September 17, 2025 • 33 mins
From Disney to Condé Nast, Lisa Valentino has helped shape some of the most iconic media businesses. And now, as President of Best Buy Ads, she’s turning a trusted retailer into a modern media powerhouse. In this episode, Lisa and Michael unpack how scale, data, and creativity are transforming retail media, why storytelling still matters in a metrics-obsessed world, and how AI, culture, and commerce are colliding to redefine the future of media.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Today's culture is fueled by technology. You think about whether
it's the latest glassware or the latest laptop, or you
think about holiday, you think about back to school, you
think about AI. Technology is fueling everything, right, and so
best Buy is in a really interesting position because we
(00:26):
enable technology through our platform.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm Michael Cassen, and this is Good Company. Together we'll
explore the dynamic intersection of media, marketing, entertainment, sports and technology.
I'll be joined by visionaries, pioneers, and yes, even a
couple of disruptors for candid conversations as we break down
how these masters of ingenuity are shaping the future of business,
culture and everything in between. My bet is you'll pick
(00:58):
up a lesson or two along the way. As I
like to say, it's all good. Welcome back to Good Company.
Today's guest is a very special friend, Lisa Valentino, the
president of Best Buy Ads. But don't let that title
fool you. She's not just running a retail media division.
She's helping architect what the next era of modern media
(01:21):
looks like. Her playbook decades of experience at the top
of the game, Disney, ESPN, Conde n asked where she
built businesses, reinvented revenue models, and turned data into decisions
that move the needle. Now she's bringing all that fired
power to best Buy, turning one of America's most trusted
retail brands into a media powerhouse, backed by over two
(01:43):
hundred million customers, deep behavioral data, and a digital meets
physical footprint that most platforms would kill for. This episode
pushes past the headlines and into the mechanics of real transformation.
How to turn a legacy retailer into a mod media powerhouse,
how to keep creativity alive in a world obsessed with metrics,
(02:06):
and how AI, storytelling and commerce are crashing into each
other fast. Lisa brings the kind of clarity and conviction
that cuts through the noise. So you're all in for
a treat. Let's get into it, Lisa. Welcome to Good Company.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Wow, what a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me, Lisa.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You know we've had the privilege of working and the
pleasure truly of working together for last gosh, I don't know.
My mother taught me well. I don't have to put
numbers on it, but you know, there's lots of history
here but what I want to focus on is the
current Lisa, and this has been a big week for
best Buy ads. You just came off a major industry moment.
(02:49):
Can you pull back the curtain a little and you know,
give us a step in the direction of what best
Buy is doing in the sort of the new gear.
I mean, it's fall and it's here.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. It's a really
big moment and a big week for best Buy, and
it's the first time we're really debuting if you will
work that's been going on for about a decade. So
the company and you may have heard Corey speak to
(03:20):
this this week, but the company has been hard at
work for the last decade building its retail media business.
Today we sit as a top retail media network and
it's a really big deal when you think about the
fact that best Buy is the number one specialty consumer
electronics retailer in the US, right, so we start with
(03:42):
such a position of strength. Our retail network is built
on three things, scale, tech, culture, and performance. And you know,
if you think about what are the mechanics of a
future big media business to have scale, culture, and performance
(04:04):
as three differentiators, there are not many companies that can
check all those boxes. So you know, I think we're
building from a very strong foundation. This week, we're out
there talking to customers and showing customers what that means,
you know. And frankly, we've been working with consumer electronics
(04:26):
companies for decades.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Well as partners in crime in a positive way. Obviously,
we sell.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
A third of all televisions in this country, so when
you think about the role that we play in the ecosystem,
it's a really important one. You now start to think
about ways that we're going to build on that from
a media perspective, and it's pretty enormous. I spent a
decade over a decade at Disney, and what I learned
(04:52):
very quickly in that last decade in my career was
scale matters, and the signals that you have from the
customer are everything. Because data is really the new currency.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well at Lisa, data is the new currency. But as
our friend and I quote this all the time, and
I will always give credit to Rashad Tabakawala for saying
this in a pitch many years ago, and I apologize
to the audience because they've heard it many times from me.
But he said once data is like a oil in
the ground. It's only worth something once you refine it.
(05:26):
It's only worth something once you take it out of
the ground. It's nice to have in the ground, but
unless you make it do something for you. And that's
where you're an expert because of your experience knowing what
to do with this. I'm going to use a very
inarticulate word here again, I apologize this shit ton of
data that you've got.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
We're overflowing as an industry right with data. The data
that we sit on is a data set I haven't
seen ever in my career. Ninety three percent of all
transactions that happen at best Buy. So you think about
the magnitude of having two hundred million consumers in our
audience graph, and we can see ninety three percent of
all of the transactions that they make, whether that's in
(06:08):
one of our stores, in our app or online. We
can ascribe that percentage of transactions back to a customer ID.
That is the gold that a company like best Buy
is sitting on and leveraging to plan, buy and measure
media more effectively. That's a really differentiated position to build
(06:33):
upon as we go forward.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It is and as we talk about this retail media
or commerce media transformation. And you know, I've been currying
favor on the word commerce media as opposed to retail
media as a naming convention. But I think you refer
to it somewhere as the ultimate intersection of influence and performance.
And you said it earlier when you take those things
(06:57):
together with the scale, because as you said, you learned
one thing over your career, and you've been in places
where scale was existing, i e. The Walt Disney Company,
Conde Nast, best Buy. I was friends with doctor Ruth
Westeimer for forty five years and she told me, even
though she was a half pint, she told me, sis matters.
