Stephen Walker — Opinionated Ad Man, Writer and Author, Professional AI Hater, Marketer and Trader.

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The power of slow

Everyone’s sprinting. Hustle culture. Move fast and break things. Ship it yesterday. Grind until you collapse. Speed speed speed. That shit is exhausting. And you know what all of this generally gets you? Burnout. Shitty work. Mistakes you have to fix later. And the creeping sensation…
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Let’s get dumb

Part of my plan to take over the world this year involves going full caveman with my phone situation. I’m talking dumb phones, baby. The shitty little Nokia bricks that can barely send a text message without setting on fire. The ones where typing out “meet…
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Alabama Prostitute

There’s this scene in True Romance. Alabama. Bubblegum popping, Elvis worshipping, sweet as American pie Alabama… Sitting her ass down across from a mobster who’s about to turn her face into hamburger meat because she knows where the stolen cocaine went. She could cry. She could…
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Redditor Fisticuffs

My homeboy Mike from Peaceful Profits, aka the only non-ai infected ghostwriting and training place left on the web (Probably) dropped this absolute banger of an email and so in good old fashioned homage. I’ll be sharing some of it here… Grab a drink. It’s another…
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Seek quality.

With all of the AI fuckery being forced into our faces over the last few years. Trust from a consumer point of view is waaaay down. I mean down down. Like lower than the lowest limbo stick down or whatever the professional term for it is…
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Screw the news cycle, build something instead.

Hell yeah… New year. Same doomscroll impulse sneaking up and trying to drag you under… I get it. You open your phone and it’s immediate chaos again. I mean we’re only 6 days in and things look like they’re starting off wild. The news alerts are…
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Pt 2. Psycho-mythology of the cult

I think my brain must’ve collapsed cause I couldn’t even math properly yesterday. Although I did get some interesting responses to the previous email and it looks like you enjoy these types of write ups. So without further ado. The next 8, not 7 and how…
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Psycho-mythology of the cult…

Who said we were gonna ease into 2026? So we’re gonna riff on everyone’s favourite topic, which is cults and their fun little practices and dogmas. In order to identify a cult you need to know that all of them worship death secretly. They are all…
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The father of spam

Back in 1978. Gary Thuerk inadvertently created email marketing as we know it today. I mean he sent one email to 393 people and did over $13 million in sales, which is wild. If you dig back into the internets early days you’ll find ARPANET was…
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Get that BHAG

That’s right. Get that Big Hairy Audacious Goal set down on paper so that it can stare you in the face every day while you make it happen. Jim Collins coined the term and stretched it out over the course of 10-30 years. I mean that’s…
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We, the people. We, the humans, are going to win.

Oh boy. 2025 was a wild year. And I’m glad we’ve finally dragged it to the back of the dusty ol’ shed, put it on its knees and given it the Mozambique drill. 3 bangs and its gone. So what does 2026 have in store for…
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I’m sorry Johnny

Little Johnny comes home from school excitedly to finish up for Christmas. He walks into the kitchen, pacing slowly. “Mom,” he whispers but you can hear the confusion in his voice. He sees her sitting there expressionless. He inches closer and waves his little hand in…
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See you in 2026

A last minute decision was made to rest properly. It’s nearly Christmas and my chest and cough has come back with a full vengeance. I have a few days to try and get back to normal and it’s the most annoying and frustrating period of sickness…
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Take me back

The best movies were made without it. The best games were made without it. The best comics were made without it. The best stories were made without it. The best songs were made without it. And now for some reason we really need it, there’s no…
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How to induce mass hypnosis

By the time you’re reading this. I might be laying face down in a ditch somewhere in Manchester… That being said. It’s that time of the year where I am in charge of adults and making sure they don’t unleash a lot of chaos right before…
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Gargle on deez nuts

I felt like I was dying a few weeks ago. I had what most people would consider the man flu. Yes it is bad, was bad and is still (kinda) bad but I’m 99% over it now. For about a month it felt like my whole…
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How to support the writers in your life (hint: it involves murder)

You want to support the writer in your life? Great. Here’s how… Grab a stake and drive it straight through the heart of the digital vampire currently draining the life out of all of us. I’m talking about Generative AI. That soulless content abomination sucking up…
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Oh. The world is on fire again.

The world is on fire even more now and I’m so tired of pretending everything’s fine. It’s like we just can’t catch a break this year. Things go from bad to worse to Worcestershire sauce levels of unpronounceable disaster and back again. Every time you think…
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Mastering the attention economy

Remember when we used to mock those ridiculous Facebook posts? “If you were a bread, what bread would you be?” or “Comment your birthday month and I’ll tell you which Disney princess you are!” We’d roll our eyes at the obvious engagement bait. We knew it…
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How to monetise disrespect

Now apparently this is true and even if not. It’s hilarious. Sometimes the universe presents you with an opportunity to be absolutely, magnificently petty. And when that moment comes, you have two choices… Take the high road like a boring adult, or embrace your inner petty…
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The cardinal marketing sin that makes you look like a clown

Let me tell you about the marketing equivalent of putting pineapple on pizza, except worse, because at least that’s consensual… It’s opting people into your email list without their explicit consent. I don’t care if they bought something from you five years ago. I don’t care…
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This will get you thinking

“There are two kinds of pain in this world. The pain that hurts, the pain that alters.” One of my favourite quotes from a movie. That movie is The Equalizer 2. TL;DR it’s what John Wick should’ve been. Anyways. This isn’t going to be checklist and…
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Be like Josh

I know the world feels like it’s circling the drain most days. Open social media and it’s rage bait, grifters, and people filming themselves pretending to care about things for clicks. Then there’s the performative empaths doing things like it’s some new TikTok trend. But then…
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Why nobody reads your copy

Thought I’d hit you with a little bit of direct response shenanigans today, mainly cause my brain is mush. Ever notice how sending an email these days feels like shouting at a wall, hell… Even social media posts tend to just sit there and feel meh.…
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Please reach out.

I know this world is a cold place a lot of the times. But it can also be a beautiful place if you let it be. Sadly today. A friend I work with got the call that nobody wants to get. His best friend has sadly…
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Double down on this one thing going into next year

I’m busy thumbing this email while on the last train back home. If it sends, it sends. The signal is meh. I had a catch up with a friend who I’ve not seen in forever. We shot the shit, had a few espresso martini’s, did some…
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The Hail Mary for Artists In 2026

2025 has been wild. The internet has shifted massively, especially on social media and the overall social side of things. Artists have become commoditised and the majority of us saw this coming (Writers of all types, painters, musicians etc) The skills we’ve crafted for decades have…
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Dig Bick Energy

There’s a new type of energy floating around social media, and it’s not the good kind. I’m calling it “Dig Bick Energy” The not-so-nice flaccid cousin of Big Dick Energy. Instead of confident competence, it’s just digging into topics you don’t understand and bickering about them…
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Be the big spoon for your content

Some days you don’t feel like writing. The well feels dry, the ideas feel stale, and you’re convinced you’ve already said everything worth saying about your particular corner of the universe. Today is one of those days for me. Although in this case. You gotta be…
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Make zoom fun again

I’m still sick as a dog right now. The kind of sick where breathing feels like a conscious effort and my voice sounds like I’ve been gargling gravel for sport. Although I’m just being dramatic cause drama makes email writing fun. It’s more just that tickling…