Podcasts about platforms

We discuss lawsuits against Meta, Roblox and others for allegedly addicting teens and exposing them to child predators.

Join On The Range Podcast hosts Rick Hogg of War HOGG Tactical and Mark Kelley of Kelley Defense live from the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits for an inside look at the firearms industry with special guest Jahred Gamez of SDS Arms. Recorded on the show floor during our visit to the NRA Annual Meeting, this episode covers SDS Arms' multi-brand strategy, feature-rich firearms at aggressive price points, and what serious shooters should know about platforms from Military Armament Corp, Tokarev USA, Inglis MFG, and Spandau Arms—from pistols and PCC-style designs to hunting shotguns and range-ready gear. Join the On The Range Podcast CREW at otrcrew.com for exclusive training videos, bonus content, and support the show. CREW members get members-only firearms training, extra episodes, live Q&As with Rick and Mark, early access, and a private community built for law enforcement, military, and responsibly armed citizens who want to be 1% better every day. Rick and Mark bring more than 60 years of combined Special Operations, combat, and law enforcement experience to a practical conversation on product value, training mindset, industry trends, and how to choose reliable firearms without overpaying. Whether you are a concealed carrier, hunter, instructor, or new shooter walking the NRA exhibit hall, this episode delivers clear takeaways you can use on the range.Train hard. Stay safe. See you On The Range. Watch & follow On The Range Podcast | Join the CREW | War HOGG Tactical | Kelley Defense | SDS Arms | NRA Annual Meetings | NRA | Jahred Gamez / Okayest Shooter Keywords: On The Range Podcast, Rick Hogg, Mark Kelley, War HOGG Tactical, Kelley Defense, Jahred Gamez, SDS Arms, NRA Annual Meeting, NRAAM, NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits, firearms training podcast, Second Amendment, pistols, shotguns, Military Armament Corp, MAC firearms, Tokarev USA, Inglis, Spandau Arms, firearms industry, gun show Houston, law enforcement training, responsibly armed citizens, 1% Better Everyday, OTR CREW

EP 224: We met Ron and Kris through the social media/podcast realm and knew these guys were legit! Positive energy flows from these guys with all of the collaborative work they do with many outdoor and local PA/MD brands. They are all about community and lifting up one another. They also do a little hunting and what may seem like more wild game cooking/eating! Tune in for the inside joke! Enjoy!  IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THE SHOW, CHECK OUT OUR PATREON! The Whitetail Distraction Podcast is creating Podcasts and Videos | Patreon   Skre Gear is back!! You know the routine, high-quality products with a lifetime warranty at an affordable cost! Use discount code WDP for 15% off!! Check their growing lineup at www.skregear.com To complement our broadhead usage - check out VPA's full lineup of products at www.vparchery.com use discount code WDP for 10% off! You have to see their project at www.50forged.com Our newest partner is Hunt Arsenal!! Platforms, saddles, packs and more! They are taking the mobile hunting space by storm! Give them a serious consideration at https://huntarsenal.com/ One of the best seed companies in the game has agreed to offer 10% off! Go check out Back Forty Seed Co. and use code DISTRACTION10. https://backfortyseedco.com Our good buddy Austin Hunter has dropped an awesome lineup of scent cover and lures! Check out Cutover Outdoors!! He has fresh earth and southern pine scents available along with scrape lure and doe in heat!!   Like this episode? Head over to iTunes and give us a 5-star rating and leave a review. Not hearing what you like, or just simply have suggestions? Send us an email at TheWhitetailDistractionPodcast@gmail.com   Also, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @TheWhitetailDistractionPodcast, Twitter @TheWDPodcast and TikTok @TheWhitetailDistraction. The Distraction is Real!

Steven Forth is a principal at PatternMind and co-author of Pricing for the Agent Economy, with deep expertise in pricing strategy, scenario planning, and the emerging agent economy.  In this episode, he brings a different way of thinking about AI pricing: instead of trying to predict one future, build strategies that can survive several possible futures. Mark challenges Steven throughout the conversation, particularly around value attribution and credit pricing, creating a fascinating debate about whether outcome-based pricing is truly scalable, whether credits will survive, and what AI buyers may demand next.   Why You Have to Check Out Today's Podcast: Learn how scenario planning can help you prepare for multiple AI pricing futures instead of betting on one forecast. Discover how value attribution and credit adoption create four possible paths for AI pricing—and what each means for your business. Understand why credits, outcome-based pricing, and fungibility could reshape how buyers and vendors exchange value in the agent economy.   "Rather than thinking about, how are you going to predict what's going to happen? It's, what are the early indicators? What are the early warning system you can put in place?"  — Steven Forth   Topics Covered: 01:15 – Why Forecasting Isn't Enough for AI Pricing. Steven explains why traditional linear forecasts assume one future while scenario planning prepares for multiple possible futures—especially when major uncertainties could fundamentally change the market. 04:00 – The Critical Uncertainties You Need to Track. Learn why identifying uncertainties isn't enough—you need to watch for early evidence and warning signals showing which future is beginning to emerge. 05:30 – What COVID Taught Steven About Agile Scenario Planning. Steven shares how the pandemic exposed the limits of traditional scenario planning and led to a faster approach focused on cycling through critical uncertainties as conditions change. 08:00 – Why AI Makes Agile Scenario Planning More Important. With generative AI moving rapidly and no one knowing exactly how the market will evolve, Steven explains why businesses need to remain open to a wider range of possible futures. 09:30 – Will AI Software Still Be Differentiated? Steven explores whether generative AI will wash out software differentiation and whether large language models themselves will eventually converge. 12:00 – The Credit Fungibility Question. Discover why buyers may want credits that work across ecosystems while platform companies could benefit from making credits transferable—and why smaller vendors may resist. 14:00 – Why Buyers, Platforms, and Niche Vendors Want Different Things. Steven breaks down the competing incentives of buyers, ecosystem platforms, and focused vendors and explains why the future of credits may depend on which group has the most power. 16:00 – The 4 Possible Futures for AI Pricing. Steven introduces the two critical uncertainties—value attribution and credit adoption—and shows how combining them creates four distinct pricing futures. 18:00 – From "Blind Faith Credits" to the Outcome Rush. Explore what happens when buyers resist credits and value attribution remains difficult versus a future where outcome-based pricing becomes easier and more scalable. 20:00 – What Niche Vendors Should Do in Each Scenario. Steven explains how pricing strategy changes depending on which future emerges—and why companies that can move fastest toward outcome-based pricing could dominate their markets. 22:00 – The Three Hurdles to Outcome-Based Pricing. Learn why outcome pricing requires agreement on the outcome, the ability to determine who contributed to the value, and enough predictability to make the economics work. 24:00 – Mark Challenges the Value Attribution Problem. Mark argues that pricing metrics already solve one form of attribution, while Steven clarifies the harder question: who actually contributed to the economic value created for the buyer? 26:00 – Can AI Actually Claim the Economic Outcome? The conversation explores why customer support resolution is a promising niche case for outcome pricing—but why multi-agent value attribution remains an open question. 28:00 – Why Credits Are Really a Pricing Currency. Mark argues that credits function like a company's internal currency, while Steven points out that credits can support multiple pricing metrics and flexible consumption. 30:00 – Will Buyers Eventually Reject Credits? Mark challenges whether buyers actually want credits, while Steven suggests the more important question may be which vendors figure out how to move beyond them first. 32:00 – The Pricing Advice AI Leaders Need in 2026. Steven's final advice: understand how your buyers are using AI to make purchasing decisions—or risk making critical pricing mistakes.   Key Takeaways: "The future is not set. And that there is more than one possible future. And that different futures could emerge in different parts of the market." — Steven Forth "We have to be open to a fairly wide range of different futures and agile scenario planning I think is a better way to do that." — Steven Forth "If your strategy is only viable on one scenario, you're accepting a lot of risk into your organization that you don't need to." — Steven Forth   People / Resources Mentioned: Michael Mansard & Wolfgang Ulaga — Steven's co-authors on Pricing for the Agent Economy. Shell — Mentioned in Steven's discussion of traditional scenario planning. Rotterdam — Steven references the city's scenario-planning approach, where major infrastructure investments were designed to remain viable across multiple scenarios. Lovable & Perplexity — Examples of companies using credit-based pricing and the different ways buyers have responded to those models. Salesforce, SAP, Oracle & Microsoft — Discussed as ecosystem platforms that may have incentives to make credits fungible within their ecosystems. Scenarios for Pricing in the Agent Economy — Steven's Substack article that provides the framework discussed in this episode.   Connect with Steven Forth: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenforth/  Substack: Search for Steven Forth on Substack https://pricinginnovation.substack.com/  for his writing on pricing, scenario planning, and the agent economy. Email: steven@pattermind.studio   Connect with Mark Stiving: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/ Email: mark@impactpricing.com  

What does it truly mean to make an impact? A women's basketball coach at Texas A&M offered a simple but powerful distinction: success is what happens to you, while impact is what happens because of you. Numbers 8, set against the backdrop of the Israelites preparing to journey through the wilderness, gives us four clear attributes of a person who makes a lasting difference. God was literally at the center of the Israelite camp, and that arrangement was intentional. When He is at the center of our lives, everything else finds its proper place.The four attributes are ears that hear the Lord, hands that build a team, a heart that loves the presence of God, and a soul that shines while dented. Hearing God means opening His Word with genuine expectancy, not just asking Him to bless our existing plans but actually listening for His. Building a team means delegating real trust and responsibility to others, whether in ministry, marriage, or family life. Loving His presence means creating space to actually be with God, not just attending church or reading a verse occasionally, but slowing down enough to connect deeply. And shining while dented means allowing the painful, hammered seasons of life to shape us into purposeful instruments rather than broken ones.Jesus modeled all four of these attributes perfectly. He listened constantly to His Father, built a team of disciples, withdrew regularly to pray, and shined most brilliantly while suffering on the cross. Because of it, He became the most impactful person who ever walked the earth. Impact is not reserved for pastors or missionaries or people with large platforms. It belongs to anyone willing to live with ears open, hands extended, a heart pursuing His presence, and a soul that keeps shining even when life has left its marks.

In today's podcast episode, we discuss why the next few years will be so important and industry-defining for AI, why ChatGPT has driven stronger adoption than highly recognizable competitors like Meta AI and Copilot, and why Claude is best at converting users into paid subscribers.   Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, along with Principal Analyst Nate Elliott and Analyst Grace Harmon. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube or Spotify.   Reports mentioned in this episode: https://content-na1.emarketer.com/which-ai-platforms-are-winning-in-2026?_gl=1   Get more insights like these with our free, industry-leading newsletters covering advertising, marketing, and commerce. Sign up at emarketer.com/newsletters   Purchase tickets and register for EMARKETER's The Future of Digital 2026 Summit here: https://www.emarketer.com/events/summit/2026-future-of-digital/?utm_source=events_page Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/ For sponsorship opportunities contact us: advertising@emarketer.com For more information visit: https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/ Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com For a transcript of this episode click here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-ai-platforms-race-curious-customer-behind-numbers © 2026 EMARKETER   Awin is the all-in-one platform for smarter partner marketing. With award-winning technology, expert support and a global network of 1 million partners, Awin helps brands discover, manage and scale high-performing partnerships that drive measurable growth. Learn more.

Team PCP Arrests, Boston Scientific Shipping Halt, FBI Disrupts Chinese Hacking, CISA Cuts Scrutinized, and AI Email Summarizers Poisoned Host David Shipley covers five cybersecurity stories: Australian police, working with the FBI, arrested and charged two alleged core members of Team PCP in connection with a long-running software supply chain campaign that compromised tools like Trivy, Kiks, and LightLLM, potentially affecting over 1,000 organizations and exposing large volumes of credentials and data. Boston Scientific disclosed a cyberattack that caused network outages and disrupted global operations, halting its ability to ship devices like pacemakers and stents, with recovery expected to take weeks.  The U.S. Justice Department disrupted QScan and Q2Router, platforms tied to China-linked QTFY, used to proxy intrusions against U.S. agencies and an election system. House Democrats asked GAO to assess how major workforce cuts have impacted CISA. Forcepoint demonstrated invisible-text prompt injection that fooled an AI email summarizer into fabricating invoice details. 00:00 Headlines Overview 00:29 Team PCP Arrests 02:11 Krebs Investigation 03:06 Boston Scientific Disruption 04:50 Podcast Reviews Thanks 05:07 FBI Disrupts QTFY Tools 05:50 How QScan Pipeline Worked 07:27 CISA Workforce Cuts 08:53 Invisible Text AI Poisoning 10:27 Wrap Up And Teaser

