From Attention to Revenue: Naresh Vissa on PR, Podcasting, and AI Marketing

In this episode of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, Reed Hansen sits down with Naresh Vissa, founder and CEO of Krish Media & Marketing, bestselling author, podcast host, and media strategist, to talk about how entrepreneurs can turn attention into revenue through podcasts, books, PR, referrals, and AI.

Naresh has worked with major brands and organizations including CNN Radio, Clear Channel, JP Morgan Chase, the Houston Rockets, the Houston Astros, Agora Financial, and Stansberry Research. In this conversation, he shares how he built credibility, landed major clients, used books and podcasting to open doors, and why AI is dramatically changing how marketers work.

If you’ve ever wondered how to use media exposure to build authority and generate real business growth, this episode is packed with practical insight.

💡 What You’ll Learn:
• How Naresh built relationships with major brands and enterprise clients
• Why books, podcasts, and PR still matter for business growth
• How referrals and incentives can become powerful growth drivers
• Why marketers still need to understand ROI, customer acquisition cost, and lifetime value
• How AI is changing productivity in marketing, tech, design, and content creation
• Why Naresh sees AI as an opportunity, not a threat

👉 Key Highlights:
✅ Big brands are often easier to work with than smaller clients once you get in the door
✅ Books can become a gateway to media features, authority, and new business
✅ Podcasting can generate clients, partnerships, and long-term brand visibility
✅ Referral programs work when you understand customer lifetime value
✅ AI tools can compress weeks or months of work into hours

Naresh also shares examples of how he uses AI in real-world business situations — from solving technical issues faster to generating video ads, presentations, and creative assets with dramatically less time and cost.

If you’re a founder, consultant, marketer, or agency owner trying to build authority and scale smarter, this episode is worth your time.

🎁 Naresh is also offering listeners a free copy of his bestselling book, 50 Shades of Marketing.

Connect with Naresh Vissa:
🌐 Krish Media & Marketing: [www.KrishMediaMarketing.com](http://www.KrishMediaMarketing.com)
🌐 Personal Website: [www.NareshVissa.com](http://www.NareshVissa.com)

📈 At MarketSurge, we help you turn tools into systems — and systems into growth.
If you want automation that feels personal and performs like a team of 10, you’re in the right place.

🧠 Want to talk strategy or see it in action?
🎯 Book your 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
[https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee](https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee)

🔗 Useful Links
🌐 Website: [https://marketsurge.io](https://marketsurge.io)
📘 Facebook Page: [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654)
💼 LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio)
🐦 X / Twitter: [https://x.com/marketsurging](https://x.com/marketsurging)
🎙️ Podcast: [https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/](https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/)

Creators and Guests

Host

Reed Hansen

Reed Hansen is a seasoned digital marketing executive with a proven track record of driving business growth through innovative strategies. As the Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, he focuses on leveraging AI-powered marketing tools to help businesses scale efficiently. Reed's expertise spans from leading startups to Fortune 500 companies, making him a recognized authority in the digital marketing space. His unique ability to combine data-driven insights with creative solutions has been instrumental in achieving remarkable sales growth for his clients. ​

What is Inside Marketing with MarketSurge?

Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest business insights, marketing breakthroughs, and entrepreneurial real talk.

Hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge and a digital marketing veteran who's helped scale everything from scrappy startups to Fortune 500 giants, this podcast dives deep into what’s really moving the needle in today’s marketing world. Find us at Marketsurge.io

Each week, we’ll break down the latest marketing and business news (minus the fluff), explore tech trends you actually need to know, and feature unfiltered conversations with the most interesting minds in entrepreneurship and marketing.

Whether you're a founder, a marketer, or just a curious hustler looking to level up, this is where growth happens—loudly, smartly, and with just the right amount of sass.

Subscribe, tune in, and let’s scale something legendary. 🚀

Speaker: Welcome to Inside
Marketing With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: hello
and welcome back to Inside

Marketing with Market Surge.