(07:17):
And it does, and especially in this case. So you know,
the network as we talk about retail media networks, the
network that you have of a customer base is the
network that's the magic those two hundred million customers.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, it's the two hundred million. And if you think
about why and the relationship that they have with with
our company. Today's culture think about this. Today's culture is
fueled by technology. You think about whether it's the latest
glassware or the latest laptop, or you think about holiday,
(07:55):
you think about back to school. You think about AI,
technology is link everything right, and so best Buy is
in a really interesting position because we enable technology through
our platform, and so that's the influence piece. I'll give
you a great example of this. So earlier this summer,
(08:17):
and you have grandkids and you have sons, Nintendo came
to us with the launch of Switch to Right, a
really important piece of hardware if you're a gamer.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
If you're a human, as you just said, with my
grandchildren and whatnot. Trust.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
So we did the pre order for them in June,
and it generated the highest hour of traffic site traffic
in our history and best Buy's history. Not only that,
this is a really interesting consumer insight too. Seventy percent
of those pre orders raised their hand and said, I
(08:53):
want to pick it up in store. Here is the
I need to have it right now factor in culture.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So I want to remind you the mantra in Los
Angeles where I spend half the time is instant gratification.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Isn't quickly gratification.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So now you no, but it's not quick enough. I
need it now, I need it before now.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So now you have best by enabling seventy percent of
those orders being picked up. So what did we do.
We brought back midnight openings. You remember midnight opening I
certainly do. We haven't done one since I think twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, I did one with my oldest grandson, So I
have done it. I've experienced the midnight opening.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
It's a thing, and that's the consumer delight, that's the trust,
and that's the scalability of the platform. So imagine us
doing that now. We will do that obviously for all
of our partners, But imagine when a movie studio comes
to us and says, we want you to create that
same moment for our brand.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
We're going to hit pause for a moment, but stay
with us after the break, we've got more insights to share.
I always harkened back to the fact that when I
was a media buyer, when I started in my career
(10:17):
and the Walt Disney Company, as you know, was my
largest client, everyone said, Michael, do you guys understand retail?
I said, wait, there's nothing more retail than a movie company.
They're releasing new products. It's like consumer package goods and
retail altogether. You're releasing new products every week, a new
movie in home video. Back then, you'd be releasing multiple
DVDs or home video. You know, vhs and beta. I'm
(10:40):
that old every week. So you combine the new package
goods kind of mentality with retail, retail, retail, it's perfect.
But you said something, Lisa that really tickled my fancy.
And what you talked about was bringing us seventy percent
of those orders live into the store. So what you're
really talking about here is that sort of flywheel in
(11:02):
retail media. It's data to media to commerce to the
store and back again. You've really created that when you
tell me that seventy percent of those transactions are in
store wherever they began. They began online, but they're ending
up in store.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, experiences matter. Best Buy recognizes that experiences are a
critical part of that flywheel and that consumer journey. And
if you think about retail today, many of our retail
competitors don't have that piece, right, Amazon doesn't have an
in store piece, And so how do you use that
to your advantage. We just launched a store in store
(11:38):
with Ikea recently. We're doing a lot to work with
partners in terms of how do you use a thousand
store footprint across the country to activate your story and
by the way today that shows up with a lot
of our endemic partners. But as they just shared, we
believe there are so many other categories and brands to
(12:00):
touch and bring into this type of a solution.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But Lisa, it's interesting because you said this, I think
the number is like six hundred plus different brands that
you're working with. So you've got the insights forget the
data we're talking about that you generate through the transaction data,
the insights of how your partners are doing what they're doing,
and the production of creative in house and all of
(12:25):
these things that are happening. And again, I know you
were going one place, I'm bringing you back somewhere else.
But the scale of six hundred plus companies that you
get to work with, the learnings you're getting from them,
the learnings and the information you're sharing with them, it's
industrial strength.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Well here's an interesting stat. Last year we ran thousands
of campaigns across those brands. We're on average delivering a
three point seventy five ROS. So the difference for retail
media and we talk about this, We've talked about this.
The media is very performance and when you can start
(13:02):
to understand how we use our on site channels, our
in store footprint or off site partners. Folks like Meta,
like the NFL, like the Social Class. You can start
to deliver real performance that I could never get at
in some of the other companies that I worked for.
The other thing that's super interesting you mentioned at the
(13:24):
creative piece, we were just named in house creative Agency
of the Year Go Figure, Yes, by Best by Ads
And by the way, I love this because creativity and
storytelling can never be absent in media and the future
of media.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I'm jumping in here because the first panel conversation of
importance that I ever did in this industry, in this
and lets say it in this century, shouldn't say in
this industry was something that Variety magazine put on at
NYU Stern School of Business back and believe it or not,
two thousand and one, and the topic sentence of the
(14:03):
panel was content meets commerce. Okay, content meets commerce. Your
experience at Disney, at Conde Nast, at ESPN, you were
at the hardest storytelling and you were at the heart
of creative How are you seeing that and how is
that DNA that you've got embedded in you? From your experience?
(14:24):
I mean, great storytellers don't exist beyond places like Disney
and Conde Nast. How is that making its way into
as you said, performance led media? I mean years ago,
you remember d Solomon who worked for us years and
years ago, D thing that challenged me with a question
about the loss of serendipity in marketing and what her
(14:48):
point was. We're always searching for the right device at
the right time, with the right context and the right consumer,
the right right, right, right, right, all of it. But
we can't forget we're in the business where store retelling
matters and we're serendipity matters. You know, is there a
risk when you're chasing attribution in row as at the
level you have to because I'm going to add one
(15:10):
ps to that, do you lose the emotional storytelling nature?
Cmos today tell you if you're pitching them, you're actually
pitching their CFO as much as you're pitching the CMO.
And so your dialogue going to row AS is critical
because the media decisions are most often being made now
(15:34):
with I don't want to say procurement, but with the
CFO as active as the CMO, and so the row
AS answer is critical. Yeah, I'm throwing it out to you.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
By the way, what I'm having a lot of fun
doing is connecting the cmos and the shopper marketing teams
at some of the biggest companies in the world, frankly,
because we have this really big opportunity to show the
influence and the storytelling and how you break through at
(16:05):
the upper and mid funnel, and how that ties to
performance on the lower funnel, which we obviously can can measure.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Holy grail if you could do it. And by the.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Way, technology is one of the most competitive playgrounds out there,
and so it's a dog fight for share of wallet
and share for attention, and so you need to be
in the storytelling business. You need to be with brands
who have the influence and have the trust and have
the creative chops because you have to break through every day.
