May 8 Live with Molly McPherson: Mike Vrabel, Dolly Parton, Blake Lively and more...

Welcome to our live chat. Love seeing some of our names in here. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Hello. Hello. It is Friday, May 8th, and I am checking in for hopefully the last time of Molly Only Tech. Happy Friday, Louise. Happy Friday, everyone. I'm meeting with my tech person after this. Hello all. Herb to you as well. So we're gonna finally uplevel our tech and it won't just be relying on me every morning. So I'm excited about that. Okay, so this week, let me know, this is not gonna be a lecture from Molly. I want to hear from you guys. Okay. I want to hear from you all today. I don't want you to think this is because I'm not, I haven't prepared anything, but I thought I want to get more from you. I was just in our chat, uh, before I logged on here. Our tech person. That's true. It's going to be our tech person, though I'm paying for this tech person, but she's really good. It's so funny. Like I hired her and I didn't even realize that I was already kind of following her stuff anyway. Right. Um, but yes, this is our chat. I, okay. So let me tell you who I want to talk about today. And then I want to hear from you guys as well. I want to know what is going on. Like, what are the stories that you're following? And here I have to be honest with you, you know, the algorithm delivers stories that we, you know, our, our news feeds are driven by the algorithm. So what I see on my newsfeed isn't necessarily what everyone's talking about. It's what social media assumes that I want to talk about. And when you work in a newsy world like I do, it's only feeds me like people in crisis. So sometimes I miss it. So I want to hear what you guys are looking at as well. Um, and then quickly, I'll just give you, uh, an update. So, so last night I, I got back late last night. I got back at 2:30 in the morning. I couldn't even listen to my audiobook because it was making me tired. So I had to listen to music, uh, and an open window. Louise, your algorithm has been 100% about the antivirus. Oh, and the cruise ship. Don't think my cruise ship working in the cruise ship industry, I have to say I never wrote any talking points about a hantavirus, though I did write about the virus. Virus is on there. That's scary, right? That is real. That is a nightmare for a cruise line, for all the cruise lines, to have someone board a cruise and they die on that cruise because of the fault of the cruise lines, which, and was it? You know, were there other things in place that allowed that virus to make its way on board? It's kind of frightening. But I got in at 2:30 in the morning yesterday. So I'm very tired. I'm very tired this morning. But yesterday I was in Branson, Missouri, and I was speaking to a group of people, managers, directors, like a boards. And the topic I was talking about was data centers. And I've been saying data centers forever and it works my brain too much. So now I'm switching to data centers. And it's changing so much because I'm getting calls from different sectors, just like people who touch— what was the book? Diary of a What Kid? Come on, parents, who can help me on this? Touch the Cheese? Oh God. Help. Someone help me. I'm too tired. What is it? Greg, Greg Hafner? Hafner? Anyway, I don't know. It's a stream of thought. Damn, too tired. But no one, anyone who touches data centers, die every wimpy kid. Thank you, Carla. What is it? Is it Touch the Cheese? Who Moved the Cheese? No, that's a book, isn't it? No, isn't it about Jobs? Who Moved the Cheese? Isn't it touch the cheese? Oh God, I can't remember. Who Moved My Cheese? Okay, well, this is my crazy stream of thought. Cheese touch. Thank you, Olivia, Ashley, Amy. Cheese touch. Yeah. Data centers are the cheese touch right now. Anyone attached to 'em. So I, you know, so I was speaking to a room full of people saying, listen, You, and this was a, you, a talk about utilities, 'cause I'm, and I'm also launching a playbook, uh, for utilities that launches next week. My team has been working like crazy. They've been done doing an amazing job. So I'm launching, launching this first book first because I'm trying to offload my client work, my one-on-one client work, 'cause everybody calls me for the same thing. So I'm just putting it into a, um, like a bunch of quick videos with these mini, mini playbooks, like the easiest to consume because people's brains nowadays, and then people could hire me directly from that. So they have to, instead of just hiring me, I want them to kind of go through my doctrine, uh, and then they can do it. And then I'm launching another one just for general creators and anyone else, uh, because I get emails constantly. Uh, so that's going to be launched over the summer and then in the fall there'll be one for boards. So I'm just going to have these 3 products and they're all under my On the Record. Um, it's like an On the Record series and then they all kind of fall in there, but that's not important. But I was saying, you know, one of the pushbacks, and this ties into crisis management, so especially if, if you kind of work in this strategic area, I was saying, you know, one of the questions that came up, well, how do we answer when someone asks, you know, how much a CEO makes? Uh, and I said, you know, it's a lot of— Louise, what do you mean by the, by the data centers? No, I mean these big data centers. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft sinking money, money, money, money into all these communities. And you all know, just every, it's every state. It's every state. And, and I mean, talk about my job amplified like 100x is this issue because it affects like everyone's using AI or the, the a, the demand for AI has grown. And it's not really just the day-to-day people like us. It's business, it's tech, it's governments, every, you know, AI, the demand for it has grown. So they have to make, they have to build, um, they have to build data centers. And when you build a data center, it needs resources that come from these locations. Utility, electricity, electricity, water. So it affects all these towns. So no matter where you live, It's going to be close to you. There is going to be a Facebook group that is blank against data center, blank against it. And I'm getting calls from people. Like I got calls. I took a job from a marketing person who did marketing for a data center and almost lost their business though. They didn't know that. They, uh, they just thought it was kind of like a Facebook problem. And I said, your whole business. Is under threat right now. Uh, and part of my advice was change, change the name of your business. I mean, that's how bad it is. But anyway, when I was answering that question, uh, you know, how to, how to answer your salary, I said, well, you answer what it is. I said, but it's hard because in these smaller towns, CEOs are paid a lot of money. If a lot of people in town are working at Walmart or part-time and they don't have insurance, in our economy. We have tariffs, we have the war, we have fuel costs rising, we have energy. I mean, inflation. The country is struggling. This entire country is struggling. That's where we are right now in this environment. And, uh, and, and I left the meeting, you know, talked to people and they're like, oh my gosh, great, great, great. Which I really was on it, but I also had a little bit of a bite to me. I usually, kind of dance, especially when I'm in the South. Like, I'm very kind of soft, but now I'm just very straight to the point. Like, listen, this is a massive risk. I am your risk manager. You guys are, you guys are in for something. This is what you need to do. And before I even got to the park where I do my hike before I go to my airport, uh, someone who wasn't in the room wrote to me and said, Well, I heard, you know, that I heard about your talk and some of the managers were angry that you said they're overpaid. And so I'm extending the story out. I, it's May of 2026 and I cannot tell you how over I am. I'm over it. People who, who have to deflect. Because they have pains and weaknesses, so they have to deflect, uh, uh, into other people. So in my role, I can't be emotional about things. Um, and I wasn't defensive about what I said because I was right. And my reply back was, well, if that's how they feel, if they only took what I said about particular managers being highly paid in a community where their customers don't even have health insurance, then, then they're not even in the room. Then they will be in crisis. Okay. If they don't see that and they look at me as the bad messenger, well, that proves my point. But as I was getting ready to go on my hike, and then I was on my hike, which was only supposed to be a half hour, and then it ended up 86 minutes. And then I'm in the middle of a state park. In Branson, Missouri, talking to, uh, my phone saying, get me the hell out of here. Where am I? Have you guys ever done that? Like, and you're in your map and you're on a hike and you see where your car is, but it takes you, it serpentines you through the whole, oh my gosh. And I'm like, when do I have to leave to get my airport? But as I was walking back, I got a little distracted because I was talking to my son and we were talking about Mike Vrabel. Uh, was I'm so tired of people not taking accountability. I really, really am very tired. I just got off the phone with my kids, but two of my kids are in Ireland right now and I had the most frustrating conversation with them. Not about them, but about, oh my God, I don't want to get into personal stuff, but it is so frustrating to me of like people, adults who do not take accountability and they do not know what it means. So I did an interview this morning with USA Today. Oh, Louise, you got lost for 3 hours on a hike once and it only took 30 minutes to get back. And you're still not sure, right? Have you ever? I know, right? Have you been there? Um, they should create a ratio between lowest paid employee and the highest paid. Amy, you're right. Oh, Angie, you're here. Tech support Angie. Yeah. Loving the new camera. Thank you. But that conversation yesterday. that I had with this person. It, it, it was, it was, I'll admit it was touching a nerve and not because of that meeting I was in, but really as someone who marks lack of accountability professionally every single day, and I'm helping clients with it, when you're in the room in it and you have to kind of deal with it and then you hear it that way and then it's in your life. Oh, damn. And so it doesn't matter if it's like, if it's a parent, a, um, a spouse, a former spouse, a partner, a friend. I mean, who's with me on this? Who is so tired of lack of accountability? So this is what I said on my interview. So I did an interview. So this is what I want to talk about today. I'm going to touch on Mike Vrabel. I know the majority of you are not Patriots fans, but the Mike Vrabel story is exactly what I'm talking about here. Noah Syndergaard, that's another, like, baseball, but there's something there. Blake Lively and Dolly Parton. I don't know if Manny's on the chat, but Manny brought it up. Manny brought this up, uh, in, in our chat in there too. So those are the 3 that I want to talk about, and then you guys tell me what else was going on with you. Chelsea said, loved what AOC said about billionaires this week. I'll find the quote. Okay. Billions of dollars aren't earned. It's gain. Oh, I love this already. It's gain from market leveraged luck grown at the cost of underpaid labor, but never earned. Ooh, I love that, Chelsea. I like that a lot. I really like that a lot because it's so true. Like people, you know, and even in that case, like it's a manager hearing from a risk manager, like a crisis manager. You guys are highly compensated. That's just a fact. Now, granted, it's subjective, granted, but they're representing communities where the disparity is so great. And so for a manager to come back being pissed off because I said that is the reason why we are where we are today, because people think like that. So let, and then let me, then I'll, I'll pivot this quickly. To— I'm gonna come back to my USA Today interview that I did this morning. You can imagine, actually, I was way more coherent on that than I am right now. I'm kind of all over the place right now. But Noah Syndergaard, I don't know if we have any MLB fans in the chat right now. I'm an MLB