What are you doing tonight? Say hello to the company that made the line, “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” fall out of fashion. Adam talks to Scott Owens, Founder and CEO of DoStuff Media, about the art of creating an event media empire. Scott explains how DoStuff Media started in Austin and expanded to over 22 cities, tackling local events and entertainment options for people who are, well… just looking for stuff to do. Scott shares how his journey of perseverance, strategy, and execution...
Aug 07, 2024•26 min
NFTs, blockchain, and web3, oh my! If money never sleeps—then crypto has so much caffeine coursing through its veins, that it literally couldn't sleep even if it tried. But you still have to. So as a media company, how can you keep up with the rollercoaster ride that is crypto? Meet crypto expert Jarrod Dicker, lead partner and creator of TCG Crypto and former VP of Commercial at The Washington Post. Jarrod chats with Adam about the unique challenges of the crypto market and explains why it’s re...
May 01, 2024•35 min
Meet the anonymous man behind the revolutionary Twitter account that’s making the automotive industry more transparent than ever before. That's right—Yossi Levi’s finally stepping out of the shadows of anonymity and sitting down with Adam to share his personal experience and insights into the automotive industry. From starting an anonymous account to unveiling his personal story and building a strong following, Yossi discusses the challenges and successes he encountered along the way. Yossi and ...
Apr 24, 2024•44 min
How does the co-founder of the nation’s fastest-growing newsletter-first media company think about scaling, investing, and running a local media company? Adam sits down with Ryan Heafy, the CEO of 6AM City, to discuss the ins and outs of local media and the challenges and opportunities it presents. Ryan shares how his passion for the local economic development of communities led him to create 6AM City and how the community-led newsletter managed to capture a sustainable local revenue source in t...
Mar 27, 2024•28 min
Discover the fascinating story behind FreightWaves and its founder, Craig Fuller, who scaled the niche media company into one of the most authoritative voices in the supply chain industry. Craig shares insights into the challenges of running a founder-driven business and the importance of building relationships with direct revenue. What was the process of venture funding like for Freighwaves, and how does he think about go-to-market strategy, valuation, and investor exits? Craig also discusses t...
Mar 20, 2024•41 min
Think sports media is mainstream? Meet the company that believes sports media isn’t nearly mainstream enough. It’s Adam v. Adam as Adam White, CEO and founder of Front Office Sports drops by the pod to discuss the future of sports media and reveal how FSO is creating a unique and engaging media experience by merging the brand with the power of its team’s individual personalities. Adam breaks down FSO’s key business pillars and explains their play-by-play approach to thinking about commercial opp...
Mar 13, 2024•21 min
How did the internet’s most successful gardening content creator go from homesteading in his backyard to garnering a multi-million dollar investment deal? Kevin Espiritu, founder of Epic Gardening, chats with Adam about building an ecosystem of content and finding ways to focus on the core pillars of your business that matter most. Learn how Kevin’s passion for gardening grew into an entrepreneurial endeavor of epic proportions as he explains how he successfully scaled Epic Gardening from a back...
Mar 06, 2024•38 min
Discover the secrets to building a successful media network and one of the largest female marketplaces in audio with Michael Bosstick, CEO of Dear Media. In this episode, Michael shares his insights on managing hybrid environments, the importance of authenticity in media, and the value of niche content. Learn how Dear Media has navigated the changing landscape of consumer attention and why consistency is key in podcasting. Michael also discusses the role of culture in talent selection and the fu...
Feb 28, 2024•48 min
Discover the story behind Community Impact, a hyperlocal news source distributing information by print and email to millions of local residents in the Austin area. John Garrett, the founder of Community Impact, chats with Adam about his entrepreneurial journey and the critical moments that shaped the business. John shares why risk-taking is essential to starting any business, the importance of selling upfront ads, and how the company's unique distribution cadence led it down the path of sustaina...
Feb 21, 2024•34 min
Meet the man responsible for giving the oil and gas industry a much-needed reboot. Collin Mclellan drops by the pod to chat with Adam about how he’s changing the way the world thinks about energy, starting with his company, Digital Wildcatters, a community-based organization dedicated to connecting energy workers to other professionals. Collin shares how Digital Wildcatters is building a community through content and why his brand is hedging its bets on the power of authentic storytelling. Disco...