Lisa Somers shares her journey from psychology to Amazon selling, how she and her brother built a successful online education business, and innovativelying and operations. Discover practical strategies for community building, content creation, and leveraging new platforms like Whatnot.Key Points:—Journey from psychology to Amazon selling—Building a successful online education business—Using AI for marketing and content creation—Community building and engagement strategies—Webinar and partnership marketing tactics—Adapting to AI trends in entrepreneurship—Platforms like Whatnot for selling and marketing—Balancing automation with human connectionLearn how to build an online business journey from Amazon sales to coaching. Gain practical advice on managing virtual teams effectively.Lisa Somers shares her decade of experience moving from Amazon sales to full-time entrepreneurship coaching. This conversation breaks down the reality of scaling a business while working with remote staff across different time zones. If you are struggling with the transition from solo entrepreneur to team leader, this breakdown offers clear, actionable guidance.We also discuss the essential systems needed for maintaining high levels of customer engagement in today's crowded digital marketplace. Effective managing virtual teams requires more than just communication tools; it demands a focus on loyalty and consistent strategy. By implementing these methods, you can improve your operational efficiency and long-term client retention.Subscribe for weekly business strategy breakdowns, and comment below with your biggest challenge when scaling your remote team.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Lisa's background02:51 Getting started in Amazon and business partnership04:07 Transition from psychology to entrepreneurship06:15 The role of AI in marketing and community building08:23 Hosting communities and communication channels10:17 Lead generation and webinar strategies12:46 Expanding product offers and diversifying income streams13:13 The evolution of marketing channels and AI's impact15:46 Email marketing approach and frequency18:36 Hosting webinars and partnership collaborations20:41 Practical AI applications in daily business24:36 AI tools for offer and content creation28:42 Balancing automation with human touch34:32 Living in Barcelona and travel experiences37:05 Favorite travel destinations and local tips38:48 Closing remarks and gratitude

Send us Fan MailA simple donor survey is the closest thing you will get to reading your supporters' minds, yet the answers you get are rarely what you expectDonors are sitting on insights most nonprofits never think to look for. Cara Augspurger, our field correspondent and CEO of Grace Care Center Foundation, joins Jena Lynch to share what happened when her team surveyed hundreds of donors ahead of Giving Season, and what the answers revealed about messaging, trust, and the surprising link between volunteering and giving.And brace yourself - your best donors may not understand your organization as well as you think.What You'll LearnHow to build and segment a short, anonymous donor surveyWhy loyal donors can still misunderstand your programsHow the volunteer experience shapes donor trustFour steps to launch a donor survey before year-endResources and LinksConsolidate today's framework with a helpful in-depth Donorbox blog: Surveying Your Donors, How to Do It Right - you can find it hereAbout the HostsCara Augspurger has been a nonprofit leader and fundraiser since 1996. As President and CEO of Grace Care Center Foundation and a founding board member, she brings decades of hands-on experience to conversations spanning annual fundraising, capital campaigns, donor stewardship, and relationship building. A Certified Fund-Raising Executive (CFRE) and University of Illinois graduate, Cara previously served as a fundraising coach at Donorbox, where she helped nonprofits connect the dots between strategy and results.Jena Lynch, Head of Community Engagement at Donorbox, specialises in donor stewardship, retention, and peer-to-peer fundraising. She works closely with nonprofit teams to strengthen donor relationships and build practical systems that support long-term growth. As the anchor of The Nonprofit Podcast, she keeps strategy clear, steady, and actionable.Chapters00:00 – Introduction: Why Donor Surveys Matter01:15 – Timing Your Survey Before the Fall Push03:08 – Survey Mechanics: Length, Platforms, and Subject Lines06:27 – Key Questions to Include in Your Survey08:23 – How Well Do Donors Know Your Programs?12:27 – Where Volunteering Meets Giving16:35 – The Power of One Open Question19:59 – 4 Action Steps to Launch Your Donor Survey22:42 – Wrap-Up & Final ThoughtsAbout DonorboxDonorbox is a trusted online and on-location fundraising platform that helps nonprofits raise more. With easy-to-use donation forms, powerful donor management tools, and features designed to grow recurring giving, we have helped 100,000-plus organizations process more than $4 billion in donations worldwide.Enjoying the show? Subscribe for more practical fundraising strategies, leadership insights, and tools to help your nonprofit grow sustainably.The information provided in this series is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Please consult with a professional advisor for specific guidance.Support the show

Great guests fill out the show today, including Dr. Oz, on Trump's war against prescription drug prices, and Margot Cleveland, Senior Legal Correspondent at the Federalist on the Supreme Court's ruling for Trump on mail-in-ballots.

Play No Games is a space for real conversations and perspective. Each episode blends authenticity and insight creating room for laughter, clarity, and growth as we unpack what's happening in culture and in ourselves._____________________________

Dave speaks to Michael Shackelford from Genrupt, to discuss the newest AI video model from ByteDance. They dive into Seedance 2.5, how they compare against other AI models, and how small businesses can create high-quality videos efficiently. They dive into the best practices for e-commerce businesses, the several ways users can leverage Seedance 2.5 and post-production tips. Thinking about taking some risk off the table? Or are you looking at taking an extended break from e-commerce in general? Know what your e-commerce business is worth with Quiet Light Brokerage. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction to Seed Dance 2.5 and its significance 02:07 - The breakthrough capabilities of ByteDance's Seed Dance 2.5 04:10 - Differences between Seed Dance 2.0 and 2.5 05:18 - Creating seamless 30-second videos with AI prompts 07:35 - Platforms and tools for accessing Seed Dance 2.5 09:24 - Addressing privacy concerns with Chinese AI models 11:38 - Cost and efficiency of AI video generation 13:41 - Prompting strategies for high-quality AI videos 16:08 - Using video references to improve AI output 19:13 - Structuring prompts for effective AI video creation 22:02 - Leveraging YouTube and TikTok videos as references 24:23 - Workflows for AI video production and post-production tips 33:57 - Services offered by GenRup for AI video creation Resources Quiet Light Brokerage The Exitpreneur GenRupt GenRupt Agency Jungle Scout Higgsfield - one of the platforms mentioned that offers Seed Dance CapCut - another platform mentioned that offers Seed Dance Dreamina - ByteDance's own platform mentioned for using Seed Dance Google Omni - Google's video editing model Suno - AI-generated music platform As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, leave a comment down below if you're interested. Don't forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Thanks for listening! Until next time, happy selling!

Vivienne Wagner is the Founder and CEO of Houndstooth Media Group, a boutique digital marketing agency helping mid-sized businesses turn their websites into revenue-driving assets through strategic SEO and AI-driven optimization. Known for making complex marketing concepts clear and actionable, Vivienne advises business leaders on how to position their companies to be found by both human audiences and emerging AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. Her approach increases organic visibility, drives qualified traffic, and reduces reliance on paid ads, enabling businesses to scale more sustainably. Through her SEO & AI Optimization Audit, she helps companies uncover missed opportunities, identify weaknesses, and build a clear roadmap for competing in today's evolving search landscape.

EP 223: We had return guest of the show, Mike Fennell on the pod porch to talk about his incredibly successful season! Mike shoots the bare bow division in IBO competition. Listen in to hear about all of the success this year! Enjoy!  IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THE SHOW, CHECK OUT OUR PATREON! The Whitetail Distraction Podcast is creating Podcasts and Videos | Patreon   Skre Gear is back!! You know the routine, high quality products with a lifetime warranty at an affordable cost! Use discount code WDP for 15% off!! Check their growing lineup at www.skregear.com To complement our broadhead usage - check out VPA's full lineup of products at www.vparchery.com use discount code WDP for 10% off! You have to see their project at www.50forged.com Our newest partner is Hunt Arsenal!! Platforms, saddles, packs and more! They are taking the mobile hunting space by storm! Give them a serious consideration at https://huntarsenal.com/ One of the best seed companies in the game has agreed to offer 10% off! Go check out Back Forty Seed Co. and use code DISTRACTION10. https://backfortyseedco.com Our good buddy Austin Hunter has dropped an awesome lineup of scent cover and lures! Check out Cutover Outdoors!! If you want some badass hybrid broadheads, head over to VIP's website: https://www.viparchery.com or give Matt and Cindy Futtere a call and tell them the Whitetail Distraction Podcast boys sent you. They are truly some of the best people in the business! The Combat Veteran will cause major damage to the intended target as combat veterans are trained to do!    Like this episode? Head over to iTunes and give us a 5-star rating and leave a review. Not hearing what you like, or just simply have suggestions? Send us an email at TheWhitetailDistractionPodcast@gmail.com   Also, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @TheWhitetailDistractionPodcast, Twitter @TheWDPodcast and TikTok @TheWhitetailDistraction. The Distraction is Real!

You will die. Your data will not.The afterlife of our information is a recent phenomenon, and some of the companies with the most to sort through are still just figuring it out.As far back as 2007, Facebook was forced to reckon with mass grief when users asked the company to maintain the profile pages of the 32 victims killed by a school shooter at Virginia Tech that year. Those pages became de facto memorials for loved ones to fill with comments, and today, memorialization has become a full-fledged feature on both Facebook and Instagram. Platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn—launched with likely zero strategy for a user's death—now have procedures for next-of-kin to request that a deceased person's account be deactivated.Now, think about all the other ways your data can linger after death.Every year, people accumulate more and digital stuff—email addresses, social media profiles, contact lists, domain names, subscription services, online banking accounts, and the phones, laptops, and tablets that hold it all—and every year, as that digital stuff accumulates, it compounds into ever more problems for someone else to sort out. Here, a small industry of digital estate planners have cropped up, helping families retrieve and preserve anything valuable, no matter how digital, from Spotify playlists, to poignant social media posts that mattered, to the photos stored on a phone.And where retrieval fails, artificial intelligence has offered an attempt at comfort. The chatbot service Replika launched in 2015 after its founder uploaded a dead friend's text messages. HereAfter AI reportedly let users upload voice recordings to power a chatbot that sounded and spoke like the deceased. Film studios have pursued the same idea for entertainment, seeking to portray deceased actors in future films.Surprisingly, almost none of this activity is governed by law, said Tamara Kneese, author of the 2023 book “Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond.”“By and large, there is not a great legal mechanism for protecting the privacy rights of the dead,” said Kneese. “It may not be just that a grieving loved one decides to use a bunch of your data from all of your podcasts to create a chatbot to simulate interacting with you after you're dead, but it may be that a company chooses, in some way, to use an aspect of your personality, of your demeanor, of your voice, of your likeness after your death without anyone really being aware.”Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with Kneese—Senior Research Scientist at Partnership on AI—about who owns a person's data after they die, why every platform has invented its own private policy for the dead, and how the technology built to keep the dead close can vanish just as suddenly as they did.Or worse yet, as Kneese warned for those relying heavily on certain technologies in grief:“The company gets sold to someone else or disappears, goes bankrupt, and you no longer have that outlet or place for interaction when you're mourning another time.”Tune in today.You can also find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and whatever preferred podcast platform you use.For all our cybersecurity coverage, visit Malwarebytes Labs at malwarebytes.com/blog.Show notes and credits:Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)Further reading:Fartein Hauan Nilsen, “Caring for the Algorithm: Care, Love, and the Relational Personhood of Chatbots,” Somatosphere, February 26, 2026Fartein Hauan Nilsen, “Therapeutic ideology and AI personhood: an anthropological inquiry into AI companionship,” a chapter from “Handbook on Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence,” Edward Elgar Publishing, July 21, 2026University of Birmingham, “New Model Rules mark meaningful step towards digital inheritance laws,” July 16, 2026Edina Harbinja, “Governing Digital Immortality: Artificial Intelligence, Deadbots and the Law,” Edward Elgar Publishing, to be published September 2026Lilian Edwards and Edina Harbinja, “Protecting Post-Mortem Privacy: Reconsidering the Privacy Interests of the Deceased in a Digital World,” May 2013, revised November 2013Lilian Edwards, Edina Harbinja, and Marisa McVey, “Governing Ghostbots,” Computer Law & Security Review, November 2023SAG-AFTRA, “SAG-AFTRA Statement on Today's Passing of California Assembly Bill 1836,” August 31, 2024Listen up—Malwarebytes doesn't just talk cybersecurity, we provide it.Protect yourself from online attacks that threaten your identity, your files, your system, and your financial well-being with our exclusive offer for Malwarebytes Premium for Lock and Code listeners.

