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PODCAST

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising?

What’s actually working in marketing — and what’s just noise? Hosted by Adam W. Barney, author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full and founder of Scale Smarter, this podcast brings honest, high-energy conversations with the operators, creators, and founders redefining how business growth really works. From agency leaders and AI innovators to storytellers and strategists, Adam dives into what drives sustainable success — not vanity metrics. Together, they unpack the systems, creativity, and human

business marketing

All Episodes

27:16

Community over Audience: Measurable ROI & CQLs | Ep....

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/12/10

Most teams confuse audience with community. Yurii Lazaruk explains the difference (one-to-many vs. many-to-many) and maps a measurable framework for community’s impact on support, product, marketing, and sales—including Community-Qualified Leads that move members into the right offer at the right time. We get into avoiding “fandom” traps, when to build audience first, why intentional facilitation matters, and a simple habit to start today: one real conversation a day. You’ll learn:How to

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21:25

Do the Homework: Foundations Before Ads | Ep. 29...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/12/05

Agency veteran Nikhil Vaish, founder of BoostSolo, argues that most ad failures start upstream. We walk through his three-step model: Offer > Homework > Execution, show how AI can amplify both good and bad strategy, and detail a practical voice-of-customer workflow using your own sales calls.Expect a frank conversation about niching down, pricing power, and building the right foundation so ads can finally do their job.You will learnThe Step Two foundation that most skip and how to

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24:05

Attribution Is Fiction: Profit Over Dashboards | Ep....

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/12/03

E-commerce isn’t single-touch - and your reporting shouldn’t pretend it is. Growth leader Andrew Maffettone breaks down how marketplace spillover (Amazon, Walmart, DTC, social) makes ROAS tidy but wrong, why profit beats channel vanity metrics, and how to design campaigns by channel purpose (education vs. capture). He shares a surprising SEO play—using low-cost Google Ads to accelerate rankings—then retargeting for conversion, plus a blunt take on why driving ads straight to Amazon often

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17:33

Community over Clicks: Women, Talent & Real Influence...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/11/26

Community isn’t a channel—it’s an operating system. Shraddha Varma, Co-Founder of Fuzia, shares how a women-centered platform turns creators into contributors, and contributors into careers. We map the community → credibility → opportunity flywheel, plus a pragmatic view of paid media once audience and offer are proven.You’ll learn:How to build a values-driven community that compounds trustConverting community energy into a talent + partnerships pipelineThe right (and wrong) moments to use

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19:53

Credibility over Clout: Books, Wine & BS-Free...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/11/19

Author credibility beats vanity metrics—and hospitality beats hacks. In this conversation, Megumi Calver explains how she helps nonfiction authors and speakers use books as credibility engines, why she built Merobebe to champion women winemakers, and the narrow moments when paid ads are worth it—after audience and offer are dialed.You’ll learn:The difference between “bestseller” clout and durable credibilityHow to grow a thriving community without relying on paid adsWine-world lessons for

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17:07

Building a Global VA Agency Without Ads | Ep. 25...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/11/12

What if you could build a thriving global business — without spending a dime on ads?In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, Utsav Nagori, Founder of DynaPro Global, shares how he grew a VA agency serving clients across the U.S. entirely through trust, relationships, and ridiculous consistency.From his first few clients to managing a full remote team, Utsav walks through what it really takes to scale when you don’t have funding, investors, or ad budgets — just belief and

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24:52

Stop the Ad Addiction | Ep. 24 w/Jared Tang (Gaggle...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/11/05

Tired of chasing clicks and conversions that don’t convert?In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, host Adam W. Barney sits down with Jared Tang, Founder & CEO of Gaggle Social, to talk about breaking the cycle of ad dependency and building brands that grow on real connection, not rented reach.💡 What We Cover:Escaping the paid-media hamster wheelHow organic storytelling compounds faster than spendThe LinkedIn content loops that actually drive salesWhy most founders

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25:34

Scrappy ABM, Real Results: Building Pipeline Without...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/10/29

What happens when you stop chasing vanity metrics and start running ABM the way it’s meant to be — personal, measurable, and scrappy?In this episode, Mason Cosby, CEO & Founder of Scrappy ABM, joins Adam W. Barney to unpack how small, focused teams are generating enterprise-level outcomes with smarter, more human strategies.🔥 Topics we dig into:Why ABM has been misunderstood (and how to fix it)How to build real alignment between sales and marketingWhat “Scrappy” actually means in a

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26:06

EQ, Resilience & Real Influence | Ep. 22 w/Chuck...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/10/24

It's time for another Exclusive Drop you don't want to miss!Leadership isn’t forged at the summit: it’s forged in the storm.In this powerful conversation, Chuck Garcia, Columbia University professor, author, and founder of Climb Leadership, joins host Adam W. Barney to unpack what it really means to climb with resilience, emotional intelligence, and purpose .Mountains and boardrooms share the same truth: the climb tests your patience, your team, and your character. Chuck Garcia shares the

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19:05

Fix Your Bank. Scale Your Ads. | Ep. 21 w/Alex Steele...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/10/22

