About
Hi, I'm Pan.
Officially Jon 'Pan' Oakley. Everyone calls me Pan.
I started in 1997 as a Game Director at The 3DO Company, then spent five years as Lead Game Designer at Angel Studios, which became part of Rockstar Games. Games taught me how people actually behave on a screen — what they click, what they ignore, what brings them back.
From 2005 to 2011 I ran S8 Solutions. Since 2011 I've led Great Minds, my studio and strategy firm in Oceanside.
Along the way I've seen a lot of what happens inside marketing accounts. Some agencies are excellent. Plenty aren't. And most owners have no easy way to tell the difference.
That's why Ask Pan exists. Free workshops, plain-English answers, and — if you want help — an introduction to someone I'd hire myself.
A few things I've done
- Built a patron portal for a casino that replaced direct mail and saved over $750,000 a year.
- Runs a 5,000 sq ft production and podcast studio in Oceanside.
- 1997–2000 · Game Director, The 3DO Company
- 2000–2005 · Lead Game Designer, Angel Studios / Rockstar Games
- 2005–2011 · President, S8 Solutions
- 2011–now · Leads a strategy, studio and AI firm, Oceanside, CA
How I think about growth
Reputation → Rank → Experience → Follow-Up → Amplify
Get your reputation right, then rank, then make the experience worth it, follow up fast, and only then amplify with ads. Most businesses start at the end.