All Episodes

October 13, 2025 11 mins

In this episode, Meredith’s husband reacts to Meta’s marketing email promoting Click Here, a new book by Meta’s CMO, Alex Schultz. He and Meredith dissect the irony of a spammy marketing email from a supposed marketing expert, discuss the ethics of self-promotion, and reflect on the larger problem of how social media platforms manipulate attention. The episode offers valuable lessons for small-business owners on trust, transparency, and ethical digital marketing.

Timestamps

[0:00] Introduction: Meredith’s husband and Meredith open the episode with a discussion about a new marketing book.

[0:24] Discovering “Click Here”: They introduce Click Here, written by Meta’s CMO, and react to the confusing promotional email.

[1:00] Email Confusion Begins: Meredith’s husband decodes Meredith’s forwarded email and begins exploring its headline.

[1:31] The Mark Zuckerberg Endorsement: They react to Zuckerberg’s quote and how it overshadows the author.

[3:47] Early Amazon Reviews: Discussion about the initial reviews—mostly Meta insiders—and what that says about credibility.

[5:13] Spam from Meta: They point out that the marketing email itself is spam—sent without consent.

[5:50] Questionable Marketing Ethics: Meredith’s husband critiques Meta’s tactics as tasteless and self-serving.

[7:43] Meta’s Massive Email Power: They note how Meta can easily contact millions of small businesses for free.

[9:23] Social Media Reflections: They close by discussing social media’s broader effects and future content plans.

--

CONTACT
Leave Feedback or Request Topics:
https://forms.gle/bqxbwDWBySoiUYxL7


Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Meredith's husband (00:24):
So there's this new digital marketing book
out.
A book about digital marketing.

Meredith (00:28):
Is it digital?

Meredith's husband (00:29):
Oh, you could probably get it.
I'm sure you could get adigital version, yes.
I certainly hope so.
It's written by a guy namedAlex Schultz.
I don't know, I've never heardof Alex Schultz before this this
last week.
Didn't know who this was.
This book was introduced to meby you.
You sent me an email, and youremail, you forwarded me an email
that you received, and youremail says, quote, question

(00:53):
mark, exclamation, questionmark, exclamation, question
mark, period.

Meredith (01:00):
So clear.
So clear.

Meredith's husband (01:03):
And if you're wondering, yeah, that's a
very typical message fromMeredith.
Now I took that, I didn't knowwhat that meant exactly.
I took it to mean, oh my gosh,look at this.
This is this for real?
This looks so great.
That was the first thing thatcame to my mind.
And so I scrolled down, and itis a it was this email about

(01:23):
this book.
And the headline of this emailsays, help yourself to expert
marketing advice from Meta'sCMO.

Meredith (01:31):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (01:31):
Now that sounds actually intriguing.
That's a pretty good headline.
Well, it's a good as somebodywho writes headlines, I think.
Okay.
It's a well-written headline.

Meredith (01:40):
Trevor Burrus, Jr.: There.

Meredith's husband (01:41):
As it should be.

Meredith (01:43):
Yeah, I hope so.

Meredith's husband (01:44):
And then we're and then so scroll down.
I have I don't have the imageson, so there I can see there's a
couple images that I'm notseeing.
I don't know what's in thoseimages.
And then there is a well, rightbeneath that, there is a quote,
and it says Alex is one of asmall handful of people that I
can say without his work, ourcommunity would not have
connected to more than twobillion people around the world.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Meta.

(02:06):
And then I'm like, well, that'spretty high praise.
Oh, but this guy is Meta's CMO,was my next thought.
Like, yeah, of course.
Still, I mean, uh my my opinionjust has dropped a notch
because this seems to be a notefrom Mark Zuckerberg, not Alex
Schultz.
And they don't even mention hisname.
Like the person's name, I onlyfound out his name later.

(02:27):
So so far, as I'm going,imagine going through this email
the first time.
I know there's this book fromthis guy.
He's met as CMO.
There's a quote.
Of course, Mark Zuckerberg'sname is there.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Meredith (02:38):
I thought it was Mark Zuckerberg who wrote the book.
Yeah.
And that's why I was soconfused.

Meredith's husband (02:42):
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
So uh so I continued the email,and it says, uh, starting out
in marketing is overwhelming.
Click here for the new book,blah, blah, blah.
Oh no, no.
The name of the book is clickhere.

Meredith (02:52):
What?

Meredith's husband (02:53):
The name of the book is click here.

