Podcasts about Measurement

Measure everything! Measurement gives you information.  Measurement gives you answers. Measurement Creates Motivation!

Rushed methodology changes implemented mid-season by Nielsen have severely shaken the NFL's confidence in standard television ratings. NFL Chief Data Officer Paul Ballew explains how media fragmentation is forcing leagues and networks to demand radical transparency or switch to new transactional metrics. Key Highlights

KNOWING YOUR NUMBERS: HOW METRICS CAN STRENGTHEN CREATIVITYWhat if numbers aren't the enemy of creativity—but one of its greatest allies?In this special YOUR WORLD OF CREATIVITY roundtable, host Mark Stinson sits down with Alisa Sparks, Andrea Carter, and Rei Vardi to explore why creative people need to become more comfortable with numbers—not just financial numbers, but also data, activity, customer behavior, performance, relationships, belonging, and impact.Together, the panelists discuss how meaningful metrics can guide better decisions, sharpen intuition, reveal hidden opportunities, strengthen customer experiences, and help creative ideas grow.MEET THE PANELISTSAlisa Sparks grew Linden Creek from a garage startup into a nationally recognized home staging franchise. With a background in finance, she uses numbers to guide creative decisions, optimize client ROI, and help franchise owners build sustainable businesses. linden-creek.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisasparkslc/Andrea Carter is an organizational scientist and researcher whose work measures belonging, trust, culture, and human performance. Her research challenges leaders to look beyond averages and uncover the hidden stories within the data. www.belongingfirst.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadcarter/ (https://theconversation.com/the-price-of-belonging-is-inconvenience-are-we-still-willing-to-pay-it-270778) https://substack.com/@andreadcarter https://www.adler.edu/faculty-engagement/faculty-directory/carter-andrea-d/Rei Vardi is the founder of EON Rides, an electric car-sharing and rental platform connecting underutilized vehicles with drivers through a frictionless digital experience. He focuses heavily on customer retention as a key measure of whether the experience truly works. eonrides.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/reivardi/EPISODE HIGHLIGHTSIs Creativity Constrained by Numbers—or Guided?Rei suggests that numbers don't limit creativity—they define the problem. Data might reveal that customer retention is falling, outreach is too low, or a process isn't working. Creativity comes into play when we ask: How do we solve it?Alisa agrees. Her background in finance became a competitive advantage in the creative world of home staging because she learned to start with the numbers and then ask: How do we create? How do we solve? How do we build?What Should Creative People Actually Measure?The answer depends on what you're trying to improve:Alisa tracks activity, especially how many new relationships and meaningful connections are being developed each week.Rei watches customer retention because repeat business is one of the clearest signs that people genuinely value the experience.Andrea looks beneath averages to uncover gaps in belonging, participation, engagement, and performance.As Andrea explains: "The average score is the story that the leaders want. The distribution is the story employees and customers are living."The Courage to Look at the NumbersNumbers don't always tell us what we want to hear. A campaign may underperform. A hire may not work out. A business model may need to change. An idea may not gain traction. But avoiding the numbers doesn't change reality.Andrea encourages creative people to look directly at the metric they've been avoiding and treat it not as a verdict, but as the beginning of a conversation. Alisa adds that intuition can be useful as a hypothesis—but it still needs to be tested.Scaling Creativity with MetricsMeasurement can help a creative idea travel. Andrea's research on belonging began with 3,508 participants in the mining industry and eventually expanded across manufacturing, healthcare, finance, government, and nonprofits, impacting more than 150,000 employees.Her perspective: "Unmeasured creativity is something that keeps us small. Measured creativity is what becomes repeatable by others."Metrics can turn a creative insight into a system, methodology, or infrastructure that others can use.The "Human" Numbers Behind Relationships and CommunityNot every meaningful number appears on a financial dashboard. Andrea challenges listeners to observe their next meeting, dinner party, or gathering and count:Who speaks?Who gets interrupted?Who receives credit?Who gets remembered?Who hasn't spoken at all?Her insight is simple but powerful: "Counting makes you notice, which makes you kinder."Alisa shares a similar lesson from her first home staging project. The home sold for $30,000 over asking, which initially looked like a great business case study. But when the homeowner explained what that additional money would mean for his family, the number became something more.The numbers may show us how we're making an impact. People remind us why the impact matters.KEY TAKEAWAYSNumbers can provide a frame for creativity rather than restrict it.The most useful metrics aren't always revenue or profit. Activity, retention, participation, belonging, customer behavior, and impact can be equally important.Intuition is valuable, but it becomes stronger when informed by experience and tested against evidence.Averages can hide important differences. Sometimes the real story lives underneath the headline number.Measurement helps creative ideas become repeatable, scalable, and transferable.Sometimes the number you've been avoiding is the one that has the most to teach you.BUILD YOUR NUMBERS MUSCLE THIS WEEKRei Vardi: Start tracking something. Whatever you're trying to improve, write down where you are now and begin measuring progress.Alisa Sparks: Measure activity before results. Instead of focusing only on whether you made the sale, count how many calls you made, relationships you developed, or actions you completed.Andrea Carter: Look at what you've been avoiding. Choose one number and review it every week at the same time. Don't judge it—study it. Look at the best moment, the worst moment, and what happened in between.FINAL THOUGHTKnowing your numbers doesn't mean becoming an accountant or a data geek. It means becoming a better creative leader.The right numbers can help us understand our customers, test our intuition, strengthen our organizations, build better relationships, scale our ideas, and measure the impact we're truly making.Numbers aren't the enemy of creativity. They may be one of its greatest allies.Connect with Alisa Sparks, Andrea Carter, and Rei Vardi to learn more about their work. And if you enjoyed this roundtable, subscribe, follow, rate, and review YOUR WORLD OF CREATIVITY on your favorite podcast platform. Every review helps more creative leaders discover these conversations.Stay tuned for more discussions inspired by the principles explored in Mark Stinson's book, UNLOCK YOUR WORLD OF CREATIVITY.Until next time, keep asking better questions, keep learning, keep measuring what matters — and together, let's keep unlocking ... your world of creativity.

Whether in miles or pounds, meters or kilograms, we take daily measure out our lives. But how did these units ever come to be, and why do we want to change them? From light-years to leap seconds, we look at the history of efforts to quantify our lives and why there's always room for greater precision. Plus, we debate the virtues of staying imperial measurements vs. going metric.   Guest:  James Vincent - Author of Beyond Measure, the Hidden History of Measurement  Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake  Originally aired March 24, 2023  Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.  You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether in miles or pounds, meters or kilograms, we take daily measure out our lives. But how did these units ever come to be, and why do we want to change them? From light-years to leap seconds, we look at the history of efforts to quantify our lives and why there's always room for greater precision. Plus, we debate the virtues of staying imperial measurements vs. going metric.   Guest:  James Vincent - Author of Beyond Measure, the Hidden History of Measurement  Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake  Originally aired March 24, 2023  Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science.  You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the biggest barrier to scaling your retail media investment isn't technology, but a fundamental disagreement on what success even looks like?Agility requires not just adopting new tools, but also being willing to challenge the measurement frameworks we've grown accustomed to.Today, we're going to talk about the nuanced world of in-store retail media measurement and why the old rules no longer apply. Specifically, we'll cover:- Why the standard approach to measuring in-store media, often borrowed from digital, is creating friction and stalling budget growth.- How to create a unified measurement language that aligns brands, retailers, and agencies around a common definition of success.- Practical steps to move in-store media from experimental budgets to scalable, repeatable investments grounded in actual product movement.To help me discuss this topic and ISM and IAB's recent report, I'd like to welcome Paul Brenner, SVP, Global Retail Media and Partnerships at In-Store Marketplace (ISM) and Collin Colburn, Vice President, Commerce & Retail Media at IAB) and Collin Colburn, Vice President, Commerce & Retail Media at IAB.About Paul BrennerPaul Brenner is Senior Vice President of Retail Media and Partnerships with 25+ years of leadership in media, entertainment, and ad tech. He has led innovation in audio and broadcast, driving advancements in audience measurement, in-car experiences, and data attribution, and later scaling in-store audio advertising through strategic growth and partnerships. Known for identifying high-impact technology and revenue opportunities, Paul now focuses on evolving the in-store retail media landscape.Paul Brenner on LinkedInAbout Collin ColburnCollin Colburn serves as Vice President, Commerce & Retail Media at IAB where he leads the Commerce Center of Excellence. In this role, he drives innovation, education, and standards across the commerce ecosystem to help brands, retailers, and technology partners deliver better media opportunities, customer experiences, and business outcomes. Prior to IAB, Collin led Growth and Go-To-Market Strategy at Horizon Commerce and spent over a decade at Forrester, where he pioneered the firm's performance marketing and retail media practice. He partnered with B2B and B2C CMOs to advance their marketing strategies, while also expanding Forrester's Fortune 500 client portfolio. Collin's insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Digiday, and MediaPost. A popular industry speaker, Collin has keynoted global industry events in addition to being a quarterly guest on Bloomberg TV.Collin Colburn on LinkedIn---------- Resources ----------In-Store Marketplace (ISM)The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Read the report mentioned in the show.We're proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save!Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit!Chaser is the only Slack-native project management platform that helps teams turn messages into tracked tasks, automate follow-ups, and maintain team-wide visibility, without adopting another tool. Now integrated with Claude and other GenAI tools. Learn more at trychaser.com and use code AGILEBRAND for a 3-month free trial (normal trial is 14 days).The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose.Start building your own apps with Replit and get $20 off.Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show.Connect with Greg on LinkedInDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more.Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology.The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As US video ad spend reaches $82 billion, media buyers are demanding granular audience targeting capabilities alongside bottom-funnel performance metrics. IAB Vice President Chris Bruderle breaks down the shifting dynamics between CTV and social video, the rise of multimodal contextual AI, and why live sports platforms must prove direct ROI to capture long-tail budgets. Key Highlights

