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By Eric Siu and Neil Patel
4.6
12391,239 ratings
The podcast currently has 3,647 episodes available.
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Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric asks Neil to finally explain digital PR and how it helps with AEO and SEO. Neil gets there via a Huawei phone with a screen on the back, how ByteDance ran AI inside Lark two years before the rest of us, where America really ranks in K-12 education (34th, per Google AI Mode), what China mandates instead, and the FOMO playbook behind Alpha School's marketing. Then the answer: digital PR is the new link building, you're optimizing for the mention, not the link, and you want your product included everywhere the models read. They close on the only marketing advantage that compounds: consistency. Key takeaways ◾Digital PR is optimizing for the mention, not the link. That's what the models read ◾America ranks 34th in K-12; China mandates 9 years and tracks 40% into vocational paths ◾Consistency compounds. Grey-hat wins evaporate, and one channel is never enough Chapters 00:00 What is digital PR, actually? 00:27 Huawei's phone with a screen on the back 01:07 ByteDance and Lark were doing this two years ago 02:43 America is 34th in K-12 (Google AI Mode) 05:36 Compulsory schooling: US vs China 06:14 Alpha School's FOMO marketing 10:28 Digital PR: optimize for the mention 15:15 Consistency compounds

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric brings the DHH question — outspend or outteach? — and the hosts take sides on the cheapest marketing that almost nobody has the patience to do. Then it gets personal: why Bezos Expeditions invested in Basecamp, whether pressure makes winners, the hairy reality of agency M&A (data rooms, earn-outs, and numbers that never survive diligence), a tale of two agency contractors, and why revenue beats views every single time. A candid operator's episode on teaching, buying, and building agencies. Key takeaways ◾Outteaching compounds — it's the free marketing nobody commits to ◾In agency M&A, the seller's numbers never survive the data room ◾Optimize for revenue, not reach Chapters 00:00 Outspend vs outteach: the DHH question 01:12 Bezos and Basecamp 02:21 Pressure makes winners 05:48 The agency M&A trap 09:55 Managing mistakes properly 12:09 A tale of two agencies 18:33 Revenue over views

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Nike's market cap peaked at $280 billion in 2021 and has lost $223 billion since. Eric walks through Trung Phan's breakdown of how it happened: McKinsey advised Nike to eliminate its running, basketball and soccer categories, the marketing budget moved from brand advertising to programmatic retargeting, and hundreds of wholesale partners were cut for a direct-to-consumer bet that collapsed when shoppers went back to stores. Neil on why consultants who never ran a business should not be running yours, and why a kid asking for Nikes is what good brand advertising looks like. Then LeBron James' Polymarket partnership and why both hosts call it brand eroding, and the shirtless YouTuber Eric calls the Sam Sulek of e-commerce. Key takeaways ◾Nike cut what worked (categories, brand ads, retail partners) for what was easier to measure ◾A brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room; retargeting does not build it ◾It takes decades to build a brand and five minutes to erode it Chapters 00:00 Nike lost $223B: McKinsey killed the categories 01:32 Consultants who never ran a business 04:06 Locked in: adapt or die 04:34 Nike swapped brand ads for retargeting 06:36 Why kids wanted Nikes 07:59 Neil's Tesla 09:16 Nike burnt its wholesale partners 10:07 LeBron x Polymarket: a brand-eroding move 13:07 The Sam Sulek of e-commerce 15:22 What views actually matter

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Wil Reynolds of Seer Interactive says agency owners are dishonest about how business is really going, and that most have been flat for three or four years. Eric reads the post and Neil agrees the downturn started around 2022 and is the longest he has seen, then explains why NP Digital kept growing anyway. Eric's take: the agencies dying are the ones still doing what they did five years ago, and tough markets are exactly when adaptable founders win the deals against the holding companies. The episode closes on the part of being a founder nobody talks about: watching the people you trained go on to build their own companies, why mindset separates the people who survive the downs, and why a business win feels the way it does. Key takeaways ◾Be honest about how business is going; it keeps leads and opportunities flowing to you ◾The agencies in trouble are still running the 2021 playbook; adapt or die ◾You can't train mindset, and hard years are what build it Chapters 00:00 Agency owners are lying about how business is going (Wil Reynolds) 01:41 Neil: why NP Digital is still growing 03:54 Eric: adapt or die, the invisible hammer 07:06 Flat for 4 years? You're doing the same thing 08:06 The burn-victim YouTuber: keep going 10:34 If you're going through hell, keep going 11:14 The best part of being a founder 12:44 Mindset: people can't handle the downs 13:48 The business high

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric introduces the new AEO: Autonomous Engine Optimization, the AI harness Nick Eubanks used to grow a 12-week-old website, and why every sales call and customer conversation inside your company is a page waiting to be published. Then the self-improving product has arrived: Amplitude's Wave agent found its own problems and shipped fixes worth +160% engagement and a 6% to 9% onboarding lift. Eric and Neil also pick apart OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch, the five things that took Andrew Warner's new YouTube channel to 937,000 views in a month, how B2B buyers now find agencies through Claude, and why the best salespeople sell like doctors. Key takeaways ◾AEO now means autonomous: content creates, drafts and ships itself with a human in the loop ◾Self-improving products are live: Wave found and fixed real conversion problems on its own ◾On YouTube, info calls, retention data and trending topics beat subscriber counts Chapters 00:00 The new AEO: Autonomous Engine Optimization 03:07 Self-improving products: Amplitude's Wave agent 06:44 OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch misstep 11:37 Andrew Warner: 937K views in a month 16:48 How buyers find agencies through Claude 21:18 Sell like a doctor
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