The Revenue Room™, by H2K Labs

David Newkorn, President of PMMI Media Group with 30 years in B2B media and digital transformation, explains shifting from content volume to saving audience time. He discusses rebuilding product taxonomies, creating discovery-driven directories, AI-assisted audience classification, and blending analog personalization with digital tools. Practical revenue and platform strategies for trade-show ecosystems are highlighted.

Jacob Donnelly, founder of A Media Operator and former Morning Brew/CoinDesk leader, builds media, events, and subscription plays. He explains why algorithm-driven traffic is collapsing. He outlines the durable three-legged model of media, events, and data. He warns about AI commoditizing average content and explains why reader revenue must come first.

Max Gabriel, Co-founder and CEO of Markus AI and former transformation leader at Informa and Pfizer, shares bold ideas about turning passive data into revenue. He discusses building massive interaction engines, why behavior and recency beat static forms, and how agent-based AI will orchestrate multi-step workflows to replace fragmented SaaS stacks. He also covers event-driven sponsor value and practical governance for monetizing data.

Billy Carney, co-founder of RocaNews and product strategist who built a Gen Z–first media brand from an Instagram experiment into a profitable multi-product business. He discusses Instagram-first product design, how Gen Z consumes news differently, subscription and gamified app monetization, turning followers into paid users, and scaling revenue with video and newsletters.

Laura Molen, media and advertising exec and founder of Monarch Advisory Collective, shares stories from leading cross-channel ad strategy and launching Peacock’s ad-supported tier. She discusses treating disruption as constant. She explains turning branded networks into fandom properties, monetizing fandom with creative partnerships, unifying teams to sell bold visions, and stepping back to redefine impact.

Michelle Metter, CEO and co-founder of Fast Forward Events, turned regional festivals into hybrid B2C/B2B ecosystems. She talks about engineering event ecosystems, using attendee data as demand signals, designing viral brand activations like the Monkey Shoulder porta-potty speakeasy, and pivoting into new revenue streams for resilience.

In this episode, host Heather Holst-Knudsen is joined by industry titan Doug Emslie, Chairman, Cuil Bay Capital & Raccoon Media Group; former CEO, Tarsus Group With a career spanning "nearly a third of a century", from negotiating multi-million pound deals in his 20s to guiding Tarsus to a billion-dollar exit—Doug offers a masterclass on the tension between financial efficiency and creative soul.Doug discusses the dangers of "optimizing serendipity out of existence," the rise of the Middle East as a global event hub, and why the trust component of face-to-face interaction will command a higher premium in an AI-saturated world.Key Takeaways:• The Geographic Market Shift: The global map is changing. Legacy markets like Germany are losing ground because they fail to deliver energy and fun. Meanwhile, the Middle East is capturing market share, with LEAP in Saudi Arabia dethroning CES as the largest technology show.• The Trust Premium: As artificial intelligence floods digital channels with synthetic content, face-to-face interaction commands a premium. Live events are the only remaining environment where buyers and sellers can verify reality.• Engineering Strategic "Inefficiency": Deep relationships require shared experiences. Jacobs Media structures 30-minute meetings with 25 minutes dedicated to an experience and only five minutes for business. At TrailCon, organizers replaced standard expo formats with a 100-meter sprint for elite ultra-runners, creating viral social media engagement.• Time Creation: Technology must handle the mundane. Using AI for sales prospecting and list building should buy leaders 20 percent of their day back specifically to think and execute creative strategy.About RevvedUP 2026 RevvedUP 2026 is where CEOs and revenue-critical C-Suite leaders reset their growth playbook for the AI-first economy. Taking place March 23–24, 2026 at The Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg, FL, this two-day strategy lab helps leaders pressure-test how AI moves from cost center to growth driver and turn data and disruption into competitive advantage.About Heather Holst-Knudsen Heather Holst-Knudsen is the founder and CEO of H2K Labs and Revenue Room™ Connect. A seasoned executive and operator across media, marketplaces, events, and technology, she specializes in digital transformation, data-driven growth, and customer-centric value creation. Heather shares her insights on multisided business models through The Revenue Room™.About Revenue Room™ CXO Revenue Room™ CXO is a private executive community for CEOs and revenue-critical C-Suite leaders navigating growth in the data and AI economy. Through curated peer discussions and strategy sprints, members tackle real-world challenges in revenue transformation, customer intelligence, and business model innovation.Learn more or apply for membership at info.h2klabs.com/apply-cxo.

