In partnership with
The Culture Code AI
Intelligence for the Architect of the Future
DATE: Friday, December 19, 2025 | ED: Morris
Good Morning, Fam’
We are less than a week away from Christmas. The malls are packed and the credit cards are swiping but we are moving different. While everyone else is buying liabilities that lose value the second the wrapping paper comes off we are acquiring assets. This is the specific time of year when you decide if you are going to be a consumer or an owner in 2026. Put down the toy catalog and pick up the strategy guide.
We need to stop reading the headlines and start reading the room. The political winds have shifted and the corporate ladder is being pulled up right in front of us. The rising unemployment numbers are not a coincidence they are a trend. Relying on a job title for your safety is a risk you cannot afford to take anymore. We are deploying sovereignty protocols today. Stop asking for a seat at a table that is shrinking and start building your own dining room.
Let's get to work.
📰 Today's Frequency
1. OpenAI Just Killed The Stock Photo 📸
Source: OpenAI Blog
The Scoop (Facts): OpenAI has released a massive update to their image generation model. It now creates hyper realistic visuals with perfect text rendering and lighting that mimics professional photography. You can edit specific parts of the image just by talking to it.
The Vibe Check (Strategic Leverage): For decades we have had to search for stock photos that actually looked like us and didn't look cheesy. Now we build them ourselves. This is about owning our narrative. Use this tool to create high end marketing assets for your business without paying for a photoshoot. Control the visual standard of your brand.
2. The Economy Is shifting: Who Gets Left Behind? 📉
Source: CNN Business (Dec 18, 2025)
The Scoop (Facts): A sobering new report from CNN outlines how AI is reshaping the labor market right now. Routine cognitive jobs are vanishing while "AI Commander" roles are skyrocketing. The middle management layer is being hollowed out by automation efficiency.
The Vibe Check (Strategic Leverage): This is the alarm bell. If your job involves staring at a spreadsheet and moving data from column A to column B you are in the danger zone. You must pivot from being the "doer" to being the "architect." Learn to command the AI to do the work or be replaced by someone who can.
🚀 Builder's Playbook
Topic: Building a "Resolution Accountability" App 🏗️
Every January millions of people set goals they drop by February. We are building a paid accountability tool to keep our community locked in for 2026. This isn't just an app, it is a discipline engine. We are going to use Lovable to spin this up before the ball drops on New Year's Eve.
Note: Build for real gaps you see. Do not scrape or copy other Black founders' products.
Phase 1: The Extraction (Define the Niche).
Don't build a "Goal Tracker." Build "The 90 Day Sprint for Black Tech Founders." Specificity builds trust. The problem is loneliness in the grind. The solution is automated check ins.
Phase 2: The Build (Using Lovable).
Go to Lovable.dev. Use this Mega Prompt:
CORE FEATURES:
1. The Contract: User inputs a specific goal and a 'Stakes' amount (e.g. $50 penalty).
2. The Check In: Daily SMS or Email prompt asking 'Did you execute today?'.
3. The Dashboard: A streak counter visual (Green for yes Red for no).
4. The Social Proof: A leaderboard of users with the longest streaks.
UI/UX: High contrast 'Dark Mode' aesthetic. Mobile first."
Phase 3: The Launch (Scale).
Post this on LinkedIn on December 26th: "Who is tired of setting goals and quitting by Jan 15th? I built a tool that fines you if you slack off. Who is brave enough to test it?"
🎨 Marketing Moves
1. The "Gift Guide" Infiltration 🎁
People are frantically searching for last minute gifts. Create a blog post or social thread titled "The Top 5 Digital Gifts for Entrepreneurs." Feature your own product as the #1 item. Run $5 a day in ads targeting people interested in "Small Business" in your city. Catch the wallet while it is open.
2. The "New Year" Pre-Sell 🥂
Do not wait until January 1st to sell a solution for the New Year. Start the "Pre-Order" campaign now. Offer a "Founding Member" discount that expires at midnight on NYE. Create urgency. Tell them: "Enter 2026 with the tools already in your hand."
🛠️ Tool of the Week: ElevenLabs
Clone your voice so you can record personalized "Thank You" messages for your top 50 clients without losing your voice. Personalization at scale wins.
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Support The Fam That Supports Us Quick ask, fam: the sponsors you see in this issue are part of how we keep The Culture Code AI free, independent, and focused on us. When you click through, try a tool, or share them with a friend, you are helping keep a Black owned, high signal newsletter alive in a climate that would rather we stayed quiet. |
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beehiiv isn’t just the best choice. It’s the only choice that makes sense.
💼 Career Moves
Here is the secret. Companies often freeze "Headcount" (permanent salaries) but they have wide open budgets for "Contractors" (operating expense). They are terrified of entering Q1 with empty seats. We are going to solve that problem for them.
