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Forget paid tricks. Priyanka Mishra, Business Head of Fuzia Talent, joins host Adam W. Barney to break down how she scaled a global, women-led platform to over 10 million users - without relying on gimmicks or inflated metrics.
In this episode of Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, we dive into:
- Building emotional trust in a data-obsessed ecosystem
- How Fuzia empowers creators across 35+ countries
- Why most ad impressions aren’t worth what you think
- What EQ + community storytelling can do that paid ads never will
If you’re tired of clickbait and craving real results, this one’s for you.
📨 Get in touch with Priyanka: priyanka.m@fuzia.com
🔗 Follow Priyanka: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyankasayshi/
🌐 Learn more about Fuzia Talent: https://www.fuziatalent.com/
🎧 Listen to all episodes: Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?
Creators and Guests
What is Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising??
"Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?" is the show where agency founders, marketers, and skeptics unpack what’s actually working, and what’s just noise.
Hosted by Adam W. Barney (author, strategist, and energy coach with $100M+ in ad experience), this no-fluff, 20-minute video podcast dives into the tactics, tools, and truths shaping modern agency growth.
Each episode is a co-hosted conversation - unfiltered, spicy, and built for anyone tired of the same recycled playbooks.
🎯 Running a $250K–$5M agency? Join the mastermind: https://quickclick.com/r/cgat5uvqcd0zfa1c79ic2ca3u7gbzo
[00:05.4]
Welcome back to "Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising?" The show where we unpack what's real and what's just noise in today's marketing mayhem. I'm your host, Adam W. Barney, and today's guest brings a perspective that's not just unique, it's generational. Priyanka Mishra is a leader at Fuzia, a rising AI platform who has worked across multimillion dollar companies to help scale through community and rewire them to work in groups, not silos.
[00:35.0]
She also is an award winner across the Women's Economic Forum. But today she's not here to pitch tech. She's here to talk about modern business, power, and authentic connection. Priyanka, welcome. Thank you, Adam. I'm so excited to be here.
[00:51.7]
I'd love to kind of kick off here. There's so much noise when it comes to community and even to marketing in general. Not just with paid advertising, but the space that we work in. And hustle culture is something that is so deeply wound into what entrepreneurs believe that they need.
[01:11.4]
How does that tie into your perspective across the work that you've done into this idea of what the right way to approach might be? Right. So, Adam, I think everybody is talking about some suggestions, some recommendations, and how people can cut the noise, you know, and scale up what's stopping them.
[01:30.3]
But I think from my experience of working with many organizations and, you know, scaling that up, I have realized that something that's stopping us, or perhaps creating hindrances is to do with working in silos. You know, it's something that we were obviously discussing the other day, if you remember.
[01:45.9]
Right. So I think the human brain is honestly wired to work in groups. And if you don't have an immediate tribe, if you don't have a guru present, whether it is about getting some suggestions on scaling up or settings, processes, or it is about deciding your ICP or whether it's about just creating your website.
[02:03.8]
If you don't have your go to person or your go to tribe, your growth is slow. It's not as quick as it could be, and you don't have trustworthy people. Right. So I think noise is about working silos. I love it. I mean, I think that so much in entrepreneurship, people think about how do I get to having 3 million followers.
[02:25.1]
Right. They don't start with that idea of the tribe. That's a different perspective of how do I build the core of maybe it's 5, 10, 15 people first and use that as the starting point rather than saying, hey, what's the biggest impact I can have ultimately, or how do I reach multi-million dollar or multi-million followers, Right.
[02:49.2]
So I think that that's a critical learning. How did you start to discover that? How did you uncover that that's the actual right way in this noisy world to build these companies and to scale up over time? I think it goes back a lot to do with how I've grown up.
[03:09.0]
So as we're discussing like when a lot of times we discuss about how, you know, what is community led growth, right? And this is a term which in my mind is buzzing, but it has been there for centuries, right. And coming from a culturally strong country like India where you've got really huge families, right?
[03:28.2]
So for example, I'm coming from a family of 22 people and we used to live in the same house, right. So I know what your tribe is all about, you know. And like as we're speaking about my family, Adam, I think about this event that happened in our family and it's actually one of those very devastating, and you know, innovative event that happened.
[03:48.7]
And honestly it happened with my grandfather, right. And I'm talking about years back, you know. And this is the time when India was getting independent and there were a lot of changes that were happening through. And honestly my grandfather was actually leading 150 villages, right.
[04:08.9]
So he had power. And if I were to define power for him, it would be like everybody in those villages will have to, you know, come him come for if they have to take any decision, he would be, you know, consulted. If for example he would come, people would come to him for suggestions.
[04:26.1]
His sustainability would come from rental incomes, right. Sometimes people would also come to him out of fear, right. And he would get invited to every wedding. So that was the kind of aura that he carried. And because at that time there was a lot of challenges that were happening in India.
[04:43.4]
There was this law which is called the Zamindari Act, it's called the landlord, you know, where the government would take away a major portion of your land, you know, and just let you be. And for him, you know, he had a stake of 150 villages.