The episode highlights the structural shift toward platform consolidation in security services, illustrated by Coro's unified security platform and its positioning for lean IT teams and MSPs. The mechanism involves the bundling of diverse security tools—email protection, endpoint detection and response (EDR), DLP, security awareness, backup, and cloud app integrations—into a single, managed service. This reduces the operational overhead associated with managing multiple vendors, products, and contracts, a trend now pursued by both established enterprise providers and emergent channel-focused companies. The most significant development cited is Coro's integration of AI and automation within its platform, claiming, according to the company, that 92% to 96% of alert tickets generated by security modules are closed automatically by machine intelligence, depending on the month. The conversational AI integrations such as ChatGPT and Claude are presented as front-end layers through which practitioners can execute mundane security tasks—ticket management, host isolation, incident correlation—without direct console interaction. The claim of offloading 95% of workloads to automation is specified as relating to ticket processing volume, as clarified in the discussion. Supporting evidence centers on the operational layering of AI, with commentary on new risk profiles introduced by integrating large language models (LLMs) into security workflows. Concerns raised include rising exposure to prompt injection, shadow AI (untracked AI usage by end users), and unmanaged cost escalation linked to token-based billing models for third-party AI platforms. Coro's approach distinguishes between AI-related costs incurred internally (absorbed by the vendor) and those incurred when practitioners interact with external AI tools (borne by the MSP or their clients). The need for visibility into AI usage and structured user training is highlighted as a risk mitigation measure. Operationally, MSPs and IT providers face both increased efficiency and new complexity. Vendor dependency consolidates, reducing contract sprawl and administrative burden but raising questions about single-point-of-failure and stack lock-in. Billing risk shifts with AI consumption models, introducing liability for unexpected operational cost surges if token limits are not enforced. The requirement for effective governance intensifies as traditional security controls are extended by AI-managed processes and the detection of unauthorized AI activity becomes part of standard oversight. Providers are advised to scrutinize stack overlap, evaluate whether platform consolidation minimizes genuine operational friction, and remain cautious about over-relying on automated outcomes without maintaining direct accountability. Supported by: Pax8Proofpoint  

On Today's Menu on Marsha's Plate This week we talk about a resurfacing conversation about womanhood from Drew Afualo Listen on all streaming Platforms https://pod.link/1293033444 Here we talk about cultural events, entertainment news, and gender politics from a Black Trans feminist lens. This is Diamond Stylz archival work that preserves the histories, experiences, and contributions of a marginalized community that has been historically erased, overlooked, or misrepresented. We focus on people who identitfy as Black, trans, gay, or woman...or any combination of all of them. We have merch as well if you wanna support Marsha's Plate https://teespring.com/stores/marshasplate Reading Recommendations https://bookshop.org/shop/DiamondStylz #marshasplate #girlslikeus #boyslikeus #transgender #podcast #podsincolor #podernfamily #transisbeautiful #houston #lgbt #transmen #transwomen #blackfeminism #trans101 #trans #blacktranswomen #blacktransmen #houstonpride #indiepodcast #blacktranslivesmatter #lgbtqia #lgbtq #genderidentity #pride #blackgirlmagic #blackboyjoy #podcast

Episode 265: Ryan Fuller started questioning online reviews after two terrible stays at highly-rated vacation rentals. Both had 4.9-star ratings. After Ryan posted negative reviews, the people behind each listing independently offered him £200 to change his review to five stars.  "It was disappointing," he said, "that clearly many people took them up on this offer." On the flip side, the experience explained something that had been bothering him for a while: Places with thousands of positive reviews could still turn out to be terrible. So Ryan, founder of Larrocos Labs and a serial entrepreneur, decided to investigate.  He built an AI system that has now analyzed hundreds of thousands of reviews covering roughly 22,000 restaurants. One example of what he found: In a focused analysis of 4,000 restaurants, about 70% showed at least one unusual review pattern. Some had sudden bursts of five-star reviews. He found one case in which roughly 100 reviews had been submitted within a two-minute period. Others featured suspiciously similar language, unusual concentrations of reviews mentioning particular employees, or reviewers whose histories raised questions about their credibility. None of that proves a review is fake. As Ryan explains, the goal is not to establish absolute truth, but to determine how much confidence we should place in what we are seeing. Ryan discusses what this means for consumers, platforms, and anyone relying on AI-generated information. He also explores an alternative: systems that show their work, identify potential sources of distortion, and tell us how confident they are rather than presenting uncertain conclusions as facts. He sums it up well: "I think we're living in a world where understanding what is real or what is true is going to become one of the most difficult problems for humans to deal with." Guest: Ryan Fuller, Founder, Larracos Labs  Host: Rob Markey, Partner, Bain & Company Give us feedback: Customer Confidential Podcast Feedback Send us a note: Contact Rob Timestamped Topics 00:39 – How two 4.9-star vacation rentals led Ryan to question online reviews 03:11 – Why hours spent researching restaurants became a problem worth solving 04:49 – Using AI to automate the process of assessing restaurant reviews 05:26 – Building a database of 22,000 restaurants in six months with 300 lines of code 06:15 – Finding unusual review patterns across 70% of a 4,000-restaurant dataset 07:20 – Identifying sudden clusters of ~100 reviews for one restaurant 08:10 – Treating suspicious review activity as a question of confidence 08:40 – Using repeated staff names and customer incentives as review signals 09:12 – Detecting reviews that describe offers of money for positive ratings 11:05 – Assessing reviewer credibility through history, photos, and detail 12:11 – Building an AI product that checks authenticity and extracts review data 13:01 – Evaluating restaurant experiences across 36 distinct dimensions Notable Quotes 18:00 "I think with AI, it's like rocket fuel, where things can be done at incredible scale and with high degrees of believability in ways that were never true before. I think we're living in a world where understanding what is real or what is true will become one of the most difficult problems for humans to deal with on even just everyday stuff like picking a restaurant." 26:00 "Platforms that start to be more transparent about sources and degree of confidence and potential risks for any information they're providing will become more popular." 28:00 "It's almost just like an arms race. There's no sudden advance in tech or approach that's gonna solve the problem. I'm just pontificating here; I don't have good answers, but I do think this is maybe the problem of our time." 33:00 "The devious thing about AI is that it sounds so credible; we're going through a transitional phase where we're not as well attuned to what the tells are when confidence isn't there." 37:00 "I always try to show the work. One thing we do is we have a letter grade that we assign each restaurant for overall quality. So, it can be an A, a B-plus, whatever. And the very first thing underneath the score, the overall letter, is why it got a B-plus." Additional Resources Read Ryan Fuller's analysis of unusual patterns and manipulation in London restaurant reviews: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ryantfuller_london-ai-share-7399118135099973633-Iquu/ See Ryan Fuller's restaurant data visualizations and discussion of how platform algorithms shape restaurant visibility: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ryantfuller_datavisualization-londonlife-urbananalytics-ugcPost-7404913381431844864-cM7l/ Here's the article referenced about how a man created his own top-rated Dulwich restaurant: I Made My Shed the Top Restaurant on TripAdvisor: https://www.vice.com/en/article/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor/

You spend countless hours perfecting your work, yet your posts keep tumbling into a sea of silent scrollers and soul-crushing algorithms.    In this episode, our podcast marketing specialist, Lina, joins me to unlock the exact digital strategy we used to transform a modest following into a devoted community of over eleven thousand supporters.    Hit play right now to steal our exact marketing blueprint and turn passive scrollers into lifelong champions of your creative journey.    Chapters 00:00  Best Platforms for Different Types of Creatives 01:45  How Artists Should Engage Online 03:08  Spotting AI vs. True Authenticity 03:46  Building an Audience: Instagram to Substack Strategy 05:50  Essential Tips for Standing Out Online 08:24  Sponsor Message: iCode 08:52  YouTube and Multi-Platform Distribution 09:46 Must-Have Tools for Social Media Growth 11:44  Major Social Media Mistakes to Avoid 13:35  Building Genuine Relationships with Your Audience 16:43  Wrapping Up with Lina Listen to the show on your favorite streaming platform! Apple Podcast: http://bit.ly/4fcopgQSpotify: http://bit.ly/4fdkiBs Support the Show Website: http://www.martineseverin.comFollow on Instagram: @martine.severin | @thisishowwecreate_ Subscribe to the Newsletter: http://www.martineseverin.substack.com   This is How We Create is produced by Martine Severin. This episode was edited by Daniel Espinosa. Podcast show art is designed by Violetta Encarnación. Music by Timothy Infinite.   Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts Leave a review Follow us on social media Share with fellow creatives  

HOUR 3: If META is offering their platforms to children, should they be held accountable for when things go bad? full 2191 Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:00:00 +0000 pe2rD6d7FqGJhER1XpX5lvHxCjaZkHZj news The Dana & Parks Podcast news HOUR 3: If META is offering their platforms to children, should they be held accountable for when things go bad? You wanted it... Now here it is! Listen to each hour of the Dana & Parks Show whenever and wherever you want! © 2025 Audacy, Inc. News