In this episode Andrea Samadi explores Phase 3 of the Brain's Operating System—movement, learning, and cognition—focusing on the recovery and adaptation side of the "movement loop." She revisits Dr. Kristen Holmes' insights on measuring strain, sleep, and recovery to show how movement provides the stimulus while recovery enables lasting adaptation and greater capacity. The episode offers practical steps: identify your stimulus, track recovery, find your weakest link, and use feedback to train smarter—not just harder—so measurement becomes a tool for meaningful change. IN EPISODE 405, WE WILL COVER: ✔ Why recovery is not the absence of work—it is where adaptation occurs → How recovery allows the brain and body to absorb stress and build greater capacity. ✔ Where Dr. Kristen Holmes fits into the Movement Loop → Movement creates the stimulus; recovery determines how effectively we adapt. ✔ Why measuring your data matters → What gets measured can be adjusted, repeated, and improved. ✔ How to identify your personal recovery patterns → Using sleep, HRV, resting heart rate, strain, stress, and daily behaviors to uncover what helps—or limits—your performance. ✔ Why your recovery formula is uniquely yours → The habits that improve one person's readiness may not produce the same results for someone else. ✔ How recovery helps create more predictable performance → When you understand your patterns, you can make better daily decisions instead of leaving your results to chance. ✔ How repeated behaviors become adaptation → Measure → Adjust → Repeat → Recover → Adapt → Build Capacity. ✔ Where the larger journey is taking us → A preview of The Journey of the Mind Workbook and its five-step process: Understand → Reflect → Apply → Measure → Become ✔ What comes next in the Movement Loop → A Bonus Episode applying recovery science to real-world data, followed by Dr. John Medina on how an activated brain turns experience into attention, learning, and lasting change. EP 405 — From Recovery to Adaptation: Revisiting Dr. Kristen Holmes in Phase 3 WELCOME BACK Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we bridge neuroscience, social and emotional learning, and human performance so we can create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. I'm Andrea Samadi, and if you've been following along through Season 16, you'll know that we've been building what I call The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—a neuroscience-based framework designed to help us understand how the different systems of the brain and body work together to influence how we learn, adapt, connect, lead, and perform. Our roadmap has five phases: Phase 1 — Regulation & Safety Where we built the foundation by asking: Is the nervous system regulated enough to learn and grow? Phase 2 — Neurochemistry & Motivation Where we explored the systems that drive us to act, persist, and pursue meaningful goals. And now, we are here—Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Cognition. This is where movement becomes the catalyst for learning, adaptation, and performance. The central idea of Phase 3 is that the brain does not change through information alone. It changes through experience. Through movement. Through challenge. Through recovery. And through the repeated process of adapting to what we ask our brain and body to do. I called the framework we are building in this phase: The Movement Loop: Movement (the stimulus) → Brain Activation (the brain responds) → Attention (the brain becomes engaged and ready to learn) → Learning (new information and experience begin changing neural pathways) → Recovery (the brain consolidates and restores) → Adaptation (the brain and body adjust to the repeated challenge) → Performance (the adaptation shows up in what we can do) → Greater Capacity (we become capable of more) Movement is the stimulus. Brain activation is the response. Attention opens the door to learning. Learning creates change. Recovery helps that change stick. Adaptation builds the system. Performance reveals the result. Greater capacity is what we gain. And then we repeat the cycle. In our last episode, EP 404, we revisited the groundbreaking work of Dr. John Ratey, who helped us understand the front end of this loop. Dr. Ratey showed us that: Movement changes the brain. Exercise activates the brain. It supports attention. It prepares us for learning. And it creates the biological conditions that allow the brain to change. But that leaves us with an important question. What happens after we create the stimulus? Because movement alone isn't enough. Training alone isn't enough. And more strain does not automatically equal more improvement. At some point, the brain and body have to recover from what we've asked them to do And that's where today's episode begins with the back end of the movement loop. WHERE THIS JOURNEY IS GOING Before we move into today's episode, I want to zoom out for a moment and share where I believe this entire journey is taking us. Because as we've been building The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—making sense of the interviews we've gathered over the past seven years and organizing them into five phases we can all understand and apply—I realized we are doing something much bigger than simply reviewing past episodes. I had to stop for a moment and look at what we've built so far. And that's when something became clear: We are mapping a journey. We aren't finished yet—we are only in Phase 3—but as we continue into Phases 4 and 5, I think you'll begin to see the bigger picture. This is about more than learning how the brain works or connecting social and emotional learning skills to our daily lives. It's about asking: What will we actually do with everything we've learned once we've traveled through all five phases? That's what led me to what I'm calling The Journey of the Mind. We could just as easily call it The Journey of the Brain because we now understand how deeply connected the mind and brain are.[i] But for me, Journey of the Mind has a much older meaning. That phrase takes me all the way back to the late 1990s, when I had the opportunity to watch an unpublished video program with that title, created by my mentor, Bob Proctor. I had no idea where that experience would lead me. But it planted a seed. It encouraged me to stop looking outside of myself for every answer... and to begin looking inward. To become curious about my thoughts. My beliefs. My habits. My potential. And ultimately, the relationship between what happens inside of us and the results we create outside of us. That idea influenced my early writing and eventually became part of the path that led me here. And now, all these years later, I can see that the podcast has evolved into its own Journey of the Mind. Only now, we have neuroscience to help us understand what is happening along the way. We have hundreds of experts. Years of research. Stories. Experiments. Data. And our own lived experience. The five phases give us a way to bring all of that together. We began with Regulation and Safety, because before we can grow, the nervous system needs a stable foundation. Then we moved into Neurochemistry and Motivation, where we explored what drives our behavior. Now, in Phase 3, we are looking at Movement, Learning and Cognition—how experience changes the brain and how recovery and adaptation help us build greater capacity. Next, we'll move into Connection, Emotion and Social Intelligence, because none of us develops in isolation. And finally, we'll reach Integration, Meaning and Human Performance, where these systems begin to come together. And when we reach the end of Phase 5, I want to bring the entire journey into something practical. THE JOURNEY OF THE MIND WORKBOOK I'm currently developing a companion workbook for these five phases. The Journey of the Mind Workbook will help us take what we've learned and apply it to our own lives through a simple process: Understand. Reflect. Apply. Measure. Become. Understand the science. Reflect on our own patterns. Apply what we are learning. Measure what changes. And then ask the bigger question: Who are we becoming? Because the goal isn't simply to know more about neuroscience. It's to use what we know. To identify our gaps. Recognize what is working. Build a clearer understanding of how we learn, recover, connect, perform, and grow. And become more intentional about the future we are creating. The workbook is still taking shape, but it's coming. And my hope is that when we reach the end of these five phases, we won't just have more information. We'll have a map. A clearer understanding of our brain. A deeper understanding of ourselves. A way to measure our growth. And a framework for becoming who we are capable of being. Now, let's return to where we are today... Phase 3: Movement, Learning and Cognition. Before we go further, I want to give you a quick roadmap for today's episode. We're going to explore Kristen Holmes' work through 15 short parts, each one helping us move step-by-step through the recovery and adaptation side of the Movement Loop. (The left side of the loop). We'll begin by clarifying the difference between readiness and adaptation. Then we'll look at the stimulus–recovery–adaptation cycle, revisit Kristen's original idea that what gets measured gets improved, and connect that to what I've learned from tracking my own data over the past five years. From there, we'll explore the difference between training harder and training smarter, why movement is information, why the goal is not maximum strain, and how these same principles apply to learning and performance far beyond exercise. We'll also return to one of my favorite ideas from Kristen's original interview: Your competitive advantage is often built in your downtime. And finally, we'll bring everything back to the Movement Loop and ask the question that really matters: Is what I'm doing building more strain—or building greater capacity? So think of these 10 parts as a guided walk through the second half of the loop... from recovery... to adaptation... to performance... and ultimately to greater capacity. PART 1 — WHY ARE WE RETURNING TO DR. KRISTEN HOLMES? When we first interviewed Dr. Kristen Holmes in 2021 for EP 134[ii], she was Vice President of Performance Science at WHOOP. At the time, I had recently turned 50. I purchased WHOOP because I wanted to improve what I knew was my weakest link: sleep. And in that original conversation, Dr. Holmes introduced ideas that I've now carried with me for more than five years. One of them was this: “What gets measured gets improved.” Another was the idea that what we do in our downtime may actually give us our greatest competitive advantage. At the time, I understood this at one level. Sleep matters. Recovery matters. Strain matters. Your habits outside of the workout matter. But after five years of looking at my own data, I understand her message differently. And I think this is one of the most important things about revisiting experts over time. We hear something at one stage of our development... and then years later, we hear the same idea again with an entirely different level of understanding. We revisited this same 2021 interview earlier in this season during Phase 1: Regulation & Safety on EP 390.[iii] So why are we covering this topic again? Because I realized that Dr. Holmes' work sits at a critical intersection inside our Brain's Operating System. In Phase 1, her work helped us understand regulation and readiness. Her message was: Can your system handle what you are asking it to do today? But in Phase 3, the question changes. Now we're asking: Is what I'm doing today actually helping my system adapt? That's very different. In Phase 1, recovery helped us understand whether the system was ready. In Phase 3, recovery helps us understand whether the system is changing. And that's why we're returning to Dr. Kristen Holmes. Not to repeat what we learned. But to take it one level deeper. Just a note here: while I've been using WHOOP to measure my movement, sleep, strain, and recovery, WHOOP is only one tool. There are many other ways to track these patterns—from other wearable devices and apps to simple measures like sleep duration, resting heart rate, exercise intensity, energy levels, and how recovered you feel. The important point isn't the device you use. It's learning to pay attention to your own patterns and using that feedback to make better decisions. PART 2 — READINESS VS. ADAPTATION Now let's return to the Movement Loop we opened this episode with: Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity In our last episode, Dr. John Ratey helped us understand the front end of this loop—how movement activates the brain, supports attention, and creates the conditions for learning. Today, Dr. Kristen Holmes helps us move into the recovery and adaptation side of the loop—what happens after we create the stimulus. This is where we ask a different kind of question. In Phase 1, we looked at Kristen's work through the lens of readiness: What is my capacity today? How much strain can I tolerate? How well did I sleep? What does my HRV tell me? How recovered am I? Do I have the capacity to push? Or would backing off today serve me better? That was the Phase 1 question: Am I ready? But now, in Phase 3, we move one step further around the loop. Now we are asking: Am I adapting? Is the movement I'm doing helping me become stronger? More resilient? More efficient? Better able to recover? More capable than I was before? That is the shift from readiness to adaptation. And this is where Dr. Kristen Holmes' work becomes essential to Phase 3. Because movement may provide the stimulus... but recovery is what gives the brain and body the opportunity to respond to that stimulus, adapt, and ultimately build greater capacity. Or would backing off today serve me better? That was our Phase 1 lens. And it was foundational. Because if the nervous system is depleted, overstressed, or under-recovered, everything downstream is affected. But Phase 3 takes us another step forward. Now we are not only asking: Am I ready? We are asking: Am I adapting? ADAPTATION asks: What is changing because of what I repeatedly do? Am I becoming stronger? More resilient? More efficient? Better able to tolerate stress? Better able to recover? More capable than I was before? And this is where I think recovery is frequently misunderstood. Recovery isn't simply what happens when we stop working. Recovery is not the opposite of performance. Recovery is part of the process that creates future performance. That distinction changes everything. Because the goal is not simply to recover enough to get through today. The goal is to recover in a way that allows the brain and body to become better prepared for tomorrow. So I want to give you one sentence to keep in mind throughout this entire episode: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. That's where Kristen Holmes' work enters Phase 3. Dr. Ratey helped us understand why movement activates the brain and creates the stimulus for change. Dr. Holmes helps us to understand what has to happen afterward if that stimulus is going to become something useful. Something the body can integrate. Something the brain can learn from. Something that eventually becomes greater capacity. PART 3 — THE STIMULUS–RECOVERY–ADAPTATION CYCLE Think about exercise for a moment. When you challenge your body, you create stress. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, some level of challenge is exactly what we need. It's called hormesis, right? The challenge is the signal. It tells the system: Something is being asked of me. But the signal alone isn't what we are looking for. What matters is what your body does afterward. You place a demand on the system. Then the body needs time and resources to respond to that demand. We can think of it very simply: STIMULUS → RECOVERY → ADAPTATION → GREATER CAPACITY The stimulus is the challenge. Recovery is the response period. Adaptation is the change. And greater capacity is the result. The purpose of training isn't simply to create more strain. (Which is what I did for years). The purpose is to create a strain that your system can successfully recover from and adapt to. And that idea changed the way I began looking at my own movement. For years, I thought: Harder must be better. Longer must be better. More must be better. If I could hike for three hours, that had to be better than walking for one. If I could push harder, I assumed I would get better results. If I felt exhausted after a workout, I often assumed that meant I had accomplished more. But the data started showing me something different. Sometimes more strain simply created... more strain. And if I wasn't sleeping enough...(because I was repeating the same thing without enough rest) if I wasn't recovering... if I was stacking high strain on top of stress... then I wasn't necessarily building greater capacity. I could actually be interrupting the very adaptation I was trying to create. This is why one of the most important questions in Phase 3 becomes: How much challenge can my system absorb, recover from, and adapt to? Not: How much can I force myself to do? And this takes us directly back to the lesson Kristen Holmes gave us five years ago. Because if we want to know whether the stimulus we're creating is actually working... we need feedback. We need to see the patterns. We need to understand the relationship between what we do and how our system responds. Which brings us to Part 4: PART 4 — WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED In our Phase 1 episode with Dr. Holmes, I shared something that has become very important to me over the past five years. Once you begin measuring your sleep, your recovery, your strain, and your habits... you stop guessing. And when you stop guessing, patterns begin to emerge. For me, some of those patterns took years to understand. I began seeing that: Too much strain + not enough sleep = poor recovery. Over and over again. I knew intuitively that I was pushing too hard. But knowing something and changing behavior are two very different things. The data eventually forced me to look at the pattern honestly. There were times when I was training hard... waking early... cutting sleep short... and then wondering why my recovery didn't improve. I was giving my system a stimulus. But I wasn't giving it enough opportunity to adapt. That distinction matters. Because the goal is not simply: How much can I do? The better question is: How much can I do, recover from, and adapt to? That is a completely different way of approaching human performance. PART 5 — MY UNDERSTANDING OF RECOVERY HAS CHANGED When I first bought WHOOP in 2021, my weakest link was sleep. I knew I needed to improve it. And I did. Not perfectly. But significantly. What I find interesting now is that as one weakness improves, another one becomes easier to see. That's the value of measurement. Your weakest link can change. In 2021, mine was sleep. Today, I can see other areas much more clearly. Strength training is one. Balancing different kinds of movement is another. And this is where I began looking beyond total exercise time. Instead, I started asking: How much time am I spending in lower intensity movement? How much time am I spending at higher intensity? What happens to my recovery when I increase strain? How much sleep do I need after harder training? How quickly do I recover? What habits seem to help me recover faster? What habits tank my recovery? That's a completely different mindset than: Did I work hard today? PART 6 — TRAIN HARDER VS. TRAIN SMARTER One of the biggest lessons I pulled from Kristen Holmes' work was the difference between training harder and training smarter. In our Phase 1 review, I shared one example that really challenged my assumptions. I went on a walk along the canal near my house. Nothing extreme. I was walking my dogs and wearing a weighted vest. And during this much more moderate activity, I was able to reach Zones 4 and 5 for short periods. That surprised me, because those higher-intensity zones could sometimes be difficult for me to reach even during much longer hikes. I noticed the same thing when I started comparing different trails here in Arizona. When I first moved to AZ, Camelback Mountain—especially the Echo Canyon Trail—was my go-to hike. I used to hike it after work and again on the weekends. It was short, steep, and intense—about a 2.5-mile round trip on Echo Canyon, with the Cholla side a bit longer. So when I later moved to another part of the Valley and started hiking Telegraph Pass at South Mountain, I initially thought: This isn't going to give me the same workout. Telegraph Pass felt less intense. It didn't have that same steep, all-out challenge I was used to on Camelback. But once I started measuring my hikes, or learning new trails that were longer, I saw something I didn't expect. The longer, lower-intensity hikes were sometimes producing more overall strain than the shorter, harder hikes. That honestly shocked me. Because I had always assumed that if something felt harder, it must be giving me better results. But the data showed me that wasn't always true. A longer period of sustained effort—even at a lower intensity—could place a greater total load on my system than a shorter burst of very difficult exercise. And that taught me something important: How hard something feels in the moment is not always the same thing as the total load it places on your body. That was one of the moments when measurement changed the way I thought about exercise. I stopped asking only: How hard did that feel? And started asking: How did my body actually respond? And this is where data becomes useful. Not because the number knows everything. But because the number can reveal something we might otherwise miss. It can become feedback. And feedback helps us learn. PART 7 — MOVEMENT IS INFORMATION Movement is not just calories burned. I hardly ever think about calories anymore. There was a time when I could tell you almost exactly how much effort it took to burn off certain foods. But I think about movement very differently today. Movement is not punishment for what we ate. Movement is not simply exercise. Movement is information. Every time we move, we send signals to the brain and body about the demands being placed on the system. How much strength do I need? How much endurance? How much balance, coordination, speed, or cardiovascular capacity? And when we repeatedly expose ourselves to manageable challenge, the system begins to learn from those signals. It responds. It adjusts. And, with adequate recovery, it adapts. So movement isn't just something we do to burn energy. Movement is one of the ways we teach the brain and body what we want them to become capable of doing.   