Ep. 00: Is Anything in Paid Advertising Even Real?

You’ve seen the headlines. You’ve heard the hype. You’ve probably even burned budget on a “proven funnel.”

But let’s be honest: is anything in paid advertising even real?

In this kickoff episode, host Adam W. Barney (author, strategist, energy coach, and $100M+ ad spend veteran) lays out why this podcast exists, who it’s for, and what to expect in the episodes ahead.

🎙️ Expect unfiltered conversations with agency founders, marketers, and skeptics who’ve been in the trenches—plus real systems, real insight, and no fluff.

If you’re building a $250K–$5M agency and want to scale smarter (without burning out), here’s where it starts.

👉 Join the Agency Growth Mastermind

📌 New episodes drop weekly.

🔔 Subscribe, share, and follow @adamwbarney for the behind-the-scenes.

Episode Transcript

Adam W. Barney (00:06):
Hey. I'm Adam w Barney, and welcome to Is
Anything Real in PaidAdvertising. This show was born
out of a mix of love,skepticism, and about a
$100,000,000 in ad spend.Because here's the truth. I've
worked inside global adagencies.
I've run campaigns for Fortuneone hundreds and scrappy
startups. I've built landingpages, scaled budgets, hired the

(00:28):
teams, but the irony, I've onlyclicked on a paid ad maybe five
times in my life. So, yeah,there's something a little wild
about spending that much moneyon platforms I barely use
myself, And that's exactly whythis podcast exists. We're in
the middle of a strangeevolution in marketing. AI is
rewriting the playbook.
Budgets are tightening. Funnelsare weirder. Creative is being

(00:51):
spit out by robots, and half thedashboards we use, total
hallucinations. This isn't justa podcast about what's working,
it's about what doesn't. Wherewe've wasted money, where
agencies get it wrong, and wherethe big promises fell flat on
their pixelated faces.
But it's also about the people,the ones doing the weird work,
the real tests, and the underthe radar experiments. It's the

(01:14):
voices that don't make the stageat the big events, but who are
actually innovating in thebackground. Each week, I'll sit
down with a guest for sharp, noBS ten to twenty minute chat. No
fluff, no five minute bios, justa real dive into how they're
thinking, testing, and scaling.We'll talk about performance,
storytelling, growth pressure,and all the messy stuff under

(01:35):
the hood of it.
And this is not a one way feed.I want this to be a conversation
with you. If you're in thetrenches, whether it's running
an agency, building your brand,or scaling your voice, DM me,
comment, share your take. Iwanna hear the ones doing it in
real time around the world.We're going to ask better
questions.
We're going to challengeassumptions, and we're going to

(01:56):
laugh at some of the stuff thatdefinitely isn't real. So tune
in. The guest episode dropssoon. Let's get into it. Is
anything real in paidadvertising?
Probably not, but let's plug inand find out.