ClickFunnels to Hell, Fake It 'Til You Make It, and Moneyball: The Online Business Family Tree - Part 3
Release Date: 08/14/2023
Cancel Culture and Personal Brands In PR Crisis with Molly McPherson
Marketing Muckraking
In today’s episode I am joined by the indestructible Molly McPherson, who you may know as the TikTok “PR Lady,” as her followers have affectionally dubbed her. I just know her as my first stop when a brand or celebrity is in the news for reasons they’d rather not be. Molly is hilarious, warm, and witty and I’m absolutely thrilled and delighted that she’s on the show today, talking about the #1 biggest mistake that brands make before, during, and after a public relations crisis and even dishing with me on my favorite topic — the and the curious case of...
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Fix It From Within? Or Burn It All Down? Where Do We Go From Here? The Online Business Family Tree - Part 4
Marketing Muckraking
Welcome to Part 4, the final installment of the Online Business Family Tree series, where we traced back how we arrived at this moment in internet marketing and online business and who are the key leaders who brought us here. We also highlighted the 10 elements of the rotten tree. To review: Prosperity gospel and the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" myth of meritocracy Mastermind relationships and being "in the room" where it happens with powerful leaders JV partnerships Affiliate marketing Tabloid / clickbait / pain point / shame-based marketing Gaming the system Propaganda, mind...
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ClickFunnels to Hell, Fake It 'Til You Make It, and Moneyball: The Online Business Family Tree - Part 3
Marketing Muckraking
Welcome to Part 3 of this four-part series on The Online Business Family Tree, where we trace back how we arrived at this moment in internet marketing and online business and who are the key leaders who brought us here. In this installment, we’re time traveling from WWI and WWII all the way to today, where clickbait, ClickFunnels to hell, and faking it ’til you make it have spread across the branches of this rotten business tree, poisoning the fruits that fall to everyone clamoring for their taste of success. Remember, this stuff didn’t start on the Internet — it goes back hundreds of...
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6 Figure Masterminds, Marie Forleo, and The Syndicate: The Online Business Family Tree - Part 2
Marketing Muckraking
Welcome to Part 2 of this four-part series on The Online Business Family Tree, where we trace back how we arrived at this moment in internet marketing and online business and who are the key leaders who brought us here. In this installment, we’re diving into six figure masterminds, Marie Forleo’s B-School, the Cult of the Syndicate, and how early Internet marketers like Mark Joyner, Dan Kennedy, Yanik Silver, and Russell Brunson brought mind control and manipulation online. If you don’t know — or care — about these names, never fear. We focus on what tactics these leaders popularized...
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Thomas Edison to Tony Robbins: The Online Business Family Tree - Part 1
Marketing Muckraking
If you've ever wondered how the Online Business Industrial Complex was built, this is the 4-part series for you. I'm joined by Lisa Robbin Young as we trace back how we arrived at this moment in internet marketing and online business, and who are the key leaders who brought us here, starting with Ben Franklin, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison, all the way to and Matthew McConaughey? Yeah, he’s a life coach now. If you don’t know — or care — about these names, never fear. Lisa and I focus on what tactics these leaders popularized and how they’ve invaded nearly every corner of online...
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Should Brands Be "Political"?
Marketing Muckraking
In this installment of Marketing Muckraking, we explore the question...should brands be "political"? And what does it mean to be "political" in the context of global capitalism? Are we turning to corporations because we've lost our faith in government? What do we do, as brand consumers and business owners, with the answers to these questions? How do we build a better world? In June, the world’s most powerful advertisers gathered at Cannes Lions, where this year’s biggest themes included AI, ad tech, influencer marketing, and most notably — “dialing down the politics,” which was the...
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19 Brands & Counting: Review of Shiny Happy People - Duggar Family Secrets
Marketing Muckraking
Content warning: this episode touches on sensitive topics that include sexual assault, child abuse, and religious trauma. Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets released on Amazon Prime on June 2. In this episode, I review the docuseries through the lens of marketing muckraking, looking at how the Duggars and the IBLP used modern marketing, branding, and PR to re-write history as it was happening, in a bid to arrest political control of the country.