(16:39):
The interesting thing Michael with us is we've spent so
much time with clients. We did some work with Microsoft
last year around AI. We went to CEES and we
pitched Microsoft on a concept with the consumer insight that
the consumer does not understand the benefits of AI. We
are speaking one language, they are speaking another, and we
(17:01):
brought we brought this creative platform to the table called AI.
That hashtag AI that it was a play on our brand,
but the whole story was around the creative platform, was
around how does best Buy and a brand start to
humanize AI. By the way, they bought it out exclusively
(17:22):
and it is doing very, very well. But it's those
type of insights because we're so upstream that we then
turn into strategies, marketing platforms, they can take every form
of media. That when we say we're winning in house
Creative Agency of the Year, it's really about the storytelling.
(17:45):
It's really about the data. It almost goes back to
the fact that we see seventy percent of the US population, Well,
what do you do with that? How do you use
the data to inform marketing, creative, supply chain, automation, all
of it. That's why I'm here, That's how best Buy
got Lisa Valentino, because the opportunity is so much more
(18:08):
than let's make this media, you know, be more profitable
for best Buy. We're going to do that, but we
have an opportunity to recast media here.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Very much so, And speaking of that, I want to
go back to where we started. That size matters. My
understanding at least from what the pundits say. Retail media
is picked to hit about one hundred and forty billion
dollars globally this year. Are we looking at a gold
rush or a bubble? What do you think?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I think we're looking at a transformation, to be honest,
I think we're looking at a new way to leverage data,
technology and sort of the commerce ecosystem, and everybody gets
to participate in that. Culture gets to participate in that.
(18:58):
What we haven't talked about is we just launched a
marketplace where we have now hundreds of third party sellers
selling their products but also buying advertising. So the opportunity
for us to participate in tail to torso small and
medium sized businesses that could never probably advertise in our premium,
(19:19):
you know, positions now have access.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
SMB is the future. SMB is the future. It has
to be.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, I think it transforms all of media. By the way,
there are things we have to do so it doesn't
become a bubble. We have to standardize, we have to automate,
you know, we have to strike better partnerships and collaborate more.
But those things are all going to happen.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Good Company will be right back after the break.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I've said recently. Two things, two insights that I picked
up this summer. I was at the MMA conference up
in Santa Barbara, and one of the conversations that I
was interested in listening to some of the cmos who
were there, say, especially companies that are now non traditional
media sellers now that with commerce media networks are now
(20:21):
media sellers in a funny way. You know, best Buy
didn't used to sell media. Best Buy would only buy media.
Now best Buy sells media as well. I'm using you
as an example. And what I heard from the cmos
that was funny was, gee, I feel like I'm a
seller now. And I kind of smiled and I said, well,
I guess the job of a CMO has always been
to be a seller. I mean, what is your job
(20:43):
to sell the goods or services that your company is offering.
So I guess what you mean when you say you're
unused to that, I e. The cmos. You're not used
to mono a mono selling, You're not used to being
in a conversation. You're used to one to many. And
it's funny because you deal with the cmos, but many
of them are now your competitors. I mean, you're your customers.
(21:04):
It's a new form of frenemies in our industry because
you're buying and selling from the same people.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I think if we do this right, Michael, I saw
a stat. It may have come from three C it
may have come somewhere else, but if.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
It's a good stat, we'll take credit for it.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
It's a good stat. There's over two hundred rmns today.
Is that sustainable in the future? Right? The loom escape
would tell us probably not efficient for the ecosystem. So
our prediction and what we're building from a tech platform
standpoint is, and look, you and I know we've been
(21:38):
studying where the puck is going for decades. We believe
there's an opportunity to be an RMN for other rmns.
And so how do you start to think about a
world where we might pair ourselves with a handful of
other rmns that are complementary to our data set and
(21:58):
our consumer and we might bring that offering to the
market that brings a heck of a lot of scale,
a heck of a lot of creativity, automation, and so
the data and tech platform we're building is really meant
to have flexibility to bring in a larger sort of
set of entrance.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
You and I've had this conversation, but I'll share it
with our audience. The opportunity for consolidation is so ripe
right now because, as you said, the proliferation is creating
an oversupply, and as a result of that, there's going
to be consolidation because the fragmentation is making it inefficient, right,
and if we consolidate a fragmented circumstance, you make it
(22:41):
more efficient. Everybody wins. So I agree with you one
thousand percent. I'll tell you, you know, it's funny celebrating, you know,
a year of three c I'll get personal for a moment.
People have asked me why I made a decision to
start a new company at this stage, and the answer
was really simple. There are moments in time in our
(23:03):
industry that I couldn't not be part of one because
I look at in my career of fifty years, the
introduction of mobile telephony and the Internet as the two
most important changes that changed the way our lives work.
There's plenty of other things that have happened that are
important change, but those two things, and the third one
(23:25):
would have to be AI and the AI transformation we're
about to see is at the level of mobile telephony
and the Internet in terms of what it will impact
across the board. That was one reason I couldn't not
be part of that transition number one. Number two, the
retail commerce media moment is a unique moment for this
(23:48):
industry because it's a whole new way of doing things,
and the consolidation opportunity, the growth opportunity is too compelling
not to be part of. And so I, for one,
know how going back to a question, how did best
Buy get Lisa Valentino somebody at your level, the answer
is you identified the opportunity as well, and I know
(24:10):
you did, and you've taken such an important leadership role
in it.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
I think this week for US is really about showing
the market the vast array of opportunity that is ahead.
And I think you know, we're giving our partners today
and future partners a look under the hood of what
we're building and what the next twelve months looks like.
But we also have very big ambitions for the business
(24:36):
over the next three to five years. We want the
market to see, like, be with us, invest with us,
because even best Buy will continue to evolve. You know,
and we see where this customer is headed, we see
where commerce is headed, and we will be ahead of
that trajectory going forward. So it's an exciting time and week.
(24:59):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You're the chair of the AD Club of New York.
You've built teams through nearly every kind of industry shift imaginable.