PART 8 — THE GOAL IS NOT MAXIMUM STRAIN This brings me to what may be the biggest takeaway from today's episode. The goal is not maximum strain. The goal is the right amount of strain for your current capacity. Because too little challenge may not create enough stimulus. But too much challenge without adequate recovery can work against the very adaptation we're trying to create. And this is where Kristen Holmes' message about strain and recovery becomes so powerful. In Phase 1, we used recovery to ask: Should I push today? In Phase 3, we can use recovery to ask: Is my current training producing the adaptation I want? That is a much bigger question. And it applies far beyond exercise. PART 9 — THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO LEARNING Think about learning. We don't learn best by forcing information into the brain endlessly without rest. We need exposure. Attention. Practice. Then space. Sleep. Recovery. Integration. And then we return to the material again. Spaced Repetition. The brain changes through repeated cycles of challenge and recovery. So while we're talking today about Kristen Holmes, recovery, movement, and strain... the same architecture appears in learning. It appears in work. It appears in leadership. It appears in stress management. It appears almost anywhere humans are trying to grow. Challenge alone doesn't guarantee growth. Challenge + recovery + repetition creates the conditions for adaptation. PART 10 — YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IS STILL BUILT IN YOUR DOWNTIME One of my favorite ideas from my original conversation with Kristen was something we revisited in Phase 1. Listen to Dr. Holmes' CLIP here. She talked about the importance of what we do in our downtime. That what happens outside of the performance itself may give us our competitive advantage. Five years later, I think I finally understand how deep that idea goes. Your workout may last an hour. Your hike may last two hours. Your presentation may last 45 minutes. Your game may last an afternoon. But adaptation is happening across the rest of the day. What are you doing with the other hours? Are you sleeping? Hydrating? Fueling? Managing stress? Allowing the nervous system to come back down? Giving the body what it needs to repair? That downtime isn't empty time. It's part of the training. PART 11 — RECOVERY IS AN ACTIVE PROCESS This is another mindset shift that helped me. I used to think of recovery as: Doing nothing. Resting. Taking a day off. But recovery can actually be very intentional. For me, over the past several years, that has included things like: prioritizing sleep hydration meditation breathing spending time outside lower-intensity movement infrared sauna red light therapy And again, the point isn't that everyone should copy my routine. The important question is: What actually helps your system recover? That takes us back to one of the central ideas of our recent Bonus Episodes. PART 12 — FIND YOUR GAP In Bonus Episode 2[iv], we introduced the idea of finding your gap. Instead of copying someone else's recipe for high performance, identify the variable that is currently limiting you. Maybe your gap is sleep. Maybe it's hydration. Maybe it's high stress. Maybe it's too much intensity. Maybe it's not enough movement. Maybe it's inconsistent recovery habits. Maybe it's strength. The point is that your gap is personal. And it can change. This is one of the most useful things measurement can give us. It can show us: Where is the breakdown in my loop? Let's return to the Movement Loop. Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity Where is your gap? Are you not moving enough? Are you moving but not recovering? Are you recovering but not challenging yourself enough to create adaptation? Are you pushing constantly without allowing your system to consolidate the gains? If you can locate your gap, you know where to begin. PART 13 — THE MOVEMENT LOOP THROUGH DR. KRISTEN HOLMES Let's walk through the entire loop now through the lens of Dr. Ratey and Dr. Holmes' work. MOVEMENT We create a stimulus. We challenge the brain and body. BRAIN ACTIVATION Movement changes our physiological and neurological state. This is where Dr. Ratey's work helps us understand why movement prepares the brain. ATTENTION An activated brain is better positioned to engage. LEARNING The brain receives information and experience. But learning isn't finished simply because we experienced something. RECOVERY Now the system needs space. This is where Kristen Holmes enters the loop. How well did we sleep? How much stress are we carrying? What was our total strain? How prepared is the system to absorb what we've done? ADAPTATION This is where the system changes. Over time, repeated cycles of challenge and recovery create new capacity. PERFORMANCE We begin to see the result. We move differently. Think differently. Learn more efficiently. Handle greater demands. Recover faster. GREATER CAPACITY And this is what makes the loop a loop. Because now tomorrow's starting point may be different from yesterday's. The system has adapted. So we can begin again. The WHOOP wearable device may have started with elite athletes, but optimizing performance isn't only for elite athletes. Any of us can measure our patterns, learn from the feedback, and use that information to build greater capacity. PART 14 — THIS CHANGES HOW I THINK ABOUT PERFORMANCE For most of my life, I thought performance was primarily about effort. Work harder. Try harder. Push harder. And effort still matters. But effort without adaptation can become a dead end. What I'm learning through this phase is that performance is much more dynamic. You need the stimulus. You need the challenge. You need the work. But you also need recovery. Because recovery is what allows the system to absorb the work. And that leads me to an important sentence I want us to remember: The goal isn't to prove how much stress you can tolerate. The goal is to become capable of more over time. That's adaptation. PART 15 — FIVE YEARS LATER, DR. HOLMES'  MESSAGE MEANS SOMETHING DIFFERENT When we first interviewed Kristen Holmes in 2021, the idea that what gets measured gets improved resonated with me immediately. That idea is partly why I bought a wearable device in the first place. I wanted data. I wanted answers. I wanted to improve sleep. But five years later, I think the lesson is bigger than measurement. Measurement itself isn't the goal. The goal is feedback. And feedback only becomes useful when we do something with it. Measure. Write it down somewhere. Observe what's happening month to month and year to year. Adjust. Recover. Adapt. Repeat. Measurement closes the learning/performance loop. That's why Dr. Holmes' work was worth revisiting here in Phase 3. Not simply because she studies recovery. But because measurement gives us information about whether the behaviors we repeat are actually creating the changes we want. PRACTICAL APPLICATION — HOW TO USE THIS THIS WEEK So let's make this practical. You do not need WHOOP. You do not need a wearable. You don't need complicated equipment. You simply need to start paying attention. Identify your current stimulus. What are you asking your body and brain to adapt to right now? Maybe it's: exercise strength training a new learning goal a demanding work schedule stress adapting to intensive heat in your new sauna Know what you're asking the system to do. Identify your recovery. Ask: How am I sleeping? How am I managing stress? Am I giving myself enough downtime? How do I feel the day after harder efforts? What patterns do I notice? Watch the relationship between effort and recovery. Does more effort always give you better results? Or is there a point where more becomes counterproductive? Find your gap. What is your weakest link right now? Don't try to fix everything. Start there. Look for evidence of adaptation. Ask yourself: Am I becoming more capable? Can I handle something today that used to be difficult? Am I recovering faster? Am I stronger? More focused? More resilient? If the answer is yes, your loop is working. REVIEW AND CONCLUSION To review and conclude this week's episode 405,  let's bring this episode together. We brought Dr. Kristen Holmes back into our roadmap intentionally. In Phase 1: Regulation and Safety, Dr. Holmes helped us understand recovery as readiness. Sleep. HRV. Strain. Stress. Recovery. The question was: Is the system prepared for today? Today, in Phase 3: Movement, Learning and Cognition, we've looked at those same ideas through a different lens. Now the question is: Is the system adapting for tomorrow? That's the progression. Dr. John Ratey helped us understand that movement provides the brain with a powerful stimulus. Kristen Holmes helps us understand that the story doesn't end with the stimulus. We need recovery. Because: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. Adaptation improves performance. Performance builds greater capacity. And then the loop begins again. ONE QUESTION TO TAKE WITH YOU Before you move on with your day, I want you to ask yourself one question: Am I creating more strain…or am I creating more capacity? They are not the same thing. You can push harder without improving. You can work longer without adapting. You can accumulate strain without building capacity. The goal is not simply to do more. The goal is to create a system where you can become more. FINAL TAKEAWAY And this brings us right back to Kristen Holmes's message from 2021: What gets measured gets improved. But today, I would add something to it: What gets measured can be adjusted. What gets adjusted can be repeated (in this new way) And what gets repeated—paired with the right amount of recovery—can become adaptation. That is how capacity grows. And that is where Kristen Holmes fits into Phase 3—not simply as an expert on recovery, but as a critical part of the science of change. And this idea—turning what we measure into meaningful change—is also shaping the larger vision for this podcast. At the start of this episode, we mentioned I'm developing a companion workbook called Journey of the Mind—a practical guide designed to help us move beyond simply listening to these ideas and begin applying them in our own lives. The workbook will guide us through five steps to apply what we have covered on this podcast. Understand. Reflect. Apply. Measure. Become More. With each episode we've covered. And this workbook began with an unexpected spark of inspiration. So, I want to offer one quiet acknowledgment: To the person who quietly helped illuminate this path for me—thank you. Sometimes, the people who influence the direction of our lives may never fully realize what their presence helped awaken. My vision from that the spark of inspiration I received will travel through this work and reach you listening—inspiring you to move forward on your own path and create a life that is more intentional, meaningful, and fulfilling than the one you knew before. Because inspiration doesn't end with the person who first awakens it. It moves through us. And when we act on it, one spark can grow into something that serves many others—far beyond what either person could have created individually. We'll explore the transformative power of human connection more deeply in Phase 4. Then, in Phase 5, we'll examine how connection, meaning, and contribution can become something that continues growing beyond us. But until then, we'll continue building this journey—one insight, one application, and one measurable change at a time. COMING NEXT Before we move on to Dr. John Medina and the next part of the Movement Loop, we'll cover our next Bonus Episode and show you what adaptation can actually look like in real life. In Bonus EP 3, I'm going to take you inside one of the clearest changes I've seen in my own data over the past several years: my resting heart rate. We'll look at where it started, how it changed, what may have contributed to that change, and why resting heart rate can become a useful window into how the body is adapting over time. Because this is really what Phase 3 is about. Not simply moving more. Not simply collecting data. But asking: Is what I'm doing actually changing my capacity? Then, for EP 406 we'll return to the research of Dr. John Medina and explore the next critical link in the Movement Loop: Attention. Because movement can activate the brain—but activation alone doesn't guarantee learning. The brain must first notice what matters. It must direct its attention. Hold that attention long enough to encode new information. And return to that information if it is going to become something we can remember and use. Dr. Ratey helped us understand how movement prepares the brain. Dr. Kristen Holmes helped us understand how recovery allows the brain and body to adapt. And Dr. Medina will help us understand what happens between those two points: How does an activated brain turn experience into learning? Because movement may open the door— but attention determines what enters and stays behind that door. And we'll reinforce one of the central ideas of this journey: What we repeatedly do shapes who we become. The question is: Are those repeated actions expanding our capacity and moving us toward our highest level of performance—or quietly holding us back? That's where we'll turn next as we continue building the Movement Loop. I'll see you next time. EP 405 — KEY TAKEAWAYS ✔ Why Kristen Holmes belongs in both Phase 1 and Phase 3 ✔ The difference between recovery for readiness and recovery for adaptation ✔ Why movement alone does not create improvement ✔ The relationship between stimulus → recovery → adaptation → greater capacity ✔ Why the goal is not maximum strain, but the right dose of strain ✔ How recovery completes the Movement Loop ✔ Why your weakest link can change as you improve ✔ How measurement provides feedback for better decisions ✔ Why downtime is part of the performance process ✔ The difference between accumulating strain and building capacity THE MOVEMENT LOOP Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity → Repeat Remember: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. The goal isn't maximum strain. The goal is greater capacity. RESOURCES: Watch the full interview from 2021 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOgivjYhhW8 CLIP 1 Dr. Kristen Holmes https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Lg7FiWJKZc4 Phase 1: Regulation & Safety The Foundation Core Question: Is the nervous system safe enough to learn? Everything begins with regulation. Before we can focus, learn, lead, or perform, the brain first asks one fundamental question: Am I safe? Throughout Phase 1, our guests showed us that regulation isn't simply about reducing stress—it's about creating the biological conditions that allow the brain to learn, adapt, and thrive. Together we explored: Baland Jalal – how sleep, curiosity, imagination, and creativity prepare the brain for learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/hypnagogic-genius-capture-your-best-ideas-at-the-edge-of-sleep/ Dr. Bruce Perry – why regulation, rhythm, and relationships form the foundation of every healthy nervous system.  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/safety-first-why-a-regulated-brain-is-the-key-to-learning/ Dr. Sui Wong – how lifestyle medicine and autonomic balance build lifelong brain resilience. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/your-eyes-the-brain-s-early-warning-system/ Rohan Dixit – how heart rate variability gives us real-time feedback on our ability to regulate stress. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/breathe-to-reset-how-hrv-tech-reveals-hidden-stress/ Dr. Kristen Holmes – how recovery metrics reveal our physiological readiness to perform. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/ Dr. Antonio Zadra – how sleep and dreaming consolidate memories, regulate emotions, and generate insight. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/when-brains-dream-how-sleep-integrates-emotion-insight-and-creativity/ Together these conversations taught us that sleep and stress regulation aren't optional—they're the operating system that allows every higher brain function to work. Phase 2: Motivation & Neurochemistry The Direction Core Question: What moves us into action? Once the brain feels safe, it becomes ready to pursue goals. In Phase 2, we explored the internal chemistry that transforms intention into action. Our experts helped us understand that sustainable motivation isn't about willpower—it's about aligning our beliefs, thoughts, attention, energy, and movement. Together we discovered: Bob Proctor — our beliefs determine the direction of our lives. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/belief-first-the-neuroscience-of-motivation/ Dr. Carolyn Leaf — our thinking literally changes our brain chemistry. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/thoughts-as-biology-how-your-mind-shapes-neurochemistry/ Dr. John Medina — attention determines what the brain encodes and remembers. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/theory-of-mind-the-missing-link-between-attention-reward-and-motivation Dr. Anna Lembke- Dopamine, Motivation and Why the Brain Repeats Behavior https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dopamine-nation-the-pleasure%e2%80%93pain-balance-that-drives-motivation/ Dr. Friederike Fabritius — managing our energy allows high performance to become sustainable. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/fun-fear-focus-closing-the-motivation-loop/ Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — movement activates the brain, preparing it to learn. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/move-to-learn-how-movement-activates-the-brain-and-fuels-motivation/ By the end of Phase 2, we introduced what became The Motivation Loop, showing how beliefs influence thoughts, thoughts influence actions, actions create results, and results reinforce future beliefs. Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Human Performance The Transformation Core Question: How does movement change the brain—and how does recovery transform that change into performance? Now we're taking the next step. Phase 3 builds on everything we've learned so far. If Phase 1 created a regulated nervous system... If Phase 2 created motivation and direction... Phase 3 explains how the brain and body actually become stronger. Together we've explored this process through conversations with: Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — why movement activates the brain before learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-first-how-a-20%e2%80%91minute-walk-lights-up-the-brain/ Dr. John Ratey — how exercise builds a healthier, younger brain. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-matters-how-every-move-rewires-the-brain/ Dr. Kristen Holmes — why recovery determines adaptation and readiness. Dr. John Medina — how attention transforms movement into lasting learning. Jason Whitrock — how metabolism and cellular energy fuel long-term performance. WHERE WE ARE GOING NEXT Phase 4 — Connection, Emotion & Social Intelligence The Human System Core Question: How do we thrive with other people? The brain didn't evolve in isolation—it evolved through relationships. In Phase 4, we'll explore emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, trust, leadership, and psychological safety to understand how our relationships shape learning, well-being, and performance. Phase 5 — Integration & Human Performance The Complete System Core Question: How do all the systems work together? In our final phase, we'll bring everything together—regulation, motivation, movement, emotion, relationships, learning, and recovery—into one integrated framework. We'll discover how these systems work together to create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. REFERENCES: [i] A Neurologist Looks at Mind and Brain, published October 1, 2003, by Phirose Hansotia.   [ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 134 with Dr. Kristen Holmes “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain.”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/   [iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 390 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/what-gets-measured-gets-improved-sleep-recovery-peak-performance/   [iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EP 2 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/find-the-gap-how-recovery-unlocks-predictable-performance                      