Feb 14, 2024•40 min
How do you build one of the most successful fantasy football newsletters around? According to Eliot Crist, CEO of Matthew Berry’s Fantasy Life Newsletter, it’s all about recognizing strengths within each individual and understanding your growth goals. Eliot sits down with Adam to share his insights on maintaining engagement with your audience, leveraging partnerships for growth, and how to cope with the seasonal nature of any industry. He also reveals what he believes will be the future of the f...
Feb 09, 2024•30 min
SXSW is quintessential Austin. So how did this main staple of Austin culture grow to its astounding 36 years of festival success since its initial conception in 1987? Join Adam Ryan as he interviews Hugh Forrest, Co-President & Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, to learn how the organization thinks about creating lasting, impactful cultural moments and what aspects of the festival have had to evolve with the rise of social media. How does SXSW generate one-of-a-kind viral moments while still...
Jan 31, 2024•30 min
The newsletter world stopped being polite and started getting real this week, and TBH this is the moment Adam’s been waiting for his whole life. He breaks down the Twitter feud between SparkLoop’s Lewis Nicholls and beehiiv’s Tyler Denk, which ended with Tyler responding, “Didn’t you sell your failed company in a fire sale?” to the SparkLoop Co-Founder’s tweet about their closed recommendation ESP network. Who’s right and who’s wrong? And is SparkLoop’s bully strategy ultimately doomed to fail? ...
Jan 19, 2024•12 min
The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, claiming the language learning model stole thousands of its articles to train its machines, and allowing millions of other sites to profit off of the backs of its employees’ hard-earned labor. So what happens next if the New York Times wins their suit? Adam’s back, and he’s breaking down everything you need to know about the groundbreaking new lawsuit. What does the downfall of Napster have to teach us about copyright i...
Dec 28, 2023•5 min
Figuring the right marketing fit as a B2B can feel like throwing spaghetti at a wall—sooner or later at least one strategy has to stick… right? But how can you optimize the path to finding the right verticals in the meantime? Join Adam Ryan as he sits down with Chris Ferrell, CEO of Endeavor Business Media, to discuss the ins and outs of the media industry and the strategies behind building a successful B2B brand. From choosing the right verticals to navigating acquisitions, Chris shares his exp...
Nov 22, 2023•34 min
In this very special episode Adam sits down with the CEO of Bloomberg Media as he unpacks exactly what it means to build an audience-first media company. Adam and Scott get into the weeds of what getting back to basics really looks like when it comes to UI, how the world’s largest newsroom is leveraging AI (and has done for some time), and the secret sauce to retaining top talent. Plus you’ll also hear Scott’s secret formula to success in the media. Spoiler: It's what Bloomberg has been doing fo...
Mar 16, 2023•51 min•Season 4Ep. 8
The world of Media is moving faster and faster. Media executives have more to process than ever before and need to know what’s working today, while keeping pulse on tomorrow. Perpetual peels back the curtain on what media executives are doing to stay at the top of their game, combined with rigorous predictions on the future.. Hosted by Adam Ryan, Co-Founder and CEO of Workweek, the show zooms in on how executives are executing their playbooks. Guests are world-class at what they do, coming from ...
Dec 03, 2022•2 min
What happens to media companies during a recession? If you’re in a startup, this is your episode. Adam gets into advertising, recession, and why smaller companies benefit from being under the macro wave during tough economic times. Want to get into it further? Follow Adam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamRy_n and sign up to the Perpetual newsletter, where he dives deeper into media: https://workweek.com/brand/perpetual And if you love listening to Perpetual please leave me a 5-star review on ...
Dec 01, 2022•6 min•Season 4Ep. 7
How did a guy who looks like a poorly-dressed substitute teacher wind up at the heart of a scandal that rocked the world? Through the power of storytelling. Adam takes a short, deep dive into the FTX collapse and specifically its founder Sam Bankman-Fried. SBF’s personal brand was so compelling it convinced high-profile investors and celebrities to invest in him. And media operators have that exact same power at their fingertips. Want to get into it further? Follow Adam on Twitter: https://twitt...
Nov 30, 2022•5 min•Season 4Ep. 6
What makes Ben Smith different from so many journalists? He’s not reporting the news, he’s breaking it. Adam takes 5 minutes to deep dive into exactly what this means, how it sets Ben up as the go-to journalist in media, and why he has an athlete mindset. And if you want to get into it further, follow Adam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamRy_n and sign up to the Perpetual newsletter, where he dives deeper into media: https://workweek.com/brand/perpetual And if you love listening to Perpetual ...