fan. Noah Syndergaard pitched for the Mets and someone, you know, you always kind of, you could just see like, You, and you wanna know, so he made some comments about Trump recently. I just, I just watched them. But in my research, I did not know that Noah Syndergaard dated Alex Cooper. How did I miss this? I, I know, and Alex Cooper, you know, the whole Alex Earl, Alex Cooper issue that's going on. And it was just, it was a bit that was riffed on, uh, Saturday Night Live. And so many people ask me about the two of them. I think the bigger story is not like the brand of those two, but it's, it's what's happening in the hallways, like with Alex Cooper's husband. That's where all the negative stories are coming out. But Noah Syndergaard said he talked, he did an interview and it was with Laura Ingraham, Fox News. Said that meeting Trump at the White House was a dream come true and that he's always been a huge fan of President Trump. Okay. Not problematic. Noah Sinegard has every right to love Trump. Okay? You have every single right to do that. He also said, um, that Trump was a joy to be around and that he's envious of the mental energy and sharpness. If Noah Sinegard is, is envious of that, uh, what does Noah Sinegard wanna do in his remaining days? Fumble around? Um, and framed a lot of these comments about Trump as unfair now and says he simply doesn't understand it now. And I bring up Nausinagar too, because last week we talked about, uh, I, I had published an article on Substack about the deflection trap, because many of you know, I'm like, I'm writing my doctrine. I'm putting it to paper. Uh, I, I just want to put it for the record, records, my Monroe Doctrine. It's my Molly Doctrine. Of Crisis. So I can also refer back to it. And I was talking about the 4 traps, what, what, uh, of deflection, which is what Trump does. That's, he's a master at deflection. Someone commented, and now I can't find the comment. I was looking for the comment. I gotta stop. I gotta see what Angie said. You know who I thought about the other day? What happened with the football coach with the young girlfriend on the field and that bad interview. Are they still an item? Angie, who are we talking about? You talking about NFL? You talk about Canadian? US? Who's that? I thought you said doctorate. No. Oh my God. My brain could not handle a doctorate right now. No, my crisis doctrine. Angie, I wanna know who you're talking about. Yes. Not, are you talking about Rabel? Okay. Oh, Louie's mom, my hair. Thank you. My hair's flat today. I'm having a hair crisis too. I'm having hair crisis. See this? Sorry, I'm going to go off on a tangent here. You guys see this, ladies? You know what I'm talking about? See this? See this pocket right there? Age. All these content creators and their menopause and perimenopause. I just want someone to talk about content creators on video who have to deal with this absence of hair. That's my new problem. Anyway, so back to Noah Sinegard. Uh, the issue is not that he likes Trump. That's not the issue, but in a culture where people are judging so much about the administration, about what they do to other people. So someone had commented, I was mentioning, someone had commented on my article about the deflection trap and it said, Molly, you know, I, I really like your content. It was, it was nice. It was complimentary. It was really, really nice. But then added at the end, she said, I wish you wouldn't be political. Uh, which is fair. I mean, which is absolutely fair. There's plenty of politics. I try to remain politically agnostic when I can. And when I talk about Trump, Trump isn't political to me. Trump is not a politician to me. He's not. Trump is a megalomaniac, failed business person who's a grifter, who, who grifted his way to the presidency. That's how I view him. He's not political. I am not anti-Republican at all. I, when I worked in Washington, DC, it was during the Bush years. I worked with Republicans. My book club was half Republicans. All my friends worked for the RNC, still friends with them to this day. Um, and one of my best friends in North Carolina, you know, works, is Republican. I have Republican friends. I, it is one of my best friends in Washington, Republican. Kids go to Ole Miss, you know, it's not the Republican piece of it. It's not even so much a conservative, though I have a lot of friends who are super uber conservative as well. I have a problem with Trump. I have a problem with Trump. I think he's a horrible human being. That's, that's, I do. So when I'm writing articles like this, I am not writing it as a political move, like, oh, look at our Republican president. Using deflection. No, I'm looking at Trump as the character of Trump and how he is deflecting and attacking. Because look at George Bush, George W., George H., Ronald Reagan. They all had problems. But guess what? So do Democrat presidents as well. They all did. Clinton. I mean, go back to Kennedy's, for God's sakes, right? It's not political. I am looking, I am an advocate, and I said this in my talk yesterday in my keynote. When I do work, I don't advocate for one side or the other. I try not to take sides. I am an advocate for honest, transparent, clean, clarity, communication with clarity. That's what I want. It's, it's also that golden rule. Everything you put into this world comes back into your own. That's what I advocate for. That's what my doctrine is. Angie, can I ask a real question? Why isn't deflection a good tactic? Isn't the point to separate yourself? Okay, Angie, that's a really good question. The deflection, like in my article when I said deflecting to something else isn't necessarily bad if you're not deflecting from the truth. That's the difference. If someone is attacking or coming at you, and this is strategic, this is me talking to clients as well, and personal life. If someone is coming at, for instance, I'll make it personal and make it professional. Personal, it sounds like this. Someone comes up to you. Oh no, no, no. You're having a conversation with someone and you say, where were you last night? Like, you said you were here and you weren't there. Where were you? And then they deflect and say, why are you always da da da da da da da? And you deflect