[04:59.4]
When this act was abolished, he came down to a 20 village, right. And sure he was capital rich as some people would say, but from a wealth of 150 villages and coming down to 20 villages, I think that's what businesses are also doing. They have got some pool of capital, something is already burned out, right.
[05:18.4]
And then innovate ideas and what he did, how he kind of managed that entire crisis because there was this huge family that was dependent on him, right? What he did, the innovations that he got him, is something that made me shape my perspective.
[05:35.9]
I think those were the beginning thoughts and that's how my perspective grew. Right. How did the story here sort of strike you as relevant though to your own work in modern business? More, you know, based on that incredible, incredible work that you've done up to this point.
[05:53.0]
How did it help shape that perspective and how you talked about power in terms of your grandfather's story. How did you change that power dynamic, not where you are today, but earlier in your career in that journey that you've been on that's led you to winning those awards and working with those multi-billion dollar companies?
[06:15.0]
Again, it goes back to the innovations that he did, right? So, when this crisis happened and there were people coming up to him asking questions, he had no idea what to do, right? He had no idea. And I can't even begin to imagine the challenges he would have faced.
[06:32.0]
Right? So he went ahead for like a 17-day silos. That's what we think as pause today, right? Yeah. There were no Internet connections, nobody knew where he were. But when he got back he actually figured out that because he was still capital rich, sure, not so much as he was before, but he was still capital rich and there were strong farmers around who were skillful.
[06:54.4]
So he figured out a way where he collaborated with those farmers and said, yes, you are skillful. But unfortunately those people did not have the right resources, money, land to do the farming. So he brought in and collaborated. And this is where the power of collaboration comes in, right?
[07:10.1]
This is where I give you what you don't have and you give me what I don't have. And let's come together and build and scale up, right? Imagine if you would have been sitting with those 20 villages. I don't think that you could have ever survived. The other thing that he did was that he had this ultimate feeling of caring for people, right?
[07:28.2]
And he would literally write letters to people, the farmers who were engaged with him, and educate them about how to, you know, save those crops from pests and insects. And honestly, that's exactly what people do. I mean, everybody's sending a newsletter, but I think what we can do today, videos, right, is the ultimate thing.
[07:47.3]
You know, when you send perhaps a video to somebody on their DMs, you know, or LinkedIn, you psychologically feel that this person is watching me eye to eye. You hear the real voice, right? Not the AI-driven voice.
[08:03.0]
You see the real person, you see the emotions and that's when the trust is built. And when the trust is built, people respond to you. Right? In the era of newsletters, if you can go back to for example loom videos and create your ascents, that's why how you stand out.
[08:18.7]
That's exactly what my grandfather did. He cared, spread knowledge resources by using what he had. And honestly I don't think you need, you know, postmasters to send those letters. You've got some engagement tools and you've got some very cool virtual assistants to send that out, right?
[08:34.9]
So I think that's how it shaped my perspective. I love it. You know, it's not about, it's also not about the mindset fluff that so many people talk about. It's such a practical, relationship-driven approach to what might be a dirty word.
[08:51.9]
But selling. It's all about selling our knowledge and selling our expertise. So I think about that, and I love your idea of loom videos and that's also why I feel like bringing this is anything real in paid advertising, not just in terms of audio but video across channels is so important because it digs into that it's not old school, it's also not modern.
[09:14.3]
But that trust model, that trust-focused approach. Where do you see marketers getting it wrong? More specifically when trying to build connection today, when they don't go down that recommended path, that Loom path, the video path, the having their voice, their face shown path. Where do you see the biggest misconception is there?
[09:36.7]
I think the biggest misconception right now is that people feel everything can be dependent on AI. You know what I mean? It has to be an intersection between the human mind and AI.
[09:51.8]
For example, I agree that there is every week hundreds of new tools that are coming. We are building one ourselves, right? So I know what they mean, right? And I know that there's going to be a lot of rules and regulations in the future about how people use artificial intelligence, right? That's the kind of power it has.
[10:08.5]
But if you think that you can just co-create content from all the platforms that are available and just post it as is, which I have seen many huge brands doing, that's the mistake that you're doing, right? You have to put a level of human element so that people can relate.
[10:24.9]
I mean I, I don't even know if you've heard that joke aroundc em dashes being around that ChatGPT creates. You know, there's always a hyphen when it created.
[10:36.0]
The thing that people are doing wrong is about thinking that they can optimize everything. They can rely a lot on AI. And I don't think that's true. There will have to be human element, people trust. And you said selling is a dirty word. But then when it comes to selling, people really want to see trust.
[10:52.1]
And trust is something that only humans can build and not robots, right? That's exactly right. I mean, my perspective for a long time has been, even if you've ever interviewed for a job, right, or you've taken a test at school, that is about, you know, writing an essay, that's a version of selling.
[11:11.9]
That's how you sell your knowledge, that's how you sell your expertise, and that really pays off over time. So I know you've mentioned to me before the perspective of not wanting to lead with pitch decks or product blurbs.
