Episode 165: 5 Toxic AF Marketing Tactics I'm Calling Out
Tired of the endless "buy now or die" countdowns? The fake scarcity? Those "secret" masterminds that cost more than a car? 🙄 In this episode, I'm calling out the toxic marketing tactics that are manipulating small business owners and sharing what we can do differently. Because guess what? You can sell without being sleazy, grow without manipulation, and build a successful business while keeping your soul intact. Let's talk about what authentic marketing actually looks like (spoiler: no fake urgency required).
Here’s What We Cover and More:
The importance of equity, inclusion and psychological safety in marketing strategies.
Critique of high-pressure, urgency-driven selling and manipulative scarcity tactics.
Dislike for exaggerated promises like “10X your business” without empirical evidence.
Why authority alone is not enough—focus on creating belonging and psychological safety.
Challenges of overpriced, low-support programs and their inefficiency for entrepreneurs.
Addressing harmful narratives that ignore real-world struggles and diversity of experiences.
Transitioning to inclusive, value-driven marketing that prioritizes genuine connection.
Making PR strategies approachable for small business owners, immigrants, and marginalized groups.
Toxic marketing tactics need a serious rebrand. Fake scarcity and urgency might sell fast, but they destroy trust faster—authenticity always wins. Arbitrary promises like “10X your business” without proof are just math-flavored lies that savvy customers won’t buy. Bragging about authority alone is outdated; today’s buyers crave connection, not condescension. Finally, toxic positivity that ignores real-world struggles isn’t inspiring—it’s insulting. Marketing thrives when it’s human, honest, and built on mutual respect, not manipulation.
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Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
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Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/428633254951941
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Transcript
00:00:00 Gloria: What's up, small business heroes? Welcome back to Small Business PR where we make PR and marketing super accessible for the everyday small business hero. Now, access is a huge word here. I say this in all of my PR Masterclasses. I say it even on today's show. What does access mean to me? Access means equity. Access means inclusion and creating a space where people feel psychologically safe to consume your content, knowing that the nuance and understanding for their lived experiences, somehow included.
00:00:30 Gloria: Now, you don't have to be an expert in everyone's life. You don't have to travel the globe. But more and more, what I'm seeing in this marketing space is this one size fits all. And there's a lot of toxic positivity that is just honestly, it's… disgusts me and I'm usually a very positive person. I pride myself on making everyone feel seen and I'm generally very loving, but I have to call this out.
00:00:52 Gloria: So this episode is not going to be a rant, but really the realities of what I'm seeing as someone in the online space of marketing tactics that not only don't work for me and a lot of my audience of women founded businesses, but honestly, these marketing tactics give me a huge red flag and they kind of disgust me. So I'm just going to write off the bat, say it.
00:01:12 Gloria: The first one that really disgusts me is this high pressure, high urgency selling three spots left, two spots left to, like insinuate that, not only is something so rare that you're going to ruin your entire life if you don't get it. You are basically trying to trigger a stress, a stress response in that person.
00:01:32 Gloria: Now I used to be guilty of this because when I first built my business in the online world, I didn't have a lot of people to look up to in terms of templates. So I followed the four or five bro marketers and it's taken me a long time to cleanse myself of that and to find a way that, where I can speak authentically that aligns and it's still selling, but in a way that honors me and my values.
00:01:53 Gloria: And so this whole, old guard, as I like to call it, of this high pressure, high urgency, that really just makes you feel bad almost if you don't buy is really off-putting. And so that's the first red flag and a marketing tactics that just honestly doesn't work for me anymore. And I'm hoping that as we get into this new year, we'll stop working because people can go somewhere else. There are so many places it can go for information.
00:02:22 Gloria: With AI and YouTube, there's not a scarcity of that, right? You can find so many resources. And so to say that somehow your product is the only product or service that is out there and that this is going to be shattering their reality if they don't buy it, and then putting all these scarcity things around it to trigger that stress response, honestly, it's irresponsible and also manipulative.
