Jason, I'm Tom Langan. I had a look at what Mekanism's been putting into the world over the last year, and wanted to send a short note from one production shop to another.
I've spent 25 years in video and television production as a Director of Photography, Producer, and Showrunner, earning two Emmy nominations and leading multi-million dollar productions for global broadcasters like the BBC, NBCUniversal, and Discovery filming all over the world from the Arctic Circle to sub-Saharan Africa.
My job was, and still is, to make video that people actually want to watch.
What follows is a custom strategy doc in two halves. First, the audience equity Mekanism has already built. Second, the Legendeering framework and a few formats that would compound it. Mekanism are experts at what you do. Talex would just add another layer.
A few specifics from your recent and historical work that stuck with us.
This Past Week
NextGen Acela For Amtrak
Visual cues from automotive ads, with sleek interior portraiture that earns the comparison. Part of an ongoing Amtrak relationship that already includes 'Trak Suits and Retrain Travel.
Frida Mom's Stream of Lactation: Cannes Lion shortlist, Effie Silver, Webby. MedMen's The New Normal: D&AD Wood Pencil for Branded Content, Cannes Bronze for Film Craft, AICP for Cinematography.
The 2026 A24 documentary about your colleague André Ricciardi, premiered at Sundance. Mekanism made the colorectal cancer awareness PSA with Joint Venture as the brand-side response.
The Soulful Art Of Persuasion: The 11 Habits That Will Make Anyone A Master Influencer
Crown Currency, 2019. WSJ, LA Times, and Publishers Weekly bestseller. Harvard's Thales Teixeira called it "the modern-day version of Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People." John Foley at Peloton said the habits "flat out work."
All three are earned, all three are working. Any new format would compound what's already here.
Audience equity. Soul & Science has 156 episodes and a 68k subscriber YouTube channel. That's a return audience that already knows your voice and shows up for it. Most agencies never build this.
Author equity.The Soulful Art of Persuasion is a WSJ, LA Times, and Publishers Weekly bestseller. Harvard's Thales Teixeira called it the modern-day Carnegie. People are paying to hear your POV in long form. The book keeps reaching new readers without a media buy behind it.
Cultural equity. Frida Mom's Stream of Lactation. Andre Is an Idiot. The MedMen film. Campaigns that earn cultural credit, not just impressions. They get talked about, written about, and remembered. They build the kind of brand reputation Mekanism gets to trade on for the next pitch.
The single area where the public reel is thin is in returning narrative long-form outside the podcast: customer hero films, member portrait series, founder-led teaching shows. This observation is purely about format range. Those formats can compound the equity you've already built. They also happen to be what the Legendeering framework is built around.
03Lead With Value
The Legendeering Framework, In One Page
The methodology behind every Talex production. Five directives, one core principle.
Legendeering is Talex's proprietary strategy. The core principle is straightforward: lead with value, always. The brand earns trust by giving without expectation, and that equity compounds because people keep choosing to watch.
Five directives drive it:
·Give Without Expectation. Value delivered without strings. The kind of generosity that builds loyalty money cannot buy.
·Be Relentlessly Authentic. Say true things. Show real work. Speak like a human being.
·It's Not About You. It's About Them. The audience has to come first. It's all about their wants and needs and making something they will choose to watch.
·Start With Story, Follow With Facts. Story gives information shape, context, and emotional weight. Facts alone rarely move people.
·Consistency Is Key. Trust is built in moments, repeated over time.
Mekanism are experts at making unforgettable hero spots. Talex would just add another layer: returning narrative long-form built on the framework above. The three ideas below are what that layer looks like for a brand at your scale.
Each one builds on equity Mekanism has already earned. Each one is something only Mekanism could make.
01
"Soul & Science On Camera"
A limited series where Soul & Science goes on the road. Each episode shot with the guest in their actual environment, alongside Jason. Dave's Hot Chicken in a restaurant kitchen, making and eating the chicken together. MLS Chief Marketing Officer Radhika Duggal running drills with the players. Ziggy Marley in a recording studio, working with Jason to lay down a new track. Each piece works as a stand-alone short doc, and the season builds a film catalog the podcast itself can't deliver.
02
"The Soulful Art"
The Soulful Art of Persuasion includes 11 habits. The natural extension is 11 short documentary films, one per habit, hosted by Jason and anchored to a real-world example of the habit in action. Each film stands alone and creates the opportunity to build short form assets to drive audience to the longer films. The book is already a bestseller, so the films become the documentary video adaptation of the book.