Vice President of Marketing at HEI Hotels & Resorts, Emma Shaybani, joins the Suite Spot to discuss the upcoming 2026 Digital Travel Summit taking place in Orlando, Florida on September 28-29 and how the HEI brand is leveraging social media, artificial intelligence, technology, and online guest feedback to better shape and optimize the traveler journey.  Tune in now and the Suite Spot looks forward to seeing you at the conference next month! Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, as always, Ryan Embree. Very excited for our next guest in an edition of our TMG Hospitality Trailbazer series to set the table. This is that series again with conversations with people, organizations, and companies within the hospitality industry that are paving a path forward. I’m so excited for our next guest. And it also really seconds as a preview for the Digital Travel Summit happening in Orlando in September. My guest, this will be the first of a few times that we’re gonna be together. Emma Shaybani, VP of Marketing at HEI Hotels and Resorts. Emma, thank you so much for joining me on The Suite Spot. Emma Shaybani: Thank you for having me. Ryan Embree: Yeah, we’re excited. So we’re gonna talk about that Digital Travel Summit event. We were talking off camera. It’s a powerhouse event. Can’t wait. Some big players within the travel industry gonna be there. But before we do that, we’d love to introduce you to our Suite Spot audience. Maybe love learning about everybody’s kinda hospitality journey that led you to your role over there at HEI Hotel and Resorts. Emma Shaybani: Yeah, it’s a bit of an unconventional journey, I suppose. So, I moved from England, and I moved from England to Connecticut, and I was really looking for my next opportunity. I’d not worked in hospitality before. I’d worked actually for CBS back in London. I had a couple of my own businesses, so hotels weren’t necessarily part of my original plan. But I, I joined HEI actually in a reputation management role. And I think at the time, they just knew that they needed somebody to look after reputation management, but they weren’t exactly sure what I would be doing. So it started off really as me in a room responding to guest reviews. So it, it didn’t take too long for us to all realize that probably wasn’t the best use of my time. So I kinda went to my boss at the time, Brian, with a plan and I was like, “Hey, you know, it’s hard for me to, to respond to these reviews when I’m not at the property. I don’t know what’s happened. You know, really, we should empower the teams at the hotels to be responding to these reviews. And, you know, really, I can be there as kind of a, you know, backup support and making sure that we are responding.” Because, you know, the hotel teams know the guest experience the best. And I was really focusing then on monitoring the trends, opportunities, and that’s when I noticed that the same thing was kind of happening with social media. We had all these accounts. They weren’t necessarily active. So we took this kind of a similar approach with social media. And then from there, the role just kind of kept evolving. So every time we kind of solved one challenge, we’d notice something else that we could then tackle. Back then, we had 20-27 hotels, I think it was. And now today we’ve grown the team. There’s quite a few of us now, over 100 hotels, multiple brands. So it’s been pretty incredible, honestly, to, to grow alongside the company. And I remember back in the day, my biggest concern was trying to memorize these 27 hotels, and now somehow I seem to manage with a hundred and something. Ryan Embree: We love the unconventional journey in hospitality and kinda falling into it. But also, a lot of people we find fall in love with hospitality. And that’s why you hear about people maybe starting kind of in, you know, I was a bellman when I first started at a hotel and front desk agents, F&B, and then all of a sudden, here they are 30 years later into a career that they absolutely love. And your foundation actually mirrors a lot of what the Suite Spot is. We started as a digital marketing podcast preaching to hoteliers about the importance of things like managing your reputation, social media strategy, which we’re gonna get into in this conversation a little bit, because it is a constantly evolving and so ever important because those are places that can be touched prior to a guest arrival and have a real impact on bookings and the guest experience. But before we get into that, I want, I do wanna start about talking about that event, the Digital Travel Summit that both of you will have the pleasure of attending down there in Orlando at September 28th and 29th. Personally, could not be more excited for this event, bringing some of the travel industry’s biggest and brightest together in a very intimate setting, very excited about it. What are you most looking forward to about this event? And maybe what caught your eye and it drew you initially to this Digital travel Summit? Emma Shaybani: I think what immediately caught my attention was that it was an event that was dedicated solely to digital marketing as a whole. I think, while, while AI is, is transforming things pretty rapidly, and I think this was nice because it was a conference that recognizes digital marketing is so much broader than just AI. And we still have to think about search, paid media, websites, all of these things and how those pieces work together to essentially drive demand. So I saw that and then also I’m looking forward to seeing some of our friends that are there, some of the industry leaders that are talking. I think there was one of the sessions, a keynote that’s on event-driven travel, which is something that we’re investing heavily in at HEI, you know, things like concerts, festivals, major conventions. A lot of my team’s focus at the moment is setting up things like landing pages, targeted offers to really kind of take advantage of those experiences. ‘Cause we all saw what happened, with the Taylor Swift effect a few months ago. Ryan Embree: 100%. Emma Shaybani: Exactly. So I think that’s a really, a lot of the topics throughout the event are really on trend and really useful. So I think it’s, it’ll be good to bring everybody together. We’re all solving similar challenges, so that hopefully, you know, we can come away with some practical ideas that myself and the team can implement when we’re back in the office. Ryan Embree: Yeah, 100%. And to piggyback on that Taylor Swift effect, you got the World Cup that just happened this summer. You got the Olympics in LA in a couple more years. So no shortage of events coming to domestic US. Concerts are gonna continue to pop up. Sporting events across generations, younger travelers, but across generations still prioritizing those experiences at the forefront. And I think you’re absolutely right, Emma. It’s a very comprehensive event. It’s funny, back in the day when we started first talking about, you know, this to hoteliers with, with digital marketing, sometimes social media review responses, you, like you talked about in your story, it fell on the youngest person at the hotel, right? So who’s the youngest, uh, front desk agent? They probably know the best about social media. Now as digital marketers, we kinda cringe thinking about that. We put our whole stake of reputation on someone that we really didn’t train a hotel’s voice or anything like that. So it really has evolved. And I love your perspective on where we are with AI because you think about this emerging technology. Well, social media a couple decades ago was right there in that spot, and now it’s created roles within social media. So it’ll be interesting to get everybody in like you said, that room to, with the same challenges, trends, what are you seeing? And speaking of panels, I’ll have the privilege and pleasure of moderating a powerhouse keynote panel with you involved, Emma, called Building AI-Ready Marketing Teams: Knowing When to Automate and When to Go Human. For our Suite Spot audience, give us maybe a little bit of sneak peek of a preview on your thoughts on that topic. Emma Shaybani: I think, you know, I always encourage the team to really ask themselves kind of simple questions, right, when it comes to our use of AI, is if, like, if this task disappeared tomorrow, would anyone notice, right? And if the answer is no, then we can probably find a way to automate that, you know? And I also think there’s a question of, is there value in the thinking or is there value in the typing? Because we do spend a lot of our time producing reports, producing presentations. And really, the value of having humans is the strategy, the judgment, the relationship building, and also the creativity. So we wanna make sure that, you know, humans are also, we’re remaining in charge of the decisions, but can we become more efficient by our use of AI? And we kind of split. We do something called the rule of 80/20, which is AI can get us about 80% of the way there to the finish line, right? It can gather data. It can generate drafts, mock-ups, website copy, summarize reports, but then it’s really like that final 20%, which is gonna create the real value. Human judgment, as I said, creativity, empathy. That’s where we need the human, human touch. And I think that’s really important when it comes to just overall guest experience as well, because while we’re using AI to get in front of guests, we’re trying to be the most visible or the top on Google or, you know, any of, any of. We really want maximum visibility, right, across all these channels. But when we get, when people get to the property, they want a human experience. I think people still very much want a human experience. So we have to make sure that what we’re portraying online is an extension of this experience that happens on property. So I think it’s a mix. I really do. Ryan Embree: It gets a little bit more complicated within hospitality. Other industries, it might be easier to automate all the way through, where in hospitality, there does need to be that human touch because of what, exactly what you just said, Emma, right? Like, people want that connection. They want that exper – That’s why we travel, right? It’s not that there might, might be some places where you can completely disconnect from people, but most of the time, they wanna experience. That’s why they’re getting out. That’s why they’re going to new places and having new opportunities to explore cities and locations that they haven’t before, and they wanna, they wanna feel that. So it is interesting to see that. You know, I’ve, I’ve said it on this podcast and we’ll probably say it again. The GM of the next few years might look a lot closer to what it did 20 or 30 years ago before all of those tasks were put on their plate and all of a sudden they had to sit behind a computer for 80% of their time and do spreadsheets and other things that required our time. Now they can maybe get back to the heart, which will be very interesting to see that shift in hospitality. Excited to explore it in that keynote panel that, again, is gonna feature some major brands alongside, travel industry brands alongside Emma here. So hope our Suite Spot listeners will look into that event, the Digital Travel Summit, and join us. I wanna shift back to, well, actually, I wanna talk about AI and, and the guest experience a little bit more. A few years back, you were a featured columnist in Hotel News Now, where you wrote that managing the guest experience in hotels begins earlier than ever. Now, this was a couple years ago. We’re getting news almost on a weekly basis with, with the cadence of AI and technology. Talk to us a little bit about your thoughts on how, if at all, that’s changed with the emergence of AI traveler search. Emma Shaybani: Yeah, I actually think the, the idea is probably more relevant today than it was when I wrote that article a couple years ago. I think the guest experience no longer begins when someone walks through the hotel doors, right? It starts the moment they have that idea and start dreaming of a trip or a destination. I think today, obviously, a lot of travelers are using AI and Googles to really help them to decide where to stay, where to go, what to do. It’s great. I use it myself, right? You can go through so much more data, so many more options, and it just kind of speeds up the entire trip planning process. But what it means is that our digital presence really is, more importantly than ever, an extension of the actual guest experience itself when they get to the property. You know, AI kind of just, just changed how guests discover us, but what really isn’t changing, as I kind of said before, is, is what they expect when they arrive. I think it’s actually raising the bar in many instances, because we’re getting the information to the traveler through AI or through Google, and we’re actually, we’re creating more personalized recommendations. We’re getting them more information than ever, and we’re setting these kind of real clear expectations of this is what you can expect when you arrive. So we have to make sure that the in-guest experience really, like, delivers on that promise when, when they get there. But for me, I think that’s where hospitality really still wins, because technology can, we can inspire people to travel, to book a stay, but people create memories, they wanna create memories on property that they’ll take home. And if we’ve promised a really great experience online, you know, the front desk, the food and beverage, housekeeping, every interaction throughout that stay is really gonna, like, enforce that expectation that we’ve set. So I think it, you know, AI is a tool to enhance hospitality. I think it replaces it. And I think it’s just kind of, trying to really seamlessly marry those two things together, so that we’re setting expectations correctly, but then we’re also delivering on real, incredible real life experiences. Ryan Embree: 100%. Yeah, personalization, a goal and objective that hospitality has been in after, I mean, for a decade now. We are closer than ever with as much data as we have right now, and that’s why I think a lot of hoteliers, brands, management companies are really going after that data and really trying to figure out a way, how can AI help me? All this data that I’m collecting from this guest make a more personalized experience and enhance, like you said, Emma, the guest experience. But at the core of it, I remember. I mean, I remember when you go to a TripAdvisor for a hotel and you keep, you scroll through the reviews and you see someone’s name mentioned at the front desk over and over again, “Emma at the front desk was amazing. Emma did this. Emma did that.” And then you come in and you’re greeted by Emma and you’re like, “I, it’s like I know you already, right? Like, it, that is such a cool experience and it elevates that. And I think that is in practice what I think these LLMs hopefully will have for a guest on the horizon. I think it does raise the bar, what you’re saying, Emma, because we want our guests to walk through those doors and know us as intimately as the front desk agent that they’ve maybe read three or four reviews about. So really exciting to kind of see and have certainly seen it implemented that elevation of guest service through HEI and resorts. It’s award season and obviously the accolades keep rolling in for your portfolio. Recognition from Conde Nast, Cvent, Travel and Leisure. Congratulations first off to you and your team. But from a reputation management, I mean, that’s your origin story, right, with HEI and Hotel and Resorts. How do you leverage these to kind of win more business? And how critical is it in today’s landscape to have a defined reputation management strategy more than kind of where you started maybe just responding to the reviews? Emma Shaybani: Thank you. Yeah, the awards like this are really meaningful, I think, to everybody because they’re really a reflection of the teams that are delivering those exceptional guest experiences every single day. I think behind these recognitions is the front desk associates, the housekeepers, engineers, servers, people who are creating these memories and these memorable stays. So I think it’s really important to celebrate that, which is why we really put an emphasis on promoting when we do win these awards. I think from a marketing perspective, these awards really serve as kind of a very powerful third-party validation. We spend a lot of time, telling guests what they can expect from our hotels, through our websites, our social media, photography. But these awards from Conde Nast or Travel and Leisure really, like, reinforce essentially that that promise that we’re making is real and help really allow us to build trust with a guest before they’ve not before they’ve even booked. And I definitely think it can be the deciding factor, right? If someone’s, you know, looking in the several hotels in the same market that they’re considering, it does help kind of validate that our hotels are a top choice in the market. I think on the reputation management side, it’s funny because back then it really was a case of, okay, we’ve just got to respond to these reviews. The brands are telling us, we’ve got to respond to anything under a three-star, and we have to do it within 48 hours. And I think it’s become so much more than that, and it’s, it’s so much more critical now because it’s no longer just about having a high rating on the different review sites. Guest reviews, I think, are really influencing how AI-powered search tools and large language models understand and recommend hotels. There’s been studies on it, we’re seeing it ourselves. Every review essentially creates this kind of digital story of the property, and then that story gets shared, right, from whether it’s on ChatGPT, whether it’s on Google, iit’s obviously very visible. I also think reviews are really, like, one of the few opportunities that we have to publicly demonstrate how we respond to feedback. You know, whether it’s thanking someone that they’ve had, you know, for a great stay or we’re addressing concerns. These responses, I think, allow us to show that we’re, you know, we’re open to feedback. We care and that we’re committed to kind of continuously improving, um, the guest experience. But I think all these things, ultimately, awards, reputation management, they’re all working hand in hand at the moment to ensure, again, we’re, people are getting credible information, and then also that they’re making informed decisions when they book. Ryan Embree: Yeah, what an opportunity to showcase the level of service that you’re gonna experience at a hotel than to publicly kinda display that through reviews and review response, right? You know, as it’s really human nature sometimes, I think unfortunately, that will go. Travel is stressful, right? Things happen in travel. We talked that there were a couple missed flights when we were trying to plan this out, right? How stressful is that? Like, so if you see that, sometimes a guest is a traveler, you sometimes have to put yourself in that, “Well, what is the worst case scenario?” So you try to look maybe for that one-star review. And if you see that empathetic voice on the other side of someone that genuinely has an authentic feeling of service-oriented response, man, the impact on that can really, really make the difference, and be maybe that final little push that has that comfort level, that trust that you talked about. I think that’s a great word right now, is we’re just looking that I trust that this hotel’s gonna take care of me, my family, if I’m traveling, my family, to make this experience the best it can. So 100% agree with you. That is something we preach all the time on this podcast. Social media, on the other end, plays a huge role in reputation management, and very comprehensive. What are your thoughts on what hoteliers should be prioritizing in the social media space right now, which is ever-evolving? Emma Shaybani: Yeah. I think the biggest thing is the shift we’ve seen, especially with platforms like Instagram and TikTok, is the priority is now content, and kind of not over-complicating social media as a whole. I think we talk a lot of time, talking about algorithms and platforms, but at the end of the day, if we don’t have compelling content, our strategy isn’t gonna get us very far. I think what I’ve seen a lot is that hotels will invest heavily in the social media management, but they’re not investing as heavily into the content itself. And we’ve spoken to a number of agencies and worked with different ones over the years, and a lot of them have fairly significant price tags to manage social media accounts, which I understand, right? Platforms like TikTok take a ton of time to create and produce. But these agencies, they’re, you know, they’re typically posting content, they’re doing community management, but they’re not necessarily creating the photography, the video, the reels, and influencer partnerships that are really the things that are gonna fuel engagement. So I think what we’ve seen is that without a strong pipeline of content, we’re just repurposing the same assets over and over again. So we’ve shifted a lot and it’s really about finding the right balance. So having a reliable content partner that can help create some consistency, and then filling in the gaps with influencers and creators, that can help, capture authentic moments and, and produce those reels. Doing those two things together work really well, but I really do think it’s now it’s time to start and really investing into content. Just be – everyone gets so fatigued, right? You just scrolling all the time. And then when people have seen that picture, they’re like, “Okay, I’m gonna scroll to, scroll to the next one.” And a lot of the time, we’re not just producing. I think everybody really used to think of it as, like, okay, we produce content for the website and the brand websites, and then we have content for social media, which is different. And it doesn’t actually have to be different anymore. You know, great content really powers everything. We can use that same photography or same social content to really strengthen our website. It really helps improve paid advertising performance. So, we can use it in our email campaigns, even on our OTA listings as well. So it’s kind of trying to get everyone to understand that that one investment can really help us deliver value across our entire marketing ecosystem. And it’s funny because it’s always the thing that everyone tries to cut from the budget is the photography aspect. We haven’t been renovated. We don’t need a photo shoot. There’s still things we can do, right? There’s still, there’s still new content to be, to be taken. So I think that’s where we’re focusing a lot of our time is content over the management piece. Ryan Embree: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, quality of content, I mean, the landscape has changed as far as the competitive forces, right? Now, back in the day when, when social media first, it was only anyone that you followed, right? You were only competing against those pages that that particular user was following. Now, a majority of time spent for a social media user is in explore pages, and a lot of accounts that they’re in. It’s more interest-based than follow base. You rarely see the things that you follow unless you’re engaging with it frequently. So the competitive nature of that, and you think how quickly. I mean, next time you’re in front of your phone, any of our listeners, how quickly your thumb is swiping, it’s a lot quicker than it was a decade ago, and how much your brain is actually giving that attention, that attention span has been shrinking. So quality of content, it has to be at a high level. And, and you’re absolutely right, Emma. We’ve seen a lot of hoteliers maybe not give the necessary time attention, whether it be time investment or capital investment into that. And it’s not enough just to be there anymore. I think that’s where we were maybe a decade ago. If you’re in the arena, you’ve got a shot. Now the bar is being raised, in that regard. So marketing, what a fun position. Always something going on, right? Something to celebrate. You got projects that you’re working on, announcements, try to make as much noise as possible. Any particular projects right now, Emma, that you’re particularly fired up about that you’re working, you and your team are working on? Emma Shaybani: Yeah. I think there’s a few things, because everything’s just changing so rapidly at the moment. So it’s actually like a fun, I think it’s a fun time. It’s stressful, but it’s a fun time to be a marketer. But I think the first thing is websites, because I think things have, like, especially where we’re able, we have obviously independent hotels, and we also have some branded assets that have vanity websites. And I think how that trend is also shifting, because for years, the trend was to have, like, these minimal content websites. You didn’t have a lot of copy, massive imagery. But now, obviously, with the shift in AI search, the websites have to be kind of richer, more informative, and actually have some genuinely helpful content. Things like destination guides, and FAQs, and all these different things, which is now kind of shaping a lot of our future designs on what these websites look like. So it’s kind of like we’ve kind of gone back a little bit. And so I think that’s kind of, it’s exciting to test a lot of that and really start to kind of just a lot of it’s testing, just really kind of getting in the weeds and just trying different things. I think another thing that we’re excited about, and we’ve got a lot of projects on the go is video. Again, I think video always used to be one of these nice-to-have pieces, but now it’s becoming a must-have because people want, you know, again, people are used to video content, short-form video content. So we’re implementing that on websites and in emails. But we’re also starting to have a lot more fun with our creative. I think a great example is we have an asset in Nashville called Waymore’s, and it’s a fun hotel. It’s in East Nashville, and we just produced this video that really is probably a little bit out of the box, but it really leans into the personality of the hotel and kind of the spirit of Nashville. And it’s definitely catches people’s eyes. We’re, we’re running it on social, we’re running it on emails, and we’ve seen a real uptick in people engaging with it. So I think it’s fun to kind of work on these more exciting videos, exciting content. And then my other big project right now is building what we’ve launched earlier this year called LoyalKey, which is our independent loyalty program for our HEI independent hotels. We haven’t done that before. It was something new that we wanted to try. And it’s an opportunity that really allows us to kind of bring together our. We have some really one of a kind independent assets. And we wanted to create kind of like a shared loyalty experience while still, like, maintaining what kind of keeps each hotel special. And it really gives us the ability to leverage the guests at each of those hotels and connect them to, if you’re interested in one independent asset, you might be interested in another one. So it’s giving these hotels real opportunity to kind of co-market, and at the same time, build this loyalty brand. So it’s been, it’s been a learning experience, to kind of build that from the ground up. But it’s fun. Ryan Embree: What a project. An opportunity, again, for personalization. You get some more of that guest data within loyalty programs, and all of a sudden, personalization starts to really blossom there, especially in the independent hotel space where you can do some really, really cool things. So, and just to piggyback on your video comment, if you don’t believe, Emma, as far as how important video is, go through, again, your social media feed. See how long you’re scrolling on each one, but also see how many times you’re seeing a still image now. I mean, it is surprising now when I go through my feed that I rarely come across just a still image. Most of them are going to be, whether it’s a GIF or some sort of, uh, short form video, most of the content that we are consuming now is not going to be a still image. So just going where the trends are, and yeah, it’s funny you mentioned that about that East Nashville property. You know, we work with hotels in their social media. And one of the videos that went viral on this particular hotel partner’s account was that they filmed High School Musical Two at the property, right? And it was kind of like this produced Zac Efron in there, and it exploded. And it was, like, probably something that we didn’t think was gonna get that much traction, but it was fun. People engaged with it. People loved it, especially those, millennials that grew up with that. And it became kind of a staple of that property and just a way to share the story of that property. So really cool examples there. And that creative side that’s the fun part of social media. So you mentioned 100 plus properties, so this might be a little bit tough for you, but I’m gonna put you on the spot here, Emma. I’m gonna do some rapid fire questions to get to know you and the HEI Hotel and Resorts portfolio a little better. So what is one of your favorite views at a property, HEI Hotel and Resort property? Emma Shaybani: I would say probably Hyatt Regency, Jersey City. So I had actually never been to Jersey City, but I was astounded by the, when I went, the views of Manhattan. ‘Cause it’s great, you know, when you’re in Manhattan, you’re like, “Oh, this is amazing.” Like – Yeah. But when you’re actually looking at it from across the water, it’s incredible. So probably that one. And we also have another, actually, another Times Square view. We have Renaissance Times Square that has this really cool bar that overlooks, like, the whole of Times Square. And it’s just like, incredible. I could sit there and watch that for hours. So it’s, it’s probably the New York views for me. Ryan Embree: Yeah. And those are hard to beat. Being in New York a couple months, same place up on a rooftop. I mean there’s not a lot that beats that. So what about a favorite fun fact about one of your properties? Emma Shaybani: Oh, I really like, it’s my favorite thing to do is always research or ask the team, like, what’s the craziest story about this hotel when I go? I love all, like, the historical facts, like, the ghost stories. So probably the Liberty in Boston, it used to be the Charles Street Jail. And today, I just love that, like, you’re sitting in there having a cocktail and there’s still, like, the, the doors and the window bars. And it just, that’s really fun. We also have The Cavalier, which has hosted, like, 10 presidents, Frank Sinatra. There’s definitely some secrets in that hotel. And I love that they play into it. They have a lot of, like, historical facts on the wall. So it kind of becomes, like, I don’t know, it’s like a fact-finding mission when you’re there. Ryan Embree: Yeah. I love that. It’s funny. You think about in maybe 100 or 200 years, which of those structures might be hotels in the future, right? Think that there’s a jail there. I’ve heard stories about, yeah, this used to be a bank and everything. Thing and now it’s a hotel. Like that’s the best part about hospitality, right? We can turn almost anything into a hotel. So, what about favorite signature dish at one of your properties, Emma? Emma Shaybani: I really like the steak tartar at the J in San Francisco. Served at the third floor and it’s just one of those, it’s just one of those dishes that I have to have, like I can not be hungry and I’ll still order it because I need to have it. Cause I don’t know when the next time I’m going back, but no, it’s kind of got like, it’s got like a Japanese twist on steak tartar, which is, it’s delicious. Ryan Embree: Very nice. Coast to coast, Emma, I like it. This really shows the breadth of the portfolio you’re working with over there. Last ones, either favorite piece of art at one of your properties or a favorite amenity at one of your properties? We can do both. Emma Shaybani: Well, we have a very, I think a pretty unique portfolio with every hotel kind of has a unique amenity. But I think the Live at the Sunrose, which is at our Sunrose property in West Hollywood, has this really cool intimate live music venue inside the hotel. And like you, just because it’s in West Hollywood, you just don’t know who’s gonna turn up, start singing. I think, like, J-Lo was there. It’s just, like – Oh, wow. It’s just fun. Like she’ll just get up and start singing. So I feel like that’s like a really cool little just addition, right? Like if a guest is staying and that’s all happening, it just really brings a lot of, a lot of energy to the, to the hotel. Ryan Embree: Well, and some great opportunity for content. You wanna talk about the perfect social media video? Emma Shaybani: I have no problems. Ryan Embree: Jennifer Lopez, right, singing at one of your hotels. Awesome. Well, you know, it’s always. I’ve done almost, well, over 200 episodes. I always feel like it’s my duty to my Suite Spot listeners when we have incredible industry influencers and leaders. And Emma, you were just recently named a top 100 marketer as part of the 2026 On Conferences Icon Awards. I always feel like I try to just get as much knowledge and tips and best practices from my guests as I can in the time that I have you here. So, what would be one piece of advice that you might share with hospitality marketers in our Suite Spot audience right now? Emma Shaybani: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, and I tell my team this a lot, is don’t be afraid to test. I think one of the realities is that there’s a lot of pressure to kind of always deliver positive results to owners, asset managers, and leadership teams really naturally want kind of every campaign to be successful. But the reality is, if every campaign that we do succeeds, we’re probably not pushing the boundaries or trying enough things. You know, I think with any of, with any of the, the campaigns that we run, I think the best marketers aren’t really the ones that never fail. It’s the ones that learn the fastest. So I think it’s completely okay that every campaign or every test that we do isn’t always going to work. And that’s totally fine. I think it’s important to then explain, why we’re making a recommendation, why it worked, and the adjustments that we made when it didn’t work or if it did work. So I think it’s really just owning the, not being afraid to really own the outcome, good or bad, but really just, just test as many things as you can. I think it’s funny. One of the things I always think about is, it was like with email marketing, everyone said you had to send it at, like, 11:00 AM on a Tuesday or a Thursday. And everyone’s just taken that as gospel for so many years. And the other week, I think one of my team was like, “Oh, I made a mistake and sent it on a Sunday.” And I was like, “What, like, what happened?” And he’s like, “Well, I got the highest open rates that we’ve ever had.” And I was like, “Well, there you go. You’ve got to try these things. Don’t just keep doing the same thing. It’s not a big deal. If we send an email campaign on a Sunday, okay, we get a lower click rate. Oh, you know, it doesn’t matter. We can go back. The next one, we do something different.” But it worked. So you never really know what’s gonna work until you try. Ryan Embree: Yeah, bit of an unintentional test there, but turned out the right way. And as you mentioned, Emma, some of the biggest learning lessons can come out of those failures. And we’ve certainly heard some examples and stories on this podcast of industry leaders and professionals that some of their greatest success kind of started at maybe a moment of failure for them personally. So I think awesome advice. I appreciate that. Again, congratulations, on that recognition there. As we wrap up, Emma, we always like to end our episodes kinda looking ahead, right? We’re looking forward to the Digital Travel Summit, like I said, in September. But from a marketing perspective, Emma, what’s your vision for the future of HEI Hotel and Resorts? Emma Shaybani: Yeah, I’m really excited where we’re heading. I think over the last few years, we’ve seen some incredible growth, especially to kind of our lifestyle and independent hotel portfolio. And I think that is rewarding for the team because there’s so much freedom on the marketing side that comes with that. I think I’m just overall excited to, with the continued evolution of marketing within hospitality. As I said, it’s a stressful time, but it’s kind of a fun time. Because there’s a lot of things to try and work with. When I started my career, marketing was really viewed as a support function and today it feels a lot more integrated. And it is a driver of revenue and business performance, whether it’s AI, digital distribution, loyalty, reputation management. Marketing’s kind of influencing now every stage of the guest journey. And it’s nice to have a seat at the table, kind of alongside sales and revenue management and really be part of the bigger conversations that I think historically marketing was kind of seen as secondary to. So I think for us, looking ahead, we’re just gonna keep pushing, pushing, trying to push boundaries, try a lot of new technology, especially where it’s gonna add value. And as I mentioned, continue investing in things like creativity and content. And at the same time, try and not lose sight of what makes hospitality special, which is the people. Ryan Embree: Certainly a great opportunity to practice your advice, Emma. Use the testing waters and sandbox as much as you can. Exciting to see, because again, it’s evolving so quickly. It feels like almost every single day we’re getting some news out there. So we will continue to look to you and other industry leaders for what’s next in hospitality marketing. Emma, thank you so much. It was a super comprehensive episode. Any final thoughts today? Emma Shaybani: No, thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in Orlando at the conference. Ryan Embree: Yeah, excited as well. Thank you so much, Emma, for your time. We will let you get back to it, all the exciting things you have over there at HEI Hotels and Resorts. And thank you, the Suite Spot listener for joining us today. We will talk to you next time on The Suite Spot. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with cover art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host, Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.

