Return on Reputation

Justin Obey
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

I'm Justin Obey, and this is Return on Reputation. Here's what I've learned building companies and helping founders scale: The game has changed. You don't need a bigger ad budget - you need a better media strategy. This show is about how founders are building authority and leverage in 2026: Podcasting that generates real clients, not just downloads AI tools that actually save you time instead of creating busy work Social media that builds relationships, not just follower counts Founder-led branding that positions you as the obvious choice I've built a 7-figure company, I run marketing for multiple 7 and 8-figure brands, and now I help B2B founders build the media engines that let them stop chasing and start attracting. If you're ready to play a different game, let's go.

  1. 5d ago ·  Video

    Invisible CEOs Lose Millions in Deals and Talent | Katie Radel | EP.25

    Katie Radel grew up above a funeral home. Third generation family business. I love stories like that because it explains a lot about why she never questioned whether entrepreneurship was even on the table for her. She spent the next several years in the corporate world (banking, healthcare, finance) before she got close to 40, had just had her son, and realized the version of herself showing up to that job every day wasn't the healthiest one. Six months before the pandemic hit, she quit and started Ripple Consulting Group.   I brought Katie on because I wanted to argue this out loud, the whole earned, owned, and paid media thing. She lives in earned media (PR, pitching journalists, getting executives quoted). I live in owned media (building the content and community side). Neither of us thinks the other one wins by itself. Where we landed by the end of this conversation is way more interesting than the debate, honestly. There's an actual number on what it costs a company when its executives stay invisible, and AI just made earned media matter more, not less.   What you'll learn Why 84% of AI citations trace back to earned media, and why that means PR isn't optional anymore if you care how AI talks about you The stat Katie leads with in every pitch meeting: visible executives carry an 80% higher average share price than the ones who stay invisible How to tell if a founder saying "I don't have time for this" actually means that, or means they don't want to be the one taking the risk The one question I stole from Katie that gets someone to their actual zone of genius, because asking "what's your expertise" gets you nothing useful The most overrated PR tactic there is: sending a press release out on the wire with zero strategy behind it The one line to fix on your LinkedIn headline today (hint: it's not your job title) Why even the executives with the most credentials still deal with imposter syndrome, and how Katie gets them talking before she ever shows them a talking point Why video is winning right now. In a feed full of AI slop, showing up live and unscripted is the one thing that's hard to fake Why reframing "personal brand" as "service media" turns the fear of self promotion into the reason you actually post TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Meet Katie Radel 00:48 Her Midlife Career Pivot 03:43 First Business and Hospital PR 05:41 Why She Leaped Again at 40 06:46 Funeral Home Entrepreneur Roots 08:34 Earned vs Owned vs Paid Media 10:36 When to Start Your PR Push 12:49 Finding Your Point of View 14:59 Prepping Executives for Press 15:53 Fear and Imposter Syndrome 17:58 Why Earned Media Builds Trust 20:20 AI Is Fueling PR's Rise 21:09 PR Strategy Before Tactics 23:26 Why Executive Brands Win 25:22 Building Camera Confidence 25:57 The Earned Owned Paid Mix 27:01 Finding Your Zone of Genius 29:23 Video in the Trust Economy 31:49 Coaching Camera Shy Executives 34:35 The Cost of Invisibility 38:28 The Real Time Commitment 40:45 Visibility Without the Humblebrag 43:26 Rapid Fire Questions Guest: Katie Radel, founder of Ripple Consulting Group, executive visibility and PR strategist. Find her on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/katieradel/    Host: Justin Obey, founder of Obey Creative. Obey Creative builds personal brands and communities for founder-led companies through brand strategy, video-first social media, content creation, and podcasting. https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinobey/    Show: Return on Reputation. Reputation drives everything. Without trust, building a strong business is close to impossible. The companies that lean hardest into the personal brands of their founders and their people will outperform the ones that don't.

