AdJourney – design with direction… For about a decade (early 2000’s) Brian Sykes (Founder and CCO of AdJourney) was a Certified Adobe and Macromedia Trainer and taught on behalf of several training facilities (including Techead of Richmond, VA • LoadStone & The Avenue Group both of Charlotte, NC). Since then he has been a regular Lecturer & Speaker for the NC Small Business Centers, he has had multiple speaking engagements (including the SHOT Show in Las Vegas) and continues to take on opportunities to lead business owners and managers to informed positions in marketing communication.

Public Speaking

 Putting ideas into actionable nuggets (pearls of wisdom) that reasonate and move people to take the next step. My objective every time I speak, is to first have a desried response in mind. What is it that I want to communicate to my audience, and if effectively communicated, what will be the action taken by the recipient? The idea every time is to have a goal.

Storytelling is the key to making information usable – because it wraps truths with narrative making it interesting, engaging and memorable. Storytelling – to avoid being full of rabbit trails – must have a common cord. A running theme, like a line, that ties the entire story together. This is what is common in literature – making a book chapter by chapter move you towards an end, developing and rounding out the characters, settings and themes. An effective speech is the same. It has a desired response that courses through each story told, each character introduced. The settings are established and push with feeling and ideas towards the desired outcome.

That is what I do. My wife Trish tells me often that I am a Communication Specialist. Maybe so.. it is more befitting than Chief Creative Officer! Might have to change my title. ~ Brian