Under Embargo Podcast

AI-For-Comms: Trading Grunt Work for Real Strategy with AI w/Jessen Gibbs, CEO & Co-Founder at Shadow, Inc and Dalyan Parker , Co-Founder at Shadow, Inc

We burn 40% of our time on research that AI can finish in 10 minutes, and that gap is where strategy dies. Jessen Gibbs, CEO and Co-Founder of Shadow, and Dalyan Parker, Co-Founder, join us to break down how AI-native narrative intelligence replaces the research grind that eats nearly half of every comms professional's working hours. We talk about compounding narrative graphs, why metered pricing beats another SaaS subscription, and what happens when narrative cycles compress from 18 months to nine. We cover: - Why 40% of comms work never shows up on a client invoice - How one platform compresses a week of analysis into 10 minutes - What a compounding narrative graph actually builds that static reports cannot - How mid-market agencies multiply force without adding a single headcount - Why metered pricing starting at fifty dollars beats another SaaS subscription Key Moments: 00:02:11 Track Daily Narrative Shifts in Real Time 00:05:00 Cut Week-Long Analysis Down to 10 Minutes 00:08:16 Build Your Thesis on Film School Origins 00:11:19 Multiply Force Without Adding Headcount 00:15:00 Turn Compounding Graphs Into Your Moat 00:18:26 Replace Morning News Tab Grinding Forever 00:22:00 Shrink Narrative Cycles to Nine Months 00:25:05 Send Relevant Pitches, Skip AI Spam 00:28:30 Navigate the Early SEO Era Smart 00:31:00 Fight SaaS Fatigue and Holding Companies 00:36:14 Start Small at Fifty Bucks Monthly 00:47:42 Pick: Lose Pinky or Six Month Hiccups

Build the Infrastructure Now: How to Win LLM Visibility with Sarah Evans

Sarah Evans joins the show to break down how communicators and CMOs can earn real visibility inside LLMs—not by chasing dashboards, but by building machine-readable authority through owned media and what her team calls "AI notices." The conversation covers the shift from keywords to prompt clusters, why owned content outranks earned media as a primary LLM source, the 28-day recency cycle that keeps citations alive, and why human writers remain the non-negotiable layer in an AI-optimized content system. Evans also gets into the operational reality of scaling beyond a founder-led agency, the limitations of current measurement tools, and what CMOs need to understand about a landscape where no one can see actual user prompts—but you can still prove impact.

You Are Not Running a Daycare: Meg Scheding on Treating Professionals Like Adults and Pricing Like It Matters w/ Meg Scheding

Meg Scheding joins the show to break down what it actually takes to build a fractional consulting practice—and why most people who say they want out of corporate life end up crawling back. We cover the psychology of corporate domestication, why the ability to sell is the single gate to independent work, how to structure engagements around outcomes instead of hours, the human moat that AI still cannot replicate, and why fractional doesn't have to be forever. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Nobody Builds Tools for Us: Michelle Masek on Why Comms Deserved Its Own AI Platform w/ Michelle Masek, Founder & CEO at Honeyjar

AI is coming for the mechanics of comms—media lists, briefing docs, visibility calendars—but it cannot replace strategy, judgment, or relationships. Michelle Masek, founder and CEO of Honeyjar, built an AI-powered operating system specifically for comms teams after watching the industry get ignored by tech for years. We cover how 60% of comms work is automatable mechanics, not the strategic value agencies actually get hired for; why the billable-hour agency model is already dead; what vibe coding unlocked for a comms pro turned founder; the looming junior-talent pipeline crisis as entry-level mechanics work disappears; and how EDU access and "robot wrangling" skills are the bridge for early-career pros. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Just enter the code UNDEREMBARGO at checkout to get your first month free ($0 today, then $250/month after that, with no obligation to continue after the free trial). The code expires May 25. As an Early Access partner, you’ll receive HoneyJar at a locked-in rate of $250 per user/month, guaranteed for a full year (even as pricing increases).

The R in PR Still Wins: Why Relationship-Led Media Matters More in an AI-Saturated World w/ Joseph Gallo, Director of Communications at PayPal

Joseph Gallo, Director of Communications at PayPal, breaks down how he makes regulated crypto and stable coin products understandable to everyday audiences, navigates multi-stakeholder approval grids that can stretch a single press release across months, and why relationship-driven earned media remains the most durable advantage in an AI-saturated landscape. In this episode, we explore: • Consumerizing stable coins by leading with fees, settlement speed, and access instead of blockchain jargon [09:53] • The real approval workflow behind a global crypto announcement, from legal and government relations to IR and regional teams [14:38] • Why GEO hype without volume, freshness, and format changes is overpromising on earned media's role [34:00] Joseph Gallo is a nine-year PayPal communications veteran who has led comms across B2B, consumer credit, crypto, and ads, and hosts the podcast Comms Confidential. Listen now to discover how to ship clearer messaging in regulated industries without compliance blowups, and why human relationships still outperform automation in media work.