Wherever you’re coming from, I’m super happy to have you as an early reader of the Make That Make Sense newsletter.

This newsletter is intended to serve as a behind the scenes, weekly recap of the Make That Make Sense game show. Each week, I’ll be giving a short rundown of each week’s episode, where I’ll share a couple of personal reflections and highlight some of my favorite quotes from the guest.

With that being said, the core function of this newsletter is to increase audience engagement with the game show. In July, when I first started thinking about building this show, my biggest focus was on creating something that cut through the highly saturated content ecosystem that we live in, both in the way the show is structured and how it engages the audience.

While different podcasts try to engage their audiences in different ways, podcasts in general, are structurally designed to be completely one sided. The audience is almost always being spoken to, not being engaged with. Like with most things in life, people want to feel needed.

They want to feel like without them, the train isn’t going to run the same. And at least in the podcast space, it’s not easy to break out of that one sided forum and give the audience that feeling of deep interactivity and authority. But it’s certainly not impossible.

Popular podcasts like “Pass That Puss” by creator Jake Shane, which makes audience Q&A the central component of the show, gives the audience the feeling that the show, and the content discussed, runs through them. Therefore, they must keep tuning in.

“The Pitch”, a popular venture capital podcast that operates like Shark Tank, makes the audience feel valued and important by giving them an opportunity to invest in the startups featured on the show.

The goal is for Make That Make Sense to have that kind of connectivity with you guys, the audience.

So, here’s why you guys are so valuable to the inner workings of this show. You guys have control over the specific stories we discuss on each episode.

The show is meant to provide fun, expert commentary on the news that we are all reading in the digital media space. Therefore, if you come across a headline, a deal or a tweet on your own time that sits at the intersection of digital media and money, and you want the best of the best in the industry to give you their opinion on it, you can submit it to be featured on the show.

Quick note on what specific topics fall within the intersection of digital media and money (some but certainly not all):

• Subscription Models

• Advertising Revenue

• Venture Capital and Private Equity Investments in Digital Media

• Digital Media M&A

• Digital Media Platform Analytics

• Branded Content

Ideally, as a listener of this show, you should feel that you have a personal rolodex of the best contacts in the digital media industry. And because only newsletter subscribers can submit a deal, tweet or headline, along with your question about it, you really will. If your submitted headline, deal or tweet is selected, you’ll be personally credited on the show.

For the inaugural episode of Make That Make Sense, I’m thrilled that Mike Beyman will be joining the show. Mike has a proven track record of growing audiences and increasing revenue at some of the world’s biggest media companies. Here’s a little background on Mike and why you should value his opinion:

• Mike is the Head of Strategy and Business Operations at AdWeek, along with being the company’s Chief Of Staff. AdWeek is one of, if not the biggest media and advertising publication in the world.

• Mike previously served as Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development at Condé Nast, a global media powerhouse whose portfolio includes Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue and Architecture Digest.

• Before that, Mike was a management consultant at McKinsey and a producer for CNBC.

The show will be released next Thursday, November 14th on Youtube and Spotify.

Submit a deal, tweet or headline related to the topics discussed above by replying directly to this email.

Only requirement is that you must provide the source, and the headline, deal or tweet must be from November 2nd or later. Submit by 9 am et Sunday, November 10th, to be considered.