that and go to, no, we wanna talk about the truth. So that would be an example. Let's say it was a gotcha interview that, you know, you, you set up your boss for a gotcha interview and you think they were coming in Uh, from a journalistic, no opinion point of view. But then you get there and you realize it, it's more gotcha. Like for example, uh, let's say you set up a media interview, 'cause this is straight from my work. Uh, I was working with a comms team and they did this. They set up this interview that went sideways and I said it wasn't, well, it's because it wasn't media, it was a lobbying group. It was association, but they had. A news outlet. So that's, that has bias and that's where deflection works. That's where you say, I'm here to talk about this issue. So you can deflect that. It's right. In the context of Trump, he is deflecting and he deflected with Norah O'Donnell, like Norah O'Donnell asking questions about the manifesto from the assassin. That's legitimate because he's representing a lot of questions that the American public is asking. So it was a good journalistic question. And what did Trump do? Deflect to attack the journalist. That's the deflection that we want, that we don't want. And you know, and so when this person said to me, you know, I wish you wouldn't get political nowadays in my, in our environment, how can we not be political? Right? Like, because this is what I do every day is advocate for truthful communication is being obliterated Every day, if it's not Trump, it's Kash Patel or Pete Hegseth. Can I tell you something about Pete Hegseth? So I was talking to my mom yesterday. My mom, Pete Hegseth is from Minnesota and my mom and I kind of agree with this. The thing about Minnesotans, we all kind of know each other or we all assume, like if you meet someone from Minnesota and Minnesota is a huge state, if I meet someone from there, the first question I ask them is, Where'd you go to high school? Because I naturally assume I'm gonna know who you know. That's just a very Minnesota way of thinking. But what we find fascinating about Pete Hegseth is nobody knows Pete Hegseth. You know, you never hear stories about Pete Hegseth from Minnesota, but now my mom is meeting these people and she met his father. She also met one of his teachers. I think it was his father. Yeah, cuz his father taught kind of like where I lived. And then met, no, met someone who played against him, played basketball against him. And they said that Pete Hegseth, sorry if this is not interesting to people, like my brain, my very tired brain going off on this. Pete, that Pete Hegseth is, they said Pete Hegseth was an excellent basketball player. So Pete Hegseth went to Princeton to play basketball and they said Pete Hegseth was incredibly, incredibly smart. A really, really smart person. I mean, and that's why he ended up, you know, at Princeton. Um, you know, athletic, played basketball. But what we were saying is there is such a weak constitution in Pete Hegseth, just a weakness. And how his mother had to defend him, like for how he treated women and the drinking. So you see that they're like, when I see Pete Hegseth, whenever I see Pete Hegseth, like come up to a mic. All it is is weakness masked as arrogance and power. Does anyone match me on that? Does anyone match me on that? But that's who he was. So everyone my mother meets, I swear, no, and a friend of mine, a friend of mine who's my age, she's from the same town as Pete Hegseth. So her sibling graduated with Pete Hegseth. But it's that weakness, right? Jessica, PTSD times 100, right? That's what I spot is I spot weakness. So anyone who does not take accountability, it's weakness. It's just a weakness. People in your lives, so, so fucked, so easy. It's so easy. Okay. And so, okay, so let me now move forward. So the political piece, so I don't try to be political at all. I don't. But Trump, the Trump administration, in my opinion, is not politics. They are not Republicans. And if I were a Republican, I'm not, I'm independent, I would be pissed off that this is my party, that they hijacked the party. But on the plane ride down there to ATL, my agent sends me an email to speak this summer. Full pay, plus like this big bonus for travel, great hotel. And, and at first I didn't have my glasses on. I was like, wait a minute, what? They wanna pay what? Da da da. And I'm looking at it, my agent's like, yes or no, do you wanna do this? 'Cause I'm sure he's like, and then I read it and I didn't know what it was and I had to look at, but then I saw some of the other speakers and went, wait a minute. And then I looked and it was a re— it was for the Republican arm. I'll just leave it at that. Uh, and I, I gotta turn this down. I can't do that. I, I, I cannot. I cannot. And I did not. So I told my agent, I said, I have to be politically agnostic, which is true, which is true. But they wanted me to kind of help the farm system of Republicans. And I don't have a problem with Republicans, but I am not gonna be the person who helps do these traps, deflection, bullying, all that bullshit. Thank you, Alana. Yeah, they really did come down to values, right? Um, Alana, you can read it in body language, right? Colin Jost does them so well. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Like every time you see Pete Hegseth come up, but the real study, these types of leaders continue to be entranced by large numbers. Oh, embrace, sorry, by large numbers. Why is this egocentric grifter type style connecting? Well, Maura, when I was down in— I actually had to stop because I needed to wash my hands, uh, because I had gluten-free chicken wings. Whenever I travel, that's, that's what, that's my go-to, like dry rub lemon. And they didn't give me napkins. So I'm pulling over and the only place I could pull over was a Trump mega outlet store. I can't. I wanted to just to see, but I like, I just can't. But here's where it is. And, and I had mentioned it in the article, like what the research shows, why it attracts people. I mean, this is the brilliance of Trump. This is the brilliance of Trump taught to him by Ru Kong, which was, who was his, uh, lawyer. I think there was a great documentary on Netflix about it. But it's all the