Nov 23, 2022•6 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Every year hundreds of billions of dollars are left on the table because entrepreneurs don't know how to access Government funding. MainStreet is fixing that. Adam jumps into conversation with Doug Ludlow, CEO of MainStreet, the platform taking the guesswork out of how to access tax credits. Doug discusses how media companies can survive through an impending downturn, why survival is the new hyper-growth, and the power of Twitter for building the MainStreet brand. And if you want to get into it ...
Nov 22, 2022•30 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Getting people to trust news sources is tough but Ben Smith is facing the challenge head-on, building credibility through Semafor. Find out how. Ben is Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder of Semafor, the online news platform that strives to become a trusted news source in an interconnected world, based on journalistic transparency and a platform that delivers shared facts while giving voice to a range of informed, competing views. Adam and Ben get into the relationship between creator bylines vs trus...
Nov 15, 2022•33 min•Season 4Ep. 3
If you’re a media operator looking for a fresh take on the Elon/Twitter story, you’ve found it here. Adam Ryan runs through the issues from a media perspective, digging into Elon’s proposed changes to advertising on the platform and how it’s likely to squeeze out the likes of Meta. Searing analysis, great commentary and all inside 5-minutes And if you want to get into it further, follow Adam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamRy_n and sign up to the Perpetual newsletter, where he dives deeper i...
Nov 08, 2022•5 min•Season 4Ep. 2
What does the future of machine learning look like? Ben Faw has some hot takes. AdVon Commerce is the company that harnesses proprietary software to create value in e-commerce, working with brands like Beauty Bakerie and Over Easy. Ben and Adam open season 4 by getting into the future of machine learning for content creators and brands. They discuss how Chrome browser data will play a bigger role in searches, and how to leverage newsletters as a channel. And if you want to get into it further, f...
Nov 01, 2022•34 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Substack has made a bold move with its newsletter subscriptions, but how does it work and should other media companies follow suit? Adam gets into it in a 5-minute dive into subscription recommendations. The figures look promising but are they sustainable, and what’s stopping super successful writers from leaving the platform? Want to take the discussion further? Follow Adam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamRy_n and sign up to the Perpetual newsletter: https://workweek.com/brand/perpetual If ...
Sep 27, 2022•4 min•Season 3Ep. 11
In this 5-minute tear down, Adam responds to comments on his recent viral tweet asking if the creator economy is cratering. Join Adam as he gets into how platforms are connecting audiences and creators on a deeper level, and how Only Fans does business differently. Want to see what all the noise is about? Here’s the tweet that went viral: https://twitter.com/AdamRy_n/status/1571503567491698694 Want to take the discussion further? Follow Adam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamRy_n and sign up t...
Sep 22, 2022•5 min•Season 3Ep. 10
In this 5-minute tear down, Adam reacts to what he learnt in his interview with CEO of Incredible Dream Studios CEO, Jane Hoffacker. You’ll hear Adam’s take on why media companies should take action when an industry goes in two different directions, how to use digital to build community, and why change is hard but necessary. If you want to hear how Jane is creating incredible board games and building community, take a listen to the last episode here: https://spoti.fi/3xq3RwO Want to take the dis...
Sep 15, 2022•5 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Jane Hoffacker is on a mission to help players escape on fantasy adventures through tabletop games. Find out how she’s building a media company focused on bringing stories to life. Adam and Jane get into why Incredible Dream Studios is zigging when everyone else is zagging, why your community helps you find relevance, and why they’re in a state of constant experimentation. You’ll also hear Jane’s take on why Incredible Dream Studios is uniquely focusing on IP and not just the gamplay. Follow Jan...
Sep 13, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 8
What can media companies learn from the success of Mr Beast’s burger launch? Plenty, as it turns out. Adam shares some spicy takes on why product quality is less important than brand love, why you should surround yourself with talent, and why creators might just be the asset your media company needs Want to take the discussion further? Follow Adam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdamRy_n and sign up to the Perpetual newsletter: https://workweek.com/brand/perpetual If you love listening to Media ...
Sep 08, 2022•5 min•Season 3Ep. 7
The days of single focus media businesses are declining. Adam Ryan explains why multiple core competencies are opening up huge opportunities for media companies. Adam dives straight in with a look back at how traditional media companies operated, focused almost exclusively on one part of their business - like advertising. But with barriers to areas like distribution getting lower, media companies are jumping on the opportunity to spread their wings and explore diverse business opportunities, lik...
Sep 01, 2022•4 min•Season 3Ep. 6
