The Psychology and Ethics Behind the Marketing Tactics of Marquis Who’s Who

Jeffro (00:01.122)
Welcome back to Digital Dominance. I’m excited to have Ray Cornell back on the show for a truly unique episode. Today we’re doing something a little bit different. We’re doing a deep dive into the marketing psychology behind the marquees who’s who list. Now we’ll explore the subtle and not so subtle psychological triggers they use, the lessons we can learn from their tactics, and even discuss the ethical implications of manipulative marketing choices. Why do some strategies work so well and why do we sometimes fall for them even when we know better?

Ray, in case you didn’t hear the last episode, she’s an expert in psychology-driven marketing, and I can’t think of a better person to help us break this all down. So whether you’re looking for ways to ethically apply these principles to your own business or just curious about what makes us tick as consumers, you’re in for a fascinating conversation. So Ray, welcome back to the show.

Rai Hyde Cornell (00:45.834)
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Jeffro (00:48.34)
Yeah, and I think it’s important that we set the stage for our listeners because maybe not everyone’s heard of Marquee Who’s Who. So can you give us just a quick overview of what they do?

Rai Hyde Cornell (00:57.48)
Yeah, so basically it is, and I’m going to try and keep my cynicism at bay here, but it is a pay to play platform where they are selling PR essentially for individuals, particularly professionals who want to be known as experts or real change makers, key players in their industry. And the even the name of the company, Who’s Who, is a nod to you being able to say, I’m one of the important ones.

Jeffro (01:31.061)
Yeah, and the way you’ve described it, that’s kind of their business model and the services they provide. But what they promote on their website is that we compile biographical data on achievers and influential people in the US, which sounds like an impartial thing, right? Like they pick the best people who actually have these influences. You know, they’ve been doing this for over a hundred years, so they have the longstanding history of doing this, of being a trusted name. But now, like you said, they actually recruit people to be added to the list. And they’re very generous when it comes to who qualifies.

Rai Hyde Cornell (01:42.943)
Yes.

Rai Hyde Cornell (01:50.782)
right.

Rai Hyde Cornell (01:58.888)
Yes, absolutely. And that’s a little bit of the opposing force of the psychological tactics that they use, which we’ll get into. But you’re right, when you go to their website, they say, this is a great place for you to do research on people. We have this really in-depth biographical information on some of the most important people who you’re never going to be able to access without us. And so they appeal to journalists and people who are maybe trying to build their B2B outreach and try to get to know the people that they’re trying to connect with. You anybody who’s doing research on individuals and yet the other half of their business is selling the positions on those lists and in that database. So it’s a very bifurcated audience and the messages that they put out to each audience are in direct conflict with one another.

Jeffro (03:00.287)
Yeah, and it’s hard. So I actually got invited and went through the process, it’s probably early 2023, and they did tell me about their database. And as a marketer, I’m like, you know what? I could actually reach out to these people and promote my services. Awesome. And so I ended up doing it. I can show you the certificate here and I’ll read it just so people know what it says. And they make it very official, of course. The Marquee Who’s Whose Publications Board certifies that Jeffrey J. Folkerson, founder, has approved

Rai Hyde Cornell (03:15.232)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jeffro (03:29.685)
hereby been approved as a subject of biographical record in Who’s Who in America, inclusion in which is limited to individuals who possess professional integrity, demonstrate outstanding achievement in their respective fields, and have made innumerable contributions to society as a whole.” And I got to tell you, all I had was a business with an interesting name. That’s not innumerable contributions to society. But anyways.

Rai Hyde Cornell (03:53.556)
Yes, and similarly, so I have two LinkedIn profiles because I have two businesses. If anybody meets me on Zoom or watching the video of this interview, you can see the two logos behind me. And on the one hand, my business, Content Marketing, has existed for 17 years, long standing history. We’ve worked with hundreds of businesses, but they didn’t reach out to me through my LinkedIn for Cornell. They reached out to me through my LinkedIn for Kyron which is this small side passion project where I help freelancers and creative entrepreneurs build their self-employed businesses. I have absolutely nothing noteworthy going on on that side of the business. It’s just a community building, like I said, passion project. And yet that’s the one that they reached out and said, my God, you’re doing such great work at Kyren. Let’s feature you.