Today's guest is someone who has
built an entire career around turning

attention into revenue vis reh Vista
is the founder and CEO of C, media and

Marketing, a full service, e-commerce
technology and digital marketing agency.

Over the years, he's worked with major
brands and organizations, including CNN

Radio, clear Channel, JP Morgan Chase,
the Houston Rockets, the Houston Astros.

Agora Financial and Stansberry Research.

He's also the number one bestselling
author of multiple books, including 50

Shades of Marketing Podcast, nos, the New
pr, and from Nobody to Bestselling author.

If you've ever wondered how
podcasts, books, and media exposure

can be turned into real mis.

Business growth.

This is the guy who
literally wrote the playbook.

NAA has been featured across major
outlets like USA today, Bloomberg

Business Insider, Yahoo, and M-S-N-B-C.

And today he's here to talk about how
entrepreneurs can use media, podcasting,

and modern PR to reach millions.

And for listeners of the show, he is
actually giving away his bestselling book,

50 Shades of Marketing, completely free.

We'll include instructions later in
the podcast and in the show notes.

Nuri.

Welcome to Inside Marketing
with Market Surge.

Naresh Vissa: Thanks a lot, Reed.

It's a pleasure to be on.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Thank you.

Well, I feel like I'm
speaking with a celebrity.

You've had such success being
featured on major platforms and, and

working with some big, big brands.

What has been your biggest experience
working with some of these large brands,

these very noteworthy brands, you
know, CNN, Houston, Astros, et cetera.

What, what are the biggest
takeaways working with them?

Naresh Vissa: A lot of
different takeaways.

The first thing I will say is if
you are going independent contractor

consulting, digital marketing agency.

Really anything.

If you wanna be an accountant,
if you wanna be a attorney, your

goal should be Ultimately end up
having these big name brands as

clients, that should be your goal.

That's what you want to build yourself to.

so the question should be, well, I
think everybody wants to do that.

How do you do that?

You know, wants work with Big
Wall Street banks or CNN or, know.

Whatever household name, everybody wants
to do that, but how do you do that?

In my case, I.

you have to really get your feet
through many different doors, and I

can tell you really quickly some, some
strategies, not just to get your feet

through the doors, but to sell yourself.

Part of it is old school.

I mean, I used to live up in New York
I used to attend company I used to,

this was back when LinkedIn was not,
to me, LinkedIn now one big site.

I, I rarely go on there.

Outside of checking a
few profiles, once every.

Month maybe.

back then when LinkedIn first came
out, there weren't a lot of people on.

So when you sent a message to somebody.

They responded back.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: I remember that.

Naresh Vissa: like I said, most of
the messages that you're getting

from LinkedIn are very likely
spam or some type of AI chat bot.

But back then you sent somebody a
message and said, Hey, I'm in York City.

Here's what we have.

Have in common.

It could be an alumni thing.

You and I attended the same school, or
we used to work at the same company or we

friend, I would call it a business trip.

And would love to, to
meet up if you're free.

And I was surprised.

I don't know how things are
today, but back then my success

rate was like 50%, 60% of people
responding, saying, yeah, sure.

It's almost like these.

These folks wanted saying, Hey,
you and I are alumni from the same

school, or We attended the same
school and I'm going to be in Midtown

Manhattan for a business trip.

Even if I was just visiting or to get out
of the office, wanted to meet someone,

young, someone, and in many cases.

They ended up either referring
me to HR to, for, for interviews

or feet, not just one foot.

Many different you know, I have two feet.

I got both feet through multiple
different doors, and that's one strategy

that I used even before LinkedIn.

It was if I knew somebody who
was like a professional, like

a professional career coach.

Or a professional, which I happen to know
like in high school and, and college.

I knew that that's the
benefit of, of school.

You know, I, I think so many
people get caught up with, are you

teaching my kids this in school?

