It's No Fluke – An Original Podcast

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Guy Kawasaki, Yvette Nicole Brown, AJR’s Adam Met, Million Dollar Listing’s Ryan Serhant, Dr. Marcus Collins, and brands like NFL, Dove, Liquid Death, Fanatics, TED and Google all have one thing in common - It’s No Fluke they found success. How, you ask? Listen and subscribe to our podcast to find out!

It’s No Fluke is a weekly original podcast from the Shorty Awards, about the untold stories and uncharted waters in culture and creativity. 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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About the Host

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. Email us at [email protected] or DM us on Instagram if you have feedback or topic/guest recommendations for the pod.

Latest Episodes

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It’s No Fluke is brought to you by Wave, one-stop money management for creators, freelancers, and small business owners. Wave’s easy-to-use bookkeeping tools help you cut out the (guess)work, so you can focus on breaking the Internet—not the bank. Try Wave for free today!

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E130 Andy Lambert: The heart of marketing is always...

Andy Lambert is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record of building and scaling successful software businesses over the past 12 years. As a founding member of ContentCal, a social media marketing platform, he helped grow the company from inception to acquisition by Adobe Inc. in 2021, raising $10M in funding and serving thousands of customers globally. Andy is passionate about education and sharing knowledge, which led him to author the best-selling book 'SOCIAL 3.0' in 2022. Drawing from his extensive experience, he now advises and consults with businesses, helping them scale and harness the power of social media.

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E129 Foram Mehta: Meet Ally, The Chatbot That Does Way More Than Answer Questions

Foram Mehta is a leader in the social impact sector with over 13 years of experience driving initiatives in sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and youth empowerment. As the Global Partnerships Manager at Women First Digital, Foram has spearheaded innovative solutions to address access gaps in abortion care, contraception, and digital security, particularly in underserved regions like Latin America and Africa.

She specializes in building meaningful partnerships, leveraging technology for social change, and designing scalable programs that challenge the status quo. A passionate advocate for feminist and anti-colonial approaches, Foram is committed to creating equitable and inclusive opportunities for marginalized communities worldwide.

Ally - 2x winner at the 9th Annual Shorty Impact Awards

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E128 Keith Bendes: Creator campaigns can fuel the entire marketing engine

Labeled a leading voice in the intersection of marketing and technology by Forbes, Keith is the Vice President of Strategy at Linqia, the leading influencer marketing agency for enterprise brands. Keith also co-hosts the renowned Creator Economy Live podcast, is a contributor for Forbes on influencer marketing, and speaks at conferences around the world on the topic of the creator economy.

Keith has developed marketing and influencer strategies for some of the largest brands in the world including Unilever, Anheuser Busch, Kraft, McDonalds, Pepsi and more. Keith lives (and works) in San Francisco, California with his wife and two daughters.

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E127 Emma Lehman: Knowing when to go down the rabbit hole


Emma Lehman is an independent podcast producer, investigative journalist, researcher, and scriptwriter. She produced, wrote, and hosted Gooned, a multi-award-winning limited-series investigative podcast about the Troubled Teen Industry, and is also the creator of the Texas Twiggy podcast.

She graduated from UCLA in 2022 with a B.A. in English and minors in Global Studies and Professional Writing.Emma grew up outside of Washington, D.C., and now lives in Los Angeles with a cranky asthmatic cat named Garlic. When she's not making a podcast, she's usually embroidering, roller skating, or eating pickles straight from the jar.

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E126: Why The Colab Built The Anti-Agency

Ashley Mann is a seasoned communications and PR professional with 15 years of expertise in B2B and B2C technology. Her experience spans both agency and startup environments, where she has honed her approach to strategic communications. As co-founder of The Colab, she partners directly with high-growth companies to uncover and amplify their core mission. Ashley brings a unique perspective shaped by extensive experience in consumer and technology sectors, focusing on delivering impactful, mission-driven communications strategies.

