When You’re Not Being Heard
For every rainmaker pouring out more than they get back
Last Wednesday night, I had the honour of emceeing the 2025 Marketing Hall of Fame ceremony in New York City. It was a celebration of marketing legends—people who have shaped culture, shifted hearts, built businesses, and moved markets.
But it wasn’t just an evening of applause. For me, it was a reset. A powerful reminder.
If you’re in marketing, sales, or any form of rainmaking, it’s easy to forget that your work matters. You’re out there, pushing message after message into the world, and what you get back in return often feels... underwhelming.
Not non-existent. Just tiny in comparison to what you put out. I didn’t expect this, but listening to these marketing legends got me to entirely rethink how I see messaging.
Oh, the pain
Founders know this feeling intimately. Marketers and sellers too. You build the campaign. You launch the content. You send the emails. You make the calls. And then you wait.
Something comes back—a form fill, a reply, a booking. But it’s just a trickle compared to the flood you poured out.
And that’s normal.
Because at the core of all this is the simple truth of our profession: conversion rates are real, and they’re often brutal. But the problem isn’t the rates themselves—it’s what we make them mean.
We see a low response and start believing we’re ineffective. That our message missed. That we’re spinning our wheels. That the job is thankless.
But what if we flipped that?
What if low conversion rates weren’t a sign to pull back—but an opportunity to share more?
What if we saw them as permission—not to do less, but to reach more?
And more importantly, what if we used that “more” to say something worth hearing?
Speak up
You don’t win in sales and marketing by being selective with your voice. You win by showing up—consistently, courageously, and yes, often without acknowledgement (let alone applause).
You win by pouring your message into the world even when the world seems too busy to notice.
And if that feels familiar, you’re not alone. Legendary as they are, every inductee at the Marketing Hall of Fame has been there too.
Keith Reinhard, the creative mind behind McDonald's “You Deserve a Break Today” and State Farm’s “Like a Good Neighbor,” reminded us that powerful ideas move people—but only when they’re shared. Relentlessly. And sometimes across decades.
His son, Matt Reinhard, summed it up best: “Leadership is not about commanding a room; it’s about connecting with the people in it.” And connection doesn’t happen without persistence.
What’s the meaning of this?
The volume of outflow we need to drive results is massive. That’s just the math of our work. But this is the vital question: Are we leveraging this to share something meaningful?
This is where we move from principle to practice—from mindset to method.
Tim Ellis of the NFL put it powerfully: “Brands drive revenue. Brands drive culture.” His point? Don’t waste your outflow on empty messages. Instead, tap into the human truths that connect us. Build a message that has weight. That speaks to something shared. This is how you shift culture.
Kory Marchisotto brought this home not through slides or numbers, but with a poem—a medium chosen to create emotional resonance. It wasn’t just different. It was meaningful. Because she showed us, in real time, that how we communicate can be just as powerful as what we say:
“Marketing is poetry. A craft of fluidity. Infinite curiosity is the pathway to emotion.”
If you want your message to stick—to be worthy of the effort it takes to send it—then make it real, emotional, and resonant. Make it artful. Make it human.
So even if your conversion rates aren't great, if your message is meaningful, every single paid impression is changing something. It’s telling a story. And that story is shaping society—one person at a time. That’s how you make impressions matter.
The power of your story
Fawn Weaver, founder of Uncle Nearest, didn’t talk whiskey. She told a story. About history. About mentorship. About lifting up forgotten voices. She reminded us: you can build an entire business—an empire, even—around a story that goes beyond the transaction.
She didn’t create a whiskey brand. She created a movement. That’s the difference between plain messaging and meaning.
Esperanza Teasdale echoed this theme when she spoke about humanity—not as a slogan, but as the foundation for connection. This is the heart of all marketing that shapes culture: see people. Understand them. Speak with respect. Create from care.
Jill Kramer added something crucial: “Pick your head up. Go out and connect with others.” In a world of inboxes and dashboards, this advice couldn’t be more needed. Go refill your creative tank. Talk to people. Feel something again. That’s how meaningful messaging is born.
What if I’m too small?
If you’re still of the mindset that your business is too small to think that big (“I just have a small print shop”), that’s okay.
Start there. But don’t stop there.
See how far you can stretch your message. Can it impact SMEs in your town? Can it inspire your community? Can it uplift others in your space?
Russ Winer, one of the most respected marketing academics of our time, reminded us that real impact isn’t measured by ad spend. It’s measured by what we build through time:
“We all stand on the shoulders of greats who have come before us. Success comes from mentoring others. Successful people donate time to organisations they care about.”
In other words: keep sending your message. Keep helping the people around you. Your influence compounds.
Your quiet power
If you’re a founder, seller, or marketer grinding through another outreach week with little visible return, hear this:
Your message will not get 100% response. It might not even get 5%.
But it is landing—somewhere. With someone.
So if you’re going to do outflow anyway—and you must—then do it with intention.
Craft a message worth sending.
Push a belief that matters. Create your own movement.
And don’t wait for the room to clap before you keep going.
Because here’s the crescendo:
It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant your message might seem. Outflow over time—sometimes decades—will shape culture and society.
Hearing from those who have done just that reminded me: we’re never as far from that kind of impact as we think. We just have to keep chipping away.
Be you
Your cause doesn’t have to be epic. It just has to be real, to you.
Maybe it’s changing how young girls see themselves. Or helping SMEs in your town adopt smarter tools. Or giving overworked parents permission to take a break.
Whatever it is, own it.
The more responsibility you take for shaping a better tomorrow through your message, the bigger your game becomes.
And the more legendary you become—one unacknowledged message at a time.
You’re not just chasing money. You’re shaping a new tomorrow, one impression at a time.
And that, rainmaker, is worth every ounce of outflow.
See you next Tuesday,
KG
Love this KG!