You've been a leader in building high performance teams in
moments of disruption. Obviously, we all lived through a pandemic
where everything changed in our world, and you and I
were nip and tuck when we were dealing with and know,
I'm certainly you remember well dealing with the ratings bureaus
(25:24):
and what we were doing and all the stuff. Was
there going to be an upfront how are we going
to deal with you know, in the pandemic? And you
were very much at my side and I was at
your side with the industry going through that. But would
you look at your career and say that there's a
leadership moment that you could say fundamentally changed your view?
(25:44):
I mean, what was that moment for you?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I think there's a couple and I'll keep this tight,
but remember I really started there were two moments in
my career. I started on the agency side. You know
this or Gottlieb was a big influence early in my career.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Better known as Yoda Strategic.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Thinking discipline, Student of the business just changed a lot
for me, and very early on. I then spent ten
years at Yahoo. Right. I worked very closely with David
and Jerry when that business was just getting started, and
I learned what it meant to be platform led, audience focused,
(26:30):
technology driven, and then I went into content.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And Lisa, you were at Yahoo when when Yahoo grew
from I want to quote some numbers. You'll correct me,
but probably six hundred million to six billion. Yeah, I
mean you were there at the growth. And it's funny
on our screen. The outline on our screen is purple.
It's making me feel very Yahoo like I'm looking at
a purple screen outline.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
We all purple in our blood.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, anyway, keep going.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I pivoted to content after that. Right. Most of my
friends at Yahoo went to work for Carolyn A. Facebook,
and I went to ESPN and many of them are
retired and I'm still working, by the way, But I digress.
But every part of my career, there wasn't one moment,
(27:16):
but I feel like I've had the great fortune of
being a part of every change this industry has gone through,
so the flight to digital, the flight to content and
live and sports, the flight to streaming, which is why
I went to Disney to really help transform them into
(27:38):
a streaming led company and a data led company. And
so I met best Buy because the next chapter and
the next transformation of our industry will be retail and
commerce led and taking all of that behind it that
I just shared and building upon it right through a
(27:58):
commerce led in isie. So I'm a builder and I
gravitate towards puzzles that don't have boxes, like here are
all of the pieces, here are all of the capabilities.
How do we assemble this to maximize the opportunity? And
by the way, that's about building teams as much as
it's about building strategy.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And by the way, equally important, because I was going
to ask you the question that I had anticipated you
jump right on it. When you're looking at talent, when
you're looking at the teams you're building, are there any
particular beacons that are there for you? You know? My
joke is I was at a dinner party two summers ago,
and this is a very interesting gentleman who's one of
(28:42):
the great dinner hosts. And you know, hosting a dinner
party the right way is an art, and he would
always be the guy who would start a great conversation.
And in this particular dinner party, he looked around sixteen
of us established adults at a dinner party. Let me
say it that way. The opening question from the host was, everybody,
(29:03):
look at your phone and tell me what you're uber rating.
Is what a great question at a dinner party, because
if somebody's as low, they're making every excuse for why,
and if somebody's high, they're crowing like a peacock about it.
Thank okay, right, And I've decided from that moment forward,
I would never conduct a job interview again where I
didn't ask somebody to just off the cuff, what's your
(29:25):
uber rating?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Great?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
So that becomes a non negotiable for me.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I don't know what my uber rating is. I'll look
after this podcast is over, but I can tell you
my secret sauce to building teams is about putting together
the right skill sets around the table. And at best Buy,
we have incredible talent people. Is the number one reason
why I am at the company. Obviously, there's a business opportunity,
(29:52):
there's an industry opportunity, there's a leadership opportunity. The people
at this company are why I'm playing with best Buy
and the people that I'm building as part of now.
Our new leadership team for best Buy ADS is really
a combination of where do we need new skills and
where do we bring in the complementary skills of best
(30:12):
Buy and Go and architects. Something that you'll love. This
quote has never been done before. We say it all
the time in media, and by the way, I grew
up playing sports. You know this. I'm a huge soccer player.
I wish I could have done that for my career.
So I am all about the team, what skills are
(30:32):
on the field, and let's go win. And so I
love that part of the job.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Well, Lisa Valentino, I love this part of the job
when I get to talk to people like you, who
I both respect to know and enjoy and learn from
all of the above, and I'm certain our audience is
going to learn a lot as well. I get to
have my most fun on good company now, which is
my lightning route. I get to get personal. Okay, So, Lisa,
(31:02):
if you could give your younger self. One piece of guidance.
What would it be?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Don't listen to the noise?
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Good? I like that if you had twenty four hours
with no restrictions. What's one adventure you didn't bark on.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
A weekend in the Hamptons with my grandparents?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Ooh, I like that. That's a good moment. Okay, can
you tell that to my grandkids? Maybe they'll say that.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
One we'll say that same answer, Michael, someday, god.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Willing, God willing. What's one industry buzzword you wish would
disappear forever?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Ai? Sorry you said it? You said it a few
times today.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Yeah, no, but it's one that is present. What's your
greatest professional fear?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Not doing enough?
Speaker 1 (31:49):
My favorite question and our last one. Is there a
particular mentor early in your career that you would call
out or more than one, And if so, is there
a particular piece of advice that that person or people
would have given you?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah? I mean Hell Trencher is somebody, and by the way,
I work for him at Yahoo.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Can I give a moment to say what a great guy?
Hel Trencher is?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Great guy? How Trencher is?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
He's a great guy. He is a mention.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
He's a mention. You know. He put me in a
very uncomfortable position, probably for the first time in my career.
He brought me in to run Yahoo's Sports, which got
me to eat. You know, that's why I wound up
at ESPN, I think. But it was all about being
comfortable in the uncomfortable and he taught me that lesson.
(32:39):
And I and I there's a lot of my career lesson.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, it's a great lesson. Well, we'll both give him
a shout out in a hug when I'll give him
a hug next time I see him. But I'm giving
him a virtual hug right now. And Lisa, I'm giving
you a virtual hug because this was great fun for me.
I hope for you as well. I know our audience
will take away a lot from this. So, Lisa Valentino,
thank you. Thank you for joining me on Good Company.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Thanks Michael, you got.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'm Michael Casson, Thanks for listening to Good Company. Good
Company is brought to you by Three C Ventures and
iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to Alexis Borger Purdo, our executive
producer and head of Content and Talent, and to Carl Catle,
executive producer at iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Episodes are produced and edited by Mary Doo. Thanks for
joining us, we'll see you next time.