Before I decide what I'm dealing with, I need to measure the situation and get accurate information. Measurement creates clarity, and clarity gives me a stronger foundation for making decisions and taking action. If I judge too early, I'm making decisions from incomplete or inaccurate information. And when the information is bad, everything that follows can be tainted. Show Notes: [02:42]#1 Measurement produces facts.  [08:22]#2 Judgment often reflects emotion. [13:30]#3 What gets measured can be improved. [15:12] Recap Next Steps: --- Execution is not a talent.   It is a standard. If your results don't match your ability, something in your approach is out of alignment. Most people do not have a motivation problem.   They have a consistency problem. Power Presence is the system for operating with greater discipline, clarity, structure, and execution under pressure. Learn more: → http://www.PowerPresenceProtocol.com  Know what to do but not always doing it?  Measure your execution at → http://RateMyExecution.com. Get Dre's free Daily Game email at http://WorkOnMyGame.com. Every day you'll receive one practical lesson on leadership, mindset, discipline, and execution to help you perform at a higher level. No fluff. Just game

Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi sit down with Matthew Drengler, Head of Partnerships at Podscribe, to unpack the messy reality of podcast measurement. They explore attribution, incrementality, the shift from audio to video, social clips, HLS, and why advertisers still need reliable performance data.The conversation then turns to the changing ad tech landscape, including the open web, Nielsen's acquisition of DoubleVerify, measurement industry pressure, The Trade Desk's earnings, PubMatic, Viant, and advertising to AI agents. Takeaways: Video is expanding podcast audiences, but it is also creating new measurement silos across YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and other platforms. Podcast attribution can use RSS prefixes, pixels, and listener-level signals, but those approaches become harder as consumption spreads beyond traditional RSS. Promo codes and vanity URLs capture only part of podcast-driven conversions, making more sophisticated attribution important for performance advertisers. Measurement can unlock more advertiser investment, while independent measurement and trust remain major industry concerns. Ad tech is shifting toward CTV, retail media, apps, creator channels, and AI while traditional open-web and measurement businesses face increasing pressure. Chapters:00:00 Welcome and Episode Introduction02:04 Marketecture Live Chicago03:08 Meet Matthew Drengler, Head of Partnerships at Podscribe04:43 What Podscribe Does05:45 Why Podcasts Are Moving to Video07:56 The Growing Podcast Platform Problem08:32 Apple HLS and the Future of Video Podcast Measurement09:58 What Actually Counts as a Podcast?11:41 Should Social Clips Be Part of Podcast Ad Packages?13:15 Why Social Podcast Clips Are Hard to Measure15:07 How Podcast Attribution and Incrementality Work18:02 Should Podcasts Be Treated Like Influencer Marketing?20:27 Why Better Measurement Unlocks Advertising Budgets20:47 Networks, Independent Podcasts and Performance22:17 AI-Powered Podcast Ad Verification23:55 Spotify's Podcast Ad Skip Discussion26:07 Ad Tech News Begins26:51 Is the Open Web Dying?34:38 Phia and the Cookie-Stuffing Controversy37:36 Nielsen Acquires DoubleVerify40:19 Independence and Trust in Measurement43:40 Comscore and the Measurement Market Shakeup45:45 Viant's Measurement Layoffs and AI Push46:33 The Trade Desk Earnings Breakdown50:03 PubMatic's Growth and Agentic Opportunity51:26 Viant, CTV and the MySpace Question54:00 Perplexity, Mobian and Ads Targeted to AI Agents55:47 Closing With Matthew Drengler Ari Paparo, Eric Franchi, Matt Drengler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Kitchen Side episode, Alex Birkett and Allie Decker unpack what actually makes content valuable in the age of AI, moving past the tired debate over human versus AI-produced content to the deeper question of how companies should measure quality at all. Drawing on decision theory and the idea that almost anything can be measured, they argue that production method matters far less than whether a piece teaches something new and lands with the people it is meant for. They explore AI visibility as a kind of digital brand recall, why sentiment and context matter more than raw share of voice, and how incumbents and startups face very different battles in shaping their narrative across the web. The conversation also digs into why brands no longer own their own story, the compounding risk of building exposure in the wrong category, and why a human QA layer grounded in real customer understanding is the one part of the content system that should never be automated. Key Takeaways The debate over AI-produced versus human-produced content misses the deeper question of how to define and measure content quality in the first place. Almost anything can be measured if a decision carries uncertainty and risk, including fuzzy concepts like brand affinity or customer experience, by breaking them into concrete, quantifiable components. Measurement is only worth doing when the cost of collecting it is lower than the value of reducing uncertainty, and when you will actually act on the result. AI visibility works like a digital brand recall survey, but raw visibility is meaningless without understanding the context and sentiment in which a brand is mentioned. Segmenting prompts by ICP and buying stage reveals visibility gaps that aggregate scores hide, such as a brand appearing at 40 percent overall but only 4 percent for enterprise queries. Brands no longer own their own narrative, because if the rest of the web contradicts a company's website, LLMs treat the external consensus as the truth. Incumbents with high domain authority have an SEO advantage but face a harder AEO battle, since years of press, mentions, and third-party content are slow and expensive to re-steer. Startups can win by getting specific for narrow prompts and buying-journey stages, but building heavy exposure around one positioning creates risk if they later pivot. AI content programs fail because of weak systems, not the AI itself, so the durable model is human strategy up front, AI in the middle, and a human QA layer at the end. Customer understanding is the last defensible advantage, and the one part of the content system that should stay human is the empathy to judge whether a piece will actually land. Show Links Connect with Alex Birkett on LinkedIn and Twitter Connect with Allie Decker on LinkedIn and Twitter Connect with Omniscient Digital on LinkedIn or Twitter What is Kitchen Side? One big benefit of running an agency or working at one is you get to see the "kitchen side" of many different businesses; their revenue, their operations, their automations, and their culture. You understand how things look from the inside and how that differs from the outside. You understand how the sausage is made. As an agency ourselves, we're working both on growing our clients' businesses as well as our own. This podcast is one project, but we also blog, make videos, do sales, and have quite a robust portfolio of automations and hacks to run our business. We want to take you behind the curtain, to the kitchen side of our business, to witness our brainstorms, discussions, and internal dialogues behind the public works that we ship. Past guests on The Long Game podcast include: Morgan Brown (Shopify), Ryan Law (Animalz), Dan Shure (Evolving SEO), Kaleigh Moore (freelancer), Eric Siu (Clickflow), Peep Laja (CXL), Chelsea Castle (Chili Piper), Tracey Wallace (Klaviyo), Tim Soulo (Ahrefs), Ryan McReady (Reforge), and many more. Some interviews you might enjoy and learn from: Actionable Tips and Secrets to SEO Strategy with Dan Shure (Evolving SEO) Building Competitive Marketing Content with Sam Chapman (Aprimo) How to Build the Right Data Workflow with Blake Burch (Shipyard) Data-Driven Thought Leadership with Alicia Johnston (Sprout Social) Purpose-Driven Leadership & Building a Content Team with Ty Magnin (UiPath) Also, check out our Kitchen Side series where we take you behind the scenes to see how the sausage is made at our agency: Blue Ocean vs Red Ocean SEO Should You Hire Writers or Subject Matter Experts? How Do Growth and Content Overlap? Connect with Omniscient Digital on social: Twitter: @beomniscient LinkedIn: Be Omniscient Listen to more episodes of The Long Game podcast here: https://beomniscient.com/podcast/