Play No Games is a space for real conversations and perspective. Each episode blends authenticity and insight creating room for laughter, clarity, and growth as we unpack what's happening in culture and in ourselves._____________________________

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

What if AI could transform how your entire data team works—without replacing them? In this episode, Benjamin Wagner explores with Xavier Gumara Rigol, Head of Data at Manychat, how natural language-to-SQL tools are reshaping data analyst and data scientist roles, why building a strong data platform is essential for AI-powered self-serve analytics, and the critical strategies for evaluating text-to-insight solutions in 2026. Whether you're leading a data organization or building your next analytics capability, discover how to balance build versus buy decisions and position your team for the AI-driven future of data engineering.

For about a decade, a customer data platform's job was to be the place your customer data lived. What happens to that job when the most valuable thing a system can do goes beyond remembering and evolves to deciding and acting?Agility, in a category that's been declared dead more than once, isn't chasing whatever the market renames itself this quarter. It's being able to change what your product does without losing the thing your company is actually good at.Today we're going to talk about what it takes to evolve a category from the inside. Specifically:- Why fifteen years of data infrastructure turned out to be an advantage rather than baggage to shed.- What actually changes — in the product and in the company — when a system stops solely storing customer data and starts acting on it.- Where the line sits between a marketer steering an agent and a system running on its own.This conversation also kicks off a four-part series we're running this week with the product team at Treasure AI: four leaders, four vantage points: the vision, the roadmap, the operational reality, and the design.To help me start it off, I'd like to welcome Rafa Flores, Chief Product and Growth Officer at Treasure AI.About Rafael FloresAs a proud immigrant from Honduras, Rafael's journey is rooted in three core values passed down from his family: the power of education, treating everyone with dignity—no matter their background—and lifting up the next generation. Once he was an wide-eyed kid with big dreams, and today, he's living them. He's dedicated his career to scaling SaaS companies from startup spark to high-growth success. At Meltwater, he played a key role in driving product innovation and market readiness that led to a successful IPO. At Datanyze, he led strategic initiatives that culminated in an acquisition by ZoomInfo—boosting their data intelligence footprint. At ARM, he spearheaded innovation in Retail SDK and IoT, opening new frontiers in connected experiences. And at 6sense, he led all automation, data, and AI-powered products, building inclusive teams and solutions that empower GTM leaders to sell smarter. At Treasure Data, he helped orchestrate a landmark $600M acquisition by ARM and secured record-breaking funding for the Customer Data Platform. Now, he's back—leading Treasure Data into a new era of intelligence and automation built for scale. It's more than a comeback; it's a homecoming. This is a team he deeply believes in—brilliant, driven, and purposeful. Beyond tech, he's a devoted father of three and married to a registered nurse whose compassion and strength inspires him every day. My expertise lies in product strategy, CDPs, data privacy, and scaling GTM solutions—from agile startups to Global 2000 enterprises. He's passionate about solving hard problems with technology, driving sustainable growth, and mentoring rising product leaders. As a member of the Forbes Technology Council, he aims to share insights, spark dialogue, and help shape the future of innovation—one conversation, and one leader, at a time.Rafael Flores on LinkedIn---------- Resources ---------- Treasure AIReach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad creditCheck out the Treasure AI Studio sandbox for yourself.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—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

EP 222: We had return guest of the show Cole Wolbert in to talk deer hunting stories! Enjoy!  IF YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THE SHOW, CHECK OUT OUR PATREON! The Whitetail Distraction Podcast is creating Podcasts and Videos | Patreon   Skre Gear is back!! You know the routine, high quality products with a lifetime warranty at an affordable cost! Use discount code WDP for 15% off!! Check their growing lineup at www.skregear.com To complement our broadhead usage - check out VPA's full lineup of products at www.vparchery.com use discount code WDP for 10% off! You have to see their project at www.50forged.com Our newest partner is Hunt Arsenal!! Platforms, saddles, packs and more! They are taking the mobile hunting space by storm! Give them a serious consideration at https://huntarsenal.com/ One of the best seed companies in the game has agreed to offer 10% off! Go check out Back Forty Seed Co. and use code DISTRACTION10. https://backfortyseedco.com If you want some badass hybrid broadheads, head over to VIP's website: https://www.viparchery.com or give Matt and Cindy Futtere a call and tell them the Whitetail Distraction Podcast boys sent you. They are truly some of the best people in the business! The Combat Veteran will cause major damage to the intended target as combat veterans are trained to do!    Like this episode? Head over to iTunes and give us a 5-star rating and leave a review. Not hearing what you like, or just simply have suggestions? Send us an email at TheWhitetailDistractionPodcast@gmail.com   Also, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @TheWhitetailDistractionPodcast, Twitter @TheWDPodcast and TikTok @TheWhitetailDistraction. The Distraction is Real!

