If you say what you’re really thinking, you’ll get fired.
If you don’t, you’ll rot from the inside out.
That’s the paradox most marketers live in—and it’s not because they lack backbone. It’s because they’re smart enough to know what happens when you speak the truth inside a system built on pretending.
Marketing isn’t broken because marketers are stupid. It’s broken because the people who see the problem aren’t allowed to name it without consequences.
So they don’t. They smile. They build decks. They reframe. They die a little every quarter.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Understand the Terrain
You can’t speak freely in a system that punishes honesty.
But you can learn how to speak strategically.
There are only three ways the truth backfires:
- You said the right thing at the wrong time.
- You said the truth with no safety net.
- You told the truth before they were ready to hear it.
Timing is everything.
The truth isn’t dangerous.
Unarmed truth is.
Translate the Truth
Most people think they only have two options:
- Say it raw and get labeled “difficult”
- Stay quiet and watch the whole thing burn
False dichotomy.
The real move is to learn to code-switch.
Take what you're thinking—and translate it into language the system can’t reject.
Here's what that looks like:
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