In Episode 680 of the New Media Show, host Rob Greenlee welcomes Steven Goldstein, founder and CEO of Amplifi Media, for a timely, future-leaning discussion. We have entered the Liquid Content Era. A podcast conversation can now become an audio episode, full-length YouTube video, Spotify video, Apple Podcasts video, vertical clips, social posts, articles, newsletters, searchable transcripts, and potentially AI-discovered answers. The underlying content may be the same, but the way people encounter and consume it varies by platform. That creates an enormous opportunity for creators. It also creates a measurement problem. Podcasting built much of its advertising business around the download. That metric helped turn an emerging medium into a legitimate advertising marketplace, but Steven argues that it no longer adequately represents how audiences consume modern shows. Downloads were created in an era when bandwidth was limited and podcast applications often downloaded episodes to devices before the listener played them. Today, streaming is increasingly immediate, video consumption is growing, audiences move between devices, and clips can sometimes reach more people than the original episode. The question is no longer simply:  How many times was the podcast downloaded? The better question may be: How many people actually listened to, watched, encountered the advertising, and engaged with the creator's content across the entire media ecosystem? Why advertisers need this change. Large brands already buy television, web, streaming video, social, and other digital media through dashboards that provide comparable impression-based reporting. Podcasting remains fragmented across RSS analytics, platform dashboards, YouTube views, Spotify data, and different definitions of what constitutes meaningful exposure. That fragmentation makes podcast media harder to buy at scale. Steven explains that advertisers do not want separate teams manually reconciling podcast audio, video, clips, and platform metrics. If podcasting wants to attract substantially more advertising investment, it needs to fit more easily into the systems marketers already use. That leads into one of the episode’s central topics: the AMP Accords. The Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting was formed to address three persistent problems: Defining a podcast Standardizing exposure metrics across platforms Creating a more consistent way to evaluate advertising effectiveness. The AMP Accords describe their goal as establishing cross-platform measurement standards spanning open RSS and closed platforms. One of the biggest proposed shifts is moving toward a 30-second play as a standardized exposure metric across audio and video. Steven is less concerned about whether 30 seconds ultimately proves to be the perfect number than he is about establishing a common starting point. Media measurement has always evolved. Steven draws on his experience in radio, where audience measurement moved from handwritten listening diaries to electronic Portable People Meters. The change was disruptive. Some formats gained audience under the new methodology, and others lost it. But advertisers demanded better information, and the industry eventually adapted. Podcasting is facing a similar moment. The industry should not allow the pursuit of a perfect measurement system to delay the adoption of a more useful one. The AMP framework also addresses advertising impressions and audience measurement. That matters because an advertiser ultimately wants to know whether someone actually received an advertising message, not simply whether a media file was automatically delivered to a device. Rob and Steven discuss the tension this creates for established podcast measurement. Some publishers remain strongly committed to the download because it has provided consistency and an open measurement methodology for many years. Steven gives the download credit for helping build the podcast advertising business but believes the medium now needs to move forward. The shift becomes even more important when video enters the equation. YouTube has become a major podcast-consumption platform with sophisticated analytics on views, watch time, audience behavior, retention, and discovery. Spotify has added video. Apple is expanding its video capabilities through HLS. Meanwhile, audiences increasingly move fluidly between audio and video rather than seeing them as completely separate media products. This raises another difficult question: What exactly is a podcast now? The AMP Accords propose a broad podcast definition that encompasses audio or video and open or closed distribution, provided the program remains meaningful without requiring constant visual attention. Steven likes the basic framework but emphasizes that audiences will ultimately shape the word's meaning. People already call shows “podcasts” based on format and experience rather than on technical infrastructure. Most listeners do not know whether a show uses RSS feeds, direct platform uploads, streaming video, or another delivery method. Rob raises a concern about defining podcasting too strongly through an audio lens. If a video must always function perfectly with the viewer's eyes closed, does that discourage creators from investing in richer visual storytelling? That question becomes increasingly important as video production matures. A modern video podcast can include visual demonstrations, graphics, archival material, set design, screen sharing, camera movement, and other elements that provide additional value to the viewer. Rob argues that creators should retain the freedom to build excellent audio and excellent video experiences, even when the two versions are not identical. The discussion then moves to another major part of liquid content: short-form video. Shorts or Clips were initially treated primarily as promotional tools designed to push people toward the full episode. That assumption is changing. Some audience members may never consume the full show. They may know a creator entirely through Shorts, Reels, TikTok, or other excerpts. Steven describes this as both an opportunity and a potential problem. If a creator publishes the four best moments from an hour-long conversation, some viewers may decide those clips provide everything they wanted from the episode. That means short-form may represent a separate audience, not simply a funnel into long-form media. At the same time, social clips have become an increasingly important discovery mechanism. Creators cannot simply ignore the places where audiences spend their time. That is the essence of liquid content: the audience determines where and how the media gets consumed. Artificial intelligence adds another layer. Steven believes creators should increasingly think beyond traditional SEO, Search Engine Optimization, toward AEO, Answer Engine Optimization. AI systems are increasingly becoming discovery engines themselves. Instead of searching through a list of websites or podcast episodes, a user may ask an AI system a specific question and receive a direct answer assembled from available sources. That shift could be especially valuable for niche creators. A podcast with deep authority in a narrow subject may become an important source of AI-generated answers if its content is well-structured, transcribed, accessible, and clearly associated with expertise in that category. Rob expands the discussion into recommendation systems. YouTube already uses AI extensively to determine which content should be presented to which audience. Similar systems will increasingly influence discovery throughout digital media. That creates a harder competitive environment. Steven argues that mediocre content will be crushed. As audiences face effectively unlimited choices and algorithms become better at filtering those choices, simply producing acceptable content may no longer be enough. Shows need differentiation, relevance, expertise, strong personalities, or storytelling that holds attention. That does not mean every successful podcast needs millions of listeners. Steven points to niche podcasts serving highly specific professional communities. A show about HVAC systems may never become a mainstream entertainment hit, but it can still become an extremely valuable business if it reaches the right technicians, manufacturers, buyers, and industry decision-makers. Influence within a valuable niche can matter more than raw audience scale. The conversation closes by examining the tension between short-form and long-form media. Consumers are time-starved. Summaries, clips, AI-generated takeaways, and compressed content are becoming increasingly useful. Yet long-form is not disappearing. Joe Rogan, Acquired, Dan Carlin, and other successful long-form creators demonstrate that audiences will still spend hours with content when the storytelling, expertise, personality, or subject deserves the investment. The real challenge is earning the audience's time. In the Liquid Content Era, creators are no longer simply publishing episodes. They are building adaptable media assets that can move across platforms, formats, screens, algorithms, and audiences. The measurement systems now need to catch up. Topics Covered in This Episode: -What Steven Goldstein means by the Liquid Content Era -Why one piece of content now becomes many media products -Why the podcast download is becoming less representative of consumption -What podcasting can learn from radio and television measurement -Why advertisers need unified cross-platform metrics -The AMP Accords and the future of podcast measurement -The proposed 30-second play standard -Plays, audience, ad impressions, and ad audience -Audio versus video measurement -Apple HLS, YouTube, Spotify, and platform competition -Why the definition of a podcast continues to evolve -Whether video podcasts need to work with the viewer's eyes closed -The difference between clipping content and creating for vertical video -Why clips may represent a separate audience -AI and Answer Engine Optimization -How algorithms increasingly control media discovery -Why mediocre content faces greater pressure -High-value niche content versus mass audience scale -What it takes to create a hit today -Why long-form content can still win Chapter Time Stamp Markers 00:00 Welcome to The New Media Show Episode 680 00:36 The Liquid Content Era needs new measurement 01:10 Introducing Steven Goldstein of Amplifi Media 02:07 Why media has entered the Liquid Content Era 03:18 The New York Times as a liquid content example 04:41 Podcasting moves from audio into multimedia 05:29 Video was always part of podcasting 06:22 Why the download originally made sense 07:13 Streaming changes how podcast consumption is measured 08:08 What podcasting can learn from radio measurement 09:11 From listening diaries to electronic measurement 10:00 Why advertisers need podcasting inside their dashboards 11:05 Audio and video buying remain separated at agencies 12:06 How television moved toward impression-based measurement 13:13 Short-form video enters the podcast media mix 14:12 Introducing the AMP Accords 15:08 What the AMP Accords propose 17:03 What AMP got right and what could go wrong 18:41 Why 30 seconds is a starting point, not the final answer 20:06 Moving beyond the download 21:23 Downloads do not always equal actual listening 22:03 The IAB and industry resistance to changing measurement 23:20 Some shows will gain, and others will lose under better metrics 24:18 Why Steven believes the download cannot be the future 25:11 Consumer behavior is forcing podcasting to change 26:02 Vertical video becomes a major media business 27:01 Can YouTube, Spotify, and Apple align around new metrics? 29:16 Comparing 30-second and 60-second exposure 31:07 Plays, audience, ad impressions, and advertiser needs 32:16 Why advertisers dislike hidden podcast audience numbers 33:07 Measurement matters differently for niche podcasts 34:19 How audiences move between audio and video 36:05 Should audio and video come from the same media file? 37:02 Why measurement does not need to be perfect to improve 38:16 Liquid content keeps expanding into new formats 39:14 What qualifies as a podcast now? 40:02 The audience may ultimately define podcasting 41:35 Does “eyes closed” unfairly prioritize audio? 43:05 Could the new definition weaken video creativity? 44:31 Separate audio and video podcast experiences 46:07 Vertical video versus automatically generated clips 46:52 Are clips replacing the full episode? 48:04 Short-form audiences may be entirely different 49:00 AI enters the Liquid Content Era 49:28 SEO shifts toward Answer Engine Optimization 50:27 AI becomes the first layer of media discovery 51:13 Algorithms judge what audiences see 53:04 Why mediocre content will be crushed 54:02 What qualifies as quality content? 55:04 Niche media does not need mass scale 57:07 How specialized podcasts can build valuable businesses 58:38 Why podcast creation remains flat despite creator growth 1:00:16 Creators no longer need traditional media gatekeepers 1:01:21 What the COVID podcast boom taught the industry 1:02:27 High-value content and why hits are hard 1:03:05 Differentiation as the foundation of a successful show 1:05:05 What television can teach podcasters about format innovation 1:06:22 Why creators compete for increasingly limited audience time 1:07:34 Short-form versus long-form content 1:08:22 Why people increasingly use AI to summarize long content 1:09:08 Joe Rogan, Acquired, and why long-form still succeeds 1:10:05 Gen Z will consume long content when it earns the time 1:11:01 Structured YouTube content versus podcast conversations 1:13:00 Final thoughts on the changing New Media landscape 1:14:00 Where to find The New Media Show Guest: Steven Goldstein, Founder and CEO, Amplifi Media Amplifi Media: https://www.amplifimedia.com About Steven Goldstein: https://www.amplifimedia.com/about Steven Goldstein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-goldstein-a057b54 Amplifi Media on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplifi-media Steven Goldstein is founder and CEO of Amplifi Media and teaches The Business of Podcasting at NYU. His current work focuses heavily on the shift toward cross-platform audio, video, and social distribution, as well as what he describes as the Liquid Content Era. AMP Accords Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting: https://ampaccords.com The AMP Accords focus on three areas: standardizing impression metrics, developing cross-platform performance measurement, and creating a common industry definition of a podcast. Host, Rob Greenlee, and New Media Show Links New Media Show: https://newmediashow.com New Media Show on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@TheNewMediaShow New Media Show Audio on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-media-show-audio/id392545649 Rob Greenlee Website: https://robgreenlee.com Rob Greenlee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgreenlee Rob Greenlee on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@RobGreenlee Podcast Hall of Fame: https://podcasthall.com AI Disclosure Note: AI tools were used to create a video and audio introduction clip, episode images, help organize and edit this episode and summarize its description, and create chapter markers from the completed Episode 680 transcript. The recorded conversation, human performances, guest perspectives, editorial direction, final review, and responsibility for the published content remain with actual humans Rob Greenlee and Steven Goldstein.The post Liquid Content Era Needs New Measurement | Steven Goldstein, Amplifi Media #680 first appeared on New Media Show.

Anybody who's been in a noisy restaurant can tell you how the acoustics of a built environment can impact individuals in the space. In particular, absorption and diffusion of sounds can greatly affect the acoustics. This episode, the editors of the Special Issue on Sound Absorption and Diffusion: Modeling, Measurement, and Application, Mélanie Nolan (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid), Peter D'Antonio (RPG Acoustical Systems), and Ning Xiang (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), share current research in the field. Find all the articles in the special issue here!Read more from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA).Learn more about Acoustical Society of America Publications.Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. 

What can healthcare innovators learn from an Olympian?In the opening keynote of the 5th Annual Medical Innovation Olympics #MIO2026 at Rockefeller Center in NYC, two-time Olympian swimmer and NHS UK Advisor Chris Cook shares lessons from elite performance and why they matter for leaders transforming healthcare.From missing a major competition by four-hundredths of a second to becoming a champion, Chris explores resilience, accountability, consistency, courage, teamwork, and incremental improvement - connecting world-class performance to turning ambitious healthcare ideas into measurable patient impact.The conversation concludes with a Q&A on failure, motivation, finding your “North Star,” and why the real gold is not the medal, but who you become in pursuit of something bigger than yourself.CHAPTERS00:00 - The Mindset of People Who Change IndustriesTransformative leaders stay uncomfortable longer than everyone else.00:25 - Welcome to the 5th Annual Medical Innovation OlympicsTim Mikhelashvili opens MIO 2026 with its mission: lasting impact on healthcare, society, and patients.01:44 — Introducing Two-Time Olympian Chris CookChris describes MIO as fundamentally different from a traditional conference: “a competition with purpose.”03:26 — What Olympic Performance Can Teach Healthcare InnovatorsChris' Olympic journey, elite performance lessons, and innovators' larger responsibility.03:51 — The Work Nobody Sees Behind High Performance4:30 a.m. starts, sacrifice, injury, doubt, repetition, and discipline reveal how excellence is built through consistent small decisions.05:19 — Losing by 0.04 Seconds—and the Power of “Yet”After missing a major competition by four-hundredths of a second, Chris hears: you're not good enough yet. Four years later, everything changes.06:30 — From Setback to ChampionChris returns to win two gold medals and a silver—and explains how competitors think and respond differently.07:05 — Innovators See Possibility Before There Is ProofOlympians and innovators pursue possibility while others demand proof—and stay uncomfortable long enough to create change.07:42 — Measurement, Accountability & Healthcare ImpactMeasurement creates clarity. AI, data science, and precision medicine are powerful, but transformation also requires leadership and accountability.09:21 — When Innovation Becomes HumanAccess, quality, and continuity of care are not abstract metrics—they affect patients, families, treatment, and time.09:46 — Three Lessons from an OlympianPressure is a privilege. Consistency beats intensity. Great teams outperform great individuals.10:57 — Courage, Competition & Stepping Into the ArenaInnovation requires vulnerability, evaluation, courage, and a willingness to participate rather than stay comfortable.11:36 — Tiny Improvements Can Change Lives at ScaleBetter workflows, faster diagnoses, improved pathways, and breakthrough ideas compound into human impact.12:41 — Q&A: The Healthcare Champions Nobody SeesUnrecognized professionals across safety, pharmacovigilance, product quality.14:25 — “The Real Gold Is the Person You Become”The greatest reward is not the medal - it is who you become while pursuing something bigger than yourself.15:57 — What Do You Do When Nothing Is Working?Q&A: How do you keep moving when experiments fail, progress stalls, and motivation disappears?16:26 — Experiments Don't Fail - They Produce ResultsChris reframes failure: what matters is what you learn from results and what you do next.16:56 — Inspiration, Motivation & Finding Your North StarChris distinguishes enduring inspiration from motivation, which naturally rises and falls.18:24 — Look Back to See How Far You've ComeFocusing only on the gap ahead can demotivate us. Confidence also comes from recognizing how far we have traveled.19:38 — Transformative Power of SportFormer IOC President Thomas Bach closes by reflecting on sport as a force for good and a tool for improving lives.

Traditional media buying breaks down when attitudinal audience data gets lost between upstream research and downstream media activation. Bright Mountain's Andy Davidson and Deep Focus's Kyle Krueger unpack how synthetic personas, unified YouTube-to-CTV strategies, and responsible creator management keep ad campaigns aligned and effective. Key Highlights

The United States has invested heavily in biotechnology research, but supporters of a new bipartisan bill argue that innovation depends on more than scientific breakthroughs. They say measurement science and common standards are essential if new discoveries are going to move reliably from the laboratory to the marketplace. Here to discuss that effort is Congresswoman April McClain Delaney of Maryland's Sixth District.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In today's MadTech Daily, we discuss Apple's escalation of its OpenAI trade secrets case, including its request for an injunction and expedited discovery, OpenAI's integration with AppsFlyer to bring in-app measurement to ChatGPT Ads and, Snapchat's push to attract small businesses with a more focused advertising platform

