MAC Reality Check · Book a Session
Bring your business.
We'll check it against
the Trust Gap.
A MAC Reality Check is a live, two-stage interview where the Marketing Accountability Council takes your business apart in a supportive room — comparing what you promise your customers against what you actually deliver. It's the same work we do in our public investigations, turned on your business, with you in the room.
You choose what happens to it. Two offerings, one framework:
The Core Problem
The Trust Gap: what you promise vs. what you deliver.
Every business makes promises to its customers — "cancel anytime," "no hidden fees," "AI-powered," "unlimited." The Trust Gap is the distance between those marketing promises and what the business actually delivers in its terms, its product, and its day-to-day operations.
We spent our careers inside marketing writing the promises. Now we measure the gap — and help you close it before your customers, the press, or a regulator measures it for you.
The Promise
What your marketing says.
The claims on your homepage, your ads, your sales deck — the story customers sign up for.
The Delivery
What actually happens.
The fine print, the product behavior, the cancellation flow, the data practices — the reality customers experience.
The Gap
Where trust leaks out.
A Reality Check measures that gap across our seven pillars — and gives you prescriptive steps to close it.
Two Ways to Run It
Same framework. Your choice of audience.
Every Reality Check uses the same seven-pillar methodology and the same two-stage process. What changes is who sees the result — the public, or just you.
The Public Reality Check.
On the record. On the platform.
Book an interview and the result is a published MAC Reality Check — a scored segment that runs on the MAC platform and Substack, the same way our investigations into Airbnb, Ticketmaster, and the rest do. Your business gets put through the seven pillars in public, with every claim attributed and every source cited.
This is for companies and people who want to be publicly accountable — who'd rather have the gap measured in a supportive room with us than discovered by a journalist, a regulator, or a viral post. Come ready to stand behind your promises, or to fix them in the open.
- Recorded and published as a MAC Reality Check segment.
- Scored across all seven accountability pillars, with sources.
- Featured on accountability.marketing and the MAC Substack.
The Private Consultative Reality Check.
Off the record. In the room.
Book a confidential session and nothing leaves the room. We challenge your ideas — comparing each promise against your actual delivery across the seven pillars — and hand you prescriptive advice to close the Trust Gap, sharpen the promise, or fix the delivery. No publication. No scoring on the public platform. Just the consulting.
This is for leaders, founders, and marketing teams who want to find and close the gap before the public does — privately, with the same framework we use in our investigations, applied only to you.
- Confidential. Never published, never scored in public.
- Prescriptive advice — concrete steps, not just a diagnosis.
- A recording you keep, so the advice survives the call.
Not sure which fits? Tell Jay about your business and we'll point you to the right one.
How a Reality Check Works
Two stages. Supportive first, challenging second.
Both offerings use the same process. A Reality Check isn't a gotcha — it's a structured consulting interview designed to surface the Trust Gap in your business and hand you prescriptive advice to close it.
A friendly interview.
We start with a warm, on-the-record conversation to understand your business, your customers, and the promises you're making. You walk us through how you see your own marketing. No pressure, no ambush — we're learning your business from your point of view.
This is where we onboard you as a guest and map the claims we'll later test.
A deeper session.
In a follow-up session, we challenge your ideas — comparing each promise against your actual delivery across the seven pillars. This is where the consulting happens: we hand you prescriptive advice to close the Trust Gap, sharpen the promise, or fix the delivery.
Supportive, but honest. You leave with a clear read on where your trust is leaking and what to do about it.
Prescriptive, not just diagnostic.
You don't just learn where the gap is — you get concrete advice on how to close it.
Before the public finds it.
The same framework we use in public investigations — applied to your business first.
A recording you keep.
The session is recorded for your reference, so the advice survives the call.
Dedicated Interview Availability
Mondays
4:00 – 5:00 PM ET
Fridays
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM ET
MAC holds these slots specifically for Reality Check interviews — public or private. Pick the one that fits your schedule in the scheduler below, and tell us in the booking notes which offering you want.
Open the scheduler to see MAC's live availability.
Google Calendar keeps the booking page on its own secure domain, so we open it in a new tab. Choose a slot, confirm your details, and note whether you want the public interview or the private consult. You'll get a calendar invite with the Google Meet link for your Reality Check.
Scheduler not opening? Book directly on Google Calendar or email Jay@jaymandel.com.
Before Your Session
What to bring to a Reality Check.
The claims you make
Come ready to share your homepage, your ads, your sales deck — the promises customers sign up for. Links and screenshots help.
What actually happens
Your terms of service, your product flows, your cancellation path, your data practices — the reality behind the promises.
Where you want advice
Tell us where you suspect the gap is widest. We'll pressure-test it and hand you prescriptive steps to close it.
Confidentiality first. Choosing the private consult? Insiders — employees or former employees of a business with a wide Trust Gap — can take part with identity protected. Tell us in the booking notes if you need to stay anonymous, and we'll record voice-only or with your face blurred. Nothing from a private session is ever published.