoyed and don't actually care about them, I'll join in for the tea anyway. The original audio is two guys pretending to be girls having a yap, and it's perfect for putting over top footage of two people (or even animals lol) who look like they're having the best little chat.

My fave examples of this trend:

Record you and your best friend, manager, or work bestie while lipsyncing to this audio. Use onscreen text to describe that thing you love to gossip about anytime, any place.

A few ideas to get you started:

-DJ Taivairanga, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos: Is this the best prank ever?
❤How wholesome: Buying from vendors with no customers
😊Soooo satisfying: Kinetic sand 4 life
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Guacamole Quesadillas!

Hey Tomás!

Yes, it's absolutely possible to get into the industry without a degree in marketing. Of course, it is definitely helpful to have an understanding of consumer behaviour and marketing principles. But with all the free resources out there, you can take it upon yourself to learn from books, podcasts, YouTube, etc.

As far as getting experience, if I were you, I would immerse myself in the industry as much as possible. Go to in-person marketing events. Follow and connect with marketers on LinkedIn. Book coffee chats with anyone who will give you 30 minutes of their time. Not only is this the best way to learn, but it may even lead to an opportunity to intern or get some actual work experience.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.