Ever felt weird reading someone’s sales email—like you just got trauma-dumped by a stranger?

You’re not imagining it. Vulnerability has become a marketing currency, and now everyone is oversharing in the name of sales.

If you've ever felt weird, guilty, or just plain uncomfortable reading a sales pitch wrapped in trauma, welcome to the cult of oversharing.

In this episode, we’re discussing how vulnerability has become THE marketing strategy—and how that creates ethical landmines for both the audience and the business owner.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• The rise of oversharing in online business.

• How “share your story” advice goes off the rails and turns into lead generation through trauma.

• Social Penetration Theory and how marketing skips healthy relationship-building stages.

• How vulnerability is used to build trust, likability, and influence purchase behavior—sometimes unethically.

• Red flags to watch for so you don’t get sucked in by oversharing.

For detailed show notes and links to everything mentioned in this episode, please visit duped.online.

For more Duped, including monthly bonus episodes, join the Patreon.

Online business may keep rebranding itself, but the tropes?

They never die—they just get slicker.

In this episode, we’re walking down memory lane and revisiting The Very Tired Tropes of Online Business to see how the same old tactics have evolved in 2025.

Spoiler: they’re back, sneakier than ever.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Definition of tropes in online business

• Sales tropes that are still thriving in 2025

• • New sales tropes

• Relatability tropes

• Shift from flashy luxury to curated “realness”

• Money tropes that are still everywhere

• Pivot tropes

• • The disappearing act: online figures vanish and rebrand without context

• Ways you can protect yourself

For detailed show notes and links to everything mentioned in this episode, please visit duped.online.

For more Duped, including monthly bonus episodes, join the Patreon.

Have you ever noticed how people online teach others to do the exact thing they have just learned?

Coaches coaching coaches. Creators teaching creators. Influencers teaching influencing.

It’s not innovation—it’s online business inception

In this episode, we’re exploring three tell-tale signs of Online Business inception, the online business inception pyramid scheme, and how to protect yourself.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• What is Online Business Inception?

• How success is often based on teaching the platform, not using it for real business.

• Circular content strategies that recycle the same advice with little substance.

• Saturation of tactics leading to platform fatigue and diminishing returns.

• The hidden pyramid scheme.

• The shift from value creation to value extraction in the online space.

• How to protect yourself: vet advice, temper expectations, and spot patterns early.

For detailed show notes and links to everything mentioned in this episode, please visit duped.online.

For more Duped, including monthly bonus episodes, join the Patreon.