Are you teaching my kids at, like,
one of the huge benefits of going

in person to university is that
they do have these career centers.

They do have these career development.

Directors of career development who do
have the, the biggest value that they

have is they have those contacts to those
companies that you named to the Claire

channels, to the JP Morgans, to the Astro.

They do have those contacts
and those connections.

That's one of the biggest value holds
that modern education to at least.

15 years ago, 20 years ago,
that, are huge advantage.

And I'm sure that's still the case today.

So how is it working with these companies?

I mean, once you start working with
'em, it's incredible really because you

work with big companies and they take
care of you and there are all sorts of.

Moving parts to starting
your own business, even if

it's a tiny little business.

There are lots of different moving parts.

There's the sales side, which
is the most important side

because if you're not selling.

Then you're not making anything.

There's obviously the marketing side,
which is an offshoot of the sales side.

All of this can come under
business development.

But then there's like the admin
side, there's the accounting side,

the bookkeeping, the legal stuff.

I mean, as I talked to you we're two days
away from corporate tax return deadline.

And I had just got off the phone
with my accountant and was like, Hey.

You got everything.

You know, it's time to file.

It's I and I had to put in a lot of
work to make sure I got everything

and it, when I say everything, we're
not talking like one or two documents.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Right.

Naresh Vissa: folders worth of stuff,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Mm-hmm.

Naresh Vissa: plus
instructions and, and also.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Naia I
think you got muted just a second ago.

Yeah.

There you go.

Naresh Vissa: Okay.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Naresh Vissa: And when you are
working with these big companies.

they actually make your life
easier because you're not hunting

them down for payments and they
just take care of you better.

So the goal for any marketer, for
any person is at the end of the day,

if you're a client-based business,
you wanna work with big clients,

you work with like corporations, you
wanna work with big companies, those

are the clients who you will have
a long, fruitful relationship with.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Interesting.

Well, okay, so you've built agencies,
you've written books, hosted

podcasts, guests on podcasts, had
lots of opportunities like that.

Which of these efforts and, and platforms
has driven the most business for you?

Naresh Vissa: There's a mix it.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Naresh Vissa: you have to do
it all and, and like you said,

you just scratched the surface.

I hosted my own podcast called
The Work From Home Show.

Ran that podcast for about
five years from 2020 to 2024.

so for nearly five years had that podcast.

I've written five books to date.

Most of them were e-commerce online
and digital business related.

My most popular book was
Podcast Omics, the book of

Podcasting to Make You Millions.

The book that I'm most proud of is 50
Shades of Marketing, which you talked

about earlier in which I'm glad to give
away free of charge to your audience.

If they visit my website, na vista.com,

they can contact me through
there and I would love to.

Give that away.

also wrote the New pr, which is a
book all about public relations.

I also wrote, well, I should say a book
about 21st century public relations

in the online and digital world.

then I also, my latest book.

It is called from nobody.

Better be bestselling author.

So and then I wrote another book
that's more politically oriented.

We don't need to get into that one,
but, and that one did very well as well.

I've written five books to date.

The books have helped a lot because the
books they got you, you listed M-S-N-B-C

and Bloomberg and CNN and all these media,
the books helped me get media coverage.

Journalists, reporters
quoted me in various media.

You can go to no vista.com

to see all my latest, but
the books helped out a lot.

Certainly the podcasting helped out a
lot, certainly because the work from

home show was named by multiple outlets
as a anywhere from number one to top 10.

Work from home.

Podcast on the internet.

And we interviewed all
sorts of big name folk.

We had people to come on our show.

You can go to work from home show.com

or just go on your podcast app and see
all the big name guests who we had.

So I picked up clients through
the Work from Home show.

We had folks who we interviewed on
our show coming in and saying, Hey,

can you help me launch a podcast?

Sure we offer that service,
chris media marketing.com.

Chris media marketing.com

is the name of my
digital marketing agency.

