When a potential advertiser or sponsor approaches Ryan Vincent, director of media sales, EHS, Simplify Compliance, and says, "I would give you this much money if you can do that," like a good improv performer—which I'm sure he is—Vincent answers, "'We can do that.' I'm a big yes man," he said.

At the 2nd annual PubTech Connect conference in New York last week, Elisa Kreisinger, executive producer and podcast host of Refinery 29—a large digital publisher— told attendees that their 4-million-download, award-winning podcast concept originated as a video series.