Retail media is now a $100 billion industry. Collin Colburn, VP of Commerce and Retail Media at the IAB, says we've entered commerce media's "day two" –  the era where operational integration, interoperable measurement, and the arrival of the agentic shelf matter more than launching another network.  We unpack why brands started calling retail media a tax, why Collin says we should blow attribution up, and whether an ad-supported agent can stay trustworthy. Welcome to Day Two Key takeaways: Optimization and integration replace growth-at-all-costs expansion. Brands call retail media a “tax,” sensing the industry's referee is now incrementality. Agent-referred shoppers convert higher and return less.  In-store media's ceiling is customer experience, not inventory: frequency caps beat non-endemic dollars. [14:05] "Agentic commerce isn't changing what consumers buy or want to buy today. It's changing their pathway to purchase." — Collin Colburn [19:35] “The coming reckoning is in the measurement space.” –– Collin Colburn [20:45] "Attribution was built for: an ad is served, it's clicked on or seen, the customer goes to the website, and they purchase. That model does not work well in this new era." — Collin Colburn [25:15] "AI feels objective to me for the most part… it's like your omnipotent friend that you never had. And when ads get introduced, it begs the question of, am I still gonna trust that agent?" — Collin Colburn In-Show Mentions: Commerce Media Has Hit “Day Two.” Now What?  EMarketer: IAB's Collin Colburn on the Future of Commerce Media More about IAB Associated Links: VISIONS Summit, Nov 3 at MoMA Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today in the business of podcasting:Acast has opened video publishing on Apple Podcasts to all creators on its platform, ending the beta waitlist after shows using video saw an estimated 25% lift in weekly Apple Podcasts sessions.Media measurement and ad effectiveness have moved from CMO-CFO conversations onto public earnings calls, even as a Gain Theory survey finds 49% of marketers doubt their data can hold up at the CFO level.New Jersey's data broker law is already in effect, banning sensitive data sales with $50,000-per-record penalties and creating a "data collector" category that pulls podcast ad-tech and listener-data practices into scope.Hollywood studios chasing creator-driven IP are running into ownership problems, as A24's attempt to trademark "the backrooms" shows the risks of adapting open-source collaborative worlds.Kirby Grines argues the smartest streaming strategy is licensing mature catalog while keeping current releases exclusive, citing Parrot Analytics data showing licensed titles drove over 53% of Netflix series sign-ups in Q1 2026.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Acast has opened video publishing on Apple Podcasts to all creators on its platform, ending the beta waitlist after shows using video saw an estimated 25% lift in weekly Apple Podcasts sessions.Media measurement and ad effectiveness have moved from CMO-CFO conversations onto public earnings calls, even as a Gain Theory survey finds 49% of marketers doubt their data can hold up at the CFO level.New Jersey's data broker law is already in effect, banning sensitive data sales with $50,000-per-record penalties and creating a "data collector" category that pulls podcast ad-tech and listener-data practices into scope.Hollywood studios chasing creator-driven IP are running into ownership problems, as A24's attempt to trademark "the backrooms" shows the risks of adapting open-source collaborative worlds.Kirby Grines argues the smartest streaming strategy is licensing mature catalog while keeping current releases exclusive, citing Parrot Analytics data showing licensed titles drove over 53% of Netflix series sign-ups in Q1 2026.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Screens are often unavoidable but that doesn't mean your eyes and brain have to stay overwhelmed all day.In this episode of Migraine Heroes Podcast, host Diane Ducarme shares nine realistic ways to make computers, phones, and tablets easier on a migraine-sensitive nervous system—without giving up work, communication, or productivity.You'll learn:

Ace Hardware's RedVest Media is rewriting the retail advertising playbook by turning a late market entry into a strategic advantage across its 5,200 store footprint. Head of Retail Media Molly Hjelm joins Mike Shields to explain why friction-free Pacvue integration, closed-loop endemic attribution, and re-embracing physical stores outperform legacy off-platform tactics. Key Highlights ⏰ The Late-Mover Edge: Launching a network today means skipping years of clunky tech builds and plugging straight into mature e-commerce and delivery setups.

Today in the business of podcasting:Spotify is testing "Skip Ahead," a one-tap ad-skipping feature for Premium subscribers that collapses a nine-tap skip into a single action, raising questions about ad delivery reporting and advertiser attention data.Eight major streaming platforms have launched vertical clip feeds in 20 months, a convergence driven by premium streaming's first single-digit growth year at 7% in 2025.The IAB released new guidelines for measuring brand and publisher visibility in AI-generated search results, built around web search analytics.A new Audacy/YouGov survey finds cost-of-living anxiety shaping the 2026 midterms, positioning radio and podcasts as channels that reach commuting voters.Digiday reports agencies are pushing for more control over programmatic ad-buying infrastructure, with implications for how podcast inventory is transacted.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

In this episode, the hosts dive into the fascinating world of vibrational frequencies, energy fields, and the subtle ways our environment and choices impact our well-being. From analyzing how food frequencies correlate with human emotions to exploring sound healing, acupuncture, and nature spirits, this conversation bridges the gap between science, intention, and consciousness.  Key Topics Covered • Nutritional Frequencies & Emotion: Exploring research on measuring food vibrations, how travel and processing degrade food energy, and the link between high-vibration foods and positive mood.  • Intention & Energetic Transference: How food made with love, blessed water (Dr. Masaru Emoto and Veda Austin's experiments), and human thoughts impact physical matter.  • Sound Healing & Vibrational Tools: Using tuning forks for biofield tuning, addressing stuck emotional dissonance, and the power of sound frequency.  • Nature Spirits & Environmental Energy: Personal stories of forest consciousness, mycelial networks, energy fields in specific places, and historical practices like energy clearing.  • Acupuncture & Animal Healing: Real-world experiences with human and animal acupuncture, energetic protection, and the interconnectedness of body and environment.  Connect with the Guests: Dr. Tom Ingegno, DACM - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acuguy Josh Maitland - https://www.instagram.com/redroomstudio_ca/ S.Stephon Brown - https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-brown-74703340/ Connect with Doug Beitz: Email: info@dougbeitz.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dougbeitz/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dougbeitz/ Website: https://buymeacoffee.com/dougbeitz Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6mQ258nugC3lyw3SpvYuoK?si=7cec409527d34438 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/intuitive-conversations-with-doug/id1593172364 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-beitz-472a4b338/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dougbeitz178

Today in the business of podcasting:Spotify is testing "Skip Ahead," a one-tap ad-skipping feature for Premium subscribers that collapses a nine-tap skip into a single action, raising questions about ad delivery reporting and advertiser attention data.Eight major streaming platforms have launched vertical clip feeds in 20 months, a convergence driven by premium streaming's first single-digit growth year at 7% in 2025.The IAB released new guidelines for measuring brand and publisher visibility in AI-generated search results, built around web search analytics.A new Audacy/YouGov survey finds cost-of-living anxiety shaping the 2026 midterms, positioning radio and podcasts as channels that reach commuting voters.Digiday reports agencies are pushing for more control over programmatic ad-buying infrastructure, with implications for how podcast inventory is transacted.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Want to get even more jacked? Grab the RP Hypertrophy App for your training, and maximize your gym efforts with the RP Diet Coach App to nail your nutrition. Guest Links Dr. Eric Trexler's Links: Instagram: @trexlerfitness ResearchGate: Eric Trexler publications Research review: MASS Research Review Timestamps 00:00 Conference travel, weight-loss non-responders, and the episode setup 07:03 What counts as a training non-responder? 08:53 Measurement error and why short studies can mislead 10:53 Replication and better individualized research designs 16:30 General response versus program-specific response 19:25 Why advanced lifters struggle to measure small changes 33:34 Can muscle fiber type affect training responsiveness? 37:22 Why narrower studies produce better answers 39:28 Are true non-responders real? 44:10 What to do when your progress is unusually slow 50:27 Before you give up: time, volume, intensity, and mindset 54:39 The calf-training example, Eric's links, and closing  

82% of top-grossing apps now take payment outside the app store. Patrick Stuart-Constant's team at Sociaaal ships 4,000 video ads a month, scaling to 10,000. The shift to web-to-app monetization isn't coming. It already happened.Part 1 of a two-part panel from a FunnelFox webinar, with Rocketship HQ as partner. Shamanth Rao moderated the conversation with Jacob Rushfinn (CEO, Botsi), Andrey Shakhtin (CEO, FunnelFox), Patrick Stuart-Constant (CEO, Sociaaal), Mike Gadd (VP Customer Success, Singular), and Elise Zareie (Head of Paid Social, Lingokids) on how paid acquisition teams design the path after the click.Andrey Shakhtin on why off-store attribution beats SKAN on speed, and how 2-5% payment fees unlock room to iterate. Patrick Stuart-Constant on scaling ad volume as a search space problem, and why cheaper AI creative grew his team instead of shrinking it (Jevons paradox). Elise Zareie on why web funnels only work with dedicated ownership inside the UA team. Mike Gadd on why the first renewal is the metric most teams miss. Jacob Rushfinn on the $1M revenue threshold before web funnels pay off, and the 10K to 20K monthly loss to budget for the learning phase.Video Chapters:00:00 Introductions and format02:40 The one shift teams have not priced in07:50 Andrey on the 82% off-store payments finding09:52 Mike on measurement across web and app, platform hell11:45 Elise on creative: lift-and-shift vs TikTok-native15:54 Patrick on the search space, 4K to 10K ads a month18:07 Jevons paradox: cheaper ads, bigger creative team19:30 Elise on where AI helps and where taste is still human21:39 What separates web-funnel winners from teams that quit25:27 Andrey on iteration pace correlating with revenue27:00 Who should not try web funnels: payments complexity28:42 Jacob on the $1M threshold and the learning-phase budget29:36 Common learning phase mistakes and how to short-circuit them32:00 Part 2 drops next weekTopics covered:- The shift to web-to-app monetization and off-store payments- AI creative production at scale, 4,000 to 10,000 ads a month- Web funnels: dedicated ownership vs side project- The $1M revenue threshold for going off-store- Learning phase mistakes on acquisition, funnel, and paywall- Measurement complexity across web and appLearn more:- Original webinar recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYPDZlwLhNA- FunnelFox (webinar host): https://funnelfox.com- Rocketship HQ (partner): https://rocketshiphq.com- Jacob Rushfinn (Botsi): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-rushfinn/- Andrey Shakhtin (FunnelFox): https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrey-shakhtin/- Patrick Stuart-Constant (Sociaaal): https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-stuart-constant/- Mike Gadd (Singular): https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-gadd-27a16427/- Elise Zareie (Lingokids): https://www.linkedin.com/in/elise-zareie/- Shamanth Rao (Rocketship HQ): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamanthrao/

You just invested in the latest feedback tool, the best collaboration platform, the smartest productivity software. And nothing changed. Not because the tools are bad — but because you're still measuring the wrong things. You're still rewarding the visible. You're still missing the people who quietly hold your organization together. The future of work isn't about better tools. It's about measuring what actually matters. And what actually matters — reliability, leadership, attitude, the intangibles that move teams — has been invisible to your reward systems for too long. Jess Dewell talks with Jacob Chase, Founder & CEO of The INFIN, on how organizations can stop chasing innovation for innovation's sake and start measuring the human contributions that technology can't replace. Jacob has built systems that capture what traditional evaluation misses: the peer-recognized strengths that drive real organizational change. In this episode, you'll discover: Why innovative tools fail to drive change — and the real hurdle isn't the technology, it's understanding how people actually want to work. How to build feedback systems that tell you the truth — and why anonymity and safety are non-negotiable for honest insights. Why it's time to redesign your entire measurement and reward infrastructure — not just tweak the old system. How autonomy, initiative, and transparent reward systems create sustainable growth without chaos. Why real-time, continuous feedback outperforms annual reviews — and what that looks like in practice. How to measure the intangibles — leadership, reliability, attitude — that have the biggest impact on team performance. What a decentralized feedback system can capture that traditional metrics miss entirely. It is BOLD to reimagine culture and measuring formerly intangible value for all stakeholders. The organizations winning today aren't the ones with the fanciest tools. They're the ones measuring what matters. They're recognizing contributions that numbers alone can't capture. They're willing to look beyond job titles and formal roles to see who's actually driving value. They've built systems where peer recognition and transparent rewards amplify the strengths that move culture forward. The disconnect between tools and culture is growing. Companies invest heavily in platforms for feedback but still rely on outdated evaluation methods. They claim to value collaboration but reward individual achievement. They say culture matters but measure only output. That gap is costing you talent, innovation, and resilience. If your feedback systems feel disconnected from reality, if your best people aren't getting recognized for their true contributions, or if you're wondering how to measure the intangible qualities that are actually holding your team together, this conversation will reorient what's possible. —--------- If you're ready to build the kind of business that doesn't just survive uncertainty but leads through it, check out the Driving Solutions Strategic Intensive program, designed to support leadership teams through high-stakes strategic decisions.    --------------------   You can get in touch with Jess Dewell on Twitter,  LinkedIn or Red Direction website.