  2. Aug 13 ·  Video

    Why an Audience Is the Best Asset a Founder Can Own | Vincent Pierri | EP.24

    Vincent Pierri spent years writing a new forty-five-minute talk every week for a room of three hundred people. No teleprompter. No rehearsal. Cross four or five hundred people, he says, and loyalty stops being the reason anyone shows up. They come back only if the message actually gives them something. That weekly pressure to never repeat himself built the exact skill he sells today. After leaving the pulpit, Vincent started out coaching SaaS executives on their conference talks, and by accident discovered that his rough, unpolished infographics were going viral while his videos went nowhere. Today he has around 34,500 LinkedIn followers and helps founders and executives turn their expertise into content people actually save. In this episode, Vincent and Justin Obey argue video versus infographics, agree that neither one wins on its own, and land on the thing underneath both formats: without a content strategy, the format doesn't matter. What you'll learn Why 99% of CEO keynotes are boring, and the ten-bullet fix that would make you sound like the best communicator in the room How to find your true top of funnel by testing which format your audience actually rewards, instead of copying whoever is loudest What AI can and can't create for you, and why AI is best at making content about AI itself The 3% save-rate rule, and what LinkedIn is really telling you in the first hour after you post Why you should stop chasing impressions and start raising your rates instead How one infographic about airline loyalty programs became a consultant's biggest source of pipeline for an entire year The mind-map method for finding topics nobody else is covering, demonstrated live on the show Why the fear of giving away your "secret sauce" is actually the strongest signal your content will work Vincent's pick for the most overrated piece of personal-brand advice, and what to do instead Chapters   00:00 The AI website that looked exactly like a stranger's 01:36 Preaching to three hundred people every Sunday 02:27 Why the big church pastor job is the hardest communication job there is 04:15 The framework that meant he never had to memorize 08:50 What almost every CEO gets wrong on stage 10:36 Why a speaking coach became the infographics guy 14:03 The $500 offer that sold a hundred seats 15:02 What actually drove the demand 17:46 Are designers finished? No, the opposite 18:53 What AI cannot tell you about your own content 21:47 The argument: video or infographics 22:43 Find your top of funnel first 28:33 Saturation decides your format 29:10 The airline loyalty infographic that built a pipeline 31:22 GIFs, stills, and the end of the animation wave 38:36 The 3% save rate rule 40:11 The one thing that never goes out of style 43:26 Stop blaming the algorithm 44:41 Live mind map: how to find what to post 52:51 Go deeper until nobody else is there 55:09 What if I give away the farm 58:33 Why he posted every salary he has ever made 01:02:16 Rapid fire 01:06:29 What reputation means to Vince Pierri   Guest: Vince Pierri, LinkedIn content strategist and custom infographic designer, former pastor. Find him on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-angelo-coach/    Host: Justin Obey, founder of Obey Creative. Obey Creative builds personal brands and communities for founder-led companies through brand strategy, video-first social media, content creation, and podcasting. https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinobey/    Show: Return on Reputation. Reputation drives everything. Without trust, building a strong business is close to impossible. The companies that lean hardest into the personal brands of their founders and their people will outperform the ones that don't.   Mentioned in this episode: LinkedIn, Lovable, Canva, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft, Alex Hormozi, Kevin O'Leary, Grant Cardone.

  3. Aug 7 ·  Video

    20,000 Followers. 437 Episodes. Zero Cold Pitches.

