It's No Fluke

Hosted by Shorty Awards

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388

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Jun 2026

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About the show

AJR’s Adam Met, Million Dollar Listing’s Ryan Serhant, Community’s Yvette Nicole Brown, and brands such as Fanatics, Adobe, Shoprite, Comic Relief all have one thing in common - It’s No Fluke they found success. We explore the big ideas, the ups and downs in creative work and life, the inner workings of storytelling through thought-provoking and culturally relevant conversations with the most prominent and diverse voices, from creators to brands and the greatest minds of our time. Episodes drop each Tuesday morning. Stay tuned!

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60 recent

June 16, 202631 min

E386 Zach Blume: The Two Paths Into The Creator Economy

Zach Blume is the co-founder and president of Portal A, an award-winning brand and original content company built for a social world.Portal A has been named Campaign’s Brand Entertainment Agency of the Year, Digiday’s Video Agency of the Year, the Streamy Awards Agency of the Year, and Cynopsis Digital Studio of the Year. The company's work has been viewed over 4 billion times online and received recognition by the One Show, the Clio Awards, Tribeca, Brand Storytelling at Sundance, the Webby Awards, the Shorty Awards, and many others.Portal A has been independent since its founding, and in 2019 took on a strategic investment from Wheelhouse, the next generation entertainment company founded by Brent Montgomery and partner Jimmy Kimmel.

June 14, 202627 min

E385 Michelle Makasini: How All-American Accolades Translate to Shorty Award Wins

Michelle Makasini is a D1 All-American soccer player turned award-winning digital marketer who has built social ecosystems from the ground up for some of the world's most iconic brands; Hilton, American Airlines, and Asana. As the architect behind Hilton's first-ever Shorty Award, Michelle proved that the most powerful marketing moments aren't bought, they're earned through authentic storytelling and community trust.Now Head of Social Intelligence, Engagement & Advocacy at Asana and founder of Makasini Group (makasinigroup.com), Michelle brings the same grit, film study, and team-first mindset from her days on the field to every brand she champions. Her philosophy is simple: in sports, you're always live, no edits, no do-overs, just realness over polished perfection and failure is going to be a part of the journey, so use it to get better, and great marketing should feel exactly the same way.The US Men's National Team surprised kicked off the World Cup in style against Paraguay but the process leading up didn't always look confident, a reminder that winning on the biggest stages doesn't happen overnight. It's built in the reps, the losses, the film sessions, and the moments nobody sees. That's exactly what this episode is about. Tune in for the playbook.

June 12, 202630 min

E384 Wes Elder: Transparent Competition for Creators

Wes Elder is an entrepreneuer, filmmaker and actor. He's the co-founder of Creatorspace, a marketplace connecting brands with creators for everything from standard sponsorships to ambitious branded productions. His background is in film and TV. He co-created and starred in the 2016 romantic comedy The Matchbreaker (a two-year Netflix title) and produced the renovation competition series Gutted, the experience that ultimately inspired Creatorspace. He continues to work across entertainment and tech helping creators get funded to focus on what they're best at, creating.

June 9, 202629 min

E383 Nia Testamark: Touch Grass, Then Create

Nia Testamark is the Director of Strategy and Client Leadership at We Thrive Media, a millennial-led, Gen Z-powered digital marketing agency specializing in digital & social media, influencer marketing, and creative production across culture, entertainment, education, healthcare, sports, and social impact.With nearly a decade of experience across marketing, creative strategy, and digital storytelling, Nia has helped brands, organizations, and cultural campaigns build work that feels relevant, thoughtful, and culturally aware. Her work has contributed to nationally recognized campaigns, including a 2026 Shorty Award-winning campaign.Born in New York, raised in the South, and influenced by her West Indian background, she brings a cross-generational perspective to creativity, communication, and internet culture. Nia is also an author, mentor, and advocate for creating more visibility, representation, and reflection for women navigating marketing, creativity, and leadership today.

