Marina Cooley
Marketing professor at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and former brand marketer at Coca-Cola, Honest Tea and IBM
Marina Cooley (Marketing professor at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and former brand marketer at Coca-Cola, Honest Tea and IBM) has appeared as a guest on 1 episode in TMT. Topics they speak about most include Self-promotion at work, Personal branding, Critical thinking.
In their words
Positions and remarks grouped by topic, each with the exact quote and where it was said.
Self-promotion at work
Cooley recommended going into the office more often than a hybrid policy requires to gain face time with senior leaders.
“They tell you, you only have to show up on Wednesdays, but what if you're the one that shows up Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays?”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 46:06
Cooley recommended spending two hours each quarter thinking strategically about one's career and organizational priorities.
“spending two hours solely dedicated to thinking about your career is not too much to ask for”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 33:02
Cooley argued that women's big mistake is believing great work alone will be noticed.
“We believe that if we do great work, that that is enough. And it's not”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 30:33
Cooley argued that if self-promotion feels cringey, it is being done the wrong way.
“And so you think cringe, but I think if that's how it feels, you're doing it wrong”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 24:59
Personal branding
Cooley said a personal brand should communicate what problems one solves rather than amount to bragging.
“And again, I want to highlight that this is not about you bragging. This is about you showing what kind of problems you solve”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 38:03
Cooley cited data that people are looked up online before almost every meeting, making an online presence important.
“In fact, the data suggests that 98% of the time, somebody is going to look you up before they have a meeting with you”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 35:38
Cooley argued that shorter job tenures make a portable personal reputation necessary.
“And now the average job tenure is hovering around three to four years”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 36:07
Critical thinking
Cooley said critical reasoning is closely tied to attention span and controlling attention unlocks it.
“so the person that can control their attention span will unlock critical reasoning”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 59:39
Cooley argued that as AI makes tasks easy, critical thinking will become the rarest skill.
“Okay, but the flip side of that, for sure, is that critical thinking will be the most rare skill set”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 58:21
Catalyst high-potential career study
Cooley said the only tactic that moved pay for women in the study was communicating their achievements.
“So for women, there's one... attribute that moves the needle, and that is communicating your achievements”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 29:40
Cooley said the research found men advanced by bringing in external offers and signaling willingness to work long hours.
“for men, it is... taking opportunities externally and showing them off internally, like, look what I'm worth”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 28:08
Hobbies
Cooley argued that taking up a hobby provides practice in looking foolish that helps with putting oneself out there.
“that practice of looking stupid in front of people will go on to serve you when we talk about all of these other ways of putting yourself out there”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 1:02:17
Artificial intelligence
Cooley advised experimenting with AI on every work task to see whether it can save time.
“I think each of them deserves an experiment to see whether AI can be a tool to save time”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 58:04
Meeting preparation
Cooley argued that preparing one or two points before meetings puts a person ahead of nearly everyone.
“has thought through what are the one or two things that I am going to get into this meeting, you will be ahead of 98% of people”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 44:32
Social rejection
Cooley said social rejection is processed by the same brain region that signals physical pain.
“It's literally the same part of your brain that tells you you're in physical pain”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 20:11
Sticky ideas
Cooley reported that her class's 30-day daily-posting experiment reached 10 million cumulative impressions on a new account.
“And by day 30, cumulatively, we had hit 10 million impressions, over 1 million likes”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School Professor (Oct 10, 2026) · Listen from 18:29
Appearances
How to Stop Being Overlooked & Start Getting What You Want With Top Business School ProfessorThe Mel Robbins Podcast · Oct 10, 2026 · 1 h 6 min
Mel Robbins talks with Emory marketing professor Marina Cooley about the attention economy, overcoming fear of rejection, communicating achievements, and building a portable reputation.
Often appears with
- Mel Robbins · 1 shared episode