Good Company is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Today's culture is fueled by technology. You think about whether
it's the latest glassware or the latest laptop, or you
think about holiday, you think about back to school, you
think about AI. Technology is fueling everything, right, and so
best Buy is in a really interesting position because we
(00:26):
enable technology through our platform.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm Michael Cassen, and this is Good Company. Together we'll
explore the dynamic intersection of media, marketing, entertainment, sports and technology.
I'll be joined by visionaries, pioneers, and yes, even a
couple of disruptors for candid conversations as we break down
how these masters of ingenuity are shaping the future of business,
culture and everything in between. My bet is you'll pick
(00:58):
up a lesson or two along the way. As I
like to say, it's all good. Welcome back to Good Company.
Today's guest is a very special friend, Lisa Valentino, the
president of Best Buy Ads. But don't let that title
fool you. She's not just running a retail media division.
She's helping architect what the next era of modern media
(01:21):
looks like. Her playbook decades of experience at the top
of the game, Disney, ESPN, Conde n asked where she
built businesses, reinvented revenue models, and turned data into decisions
that move the needle. Now she's bringing all that fired
power to best Buy, turning one of America's most trusted
retail brands into a media powerhouse, backed by over two
(01:43):
hundred million customers, deep behavioral data, and a digital meets
physical footprint that most platforms would kill for. This episode
pushes past the headlines and into the mechanics of real transformation.
How to turn a legacy retailer into a mod media powerhouse,
how to keep creativity alive in a world obsessed with metrics,
(02:06):
and how AI, storytelling and commerce are crashing into each
other fast. Lisa brings the kind of clarity and conviction
that cuts through the noise. So you're all in for
a treat. Let's get into it, Lisa. Welcome to Good Company.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Wow, what a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me, Lisa.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
You know we've had the privilege of working and the
pleasure truly of working together for last gosh, I don't know.
My mother taught me well. I don't have to put
numbers on it, but you know, there's lots of history
here but what I want to focus on is the
current Lisa, and this has been a big week for
best Buy ads. You just came off a major industry moment.
(02:49):
Can you pull back the curtain a little and you know,
give us a step in the direction of what best
Buy is doing in the sort of the new gear.
I mean, it's fall and it's here.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, there's a lot to talk about. It's a really
big moment and a big week for best Buy, and
it's the first time we're really debuting if you will
work that's been going on for about a decade. So
the company and you may have heard Corey speak to
(03:20):
this this week, but the company has been hard at
work for the last decade building its retail media business.
Today we sit as a top retail media network and
it's a really big deal when you think about the
fact that best Buy is the number one specialty consumer
electronics retailer in the US, right, so we start with
(03:42):
such a position of strength. Our retail network is built
on three things, scale, tech, culture, and performance. And you know,
if you think about what are the mechanics of a
future big media business to have scale, culture, and performance
(04:04):
as three differentiators, there are not many companies that can
check all those boxes. So you know, I think we're
building from a very strong foundation. This week, we're out
there talking to customers and showing customers what that means,
you know. And frankly, we've been working with consumer electronics
(04:26):
companies for decades.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Well as partners in crime in a positive way. Obviously,
we sell.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
A third of all televisions in this country, so when
you think about the role that we play in the ecosystem,
it's a really important one. You now start to think
about ways that we're going to build on that from
a media perspective, and it's pretty enormous. I spent a
decade over a decade at Disney, and what I learned
(04:52):
very quickly in that last decade in my career was
scale matters, and the signals that you have from the
customer are everything. Because data is really the new currency.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well at Lisa, data is the new currency. But as
our friend and I quote this all the time, and
I will always give credit to Rashad Tabakawala for saying
this in a pitch many years ago, and I apologize
to the audience because they've heard it many times from me.
But he said once data is like a oil in
the ground. It's only worth something once you refine it.
(05:26):
It's only worth something once you take it out of
the ground. It's nice to have in the ground, but
unless you make it do something for you. And that's
where you're an expert because of your experience knowing what
to do with this. I'm going to use a very
inarticulate word here again, I apologize this shit ton of
data that you've got.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
We're overflowing as an industry right with data. The data
that we sit on is a data set I haven't
seen ever in my career. Ninety three percent of all
transactions that happen at best Buy. So you think about
the magnitude of having two hundred million consumers in our
audience graph, and we can see ninety three percent of
all of the transactions that they make, whether that's in
(06:08):
one of our stores, in our app or online. We
can ascribe that percentage of transactions back to a customer ID.
That is the gold that a company like best Buy
is sitting on and leveraging to plan, buy and measure
media more effectively. That's a really differentiated position to build
(06:33):
upon as we go forward.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It is and as we talk about this retail media
or commerce media transformation. And you know, I've been currying
favor on the word commerce media as opposed to retail
media as a naming convention. But I think you refer
to it somewhere as the ultimate intersection of influence and performance.
And you said it earlier when you take those things
(06:57):
together with the scale, because as you said, you learned
one thing over your career, and you've been in places
where scale was existing, i e. The Walt Disney Company,
Conde Nast, best Buy. I was friends with doctor Ruth
Westeimer for forty five years and she told me, even
though she was a half pint, she told me, sis matters.
(07:17):
And it does, and especially in this case. So you know,
the network as we talk about retail media networks, the
network that you have of a customer base is the
network that's the magic those two hundred million customers.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, it's the two hundred million. And if you think
about why and the relationship that they have with with
our company. Today's culture think about this. Today's culture is
fueled by technology. You think about whether it's the latest
glassware or the latest laptop, or you think about holiday,
(07:55):
you think about back to school. You think about AI,
technology is link everything right, and so best Buy is
in a really interesting position because we enable technology through
our platform, and so that's the influence piece. I'll give
you a great example of this. So earlier this summer,
(08:17):
and you have grandkids and you have sons, Nintendo came
to us with the launch of Switch to Right, a
really important piece of hardware if you're a gamer.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
If you're a human, as you just said, with my
grandchildren and whatnot. Trust.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
So we did the pre order for them in June,
and it generated the highest hour of traffic site traffic
in our history and best Buy's history. Not only that,
this is a really interesting consumer insight too. Seventy percent
of those pre orders raised their hand and said, I
(08:53):
want to pick it up in store. Here is the
I need to have it right now factor in culture.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So I want to remind you the mantra in Los
Angeles where I spend half the time is instant gratification.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Isn't quickly gratification.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
So now you no, but it's not quick enough. I
need it now, I need it before now.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So now you have best by enabling seventy percent of
those orders being picked up. So what did we do.