For years, luxury seemed almost immune to economic downturns. Consumers might cut back elsewhere, but luxury remained remarkably resilient.That has changed.Some of the world's most powerful luxury brands are facing slowing sales and weaker results. But the problem may go deeper than economics.Shoppers are more informed, expectations around quality are higher, resale has created new competition, and simply putting a famous logo on a product may no longer be enough.In this episode of A Seat at the Table, host Jane Singer sits down with retail industry veterans Burt Flickinger III, Managing Director of Strategic Retail Group, and Denise Seegal, former President and CEO of Maggiasconi Apparel Group, to discuss what's gone wrong, what today's luxury consumer wants, and where they see new opportunities for retail growth.What You'll LearnWhy luxury brands are under pressure around the world.How changing consumer priorities are reshaping luxury spending.Whether luxury has become too accessible and lost some of its exclusivity.Why merchandising, product innovation and emerging designers matter.How ecommerce and resale have changed luxury shopping.Why consumers are questioning luxury product quality.Why South Korea and India could become important luxury markets.What successful retailers are getting right about customer experience.Why Is the Luxury Market Struggling?Mr. Flickinger points to weakening demand across several historically important luxury markets, along with changes in international travel. Ms. Seegal believes brands need to look beyond economics."The consumer priorities have shifted," she says.Economic volatility, geopolitics and tariffs have affected spending. Social media, influencers and AI have changed how consumers discover and evaluate products.The lesson for brands: start with the consumer rather than assuming yesterday's definition of luxury still works.Has Luxury Lost Its Exclusivity?Another issue is overexposure.Luxury expanded aggressively, including through department stores and shop-in-shop concepts. But wider distribution can make it harder to maintain the discovery, exclusivity and personal attention consumers expect when paying luxury prices.Luxury consumers aren't simply buying a product. They want specialness, service and an environment that reinforces why the product deserves its premium positioning.What Happened to the Great Merchants?The conversation also raises a bigger problem: the decline of merchandising culture.Ms. Seegal recalls her years as a Bloomingdale's buyer, when part of the job was actively searching for emerging designers. She regularly made time to meet new designers, look at their work and ask: What's next?Today's department-store economics can make that harder.Brands may be expected to finance floor space, fixtures, staffing and other costs. Established brands can afford that investment. Emerging designers often cannot.The result can be stores filled with brands that have the resources to secure space rather than necessarily the most exciting products.Fashion needs newness. Without new designers, products and ideas, retailers give consumers fewer reasons to return.Is Luxury Quality Declining?Consumers increasingly complain that products—even expensive ones—don't feel as well made as products they purchased 10 or 20 years ago.Premium pricing needs to be supported by premium materials, craftsmanship, fit and construction.Brands diversifying their supply chains  face a challenge beyond finding capacity or negotiating price: they have to transfer knowledge and quality standards to their new manufacturing base.Online Shopping and Resale Changed LuxuryLuxury shopping has moved far beyond the traditional department store.Platforms such as Net-a-Porter, Matches and Farfetch helped make consumers comfortable buying high-priced fashion online, giving shoppers access to enormous assortments without visiting a physical luxury store.Then came another disruption: resale.Luxury customers aren't simply buying secondhand products. They're also selling items from their own wardrobes and using the proceeds to purchase something different.Vintage has another advantage: some consumers believe older merchandise offers better tailoring, materials or construction.That means resale can compete with new luxury on quality, uniqueness and product discovery—characteristics traditionally associated with luxury itself.Where Are the Next Luxury Growth Markets?The geography of luxury is changing.The conversation highlights South Korea as an important laboratory for luxury, combining fashion with digital communication, entertainment, gaming, social networks, wellness and highly connected consumer communities.India could represent another major frontier as its consumer market develops.The next chapter of luxury therefore may not simply involve waiting for traditional markets to recover. Brands need to rethink where luxury consumers are emerging and what luxury means within those markets.The Luxury Store Experience Still MattersDespite digital commerce, the physical store isn't necessarily obsolete. But mediocre stores may be.Personal service is particularly important at the high end, where relationships between customers and trusted salespeople can generate significant repeat business.Can Luxury Make a Comeback?Ms. Seegal believes it can.Consumers still love beautiful products, exceptional design, craftsmanship and quality. But they're also better informed. They can quickly research a designer, compare products and decide whether a brand fits the identity or community they want to be part of.The next era of luxury may depend less on the logo and more on the things that originally made luxury desirable: exceptional product, innovation, craftsmanship, exclusivity, service and experience.Episode Timestamps00:00 – Why luxury is suddenly struggling01:54 – What's happening to global luxury demand?05:58 – How luxury consumer priorities have changed08:12 – Has luxury become overexposed?09:48 – South Korea and the changing luxury experience15:04 – Why fashion needs merchants and emerging designers18:48 – How the shop-in-shop model changed luxury retail20:37 – South Korea and India as future luxury markets22:13 – How ecommerce changed luxury shopping25:13 – The impact of luxury resale and vintage26:36 – Are consumers getting lower-quality products?31:37 – Why factory training matters to quality35:04 – When cost cutting starts damaging luxury37:17 – Does Hermès need a bigger owner?39:25 – Can luxury retailers successfully expand internationally?43:25 – What would it take to revive luxury department stores?48:32 – What Bloomingdale's is getting right49:51 – Why customer service remains a competitive advantageFrequently Asked QuestionsWhy are luxury brands struggling?The episode identifies weaker spending in important global markets, changing travel patterns, economic uncertainty, changing consumer priorities, ecommerce and resale competition, and concerns around innovation, exclusivity and quality.What do luxury consumers want today?Consumers increasingly expect more than a recognizable brand name. Quality, design, exclusivity, service, experience and cultural relevance all contribute to whether a luxury purchase feels worthwhile.Has luxury become too accessible?Potentially. Expanding distribution can increase sales but also weaken exclusivity. The discussion highlights the importance of controlling the retail environment and creating a distinctive brand experience.Is luxury product quality declining?The conversation highlights consumer concerns about quality across mainstream and luxury fashion. Maintaining quality requires strong materials and craftsmanship, experienced suppliers, factory training and sourcing decisions that aren't driven exclusively by cost.Which markets could drive future luxury growth?South Korea and India emerge as particularly interesting opportunities. South Korea combines luxury consumption with fashion, beauty, wellness, entertainment and digital culture, while India's evolving consumer market could make it an increasingly important luxury frontier.About the GuestsBurt Flickinger III is Managing Director of Strategic Retail Group, a global retail and consumer packaged goods consultancy.Denise Seegal is the former President and CEO of Maggiasconi Apparel Group and former Executive Director of M. Magtigu Limited. She now leads her own consulting firm and brings extensive experience in merchandising, product development, manufacturing, fashion and retail.Together with A Seat at the Table host Jane Singer, they explore what's going wrong in luxury retail—and what brands and retailers need to get right to win the next generation of luxury consumers.SEND US A MESSAGEVisit A Seat at The Table's website at https://seat.fm

【欢迎订阅】 每天早上5:30，准时更新。 【阅读原文】 标题：Misleading AI-generated doctors pose ‘huge danger' to public safetyResearch shows AI accounts are gaining millions of views on TikTok by spreading dubious health advice正文：Misleading health claims online pose a “huge danger to public safety”, experts have warned, after research has shown that AI-generated doctors are gaining millions of views on TikTok by spreading dubious health advice. The British Medical Association council deputy chair, Dr Emma Runswick, flagged the risks posed by AI accounts that “peddle medical myths and promote so-called miracle cures”. “Platforms like TikTok must do more to stop the rise of dangerous fake medical advice … otherwise, it is the public who could be paying the price with their health and perhaps even their lives,”she added.知识点：claim n. /kleɪm/a statement that something is true, especially when it is not proved 声称；断言• The company's claims about the product's effectiveness have never been scientifically tested. 该公司关于这款产品功效的说法从未经过科学验证。• I find his claims of innocence rather hard to believe. 我觉得他自称清白的说法很难令人信服。【节目介绍】 《早安英文-每日外刊精读》，带你精读最新外刊，了解国际最热事件：分析语法结构，拆解长难句，最接地气的翻译，还有重点词汇讲解。 所有选题均来自于《经济学人》《纽约时报》《华尔街日报》《华盛顿邮报》《大西洋月刊》《科学杂志》《国家地理》等国际一线外刊。 【适合谁听】 1、关注时事热点新闻，想要学习最新最潮流英文表达的英文学习者 2、任何想通过地道英文提高听、说、读、写能力的英文学习者 3、想快速掌握表达，有出国学习和旅游计划的英语爱好者 4、参加各类英语考试的应试者（如大学英语四六级、托福雅思、考研等） 【你将获得】 1、超过1000篇外刊精读课程，拓展丰富语言表达和文化背景 2、逐词、逐句精确讲解，系统掌握英语词汇、听力、阅读和语法 3、每期内附学习笔记，包含全文注释、长难句解析、疑难语法点等，帮助扫除阅读障碍。

Broadcasting live from the "Salute to Liberty" event for Congresswoman Sherri Biggs at the Anderson Civic Center, host Charlie James opens the show by diving into local political drama surrounding an upcoming primary debate at the Newberry Opera House. He addresses rumors regarding why radio host Joey Hudson was removed as a debate moderator. While initial claims blamed the Graham campaign, statement updates from campaign representative Abby Zilch suggest the decision came directly from the South Carolina GOP (SCGOP) leadership. Callers weigh in on Joey Hudson's reputation as a fair interviewer and voice their perspectives on the race between Congressman Ralph Norman and Darlene Graham. Throughout the hour, Charlie James speaks with key conservative candidates present at the event. State Representative John McCravy shares his thoughts on the state budget, voicing approval over reported gubernatorial vetoes regarding high-spending items like funding for Scout Motors. Next, Republican candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture Cody Simpson joins to discuss his campaign journey, emphasizing the need to support local farmers, cut regulatory red tape, and address recent food safety concerns such as E. coli outbreaks. Finally, Congressman Ralph Norman discusses his candidacy for U.S. Senate, underscoring the vital importance of election integrity, passing the SAVE America Act, curbing federal overspending, and standing strong against swamp-driven political spending.

Warmest of Welcomes everybody Augusts episode came quickly for the Mooglecast boys, reunited after only 2 weeks since last recording, the boys decide to record without a guest chair and tackle a topic that is spin off of the PS Premium classics series, with games we wish to see ported to Playstation from other platforms.
We list games such as Banjo Kazoo, Command & Conquer, Silver, Golden Sun, Lost Odyssey and Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection. The front of the show comes with a new game to replace platinum shoutouts, The A-Z game where the boys get the brain juices flowing, Zac kills but Max is already starting to feel the effects of beer, an advance apology to the audience as you'll most likely be screaming at Max whilst we play this game. As per usual the boys dive into The Record and Cactus Vs Tonberry where Max and Zac discuss Joshuas newest challenge issued to both of them. During the recording of this episode Zac was recording his audio through his webcam so the quality will be noticeable different this episode, but the content remains the same. We'll see you in September, but until then… Be excellent to each other. Max

Former USAF All-Source Intelligence Analyst and core UAP Task Force member Lenval Logan sits down with Ty on the Total Disclosure Podcast for an exclusive, unfiltered 1-on-1 deep dive. Having served over 20 years in military intelligence and working directly under Jay Stratton inside the UAP Task Force, Lenval is the man who personally requested the official government analysis on the now-famous Syria UAP footage. Today, we go beyond the high-level summaries heard on the Joe Rogan Experience (#2264) to uncover the raw procedural mechanics, classified sensor triage, crash retrieval realities, and the internal pushback inside the intelligence apparatus. From witnessing a diamond-shaped craft mirroring the 1990 Calvine incident and experiencing the Phoenix Lights to developing the crowdsourced intelligence platform Phenom, Lenval pulls back the curtain on the phenomenon, the transition into AARO, and the true personal cost of disclosure.TDP Website: www.TotalDisclosure.Co 