art, you know, of telling a lower common denominator of people who don't want to think for themselves. And we're not going to criticize them because truly there are times in your brain you don't want to think for yourself. Or like, think about a band you love. When a band comes out with a new album, you don't want to think about the album. Like, do I like this? Am I not going to? No, you just love it because you love the group. Right? Like that, that's it. It's the same thing. And so you're going to get the masses if it's people who don't use their thinking as much. Okay. That's why Fox News only speaks in bold headlines because a lot of the viewers watching it, they don't want to think. They just want headlines. They want headlines. That's what Trump speaks to. That's my opinion, at least. And that's kind of what the research shows. The way they talk is annoyingly accessible and clear. You're right. Oh, well said, Louise. It's annoyingly accessible. It is. It is. But I mean, but think about it, you know, being good and doing the right thing takes work. And that goes back to accountability. Accountability isn't easy. This is what I said. So now let me move to my, because this ties into my interview with USA Today. So they called me about Vrabel. So yesterday I was, when I was speaking, my phone is ring, ring, ring. Uh, uh, Connor sends me the video of Mike Vrabel with Diana Rossini looking like she's visibly pregnant. And this was 6 years ago or something on a boat, on a boat ride out of Tennessee. And I think I read somewhere that the person who put it out into the ether thought it was Vrabel with his wife because he was a Titans coach, right? So he is in Tennessee and it wasn't. So now I was saying to this reporter, uh, now everyone is going back and if they've ever seen Vrabel in the last like 7 years, everyone is looking at the photos to see if it's Russini or not. So there likely will be more Russini photos or videos. There's, there's no doubt about it. But the interview, um, he wanted me to talk about the PR of it, which I, I love to, and, and, and, and really, you know, I said like, what this is, the big picture is the Mike Vrabel story is three crises wearing one hat. It's an organizational story, the New York Times, The Athletic, the Patriots, and then Mike Vrabel as the coach. And the story is about a bunch of boundaries. And lines that are blurred. And the patriots, their only crisis strategy that I can see is they're hoping the news cycle speeds up. Angie, but it's important to understand why voters are receptive to this kind of messaging. Oh, Angie, your strategic political hat is showing. Of course, you're absolutely right, Angie, which is why Trump is successful. Which is why Trump in Indiana, his candidates, the majority of them won. It's understanding how to speak to your audience. That's 100% what it is. The Democrats don't know how to do that. They don't know how to do that. And they also, and here's, I'm going to say this too, and I bet because you guys are on Substack, I bet you're going to agree with me on this. Because if you're on Substack, you unders— if you're, if you're here right now then I am gonna bequeath this to you, this knowledge. You understand culture and you understand online culture and internet culture. Okay? If you're here, I'm gonna give that to you. All right? And, and you get it. So like the Democrats, for instance, uh, Janet Mills in Maine dropping out, Graham Plattner, someone who has successfully dodged Nazi tattoos. And saying disparaging things about women in his past? Dodged it, dodged it, dodged it, dodged it. You could even say in a way deflected it, but deflected it with accountability by saying yes. And it's not just admitting it. And this goes to Vrabel, and this is the problem with Vrabel. And I am a huge Mike Vrabel fan. I love Mike Vrabel. I was rooting for Mike Vrabel. The Mike Vrabel story, the reason why it's still a story and the reason why it still has legs, it's, it's the lack of accountability. But here is the, the sub-issue. People don't know what accountability is. And men, I know I have Herb on here and Chris, and there's other men. Um, men, plug your ears. Men don't understand how to take accountability. I said it. They don't. They don't. They, they, they don't. Or they do and they don't want to. They think accountability sounds like, you know, I'm sorry I hurt you. Or I, I, I'm in pain. I just want this to go away. I just want to move forward. It's Noah Sundegaard saying, I don't understand why people dislike him so much. It's like you're taking account for things that are there, but what you're missing— Chris, thank you for admitting this. Hi, nope. Took me years to learn how to do it. Thank you. And even now my wife will gladly tell you I still don't do it right sometimes. Chris, thank you for admitting this. I'm sick of accountability being confused with cancel culture. Angie. Yes. Yes. It's not cancel culture. It's not. This is the piece that everybody misses. Accountability isn't just admitting a fault or getting close to it. Like Mike Vrabel, eh, where are my quotes? I have them up here, but Mike Vrabel saying, uh, you know, I've talked to my wife. I've, you know, I've disappointed my wife. I've disappointed da da da da. Um, this is personal. All you're doing is acknowledging that something was there. True accountability is acknowledging the pain that was experienced by someone else. That's what accountability is. Mike Vrabel. As I, one of my quotes was, you know, this is not a pearl-clutching scandal, cheating scandal. That's not what this crisis is. No one is holding Mike Vrabel to a standard that an NFL coach can't cheat. I don't know, maybe it's just, maybe I'm only me, but you hear about an NFL player or a coach cheating, like, okay, we're not going to be shocked by it. Would we disapp— are, are we disappointed by it? Sure, we could be disappointed by it, but shocked? Not necessarily. Right. But what it is, is when you're a coach, you're in a position of trust. Your guys in the locker room have to trust you, or in the Patriots, your players have to trust you. And by extension, the ownership has to trust you. By extension, the employees of the Patriots have to trust you. And by