Is Anything Real?

Representation isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s a growth strategy. And if your systems ignore who’s missing, AI doesn’t fix that — it scales it . In this episode of Is Anything Real? , Adam W. Barney sits down with LaShanda Jackson (Founder & CEO, No Ceiling Collective ) for a reality-first conversation on equity, AI, and real growth — the kind that holds up under pressure, not just in a deck. Thi...

Hip hop isn’t just music...it’s community infrastructure . In this episode of Is Anything Real? , Adam W. Barney sits down with Jeffrey Roe ( Beats, Rhymes y Comunidad ) to talk about the difference between an audience and a community... and why founders, creators, and leaders keep confusing the two. Here’s the clean line: Audience = one-to-many (you broadcast) Community = member-to-member (people...

📘 Book launch day: Outrageous Startup Growth by Colin Hodge ( Wiley ) —out today (4/13) . The startup world is basically a myth factory…and founders inhale it like oxygen. Colin Hodge is here to punch a few of those myths in the face...with real receipts from building DOWN (formerly Bang With Friends ) and spending years in the trenches of consumer psychology. This one has a strong “listen twice”...

Daniel Perumal and Nick Alter ( ThriveSide / Founders Best Friend ) explain why paid ads don’t work like they used to...and what founders should do when they can’t “buy growth” anymore.   We unpack the post-iOS reality, shrinking trust, platform incentives, and ThriveSide’s founder maturity model for building sustainable growth without skipping steps.   You’ll hear when ads still help (micro-valid...

Jim Matuga (proud resident of West Virginia and Founder of Inner Action Media ) has built a 14+ year agency, a statewide storytelling platform, and a leadership philosophy that flips the script: real influence often comes from the middle, not the corner office.   In this episode, we talk about: The hidden power of followership (and why it’s not “less than”)   How to exercise influence right now wi...

Penny Hill ( Three Threads Consulting ) brings a reality-first leadership take on one of the most worshiped myths in B2B marketing: that paid ads drive direct revenue. In 25 years, Penny says she’s never seen paid ads tie cleanly to direct revenue in B2B...and that the real role of paid is often air cover and brand surround sound , not pipeline heroics.   We also dig into the leadership failures t...

Episode 50 is a milestone - but it’s also a pivot report. After 50 conversations across growth, leadership, culture, equity, energy, and truth-telling, the same pattern kept showing up: most advice sounds good in a vacuum. This episode is about what still works under constraint . No guest, just me, host Adam W. Barney - transition leadership coach and author of Make Your Own Glass Half Full: The P...

If your “conversions” are just page views, you’re not reporting performance. You’re committing fraud with better fonts .   In this episode, Dana DiTomaso (Principal & Founder, Kick Point Inc. | Founder & Instructor, Analytics Playbook ) breaks down why fake conversions keep surviving...and how leaders can rebuild measurement that reflects reality. This isn’t just an analytics episode. It’s...

SURPRISE DROP - Podcasthon Week (supporting the ACLU). Donate to the ACLU: https://action.aclu.org/give/now Podcasthon: https://podcasthon.org/ Trader Joe’s has become a mythology factory - and when information is scarce, myths multiply. In this episode, I’m joined by Patty Civalleri , author of Becoming Trader Joe , co-written from Joe Coulombe’s journals . Translation: we’re not doing hot takes....

Most marketing teams are still trapped in a fake war: brand vs. performance . Jesse Resnick and Walter Shock (Co-Founders of Ei Digital ) argue that’s the wrong fight, and that attribution is basically a magician : great at misdirection, terrible at telling the truth. In this episode, we break down what actually compounds in 2026: building end-to-end systems that connect creative, targeting, measu...

Most people talk about brand from the neck up: strategy, tactics, frameworks. Alexander Michael Gittens talks about brand from the soul: identity, humanity, equity, belonging…and the kind of leadership that actually holds up under pressure.   This episode is for founders, leaders, and creators who feel the quiet tension of modern business: “How do I grow without becoming someone I don’t respect?”...

If you’re still optimizing Meta for views, you’re not running ads - you’re renting applause. In this episode, Jordan Hawn (CEO & Founder, Hawn Consulting) breaks down what’s actually converting on Meta in 2026 for service businesses - and the finding that’s making “video-first” marketers uncomfortable: Carousels are beating video for conversions in a lot of real campaigns because they do what...

