Agency veteran Nikhil Vaish, founder of BoostSolo, argues that most ad failures start upstream. We walk through his three-step model: Offer > Homework > Execution, show how AI can amplify both good and bad strategy, and detail a practical voice-of-customer workflow using your own sales calls.Expect a frank conversation about niching down, pricing power, and building the right foundation so ads can finally do their job.You will learnThe Step Two foundation that most skip and how to build it fastHow to balance brand and performance without chasing vanity metricsWhy AI without clarity equals faster failureSpecialist positioning for higher fees and better fitA simple VOC loop: record calls, extract language, ship copyConnect with Nikhil• BoostSolo: https://boostsolo.com• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilvaish/Work with Adam👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20minSpecial Friday drop. Unpacking real. Ditching noise.

E-commerce isn’t single-touch - and your reporting shouldn’t pretend it is. Growth leader Andrew Maffettone breaks down how marketplace spillover (Amazon, Walmart, DTC, social) makes ROAS tidy but wrong, why profit beats channel vanity metrics, and how to design campaigns by channel purpose (education vs. capture). He shares a surprising SEO play—using low-cost Google Ads to accelerate rankings—then retargeting for conversion, plus a blunt take on why driving ads straight to Amazon often hurts organic rank.You’ll learn:How to evaluate spend, revenue, and profit across channels, not in silosWhy last-click is broken—and what holistic measurement looks likeWhen Meta/TikTok work (and what to do when budgets are small)The SEO “quick lift” loop: traffic → rankings → retargeting → salesWhy “send paid to Amazon” backfires and better ways to support listingsConnect with Andrew• BlueTuskr: https://bluetuskr.com• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmaffWork with Adam👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min🎧 Subscribe to Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising? wherever you listen — and if this episode hit home, share it with someone who needs to hear that you can scale without selling your soul.

Community isn’t a channel—it’s an operating system. Shraddha Varma, Co-Founder of Fuzia, shares how a women-centered platform turns creators into contributors, and contributors into careers. We map the community → credibility → opportunity flywheel, plus a pragmatic view of paid media once audience and offer are proven.You’ll learn:How to build a values-driven community that compounds trustConverting community energy into a talent + partnerships pipelineThe right (and wrong) moments to use paid adsActivation ideas: storytelling, spotlights, and serviceMetrics that matter beyond impressionsConnect with Shraddha• Fuzia: https://www.fuzia.com/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shraddhavarma/• Email: shraddha@fuzia.comWork with Adam👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20min

Author credibility beats vanity metrics—and hospitality beats hacks. In this conversation, Megumi Calver explains how she helps nonfiction authors and speakers use books as credibility engines, why she built Merobebe to champion women winemakers, and the narrow moments when paid ads are worth it—after audience and offer are dialed.You’ll learn:The difference between “bestseller” clout and durable credibilityHow to grow a thriving community without relying on paid adsWine-world lessons for marketers: language, labels, and transparencyA pragmatic framework for ads when budgets are tightWhy genuine hospitality outperforms dashboardsConnect with Megumi• Merobebe: https://www.merobebe.com/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megumicalver/• Email: megumi@merobebe.comWork with Adam👉 Book your 20-min Exploration Call: https://calendly.com/adamwbarney/explorationplugin-20minUnpacking real. Ditching noise. Subscribe and share with a founder who values trust over tricks.

What if you could build a thriving global business — without spending a dime on ads?In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, Utsav Nagori, Founder of DynaPro Global, shares how he grew a VA agency serving clients across the U.S. entirely through trust, relationships, and ridiculous consistency.From his first few clients to managing a full remote team, Utsav walks through what it really takes to scale when you don’t have funding, investors, or ad budgets — just belief and execution.🎯 Highlights from the conversation:How one referral snowballed into a global client baseWhy “every client is a story” beats every marketing funnelThe underestimated power of showing up every day onlineBuilding systems that replace burnout with balanceTurning early mistakes into your most effective marketing💬 As Utsav puts it:“I didn’t start DynaPro to escape work. I started it to create work worth doing.”This one’s about grit, values, and what happens when founders stop chasing shortcuts and start playing the long game.🔗 Connect with Utsav:LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/utsav-nagori/Website → https://dynaproglobal.com/Email → utsav@dynaproglobal.com🎧 Subscribe to Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising? wherever you listen — and if this episode hit home, share it with someone who needs to hear that you can scale without selling your soul.#IsAnythingReal #PaidAdvertising #VAAgency #Entrepreneurship #BootstrappedGrowth #EnergyOS #ScaleSmarter #Leadership