Taylor Kessel-Salomonsson, Chief Growth Officer with marketing-to-revenue chops from Salesforce and DocuSign, explains how storytelling and marketing discipline fuel predictable growth. She walks through the bow tie customer lifecycle, diagnosing funnel leakage with volume, velocity, and conversion metrics. Taylor also reframes content as a growth engine and contrasts PE versus VC revenue mindsets.

In this episode of The Revenue Room™ Podcast, Heather Holst-Knudsen sits down with Mark Shashoua, CEO of Hyve Group, to unpack how Hyve has built a portfolio of market-leading, founder-led events backed by private equity while maintaining performance, culture, and long-term growth.Mark shares Hyve’s acquisition philosophy, why protecting founder vision matters, and how events are shifting from floor space and sponsorships to data-driven meetings, performance guarantees, and year-round ecosystems. The conversation also explores navigating economic downturns, scaling brands globally, and why public markets often undervalue events businesses.WHY LISTENIf you’re responsible for scaling revenue in events, media, or information services, this episode offers a rare, operator-level view of what growth really looks like at scale.You’ll gain insight into:How to scale through acquisitions without losing culture or qualityWhy events must shift from transactions to performance-based revenueHow data-driven meetings and curated experiences prove ROIHow to hedge risk during economic uncertaintyWhy long-term thinking often requires private ownershipThis episode is essential listening for leaders building durable, defensible growth in experience-led businesses.CONNECT WITH MARK : https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-shashoua-956b8b12/About RevvedUP 2026 RevvedUP 2026 is where CEOs and revenue-critical C-Suite leaders reset their growth playbook for the AI-first economy. Taking place March 23–24, 2026 at The Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg, FL, this two-day strategy lab helps leaders pressure-test how AI moves from cost center to growth driver and turn data and disruption into competitive advantage.About Heather Holst-Knudsen Heather Holst-Knudsen is the founder and CEO of H2K Labs and Revenue Room™ Connect. A seasoned executive and operator across media, marketplaces, events, and technology, she specializes in digital transformation, data-driven growth, and customer-centric value creation. Heather shares her insights on multisided business models through The Revenue Room™.About Revenue Room™ CXO Revenue Room™ CXO is a private executive community for CEOs and revenue-critical C-Suite leaders navigating growth in the data and AI economy. Through curated peer discussions and strategy sprints, members tackle real-world challenges in revenue transformation, customer intelligence, and business model innovation.Learn more or apply for membership at info.h2klabs.com/apply-cxo.

In this episode of The Revenue Room™ Podcast, Heather Holst-Knudsen is joined by Lia Bliss, CEO of Bliss Magic Consulting, for a timely and eye-opening conversation on why LinkedIn has become one of the most misunderstood yet most powerful revenue platforms in the digital economy.Lia breaks down how executives are still treating LinkedIn like a digital resume or announcement board and why that mindset is quietly limiting reach, credibility, and enterprise value. Drawing on proprietary LinkedIn algorithm research and hands-on experience training global sales teams and CEOs, Lia reframes LinkedIn as the modern boardroom where conversations drive relationships, trust influences valuation, and visibility translates into revenue.WHY LISTENThis episode is essential listening for CEOs and revenue leaders who are:Using LinkedIn as a resume or announcement channel instead of a growth engineNavigating algorithm and AI-driven changes in visibility and reachLooking to convert executive presence into credibility and enterprise valueRethinking how conversations, not broadcasts, drive growthBuilding authority in a market where trust is digital-firstIf you’re a CEO, CRO, CMO, founder, or operator responsible for growth in a data- and AI-driven economy, this episode offers a clear, practical framework for turning LinkedIn into a strategic revenue asset rather than a passive platform.CONNECT WITH LIA: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liabliss/About RevvedUP 2026 RevvedUP 2026 is where CEOs and revenue-critical C-Suite leaders reset their growth playbook for the AI-first economy. Taking place March 23–24, 2026 at The Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg, FL, this two-day strategy lab helps leaders pressure-test how AI moves from cost center to growth driver and turn data and disruption into competitive advantage.About Heather Holst-Knudsen Heather Holst-Knudsen is the founder and CEO of H2K Labs and Revenue Room™ Connect. A seasoned executive and operator across media, marketplaces, events, and technology, she specializes in digital transformation, data-driven growth, and customer-centric value creation. Heather shares her insights on multisided business models through The Revenue Room™.About Revenue Room™ CXO Revenue Room™ CXO is a private executive community for CEOs and revenue-critical C-Suite leaders navigating growth in the data and AI economy. Through curated peer discussions and strategy sprints, members tackle real-world challenges in revenue transformation, customer intelligence, and business model innovation.Learn more or apply for membership at info.h2klabs.com/apply-cxo.