We brought back midnight openings. You remember midnight opening I
certainly do. We haven't done one since I think twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, I did one with my oldest grandson, So I
have done it. I've experienced the midnight opening.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
It's a thing, and that's the consumer delight, that's the trust,
and that's the scalability of the platform. So imagine us
doing that now. We will do that obviously for all
of our partners, But imagine when a movie studio comes
to us and says, we want you to create that
same moment for our brand.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
We're going to hit pause for a moment, but stay
with us after the break, we've got more insights to share.
I always harkened back to the fact that when I
was a media buyer, when I started in my career
(10:17):
and the Walt Disney Company, as you know, was my
largest client, everyone said, Michael, do you guys understand retail?
I said, wait, there's nothing more retail than a movie company.
They're releasing new products. It's like consumer package goods and
retail altogether. You're releasing new products every week, a new
movie in home video. Back then, you'd be releasing multiple
DVDs or home video. You know, vhs and beta. I'm
(10:40):
that old every week. So you combine the new package
goods kind of mentality with retail, retail, retail, it's perfect.
But you said something, Lisa that really tickled my fancy.
And what you talked about was bringing us seventy percent
of those orders live into the store. So what you're
really talking about here is that sort of flywheel in
(11:02):
retail media. It's data to media to commerce to the
store and back again. You've really created that when you
tell me that seventy percent of those transactions are in
store wherever they began. They began online, but they're ending
up in store.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, experiences matter. Best Buy recognizes that experiences are a
critical part of that flywheel and that consumer journey. And
if you think about retail today, many of our retail
competitors don't have that piece, right, Amazon doesn't have an
in store piece, And so how do you use that
to your advantage. We just launched a store in store
(11:38):
with Ikea recently. We're doing a lot to work with
partners in terms of how do you use a thousand
store footprint across the country to activate your story and
by the way today that shows up with a lot
of our endemic partners. But as they just shared, we
believe there are so many other categories and brands to
(12:00):
touch and bring into this type of a solution.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But Lisa, it's interesting because you said this, I think
the number is like six hundred plus different brands that
you're working with. So you've got the insights forget the
data we're talking about that you generate through the transaction data,
the insights of how your partners are doing what they're doing,
and the production of creative in house and all of
(12:25):
these things that are happening. And again, I know you
were going one place, I'm bringing you back somewhere else.
But the scale of six hundred plus companies that you
get to work with, the learnings you're getting from them,
the learnings and the information you're sharing with them, it's
industrial strength.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Well here's an interesting stat. Last year we ran thousands
of campaigns across those brands. We're on average delivering a
three point seventy five ROS. So the difference for retail
media and we talk about this, We've talked about this.
The media is very performance and when you can start
(13:02):
to understand how we use our on site channels, our
in store footprint or off site partners. Folks like Meta,
like the NFL, like the Social Class. You can start
to deliver real performance that I could never get at
in some of the other companies that I worked for.
The other thing that's super interesting you mentioned at the
(13:24):
creative piece, we were just named in house creative Agency
of the Year Go Figure, Yes, by Best by Ads
And by the way, I love this because creativity and
storytelling can never be absent in media and the future
of media.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I'm jumping in here because the first panel conversation of
importance that I ever did in this industry, in this
and lets say it in this century, shouldn't say in
this industry was something that Variety magazine put on at
NYU Stern School of Business back and believe it or not,
two thousand and one, and the topic sentence of the
(14:03):
panel was content meets commerce. Okay, content meets commerce. Your
experience at Disney, at Conde Nast, at ESPN, you were
at the hardest storytelling and you were at the heart
of creative How are you seeing that and how is
that DNA that you've got embedded in you? From your experience?
(14:24):
I mean, great storytellers don't exist beyond places like Disney
and Conde Nast. How is that making its way into
as you said, performance led media? I mean years ago,
you remember d Solomon who worked for us years and
years ago, D thing that challenged me with a question
about the loss of serendipity in marketing and what her
(14:48):
point was. We're always searching for the right device at
the right time, with the right context and the right consumer,
the right right, right, right, right, all of it. But
we can't forget we're in the business where store retelling
matters and we're serendipity matters. You know, is there a
risk when you're chasing attribution in row as at the
level you have to because I'm going to add one
(15:10):
ps to that, do you lose the emotional storytelling nature?
Cmos today tell you if you're pitching them, you're actually
pitching their CFO as much as you're pitching the CMO.
And so your dialogue going to row AS is critical
because the media decisions are most often being made now
(15:34):
with I don't want to say procurement, but with the
CFO as active as the CMO, and so the row
AS answer is critical. Yeah, I'm throwing it out to you.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
By the way, what I'm having a lot of fun
doing is connecting the cmos and the shopper marketing teams
at some of the biggest companies in the world, frankly,
because we have this really big opportunity to show the
influence and the storytelling and how you break through at
(16:05):
the upper and mid funnel, and how that ties to
performance on the lower funnel, which we obviously can can measure.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Holy grail if you could do it. And by the.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Way, technology is one of the most competitive playgrounds out there,
and so it's a dog fight for share of wallet
and share for attention, and so you need to be
in the storytelling business. You need to be with brands
who have the influence and have the trust and have
the creative chops because you have to break through every day.
(16:39):
The interesting thing Michael with us is we've spent so
much time with clients. We did some work with Microsoft
last year around AI. We went to CEES and we
pitched Microsoft on a concept with the consumer insight that
the consumer does not understand the benefits of AI. We
are speaking one language, they are speaking another, and we
(17:01):
brought we brought this creative platform to the table called AI.
