Lead Human with Jack Myers and Tim Spengler

What happens when marketing becomes more measurable, more automated, and more efficient—but less human?In this special crossover episode between Lead Human and Brands, Beats & Bytes, Tim Spengler and Jack Myers join Darryl “DC” Cobbin and Larry Taman for a candid conversation about the state of modern marketing, the declining power of the CMO, the rise of procurement, AI’s growing influence, and the erosion of trust between brands and consumers. The conversation unfolds in three acts: the facts reshaping the industry, what those changes actually mean, and what marketers should do next. Jack lays out the numbers behind the diminishing CMO role, the growing concentration of media power, the disconnect between agencies and procurement, and consumers’ increasing skepticism toward AI-generated marketing. From there, the group debates whether marketing has become an expense rather than an investment, why cost-cutting and commoditization can destroy brand value, and whether the industry has “numbered itself out of growth.” They revisit Apple’s iconic Think Different era, the importance of emotional connection, and why trust may be the missing ingredient in today’s media ecosystem. The takeaway is a challenge to marketers: stay close to the consumer, understand what your brand believes, use data to generate insight—not just measurement—and reclaim marketing’s role as the function that connects culture, commerce, and human behavior. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After reading Jack Myers’ new book, Your Third Brain, Tim Spengler wanted to sit down with his Lead Human co-host and dig into the ideas that stood out to him most.What followed is a conversation about what human-machine collaboration really means for leadership, creativity, judgment, and the future of work.Jack explains his concept of the “third brain” as the space where human intention, experience, emotion, and judgment work together with the scale and speed of AI. Tim pulls from specific ideas he highlighted while reading the book, including presence, discernment, and the pause, the notion of AI as both a mirror and a reflector, and why “unlearning” may become just as important as learning.They also explore how leadership must evolve, why great leaders will need to become harmonizers of human and machine intelligence, and why the most useful question may not be whether AI becomes smarter than us, but whether our relationship with AI helps us become more intelligent, more humane, and more capable.At its core, Your Third Brain is not about surrendering human agency to technology. It is about learning how to use technology without giving up judgment, accountability, creativity, or the responsibility to shape what comes next.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.#LeadHuman #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #Leadership #HumanPotential Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For more than four decades, Jamie Reynolds has helped shape how millions of people experience live sports.As a longtime ESPN executive producer, Jamie oversaw massive production teams across tennis, basketball and other major sporting events—where hundreds of people, competing creative perspectives and the unpredictability of live television all had to come together in real time.His philosophy on leadership? “90% of my job is ego management.”Jamie joins Jack Myers and Tim Spengler to unpack what years behind the scenes at ESPN taught him about building high-performing teams, managing creative personalities, trusting people to make decisions under pressure and preparing for moments when a sporting event suddenly becomes a news event.He also shares stories from an extraordinary career: the Malice at the Palace, working with Bill Walton, Mike Ditka’s unexpected generosity, secretly adjusting the audio of John and Patrick McEnroe so viewers could tell their voices apart, and the evolution of the US Open into one of the great spectacles in sports.Along the way, Jamie reflects on something increasingly rare in modern media: the power of experiencing an event together, in full, rather than reducing it to an 18-second highlight.Lead Human explores what it takes to lead people—not just manage organizations—and why the greatest competitive advantage may come from unleashing human potential.Subscribe and share the episode with someone who thinks deeply about leadership, storytelling or the future of sports and media.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.#Leadership #ESPN #SportsMedia #LiveSports #LeadHuman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when a medication changes not just how much people eat—but how entire industries behave?In this episode of Lead Human, Jack Myers and Tim Spengler unpack the broader cultural and business impact of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, from shrinking food and beverage consumption to changing consumer habits, restaurant economics, body image, and even expectations for corporate leadership. If millions of people want less food, less alcohol, and less immediate gratification, what happens to the industries built around selling more?The conversation then takes a lighter turn into something surprisingly revealing: hats. Jack and Tim explore how baseball caps have become a kind of real-world emoji—signaling loyalty, geography, taste, aspiration, and cultural identity. From Yankees hats worn by people who don’t follow baseball to Sundance, Knicks, art, and family connections, they ask whether what we wear reflects who we truly are or simply the culture we want to belong to.It’s a distinctly Lead Human conversation about consumption, identity, technology, culture, and the choices—big and small—that shape how we present ourselves to the world.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.#LeadHuman #GLP1 #ConsumerTrends #Culture #HumanBehavior00:00 Welcome to Lead Human00:43 Jack & Tim take on the dog days of summer01:48 Is America going through a consumption reset?03:33 GLP-1s are changing more than weight04:33 Are shrinking categories getting CEOs and CMOs fired?05:18 Which food and beverage brands are still winning?05:54 Do GLP-1s expand human potential—or replace discipline?06:35 What happens to restaurants if America loses its appetite?07:33 One in nine adults and the scale of the GLP-1 shift08:25 Could body size become a marker of access and wealth?09:27 Is this a lasting consumption reset or just a trend?09:47 The conversation pivots to hats10:23 What your hat says about who you are11:27 Are hats authentic identity or borrowed cultural credibility?12:21 Why the baseball cap may be the world’s most important accessory13:09 Why people wear Yankees hats without knowing the Yankees13:28 Do hats need “truth in labeling”?14:35 When did wearing a baseball cap backwards become normal?15:19 CEOs, culture, and the backwards hat16:31 Could baseball caps actually be culturally unifying?17:34 Hats as loyalty, memory, creativity, and aspiration18:05 What hat tells the truest story about you?18:45 Outro – share your favorite hat and why it matters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do the world’s biggest brands build trust with audiences who increasingly listen to creators more than traditional advertising?In this episode of Lead Human, Jack Myers and Tim Spengler sit down with Joey Maestas, Head of Consumer Creators at Microsoft, to explore the creator economy, brand trust, audience growth, and why the future of marketing depends on stronger human relationships.Joey explains how Microsoft moved creators from the edge of its marketing strategy toward the center, why creator partnerships can outperform traditional paid media, and how his team measures impact beyond likes and views. He shares why the best brand partnerships are long-term relationships, not one-off posts, and how creators can provide valuable feedback on products, messaging, and culture.The conversation also looks back at Joey’s work with Team USA and the Olympics, where he helped athletes and early social creators build audiences long before influencer marketing became standard practice. They also discuss AI-generated creators, the uncertain future of VR, the rise of social commerce, and Joey’s simplest advice for anyone trying to grow an audience: stop overthinking and start posting.Lead Human is hosted by Jack Myers & Tim Spengler, produced by Wondir Studios (Desta Wondirad), in association with Acast.#LeadHuman #CreatorEconomy #InfluencerMarketing #Microsoft #FutureOfMarketing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.