‘Jordan The Stallion,’ Jenny Hoyos, Misha Brown, V Spehar, Ziad Ahmed, Shira Lazar, and companies like Liquid Death, LTK, Boobie, Smosh, NFL all have one thing in common – It’s No Fluke they found success.
Each week, we unpack the highs, lows, and untold stories of culture and creativity with top creators, brands, agencies and thought leaders.
New episodes drop every Tuesday and Thursday. Stay tuned!
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A Shorty Award winner and Real Time Academy member, Jeff Barrett works with major influencers and brands like Adobe, Experian, Oracle, FIS and more on communications and influencer strategy. He spent three years traveling to almost every state in the country writing about startup ecosystems for Inc and Entrepreneur. After years of talking for a living, he's ready to listen and amplify the voices of amazing people, stories and ideas.
David Born is the Founder and CEO of Born Licensing, Born to License, and Learn to License, an integrated licensing ecosystem that redefines how brands understand, access, and unlock the value of entertainment intellectual property (IP). An industry innovator with nearly two decades of experience across both brand and agency sides, David specializes in making licensing strategic, viable, and scalable, helping brands to use IP as a meaningful business growth driver across marketing and commerce.
Founded more than 10 years ago, Born Licensing is the go-to agency for creative and advertising partners seeking to license iconic characters and entertainment IP for campaigns. Building on that foundation, David launched Born to License in 2024, an end-to-end licensing management company that acts as a strategic partner for manufacturers and businesses, alongside Learn to License, a comprehensive education platform.
Throughout his career, David has collaborated with top global brands including Uber, Disney, Google, Warner Bros., Paramount, Hasbro, Mattel, and Samsung among many others, as well as emerging direct-to-consumer brands like Hippo Blue, Plum Deluxe Tea, Steven Singer Jewelers, Elihome, WOLFpak, and Keepsake Cards, converting them into beloved brands by consumers and licensors alike.
David regularly shares expert insights on news, trends and opportunities through his Born to License podcast and content channels, and mentorship work. He serves as a Licensing Mentor for Daily Mentor (founded by Shark Tank Australia’s Davie Fogarty) and has been recognized as an industry leader by License Global as a Top 40 Under 40, featured in Licensing.biz’s Power 50 list, and as one of Brands Untapped’s Top 100.
Jay Williams is the Founder and Big Bird of Free Bird Southern Spring Water, a bold new beverage brand that’s putting real water back in the hands of real people. Free Bird is sourced from the Blue Ridge Mountains and is designed to celebrate the best of America. No buzzwords. No gimmicks. Just damn good water, made for those who work hard and live harder.
Williams launched Free Bird after stepping away from a 25 year career in real estate, where he developed more than a billion dollars’ worth of multi-family and student housing development projects. Trading boardrooms for beverage production and development deals for distribution agreements, he built Free Bird from the ground up with zero industry connections—relying on hustle, curiosity, and a deep respect for his customers.
Today, Free Bird is rolling out across America, gaining a loyal following of everyday Americans who see themselves in the brand’s unapologetically authentic identity. For Williams, it’s more than a business—it’s a salute to the backbone of America and proof that the best ideas often come when you’re willing to start over.
Farra Kober is the VP of StoryWorks Americas, BBC Studios’ brand content studio and internal creative agency. An Emmy-award-winning content executive and brand marketer, Farra is passionate about creative storytelling with purpose. As a creative leader, she guides teams in driving growth, customer engagement, and sales through multi-platform content born of strategic insights and data.
Prior to joining the BBC, Farra held leadership positions at WeWork as Sr. Director of Global Content Marketing, at theSkimm as VP of Content Studios—leading their extension into branded content, podcasting, and web editorial—and at NBCUniversal. As Director of Digital for MSNBC, managing creative and operations of MSNBC.com, Farra led the company to its best-year-ever in digital video viewership and launched its first-ever podcasting arm, including Chris Hayes’ award-winning program, ‘Why Is This Happening?’
In her role as Chief Impact Officer, Sona Khosla is at the helm of Benevity Impact Labs, an incubator and social innovation lab. Sona and her team bring cutting-edge data, research and insights to help organizations and individuals maximize their impact and inclusion efforts, and authentically live their purpose.
As the host of the Speaking of Purpose by Benevity podcast, Sona is also a frequent guest on shows and in the media because of her expertise and sharp insight on purpose-driven business and corporate social impact.