What’s real: Paid ads aren’t fake - the expectations often are. Brandy Morton (PR → comms → B2B/GRC marketer → founder) breaks down how to build demand the right way in regulated, “boring” industries without losing the human...and why equity and justice in marketing are not side quests but operating principles. We get into expectation-setting, aligning sales + marketing, and decision rules that mo...

“SEO isn’t dead...LLM search just rewards brands that ship the fundamentals and answer real questions.” If you feel like your ad dollars buy less every month, you’re not imagining it. Peter Kalanda (Co-Founder, 3 Horizons Interactive ) and I unpack what’s still real in SEO/SEM...and where to double down as LLM search starts stealing clicks. Highlights Paid as visibility tax vs. conversion: how to...

Reddit is the trust engine of the internet. It’s where buyers validate big decisions - and where AI and search borrow real perspective. In this episode, Colin James Belyea (Co-Founder, Karmic ) shares a field-tested playbook for winning on Reddit without astroturfing or getting banned. What you’ll learn The why now : Reddit’s role in zero-click journeys and high-consideration purchases How to buil...

Award-winning strategist Steve Biegel shows why purpose outperforms spectacle - and how to use Think > Say > Do to win beyond Super Bowl weekend. This exclusive drop lands the Friday before the Super Bowl and the opening of the Winter Olympics - for a reason. Steve Biegel ( Dreamboat Group ; ex-Ogilvy) unpacks how purpose beats spectacle, when celebrity helps instead of hurts, and why Think...

Regulated categories aren’t impossible - just unforgiving. Founder Alexandra Prochshenko ( Veloria ) and I get brutally practical about what still works in paid media when you’re competing in red-ocean auctions or navigating policy landmines. We cover tiny budgets that actually move the needle, how to avoid flags, and why your offer + funnel beats any hack. 👉 Need a reality-first plan? Book your...

Founder-First VC: Equity, Access & Real Signals General Partner Christina Quinn ( SSC Venture Partners ) sits down with Adam W. Barney to move beyond the panel talk and into practice : which signals actually earn a second meeting, how to translate messy early traction into credible proof, and concrete ways funds and founders can widen the on-ramp for underrepresented builders...without perform...

What if leadership stopped rewarding loudness and started rewarding truth? In this exclusive drop , Sharon Hurley Hall (journalist, author, anti-racism educator, and Co-Founder of The Introvert Sisters ) joins Adam W. Barney to unpack impact without exhaustion : introverts as powerful leaders, boundaries that protect your best work, why “resilience” gets misused, and how to build communities that...

“Say something true.” In this episode, Aaron Wolpoff   (Owner and Fractional CMO, Double Zebra ) and I unpack authentic growth: the one-truth positioning pass, when rev-share/partner models beat hourly retainers, and how to set boundaries so generosity doesn’t become unpaid consulting. We also cover making paid media feel human again - and the EnergyOS move that creates momentum today. Highlights...

Is spatial computing the next real channel...or another metaverse mirage? Adam Ortman (CEO/Founder, Kinetic319 ) brings operator truth: how to explore AR/VR without gambling the quarter, what the 1990s internet can teach us about adoption curves, and the 70/20/10 test budget that protects your core while finding edge wins. We also cover where the early inventory actually is (Roblox, console placem...

Matt Anthes (ex-federal campaign strategist, now Founder of Advocators ) explains why micro and nano influencers outperform “big name” buys...and how to operationalize an advocate army that actually converts. We cover fraud in pay-per-view deals, AI’s role from segmentation to virtual creators, and a field-tested flow for activating 20+ localized creators with message variants mapped to sub-audien...

Founder/operator Dan Newman breaks down a six-month Meta ads test (spoiler: $5,266 in spend for one sales call) and the lessons that matter for small teams: validate the offer first, track outcomes not optics, and invest in outbound + relationships until the engine is repeatable. We also cover persona pitfalls, “free” messaging traps, and where he’d deploy a fresh $5k right now (search + events)....

Brand-side veteran turned collective leader Gabe Wolff makes the case that tidy ROAS and over-engineered account structures distract from what actually scales: a sharp creative angle , a full user journey , and profit-first measurement. We cover misaligned agency incentives, post-iOS14 realities, practical ways to structure campaigns by angle/ICP, and why entry products and retention paths drive L...

What happens when the glossy leadership myth meets real life - kids, partners’ health, and aging parents? Yasmine de Aranda argues that caregiving is a leadership superpower and that humane companies outperform hustle cosplay. We map marketing’s role as organizational glue , why growth-at-all-cost fails humans and strategy, and how to build flexible, trust-based teams that still deliver. We close...