Jeffro (04:46.452)
Yeah, so I mean, obviously they’re sending this to everybody, pretty much. I’ve gotten the messages on LinkedIn, even though I already went through it before. It’s not like they’re filtering it out again. But I want to hear from you. What psychological triggers do you see at play in their marketing tactics?

Rai Hyde Cornell (04:49.526)
Form letters.

Rai Hyde Cornell (05:01.33)
Yes, so the first one is ego. They are really playing to people’s ego and also they’re playing to people’s desire for, you if we look at the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, at some point, once we have all of our survival needs taken care of, we want social belonging. And so to be included in a list of the people who are so influential and so accomplished and to have this idea of, I could be sought out, I could be found, you people might be interested in me. It’s almost like having your own Wikipedia page where there’s a bit of ego stroking that goes along with that. So there’s a huge catering to the ego going on. But the part that strikes me the most and that stands out to me the most because it is perfectly manipulative. That is it. That is all it is when they say in their direct outreach message, which I have here, the one that I received, which is probably the exact same one that you received, which is probably the same one they’ve been using for five, 10 years now, says, Hello, Ray, we recently came across your profile and would like to invite you to apply for inclusion in the 2024 edition of Who’s Who in America. There is no cost or obligation to be included in Who’s Who in America. This is an invitation only opportunity and inclusion is contingent on verification and acceptance by Marquis.

Submissions Department. Marquis has been publishing the biographies of the world’s most influential professional since 1898. Inclusion is considered by many to be the pinnacle of success. So the thing in here that really gets me is the, there’s no cost or obligation to be included. So what they’re saying is, there’s no downside. Why wouldn’t you do this? You only have…

success and admiration and acknowledgement of and validation of yourself as a professional to gain and you have literally nothing to lose. So why not? And that’s what got me the why not. So I applied.

Jeffro (07:11.049)
Yep. And then from there you find out, okay, all right, well, we got to interview you and make sure you’re a fit, which okay, seems like a normal step in a process for something like this. But then on that phone call, like they’re buttering you up. Like they’re so interested in your story and what you’ve done and not even what you’ve done, what you plan to do. Like, like what are your big ideas and like, have you, what are you going to be doing next year? And like, well, I’ve got this idea for that. Like, wow, that is so cool. It’s just over and over stroking your ego.

Rai Hyde Cornell (07:14.912)
Mm-hmm.

Rai Hyde Cornell (07:19.71)
Right?

Rai Hyde Cornell (07:24.022)
Mm-hmm.

and you’re so amazing. Yes.

Jeffro (07:41.055)
And yeah, by the end of it, you’re like, okay, maybe I am worthy of this, right?

Rai Hyde Cornell (07:41.109)
Yes.

Rai Hyde Cornell (07:47.614)
Yep, exactly. all along, so in addition to this whole, have nothing to lose, psychological manipulation and everything to gain, there’s also the fact that they are requiring you to put in work. So you have to apply and then you have to schedule an interview. And then after scheduling, you actually have to have the interview. And what they’re banking on is what’s called the sunk cost fallacy. The sunk cost fallacy is when

we feel like, we’ve invested so much time and energy, maybe even money into something that we might as well see it through, rather than bailing on whatever it is and just bidding adieu to all of those things that you’ve invested. So with your time and your energy and your hopes of passing their quote unquote vetting process, you’re really…

emotionally invested by the time they come to the question of what’s your credit card number?