Just having a simple website
to tell people to go to,

even when I'm out and about.

It doesn't even have to
be a networking event.

Sometimes I'm at like a kid's, my
son's birthday friend's birthday party

and you know, just water cooler talk.

And people ask, oh, what do you do?

And, oh, you have this company and I
just show them a QR code and they can.

Click that QR code and they're, they're
taken straight to my website, my LinkedIn,

my, I mean really the website is a central
location where, where I take people to.

So that's another marketing strategy.

I have a referral program
and I highly recommend this.

Highly, highly recommend
this 'cause it to me.

It's astounding how people don't run
the numbers properly in their head.

I am happy a marketer.

A true marketer understands
marketing spend.

They understand marketing for ROI.

And this is something that I go
into in 50 shades of marketing.

I know we have artificial intelligence
now it's gonna be taken over, but

you still need to know the basics
and the fundamentals marketing spend,

of generating a profit of customer
acquisition, of customer lifetime value.

So just really quickly as an example,
if I know this is just an example

that my customer, The lifetime
value of my customer is $200,000.

Alright, then I should be okay.

I should be okay Spending a thousand
dollars acquiring that customer.

And that's what people it, you know,
like, I don't know if it's, they

don't like doing math or they don't
like thinking about numbers, but

people don't look at it that way.

And it still to this day, I have clients,
I have friends they tell me, they say, oh,

I don't wanna spend, want to give away,
you know, a thousand dollars referral

bonus or a thousand dollars referral fee.

I don't want to do that because
that's money outta my pocket.

And then when you look at it a completely
different way, which is, well, if

that client becomes your customer and
they are paying you $200,000 over the

life of your business relationship, a
thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket.

So I bring this up because
I, we have a referral program

if you refer business to us.

Whether it's you read or it's a listener,
or it's an existing client, well, you

get a, you get a break, you certainly
will get some type of price break.

It, it just varies on the type of project
that we take on, but it's, Hey, you

know, you're gonna get x discount on
your next bill, or you're gonna get this

free of charge, or you have to offer
types of incentives and, and programs.

Because people will take it seriously.

And there are countless companies
that we all use from Uber to.

My wife just sent me some restaurant
loyalty rewards program saying, Hey,

sign up for this, even though I have no
interest in the restaurant because she

gets like $10 off at lunch or something.

So the, these are, we all utilize these
programs every day, and you need to,

if you're a business owner, you need to
utilize 'em as well that I found that

to be incredibly useful and beneficial.

And you'll be surprised at how many,
I've had clients who said, oh, I

don't want your referral bonus.

I'm happy to refer you simply because.

You guys do a good job, like, like

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Naresh Vissa: we'll pay you full price.

Like we don't want the referral bonus.

Like, it, it's, it's astounding to me
how many clients have come back and,

and said that, so there are a lot.

It, it's a big pie.

And we just touched, and my book, 50
Shades of Marketing, really, it's a,

it's a big book, over 200 pages and
goes through this pie step by step.

Every single piece of the
pie from the podcasting, the.

public relations, the
book writing the QR code.

Well, back then there weren't QR
codes, but I would add that in today

if I were to write an updated version.

The, the AI generation stuff, the
LinkedIn, I mean, we're just scratching

the, obviously social media there
just some of the website there.

There's so much, there's so much
that we could go over and talk about.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: You mentioned
in, when you were talking about LinkedIn

being a bit of a, success pool for
communication and ai, you know, a lot of

it's 'cause of AI generated messaging.

Do you find there are places where
AI is a real asset in marketing?

You know, places you recommend
people use AI in their marketing.

Naresh Vissa: A hundred percent.

Now, today, you cannot market effectively.

Without using artificial intelligence.

there is this concern right now, and
we're seeing it in the jobs numbers

and the decline in the housing market.

I'm, I'm a really big real estate guy.

Most of the marketing we do
now is real estate marketing.

We're, we're, we're seeing it.