00:02:46 Gloria: Now, if there is a genuine scarcity, so for example, what I did this year is that I allocated 10 spots for people who around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and I didn't put a timeframe on it. I just said, for the next 10 people who join my program in the new year, because at this time it was Q4. So in the new year, the upcoming January, I will sit down with you and have a one-on-one PR planning session. And that is my gift to you.
00:03:10 Gloria: And the reason why I picked 10 is not because it's some random number, but 10 is all I have the capacity for to be able to show up fully for that person in a focused way in that session. So that's why I picked 10. That's okay. Right? That is real urgent. That is real scarcity in the sense that I just don't have all the hours in the day to give everyone at my highest level when I'm showing up for them in a one-on-one capacity. So that's very different than what I'm talking about here than maybe what you have seen.
00:03:40 Gloria: Second thing, a marketing tactic that just honestly needs to go away is this grant, is this grand promise of you're going to change your life and 10X this and 10X that. First of all, it's so arbitrary. Like, where are you getting that from? Why is it 10X? Why is it not nine or 100X? The more you put these arbitrary numbers, the more I'm gonna be like, okay, this is another red flag. And I'm gonna start to put a wall up.
00:04:07 Gloria: And so for a lot of my audience, female founders who have been oversold to, and I'm in a mastermind with like, literally I know hundreds of online business coaches, this is getting less and less effective. And it's again, borderline manipulative. To say that something will, like 10X your thing or 20X something, I need to see empirical data that that is the average. And I mean average result, not just the one or two people from your program that you've sold hundreds of times, but that's average.
00:04:40 Gloria: And then you can maybe say that number, but I need to know that that number is coming from somewhere. Right? So, like for example, for what I do, you know, we've had people who were able to increase their SEO two, threefold. And that's just empirical fact. And especially now with AI and everyone being able to write 50 blogs a day, being able to get those powerful organic backlinks, not the pay to play, but real PR backlinks will increase your SEO because Google is actually prioritizing that.
00:05:09 Gloria: It's a sign to the search engines that you are adding value in the online space. And so this is just, empirical fact. But anytime I hear a crazy grand promise, I immediately get so off put, like I'm just absolutely disgusted. And this is a part of bro marketing that I am actively, actively trying to get away from. And honestly, like, girl, we're just trying to survive out here.
00:05:31 Gloria: We've had a really hard time and there's so many things changing all the time where emotionally it's just so exhausting sometimes to keep up with. Not only just the pace of, you know, technology and the economy, but what's happening politically, what's happening around the world. Right. There's just so much. So that's another thing that I immediately am like, oh, this really disgusts me. And like, no, thank you.
00:05:56 Gloria: The third marketing tactic that I do not respect at all. And I think it needs to go away. And this might be kind of a hot take and people might not agree with me, is selling something based on your authority alone. And for the most part, right, this is America. It's the land of where the ego wins. We've seen it play out. The person, you know, a lot of times loudest in the room that has the most things on their resume, you know, they're using that to sell something.
00:06:23 Gloria: And being in PR, I acknowledge that because a lot of times other PR people will talk about the logos and where they've been featured, but for me, that doesn't really matter that much. My thing is like, is your marketing inclusive? Is your authority, does that come with a built in psychological safety for your people to buy from you? Because if it's not just, for me, at least for me, for my, for when I'm trying to consume and my audience.
00:06:50 Gloria: It's not enough to just tell me how great you are and how many mountains you've climbed. Because if you cannot understand and create space for, maybe for me to also climb that mountain with you, for me to feel like I belong, for me to feel safe in that journey and not just you either condescending or maybe judging me because you've done so many of these amazing things that are inspiring, right? That's what I want to know.
00:07:14 Gloria: So I think based on authority alone and even, you know, you see this in a lot of networking things. My husband yesterday, he came back from a tech event and, you know, he's Italian. He always makes fun of how a lot of Americans, they're really about when they introduce themselves like, oh, like, who are you? I'm this person and I've done this and I've raised this much money and I've exited this startup and I've been featured here.
00:07:37 Gloria: It's just not a human way to speak. It almost feels like you're typing into a screen and you know, you're spitting it out like you are, you're writing a resume. And so my husband was so shocked that somebody would speak to him in that way because he didn't even know how to respond. When you start to say, hi, I'm so and so, immediately tell them about all the authority and all the places and what you've done and all your accomplishments doesn't really leave a lot of room for that person to connect with you.