Jeffro (08:49.534)
Yeah, well, and it’s fascinating because, you know, I remember being on the call and like, wow, she’s really like buttering me up a lot. Like kind of knew I was being manipulated, but still feel like I can go along with it. Because when I ask questions and when they talk about things like, yeah, we got this database. I’m like, so can I like search through that? And they say, yeah, totally. Turns out they had a super slow, very poor database. couldn’t really be searched and I couldn’t export anything. Which I found out much later.

Rai Hyde Cornell (08:57.238)
Mm.

Rai Hyde Cornell (09:02.368)
Mm-hmm.

Jeffro (09:17.63)
But of course they’re going to say, yeah, of course we have that. That’s just another benefit of membership. why, I want to focus for a second just on the fact that, OK, I know I’m being manipulated. Why does it still work? Is it because of this on cast or are there other factors?

Rai Hyde Cornell (09:17.995)
Yeah.

Rai Hyde Cornell (09:31.209)
So.

This is what the advertising industry banks on, is that people either don’t know that they’re being manipulated, or they do know but they don’t care. If we think that the payoff on the other side is good enough to just, you know, grit your teeth and bear it and get through all the things that feel icky because you’re going to get something of value on the other end, then we’ll do it.

even if we know we’re being manipulated into it. It’s like when you see the Facebook ad for, you know, this revolutionary thing that’s gonna change your life. Maybe it’s your diet or the way you sleep or whatever the case may be. You are so desperate to get a good night’s sleep or lose weight that you know you’re being upsold to. You know that you’re being tracked. You know you’re being retargeted.

And you’re okay with that because you really want what they have to offer. And in this case with Marquis, what they’re offering is in this message, inclusion is considered to be by many to be the pinnacle of success. We all want to succeed, especially in our American culture. Success and professional hard work and being recognized for that hard work is one of the most desirable things that we all want to attain. That’s what they’re banking on.

Jeffro (10:54.505)
Well, and it’s also interesting because after the fact, you know, we go through all this and we find out, okay, this isn’t really everything I thought it was. realized, okay, I was kind of tricked. I let my ego get the best of me, but nobody says anything afterwards because you don’t want to then basically say, Hey, I was dumb. you guys shouldn’t do it. Like you kind of just let it slide. And so then the next guy is the sucker too. And this just continues for over and over and over.

Rai Hyde Cornell (11:02.358)
Mm-hmm.

Rai Hyde Cornell (11:15.125)
Right.

Rai Hyde Cornell (11:24.424)
Right, it’s kind of like how the scams about, we’ll send you this check or we’ll hire you to do this thing and we’ll pay you tons of money. There was a scam, God, I want to say it was like 15, maybe 20 years ago, where these groups would target people who would then be paid to be secret shoppers. And they would say, we’re going to give you $2,500.

We need you to go be a secret shopper, spend about 500 and you get to keep the rest. Well, you’re thinking, holy cow, I get to go shopping and keep what I’m buying and $2,000. But then once you do it and you find out that the check is bouncing and reverting back to the company and all the money that you spent on their website is also going to them, you realize that you’re out all of this money. You’re embarrassed. And it wasn’t until companies started being scammed with the whole, hey, so-and-so HR professional, please go buy all these gift cards and then send me the codes to the gift cards. And it started impacting businesses. That attention was actually drawn to this. So that’s a big reason why I agreed to do this podcast and why I love that we’re talking about this because embarrassment is often what allows these, in my opinion, scammers to continue ripping off other hard-working people who just want to see their work recognized.

Jeffro (12:54.92)
And because these are hardworking people, it’s hard to run a business and to have someone, you most people are like, why are doing this? You’re crazy. Just get a regular job or whatever it is. And then finally someone comes along and it’s like, you know what? You’re doing great. This is awesome. We want to highlight you. And it’s almost like, thank you. Finally. Like, even if you know, like I shouldn’t be on the top list of who’s who in America, but you’re like, okay, sure. I’ll go through the application process or something, especially because of the way they framed it. I’ve got nothing to lose. Right. But.

Rai Hyde Cornell (12:58.11)
Yeah, yeah.