    Keith Cline joined LinkedIn on December 8, 2003. He's member number 55,829. Twenty-three years later he has 20,000 followers, and almost nothing he's posted is about him. He's interviewed the CEO of Klaviyo, the co-founder of Android, and roughly 435 other founders. He built VentureFizz, the front door to Boston tech, out of a Blogger page during a recession because his recruiting business had dried up and he was bored. He hired a developer off Craigslist. Day one, a guy at Novell paid $50 to post a job, and Keith couldn't believe it was real. Then something happened that he never planned for. Once people knew he ran VentureFizz, the introductions came to him. Investors started referring founders directly. He stopped competing for search work entirely. The side project turned out to be the best business development of his career — and he built the whole thing by promoting everybody except himself. Justin and Keith get into what reputation looks like when it's built by accumulation instead of by campaign. Why VentureFizz ran eight years as a side hustle and what kept it alive when the revenue didn't justify it. The New York expansion that taught him what he isn't. What separates a real employer brand from a careers page, from a guy who's sold employer branding for seventeen years. And the question at the center of the show: if you've been on LinkedIn for 23 years and have 20,000 followers, are you behind, or is the scoreboard wrong? If you've been telling yourself you'll start posting once you have something worth saying, this one is the argument for starting anyway. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ▸ What "building in public" looked like in 2003, before it was a phrase or a strategy ▸ Why being early to a platform matters less than you'd think in the words of someone who was ▸ How a Blogger page of copy-pasted press releases became a regional tech ecosystem's front door ▸ Why the first $50 mattered more than the money ▸ How a side project became a business development engine that ended competitive bidding ▸ Why Keith promotes everyone but himself, and what seventeen years of that has returned ▸ The difference between reputation and reach, and why founders keep confusing the two ▸ Why the New York expansion failed, and what it taught him about localized audiences ▸ What separates a real employer brand from a careers page, with HubSpot as the case study ▸ How answer engine optimization is rewriting employer branding as job seekers research in ChatGPT ▸ What 437 founder interviews taught him about preparation as a form of respect ▸ The one thing Keith says he's failing at and it's the thing this show is about CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 01:32 437 episodes and the consistency problem 04:10 LinkedIn member #55,829 05:19 What LinkedIn actually was in 2003 08:22 "You beat me, I'm 11,263,435" 09:43 Why his feed is about everyone but him 13:09 Boston's momentum shift 18:24 From recruiting in '98 to founding Dissero 20:49 2009: the recession side project 21:48 What version one actually looked like 24:19 The first $50 job post 30:25 Eight years as a side hustle 31:56 What kept it going when nothing was working 34:25 The New York expansion that didn't work 39:48 Quality over quantity: 20,000 connections 42:00 Employer brand vs. a careers page 43:57 How job seekers search now 45:42 Who's doing it best: WHOOP 47:32 What 437 interviews teach you 52:04 Rapid fire 54:30 Where to find Keith CONNECT WITH KEITH VentureFizz: https://venturefizz.com The VentureFizz Podcast: https://venturefizz.com/podcast LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/keithcline CONNECT WITH JUSTIN Obey Creative: https://obeycreative.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinobey FREE RESOURCES ▸ The Authority Brief: https://get.obeycreative.com/newsletter  If this one landed, leave a rating. It's genuinely how new founders find the show. #PersonalBranding #FounderLedMarketing #BostonTech #BuildingInPublic #LinkedInStrategy #EmployerBranding #Podcasting #StartupFounders