00:08:06 Gloria: And I think we're getting back into a period where marketing is about connection and it's not about authority and what you’ve done and how great I am. Because there's so many ways to be great and greatness is not defined equally by one person to the next. So that's another thing that I don't think works as much anymore is selling something just based on authority alone. I want to know your values, right?
00:08:30 Gloria: So I can say I've helped, you know, get, people get 1 billion organic views. I've had hundreds of people go through my program, but what I'm most proud of is being able to finally make PR accessible to democratize it for the everyday small business owner, for people who are immigrants and BIPOC founders and people who maybe English is not their first language, who is helping them? And so that's really important for me when I do say, yes, I've been featured here and here, but honestly, like I've really changed that.
00:08:57 Gloria: I used to maybe start off by saying, you know, I've done this, I've done this. And now it's like, here's the impact that I'm making. Here is what I'm transforming. Here is the sacred work that I'm doing. It's about taking up space and making people feel comfortable to take up space and pitch for them when maybe culturally they've been told not to promote themselves. And so all of that is wrapped up in how I introduced myself, not just, you know, I've done this and I've done that and all the places I've been featured.
00:09:23 Gloria: So the fourth marketing tactic that I'm basically rejecting and thinking that it's no longer going to work based on my experience and my audience is this thing that's like, this do it yourself, low touch, but very expensive and high ticket thing, whether it's a group program where people lump you in with more than 75 or 100 people at a price point that's more than $5,000. There's no way that you're really going to get that high touch.
00:09:53 Gloria: A lot of times what's happening now is as business owners scale, as online coaches scale, they are very removed from the business. And so the very thing that made their business amazing, they are starting to delegate that to other coaches. And people have actually come to me to tell me about their experiences in these other programs, where they don't get any hands-on help and they're not seen at all by the person who created that brand, the person who they actually thought they were buying from.
00:10:19 Gloria: So there's nothing wrong with any one of those things by itself, right? There's nothing wrong with a DIY thing. I do think that people don't really want courses, but there is a time and space for them as long as it's priced at a low enough price point when you're not fooling anyone because I think there's not as much value in just watching modules, unless it's really, really proprietary information.
00:10:42 Gloria: So DIY, if you're combining DIY with something that's a high ticket, like a high, high price point, I have a problem with that. Right. If you have something that is, very high ticket, but it's low touch and you don't give people support, I have a problem with that. So I recently went to an event and it's from, you know, these people who have millions of followers and they give great, free amazing information.
00:11:06 Gloria: I went to this session and it was an upsell, a very aggressive upsell. I'm talking, people busting into the rooms with clipboards signing you up and if you didn't want to sign up, they immediately treated you differently. That kind of aggression. Literally in their FAQs when they were trying to upsell you to their 20 grand plus thing, one of the questions was like, oh, am I going to get ongoing support in between our calls or our [unclear].
00:11:34 Gloria: And literally, I kid you not, the answer was like, no, we don't want to enable, you know, a certain type of founder behavior. We only want people who are able to be self starters, who are able to be resourceful and just putting all that back on that person. And I think that we've evolved past that. I think that kind of trickery or psychological manipulation, like I, it's like clear as day now what it is. And I think maybe it worked before in the past, but that no longer works anymore.
00:12:01 Gloria: So when I saw that, like answer to the FAQ of, will I be getting support in this 20K program? And the answer was no, because that somehow means that you are not a great fit and, and you know, if you don't bet on yourself, I can't either. That is absolute BS. And it absolutely sickens me.
00:12:19 Gloria: So the last one, which is a marketing tactic that absolutely needs to go away, is this toxic positivity. You know, I follow this person and I really enjoyed this person's newsletter. And one day I, you know, as usual, I opened this newsletter and this person talked about a experiment that happened at, either at Stanford or, you know, one of the universities.