Rai Hyde Cornell (13:08.501)
Yeah.

Rai Hyde Cornell (13:12.041)
Right.

Rai Hyde Cornell (13:20.787)
Right.

Rai Hyde Cornell (13:24.406)
Exactly.

Jeffro (13:24.53)
So after you go through the interview process, let’s talk about the last part, right? So now you’ve gone through all that, you’ve committed this time, the sunken cost fallacy is kind of taken over essentially. And so that’s when they hit you with, okay, you’re approved. And then they lay out your options, right? And how you have to pay money.

Rai Hyde Cornell (13:27.997)
Yeah.

Rai Hyde Cornell (13:34.454)
Hmm.

Rai Hyde Cornell (13:40.756)
Yes, yes. And I was amazed. The woman who interviewed me, she flowed so seamlessly from the interview to the sale. I was stunned because being a content marketer, I do a lot of content interviewing. My team does a lot of interviewing of experts to fold into the content that we create. And it really takes a… special kind of person to be able to interview the way that she did. She was so focused and like you said, she was really buttering me up and just so ingrained in every word that I was giving her. And it has always been my experience that it takes a very different kind of personality and skill set to be a salesperson. And so for her to flow so seamlessly from one to the other and also make the assumption And this is another psychological trick that they pull out on you. Make the assumption that of course I’m going to give her my credit card number over the phone. Why wouldn’t I? It would be stupid of me not to. That was the message I was getting from her. I was just in awe of the skill of this level of social manipulation.

Jeffro (14:58.373)
Yeah, well, mean, yeah, as marketers, there are a lot of lessons here that we can learn from this approach. So are there any of these tactics that we can ethically apply to our own business without manipulating people?

Rai Hyde Cornell (15:13.954)
So I will say a lot of what they’re doing is flat out lying. mean saying there’s no cost to be included and actually let me look at the exact verbage. there’s no cost or obligation to be included in who’s who in America. That is a flat out lie because what ended up happening is as soon as she started throwing out numbers, I pulled back and I said, what?

Jeffro (15:32.954)
Yes.

Rai Hyde Cornell (15:41.662)
Are you talking about? I was told that this was free. And so she and I actually argued on the phone and ultimately I didn’t pay for anything. But what I did get was a badge that I can put on my LinkedIn. If you go to their database, I’m not in it. So I was not included in the who’s who in America. I only have the right to use the badge on my LinkedIn profile. So there is a cost to be included. The free version is not inclusion. So to answer your question, we have to be very careful with what we’re trying to learn from this experience because a lot of it is just flat out lying. And then there are other things that I think can be used ethically. For example, the sunk cost fallacy. While…

There is a fallacy that just because you’ve spent a lot of time and energy on something doesn’t mean that you should continue to pursue it. We’ve all seen a number of businesses go down, know, Blockbuster probably should have shut down a couple years before they actually did, but there was this sunk cost fallacy. If we’ve gotten this far, we might as well see if we can salvage this and compete in this new market. Not so they ended up losing millions of dollars.

But I think when you are trying to reach out to someone and offer your services, addressing the fact that they have put time and energy into something. for an example, I’ve said a few times, we do content marketing within my company. If I reach out to a company and I say, I see that you are ranking at best in position 12, and yet…

You’ve been putting out content. see that you have a podcast. I see you’ve been active on LinkedIn. I see you’re posting on your blog. I can tell you guys are putting a ton of energy and resources into this. And yet you’re probably not satisfied with position number 12. You probably want to be in positions one, two, or three. I can help you with that. That is an example of me using that sunk cost thinking.

Rai Hyde Cornell (17:53.536)
to my advantage, but also to the advantage of my client because I’m gonna deliver. I know I can get them into a better position just because they are not SEO experts. They don’t know what to do in that regard. But you’re…

Jeffro (18:03.781)
And also, you weren’t the one that forced them to commit that time. You’re just observing. They’ve already spent this time. I would like to come in and help if you’re open to it.

Rai Hyde Cornell (18:09.653)
Exactly.

Exactly. And it’s more about understanding what’s important to them. The fact that they are channeling all of this time and energy and resources into accomplishing a certain thing that they have yet to accomplish tells you that, ranking is probably important to them. So let me take that insight, that understanding to make sure that I can form a connection with them that’s going to start us on a more substantial conversation than something that’s more hollow.

Jeffro (18:43.557)
Because the end goal helps them and helps you as opposed to something like this where, okay, it doesn’t actually help you. They just take your money and move on to the next guy. what about other, are there other examples of marketing campaigns that use some of these psychological strategies? Like when we’re talking about this one thing I thought it was of course time shares where they’ve got the sunk cost, they schedule for 90 minutes, they make sure you and your spouse are both there, they give you the tour of the property, and the longer you’re there, the more likely you are to say,

Rai Hyde Cornell (18:53.993)
Absolutely.

Rai Hyde Cornell (19:04.405)
Mm.

Jeffro (19:12.29)
yes to something, right? And so they do all the same things. They overstate the benefits. Sometimes they straight up lie depending on who they are. are there other examples too that you can think of?

Rai Hyde Cornell (19:27.006)
It’s such a hard thing to draw a connection between these types of tactics, which timeshares, that’s a great example, because I think a lot of people, especially our generation and older have been in those situations. But I think as long as what you’re offering on the other side is actually a valid solution, you can use the same tactics. You can still

have people apply. Okay, so here’s an example. A lot of consultants nowadays, they are trying to find high quality leads. And especially in the B2B world, you don’t want your sales team to be spending time on calls with people who are never gonna convert or who don’t fit your ICP. And so you set up this funnel where you first set up an ad, you attract the person in, you have them watch a video that they cannot.

pause or skip, there’s no navigation on the video, we’ve all seen those. And then once they do finish the video, they have to fill out an application. The application collects all that information that tells you whether or not they’re in your ICP. This is an example of getting people to invest that time and energy into the sales process and you’re almost trying to create this equilibrium.

between what you’re investing in getting the client and what they’re investing in meeting up with you. Now, as long as you can actually provide a solution to their problem and it will be a mutually beneficial relationship, I see nothing wrong with that because you’re really just saving your time and their time by having them do all of that extra work up front. So that is a very common and I think savvy funnel that a lot of businesses

use, but I wouldn’t ever call that manipulative.

Jeffro (21:25.665)
Well, especially if you’re including in that form as they fill it out. I say, what’s your income range? I choose the lowest one. The next step should say, sorry, looks like you’re not at a stage yet where we can help you try this instead. Have a great day. Don’t schedule the meeting. Right. Because that way you are, saving your team time, you’re saving them time and you’re being honest. Like this isn’t going to work. But if they pick one higher up, they’re like, okay. And so yeah, totally above board.

Rai Hyde Cornell (21:36.074)
Yes.

Jeffro (21:54.533)
and helpful for everybody involved.

Rai Hyde Cornell (21:57.584)
Exactly, exactly. It’s about making sure that the priority is not 100 % getting their money. The priority really should be finding a good fit for your business and for theirs.

Jeffro (22:14.101)
And if you think of, you when I go to the doctor’s office, they ask me a bunch of questions. An honest doctor is just doing that to understand the problem so they can help me. It’s not so they can build the highest thing to insurance. Sure, there’s always going to be, you know, bad doctors out there who might do that. But the goal of that time and waiting in lobby is not just to drag it out. They’re actually trying to do their best. They got a lot of patients and they need as much information as possible to give you the best.

Rai Hyde Cornell (22:24.405)
Yes.

Rai Hyde Cornell (22:30.495)
Absolutely.

Jeffro (22:40.79)
possible service. Same idea here with this funnel, right? If you get this information upfront, we can have a much more efficient and productive conversation and know that this is going to be mutually beneficial before we move forward.

Rai Hyde Cornell (22:53.918)
Right, absolutely. I actually had this experience just yesterday where there’s a woman who I’m talking to about helping us with our Legion and she spent an hour with me. I have never had a sales call where I’m the one being sold to last an hour. But she asked such great questions and she gave me the time to ask her questions. And I know that a lot of the information that I gave her, she can likely use.

to persuade me when we go into the proposal and the sales and the follow-up process. But at the same time, I also know she knows my business now. She knows me now. She knows what makes me tick. And so if I feel good about her quality of services and the fact that she understands what I’m trying to accomplish, I think she’s gonna be able to do her job better. So it is a mutually serving tactic.

Jeffro (23:45.516)
Yeah. So I was thinking if we go back to the marquee approach, I think the biggest problem is that they lied, right? So what can we do to fix their whole marketing funnel? I mean, the option one, add in a free tier, right? That gets them in the list. They don’t get a plaque or a copy of the book or anything, but they get on the list because that’s what they promised up front. Then suddenly I’m much more okay with that. Even if they drag you through that process.

Rai Hyde Cornell (23:54.23)
Mm-hmm.

Rai Hyde Cornell (24:07.318)
Right.

Jeffro (24:13.866)
Now you get what you were promised. You feel good about, I’m on the list, great. But I can make the choice to not pay and feel like I was swindled into something I didn’t want to do, because really all I wanted to do in the first place was get on the list. I don’t care. What’s the plaque going to do for me, right? So I think that’s the easiest fix. If they did that, I would be pretty much OK with it.

Rai Hyde Cornell (24:24.874)
Yes.

Rai Hyde Cornell (24:34.962)
Absolutely. And the other thing is you would probably feel very comfortable recommending your friends and your colleagues to them, in which case they would save thousands of dollars on advertising and, you know, these sponsored LinkedIn messages that they’re sending out because their network of people that they are either adding to the database or simply adding to the free version of their network are now becoming word of mouth marketers on their behalf.

Jeffro (24:40.235)
Yes.

Jeffro (25:01.803)
Right.

Rai Hyde Cornell (25:02.856)
so they can save themselves thousands of dollars and protect their reputations if they actually did this in an ethical way. And like you said, they’re not that far off. All they have to do is not lie.

Jeffro (25:08.769)
Yes.

Jeffro (25:15.495)
Yeah. And it’s interesting too, because when you look through the database that they have, there’s so many profiles that are mostly empty. It’s like a name, there’s no description or bio or anything. And that’s because people got through there like, man, this wasn’t worth it. This was dumb. I feel stupid. So why am going to spend more time on this filling out a bio? So now it’s not helping anybody else anyways. And people aren’t learning about me because I don’t want to support this company anymore because they lied to me. But yeah, with that one tweak.

Rai Hyde Cornell (25:22.57)
Yes.

Rai Hyde Cornell (25:32.095)
Right.

Rai Hyde Cornell (25:42.059)
rate.

Jeffro (25:43.604)
you would have so much better engagement and word of mouth and everything.

Rai Hyde Cornell (25:47.228)
Yes, and I think another thing that they could change is instead of leading with this huge ego play of inclusion is considered by many to be the pinnacle of success, instead just change that one line to you would be included in a database that would help journalists find you, help marketers find you, help you be found by potential clients that could network with you. This could be a really great benefit to your business because what they’re saying is

this is exclusive, this is really an honor to be added to this database. But then you go to the website from the researcher’s perspective and it boasts, we have 1.6 million people in here. That doesn’t feel very exclusive to me. That feels very like, well, you’re just trying to get anybody and everybody into this database. So.

Jeffro (26:31.008)
He

Jeffro (26:36.628)
Yeah, because that’s what they’re doing.

Rai Hyde Cornell (26:39.144)
Right, and so even though they have this bifurcated audience of people they’re trying to sell into the database and then people who they’re trying to sell access to the database, if they matched up the value propositions between those two hemispheres, then they would have greater unity among the people that they’re trying to really connect and there’s greater value in that for everyone involved.