Lizzy Harris is a co-founder and Partner at The Colab, the leading anti-agency for B2B and B2C tech companies. Having worked at agencies and in-house over the last 15 years, Lizzy built The Colab with a vision of turning the traditional agency model on its head, with a hyper focus on transparency, communication, and overexceeding metrics. She is passionate about forging authentic partnerships with clients, helping them define their narrative, and driving measurable business outcomes through tailored strategies.

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E125 Megan Hueter: Why pedal uphill when you can use an eBike?

Megan Hueter is the strategic leader of MikeWorldWide’s digital practice and the managing director of the social and influencer agency Everywhere, with 15+ years of experience leading digital and social media strategy for both B2B and consumer brands such as Deloitte, Nikon, FanDuel, Subaru, Whole Foods, YETI and more.

She has a wide range of industry experience that cuts across large-scale digital product designs and builds, customer experience, journey mapping, email marketing, social media, influencer marketing, paid media, content development, analytics and more.


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E124: Nicole Emerick: Why every good campaign starts with trust

Nicole Emerick went from commercial banker to blogger to Fortune 100 social media director. With experience as a creator/entrepreneur, agency lead and client side social media leader, Nicole has a unique perspective on using social media to drive and sustain business growth.

Outside of work, Nicole enjoys coaching leaders on building standout personal brands.



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E123 Smile Train: The one thing any business can learn from our Nonprofit of the Year

Brandon Lawson is a nonprofit communications specialist based in New York City and currently serves as the Director of Content Strategy at Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft charity. With over 20 years of experience, Brandon has dedicated his career to helping organizations craft compelling narratives, engage audiences, and achieve their financial goals. Check out his team’s multiple Shorty award winning blog and Oscar-qualified documentary film, Every Day After, streaming now on the Documentary Channel.

Nicole Bell is Smile Train’s Vice President of Public Relations, bringing over 20 years of experience in journalism, media strategy, and communications. She has led award-winning campaigns and continuously secures coverage in top media outlets like NBC Nightly News, The Associated Press, CNN, Good Morning America and Fox News. Nicole has experience as a college professor, teaching graduate-level public relations courses. Previously, Nicole spent over a decade as a TV journalist, reporting for network affiliates across the country. She holds a Master’s in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor’s in Speech Communications from East Stroudsburg University.


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E122 Jenny Hoyos: Can you make anything go viral?

Jenny Hoyos has mastered the art of making anything go viral, amassing over 6M subscribers and 2B views. Through her group coaching program, she’s helped thousands of creators replicate her success too. You can learn more at ViralShortsClub.com

And what you learn very quickly is that Jenny is building for the long term and putting the same amount of detail into this business than a CFO at a Fortune 500. If you’re a brand looking to understand creators better and create better brand deals – or a creator looking to level up – then this is just the episode for you. Let’s learn something together.  


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E121 Kathy Eldon: How to find inspiration in 2025

Kathy Eldon has worked as an award-winning film and television producer, best-selling author and journalist in England, Kenya and the United States.  In 1998, Kathy and her daughter, Amy, launched Creative Visions Foundation, inspired by the life of her son, Dan Eldon - Reuters photojournalist, artist, and creative activist.  Creative Visions, a United Nations non-governmental organization, has helped incubate more than 500 projects and productions on five continents.  

Kathy, a popular speaker, has been featured on countless television and radio programs globally, including several appearances on Oprah. Documentaries and films that Kathy has produced have been distributed through global outlets including, Columbia Pictures, Netflix, CNN, PBS, TBS and OWN.  Her many EP credits include Emmy-nominated "Dying to Tell the Story," "Extraordinary Moms", an Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) special, that features actor, Julia Roberts, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and CNN Chief Correspondent Christiane Amanpour and "The Journey is the Destination", a feature film about her son Dan's life.  Now available on Amazon, the award-winning film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!