extension, the fans who are paying all this money for merch and sending it to Galway, to their son, when they win the playoffs and they get to the Super Bowl. And you put all this effort into the, to your Pats jerseys. But then when your coach, and you have all this faith in your coach because he's a good guy coach and he's wiping away the Bill Belichick era, the Jordan Hudson era, when this guy, okay, so he cheats, it's like, ugh, all right. Damn. At 2, Mike Vrabel? At 2, that's the feeling? But when he keeps dodging it, that's the disappointment. Chris, yep, it's always partially terrible timing too. He let it— he let it linger. So no Boston— into the Boston sports season, and all the Boston media here have nothing else to talk about. You're absolutely right. And the USA Today reporter who I was speaking to is an NFL reporter, but he's based in Boston right now. So he does, and he was at the press conference. So of course, when you interview Molly McPherson, you get interviewed by Molly McPherson. I just, I had a million questions for him. Uh, and just the, the dodge, the dodge, the dodge. So he had asked me, what do I think is going on behind the scenes? You know, at the Patriots organization, like, I, you know, who knows, but based on outcome. I think their only crisis strategy is this and the news cycle and hoping some other NFL coach does something. So that is that. That is that. Now let's go to, uh, Dolly Parton, and then we'll, we'll do Blake Lively. You know, Dolly Parton, Manny brought this up in the chat. I was the other night, so it was before I left for Branson. So whatever night it was, must have been Tuesday night maybe. I saw a video from Dolly Parton. So when my new tech person comes, we're gonna get my share screening back and so I can share video posts. Dolly Parton comes out with another video looking Dolly fabulous, looking amazing, sitting there, you know, and I always picture her always sitting on the chair like, hey y'all, da da da, Dolly. I mean, she is just magnetic. And I mentioned to you guys on a previous chat too, I was going back and forth with Dolly's publicist, um, who took exception because I had a post where I was talking about Dolly's sister. Do you guys remember this? I was, where was I traveling? I remember the hotel I was, room I was in, but I don't remember what town I was in. But she came out and said prayers for Dolly and everybody thought she was dying. And then Dolly Parton had to come out with a statement and it was fabulous. And so I did a post about that, but I misplaced, cuz the tour manager made a comment and I said Dolly's representative made a comment. Well, her actual publicist got a little sideways on that because he is the publicist. But I said, but he offici— but that tour manager officially spoke. So technically I didn't say this, but this was in my head cuz I thought, I'm not gonna get in a pissy match with Dolly Parton's publicist, but technically whoever's on the record is an official spokesperson for Dolly Parton. Sorry, that's just how it works anyway. But we were going back and forth, you know, but they manage it. And I said it was, you know, Dolly is just so wonderful. Oh, what do you mean by Stella, Angie? That seems funny and I don't know what you mean. Oh, Carla, going back for a moment, accountability. I definitely work on this with both my boys and it still surprises them when they have none. Okay, so Carly, you have, you have boys too. Yeah. And all my, my poor kids. Oh my God. I am constantly— oh, her sister Stella. Is her sister Stella? I thought it was Fiona. Herb will check that for us. What concerned me about Dolly's video is how long it was. Was she trying to convince us? Herb. Okay, so let's go back. Oh, is that— is— okay, Angie, I'm not clapping back at you, but is the, is the sister who's always on social media telling us to pray for Dolly. Is her name Stella? Is that, is that the sister? Is it the same sister? Because she has multiple sisters. Is it the same sister? But anyway, my first reaction was, because I saw the sister statement again, I went, again, Dolly's sister? Have we not learned the lesson? Has someone in Dolly Parton's Dolly Parton's universe, not spoken to the sister. So when I was driving in Branson yesterday, seeing Dollywood, and my mom called me and we were talking because she happened to call me and I said, I'm in the highway in Branson and all these things came back when I was a kid. We all went to Branson. We drove down because we didn't fly anywhere. We drove everywhere. And I remember going to Dollywood and there's all these Christian theme shows too. And I remember going to a Christian theme show. And I remember the guy who played Jesus was really cute. Um, okay. Um, yep. It was Stella who asked for prayers. Okay. But now Angie, not that this matters, is it a different sister? I wonder if it was the same sister. Oh wait, I'm wrong. I think the sister's name was like Fiona or something, or was it F or some other name? Deidre, maybe Deidre. Deirdre? No, that's Irish. I don't, I don't know, but I, I feel like it's a different name that's in that classification. I don't remember it being Stella. Anyway, not that it matters. Dolly's sister, Frida! Frida! Frida, Frida, Frida! Ah, that's it! I said, wasn't it an F name? Was it Deirdre? It was Frida! Thank you, Herb. Thank you. But did Frida not get the memo? To ask the public for— like, is there any person on the planet who we cannot say prayers for than Dolly Parton? We can't do that. Think about it. What if, what if Donald— what if Donald Trump's sister Mary— this has never happened— came out, prayers for Donald Trump, he's sick. Oh my God. I mean, it would be an opposition nightmare, right? But is there anyone more universally loved? So, so Frida, Frida, we can't do this. We cannot do this, Frida. So to Herb's point about, oh, Stella, oh, Angie. All right. Okay, good. Now Angie's clarifying. Frida asked for prayers. I'm sorry to laugh. I'm sorry to laugh. Oh my gosh. Frida asked for prayers. Stella said it was kidney stones. Okay. Now my brain represents our chat. I love that. Okay. So then Dolly does another video and I'm sure her publicist said, well, this worked before. Let's do it again. Herb, I am with you. So