This week Robert flies solo (Joe’s busy revolutionizing dairy on the blockchain) to ask a question: What if slower is the new smarter? After riffing on OpenAI’s burnout‑induced shutdown, he unveils a sneak peek of his upcoming book, Valuable Friction….
Joe Pulizzi & Robert Rose
Critical: Your Marketing Job Plan B [Special Episode] (487)
After a quick cover of the Cloudflare news where it will be possible to select and make money from AI companies crawling your site, Joe and Robert dive into marketing plan B. Specifically – The New Normal: Why Everyone Needs a Personal Brand (Even If …
AI Slop and What Mamdani’s Win Means for Marketing (486)
AI hits the headlines again. Anthropic wins a lawsuit for its training data procedures, but the judge leaves room for additional lawsuits. In the greater scheme, will any of the lawsuits really matter? John Oliver’s AI Slop video is “must-see-TV” and A…
Marketing Survival Tips Post AI & Social (485)
Huge research uncovers the obvious. Television and “traditional media” is going obsolete, as social media revenues and watch/listen time dominates. It is indeed the end of the living room. The boys review reports from WPP and NiemenLab. In marketing wi…
The Future of AI [Report] (484)
Joe and Robert break down Mary Meeker’s “Future of AI” report and discuss the biggest opportunities and threats for marketers and creators in the future. Disney sues Midjourney in yet another lawsuit against AI companies. When will it stop and why shou…
AI and The Rise of the Individual Creator (483)
Did someone say McDonald’s is bringing back snack wraps? In other news, who knew that artificial intelligence would force brands and publishers toward an indie-creator model? If Google AI is undermining journalism, perhaps the way out is through the in…
AI Blackmail, Layoffs and Hot Yoga (482)
AI is again in the headlines this week with Anthropic announcing that its AI will do anything to survive…even bust you for cheating on your wife. AI layoffs are starting to hit home. It’s almost to the point that people are being laid off “by” AI its…
Uh Oh. Google and Apple In Big Trouble Now. (481)
Google’s big marketing event was an explosion of AI – a new home screen, more agents, AI video and even smart bidding. Why? Google’s main revenue stream (search ads) is in big trouble. Is Google going the way of the yellow pages? The boys ponder. And …
AEO and Sperm Racing (480)
The boys have finally jumped the shark with this episode. But first, Mark Zuckerberg declares war on the advertising industry. Meta’s AI Do-It-Yourself tool will either win big or be fly by night. There is no middle ground. The BBC will push its missio…
The AI Panic Ride (479)
Buckle up! AI is driving now. Zuckerberg at Meta AI doubles down on their cure for loneliness and more friends, but have taken out any sort of safety precautions. We need to be worried. Very worried. Trump wants to tariff the movie business. Tell me ex…
The Rise of the Content Entrepreneur – Research [Special Episode] (478)
Special episode breaking down the state of content creators, content entrepreneurs and how marketers fit in. Including: The Rise of Creators in 2025 Renting vs. Owning The TikTok Effect Community as Currency Revenue Mix How to Get Rich as a Creator H…
Do Trump’s Policies Help Content Marketers? (477)
As Tariffs hang over the US Advertising industry, more companies start to look internal. That means internal communications, internal influencers, owned media and more. Could Trump’s Tariffs be a boon for content marketers? Google loses their online ad…
Sam and Elon’s Billionaire Pillow Fight (476)
The boys are back with news that OpenAI (led by Sam Altman) is considering a social media platform that may compete with Elon’s Twitter/X. Let’s face it…we know what this is really about. Joe and Robert bring it home for you. META’s big lawsuit with …
Thou Shalt Build on Rented Land (475)
Has AI finally killed search? Does Google even matter anymore? Must we now build our content on rented land? The boys go through each of these questions and talk about if “do not build your house on rented land” is still a thing. In other news, the Tik…
Into the Dumbery (474)
Possibly our dumbest episode yet. Joe and Robert go deep into the dumbery to try to make sense of an incredibly weird (and dumb) week. TikTok is for sale. No it’s not. Maybe it is. Will we know this week? Elon Musk merges his two companies into one, cr…
The 5 Keys to Content Marketing Success [Special Episode] (473)
A very special episode on what makes a successful content marketer or content creator. Robert and Joe talk about what works today to successfully build and monetize an audience with these five keys. 1. For marketers, setting a clear goal up front – sal…
Heading Toward Marketing Recession (472)
New data suggests that advertising growth is slowing. Overall marketing is soon to follow. Will the current political environment drive us into a marketing recession? Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proclaims that AI will take over all coding in the next ye…
Content Marketing M&A Starting to Heat Up (471)
The boys are back and the buys are heating up. Food-delivery startup Wonder purchased Tastemade, now boasting content creation to meal preparation to delivery all in one. Is more on the way? We think so. Spotify paid $5 billion dollars to indie creator…
Media’s Death Creates Huge Opportunity for Brands (470)
The boys are back with commentary on the death of media. It’s a sad case on both political spectrum. And the opportunity in the future belongs to non-media brands. Let’s see what happens. In other news, more and more creators are going full AI. How clo…
Vertical AI Content Creation Next Big B2B Boom (469)
The boys kick off the show with Dow Jones news and their AI content marketplace of 5,000 publishers. The real news? Vertical content opportunities using proprietary LLMs may ultimately steal the show for B2B content creators. Differentiation is the key…