  4. Jul 16 ·  Video

    Why Companies Fail at Customer Engagement | Appcues CEO Ryan Barry | EP.22

    SHOW DESCRIPTION 📩 Join the Friday Briefing (free newsletter): https://get.obeycreative.com/newsletter 🎙️ Free Podcast Planner GPT: https://get.obeycreative.com/podcastplanner    Every company insists they're customer-obsessed. Almost none of them can point to proof beyond a slide that says so.   Ryan Barry has built two companies around closing that gap. As CEO of Appcues and former CEO of Zappi, he's spent his career sitting between customers and the leadership teams trying to serve them, and he's watched most of those teams mistake activity for connection.   What he's found is both simple and uncomfortable: most B2B companies aren't losing customers because of price or product. They're losing them because nobody inside the company is actually listening and the ones who still trust last-click data over what customers plainly tell them.   In this episode of Return on Reputation, I had the chance to talk with Ryan Barry to dig into why brand and reputation, not lead generation, are the real long-term growth engine, and why the way you treat people still beats any technology advantage.   What you'll learn in this episode: Why most companies fail at customer engagement, and what actually earns trust instead How Ryan builds credibility fast walking into a company he didn't found, without leaning on "how it worked at my last company" What self-stated attribution is, and why it beats last-click marketing data every time The real reason B2B has spent years chasing MQLs while B2C has quietly figured out brand Why SDRs are the most overrated growth tactic in SaaS right now The moment Ryan realized technology is no longer a moat, and what is The one belief every company gets dead wrong about its customers What Appcues is building right now to close the loop between customer insight and action If you're a B2B leader betting everything on the next channel or tactic while your actual customers quietly decide whether to stick around, this episode is your reset. Follow Return on Reputation on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts so you don't miss an episode.   TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Welcome & Meeting That Stuck 01:04 Why That Run Club Meeting Mattered 03:06 Doing for the Kids Payoff 03:44 Zappi to Appcues Journey 07:59 Why Customer Engagement Fails 11:06 Trust as a New CEO 15:00 How Ryan Got the Appcues Job 17:49 Books, Podcasts & Brand Building 20:43 Authenticity Over Scripted Marketing 21:36 Personal Brand Shows Up in Person 22:05 Consumer Insights Meet AI 23:41 LLMs and Attribution Shift 25:57 Emotion Is the Real Moat 27:38 Brand Beats Demand Gen 31:13 AI Hype vs Real Differentiation 32:59 Curiosity as a Career Skill 34:35 Rapid Fire Round 36:23 Appcues' Recommendation Loop 37:21 Where to Find Ryan Barry 37:30 Closing Thoughts & Baseball Life

  5. Jul 9 ·  Video

    Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): How to Boost Your AI Search Visibility | Ep. 21

    Subscribe to the weekly Authority Brief: https://get.obeycreative.com/newsletter  The search landscape is undergoing a massive shift. While most businesses still focus on traditional Google rankings, your next customer is likely asking ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude who to trust. This new era of AI search demands a proactive approach to AI-driven reputation marketing to ensure your business is the one being recommended. In this episode of Return on Reputation, I’m joined by Tim Harvey, founder of FlyDragon. We dive into the world of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and how businesses can strengthen their "digital entity" to secure AI recommendations. If you aren't visible to AI, you're invisible to the future of discovery. Tim spent seven years helping top-producing real estate agents win online through websites, Google, PPC, Google Business Profile, Facebook Ads, and reviews. Then he noticed something that changed the whole playbook. AI tools were no longer just sending people back to Google. They were recommending actual names. We talk about what happens when ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews become part of how people choose a real estate agent, advisor, contractor, agency, or software company. Tim explains why AI should be treated as a marketing channel now, not later, and why FlyDragon’s research found that 91% of real estate agents are invisible to AI Search. We also get into your “digital entity,” the public footprint AI uses to understand who you are, what you do, who you help, and whether you’re credible. Your website matters. But so do reviews, listicles, directories, press releases, podcasts, Reddit threads, YouTube, LinkedIn, and third-party mentions. Because AI looks for corroboration. It wants to see if the story you tell about yourself shows up anywhere else. And if it doesn’t, there’s a good chance it recommends someone else. In this episode, we cover: Why AI Search is becoming a real marketing channel How ChatGPT is changing customer research What it means to be invisible to AI Search Why 91% of real estate agents are not showing up in AI answers How AI decides which businesses to trust Why reviews, listicles, press releases, and Reddit matter How to audit your AI presence like a customer would Why reputation is becoming machine-readable Keywords: Tim Harvey, FlyDragon, Return on Reputation, AI Search, AI visibility, Answer Engine Optimization, AEO, GEO, AI SEO, ChatGPT recommendations, Google AI Overviews, real estate marketing, digital reputation, reputation marketing, SEO, local SEO, AI marketing, founder visibility, listicles, reviews, press releases, digital entity, AI referrals TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introductions 00:31 From Curator to FlyDragon 02:25 AI Visibility Explained 04:58 Why People Trust AI 10:05 The 91 Percent Invisible Stat 12:34 AI Search Traffic and Overviews 16:21 Digital Entity and Data Sources 18:44 Auditing Your AI Presence 23:27 How AI Chooses Who to Trust 25:35 Listicles and Omnipresence 26:52 Diversify Reviews Everywhere 27:57 Top AI Visibility Factors 28:47 Reverse Engineer Citations 30:08 Pages vs Blogs Strategy 31:58 Audit Profiles Like SEO 33:38 Zero Click Leads Explained 35:33 Websites For AI Eyeballs 38:52 Press Releases Pay To Play 41:12 Flexible Playbook Reddit Seeding 43:34 Ethics And Gaming The System 45:06 Rapid Fire And Wrap Up