Play More Games

In this episode, Lee and Cathy explore the impact of AI on content creation, social media platforms, and the future of technology. They discuss the challenges and opportunities AI presents for creators, platforms, and consumers, emphasizing the importance of ethical use and innovation. Outside of their tech executive roles, Cathy and Lee are also creators. Cathy is one of the top B2B creators and a top tech voice on LinkedIn and speaker. She recently launched a Travel and Tech video series on LinkedIn, Instagram and Youtube where she travels the world and brings her perspective on global tech. Lee is a talented musician with a significant following on Instagram and gifted writer too. He recently launched Dig, an animated short story series. Key topicsAI's influence on content creation and monetizationChallenges faced by platforms like YouTube and TikTok due to AIOpportunities for platforms like Roblox and LinkedIn in the AI eraPrivacy concerns and data ownership in AI applicationsThe role of human creativity versus AI automationLegal and ethical considerations of AI-generated contentThe future of AI in sports, music, and entertainmentThe importance of authentic human stories in a digital worldKey takeawaysAI is transforming content creation but raises ethical and monetization challenges.Platforms are adjusting thresholds and policies to combat AI-generated spam and maintain quality.Opportunities exist for platforms like Roblox and LinkedIn to innovate and monetize differently.Privacy and data ownership remain critical concerns with AI and digital platforms.Authentic human storytelling continues to be valued over AI-generated content.Legislation and platform policies will shape how AI is integrated into media and entertainment.Sound Bites"AI is generating so much garbage that platforms have to increase thresholds""People want to watch humans, not AI robots""Hate the system, not the technology"Sections00:00Introduction to the episode and guest overview02:11Lee shares his new web series inspired by a solar eclipse03:55Cathy discusses her travel series in Greece and personal passions05:07The creative process and overcoming fears of rejection07:22YouTube's monetization changes and AI's impact on creators10:40The rise of AI-generated content and its effects on platforms12:20Juxtaposition of real creators versus AI content for kids14:01Opportunities for platforms like Roblox and LinkedIn16:53The challenge of AI in music and media industries18:20Concerns about privacy and data ownership in AI20:18The importance of human storytelling and authenticity23:12AI's role in sports and entertainment, maintaining human element27:38The future of AI regulation and ethical considerations33:54Media partnerships and trust in AI-generated news40:55The limits of AI in entertainment and human connection42:15Closing thoughts and call for positive stories in tech

There's a big difference between working on a platform and owning the platform. I can do the work and get paid, but some of the value I produce still goes to the company and the ownership of the company. If I want the highest ROI from a platform, I need to understand that the highest leverage comes from owning it outright. Show Notes: [05:22]#1 Workers earn income, whereas owners capture value. [14:21]#2 Platforms can scale beyond individual output.  [17:54]#3 Ownership creates leverage. [20:39] Recap Episodes Mentioned: 1690: A Dirty Secret That Social Media Platforms Don't Want You To Know 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

On Today's Menu on Marsha's Plate This week we talk Dating Apps, Royce White, WNBA, Saucy Santana's Quiet On The Creek Listen on all streaming Platforms https://pod.link/1293033444 Here we talk about cultural events, entertainment news, and gender politics from a Black Trans feminist lens. This is Diamond Stylz archival work that preserves the histories, experiences, and contributions of a marginalized community that has been historically erased, overlooked, or misrepresented. We focus on people who identitfy as Black, trans, gay, or woman...or any combination of all of them. We have merch as well if you wanna support Marsha's Plate https://teespring.com/stores/marshasplate Reading Recommendations https://bookshop.org/shop/DiamondStylz #marshasplate #girlslikeus #boyslikeus #transgender #podcast #podsincolor #podernfamily #transisbeautiful #houston #lgbt #transmen #transwomen #blackfeminism #trans101 #trans #blacktranswomen #blacktransmen #houstonpride #indiepodcast #blacktranslivesmatter #lgbtqia #lgbtq #genderidentity #pride #blackgirlmagic #blackboyjoy #podcast

In this episode of the podcast, members of the InfoQ editorial staff and friends of InfoQ will discuss current trends in the cloud and DevOps domains as part of our annual trends report. These reports provide InfoQ readers with a high-level overview of key topics to watch and also help the editorial team focus on innovative technologies. In addition to the report and the trends graph available on InfoQ.com, this podcast offers a chance to hear our raw conversation and the stories shared by our expert practitioners. Read a transcript of this interview: https://bit.ly/4ggpO8h Newsletter: Subscribe to the Software Architects' Newsletter, a monthly roundup of the patterns and technologies senior practitioners are working through, with the news and lessons from people doing the work: https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter InfoQ Online Certification Programs: 5-week online cohorts for senior engineers and architects, built around QCon talks. Programs now cover software architecture, AI engineering, and organizational architecture. Each week you join a four-hour live session with a confidential peer group of practitioners from other companies, apply frameworks from QCon talks to the decisions you're making at work, and earn an InfoQ certification. You leave with new approaches, or confirmation that the calls you're already making are the right ones. Learn more: https://certification.qconferences.com/ Upcoming Events: QCon San Francisco 2026 (November 16-20, 2026) https://qconsf.com/ QCon London 2027 (April 13-16, 2027) https://qconlondon.com/ The InfoQ Podcasts: Weekly conversations with senior software leaders about how they build systems and teams, including what they'd do differently. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts: The InfoQ Podcast: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/ Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/ Follow InfoQ: Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq X: https://x.com/InfoQ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.com Write for InfoQ: Share what you've learned building software with a community of senior practitioners, and get your work in front of the people who read InfoQ. https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq

Play No Games is a space for real conversations and perspective. Each episode blends authenticity and insight creating room for laughter, clarity, and growth as we unpack what's happening in culture and in ourselves._____________________________

Guest Ryan Wiggins joins the show to discuss progressive political messaging and democratic socialist policy initiatives. The hosts evaluate statements by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on national broadcast networks addressing Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) platforms—including proposals on defense spending, law enforcement, and judicial restructuring—contrasting them with economic cost-of-living messaging. Additionally, Wiggins reviews a published account by writer Lee Kuan Yimby describing experiences working in a Los Angeles homeless shelter. The conversation examines non-profit shelter governance, accountability, substance abuse protocols, and political ideology shifts among younger demographics. Hashtags: #RyanWiggins #DemocraticSocialists #AOC #PublicSafety #LAHomelessness #PoliticalMessaging #CityJournal

SHOW NOTES: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.haileyrowe.com/discovered-by-clients⁠⁠⁠Join my free Facebook community for business support & to connect with other health coaches: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/themarketinghubgroup/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/haileyrowecoach⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/hailey_rowe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/hailey_rowe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

What do people who believe they are writing songs when they use Suno AI, YouTuber Hank Green, and Narcissus from Greek mythology all have in common? Quite a lot, it turns out. And they can help us recognise a form of stuckness that’s becoming increasingly common as people’s relationship with generative AI begins to blur the boundary between ourselves and the technologies we use, making it more difficult to know where the human ends and the machine begins. https://youtu.be/zSMwN0wKGlE Getting Stuck in the Digital Image Our relationship with technology and, in particular, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Suno poses a really interesting existential dilemma. I’ve been fascinated to see how these are often sold as tools to overcome stuckness. While at the same time, they create a whole different form of stuckness when we become attached to them. The demise of Narcissus came through an obsession with his own reflection. Perhaps the price of looking away from his reflection brought its own kind of departure and death. Maybe the image had become more real, perfect, and desirable than the human staring at it. In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, we consider how the reflection of ourselves in the machines we use can bend us out of shape and leave us uncertain of who we are and what we’re capable of. What Does It Mean to Write a Song? Fil Henley, AKA Wings of Pegasus, asked this simple question in a recent video. He analysed an advert from the AI music generation platform Suno, which features producers and songwriters using it to make songs. Fil says, “If you don’t know what the song is going to sound like before you hear it, then you haven’t written the song.” Platforms like Suno act like fruit machines. The output is based more on luck than judgement. What makes them compelling and perhaps even addictive, is that the result is impossible for us to predict. It’s a surprise each time that feels exciting to reveal. And it can turn any old crap into something you might hear on the radio. As we see in the video. More Than a Tool This is what makes these services different from tools. A tool reliably enables us to carry out a task without doing everything and more autonomously. So when the producer says that Suno is showing him stuff he never would have thought about, he is revealing the blurred boundary between us and these machines. It is more than a tool for songwriting. It’s generating the song itself. Suno isn’t like a digital audio workstation (a tool), where a songwriter records, edits, and produces music they have written and performed. It goes further, making many of the creative decisions that normally require time, judgement, and consideration throughout the songwriting process. In other words, the user doesn’t need the skill required to produce the result. Whose Ideas Are They? So if YOU didn’t think of them, whose ideas are they? And if it’s outputting stuff based on something you haven’t thought of, what’s the point in you being there at all? The song is found in the mirror as generative AI reflects back an image of a reality that doesn't exist above the surface. Creative Block as a Rite of Passage In reality, human creativity emerges through the energy generated by those moments of friction, uncertainty, and obstacle. By intervening early with generative AI before we have taken the opportunity to grapple with a block, we deprive ourselves of that bittersweet joy of finding something that comes to life THROUGH US. Instead, a service like Suno short-circuits the block. It presents fully formed solutions that we “never would have thought about”. Perhaps, we would have thought of something much better and more “us” if we had been patient and given ourselves time to grapple with the block. The Allure of The Mirror When you listen to these outputs, there is a professional sheen to them that feels sharp. It sounds just like stuff you hear on the radio. But it sounds like stuff you hear on the radio. There is a sameness to it. An increasingly homogenous stasis. Maybe this technology is attractive precisely because it DOESN’T sound like us. It’s familiar enough for us to to glimpse ourselves. But we look different. It cleans up the parts we might cringe at and be afraid of revealing. Those bits that feel messy, broken, chaotic, and weird. We don’t argue with the machine that makes us sound like something you’d hear on the radio, see on TV, or LinkedIn. Slick, clean, authoritative, clinical, soulless, indistinguishable, unremarkable, dull. Incidentally, this is a good way to identify the best producers, editors, and coaches to work with. They don’t try to make us sound like them or force us to emulate their processes. Instead, they seek to understand and support us. They are able to help us notice, accept, and amplify those parts that we would try to shrink down and hide when left to our own devices. The machine holds a mirror with some perfected image that we believe is us, but is stripped of blemishes, stains, and imperfections. But rather than being the Platonic ideal version of us, it’s more like an aggregate approximation of who everyone else is in the land of mediocre homogeneity. We arrive in this territory when we sand off our edges and lose our spark. The Culture of Narcissism In his 1979 book The Culture of Narcissism, Christopher Lasch offers a fresh way of thinking about the myth of Narcissus. We tend to think that Narcissus died because he fell in love with his own reflection and couldn’t look away, so was unable to do anything other than stare obsessively at himself in the water. Lasch adds another layer, depicting cultural narcissism emerging as the image of the human in the water becomes more important than the human it reflects. Telling Us Apart YouTuber Hank Green recently revealed that he had become over-reliant on ChatGPT after viewers pointed out something in a video that felt off to them. When viewed in context, the clip actually makes more sense than the reactionary commentary suggested. But while he said he didn’t accidentally read something from ChatGPT left in the script, Green didn’t dismiss the criticism. Instead, he agreed, “I think what people have said in this thread about me diluting myself is spot on”. Diluting oneself through the use of technology indicates how a separation between the image and the self can get blurred. This is perhaps why those using Suno to make songs believe they themselves are writing songs. It’s not necessarily a deliberate deception being perpetrated by people pretending to know more than they do or pretending they’ve done things they haven’t. There is a real belief being seeded and nurtured that means people genuinely struggle to distinguish between themselves and the output generated by these technologies. The Gift of Getting Stuck There is a gift in getting stuck along the way during the creative process. It invites us to be resourceful problem solvers. It builds character and reveals more about who we are as we experiment, test, and try things without guaranteed results. Imperfectly. Clumsily. Grappling with creative friction gives opportunities to deepen our confidence and grow our experiences of being okay after failing. These tools are sold to us as ways to avoid that friction. But in so doing, we avoid strengthening the tension wood of creativity altogether, grown in a dance with the rhythm of life’s winds and storms. It Takes a Village (of Humans) In this Sunotopia, depicted through their advert, we see many people gathered in the studio. Yet, the future reality that will come through the success of these platforms appears to be very different. The technology is moving us away from others so we don’t need a producer, an engineer, or other musicians to work with. All we need is Suno because Suno doesn’t get blocked. It will work with whatever crap you feed it. And it will turn any old noise into the kind of song you might hear on the radio. Happiness is Only Real When… Christopher McCandless’s diary concluded that “happiness is only real when shared”. An observation made under tragic circumstances. I think there is a lot of truth in this. I’ve found many times that even the happiest experiences I’ve had on my own feel more complete when they are witnessed through sharing a story with someone else. When we’re feeling the pressure to conform to the schedule of our unrelenting world, we need the courage to give it time. To give OURSELVES and ONE ANOTHER time. Maybe our intuition and imagination will start to show us stuff an LLM never would have thought of… It is rebellious to release ourselves from the pressure to rush and force output for the sake of it. Technologies like Suno and ChatGPT can become an attractive crutch when they are sold as ways to keep going amidst the limitless demands of a productivity-obsessed world. But they gradually erode confidence in our own creative capacity. We would do well to remember, “it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”. This is where we become unstuck (in the best possible way).