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The Age of Personal Unbranding
Marketing Muckraking
Welcome to Season 2 of Marketing Muckraking! I started Season 1 with — and because I love a good callback, I’m continuing this conversation as we kick off Season 2. In my very first episode I traced back the origins of the term “personal brand” to Tom Peters and his 1997 Fast Company article when Peters told readers to “take a lesson from the big brands…establish your own micro equivalent of the Nike swoosh. Peters positioned personal branding as freedom from corporate rule: “You’re not an “employee” of General Motors, you’re not a “staffer” at...
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Can We Fix Capitalism? CoMuckraking with Jeff Harry
Marketing Muckraking
Jeff Harry is back! Earlier this year, Jeff and I asked the question: Today, the question is, "Can we fix capitalism?" Yvon Chouinard, self-styled "reluctant billionaire" and Patagonia founder recently made headlines for giving up ownership of the company and dedicating future profits to fight climate change. “Earth is now our only shareholder,” Chouinard wrote in an . The Internet went wild for the news with many celebrating the move as proof that there is hope for capitalism yet. In an exclusive New York Times interview Chouinard himself positioned the decision as...
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The History of Marketing, Propaganda, and Politics From WWI to Trump
Marketing Muckraking
I believe that marketers and the people who consume marketing (that's everybody) need to know the history of the advertising industry and how we went from “Mad Men to Math Men” to quote Alexander Nix, former CEO of Cambridge Analytica. There is so much more to this history than a bunch of Don Drapers clinking scotch glasses while they come up with pithy slogans. Marketing history intertwines with how politics and culture took shape over the last century. To understand marketing history is to understand ourselves. If you want the short version of this, check out this...
info_outlineWelcome to Part 3 of this four-part series on The Online Business Family Tree, where we trace back how we arrived at this moment in internet marketing and online business and who are the key leaders who brought us here.
In this installment, we’re time traveling from WWI and WWII all the way to today, where clickbait, ClickFunnels to hell, and faking it ’til you make it have spread across the branches of this rotten business tree, poisoning the fruits that fall to everyone clamoring for their taste of success.
Remember, this stuff didn’t start on the Internet — it goes back hundreds of years. To understand marketing history is to understand ourselves and our culture — marketing is the fuel for the engine of capitalism. Let’s take a trip through time, so you can be a more informed consumer and, hopefully, a more ethical marketer.
What you can expect in Part 3 of the Online Business Family Tree:
- What ex-employees are saying about Brooke Castillo and The Life Coach School
- How a bro marketer gamed the system to launch a chart-topping country music album (by tricking people into buying it)
- The true story of the country's first famous "snake oil salesman" and how he culturally appropriated his way across the country
- Why we can thank Frank Kern for the CAN-SPAM act and how he still brags about building his business illegally
- That Tony Robbins scene in "Shallow Hal" and how he hypnotized his way to the top
- The appalling truth of ClickFunnels and why Russell Brunson thinks Adolf Hilter is a business leader — while the industry co-signs this concept
- What Nazi leaders learned about marketing from American propaganda
- How Christian nationalist preachers built the advertising industry
- What Jenna Kutcher, Amy Porterfield, and Mel Robbins really did on their Napa Valley mastermind and how they leverage parasocial bonds to sell to your sense of loneliness
- Who monetized her friend's death to boost her clickthrough rate
- Why no one can be Gary V, even Gary V, and the problem with corporations masquerading as people
- How "more good millionaires" isn't the answer to systemic problems
About Lisa Robbin Young
Lisa Robbin Young has 30 years of business experience as a coach and creative entrepreneur: she is an award-winning speaker, best-selling author, and accomplished musician with multiple albums to her credit. You may even recognize her from the Disney+ show “Encore.” She is also the host of the “Creative Freedom” show — I highly recommend her music video parodies. Check out “There are worse things I could do” for a Marie Forleo crossover with Awkward Marketing. She specializes in helping creative entrepreneurs build a business that works for how you’re wired to work.