  6. Jul 2 ·  Video

    Why Trusted Brands Always Win the Downturn | Chris Farris, Boost Promotions | Ep. 20

    Most founders think branded merch is a waste of money. Chris Farris has spent 20-plus years proving the opposite. In this episode of Return on Reputation, host Justin Obey and Chris Farris, founder of Boost Promotions, break down how branded merchandise becomes physical proof of a company's reputation, why trusted brands rise while commodities get cut in a downturn, and how a $100 gift can open the door to a million-dollar deal.   This one is for founders who already believe personal brand and reputation are real assets, and want to know where physical brand experience fits alongside content and personal branding.   What you'll learn:   Why "free stuff" fails and what gives merch intention instead The real size of the branded merchandise industry and why nobody talks about it How trusted brands like Coca-Cola and Procter and Gamble win when the economy turns The gift-based demand gen math: spending $100 to close a million-dollar deal Why the unboxing "Christmas morning" moment is what people actually remember How merch acts as physical authority on top of the awareness your content builds Where founders waste the most money on branded merch, and how to stop   Chapters:  00:00 Intro and Chris's path from the Mets to Boost Promotions  02:06 Is branded merch a waste of money?  04:07 How big the merch industry really is  06:06 Giving merch intention (not car-wash rags) 08:45 Beyond acquisition: recruiting, retention, impulse  10:50 What brand means today  12:56 Where companies waste money  16:14 Quality vs. brand name, staying on trend 19:45 Should founders only wear their own merch?  21:38 The process: swag closets, pop-up shops, custom products  27:00 Gift giving and demand gen: $100 to a $1M deal  30:02 The unboxing experience that gets remembered  31:25 Measuring brand and surviving the downturn  34:47 Trust is everything  36:13 Can merch build authority? Physical authority  37:36 Rapid fire  41:46 Where to find Chris and Boost Promotions

  7. Jun 26 ·  Video

    Why Your LinkedIn Profile Is the New Landing Page | Michael Kurson, FirstTouch | Ep. 19

    Can you build a B2B pipeline on LinkedIn with no ad spend, no cold calls, and no cold emails? Michael Kurson did exactly that, and he tracked every step.   Michael is the co-founder of FirstTouch, a platform that turns LinkedIn into a measurable go-to-market channel by attributing every comment, connection, and DM back to HubSpot. Before tech he sold something harder to move: hard seltzer, one three-hour liquor-store tasting at a time. He joins Justin Obey on Return on Reputation to explain why trust is the real product now, why the people are the brand, and how to earn attention on social before a buyer ever needs you.   This conversation is for founders, sales leaders, and marketers who believe what we believe: people buy from people they know, like, and trust, and the companies that lean into the personal brands of their founders and their team will outperform the ones hiding behind a logo.   What you'll learn:   Why "digital eye contact" in the comments beats cold outreach every time The exact commenting routine that tripled his connection-accept rate (from ~20% to 60%+) Why your profile is the new landing page, and the website is not where buyers live anymore How AI search (AEO) is changing discovery, and the best question to ask in a first call Why AI-generated comments quietly damage your reputation How the people, not the logo, became the brand (Lovable, Clay, Whisperflow)   Questions answered in this episode:   How do you build trust on LinkedIn without being salesy? What is the highest-ROI activity on LinkedIn for a busy founder? Is cold calling and cold email dead in 2026? How do you make LinkedIn drive measurable pipeline? What does reputation actually mean for a B2B company today?   Chapters  0:00 Cold open  0:25 From hard seltzer to software: what selling drinks taught him about trust  4:30 The trust gap in the age of AI  7:45 Micro-conversations and "digital eye contact" in the comments  11:30 Talk less, win more: the 49% talk-rate rule  14:00 Why almost nobody comments (and why that's the opening)  16:00 What FirstTouch does: making LinkedIn measurable  20:30 The anatomy of a comment that works  25:00 Your profile is the new landing page  27:30 Social as the new battleground, and AEO  33:30 Human-in-the-loop vs automation  38:00 67% attribution: when the light bulb goes on  42:30 The people are the brand (Lovable, Clay, Whisperflow)  46:45 If a busy founder had 8 minutes a day  48:45 "LinkedIn is cringe" and the perfect-post trap  49:40 If you're not on social, you disappear  51:25 Rapid fire  53:55 What reputation means