03
"How Unexpected Ideas Get Made"
Mekanism's own tagline is "making unexpected ideas unstoppable." What Mekanism hasn't done yet is pull back the curtain on the process. A returning short-form series following Mekanism through the actual making of a campaign, end to end, each episode featuring a single client story, highlighting them as the hero and their success as the goal. Each episode is a case study and brand-equity for Mekanism all in one.
05A Few Films Talex Has Made
Three Projects Across Three Industries
Same craft, same methodology, three very different jobs.
Case Study 01 · Nonprofit
Elizabeth Seton Children's
96
Beds in new young adult center
$156M
Project investment
2025
Year of groundbreaking
The Challenge
In 2020, Elizabeth Seton Children's launched a capital campaign to fund a $156 million young adult care facility for patients aging out of their pediatric program. They needed video content that would inspire donors, communicate urgency, and sustain momentum across a multi-year campaign.
The Approach
Talex Media produced multiple pieces of informational, inspirational, and commercial fundraising content across the campaign lifecycle. Each piece was designed to give donors a genuine connection to the mission and the people it serves, not just a request for money.
The Result
In August 2025, Elizabeth Seton Children's broke ground on their new 96-bed young adult center in White Plains, NY, the first standalone facility of its kind in the United States, providing care for young adults aged 18 to 35 with complex medical needs. The facility is expected to open in January 2028.
Case Study 02 · Enterprise
Resorts World New York City
$5.5B
Site development investment
10+
Video pieces produced
Dec '25
Gaming license awarded
The Challenge
In 2025, Resorts World International launched a high-stakes public campaign to secure a New York City commercial gaming license and advance their $5.5B investment to transform their existing casino at Aqueduct Racetrack into a full-scale integrated resort. Their communications needed to be credible, compelling, and precise.
The Approach
Talex Media produced more than 10 distinct pieces of video content spanning community impact narratives, stakeholder communications, and public-facing advocacy. Each piece was built on a story-first foundation designed to move people, not just inform them.
The Result
On December 15, 2025, the NY State Gaming Commission awarded Resorts World NYC one of only three downstate commercial gaming licenses. Talex Media's content supported one of the most consequential licensing decisions in NYC's recent history.
Case Study 03 · Growth Brand
Sobo & Sobo LLP
2020
Partnership begin date
7
States with Sobo offices
5+
Years of ongoing campaigns
The Challenge
In 2020, Sobo & Sobo, a New York-based personal injury law firm, engaged Talex Media. They needed commercial video campaigns that could anchor their brand, differentiate them in a competitive legal market, and fuel their growth ambitions across new markets.
The Approach
Since 2020, Talex Media has produced all of Sobo & Sobo's commercial video campaigns, an ongoing, multi-year embedded partnership bringing brand consistency, strategic communication, and production quality to every new market they enter.
The Result
Since the partnership began, Sobo & Sobo has grown from a NY-focused firm into a multi-state legal practice with offices in NY, CT, NJ, IL, OH, PA, and WI. Talex Media's campaigns have accompanied every stage of that expansion.
A networking call between two production shops. Notes on the work, the layer above the hero spot, and a few worlds we'd want to build together if the chance ever comes up.
Or just reply on LinkedIn and tell me what you actually thought. Happy to send you a copy of Legendeering if you'd like to compare notes on the philosophy side.
FAQA Few Questions You Might Have
What does a call with you look like?
Fifteen minutes. We walk through this document, I answer whatever you want to ask, and we find out if there's a fit. Nothing is sold on the call.
How custom is this audit?
Everything in this document is based on your actual public presence. I don't send the same deck to different companies, this one was prepared specifically for Mekanism.
How is your approach different from a typical video agency?
We start with the community, not the camera. Before any production decision, we map who you're speaking to, what they need from you, and what shift we're trying to produce in them. Format and craft follow from there.
We're a creative agency ourselves. Where does Talex fit?
Right alongside you. Talex Media is a video production company in the documentary and broadcast tradition, not a marketing or creative agency. A strong creative agency brings audience clarity, big ideas, and channel strategy. We bring the documentary-tradition films and returning episodic series that pair with those ideas: customer hero pieces, long-form member portraits, multi-episode brand series, founder content built to a broadcast standard.