Nobody Cares About Your Podcast Downloads! Why Your Podcast Downloads Are Overrated (And What Really Matters) If you host a podcast, you've probably checked your download numbers more times than you'd like to admit. It's natural — those stats feel like proof that something is working. But the truth is, downloads can be misleading. A recent shift in the podcast industry highlights this perfectly. A new trade group, the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP) , suggested that downloads are not the best way to measure podcast advertising performance. Instead, they recommend measuring a “play,” meaning someone listens to or watches at least 30 consecutive seconds of an episode. That raises an important question: if someone downloads your episode but never actually listens, what does that number really tell you? For many podcasters, the answer is: not much. Downloads Are a Vanity Metric Downloads can feel exciting because they're easy to count and easy to compare. But they don't always reflect real engagement. Someone can subscribe to your show, auto-download episodes, and never press play. In other words, a download proves availability, not attention. That's why downloads are often a vanity metric. They can offer social proof, and they may matter for sponsors or ad-supported shows, but they don't always tell you whether your content is actually connecting with people. The Real Goal Is Usually Bigger Than Numbers Most podcasts aren't just trying to rack up ad revenue. For many creators, the podcast is a branding tool. It's a way to build trust, create community, and support business or mission-driven goals. That's especially true for: Coaches and consultants Financial advisors Nonprofits Educators Brands using podcasting to build relationships If your podcast helps someone trust your expertise, join your community, or become a client, then a smaller audience can still create massive value. A show with 500 deeply engaged listeners can do more for your goals than a show with 50,000 passive downloads. Community Beats Empty Reach Think about the kinds of podcasts that create real impact. A show for people living with a serious illness. A podcast that helps families navigate a difficult diagnosis. A series built to educate and support a niche audience.In those cases, success isn't about chart position. It's about connection.The biggest wins come from: Shared resources Helpful conversations Emotional support Long-term trust Meaningful relationships That's the kind of impact downloads alone will never capture. What You Should Focus on Instead If downloads aren't the main thing, what should you measure? Start with the goals of your podcast. If your goal is brand building: Focus on trust, authority, and audience loyalty. If your goal is sales:Look at leads, conversations, and client conversions. If your goal is community:Pay attention to replies, comments, shares, and repeat listeners. If your goal is education: Measure how well listeners understand, apply, and remember your message. The right metric depends on the outcome you actually want. Final Thought It's fine to care about downloads. Everyone likes seeing growth. But don't let the number on a dashboard distract you from the real purpose of your podcast. The best podcasts don't just get heard. They get remembered. They get shared. They build something real. So instead of asking, “How many people downloaded this episode?” Ask, “What did this episode make possible?” That's where the real value is. Find jag on social media @JAGPodcastProductions or online at JAGPodcastProductions.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A methods-focused episode about how muscle and body-composition measurements can mislead you when reading the research. The main event is a new Balshaw and colleagues paper concluding that ultrasound muscle thickness is a poor index of MRI-measured muscle growth. Trexler and Helms argue this shouldn't be read as "throw out all ultrasound research" — the real culprit is that muscle thickness is a crude one-dimensional snapshot with measurement error large enough to swamp the small changes seen in typical short studies, whereas MRI captures growth in more dimensions with better fidelity. They walk through why comparing across different dimensions and different devices matters, what researchers can do about it (bigger doses, larger samples, multiple measurements), and use the famous "sleep restriction kills your gains by 60%" study as an example of over-reading a tiny difference in ten people. The second half turns to DEXA. Prompted by someone confused that DEXA fat mass didn't line up with the 3,500-calorie rule, they explain DEXA's three-compartment model, why it measures fat mass rather than adipose tissue, and why lean soft tissue readings are so sensitive to hydration. The practical upshot: don't build your worldview on a kilogram of day-to-day DEXA noise, be cautious using DEXA to estimate energy status, and understand that flattening a three-dimensional body into a two-dimensional scan introduces real limits. They close with an extended, tongue-in-cheek bit about trademarking "muscle journey" dimensions. Iron Culture is proudly presented by the MASS Research Review. Mostly because Helms and Trex are co-owners. massresearchreview.com If you're in the market for some new (ultra-high-quality) gym gear or apparel, be sure to use code "MRR10" for a 10% discount over at elitefts.com If you'd like to submit a question for a future episode, head over to: massresearchreview.com/ironculture Chapters 0:00 Intro 5:57 The paper: is ultrasound a poor muscle-growth measure? 18:04 What muscle thickness actually captures 25:38 Measurement error vs. a tiny signal 31:16 Different dimensions, different devices 37:52 What researchers should do about it 39:26 Case study: does sleep loss "kill gains"? 47:28 On to DEXA: where this started 53:26 How DEXA works & why fat mass ≠ adipose tissue 1:02:15 Why methods don't always agree 1:11:06 Water weight & the whooshing scale 1:16:43 Estimating energy status from DEXA 1:19:36 Wrap-up

Welcome to The Ecommerce Braintrust podcast, brought to you by Julie Spear, Head of Retail Marketplace Services, and Jordan Ripley, Director of Retail Account Management.   Today, we are getting into something every brand needs to hear - because what you think you know about your media performance might be complete fiction.    We're talking about the 2026 measurement crisis. The moment when the gap between what your dashboards say and what your account shows has become impossible to ignore.    And to help us make sense of it all, we have two incredible guests from the Acadia team with us: Sally Kazin, Head of Analytics, and Ross Walker, Director of Retail Media.   Let's dive in!  Quote: The gap between the dashboard numbers and the ground truth has become impossible to ignore.   Sally Kazin   KEY TAKEAWAYS In this episode, Julie, Jordan, Sally, and Ross discuss: The growing "measurement crisis" in ecommerce, where platform-reported revenue often exceeds actual sales due to duplicated attribution claims across channels Transition from reliable observation-based tracking to a world of estimation and modeling, driven by privacy changes and a fragmented platform landscape The challenges posed by siloed data, platform biases, and engine inflation in retail media and traditional paid channels Widespread overreliance on ROAS as a North Star metric and the pitfalls of "ROAS jail" for both brands and CFOs The limitations and decline of Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA), and why Acadia now deploys a three-pillar measurement framework The importance of glass box (transparent) models over black box or "off the shelf" solutions, balancing science and business art in measurement Pairing MMM with real-world incrementality tests for a self-correcting measurement loop How to communicate with CFOs and senior leadership about marketing impact, translating platform metrics into true business outcomes and incremental revenue The evolution of MMM: from slow, backward-looking models to AI-enabled, forward-looking, and more frequent scenario planning Practical questions for brands to gut-check their measurement strategy, such as verifying if summed platform-attributed revenue exceeds actual sales Common flags of broken retail media measurement, and the need to match ad spend and goals to brand objectives rather than vanity KPIs  

Recorded live at Cannes, Wpromote CEO Andrea Bendzick exposes why agile independent agencies are eating traditional holding companies' lunch while everyone else scrambles to build overpriced tech platforms. She maps out how mixing performance marketing, smart M&A, and hard revenue-backed brand metrics gives modern agencies an unbeatable edge. Key Highlights ⚖️ Independent agencies sit in a sweet spot where they're big enough to handle massive brands but agile enough to pivot while legacy holding companies stay stuck.

Today in the business of podcasting:Five podcast industry leaders from Audioboom, Sounds Profitable, Octave, The Times, and Bauer Media weigh in on the future of AI and audio measurement, with a growing consensus that podcasting already has adequate measurement tools and the real opportunity is smarter use of existing data and attribution.RedCircle extends its AI-powered Mic Check tool to programmatic advertising, transcribing and verifying each ad's metadata, advertiser identity, and category to keep mislabeled political, gambling, tobacco, and sexual ads out of podcast inventory.Steve Raizes breaks down Netflix's decision to cut its What We Watched report to once a year starting in 2027, the 7% stock drop that followed, and what it signals about transparent measurement as podcasting pushes standardized metrics through the AMP Accords.AdExchanger reports on the fight over programmatic transparency as ad tech watchdog Check My Ads is denied DSP access by multiple platforms, exposing the tension between the industry's public embrace of transparency and its resistance to giving watchdogs real access.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:Five podcast industry leaders from Audioboom, Sounds Profitable, Octave, The Times, and Bauer Media weigh in on the future of AI and audio measurement, with a growing consensus that podcasting already has adequate measurement tools and the real opportunity is smarter use of existing data and attribution.RedCircle extends its AI-powered Mic Check tool to programmatic advertising, transcribing and verifying each ad's metadata, advertiser identity, and category to keep mislabeled political, gambling, tobacco, and sexual ads out of podcast inventory.Steve Raizes breaks down Netflix's decision to cut its What We Watched report to once a year starting in 2027, the 7% stock drop that followed, and what it signals about transparent measurement as podcasting pushes standardized metrics through the AMP Accords.AdExchanger reports on the fight over programmatic transparency as ad tech watchdog Check My Ads is denied DSP access by multiple platforms, exposing the tension between the industry's public embrace of transparency and its resistance to giving watchdogs real access.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

The Myth of Slow Healing Why Rapid Recovery Is Possible Featuring Dr. David Burns and Kevin Cornelius, LMFT Many people believe emotional healing takes months—or even years. Therapists are often trained to expect gradual progress, and patients may assume lasting change requires prolonged struggle. But what if that assumption is wrong? In this episode, Dr. David Burns challenges one of the most deeply entrenched beliefs in mental health: the idea that meaningful psychological recovery must happen slowly. Drawing from his recent Psychology Today article, The Myth of Slow Healing, Dr. Burns explains why rapid emotional change is not only possible—it may actually reflect how the human brain naturally works. Through powerful clinical stories, personal reflections, and decades of research, Dr. Burns describes how depression, anxiety, panic, shame, and hopelessness can sometimes disappear in a matter of minutes when people discover and challenge the distorted thoughts driving their suffering. What Inspired This Article? Dr. Burns begins by sharing a formative experience from his psychiatric residency in Philadelphia. As a young psychiatrist, he noticed something troubling: psychotherapy often seemed to continue indefinitely, yet measurable recovery was rarely discussed. Therapists relied heavily on intuition, but almost no one was systematically measuring whether patients were actually improving. A walk through Fairmount Park sparked an insight that would transform his career. Thinking about professional basketball players improving through constant feedback—seeing whether the ball goes through the hoop—he wondered: How can therapists improve if they never measure whether their sessions are helping? This question led him to become one of the earliest advocates for routine outcome measurement in psychotherapy, eventually helping shape the development of TEAM-CBT's session-by-session assessment system. The Importance of Measurement Dr. Burns discusses his early use of the Beck Depression Inventory and the surprising lessons it taught him. Again and again, he discovered that his assumptions about how patients felt were often wrong: Some patients appeared severely depressed but reported relatively mild symptoms. Others seemed cheerful and functional while scoring in the severe range. These experiences reinforced an important lesson: Therapists need data, not guesses. By measuring depression, anxiety, empathy, and therapeutic effectiveness during every session, therapists can receive the feedback necessary to improve their work and help patients more effectively. The Caveman Effect: Why the Brain Can Change Instantly One of the episode's most memorable concepts is what Dr. Burns calls the "Caveman Effect." Borrowing an illustration from neuroscientist Mark Noble, he describes a prehistoric human hearing a twig snap behind him at dusk. The caveman immediately thinks: "A tiger is behind me!" Instantly, fear surges. Then he turns around and discovers the sound came from his wife stepping on a branch. In that moment, his fear vanishes. Not gradually. Not over six months. Instantly. Dr. Burns argues that this illustrates a fundamental principle: Thoughts create emotions. When a frightening thought is believed, anxiety emerges. When that thought is no longer believed, anxiety disappears. This process can happen in seconds. Three Levels of "Shortness" Dr. Burns describes three different ways emotional healing can occur rapidly. 1. Therapy Can Be Brief Many patients experience dramatic improvements within a single two-hour session. Rather than expecting treatment to continue indefinitely, Dr. Burns often approaches therapy with the goal of achieving complete symptom remission as quickly as possible. 2. Breakthroughs Often Happen in Minutes Even within a session, the most important change frequently occurs during a short window—sometimes only a few minutes long. Once therapists identify the specific distorted thoughts maintaining the problem and apply an effective intervention, major shifts can happen quickly. 3. The Moment of Enlightenment The most dramatic change often occurs in a matter of seconds. This is the moment when someone suddenly sees: Their negative belief isn't true. They've been deceiving themselves. A different perspective is possible. When this realization occurs, emotions can shift almost instantly. Dr. Burns compares this experience to the caveman discovering there was never a tiger at all. Why People Resist the Idea of Rapid Recovery If rapid healing is possible, why do so many people reject the concept? Dr. Burns identifies several reasons: For Patients Many people have spent years struggling with depression or anxiety. The idea that change could happen quickly may sound unrealistic or even fraudulent. After repeated disappointments, hope itself can feel dangerous. For Therapists Rapid recovery also challenges many traditional assumptions about psychotherapy. It raises uncomfortable questions: Why aren't outcomes being measured? Why do some treatments continue for years without substantial change? What happens to a therapist's business model when patients recover quickly? Dr. Burns and Kevin discuss how financial incentives can sometimes unintentionally reinforce longer treatments, even when faster recovery may be possible. The Story of Terry: Ten Years of Panic Gone in One Session One of the episode's most powerful moments is Dr. Burns' retelling of Terry's story. Terry suffered from: Severe depression Crippling panic attacks Nearly ten years of unsuccessful treatment Her symptoms were extreme, with depression and anxiety scores among the highest Dr. Burns had ever seen. The key breakthrough came when he identified the specific thought driving her panic: "I'm about to have a heart attack." Using an experimental technique, Dr. Burns intentionally helped Terry induce panic symptoms in session. Then he challenged her catastrophic belief through direct experience. If she were truly having a heart attack: Could she jog in place? Could she exercise vigorously? Could she do jumping jacks? As Terry performed increasingly strenuous activity, she suddenly realized the absurdity of her belief. Then came the breakthrough moment. She laughed. The fear disappeared. And a decade of panic ended. The episode emphasizes that it was not the jumping jacks themselves that created recovery. It was the moment she stopped believing the distorted thought. Why Thoughts Matter Dr. Burns revisits three core principles of cognitive therapy: Principle 1 Your emotions result from your thoughts—not directly from events. Principle 2 The thoughts creating depression and anxiety are typically distorted. Common distortions include: All-or-nothing thinking Fortune telling Emotional reasoning Mind reading Self-blame Principle 3 The moment you stop believing a distorted thought, your emotions will change. This principle remains central to TEAM-CBT and forms the foundation for many rapid recoveries. Beyond Cognition: The Role of Motivation Later in the discussion, Dr. Burns explains that distorted thoughts are only part of the story. Another critical factor is motivation. People often have powerful reasons for holding onto painful feelings. Depression, anxiety, anger, guilt, and shame frequently reflect important personal values. For example: Perfectionism may reflect high standards. Guilt may reflect a strong conscience. Anxiety may reflect caring deeply about others. Rather than arguing patients out of their symptoms, TEAM-CBT often begins by exploring what those symptoms reveal about the person's strengths and values. Benny's Story: The Power of Acceptance To illustrate this paradoxical approach, Dr. Burns shares the story of Benny. Benny was: Suicidal Violent Deeply depressed Involved in gangs, drugs, and crime Rather than confronting Benny's hopelessness, Dr. Burns did something unexpected. He explored all the advantages of believing: "I'm a hopeless case." Together they listed the benefits: Status Power Money Protection Identity For the first time, Benny felt understood rather than judged. Then his defenses collapsed. He revealed a lifetime of hidden pain, including witnessing his grandfather's suicide and struggling with illiteracy. The story illustrates a central paradox of TEAM-CBT: People often change only after they feel completely accepted exactly as they are. What Dr. Burns Has Learned About Human Nature After decades of witnessing rapid recovery, Dr. Burns says one conclusion feels increasingly clear: Thoughts create emotions. Yet he also emphasizes a deeper question: Why do some people generate so many painful thoughts in the first place? His answer increasingly involves: Core values Motivation Human meaning Personal strengths that become exaggerated Understanding both cognition and motivation has become essential to creating lasting change. Key Takeaways Emotional healing does not require months or years. The brain is capable of extraordinarily rapid change. Thoughts—not events themselves—create emotions. Distorted thoughts fuel depression and anxiety. When distorted thoughts lose their credibility, emotions often change immediately. Measurement and feedback are critical to effective therapy. Motivation and personal values play a major role in emotional suffering. Acceptance often creates more change than persuasion. Recovery can happen much faster than most people realize. Resources Mentioned Feeling Good by David D. Burns Intensive Therapy at Feeling Good Institute The Psychology Today article: The Myth of Slow Healing The video demonstration of Terry's panic attack treatment Coming Next Episode Dr. Burns and Kevin continue the conversation with a fascinating discussion of: "Grandma's Snake Phobia: The Real Cause of Her Anxiety" You'll learn about the Hidden Emotion Model and discover why the apparent cause of anxiety is sometimes very different from the true cause. We'd Love Your Feedback Your feedback helps shape future episodes. Please take a moment to complete the brief listener survey linked here. It takes less than two minutes and provides invaluable guidance for improving the podcast and helping more people learn these powerful tools for recovery. Contact Information Kevin Cornelius, LMFT is a Level 5 Certified Master TEAM-CBT Therapist and Trainer and the Clinical Director of Feeling Good Institute--Silicon Valley. He specializes in the treatment of trauma, anxiety, depression, relationship problems and insomnia. You can reach Kevin at kevin@feelinggoodinstitute.com and visit his website at www.tools4change.me. You can reach Dr. Burns at david@feelinggood.com. Feeling down in these turbulent times? Take a ride on our Feeling Great app. Feeling Great feels wonderful! You owe it to yourself to feel GREAT! Give the Greatest Gifts of ALL--Love and Happiness!