Zach Katz has spent more than 20 years building alongside creators at defining moments in their careers. He began as a music attorney before managing several of Dr. Dre’s closestcollaborators, spending years in the studio as Dre coached Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent. That early immersion shaped Katz’s belief that enduring careers are built on structure, ownership and long-term vision, not just hits.
He later co-founded Beluga Heights, launching global stars including Sean Kingston and Jason Derulo. After more than a decade as a music entrepreneur, Katz became President of BMGNorth America, where he helped guide the careers of artists such as Juice WRLD, DJ Khaled, Janet Jackson, blink-182, DJ Snake and Bebe Rexha while overseeing one of the industry’s most influential rosters.
He went on to partner with Scooter Braun to invest in emerging technology reshaping how creators grow and monetize audiences, and later served as President and COO of FaZe Clan, where he saw firsthand the lack of institutional infrastructure for digital-native talent.
Today, as co-founder of Fixated, Katz is bringing traditional Hollywood and music-industry deal architecture, and long-term career strategy into what he views as the “new Hollywood”: the creator economy. His focus is on building durable infrastructure around digital talent the way record labels once built global superstars: with structure, IP ownership, strategic partnerships, and generational brand thinking.
Kristina Monllos is a senior reporter for Marketing Brew. She has spent over a decade covering the advertising business for publications like Digiday and Adweek. Her reporting has also appeared in publications like Rolling Stone, New York Magazine's Vulture and Elle, among others. She is also a filmmaker.
Yann Caloghiris leads brand experience at Left Field Labs, creating immersive experiences where emerging technology becomes something people can actually feel. His work combines strategic thinking, real-time interactivity, and on-device AI to turn complex technologies into meaningful human experiences.
He has led experiential programs for Google, Qualcomm, Salesforce, GitHub, Meta, Amazon, and Hasbro, including Snapdragon’s edge-AI demonstrations, Salesforce’s Agentforce City at Dreamforce, and Google’s AR navigation experience at CES. Yann is also the creator and host of For Breakfast, a podcast exploring creativity, technology, and the evolving nature of work in the age of AI. Through conversations with designers, filmmakers, and technologists, he examines what machines can accelerate, and what remains uniquely human. His perspective is simple: AI can generate possibilities, but effective creativity still depends on human insight, intuition, and connection.
Amir Sahba is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Thinkingbox, a brief to built agency creating innovative digital, experiential, social, and content. Since founding the company in 2010, Amir has championed the belief that creativity and production belong together.
He has built a collective of thinkers, makers and doers operating across specialized divisions including Thinkingbox, The Heist and AntiSocial to deliver end-to-end storytelling for leading brands across sports, gaming, entertainment and technology, creating work that doesn’t just keep pace with culture but helps define it.
Named to Inc.’s Female Founders list, Priscila Martinez is founder and CEO of The Brand Agency, a public relations and creative communications firm. She is an award-winning marketer whose firm services Fortune 5 clients and other household name brands. The Brand Agency is the only agency globally to service clients like Amazon, Apple, Hulu, Disney, and Netflix with a female-only team. Recently, Ragan recognized Martinez as a Top Women in Communications, industry trade PRNews named her Top Women in 2024, and her agency was named “Best in Business” by Inc. Magazine for two years.
Her speaking engagements include UCLA Velocity Women’s Leadership Summit, USC Marshall School of Business marketing series, USC Own It Summit, and the International Trade Council's Think Global Conference. Martinez was an entertainment correspondent for NBC’s Peacock streaming platform. She has been featured in publications like The Hollywood Reporter and Forbes and frequently contributed to Newsweek and Entrepreneur. Martinez sits on the board of Tierra del Sol Foundation. She is a Mexican immigrant who started living in the US full-time upon being accepted to Pepperdine University.
Sarah Gav is a former professional ballet dancer turned social media strategist and content creator, based in Austin, Texas, with over five years of experience in digital marketing. She currently leads social strategy at Manychat, overseeing Instagram and YouTube, and hosts “Just Send It,” Manychat’s podcast featuring conversations with creators and entrepreneurs.
Sarah is also the founder of Renue Social, a social media agency specializing in strategy and content creation for brands. You can find Sarah speaking regularly on social media strategy, personal branding, and the creator economy.