🚨 The "Interim Shield" Protocol
24 Hours: The Stale Hunt. Go to LinkedIn Jobs. Filter for roles posted 60+ days ago. These managers are desperate and tired of interviewing.
48 Hours: The Gap Plan. Do not write a resume. Write a 90 day "Gap Management" plan. Outline exactly how you will keep the ship moving while they continue their search for a "permanent" hire.
72 Hours: The Pitch. DM the Hiring Manager. "I see this role is still open. I can step in as the Interim Lead starting Monday to keep projects moving while you continue your search. No onboarding needed."
The LinkedIn Asset (The Interim Pitch).
Use this prompt to write the DM that gets you the contract.
THE ROLE: [INSERT JOB TITLE]
THE PAIN: The role has been open for [INSERT MONTHS].
MY OFFER: I will execute the Q1 roadmap on a contract basis.
TASK: Write a 3 sentence LinkedIn DM. It must be empathetic to their hiring fatigue but confident in my ability to plug the hole immediately. End with 'Open to a 15 min chat to save your Q1?'"
🔥 The Culture Code Prompt Lab
Theme: The "Family Office" Strategy Session 👨👩👧👦
How We Benefit: Wealthy families run their households like businesses. We need to do the same. My wife Roxanne and I just recently had our Family Strategy Summit, auditing our 2025 and creating a detailed roadmap for our family businesses and personal strategies for 2026. This prompt turns ChatGPT into a Chief Strategy Officer for your family. It helps you audit your 2025 finances, set clear career goals and strategies, and create a task cadence so you actually hit your targets in 2026. This is how we break generational cycles.
CONTEXT: I am leading the [INSERT LAST NAME] Family strategy session for 2026. Our main goals are [INSERT GOALS e.g. Buy a house, Clear debt, Exercise, Start business].
TASK: Create a '2026 Family Operating System'.
1. The Audit: A checklist to review 2025 Spending, Investments, and Career Growth.
2. The Roadmap: A Quarterly Goals list (Q1 through Q4) with specific KPIs for each family member.
3. The Rhythm: A schedule for 'Monthly Family Board Meetings' including a standard agenda.
OUTPUT: A professional strategic plan document formatted for print."
💰 Skill Builder
Skill: Personal Burn Rate Analysis 📉
Challenge: You need to know exactly how long you can survive if the income stops today. This builds sovereignty.
Prompt: Analyze my monthly fixed expenses vs my liquid savings. Calculate my 'Runway' in months. Then identify the 3 largest variable expenses I can cut within 24 hours to extend that runway by 2 months.
🏆 Community Corner
Big Win: Shout out to Michael in Norfolk. He works in logistics and was worried about layoffs. He used the "Micro SaaS" playbook to build a simple "Trucking Compliance Checklist" app. He launched it to his network and secured 3 corporate subscriptions with recurring income. That is how you build your own safety net.
We want to hear your wins! Reach out and share your success stories with us.
🧰 Stocking Stuffers: The Gift of Leverage
Fam', stop buying plastic junk. Gift your people the tools to build freedom. Here is your shopping list for the family:
For The Business Cousin: Gamma
Help them stop making ugly slides. Give them the power to pitch investors with style. Gamma uses AI to generate beautiful decks, documents, and websites in seconds, so they can focus on the pitch, not the formatting.
For The Content Creator Spouse: Opus Clip
Save them hours of editing. Let them turn one video into ten viral clips instantly. Opus Clip automatically identifies the most engaging hooks in long-form content and reformats them for platforms like TikTok and Reels.
For The Creative Teen: InVideo AI
Let them turn their wild ideas into full videos. Encourage them to be producers not consumers. With InVideo AI, they can generate scripts, create scenes, and add voiceovers just by typing a prompt, democratizing video creation.
For The Elder with a Story: ElevenLabs
Preserve their voice or help them listen to articles instead of straining to read small text. ElevenLabs offers the most realistic AI voice generation, allowing them to create audiobooks of their life stories or simply convert text to speech in a natural-sounding voice.
For The Side Hustler: Carrd
Give them a one page website for their business. No more excuses about "tech is too hard." Carrd is the simplest way to build a professional, responsive one-page site for anything, from a personal profile to a landing page to capture emails.
For The Builder: Lovable
The ultimate gift. The ability to build software without writing code. Lovable is an AI-powered platform that lets anyone build web apps, marketplaces, and internal tools by just describing what they want in plain English.
✊🏾 Stay Locked In
Fam’, this Christmas give the gift of vision. While you are gathered with your loved ones talk about the plan for 2026. Talk about ownership. Talk about legacy. We are the ones we have been waiting for. Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
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- Morris & The Culture Code AI Team
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