I'm, we, we watched Dolly. We're looking at Dolly. She looks good, but Dolly, and this is probably really brilliant on Dolly's part. I am the opposite of Dolly Parton. I come in looking like a hot mess. Like, you know, I'm coming in like this, right? Dolly is always like, her, she's wig. She always looks good. So you really can't tell if she's sick. Like right now you can tell I'm exhausted. I don't have kidney stones, but you can tell I'm frigging exhausted right now. You can't tell that with Dolly. So is everyone with me on this? If you saw the video or Herb, did you see the video on this? You, she's talking, she looks fine. But then it was how long she was talking and she kept talking and talking. And first you're listening and you're thinking, is it cancer? What is it? What is it? What is it? Because the more she spoke, the more suspicious you got. And now we're all becoming doctors on there and trying to scan for what the hell's going on with her. But then had we seen Stella's post about kidney stones. But you know what? It can't be kidney stones. We've all, I mean, have you had kidney stones? It's hell. It's hell, but it's not goo of video. Yes, Angie. Angie, you're right. She talked about treatments first. She said treatments. What does everybody think about when you see, when you hear treatments? You, you think cancer. And then she let it drop way into it about the kidneys. So I don't know. Jane Fonda told a story that she has stayed at, at Dolly's house and she has never seen her out of makeup. She comes out of her room looking like Dolly. Oh my gosh, that's, that's so Steel Magnolias, isn't it? The video's too highly produced for misspeak. Angie, you're, you're absolutely right. It's the same publicist. There's no doubt. And in my ego, I'm thinking, oh, well, Molly McPherson said that this worked. It was her number one PR move of 2025. We must do it again. Wouldn't it be great to think that I, that our community has sway over Dolly Parton's response video? Apparently, she's had problems with them for years. But honestly, I felt like she was just happy to talk and hasn't had that performance opportunity for a while. Okay, so Carla, you're saying she seems fine, that she seems fine and she just wants to talk about it. That's a take. I could see that side. I could see, I respect that side. I think what I'm leaning towards is someone who's followed Dolly for a long time. Dolly is very private. If you think about it, like think about her husband, her late husband Carl, like Dolly is private, which is why there's so much Dolly, you know, like Dolly is Dolly, you know, like she is, this is Dolly, right? Like so made up like this. We don't see Dolly, but based on my interactions and stuff, the fact that she's doing this video leads me to think there's something more there. Not death's door, but, and maybe Frida and Stella are just a little more concerned. Maybe they're just a little more quick to pull the trigger on, we need prayers. Maybe this is more of a religious aspect to it, but there's definitely something there and this is where it ties in. So if you look at the crisis management of it, why do people have to respond to a crisis is because things are at stake. They don't do it just for the hell of it. Like, oh, I, you know, yeah, people are worried about what people think, right? But when we get into the public persona aspect of it, there's something at stake. And what Dolly has at stake is, oh, I mean, she has a lot of business ventures, but she has Dollywood. And one of the first times when all this health stuff came up, she was supposed to be at Dollywood and she wasn't there. And I think there was some acquisition or something happening with Dollywood and stuff like that. So when you're, when you're the person at the center of the brand, you need to be healthy. You know, it, the stake of the business is involved too. So, all right. So we only know about Dolly what Dolly wants us to know. She's the original Taylor Swift. Please, Angie, no offense. Can we not put Taylor Swift and Dolly in the same bucket? Mm-hmm. No, Dolly, it takes a lot of money to make me look this cheap. Oh my God. Classic line. Classic line. All right, so now let's move to, um, before we wrap here, let's go to Blake real quick. First, this is gonna be my pitch. May 14th, 12:00 PM Eastern time. Should have done it at night, everyone. I'm sorry. Uh, um, I mean, and I know you mean in messaging, Angie. I know you. I know what you do for a living. I know how your brain works. I'm afraid she's not doing well, but she's this person that we all love and it makes us all feel unstable to realize that she's not going to live forever. And well said, Anne. Well said. Well said. Well, our prayers. So Stella, Frida. Your prayers will hopefully be answered. We're praying for Dolly as well. Uh, your Facebook pleas are working on the public. At least we all want the best for Dolly. We certainly do. I love Dolly Parton. Oh my gosh. I, I, I love Dolly Parton. All right. So let's go to Taylor real quick. So May 14th, 12 PM. I'm going to do a Taylor Swift deep dive. I am. So first of all, tech. Y'all, the tech will be there. The tech will finally be there. Okay? I got tech. Uh, also, I will announce soon my podcast will become video. I have a video producer. I have a podcast producer. So now we're gonna do those better as well. Uh, and then our lives, we're gonna structure our lives as well, which means dribble down, we're gonna structure our Substack as well. So now my my universe is finally going to be set so our community can grow with very like-minded people since we're all the same, uh, and we can share with each other in mutual. But I want you to be able to understand when the next lives are coming, just be a little more organized and how you guys can participate in it. So it's May 14th at 12 PM. I am looking only— our little Molly's growing up. Yes. I am only looking at the, the reputation PR. I'm not talking about the legal. I am not talking about, I'm not talking about the legal aspects. There's a million content creators out there who do that. I will talk about what the lawyers are doing, like Justin Baldoni's lawyer, Brian Friedman. I'll talk about the PR of the lawyers. Uh, but I wanna talk about