James Holmes and Gordon Chang address the critical lack of frigates in the U.S. Navy, which Holmes describes as essential low-cost platforms for monitoring adversaries. The current fleet is "top-heavy," relying on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that are overworked. Holmes explains that the new Constellation-class frigate program has been delayed because the Navy continues to "monkey with the designs," resulting in vessels that are destroyer-sized but under-armed. Meanwhile, China and Russia have conducted joint naval exercises since 2005 to improve interoperability and provide military options in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. Holmes suggests the U.S. should consider leveraging the superior shipbuilding capacity of allies like South Korea, which claims it could produce five Arleigh Burkes annually, whereas the U.S. struggles to build two. The focus remains on regaining the ability to build plentiful, cost-effective combatants. (3)

Send us Fan MailContent creator Marjan Tabibzada joins Skin Anarchy to talk about building a career with no blueprint: her start at the MAC counter, representing brown and Middle Eastern women in beauty and fashion, surviving online hate, vetting brand deals honestly, and the Times Square campaign that made a childhood dream real.Who is Marjan Tabibzada? A creator who built a following representing women who rarely saw themselves online. "There's so many of us out there."How did she get started in content creation? Posting on the side while at Cal State Northridge and the MAC counter. "I really felt like I was doing a bajillion different things." TikTok took off, and she chose creation over law school.What did she learn at MAC Cosmetics? That inclusivity could be a foundation. "Every shade of the foundation that you can" imagine was there.How do you build a following with no blueprint? Relentless trial and error. "There will be hundreds of my videos that have flopped... and you have to pick your butt back up and keep creating."How does she keep content relatable across cultures? By reworking revealing trends into modest looks. "We are the brown girls where we can't really show... so let's make this a little bit more modest."How does she handle online hate and cancel culture? By refusing to let it take root. "If you just allow those comments to take over, you're going to go into such a dark place that getting out is going to be very difficult."Where is influencer marketing headed? Creators replacing traditional ads. "People trust the influencers, and when you relate to a content creator, it brings such a powerful take on why brands should work with you."How does she vet brand deals? Authenticity first. "Would I genuinely recommend this if there wasn't a campaign attached to it?" She has refused deals that asked her to lie about results.Does becoming an influencer make you rich? Not how people assume. "Just because you make content does not mean you're gonna be rich." Her first brand deal paid about a thousand dollars.Why do content creators need a plan B? Platforms are not permanent. "You need a plan B." She kept her degree and built across Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and more.What advice does she have for aspiring creators? Start before you feel ready. "I learned by doing, by making mistakes, and by staying curious." Age is just a number.Listen to the full episode with Marjan Tabibzada on Skin Anarchy, available wherever you get your podcasts.Don't forget to subscribe to Skin Anarchy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform.Reach out to us through email with any questions.Sign up for our newsletter!Shop all our episodes and products mentioned through our ShopMy Shelf!Support the show

On Today's Menu on Marsha's Plate This week we talk mean girls,Roland Martins alleged sextape leaks, and Sidney Starr getting busted with a minor. Listen on all streaming Platforms https://pod.link/1293033444 Here we talk about cultural events, entertainment news, and gender politics from a Black Trans feminist lens. This is Diamond Stylz archival work that preserves the histories, experiences, and contributions of a marginalized community that has been historically erased, overlooked, or misrepresented. We focus on people who identitfy as Black, trans, gay, or woman...or any combination of all of them. We have merch as well if you wanna support Marsha's Plate https://teespring.com/stores/marshasplate Reading Recommendations https://bookshop.org/shop/DiamondStylz #marshasplate #girlslikeus #boyslikeus #transgender #podcast #podsincolor #podernfamily #transisbeautiful #houston #lgbt #transmen #transwomen #blackfeminism #trans101 #trans #blacktranswomen #blacktransmen #houstonpride #indiepodcast #blacktranslivesmatter #lgbtqia #lgbtq #genderidentity #pride #blackgirlmagic #blackboyjoy #podcast

What happens to creator loyalty when somebody delivers the work, attracts an audience, and then waits weeks to be paid? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Rob Israch, President at Tipalti, about the payment infrastructure supporting the creator economy. Platforms may be able to add thousands of creators quickly, but the systems behind onboarding, tax collection, approvals, global payouts, communication, and reconciliation often struggle to keep pace. Rob cites research suggesting 87 percent of creators have experienced late payments. For a creator, payment is a direct test of whether a platform values their contribution. Delays, incorrect amounts, limited payment methods, or receiving funds in the wrong currency can damage trust and encourage successful creators to take their audiences elsewhere. This makes the payout experience part of creator retention. A platform may offer excellent creative tools and attractive commercial opportunities, but those benefits are easily undermined when creators have to chase payment updates or submit the same information repeatedly. Global growth adds another layer of difficulty. Rob explains that payment teams may need to account for approximately 26,000 rules, varying tax identification requirements, local payment methods, currency preferences, fraud checks, and screening against over five sanctions databases. If the correct information is not collected during onboarding, payment errors can increase by two or three times. The resulting problem concerns the complete workflow. Creator information must be collected securely, tax details validated, payment recipients screened, approvals completed, funds delivered through the preferred method, and every transaction reconciled with accounting systems. Creators also need timely communication when a payment is attempted, completed, delayed, or rejected. We discuss how automation can connect those stages and reduce the manual work that causes errors. Rob also describes practical roles for AI, including more responsive onboarding, automated fraud detection, tax validation, and immediate answers to payment-status questions. These capabilities can reduce support requests while giving finance teams more time to examine performance, risk, and growth. They also provide creators with something remarkably valuable: confidence that they will be paid accurately and kept informed when a problem occurs. Should creator payments remain a finance process, or should platforms treat them as part of the creator experience and retention strategy? Listen to the conversation and share your thoughts with me.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Brittany Benson. *** ### **Purpose of the Interview** The interview on *Money Making Conversations Masterclass* aimed to: * Showcase Brittany Benson’s journey as a **brand strategist**, **AI consultant**, and founder of **The Branding Bar**.* Educate entrepreneurs and small business owners on **branding**, **social media strategy**, and the **impact of AI** on marketing.* Inspire listeners to leverage technology and consistency to build authentic brands. *** ### **Key Takeaways** 1. **Early Branding Journey** * Brittany unknowingly started building her brand in college through her TV show *On the Air with Brittany B*. * She leveraged early platforms like YouTube and Facebook before “social media” was a term. 2. **Consistency is Key** * Success in branding comes from **consistent engagement**, even before monetization was possible. * Brittany grew her Instagram following to over 130,000 by focusing on consistency rather than chasing trends. 3. **Influencer Myth** * Large follower counts don’t guarantee success; **engagement matters more than numbers**. * “If I have 2,500 followers who listen to me, that’s more powerful than 100,000 who don’t.” 4. **Paid vs. Organic Growth** * Paid ads can help, but **organic growth builds trust**. * Best practice: build an organic base first, then use paid ads to amplify. 5. **Pivot to AI** * Brittany pivoted from a traditional social media agency to **AI-driven branding solutions**. * She creates **AI twins** for business owners—digital replicas that can produce content without the owner being physically present. 6. **Generative AI in Marketing** * AI tools can create graphics, videos, and even voice clones. * Brittany emphasizes AI as a **tool to enhance workflow**, not replace human creativity. 7. **Consulting Approach** * Offers strategy calls to identify problems and recommend AI tools. * Services range from **strategy planning**, **consulting**, to **done-for-you solutions**. *** ### **Notable Quotes** * **On branding:** *“I was always building a brand, even when I didn’t realize I was building a brand.”* * **On engagement vs. followers:** *“If I have 2,500 followers who listen to me, that’s more powerful than 100,000 who don’t.”* * **On AI’s role:** *“AI is just a tool. It’s not going to replace your job—it still needs human direction.”* * **On staying ahead:** *“I’ve been told I have the gift of insight to see what’s coming, even if it’s not popular yet.”* * **On her pivot:** *“I started generating AI twins for business owners so they could show up online without showing up.”* *** #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSupport the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Brittany Benson. *** ### **Purpose of the Interview** The interview on *Money Making Conversations Masterclass* aimed to: * Showcase Brittany Benson’s journey as a **brand strategist**, **AI consultant**, and founder of **The Branding Bar**.* Educate entrepreneurs and small business owners on **branding**, **social media strategy**, and the **impact of AI** on marketing.* Inspire listeners to leverage technology and consistency to build authentic brands. *** ### **Key Takeaways** 1. **Early Branding Journey** * Brittany unknowingly started building her brand in college through her TV show *On the Air with Brittany B*. * She leveraged early platforms like YouTube and Facebook before “social media” was a term. 2. **Consistency is Key** * Success in branding comes from **consistent engagement**, even before monetization was possible. * Brittany grew her Instagram following to over 130,000 by focusing on consistency rather than chasing trends. 3. **Influencer Myth** * Large follower counts don’t guarantee success; **engagement matters more than numbers**. * “If I have 2,500 followers who listen to me, that’s more powerful than 100,000 who don’t.” 4. **Paid vs. Organic Growth** * Paid ads can help, but **organic growth builds trust**. * Best practice: build an organic base first, then use paid ads to amplify. 5. **Pivot to AI** * Brittany pivoted from a traditional social media agency to **AI-driven branding solutions**. * She creates **AI twins** for business owners—digital replicas that can produce content without the owner being physically present. 6. **Generative AI in Marketing** * AI tools can create graphics, videos, and even voice clones. * Brittany emphasizes AI as a **tool to enhance workflow**, not replace human creativity. 7. **Consulting Approach** * Offers strategy calls to identify problems and recommend AI tools. * Services range from **strategy planning**, **consulting**, to **done-for-you solutions**. *** ### **Notable Quotes** * **On branding:** *“I was always building a brand, even when I didn’t realize I was building a brand.”* * **On engagement vs. followers:** *“If I have 2,500 followers who listen to me, that’s more powerful than 100,000 who don’t.”* * **On AI’s role:** *“AI is just a tool. It’s not going to replace your job—it still needs human direction.”* * **On staying ahead:** *“I’ve been told I have the gift of insight to see what’s coming, even if it’s not popular yet.”* * **On her pivot:** *“I started generating AI twins for business owners so they could show up online without showing up.”* *** #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Brittany Benson. *** ### **Purpose of the Interview** The interview on *Money Making Conversations Masterclass* aimed to: * Showcase Brittany Benson’s journey as a **brand strategist**, **AI consultant**, and founder of **The Branding Bar**.* Educate entrepreneurs and small business owners on **branding**, **social media strategy**, and the **impact of AI** on marketing.* Inspire listeners to leverage technology and consistency to build authentic brands. *** ### **Key Takeaways** 1. **Early Branding Journey** * Brittany unknowingly started building her brand in college through her TV show *On the Air with Brittany B*. * She leveraged early platforms like YouTube and Facebook before “social media” was a term. 2. **Consistency is Key** * Success in branding comes from **consistent engagement**, even before monetization was possible. * Brittany grew her Instagram following to over 130,000 by focusing on consistency rather than chasing trends. 3. **Influencer Myth** * Large follower counts don’t guarantee success; **engagement matters more than numbers**. * “If I have 2,500 followers who listen to me, that’s more powerful than 100,000 who don’t.” 4. **Paid vs. Organic Growth** * Paid ads can help, but **organic growth builds trust**. * Best practice: build an organic base first, then use paid ads to amplify. 5. **Pivot to AI** * Brittany pivoted from a traditional social media agency to **AI-driven branding solutions**. * She creates **AI twins** for business owners—digital replicas that can produce content without the owner being physically present. 6. **Generative AI in Marketing** * AI tools can create graphics, videos, and even voice clones. * Brittany emphasizes AI as a **tool to enhance workflow**, not replace human creativity. 7. **Consulting Approach** * Offers strategy calls to identify problems and recommend AI tools. * Services range from **strategy planning**, **consulting**, to **done-for-you solutions**. *** ### **Notable Quotes** * **On branding:** *“I was always building a brand, even when I didn’t realize I was building a brand.”* * **On engagement vs. followers:** *“If I have 2,500 followers who listen to me, that’s more powerful than 100,000 who don’t.”* * **On AI’s role:** *“AI is just a tool. It’s not going to replace your job—it still needs human direction.”* * **On staying ahead:** *“I’ve been told I have the gift of insight to see what’s coming, even if it’s not popular yet.”* * **On her pivot:** *“I started generating AI twins for business owners so they could show up online without showing up.”* *** #SHMS #STRAW #BESTSteve Harvey Morning Show Online: http://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Conversations That Matter, Jon Harris revisits the COVID era through the lens of Anthony Fauci's public statements and congressional testimony—including his decision to plead the Fifth. The discussion examines how many evangelical leaders and institutions responded at the time, the frequent use of Romans 13 and “love your neighbor” arguments, and which churches and pastors actually stood firm.Harris shares the key lessons he believes Christians should take from 2020–2021: good theology is only proven under pressure, the importance of thinking independently, and the value of leaders who refuse to bend conviction for social approval. The episode also covers current cultural observations on immigration and the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, the surprising success of country artist Ella Langley, recent Trump administration actions, listener questions, and a clear call to maintain integrity regardless of the cultural winds.00:00 Fauci Clips Montage02:00 Welcome & Why This Still Matters05:50 What Evangelical Leaders Said About Fauci10:00 Lessons from COVID: Theology Meets Reality13:50 Churches That Stayed Open – The Real Heroes18:00 Elites, Platforms & Parachurch Failures21:00 Thinking for Yourself & Finding Courage59:00 Immigration, Nigeria & Western Democracies1:02:30 Ella Langley's Chart Success1:09:00 Trump Administration Updates1:10:30 Listener Questions & Personal Notes1:16:30 Final Takeaways from COVID1:21:00 Closing & ETP CoffeeSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/conversations-that-matter8971/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy