Welcome back to Marketing Muckraking! It's been a while. Let's not make it weird ;-) Elizabeth Holmes — the personal brand, the snake oil saleswoman, the legend — brought me back. Years ago, I donned an Elizabeth Holmes wig for an Awkward Marketing parody connecting Liz with the fake-it-'til-you-make-it funnel hackers and grifters that partially inspired this podcast to begin with. So when You Can See Everything came out, I had to don that wig again, head to the theater, and see everything for myself (twice!) More about that in this episode.

Today's adventure begins with a late night text message from our guest:

And the rest is history! Come a long for a wild ride through the Elizabeth Holmes chaos movie that is most definitely not about Elizabeth Holmes.

Act I opens with Billy talking about Elizabeth over the phone to an unidentified male voice, explaining why "they" chose to do the film. When the camera zooms out, we see that Elizabeth was behind him all along.

Act II opens with Billy shooting a gun, talking about Elizabeth. We do not see Elizabeth alive again until the final seconds of the film.

What follows has all the hallmarks of a true crime investigation — including the cheesy, dramatic re-enactments and the opinionated talking heads who have no connection to the case, behaving like authorities and telling us how to feel about it.

Whodunnit? The call is coming from inside the critical response.

• What happens when a 40-something biz comedian shows up to a Regal Cinema at 10:45 AM on a Wednesday dressed as Elizabeth Holmes
• The red (hatted) herring in You Can See Everything and why is everyone's favorite villain the way-too-obvious pick?
• "They didn't have a Keurig but they could make a hologram of her face so that she could talk to people after that she went to prison?! Make it make sense." Jenna can't understand why Liz's 70s-wood-paneled upside-down universe has no Nespresso.
• The real missing persons in the case of the unrepentant tycoon-turned-tradwife, i.e. where have all the victims gone???
• "Should we set up a GoFundMe to save her!?" and other questions Nathan Fielder wants us to ask about our dams-Elizabeth-in-distress and the narcissist she rode in on
• How many mansplainers does it take to get to the center of Elizabeth Holmes? The jury is still out.
• And, finally, why Liz is banned from laser tag — forever!!! No exceptions!!! Don't like it? Take it up with (what appears to be) her mother!

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 online business family tree and the curious case of the SEO-optimized friendship (featuring personal brand celebs Rachel Hollis, Jenna Kutcher, and Amy Porterfield).

But, more than anything, I appreciate how Molly always brings us back to our humanity and helps us see that public relations is just a fancy way of talking about human communication.

• Molly's next gig as the star of "PR CSI" and how punctuation can catch a culprit
• The biggest mistake brands make during a social media crisis
• The real reason Bud Light still hasn't recovered from backlash
• How to make a crisis go "poof!" and the 3 tenets of Molly's Indestructible PR framework
• Why Rachel Hollis' brand still hasn't bounced back, 2.5 years after Toilet Gate
• Molly's beef with Amy Porterfield and the online business family tree
• Why Colleen Ballinger (or was it Miranda Sings?) mistakenly believed her ukulele would win the day
• What do Molly's four Gen Z kids think about Mom being a TikTok sensation?
• The difference between social media vigilantes, bullies, and investigative reporters
• The problem with Reddit snark and parasocial relationships
• The other side of the cancel culture coin and the pot of gold at the end of the snark rainbow

Molly reports on crisis communications and breaking news stories with a perfect blend of snark and heart. She has over two decades of experience in public relations, emergency management, and media. As a crisis pro, Molly previously worked at FEMA and as the Director of Communications for the Cruise Line International Association, where she managed media responses during major crises. Today, Molly is a crisis communications consultant, keynote speaker, and TikTok sensation. She hosts the Indestructible PR podcast and recently won the 2023 Adweek Creative Visionary Award for Careers Creator of the Year.

Read the episode transcript, watch the YouTube video, and get the show notes on the Marketing Muckraking website here.

We also highlighted the 10 elements of the rotten tree. To review:

1. Prosperity gospel and the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" myth of meritocracy
2. Mastermind relationships and being "in the room" where it happens with powerful leaders
3. JV partnerships
4. Affiliate marketing
5. Tabloid / clickbait / pain point / shame-based marketing
6. Gaming the system
7. Propaganda, mind control, and hypnosis
8. Cross-pollinating audiences
9. Personal branding and "If I did it, you can, too"
10. And finally, the idea that you don't have to cite your sources, fuck your sources. So that the web becomes so tangled, no one knows where any of this came from.

But now, hopefully, you do know.

And our hope is that this series has helped you become a more informed consumer, a more ethical marketer, and that you feel seen and less alone in this jungle of the Online Business Industrial Complex.

To understand marketing history is to understand ourselves and our culture — marketing is the fuel for the engine of capitalism.

But now that we've taken this trip through time, it's time to talk about what to do next and how do we build a better future…

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.