When Tricia Meyer's name was called as this year's Pinnacle Award winner at Affiliate Summit West, there was a moment of silence. Not because the room disagreed, but because Tricia herself didn't believe it. After two decades of watching her heroes receive that same recognition, the publisher-turned-executive director of the Performance Marketing Association finally earned the industry's most prestigious honor. This conversation explores what it actually takes to reach the top without losing yourself, why being kind isn't a weakness in business negotiations, and how staying curious about industry changes for 20 years reveals patterns that help you stop panicking about AI, zero-click search, and whatever disruption comes next.
Talking Points Include:
- The attorney who left law for affiliate marketing when she realized publishers could earn more than lawyers and built a 20-year career that started with mom blogs and evolved into executive leadership
- Why community platforms fail but weekly calls succeed isn't just about affiliates – the same principles apply to how industry associations create genuine connection versus performative membership
- The shocking truth about affiliate marketing's growth that most brands miss – independent studies prove the channel is outpacing e-commerce itself, not just riding the online shopping wave
Listen to Find Out More About:
- Why Tricia created custom tracking tools using AI to solve AI-caused attribution problems, and how small publishers can do the same with vibe coding platforms like Lovable
- The critical section being added to PMA's retailer agreement guide about AI usage, plagiarism, and disclosure requirements in affiliate terms and conditions
- How Google's constant testing of citations in Gemini (from detailed paragraph attribution to zero citations to YouTube video insertions) reveals nobody knows what's coming next
- Why publishers might strategically rewrite content to feature competitors if brands don't properly value their contribution to LLM-driven traffic
- The new AI Council launching to address both publisher optimization for LLMs and technology solutions for brands dealing with compliance and tracking
- How fintech and B2B affiliate marketing represent massive industry segments the PMA is finally addressing with dedicated resources
- Why analyzing five years of industry study data would reveal cyclical patterns that help predict where apparent disruptions actually lead
- How Open Attribution is creating free membership opportunities to discuss citation tracking and publisher rewards in the age of LLMs
Key Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct:
[06:02] Working from the bottom of PMA working groups to executive director, and why being an attorney made Tricia the perfect fit for part-time leadership
[[19:54] Three critical areas where affiliates need preparation for 2025: LLM optimization, proving publisher worth through journey tracking, and staying educated on rapid changes
[27:00] Why affiliate program terms and conditions need AI clauses now, covering content generation, plagiarism, and disclosure requirements
[30:11] The five-year prediction: fundamentally everything stays the same but with different technical details, just like the last 20 years of disruption
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