June 8, 202633 min

E382 David Clarke: Embrace Mistakes in PR

David Clarke leads communications at Oh Hello Agency, specializing in public relations, strategic messaging, and brand storytelling. His career spans NYC Public Schools, NYC Pride | Heritage of Pride, Inc., The WNET Group, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, earning high-impact media coverage and shaping resonant campaigns. A published journalist in OutSmart Magazine, BroadwayWorld, and others, David blends strategy and storytelling to elevate diverse voices with authenticity and purpose.

June 5, 202635 min

E381 Sara Currie: We've Gone Too Far

Sara Currie is a video editor for MrBeast turned founder and CEO of the trusted creative agency, Rich Bear Brandworks. She has her finger on the pulse of the real inner workings of the creator economy. And now she's here to share it with you.

June 3, 202616 min

E380 What to Expect at VidCon This Year

Jacques Keyser is the Director of Programming at VidCon, where he leads the strategy and execution of event programming across the US and international markets. With over 15 years of experience in music, entertainment, and the creator economy, he has worked with leading platforms, labels, creators, executives, and global brands. At VidCon, Jacques has helped launch and scale events worldwide, curating industry-leading programming that unites creators, executives, and fans on a global stage. Previously, he held senior roles in talent management and artist development, shaping the careers of top UK digital and music talent while building strategic partnerships across the industry. Jacques also shares insights on the creator economy through his bi-weekly VidCon industry newsletter.

June 2, 202644 min

E379 Drew Sutton: The Only Job a Leader Has is to Set Culture (Live from Louisville)

Drew Sutton is the founder of Drew Sutton Leadership and creator of Culture Systems — a proprietary leadership architecture that replaces force-of-will management with scalable systems for aligning people, culture, and execution across an entire organization. This episode was recorded live at Innovate Summit in Louisville. Check out their next event in Nashville in October. Vibes improved by Old Commonwealth Kentucky Nectar. A former Chief Engineer at Lockheed Martin, Drew holds 30+ patents in rotorcraft systems and composite structures, and has led cross-disciplinary engineering teams on multimillion-dollar U.S. defense programs spanning Air Force acquisitions, SOCOM prototyping, and research partnerships with Johns Hopkins University and the Air Force Research Laboratory.Today he applies that same systems discipline to leadership development — specializing in the doer-to-leader transition for technical professionals and culture-wide change adoption for organizations in transformation. He delivers 37 talks across leadership, AI integration, multigenerational workforce alignment, change management, and decision architecture, in formats ranging from keynotes to multi-day team engagements.Drew is based in Georgetown, Kentucky and serves clients nationally.

May 27, 202627 min

E378 Holly Hartman: AI Governance is Not Just For Tech Execs

Holly Hartman is an AI governance strategist and founder of FWS Enterprise LLC (Future Workforce Systems), where she works with enterprise leaders to build the guardrails, policies, and workforce readiness programs that make responsible AI adoption real, not just a talking point.She is also the co-founder and President of The WO Network, Kentuckiana’s largest professional women’s community with more than 4,000 members, and an international bestselling author.Holly is a NAWBO Women Business Owner of the Year 2025 honoree, a Louisville Business First Enterprising Women 2026 recipient, and a Bingham Fellow in the Class of 2026.She is currently pursuing her AI Governance Professional (AIGP) certification through IAPP.Her message to organizations wrestling with AI right now is simple: you do not have to choose between innovation and integrity. The ones who will lead are the ones building governance now, not later. Every AI decision is a workforce decision. She works with organizations to move them AI-Anxious to AI-Ready, From Guardrails to Governance all through an ethical AI Lens.futureworkforcesystems.com

May 26, 202629 min

E377 Whitney Belmonte: AI in Advertising

Whitney Belmonte spent fifteen years scaling marketing for category-defining brands, including Supergoop!, where she helped scale digital from a single channel into a multi-format engine. She has shipped campaigns, hired teams, and rebuilt operations from the inside.Now she works with founders, marketing leads, and ops teams to put AI to work in the parts of their business that actually move revenue — without the buzzwords, without the gloss, and without breaking the parts of their company that already work.Her clients tend to be the operators noticing what's quietly broken — content cycles that take three weeks, briefs that take longer than the work itself, leads that arrive cold and stay cold. The fix is rarely the model. It's the workflow around it.