Meredith (02:54):
Oh boy.

Meredith's husband (02:55):
The new book from Meta's chief marketing
officer.
Strategies, principles,confidence, straightforward.
Be among the first to read thisessential guide.
Order, click here.
And click here is not a button.
It says that's the title of thebook again.

Meredith (03:12):
That's really clear.
It is especially in a goodidea.
It's good for marketing.

Meredith's husband (03:16):
It wasn't meant to be read aloud on a
podcast, I guess.

Meredith (03:19):
But you're reading it.

Meredith's husband (03:20):
Trevor Burrus So order-click here, get
your first access, blah, blah,blah.
So I'm a little confused atthis point.

Meredith (03:26):
Yes.

Meredith's husband (03:32):
So I scrolled up and I look, and it's
from mail.instagram.
It's from Meta.

Meredith (03:36):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (03:38):
Trevor Burrus, Yeah.
I'm curious.
So I went ahead and I by theway, I have not read this book.

Meredith (03:47):
Okay.

Meredith's husband (03:47):
I'm not giving my professional or
personal opinion of the ofwhatever is in the book.
It might be great.
I don't know.

Meredith (03:53):
Aaron Ross Powell And just a side note, of course, why
do you not have the imagesloading?

Meredith's husband (03:59):
Because this message appears to be, and I'll
get to this in a second, too.
Okay.
Marketing email.

Meredith (04:05):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (04:06):
But anyway, I followed the link.
It takes me to Amazon.
This is where I learned theperson's name.
When I looked at it, it had Ithink it was 11 five-star
reviews.
I scrolled down, and thosereviews certainly seemed to me
to be this guy's best friends.
Well, co-workers.
Co-workers.
People who work at Meta.

(04:26):
Yeah.
Right?
It was all they started with,oh, I've been friends with Alex
since his first days here atMeta, like at Facebook, et
cetera.
And then there was one review,which I thought was pretty good.
It was like a five-star review.
Oh my gosh, just got my copy inthe mail.
Can't wait to read it.
I don't know if this personunderstands the concept of a

(04:50):
review.
Or maybe they think it's a hugesuccess.
If you order something fromAmazon and it arrives, boom,
that's a five-star review.
Amazing.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Anyway, I digress.
11 five-star reviews at thistime.
I would be curious by the timeit hits 20 or 30 or 100, how
many are going to be five-star.
Because as you have sort ofindicated, back to this email.

Meredith (05:13):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (05:13):
This email is it's not something you signed
up for, is it?
You didn't sign up to be sothis email is by definition
spam.

Meredith (05:21):
Yes.

Meredith's husband (05:22):
That is the definition of spam.

Meredith (05:23):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (05:24):
Coming from a supposed marketing expert.

Meredith (05:28):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (05:28):
Okay.
Spam email, I will tell you, asa marketing professional, is a
is about it's considered justabout the lowest form of
marketing that there is.
There's there's a couple wrongsbeneath that, but it's pretty I
mean it's spam.

Meredith (05:42):
Spam.
Yeah.
Junk is junk.

Meredith's husband (05:46):
Yeah, junk is garbage and garbage.

Meredith (05:49):
Spam.

Meredith's husband (05:50):
So my opinion of this of this whole
email now is like this is reallyvery self-serving.

Meredith (05:55):
Yes.

Meredith's husband (05:56):
Because I very I again I have not read the
book.
I very much assume that in thisbook is something about how,
you know, your strategy is goingto involve, I don't know,
advertising on Meta.
Maybe, you think?
Or at least.

Meredith (06:11):
I don't know.
Yes.
It just seemed like insidertrading.

Meredith's husband (06:15):
Yeah, it seems like so so I would expect,
like if you are a smallbusiness, we're going to do
something like this, I wouldexpect the book to be free.

Meredith (06:25):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (06:25):
How much is the book?
It's expensive.
It's $32 for hardback.
There's no paperback.
You can get a Kindle version,which is probably half that.
Wow.
But yeah, it's not.
So you're asking me this, whichis why I have not read the
book.
One of the reasons.
So my opinion is that this wasa book written by Meta.
Yeah.
All the reviews from all theMeta uh chief officers are on

(06:49):
Amazon.
The first thing is from MarkZuckerberg.
It's written it's all C-levelMeta people.

Meredith (06:55):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (06:55):
So if you receive this email, and I did
get this same email in anotherand something that in an account
that I set up just for fFacebook and Instagram, I have a
special email account.
That email account alsoreceived this.