the PR. Blake's PR, Justin's PR, also Justin's PR team. I have thoughts. Um, what we have learned from the texts that have come out, Blake Lively, Jenny Slate, like all these texts that are coming out, we are only going to look at the PR. So it's a members-only event. The replay will be on the members-only as well. But like everything I do, the takeaway that we're going to have there, there's going to be a takeaway professionally because I don't want to just sit and talk about Blake Lively. Who gives a crap about Blake Lively? I don't. Okay. She doesn't deserve to rent any space in my head as a person. I'm not a fan. I will say that. Um, but we have so much to learn from Blake Lively. Don't wait. So let's look at it from professionally. How you manage and wrangle reputation, especially when it's skidding out. Let's look at that relationship, the PR relationship aspect, because these are all the things that reporters and media outlets, every, oh my gosh, all the entertainment shows, they all want me to be an ongoing contributor. Uh, I'm getting so many reachouts and you guys, you know who I'm a contributor to? You guys. Our community. It's like, why do I need to be on Extra with Mario Lopez? I would rather be giving this to all of you guys. That's where I wanna put my energy. Um, that's what we're gonna look at. Oh, and also the personal aspect, cuz you all know I have personal thoughts about what's going on there as well. So that will be May 14th at 12:00 PM Eastern time. And then I think what I'm gonna do is The next training, I mentioned this in context of, I did a post when I was at Logan Airport about how content creators, I'm getting so many content creators lately, you guys. And I don't have time for all these calls, but I take them because I wanna learn like why the public hates people. I'm always curious, like, okay, Why did you piss off the internet this week? I want to know exactly why they pissed them off, what they did, and how we can go through it. Um, I'm thinking our next deep dive is just going to be a response to that. I want, I'm going to ask you all, bring me your content creators, bring me your content creators. And these are your gurus. Whoa. These are your gurus. Anyone? Oh, hold on. Gotta fix that in tech. Um, you gotta bring me your content creators, your gurus, people who go sideways. Uh, and I'm going to ask that ahead of time. I want to know from you guys. Uh, and we're going to like break down a couple of these and then I'm going to give you how to do it, how to, how to respond to it because I'm turning that into my, my playbook for them. But I'm just going to share it with you all on the member. Oh, her glam, her glam move at the Met Gala versus Baldoni's everyman move with those first images were so interesting. Both essentially going for likable, just for different reasons. Oh my gosh, Carla, good point. How incredibly— oh, Angie, thank you. You like the issues management. Yeah, Angie, honestly, I actually have you in my brain whenever I think about it too. Um, Blake Lively at the Met. Oh, holy schnikes. When— it's very Chris Farley, but her walking up in the meringue. Going back to Steel Magnolias and Dolly Parton, the meringue, um, and the dress. Uh, wait, am I conflating my movies? Was it meringue? Was that a wedding movie? Yes, it was. Meringue was Steel Magnolias, right? But Blake Lively going up, I was on Reddit this morning and someone had pointed out how she had mentioned about her custom bespoke bag. She's, it was Judith Lieber purse, and she said, oh, we, she customized it for me with my kids' portraits, art, art, not portraits, but art in there. And it turns out it's not really a bespoke bag. Like you can put art in there, but it wasn't for Blake. And, and so everybody is nitpicking all the things that she's doing. So, I mean, to be fair to Blake Lively, could you imagine how brutal it would be walking around right now where every single person is analyzing what you're saying. Oh my God. Like, and picking apart every single word that you're saying. However, this is what happens. And this is, I think, our proof to why she really didn't have a lot of goodwill to begin with. Her and, her and Ryan Reynolds. Okay, I'm going to save it. Okay. I'm going to save it for a chat on the 14th. Oh, Melanie, you are speaking my language. My colors are blush and bashful. I love that. That's why she should disappear for a few years. I think she's— I, I— and she brought this on herself. I totally agree. She did. But I'm telling you, if you guys follow, Ryan Reynolds is a huge part of this. It's, it's a— Blake Lively isn't equipped enough Blake Lively is not equipped to bring down such a colossal downfall on her own. She's not. She's not smart enough to do that. This is a Ryan Reynolds engineered downfall, but reverse engineered. He didn't want this. He, he was using all the same tricks that made them the brand that they were. And it, and it, and it, blew back in their faces because it wasn't genuine. I think Blake can be right and humble at the same time. There's a path for her. Ryan is thoroughly unlikable for me anyway, like Chandler Bing from Damn. I don't know, Angie. I think there's a path forward. I think her only path— I mean, true redemption for her, in my honest opinion, is divorce. I think people would get behind that. Uh, Blake's dress had a 13— Herb, look at you coming in with the, with the numbers. Had a 13-foot train, which meant that at least 3 of her attorneys had to fight over who was carrying her bespoke purse. Doink, doink. All right, you guys. Uh, this was great. I have to get off our call now because I have to talk to my tech person because the community demands it. The community demands it. All right, everyone. Uh, Thanks for joining me. I love chatting with you guys. All right, you guys hop to your 1 o'clock meetings. I'm gonna hop to my 1 o'clock meeting. Sign up on the 14th, members. That's the RSVP is there. And anyone who's not a member, you'll see the post. It's in the membership. Just look there. Actually, I'll pin it for you as soon as I get off. And we'll hope to see you on the 14th. Happy Friday to everyone. It's May. Oh, And happy Mother's Day to all my mothers out there. All right, everyone. Bye for now.