And I, I'm a glass half
full type of person.

I am not a glass half
empty type of person.

I can go through the same experience as.

Other people, and I'll come out with
a completely different perspective.

That's gonna be more Inspirational.

With ai, I'm hearing so much negativity.

Oh, my job is gone.

This thing is taking over.

We're screwed.

Humans are screwed.

We, this is the end of employment.

And whereas I've been using ai, AI has
drastically improved my productivity.

And I'm gonna give examples but it's
drastically improved my productivity.

It's drastically improved my wellbeing.

It's helped me professionally.

It's helped me personally.

It's helped me be a better parent.

And I'm going to, I mean, let's
give examples for each thing.

So let's start with the business side.

Let's start with the business
side, the marketing side.

So on the business side, ai.

To give you some examples, I,
I run a media marketing agency.

We also do tech work
and some basic IT work.

My background is out in IT,
and I would hire people many

times to do the IT work with ai.

I can literally go to AI, share
the problem that the client has,

and the AI already knows me, so it
will respond back by giving me step

by step as if I'm a fourth grader.

How I can solve this problem by myself.

An easy, like previously you have
to Google this and you have to go

through a bunch of different sites
and try to piece things yourself,

and it would take a long here.

AI does it for you.

Boom.

So like last week we had a client,
they had a web issue an email issue,

and it required some backend IT work.

Previously I would've had my guy in
India go in, do it, paid him money, and

then, that's how it would've been done.

But in this case, I went to ai within
15 minutes the job was done and boom.

The marketing side, there are now AI
services, AI apps, so we do a lot of

flyer creation, we do a lot of web design.

Now AI can literally, what would
take two to three weeks to create

a website, AI can create it in,
let's just say a couple of hours.

It's gonna take you some time to
put everything in there provide the

blueprint, and then boom, there are
programs out there that do it for you.

I'm gonna share a few resources
really quickly because I'm

just so excited about ai.

And I'm, I'm so excited and
I think this is a tremendous

opportunity to help people.

This is not a, an enemy and too
many people treat, they treat

these, these breakthroughs as
enemies, and they're not enemies.

They are our friend.

fact, AI is my friend.

Like it's, it's actually my friend.

It talks to me

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

clip it for the highlight
reel, that quote.

So.

Naresh Vissa: So the first one, for
example, because we're, there was a

marketing podcast there, there's a,
a res, and again, I just wanna give

examples so people understand just
how incredible this is in video.

In video, one word.

Okay.

You can download and, and most
of these you do have to pay and

rightfully so, because if you paid,
used to have to hire a video person.

To do all this stuff and it would
take them a day to go somewhere, get

all the footage, come here and you're
paying thousands and thousands, if

not tens of thousands of dollars.

And you

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yes.

Naresh Vissa: and these things charge
like 20 bucks a month, 30 bucks a month.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Mm-hmm.

Naresh Vissa: You go to an Nvidia and you
literally put in your company website.

And it asks you a few questions.

What is your company
just put in your website?

Everything's there, is there anything
else you want to add about your company?

You know, the official logo, a,
a nice vector file of your logo.

Any videos, any anything else
you wanna add about your company?

You just put it all in there then boom,
it creates a, like Hollywood produced

32nd commercial promoting your company.

Okay.

That's an example because I've worked on
projects our, we had C Media Marketing

is a digital media and marketing agency.

I've worked on projects where
we hired legitimate camera crews

coming and interviewing people and
walking around and all this stuff.

I mean, we spent.

I know some companies that spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you look at what was this Cracker
Barrel last year, they ran this, this

new branding campaign, and they spent,
I, i, I was blown away how much money

they spent, and I'm probably gonna
be under quoting this, but they, they

spent tens of millions of dollars.

And now I just have to look up
really quickly how much it costs.

But.

Do you wanna spend tens of millions
of dollars or do you wanna spend,

you know, a few hundred dollars?