In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, host Adam W. Barney sits down with Alex Steele, Founder & CEO of Opal, to unpack how agencies can unlock growth by rethinking how they bank.💡 Alex shares the story of building Opal — the fintech platform redefining how ad agencies and creators manage cash flow and credit.From partnering with Visa to solving the agency payment bottleneck, this conversation gets real about money, momentum, and the systems that fuel scale.We

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18:35

Narrative Power in a Noisy World | Ep. 20 w/MK...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/10/15

In a world where ads fight for attention and algorithms dictate visibility, one thing still cuts through the noise: storytelling.In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, I sit down with MK McGowan, Founder of MK McGowan Studios, to explore how narrative isn’t just marketing — it’s the difference between being ignored and being unforgettable.We dive into:✨ Why narrative intelligence matters more than vanity metrics✨ How to tell stories that scale across platforms and

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27:03

Filtering Noise with AI: Authentic Growth & Real...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/10/08

AI in sales and marketing isn’t about replacing people: it’s about amplifying them.In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, I sit down with Joe Apfelbaum, Founder of evyAI and CEO of Ajax Union, to unpack what it really takes to scale authentic relationships in the age of AI.Joe shares his journey from building 100+ websites a year, to scaling Ajax Union into one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., to creating evyAI...now powering 20,000+ users across 37

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23:06

CRM That Pays: Lead Scoring, Attribution & ROI | Ep....

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/10/01

Most companies pour money into marketing without connecting it to revenue. Jason Kramer, Founder & CEO of Cultivize, shows how to turn CRM, lead scoring, and simple attribution into hard ROI...and why many campaigns should be trimmed, not scaled.In this episode, you’ll learn:How a 25-year roofing company cut ~$50k in wasted ad spend by tracking every channel (QRs, call prompts, landing pages) and tying it back to sales activity.“Hand raisers,” lead scoring, and seeing buying signals in

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18:33

Building Trust Before Ads | Ep. 17 w/ Abu Kamara...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/09/24

Most entrepreneurs feel the pressure to run ads before they’ve built a foundation. Abu Kamara, Co-Founder of Green Zone Solutions, took a different path. In just 18 months, he built a consulting business around sustainability, logistics, and operational performance - all through relationships, referrals, and trust, not ad spend.In this episode, we cover:How Green Zone went from wide-net consulting to honing in on manufacturing and distribution niches.Why referrals and word-of-mouth still

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23:32

The Future of AI & Creativity | Ep. 16 (Exclusive...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/09/20

The AI wave is reshaping industries faster than most leaders can process. Few people have navigated it from as many angles as Mike Todasco, former Head of Innovation at PayPal, Visiting Fellow at the James Silberrad Brown Center for Artificial Intelligence at San Diego State University, and holder of 100+ patents.In this Exclusive Drop episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, host Adam W. Barney and Mike dig into:The real implications of AI for human creativityHow corporate

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20:37

AI That Actually Delivers: Clarity Before Paid Ads |...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/09/17

AI that actually delivers.Vinod Kumar, CEO & Co-Founder of Syntheum AI, joins host Adam W. Barney to talk about clarity, discipline, and why most brands chase paid ads before they’ve earned the right. From building agentic AI tools for merchandisers to pioneering the idea of being “seed-strapped,” Vinod shares how founders can scale smarter without burning budgets.In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, we cover:How AI merchandising agents are changing the way

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26:19

Filtering the Noise: Offline Data, Ad Fraud & LTV |...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/09/10

Forget vanity metrics. Noel Geer, CEO & Founder of Connected Interactive, joins host Adam W. Barney to reveal why most brands are wasting money chasing CPMs and ROAS...and how focusing on lifetime value unlocks real, lasting growth.In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, we dive into:Why 84% of purchases still happen offline - and how to tie them back to digitalThe hidden cost of ad fraud (and how to filter it out before you spend a dime)What happens when you

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18:33

How Fuzia Built a 10M+ Community That Actually...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/09/03

Forget paid tricks. Priyanka Mishra, Business Head of Fuzia Talent, joins host Adam W. Barney to break down how she scaled a global, women-led platform to over 10 million users - without relying on gimmicks or inflated metrics.In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, we dive into:Building emotional trust in a data-obsessed ecosystemHow Fuzia empowers creators across 35+ countriesWhy most ad impressions aren’t worth what you thinkWhat EQ + community storytelling can do that

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21:36

Strategy Over Shortcuts: Small Biz Growth That Lasts...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/08/27

“AI without strategy is chaos.”Lucy Wang, Co-Founder & CEO of Pocketflows, joins me for a straight-talking breakdown of what’s real in small business marketing today. From funnel nightmares to the trap of instant gratification, Lucy calls out the shortcuts that sabotage founders—and shows us what sustainable growth really takes.Inside this episode, we dig into:🚦 Why “cookie-cutter” AI marketing fails small businesses.🧩 The hidden costs of shortcut thinking (spam, over-automation,

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22:18

Data That Cuts Through the Noise | Ep. 11 with Ryan...

Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising? ·

2025/08/20

Too many agencies are drowning clients in dashboards, vanity metrics, and pretty charts that don’t move the needle. Ryan Stevens is here to burn that to the ground.In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, Adam W. Barney sits down with Ryan, Founder of Digital Reference and the guy agencies call when they want their data to actually tell the truth.We dig into:The difference between “reporting” and real insightHow to kill useless KPIs before they waste your budgetWhy clean

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