Today in the business of podcasting:The Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting released its accords, giving the industry shared definitions for what counts as a podcast, a play, and an ad impression, plus a recommended hold-out group standard for proving incremental lift to advertisers.Patreon is cutting 93 jobs, roughly 20% of its workforce, as CEO Jack Conte points to organizational changes and market conditions rather than AI, saying the creator platform remains financially strong with more than 300,000 creators.YouTube posted $11.055 billion in Q2 advertising revenue, up 13% year over year and ahead of expectations, a figure that covers ad sales only and excludes YouTube Premium and YouTube Music subscriptions.Castro developer Dustin Bluck argues independent podcast apps have flatlined as a category while platforms like YouTube absorb podcasting's growth, and revives the case for indie apps receiving a share of industry revenue.Digiday weighs mass reach against hard-won audience trust, a debate that shapes how podcast and influencer advertising budgets get allocated between big-brand campaigns and niche creator targeting.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:The Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting released its accords, giving the industry shared definitions for what counts as a podcast, a play, and an ad impression, plus a recommended hold-out group standard for proving incremental lift to advertisers.Patreon is cutting 93 jobs, roughly 20% of its workforce, as CEO Jack Conte points to organizational changes and market conditions rather than AI, saying the creator platform remains financially strong with more than 300,000 creators.YouTube posted $11.055 billion in Q2 advertising revenue, up 13% year over year and ahead of expectations, a figure that covers ad sales only and excludes YouTube Premium and YouTube Music subscriptions.Castro developer Dustin Bluck argues independent podcast apps have flatlined as a category while platforms like YouTube absorb podcasting's growth, and revives the case for indie apps receiving a share of industry revenue.Digiday weighs mass reach against hard-won audience trust, a debate that shapes how podcast and influencer advertising budgets get allocated between big-brand campaigns and niche creator targeting.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

In episode 625, Mike K and James invite Danielle Perry and Tony Nickonchuk to the podcast to talk about the evidence around blood pressure measurement techniques. You might be surprised by what does and does not influence blood pressure measurements. Check out the podcast. Show Notes Tools For Practice Blood Pressure Measurement Technique: Meaningful mistakes […]

Cadent President Doug Rozen unpacks the hidden organizational silos and ad frequency nightmares plaguing modern video advertising at Cannes. Discover why shifting from audience persistence to contextual TV and total video planning is the ultimate fix for bruised brand performance. Key Highlights

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.In this episode, Elena and Rob break down why proving ad ROI is far harder than most marketers assume, even with millions of dollars and millions of customers. They also unpack why the Super Bowl might be the hardest ad buy of all to measure.Topics covered: [01:00] "The Unfavorable Economics of Measuring the Returns to Advertising"[02:00] Why the spirit of ROI gets abused[03:35] Why customer spending is too noisy to spot small ad effects[06:00] How targeting bias can inflate results by 30 times[07:00] Why the Super Bowl isn't a coupon, it's fame[09:00] Could anyone actually solve the ROI theorem?To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter. Resources: Lewis, R., & Rao, J. (2015). The unfavorable economics of measuring the returns to advertising. The Economic Journal, 125(585), 1–27.  Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Spotify is shifting from a traditional audio platform into a powerful multi-format ad engine driven by advanced data targeting and transparent, value-exchange sponsorship models. Through innovative automated tools and natural language API plugins, the streaming giant is eliminating traditional production barriers so brands of all sizes can easily deploy high-ROAS campaign creative. Key Highlights

84% of the time, buyers choose a brand that was already on their radar before they ever started shopping. So why do so many marketing budgets only chase the people ready to buy today?This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob talk with brand strategist and author James Hurman about his new book, Future Demand. James breaks down why brands hit a growth ceiling when they lean too hard on performance marketing. He also explains why feelings outlast facts in memory, and why that changes which channels deserve your investment. Marketers will leave with a clearer case for building demand among tomorrow's customers, not just converting today's.Topics covered:[05:00] Defining current demand versus future demand[07:00] Splitting budgets 50/50 between brand and performance[12:00] Why American marketers lag on brand-building principles[18:00] Measuring future demand through brand tracking[22:00] Why feelings outlast facts in memory[26:00] The case for creativity in earning attention[35:00] James's own future demand brand: Land RoverTo learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.Resources:Resources: 2021 WARC White Paper: https://www.warc.com/the-rise-of-digital-commerce 2026Future Demand Book: https://futuredemand.com/ James Hurman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshurman/Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

New guidelines come just before the AMP document. Sponsored by SpotsNow Search. Try Advanced Search for Podcast Advertisers. SpotsNow's new AI Search ranks all shows on audience fit and targeting, then allows you to see the performance potential in one click so you isolate the best shows quickly. Try SpotsNow Search Free https://podnews.net/cc/3591 Visit https://podnews.net/update/iab-v23-public for the story links in full, and to get our daily newsletter.

Today in the business of podcasting:The IAB Tech Lab has opened a 30-day public comment period on version 2.3 of its Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines, updating how downloads, audience, and ad delivery are counted across audio and video podcasts.Digiday breaks down five lessons from the World Cup on creator marketing, including how Unilever scaled a creator network to roughly 300,000 and how Michelob Ultra generated $11.5 million in earned media value with fewer than 350 creators.A Media, Built newsletter piece argues that employee-creator programs modeled on Starbucks' Green Apron Creators carry unpriced legal risk around copyright, overtime pay, and labor protections.AdExchanger talks to OpenX's chief privacy officer about the end of "actual knowledge" standards in children's privacy law, as new state rules push platforms toward a "should have known" test for underage users.To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Full show notes: https://bengreenfieldlife.com/signalspodcast In this episode with Tom Moss, founder and CEO of Vital Signals, you'll hear how a near-fatal hypertensive crisis during a family vacation became the founding moment for a device that may finally solve the problem of getting accurate blood pressure readings in real life without a cuff. Tom explains why blood pressure is the single most important indicator of long-term cardiovascular health and yet one of the least accurately measured, what the cuff gets wrong, and how Vital Signals achieved the scientific breakthrough that other companies failed to crack: accurate, calibration-free blood pressure monitoring from a ring. You'll also hear about the interplay between sleep, stress, hormones, sauna, cold, and blood pressure, what the Signal Ring's data is already revealing about human arterial health, and where this technology could go over the next decade. Tom Moss is the founder and CEO of Vital Signals, building at the intersection of heart health, technology, and everyday behavior. After his experience with undiagnosed hypertension, he became focused on why some of the most critical health signals remain so difficult and often stressful to understand. Pre-order your Signal Ring from LIFE Market and measure your blood pressure without the cuff. Ships October 2026. Episode Sponsors: Tecton Ketones: Bioidentical D-beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) for clean cognitive support, stable energy, and performance without the conversion step required by many ketone precursors. Visit tectonketones.com/ben and use code BEN for 16% off your first order. Dr. Murray Natural Products ThymoQuin: A clinically researched black seed oil formulated to support healthy cortisol levels and resilience to everyday stress. Visit doctormurray.com/ben and use code BEN25 for 25% off. LYMA Laser: An advanced at-home skin technology backed by peer-reviewed research showing it influenced 45 genes in human skin compared to just one for an equivalent LED device. Visit lyma.life and use code BEN10 for 10% off for a limited time. Qualia Stem Cell: A science-backed supplement that supports your body's natural repair system by enhancing stem cell function, taken just four days per month. Visit qualialife.com/boundless and use code BOUNDLESS for 15% off.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

God is never late. He works according to His perfect timing

Big deal on this episode as Collin Colburn, Vice President Commerce and Retail Media  with IAB joins the show to set us straight on what is happening with Retail Media and "Commerce Media". He enlightens us on the measurement controversy, how AI is going to change media and where the industry is going with privacy and much more regulations on advertising. The Always Off Brand is always a Laugh & Learn!    FEEDSPOT TOP 10 Retail Podcast! https://podcast.feedspot.com/retail_podcasts/?feedid=5770554&_src=f2_featured_email   Guest: Collin Colburn LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/collin-colburn/   QUICKFIRE Info:   Website: https://www.quickfirenow.com/ Email the Show: info@quickfirenow.com  Talk to us on Social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quickfireproductions Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quickfire__/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@quickfiremarketing LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/quickfire-productions-llc/about/ Sports podcast Scott has been doing since 2017, Scott & Tim Sports Show part of Somethin About Nothin:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/somethin-about-nothin/id1306950451 HOSTS: Summer Jubelirer has been in digital commerce and marketing for over 17 years. After spending many years working for digital and ecommerce agencies working with multi-million dollar brands and running teams of Account Managers, she is now the Amazon Manager at OLLY PBC.   LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/summerjubelirer/   Scott Ohsman has been working with brands for over 30 years in retail, online and has launched over 200 brands on Amazon. Mr. Ohsman has been managing brands on Amazon for 19yrs. Owning his own sales and marketing agency in the Pacific NW, is now VP of Digital Commerce for Quickfire LLC. Producer and Co-Host for the top 5 retail podcast, Always Off Brand. He also produces the Brain Driven Brands Podcast featuring leading Consumer Behaviorist Sarah Levinger. Scott has been a featured speaker at national trade shows and has developed distribution strategies for many top brands. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-ohsman-861196a6/   Hayley Brucker has been working in retail and with Amazon for years. Hayley has extensive experience in digital advertising, both seller and vendor central on Amazon. Hayley lives in North Carolina.  LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayley-brucker-1945bb229/   Huge thanks to Cytrus our show theme music "Office Party" available wherever you get your music. Check them out here: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cytrusmusic Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cytrusmusic/ Twitter https://twitter.com/cytrusmusic SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6VrNLN6Thj1iUMsiL4Yt5q?si=MeRsjqYfQiafl0f021kHwg APPLE MUSIC https://music.apple.com/us/artist/cytrus/1462321449   "Always Off Brand" is part of the Quickfire Podcast Network and produced by Quickfire LLC.  

Tymewear's co-founder and lead engineer, Arnar Larusson, discusses how his collaboration with Dr. Stephen Seiler and coach Espen Aareskjold has led to the continuing evolution of breathing measurement technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Carolyn sits down with Liam MacCormack, a fractional head of growth who's spent years in the weeds of B2B paid search, to unpack why the channel keeps burning B2B budgets and what to do about it.They get into the market forces making paid search harder than ever: rising CPCs, zero-click search, and agencies still optimizing like it's 2015. Then they go tactical on a real client scenario — a high-ACV company that's switched agencies multiple times and still can't make it work — and what that reveals about when a channel is worth fixing versus when it's just draining spend.Topics covered:Why "you need to spend more on impression share" is the most seductive upsell in paid search, and the one metric that actually tells you if it's trueThe profile of a company paid search works for, and the profile where it's a waste of moneyWhy paid search is a demand-capture channel, and what that means for how you budget itHow to know when to cut the channel, cut the budget in half, or let it run as a tertiary sourceWhy branded search is propping up most agency reporting, and the one question to ask to find outIf your paid search has been underperforming for quarters and the answer is always "give it more time," this one's worth your attention.-----------------------------------------------------

With her company on the brink of disaster, a leader hungrily tackles the art of delegation, learning three models on the way. The episode frames delegation as being primarily about getting your people ready.To get people ready, screen each delegated task against three filters:Skills & Will – do people need training or coaching?Control – who has it and how much?Measurement – what is each person's responsibility?Our latest Tool has all three filters. Download it for free here. Want to strengthen your ability to talk with people about their growth and development? Listen to these episodes:#262 – How to Grow Your People – December 2025#212 – How to Coach Your People – October 2021#132 – Coaching Your People – April 2015Ready to try the Responsibility Charting exercise with your team?Listen to the episode here.  Download the Charting tool here.     Curious about coaching? Reach out to Tom here.Our monthly email always has additional resources. Related Library Categories:LeadershipManagement SkillsCommunication SkillsRelated Episodes132 - Coaching Your People119 - Creating Devoted Followers254 How to Talk so People Understand You 155 - The Human Element123 - Leadership Through DelegationA transcript of the episode is here. We love hearing from you. You are the BEST AUDIENCE! The whole The Look & Sound of Leadership crew are grateful for you!