The PESO Model® Diagnostic: How HubSpot Turned Owned Media Into a Moat

HubSpot lost roughly 75% of its blog traffic to AI search—and grew revenue 19% anyway. Everyone wrote the obituary for content marketing, but the traffic that died was the content HubSpot never had the right to own, and everything built on real authority held. In Episode 4 of the PESO Model® Diagnostic, I break down what survived, what didn't, and how to tell which of your own content is an asset versus exposure—before AI makes the call for you. Take your own PESO Model® Diagnostic: https://spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic/ PESO Model® Certification: https://spinsucks.com/peso-model-certification/ Full article: https://spinsucks.com/communication/peso-model-diagnostic-hubspot

Your buyers are asking their AI tool of choice who to trust—and if AI doesn't cite you, you don't exist. Communicators missed SEO once because it felt "too technical," and the Lippincott data says we're on track to repeat history with AI. In this week’s Spin Sucks podcast episode, Gini Dietrich shares the five-move visibility engineering playbook, plus the moment Martin Waxman ran his own organization through the PESO Model® Diagnostic live and turned a 50% score into a blueprint. If you're determined to own AI visibility before someone else does, this one's for you. Take the free PESO Model® Diagnostic: https://spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic/  Get PESO Model® Certified: https://spinsucks.com/peso-model-certification/  Read the article: https://spinsucks.com/communication/visibility-engineering-playbook 

A new Lippincott study says only 28% of CMOs feel they have real influence in their organization—and your CEO has probably already seen it. Most people blame short-term thinking, but Gini Dietrich argues that the real problem is structural. CMOs are managing a pile of channels rather than running a system. You'll learn why the brand-versus-performance debate is a trap, why dumping budget into AI while starving owned media makes you less visible inside AI, and how the PESO Model® works as the operating system that earns C-suite influence back. If you're working hard and still can't prove your value, this one's for you. Links: Free PESO Model® Diagnostic: https://spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic/ PESO Model® Certification: https://spinsucks.com/peso-model-certification/ Full article: https://spinsucks.com/uncategorized/cmo-operating-system-problem

You understand the PESO Model®, so why does it still feel like a pile of tactics instead of a system that runs? In this episode, Gini Dietrich takes you inside the PESO Model Certification® she tore down and rebuilt—what changed, what she refused to touch, and who it's honestly not for. If you've ever understood something cold and still couldn't make it run, this one's for you. Take the free PESO Model® Diagnostic: https://spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic/  Explore the PESO Model® Certification: https://spinsucks.com/peso-model-certification/

A cartoon pig ran one of the most integrated campaigns I've seen in years—and it still leaves the most important question unanswered. In this week’s Spin Sucks podcast episode, I run the Peppa Pig pregnancy campaign through the PESO Model® Diagnostic to show you the difference between a brilliant campaign and an actual operating system: one has a finale, the other never ends.  Take the PESO Model® Diagnostic: https://spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic/  Explore the PESO Model® Certification: https://spinsucks.com/peso-model-certification/  Read the full article: https://spinsucks.com/communication/peso-model-diagnostic-peppa-pig

Your dashboard is full of green arrows—and your CFO still isn't impressed. That's because most of what we measure flatters us instead of informing us, and the numbers that actually matter in 2026 are the ones almost nobody is tracking yet.  In this episode, Gini Dietrich walks through the four metrics that survive the budget meeting—LLM visibility, citation frequency, narrative share of voice, and credibility loop close rate—and why you can't bolt them onto a system that isn't running as a system. If you've ever been proud of a report that couldn't answer "did this move the business?", this one's for you. Take the PESO Model® Diagnostic: https://spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic/  Explore the PESO Model® Certification: https://spinsucks.com/peso-model-certification/  Read the full article: https://spinsucks.com/communication/pr-marketing-metrics-ai-visibility

You're doing the work—the content, the media, the campaigns—and the minute leadership asks what it's all worth, you've got nothing to hand them. So you go looking for a better dashboard. In this week’s Spin Sucks podcast episode, Gini Dietrich explains why a measurement problem is almost never a measurement problem—it's the first place a broken system shows up—and shares the Diagnostic data proving the biggest budgets aren't buying readiness. You'll learn why pitching the PESO Model® as a marketing expense loses the budget every time, and how to reframe it as the operating system that actually gets funded. Take the PESO Model® Diagnostic: https://spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic/  PESO Model® Certification: https://spinsucks.com/peso-model-certification/

Google just announced the biggest change to Search in more than 25 years, and your CMO is about to ask if you're on top of it. You probably are — but the work doesn't have a name your leadership recognizes. On this week’s Spin Sucks podcast episode, learn why the visibility gap has two halves, the vocabulary problem costing you budget, and the four moves to close both.

In the second of the monthly PESO Model® Diagnostic series, Gini Dietrich diagnoses the operating system behind Liquid Death, the rare brand sitting at Stage 5 / Leadership on the PESO Maturity Ladder, where the operating system isn't supporting the product. It IS the product. Take the free PESO Model® Diagnostic at spinsucks.com/self-peso-diagnostic, or learn about the 2026 PESO Model® Certification at spinsucks.com/peso-model-certification.

The PESO Model® has six stages of maturity—and the data says 91% of communications teams are stuck in the bottom half of the ladder. In this episode, Gini walks through the six stages (Foundation, Pilot, Scale, Systemize, Real-Time, and Leadership), what each one looks like inside real brands like Oracle, McDonald's, Dove, Sephora, Netflix, and Liquid Death, and how to find out where your team actually sits. Not optimistically sits. Truly sits.