[11:27.9]
When you think about that AI tool that you're creating or work that you've done in your past, how do you manage your teams to lead in a different direction that doesn't lean on those traditional things that so many entrepreneurs spend so much time focusing on?
[11:44.7]
I think it boils down to the culture that you create, right? You can have the right processes, you can have the best tools that are available in the world, right? But if your culture is not right, there is no way intelligent people are going to sustain.
[11:59.9]
Intelligent people need a good environment to thrive. Right? There's no way I can think straight if I'm overloaded, or if I think people are being judgmental, you know, or if there's a lot of comparisons happening. If you try and be authentic as a leader, and it starts from, in hierarchical organizations, it starts from, from the top level.
[12:22.6]
If you think you can be authentic, people accept you for who you are. They know that you're not faking it. That's your real emotion, right? And they might feel good or bad about it, but they know that's right. That's what she is or who he is. And that reciprocates. So I can be real to you.
[12:39.7]
So it all goes back to the culture and authenticity. And I'm not just talking about authenticity as a buzzword, but genuinely talking about what you're feeling in that moment. Right. And just get that across. I mean, I love that because, you know, it's about people are fearful or they're burdened by the scars that they have.
[13:01.9]
But those scars are what make each of us unique. Those things, the challenges that we face when we open up and share those things, it leads to that authenticity. It's authenticity in practice. It's openness in practice. I actually think it's, through my own experience, and I think that this probably relates to your own journey across your corporate career and working with these multi million-dollar companies, it's about bringing your whole self to the forefront.
[13:29.0]
And it's not in a frou frou kind of a way or a high level, you know, bring everything and every emotion to the forefront. It's about showing that as a leader you have your own gaps and your team helps to fill in those gaps.
[13:45.5]
That's one of the most important things, to be grounded in who you are. But also know that none of us are perfect and none of us can do everything alone. And that, I think ties back to the silo part where we started this conversation. Exactly, exactly.
[14:03.0]
Like I said, our brains are wired to be in groups. Right. So it's about either creating a community of your own, like you said in the beginning, perhaps starting with a small community. But it's not just about creating a community of your own. There are already so many existing communities out there.
[14:18.6]
You just have to make that step and be a part of them. Right. You know, and when you be a part of an organization or a team or a community that's through you feel belongingness and that's what is the fulfillment part in our lives. And we all want to feel fulfilled.
[14:35.2]
That's so critical in each of our day to day work, no matter what we're doing. Priyanka, this was extremely powerful and not in the hype way, but in a deeply human way. Where can people connect with you and follow along with what you're building at Fuzia?
[14:51.8]
Yeah, so they can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm very active there. Yes. They can also go to our website, www.fuziatalent.com and learn about what we are doing. Awesome. And of course links to all of those resources will be below, Priyanka.
[15:08.9]
So everyone should reach out and connect. I had one last question I wanted to ask for the founder out there today who's still hiding behind templates and hoping that, say, cold ads convert, what's your one real talk piece of advice that you would share with that kind of an entrepreneur?
[15:27.6]
I think the first one would be pause. Right. You've got hundred ideas in your mind, bring that ideas to just two, not three, not one, just two. Those are the two ideas that should work for you. Right? Right. Again, not one, not three, just two.
[15:44.0]
And you carry forward those two consistently for a set amount of time. I think a lot of times people keep changing those ideas too frequently. You have to stick to that idea with a set timeline and you figure out what's working and what's not and evolve from that.
[16:00.1]
You have to cut the noise of those ideas coming in your mind. Right. I think it's also, you kind of leaned into this, but it's also giving that space to these ideas. Right. And knowing that if we walk away from something, it ties back to the story about your grandfather, he disappeared for a period of time, that's not something that we're as easily able to do in this modern world that we're in from a practical standpoint.
[16:26.5]
But it's about writing something down. I love actually with those two things that you're focusing on that you mentioned writing them down on a Post-It note or on a single page in a notebook and then putting that away, walking away from it for a little bit, it brings you closer to the solution with either of those options than it would if you just hyper focused on them and tried to get them done.
[16:49.8]
Right. Now I love that idea of space. Yes. And it's also, for example, for me what works, is that I go ahead and delete all the apps that are there on my phone. I anyway don't have notifications turned on, but I make sure every single app, which is especially to do with work.
[17:10.3]
Sometimes when I'm evolving the strategy, I'm out of it. Right. I don't want any new ideas. I've got the list of those, and now it's my time to create those two ideas for myself. And perhaps, I take half of the day off without those apps coming to me and asking me questions. People know that they don't have to disturb me.
[17:27.2]
Right. And that's how I create. Right. I love it. Awesome. Well, Priyanka, thanks for joining today. And for everyone tuning into "Is Anything Real In Paid Advertising?", the show where we find the signal behind the noise, I'm Adam W. Barney. Please subscribe, leave a review and check the show notes for links to everything we covered.
[17:45.9]
But Priyanka, thank you very much once again for joining today. Of course, I loved every bit of it. Awesome.