  8. Jun 19 ·  Video

    Why Human Authenticity Is the New Competitive Advantage | Ep. 18 with Jon Dick

    📩 Subscribe to our newsletter the Authority Brief: https://get.obeycreative.com/newsletter 🎙️ Free Podcast Planner GPT: https://get.obeycreative.com/podcastplanner  Most companies are trying to figure out what AI is going to change. Jon Dick thinks the better question is what AI won’t change. In this episode of Return on Reputation, Justin Obey talks with Jon Dick,  Chief Customer Officer at HubSpot about inbound marketing, AI, personal brand, Answer Engine Optimization, and why human authenticity may become one of the strongest advantages a company can build. Jon has spent years inside HubSpot, a company that helped define inbound marketing and the idea of giving value before asking for anything back. Free content. Free tools. Useful education. The kind of work that compounds slowly, then suddenly looks obvious. But AI is changing the rules. Content is easier to make now. Code is easier to ship. Answers are easier to generate. Which sounds great, until every company starts sounding the same. Jon argues that the brands that break through will be the ones with a real point of view. Not louder content. Not more content. Better thinking. Clear opinions. Real people behind the message. We talk about why being opinionated matters, why “AI for AI’s sake” usually misses the point, and how companies can use AI to speed up human ideas without losing the voice that made those ideas worth sharing in the first place. Jon also explains how HubSpot is thinking about agentic customer platforms, what AEO means for the future of search, and why the old marketing funnel feels less useful than it used to. The buyer journey is messier now. More indirect. Harder to track. Maybe that’s uncomfortable for marketers who want clean attribution. But it’s also closer to how people actually buy. We also get into thought leadership, LinkedIn, community, customer trust, and one very old-school tactic that may be working better than ever: picking up the phone. In this episode we cover: Why human authenticity matters more in the AI era How AI is changing inbound marketing and go-to-market strategy Why brands need stronger opinions to stand out The difference between AI output and real business outcomes What “add value before you extract value” means at HubSpot How Jon thinks about AI agents and customer context Why Answer Engine Optimization matters for modern search Why the traditional funnel no longer explains how people buy How leaders can build trust through public, honest engagement Why generic AI content makes real human voice more valuable How AI can help with content without replacing the person behind it Why attribution is getting harder, and why that might be okay What marketers should understand about community and social proof Why picking up the phone still works Keywords: Jon Dick, HubSpot, Return on Reputation, AI marketing, inbound marketing, human authenticity, Answer Engine Optimization, AEO, go-to-market strategy, thought leadership, personal brand, AI agents, customer platform, B2B marketing, brand reputation, content strategy, LinkedIn marketing, reputation marketing

See All (66)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

I'm Justin Obey, and this is Return on Reputation. Here's what I've learned building companies and helping founders scale: The game has changed. You don't need a bigger ad budget - you need a better media strategy. This show is about how founders are building authority and leverage in 2026: Podcasting that generates real clients, not just downloads AI tools that actually save you time instead of creating busy work Social media that builds relationships, not just follower counts Founder-led branding that positions you as the obvious choice I've built a 7-figure company, I run marketing for multiple 7 and 8-figure brands, and now I help B2B founders build the media engines that let them stop chasing and start attracting. If you're ready to play a different game, let's go.

Information

  • Creator
    Justin Obey
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    66
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Return on Reputation