Because literally I looked
at their marketing campaign

and I said, are you serious?

Like, my company could have run this
campaign for, you know, $10,000 max.

with ai.

They could have used AI to run this
campaign for probably even less than that.

So they apparently spent 700.

I was off, I said tens of millions.

They spent $700 million.

Okay?

$700 million to rebrand,
update their logos.

Now I understand some of this.

They remodeled their interiors,
changed colors, changed menus.

So I get some of the cost.

But they ended up
scrapping their branding.

It turned into a big disaster.

It backfired on them and they scrapped
the whole campaign, $700 million.

Okay.

And I bring this up because
ai, this thing is incredible.

Nvidia is just one example.

How about I give you another example?

I do.

So we do a lot of webinars for
clients like we online, special

events, online conferences, webinars.

Been doing it for since 2017, so for
almost 10 years doing these things.

There's a so because With webinars
or online special events, online live

events, you probably need a PowerPoint
deck, a slide deck, PowerPoint

deck, some type of slideshow, right?

There's a tool called Gamma ai.

Gamma ai, same thing.

It's like.

You could probably get a free trial
for a month, but let's just say

it's like $10 a month, $20 a month.

You can literally just upload
the audio into this Gamma ai.

And it'll ask you a few questions.

What do you want your
PowerPoint to be about?

What are the colors that you want?

So you just fill out the form.

It takes five minutes to fill out the
form, and then boom, it will create

a what looks like a professional,
I don't wanna say Hollywood style

because I already used that term.

Let's just say professional design
graphics designed, graphically designed.

deck, PowerPoint slide
deck for you to use.

And I have spent, I mean there are
literally, I worked on Wall Street

for, for for some time I was a
financial, you brought up JP Morgan.

I also worked at a value fund.

And like literally there
are jobs as an analyst.

When they hire you fresh out of
college or grad school, there are,

the job is like half the job is.

Excel, and we can get to that.

And the other half of the job
is creating these pitch decks,

creating these slide decks for road
shows and for, for presentations.

And you legitimately spent like, like
the job is at, like, you're spending

like tens of weeks of the year just
perfecting these slide decks and now.

It is done.

I mean, literally you use AI
to create your financial model.

You don't have to.

I mean, I would spend, literally
spent months on these financial

models creating what are called
discounted cash flow models, accretion,

dilution, ana analysis, you name it.

I spent months perfecting these models
and tweaking and going through 10 k.

I mean, that was.

I did not like it.

Going through 10 K, sifting through
10 Ks trying to find keywords.

This, you can literally now
just upload the 10 K to ai.

It does the work for you.

You can take that 10 K and say,
create a discounted cash flow model.

can put in your

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Naresh Vissa: if you want.

It does it for you.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Right.

Naresh Vissa: then you can
say, now, create a pitch deck.

I am pitching to this client on this date.

This is the company that I work for.

This is the logo.

Create a deck.

Boom.

Now create a 32nd commercial
Hollywood style that is promoting

this investment idea that I have
this company and boom, done.

I mean, literally one good,
you know, on Wall Street, they

legitimately work 20 hours a day.

Like I'm not making that number up.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Naresh Vissa: like one good 20 hour day.

Has just done four or
five months worth of work.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: It's amazing.

well, Nuri, this has
been very educational.

You know, you have some tremendous
experience I would love to refer

people to check out your book,
check out your [e-mail],

as well as Chris Media and Marketing,
where your agency is located.

And it's been a pleasure
having you on the show, Nish.

Naresh Vissa: Thanks a lot, Reed.

It's been great talking about.

Digital media and marketing as well as ai.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Please
follow up and, and check out

these books and, and Nuri.

Thanks so much, Nuri.

Speaker 2: Want to stay ahead of what's
actually working in marketing right now.

Head over to Market surge.io

and see how we're helping businesses
grow smarter, faster, and louder.

That's market surge.io

because your next breakthrough
shouldn't be a guess.