Culture Convo | The Adobe Moment: Authenticity & Impact | Julian Reeves

In this inspiring episode of Culture Raises Us, AI expert and storyteller Julian Reeves reflects on his unexpected “Adobe moment”—a creative breakthrough that reshaped his career and the way he approaches digital storytelling. What began as a simple project turned into a viral milestone, proving that authenticity wrapped in creativity can ripple through culture far more powerfully than chasing algorithms.

Julian shares the lessons he learned about responsibility after gaining visibility, why authenticity disguised as performance dominates today’s digital world, and how creators can protect themselves from the noise of social media while still making meaningful work. From deleting Instagram to spending hours in silence daily, Julian offers a framework for cultivating clarity, discipline, and purpose in a culture addicted to distraction.

This episode is a reminder that your moment isn’t just about going viral—it’s about what you build once the spotlight fades, and how you stay true to yourself while shaping culture with impact.

#CultureRaisesUs #JulianReeves #TheAdobeMoment #AuthenticityInTech #PurposeDrivenContent #DigitalStorytelling #AIAndCulture #CreativeBreakthrough #StayingTrue #ImpactOverAlgorithms

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
In the digital world, a single moment like one post,
one design, or one story can literally ripple through the
algorithms and culture, I think. But the deeper question is
who gets amplified and who gets left behind. Julian Reeves,
the AI expert, is back to talk about seizing the
moment and not just for retention, but for real actual impact.

(00:24):
Walk us through your Adobe moment and kind of what
happened in your life and the creative process kind of
leading up to it.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
So last year on December I got a random email
from a random agency that just reached out. They said,
we love your work, we want to work with you.
We represent Adobe. So for me, this was kind of
coming out of nowhere. Almost thought it was a scam
because it wasn't Adobe reaching out. I talked to him more.
You know, they obviously showed me they were the social
agency that Adobe was partnering with exclusively. They saw my

(00:53):
work on Instagram, they wanted to work with me. So
over the course of three or four months, I would
basically be working with the Aobie through this agency, and
they came to me and said, you know, this time
instead of us giving you something, we want you to
give us something we want you just to give us
an idea that you like where you can just free
will have your way. And so that was like the
ultimate culmination of everything coming together for me where record

(01:16):
is fully expressed myself. I was at the point of
my career where I was tired of trying to impress
other creators, tired of just trying to impress corporations, and
I just wanted to make something for me.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
So that day I flipped the script. I just decided
to create a video.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
It's all about, basically if every single Adobe product had
their own personality. So I was able to just like
infuse my creativity into it, use these high level motion graphics,
you know, had a stylist working with me, had a
full crew out there shoot it for me. So that
moment was it was war tested. It was something where
my whole career was preparing me for it.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
For sure, So obviously I would I would think that
that viral moment shifted the way you approached your work
as like a tech expert or store tiler.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Moving forward, Yeah, for sure, I think I stopped trying
to be so performative and so just trying to appeal
to the algorithm and more.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
What was truthful to me?

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Once you with that, I think, once you realize that
your work can, as you say, break through, how did
you think about the responsibility that now comes with that visibility,
Because it's not just the output of your work. There
is the impact of your work, and there's a certain
responsibility that.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
You have with Yeah, no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
I mean content just like cold in a way, it's
almost spells, you know, they have these impact on people
where it can change the way people think, kind of
hypnotize people in the moment. So it definitely made me
approach everything I do with much more intention of the
leverage of this one moment I'm creating could be spent,
you know, on hundreds of thousands of hours of people

(02:51):
watching it. So with that type of pressure, you definitely
look at things differently, no question.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
So in your experience, you know, the other thing that
is always top of mind for me is looking at
how often does tech in that space which you're the
expert in, how much does it reward authenticity versus performance?
Because so often, and you know how content and the
type of content that society culture has been gravitating to,

(03:20):
it's at times it's not the most influential, you see,
I'm trying to choose my words very attentively here, So
like talk about like how do we reward authenticity versus
performance or what does those two things look like.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, I think we're in the point in time now
where techas were actually rewarding authenticity but disguised as performance.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
So break that down for sure.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
I think before, maybe like five to ten years ago,
it was all about the filters, the edits, you know,
making everything look larger than life. And now we've gotten
to a point where people want truth, they want authenticity,
but they still want it wrapped in some type of
polished They want it wrapped in some type of edit
that still makes sense in this performance. They don't just
want to see somebody you know, down bad, having a

(04:14):
horrible time and that being true. They still want to
see it kind of wrapped in a progressive way, in
an appealing way. So I feel like nowadays authenticity is
definitely rewarded. People are tired of the fake.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
It's just a matter of still making that authenticity appealing
for sure.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, And I think when you say tired of the fake,
you know, fake comes in many disguises. Right, So, like,
how is that filter of being tired of fake but
making sure that the ones of the disguise we're still
filtering that out as well and not necessarily rewarding that.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
It's really just one of those things where spiritually you
just have to be so aligned with thinking independently. I
know I talked about this lible in the last episode,
just like making sure the propaganda of society of social
does it in fact, because if you can just cognitively
and really just when you're scrolling or on social media,
be paying attention to have awareness, you know, you can

(05:07):
easily see what's disguised, what's fake versus what's truth.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
You just constantly have to have that awareness had on.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, And I think that goes back to you know,
another cond that's like you said the conversation we had before,
where a lot of the responsibility is on the recipients, right,
the audience. Right, If we are the ones that are
sharing and viewing this content, then we are just as
much an issue as the content creator who's putting it

(05:36):
out there. So there's a responsibility to us to not
necessarily advocate, and advocation comes in a multitude of forms, right,
like I said, you can share, you can comment, and
the more that we do that, you're now enabling whatever
that piece of content is intended or whatever that piece
of content is.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Sharing exactly because that one piece of content couldn't even
be unintentionally, you know, badly loans and people. And if
we're just you know, not even thinking about it, we're
just commenting and sharing, then we can compound that to
affect other people badly too.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
So what's a piece of advice you'd give to someone
who's trying to find their own moment? Right? Even though
you weren't trying to find your moment when you were
doing your thing, it kind of found you, which might
be one of the pieces of advice, but without losing
yourself in the process, you saw some gems you would
share for sure.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
I mean me personally, I've deleted Instagram, like I haven't
had it on my phone for the last six months.
And I think, for sure, and I think that independence
from other people's thoughts, other people's influential tactics has got
to meet to a point where I can see clearly
of what is my own thoughts, what is my own opinion,
what are my own beliefs?

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Removing a clutter.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Exactly exactly that, And so like I even try to
spend at least, you know, two hours of day in silence,
no noise, no screens, something.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
The further you can get.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Away from that distraction, the better you'll be able to
understand and what your true gifts are and how you
can express that to the world.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Such discipline, such discipline. Well, you know, the algorithm may
decide what trends, but it doesn't define who you are.
And I think your Adobe moment isn't just about going viral.
It's about what you build after the spotlight fades away.
And the question isn't only you know, how do I
break through, but also how do I stay true while

(07:25):
I do it? Because the voices that often get left
behind are the ones the world needs the most, and
you are one of those voices.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
So I want to thank you once again as usual
for spitting your gems and giving your insight.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Absolutely, it's a privilege, it's a pleasure, pleasure for sure,