Meredith (07:08):
I figure everyone who is a part of Meta receives this.

Meredith's husband (07:13):
Well, everybody who Yeah, good point.
Everybody certainly who hasdeclared themselves a
self-employed person or abusiness owner, or certainly if
you are using the the businesssuite at Meta, yeah.
I mean, think about it.
Meta has, I don't know, howmany billions of users do they
have around the world?

(07:33):
How many of those are uh own asmall comp they they basically
they have every single smallcompany's email address.
And at least in this country.
They have them all, like ahundred percent of them.

Meredith (07:43):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (07:43):
And like you said, it costs them nothing.

Meredith (07:45):
Nothing.

Meredith's husband (07:46):
So yeah.
So not a dumb move, but I wouldsay, as a professional
marketer, very tasteless.
Very tasteless.

Meredith (07:53):
Self-service.
Very self-serving.

Meredith's husband (07:57):
I don't appreciate this.

Meredith (07:58):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (07:59):
And this is one of another reason why I am
not a fan of Meta.

Meredith (08:04):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (08:05):
Facebook.

Meredith (08:05):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (08:06):
Or even all of social media.
I don't really like, butespecially Meta, I just I really
despise their businesspractices.

Meredith (08:13):
Yes.

Meredith's husband (08:13):
And this is just the latest example.

Meredith (08:15):
Yes.
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (08:16):
Although, like I said, I'm not a big
social media fan either.
I'm not I don't use socialmedia.

Meredith (08:22):
Thank goodness.
I'm sorry.
I mean great.

Meredith's husband (08:25):
I don't I think I'll I think a lot of the
reason why a a lot of the worldis in the state that it is right
now is honestly because ofsocial media.
Not not to pin all the blame,but it has like fanned the
flames like no tomorrow.

Meredith (08:38):
Yeah.
And you always feel bad afteryou get off it.

Meredith's husband (08:42):
There's like this sense of just and there's
a there's many reasons why thatis.

Meredith (08:47):
Yeah, intentional.

Meredith's husband (08:48):
But yes.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
All the all the individualreasons are intentional for
different reasons.

Meredith (08:54):
But thank you, Mr.
Schultz, probably.

Meredith's husband (08:57):
Exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm like, oh, well, this guywas evidently around in the very
early days of Facebook workingwith Mark.
Like, oh, scumbag.
Like, I hate this person.

Meredith (09:09):
Yeah.
This is how to just ring peopledry.

Meredith's husband (09:12):
Anyway, I was I was going to say, I'm not
really on social.
Like, I don't I don't usesocial media.
I don't like social media.
I don't want to contribute tosocial media, but I realize
that's where everybody is.

Meredith (09:23):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (09:23):
So I am going to start to be active on
social media.
I'm not going to like play thesocial media game.
I'm not going to make duck lipsand a peace sign over my cap of
rapuccino.

Meredith (09:36):
Oh gosh.
What I would give for thatthough.
Yes.
Thank you.

Meredith's husband (09:39):
Maybe I will do that.
Actually, I probably guessed Iwill do that once.

Meredith (09:44):
It's the next one.

Meredith's husband (09:45):
I'm just going to put clips from my
courses and my lessons online.
And hopefully that's kind oflike this podcast.
I just I hope that it's helpfulstuff because I know some of
you are there.

Meredith (09:54):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (09:55):
And hopefully it will help.

Meredith (09:57):
Thank you.

Meredith's husband (09:57):
If you want to contact me, I would say don't
DM me on social media.
I might not see that becauseI'm not, I'm not, I'm going to
find some automated way ofputting content out there.
Doesn't mean I'm going to beusing it.
So if you want to DM me, I'llput a link below.

Meredith (10:11):
Yeah.

Meredith's husband (10:11):
And you can if you want me to review this
book, if you want me to readthis book, I'm not going to read
the whole thing, but if youwant me to somehow give a little
a little deeper dive, because Irealize this is this, I did not
evaluate the content of thebook at all.
It's just where this book iscoming from and how it came, how
it got to us.
I do not appreciate.

(10:32):
Or if you want me to reviewsomething else, I will put a
link below where you can heysay, hey, I got an email that
says this.
What does that mean?

Meredith (10:39):
And if you want to see duck lips also.

Meredith's husband (10:42):
Duck lips, yeah.
I will do some duck lips if youwant the duck lips.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.

The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.