That hashtag AI that it was a play on our brand,
but the whole story was around the creative platform, was
around how does best Buy and a brand start to
humanize AI. By the way, they bought it out exclusively
(17:22):
and it is doing very, very well. But it's those
type of insights because we're so upstream that we then
turn into strategies, marketing platforms, they can take every form
of media. That when we say we're winning in house
Creative Agency of the Year, it's really about the storytelling.
(17:45):
It's really about the data. It almost goes back to
the fact that we see seventy percent of the US population, Well,
what do you do with that? How do you use
the data to inform marketing, creative, supply chain, automation, all
of it. That's why I'm here, That's how best Buy
got Lisa Valentino, because the opportunity is so much more
(18:08):
than let's make this media, you know, be more profitable
for best Buy. We're going to do that, but we
have an opportunity to recast media here.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Very much so, And speaking of that, I want to
go back to where we started. That size matters. My
understanding at least from what the pundits say. Retail media
is picked to hit about one hundred and forty billion
dollars globally this year. Are we looking at a gold
rush or a bubble? What do you think?
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I think we're looking at a transformation, to be honest,
I think we're looking at a new way to leverage data,
technology and sort of the commerce ecosystem, and everybody gets
to participate in that. Culture gets to participate in that.
(18:58):
What we haven't talked about is we just launched a
marketplace where we have now hundreds of third party sellers
selling their products but also buying advertising. So the opportunity
for us to participate in tail to torso small and
medium sized businesses that could never probably advertise in our premium,
(19:19):
you know, positions now have access.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
SMB is the future. SMB is the future. It has
to be.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, I think it transforms all of media. By the way,
there are things we have to do so it doesn't
become a bubble. We have to standardize, we have to automate,
you know, we have to strike better partnerships and collaborate more.
But those things are all going to happen.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Good Company will be right back after the break.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
I've said recently. Two things, two insights that I picked
up this summer. I was at the MMA conference up
in Santa Barbara, and one of the conversations that I
was interested in listening to some of the cmos who
were there, say, especially companies that are now non traditional
media sellers now that with commerce media networks are now
(20:21):
media sellers in a funny way. You know, best Buy
didn't used to sell media. Best Buy would only buy media.
Now best Buy sells media as well. I'm using you
as an example. And what I heard from the cmos
that was funny was, gee, I feel like I'm a
seller now. And I kind of smiled and I said, well,
I guess the job of a CMO has always been
to be a seller. I mean, what is your job
(20:43):
to sell the goods or services that your company is offering.
So I guess what you mean when you say you're
unused to that, I e. The cmos. You're not used
to mono a mono selling, You're not used to being
in a conversation. You're used to one to many. And
it's funny because you deal with the cmos, but many
of them are now your competitors. I mean, you're your customers.
(21:04):
It's a new form of frenemies in our industry because
you're buying and selling from the same people.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I think if we do this right, Michael, I saw
a stat. It may have come from three C it
may have come somewhere else, but if.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
It's a good stat, we'll take credit for it.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
It's a good stat. There's over two hundred rmns today.
Is that sustainable in the future? Right? The loom escape
would tell us probably not efficient for the ecosystem. So
our prediction and what we're building from a tech platform
standpoint is, and look, you and I know we've been
(21:38):
studying where the puck is going for decades. We believe
there's an opportunity to be an RMN for other rmns.
And so how do you start to think about a
world where we might pair ourselves with a handful of
other rmns that are complementary to our data set and
(21:58):
our consumer and we might bring that offering to the
market that brings a heck of a lot of scale,
a heck of a lot of creativity, automation, and so
the data and tech platform we're building is really meant
to have flexibility to bring in a larger sort of
set of entrance.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
You and I've had this conversation, but I'll share it
with our audience. The opportunity for consolidation is so ripe
right now because, as you said, the proliferation is creating
an oversupply, and as a result of that, there's going
to be consolidation because the fragmentation is making it inefficient, right,
and if we consolidate a fragmented circumstance, you make it
(22:41):
more efficient. Everybody wins. So I agree with you one
thousand percent. I'll tell you, you know, it's funny celebrating, you know,
a year of three c I'll get personal for a moment.
People have asked me why I made a decision to
start a new company at this stage, and the answer
was really simple. There are moments in time in our
(23:03):
industry that I couldn't not be part of one because
I look at in my career of fifty years, the
introduction of mobile telephony and the Internet as the two
most important changes that changed the way our lives work.
There's plenty of other things that have happened that are
important change, but those two things, and the third one
(23:25):
would have to be AI and the AI transformation we're
about to see is at the level of mobile telephony
and the Internet in terms of what it will impact
across the board. That was one reason I couldn't not
be part of that transition number one. Number two, the
retail commerce media moment is a unique moment for this
(23:48):
industry because it's a whole new way of doing things,
and the consolidation opportunity, the growth opportunity is too compelling
not to be part of. And so I, for one,
know how going back to a question, how did best
Buy get Lisa Valentino somebody at your level, the answer
is you identified the opportunity as well, and I know
(24:10):
you did, and you've taken such an important leadership role
in it.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
I think this week for US is really about showing
the market the vast array of opportunity that is ahead.
And I think you know, we're giving our partners today
and future partners a look under the hood of what
we're building and what the next twelve months looks like.
But we also have very big ambitions for the business
(24:36):
over the next three to five years. We want the
market to see, like, be with us, invest with us,
because even best Buy will continue to evolve. You know,
and we see where this customer is headed, we see
where commerce is headed, and we will be ahead of
that trajectory going forward. So it's an exciting time and week.
(24:59):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You're the chair of the AD Club of New York.
You've built teams through nearly every kind of industry shift imaginable.
You've been a leader in building high performance teams in
moments of disruption. Obviously, we all lived through a pandemic
where everything changed in our world, and you and I
were nip and tuck when we were dealing with and know,
I'm certainly you remember well dealing with the ratings bureaus
(25:24):
and what we were doing and all the stuff. Was
there going to be an upfront how are we going
to deal with you know, in the pandemic? And you
were very much at my side and I was at
your side with the industry going through that. But would
you look at your career and say that there's a
leadership moment that you could say fundamentally changed your view?