00:12:43 Gloria: And the whole point was to talk about how when people perceive that they are lesser than, then they immediately don't go after things, that they immediately perform worse. And he used that example as a way to say that everything is in your mind. That you can do it, that all you have to do is change your thinking, that you're just one thought away from accomplishing everything that you want.
00:13:10 Gloria: And that is so toxic because there's absolutely no nuance for all lived experiences, people in famine, in war, who are literally uprooted from their lives, people who are differently abled, people who did not have, you know, the access to have visas and to be able to be in a Western developed country, people who don't have access to internet, electricity, people who are dealing with so many different things, whether it's financial, socioeconomic, you know, discrimination, whatever that is.
00:13:38 Gloria: So I felt like that was just the lowest of the low in terms of where we are in marketing. This toxic positivity that you are one mindset away from achieving the life you want. Come on, we can do better than that.
00:13:52 Gloria: Now mindset is important because I do agree as an entrepreneur, so much of what you can accomplish, what you can outgrow, what you can achieve is in your, is mindset. But there's a difference between overcoming a hardship and, you know, being courageous and saying that it's all within your mind because there are certain things that are immutable that cannot be fixed, things that people cannot escape from that they have to deal with every day. And to just completely overlook that is not only irresponsible, it's inhumane.
00:14:27 Gloria: And so one thing that I've learned in this marketing ecosystem, you know, you have so many different players, so many different things, is that I'm trying to find the spaces where people transform because they feel like they belong or that people are creating pockets of safety in addition to having, you know, a proven track record. But I think that this whole hyper aggressive, go, go, go, you can do it, 10X this, everything's in your mind. Burnout is not a thing.
00:14:59 Gloria: And by the way, a person actually did post that. This person said, burnout is a state of mind. You just get over it. And I'm not trying to say that we shouldn't be tough. I think mental resilience is so important. But I think the over-focus on how everything is in your mind is absolutely inhumane, and it's absolutely ignorant.
00:15:20 Gloria: So I am calling in for a more human way of marketing next year. I am also trying to lead by example with the way that I've changed my marketing. I cringe when I look back on some of the emails I sent with all these crazy scarcity, like, you know, value stacking. This is normally 15,000, but only, like I did that too. And I'm guilty of, and I actually was on a podcast talking about it, but I'm no longer doing that.
00:15:45 Gloria: I'm actively choosing to call that out because I think we deserve better. And I think people deserve better. And I think there's a way to sell and connect and to create belonging without that. So how can we have a more human and heart-led way of marketing and not just ego and boasting, how can we open that space for connection? Because that's really where the magic happens.
00:16:06 Gloria: I think more and more people are not, you know, missing solutions. There are so many different solutions. So it's not this, like, precious commodity, but they're wondering, is this really for me? And the way that you can answer that question, which is the most important question is not will it work? Say no, that it works. They want to know, will it work for me? Is to create a marketing that's way more humane, that's way more inclusive and way more reflecting that you have a space that's available for people of all lived experiences.
00:16:37 Gloria: And so that's where that connection comes in. So I'm going to be looking for people who are actively doing work in this way to make their content more connecting and not just, oh, I'm on this pedestal, I've done everything, look at me. You can have a hundred million dollar life too. Well, maybe people don't want that. Maybe it's much deeper than that. And so I think everything that we've learned, you know, through, everything that we've been through, whether it's a pandemic or what's happening in the world, is that we just need more love in marketing.
00:17:04 Gloria: We need more humanity back in our marketing. And it's just, it's time. It's time. So if you agree with me, feel free to tag me on Instagram, @GloriaChouPR. This is exactly the type of energy I bring into my PR program, creating access and bringing the top 1% of journalists to small business owners. And to also understand that it's not just about PR, it's about feeling safe to take up space and the sacred work that we are here to do to unravel a lot of the generational stuff that told us to be quiet, to be small, to not promote ourselves. And so this work is sacred to me for those reasons.
00:17:38 Gloria: If you resonate, please share this episode with anyone you might know. And I hope to see you in my PR program. I know that there's so much power and courage that comes from being seen in a community of other people who also get it too. So thank you so much, as always, for listening and I hope you have an incredible weekend and I will see you next week.