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Stop Staring at Me: The Weird Psychology of Eye Contact in Ads 👀

Release Date: 10/23/2025

Brain Driven Brands

In this episode of Brain Driven Brands, Sarah and Nate pull back the curtain on the exact AI prompts they actually use to generate high-performing ad ideas—the ones that don’t sound robotic, generic, or like every other brand on the internet. After revisiting one of the show’s most-downloaded episodes, Sarah shares why most AI-written copy fails, how she rebuilt her prompts from first principles, and what happens when you tell AI which psychological mechanisms to use before it writes anything at all. Together, they live-test these internal prompts on a real brand ad (cowboy boots),...

Stop Chasing the “Why”: Here’s How Real People Actually Buy

Brain Driven Brands

For years, marketers have been told to “find the why”...which drives Sarah absolutely nuts. 😅 In this episode of Brain Driven Brands, Sarah argues with Nate that this idea of the “one true why” is what broke modern marketing. People don’t buy for one reason. They buy for many reasons—depending on mood, timing, environment, identity, stress level, and context. The real driver isn’t why someone buys. It’s when. Using real-world examples (from whiskey splurges to Starbucks rituals to Rolex buyers at different life stages) this conversation breaks down why over-optimizing for a...

This 2013 Discovery Explains Why Your Ads Won’t Convert

Brain Driven Brands

We unpack a wild 2013 study by economist M. Keith Chen: proof that the language you speak completely rewires how you save, spend, exercise, plan, and even respond to marketing. Germans retire with more wealth, smoke less, and make healthier choices… not because they’re more disciplined, but because their grammar collapses the future into the present. English pushes actions into “later.” German makes the future feel like right now. On this episode of Brain Driven Brands, we break down how your phrasing might be creating psychological distance without you realizing it (“you will feel...

The TikTok FYP Rewired the Brain…Now Your Ads Have to Adapt

Brain Driven Brands

This episode was supposed to be about something else entirely…but TikTok’s algorithm had other plans. Sarah and Nate fall headfirst into a conversation about why our For You Pages are changing how people perceive content, other people, products, and the world…and what that means for the ads we create in 2026. From cave-death phobias to zoo-bear attack headlines, we unpack why humans are magnetized to bizarre, emotionally charged micro-stories, and why traditional “polished” ads have no chance against that dopamine roulette. They break down: → How the TikTok algorithm broke the...

The Weird Psychology Tactic That’s Boosting Conversions by 149%

Brain Driven Brands

Today’s episode cracks open one of the most unintuitive persuasion effects hiding in plain sight: customers are 149% more likely to say yes to an offer… when it's presented as something that wasn’t meant for them. Sarah and Nate break down the original Journal of Marketing Research study (2013), walk through real examples from DTC, SaaS, and Nate’s own infamous bar-tab email campaign, and show how brands accidentally stumble into this effect all the time. We explore: • why “this isn’t usually for you, but…” is irresistible to new customers • how pro-level products trigger...

The 3 Forces Behind Every High-Performing Campaign in 2026

Brain Driven Brands

Marketers love to argue about tactics: structures, caps, creatives, bids, funnels. But the data from this year paints a different picture: every winning campaign in 2026 will be powered by the same three forces… and almost nobody is preparing for them. In this episode, we pull together the most revealing moments from the show; the ones where emotions spike, buying behavior becomes predictable, and the old rules of persuasion fall apart. You’ll hear how valence and intensity shape conversions, why WHEN someone sees an ad matters more than WHO they are, and how abstract language can...

The Invisible Enemy Strategy: Why Systems Marketing Will Dominate 2026

Brain Driven Brands

In this episode, we dig up the wild (but true) story of Borax — yes, Borax — and how a forgotten cleaning brand quietly rewired consumer psychology long before Meta ads, hooks, or CTR dashboards existed. What they did was shockingly simple: they stopped selling “soap vs. better soap,” and started selling a system their product could sell itself in… while naming an enemy you couldn’t see but desperately wanted to defeat. This one hits everything marketers secretly crave: • How to pick a real psychological villain (not your competitor) • Why “incomplete solutions” convert...

BFCM Week Survival Episode: Anxiety, Pressure, and the Real Talk Operators Need

Brain Driven Brands

On this episode of Brain Driven Brands, Sarah and Nate dig into what actually helps most during BFCM week: simplifying your work, limiting decisions, touching grass (literally), planning something fun, rewarding yourself for non-revenue wins, and keeping alcohol out of the mix until the storm passes. It’s the conversation everyone in DTC needs during the wildest season of the year and the reminder that none of us are doing this alone. 👉 Join my community: CoHost: Nate Lagos Twitter: LinkedIn: Tactical and Practical Podcast: CoHost: Sarah Levinger Learn more at: Twitter: Linkedin:...

Consumers Got Weird This Year: 5 Truths Marketers Aren’t Ready For

Brain Driven Brands

This week on Brain Driven Brands, Sarah and Nate crack open 25 Core Identity Maps (CIMs) collected across nearly every category — supplements, apparel, home goods, tech, sleep, skincare — and uncover the five global consumer behaviors defining 2026. These aren’t the usual “people want convenience and trust” surface takes. They’re weird, psychologically sideways, deeply human patterns emerging across thousands of responses… the kind of stuff your attribution dashboard will never show you. Inside the episode, they break down: Why customers want the feeling of improvement, not the...

The Worst Ad Takes We’ve Ever Heard (And Why They Refuse to Die)

Brain Driven Brands

Some myths haunt the ad industry like immortal raccoons rifling through the garbage. In this episode, Sarah and Nate crack open a tweet that asked a simple question: “What’s the dumbest take you’ve heard about running ads?” Turns out…people had thoughts. They wade through the greatest hits — “never turn off an ad,” “you gotta season the pixel,” “ads hurt organic,” “just follow Andromeda best practices,” “DR can’t build brand,” “scale winners 15% a day,” — and then get into the deeper psychology behind why these ideas still survive in 2026. Along the way,...

More Episodes

In this Brain Driven Brands episode, Nate and I unpack a wild little study that found ads can be 30% more effective depending on where your model’s eyes are looking.

Turns out, the difference between “I trust this brand with my organs” and “why is she looking at me like that?” comes down to whether your product is utilitarian or hedonic (fancy words for “practical” vs “fun”). We break down why eye contact builds trust for supplements and skincare—but looking away sells fashion and for-funsies products.

TL;DR: Your model’s gaze might be the cheapest conversion hack you’ve never tested.

👉 Learn more how to become a psychology-based performance marketer: skool.com/tether-lab

CoHost: Nate Lagos

Twitter: https://x.com/natelagos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natelagos/
Tactical and Practical Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tactical-practical/id1752915534

CoHost: Sarah Levinger

Learn more at: https://www.tetherinsights.io/
Twitter: https://x.com/SarahLevinger
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarah.levinger/
Watch me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg

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