Jeffro (27:03.796)
Yeah. And then that opens up the door for future services to offer to people on the list. Right. In terms of like press releases or public anything. Right. Introductions like now because people trust you and they’re like feel like they’re part of a group that matters. They’re going to be open to you coming back and saying, hey, you know, we’ve seen you’ve been on the list for a year now. We have this gathering. We’re going to do a gala or something. Would you like to come? Here’s

Rai Hyde Cornell (27:11.509)
Yes.

Rai Hyde Cornell (27:15.925)
Yes.

Jeffro (27:32.956)
whatever it is, you know, now you’re like, cool. And you’d be open to it. Whereas now I’m like, no, don’t talk to me, hang up, right?

Rai Hyde Cornell (27:39.986)
Exactly. Exactly. So they’ve completely shut the door on recurring revenue. If they actually delivered what they promised, which is free inclusion into the database, they could create, I mean, they have 1.6 million people if that number is also accurate. Cause now of course I’m questioning everything that they say, but they could easily create a community, a networking system. They could be the next LinkedIn, the next alignable. And then they can charge a membership fee for being part of that. So not only have these people all been vetted, meaning they are not bots, that’s something that I would pay for is access to a community where I know everyone in here is a legit, you know, ambitious business owner. They’re completely closing the door on that because as soon as you hand over your credit card information or as soon as you hang up the phone with them, you have this bitter taste in your mouth and you just want to go take a shower.

Jeffro (28:37.417)
Yeah. Yeah. Makes you want to go throw this off the building, right? And just shatter like, okay, I don’t want to ever tell anybody about that. So such a missed opportunity. But I think this is actually a great place for us to wrap up because we’ve walked through the whole process. We’ve seen the tactics that they use to suck you in, but we’ve also seen the problems with that, which the biggest problem is that they’re lying, right? They’re not honest about what comes on the back end. They’re just tricking you into buying something.

Rai Hyde Cornell (28:41.898)
Right.

Rai Hyde Cornell (28:45.332)
Right, right.

Rai Hyde Cornell (28:59.37)
Yes.

Jeffro (29:04.39)
And so we’ve talked about how they can fix it, which hopefully if they do listen to this, they decided to tweak it. That would be great. That would be a great outcome for everybody. But hopefully those of you guys listening, you know, if you have gotten these invitations, you kind of now are armed with a little bit more information of what you’re getting yourself into. If you’ve gone through this before and felt dumb, you’re not alone. Obviously it happens to a lot of people. But I found this fascinating. I hope you guys all found it fascinating as well. So Ray, thanks again for coming back on the show.

Rai Hyde Cornell (29:24.31)
You’re not alone.

Jeffro (29:32.753)
If you guys want to hear more from Ray, she does have some free resources available. We’ll put her links in the show notes as well. To wrap us up, Ray, I’ve got one last question. So what would be the one takeaway from this case study that you think all marketers and business owners should remember?

Rai Hyde Cornell (29:49.078)
Trust your gut. mean, I think especially nowadays, as much as I love LinkedIn, it has very much become a predatory platform where people are getting these sponsored messages, these in-mails, and anything that feels too good to be true, question it and save yourself the time and energy. Because if you feel like something is off, I guarantee you something is. And it’s not worth your time, energy, and frustration to go down this path. On the flip side, learn from it. If you are going through this process with a marquee who’s who or any other company that’s doing this, identify what feels icky for you and then don’t use that in your own business. Be transparent about your pricing. Be transparent about what it’s going to be like on the other side of the sale and just try to fix what’s wrong with marketing and sales in the world.

Jeffro (30:48.327)
Thanks again for being here, Ray. And thanks to all of you guys for listening. If you thought this was valuable, please leave a review for the show on Apple or Spotify. Be careful out there and we’ll see you next time.