(25:44):
I mean, what was that moment for you?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I think there's a couple and I'll keep this tight,
but remember I really started there were two moments in
my career. I started on the agency side. You know
this or Gottlieb was a big influence early in my career.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Better known as Yoda Strategic.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Thinking discipline, Student of the business just changed a lot
for me, and very early on. I then spent ten
years at Yahoo. Right. I worked very closely with David
and Jerry when that business was just getting started, and
I learned what it meant to be platform led, audience focused,
(26:30):
technology driven, and then I went into content.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And Lisa, you were at Yahoo when when Yahoo grew
from I want to quote some numbers. You'll correct me,
but probably six hundred million to six billion. Yeah, I
mean you were there at the growth. And it's funny
on our screen. The outline on our screen is purple.
It's making me feel very Yahoo like I'm looking at
a purple screen outline.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
We all purple in our blood.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, anyway, keep going.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I pivoted to content after that. Right. Most of my
friends at Yahoo went to work for Carolyn A. Facebook,
and I went to ESPN and many of them are
retired and I'm still working, by the way, But I digress.
But every part of my career, there wasn't one moment,
(27:16):
but I feel like I've had the great fortune of
being a part of every change this industry has gone through,
so the flight to digital, the flight to content and
live and sports, the flight to streaming, which is why
I went to Disney to really help transform them into
(27:38):
a streaming led company and a data led company. And
so I met best Buy because the next chapter and
the next transformation of our industry will be retail and
commerce led and taking all of that behind it that
I just shared and building upon it right through a
(27:58):
commerce led in isie. So I'm a builder and I
gravitate towards puzzles that don't have boxes, like here are
all of the pieces, here are all of the capabilities.
How do we assemble this to maximize the opportunity? And
by the way, that's about building teams as much as
it's about building strategy.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And by the way, equally important, because I was going
to ask you the question that I had anticipated you
jump right on it. When you're looking at talent, when
you're looking at the teams you're building, are there any
particular beacons that are there for you? You know? My
joke is I was at a dinner party two summers ago,
and this is a very interesting gentleman who's one of
(28:42):
the great dinner hosts. And you know, hosting a dinner
party the right way is an art, and he would
always be the guy who would start a great conversation.
And in this particular dinner party, he looked around sixteen
of us established adults at a dinner party. Let me
say it that way. The opening question from the host was, everybody,
(29:03):
look at your phone and tell me what you're uber rating.
Is what a great question at a dinner party, because
if somebody's as low, they're making every excuse for why,
and if somebody's high, they're crowing like a peacock about it.
Thank okay, right, And I've decided from that moment forward,
I would never conduct a job interview again where I
didn't ask somebody to just off the cuff, what's your
(29:25):
uber rating?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Great?
Speaker 1 (29:26):
So that becomes a non negotiable for me.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I don't know what my uber rating is. I'll look
after this podcast is over, but I can tell you
my secret sauce to building teams is about putting together
the right skill sets around the table. And at best Buy,
we have incredible talent people. Is the number one reason
why I am at the company. Obviously, there's a business opportunity,
(29:52):
there's an industry opportunity, there's a leadership opportunity. The people
at this company are why I'm playing with best Buy
and the people that I'm building as part of now.
Our new leadership team for best Buy ADS is really
a combination of where do we need new skills and
where do we bring in the complementary skills of best
(30:12):
Buy and Go and architects. Something that you'll love. This
quote has never been done before. We say it all
the time in media, and by the way, I grew
up playing sports. You know this. I'm a huge soccer player.
I wish I could have done that for my career.
So I am all about the team, what skills are
(30:32):
on the field, and let's go win. And so I
love that part of the job.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Well, Lisa Valentino, I love this part of the job
when I get to talk to people like you, who
I both respect to know and enjoy and learn from
all of the above, and I'm certain our audience is
going to learn a lot as well. I get to
have my most fun on good company now, which is
my lightning route. I get to get personal. Okay, So, Lisa,
(31:02):
if you could give your younger self. One piece of guidance.
What would it be?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Don't listen to the noise?
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Good? I like that if you had twenty four hours
with no restrictions. What's one adventure you didn't bark on.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
A weekend in the Hamptons with my grandparents?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Ooh, I like that. That's a good moment. Okay, can
you tell that to my grandkids? Maybe they'll say that.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
One we'll say that same answer, Michael, someday, god.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Willing, God willing. What's one industry buzzword you wish would
disappear forever?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Ai? Sorry you said it? You said it a few
times today.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Yeah, no, but it's one that is present. What's your
greatest professional fear?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Not doing enough?
Speaker 1 (31:49):
My favorite question and our last one. Is there a
particular mentor early in your career that you would call
out or more than one, And if so, is there
a particular piece of advice that that person or people
would have given you?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah? I mean Hell Trencher is somebody, and by the way,
I work for him at Yahoo.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Can I give a moment to say what a great guy?
Hel Trencher is?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Great guy? How Trencher is?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
He's a great guy. He is a mention.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
He's a mention. You know. He put me in a
very uncomfortable position, probably for the first time in my career.
He brought me in to run Yahoo's Sports, which got
me to eat. You know, that's why I wound up
at ESPN, I think. But it was all about being
comfortable in the uncomfortable and he taught me that lesson.
(32:39):
And I and I there's a lot of my career lesson.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, it's a great lesson. Well, we'll both give him
a shout out in a hug when I'll give him
a hug next time I see him. But I'm giving
him a virtual hug right now. And Lisa, I'm giving
you a virtual hug because this was great fun for me.
I hope for you as well. I know our audience
will take away a lot from this. So, Lisa Valentino,
thank you. Thank you for joining me on Good Company.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Thanks Michael, you got.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'm Michael Casson, Thanks for listening to Good Company. Good
Company is brought to you by Three C Ventures and
iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to Alexis Borger Purdo, our executive
producer and head of Content and Talent, and to Carl Catle,
executive producer at iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Episodes are produced and edited by Mary Doo. Thanks for
joining us, we'll see you next time.
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