CWC: Urgent Care for Public Affairs

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How’d you get your start in comms?

I'd always kind of had a fascination with politics growing up in the D.C. area Both my grandparents were really active in politics, not as their full-time jobs but though volunteering on campaigns, with political and policy advocacy groups and they were volunteers at the White House.

So I started my career doing political campaigns and field work, you know, knocking doors, recruiting volunteers, doing some media related work, doing fundraising was primarily what I did when I was working in campaigns for five and a half years, on races ranging from local county and assembly district all the way to President of the United states. My first job out of college was in Las Vegas working for a political consulting firm that had contracts with state parties across the country. It was a rough and tumble but exciting way to jump into the deep end of the pool so to speak.

A couple of years later after a few other campaigns from Virginia to Georgia, I had a chance to join the political operation of then U.S Democratic House Leader Dick Gephardt who was contemplating a run for President in 2004. I ended up spending the better part of two years before he lost out to John Kerry for the 2004 nomination.

After this I did one more cycle and then asked myself, “do I want to keep doing this lifestyle forever?” and hope maybe I grab someone who becomes president so I can have a job in the Oval Office or right next door in the West Wing. Probably a long shot, but you never know. So, like a lot of former political campaign hands and with a little prodding from my parents and then girlfriend (now wife), I decided to head to law school in 2005.

After law school, I worked at a lobbyist and public affairs manager for a D.C. trade association before randomly entering the world of PR after a breakfast conversation with a friend and mentor from my political fundraising days who introduced me to Mark Penn, the then CEO of Burson Marsteller and famous pollster, political and business advisor to heads of state and CEOs. I initially came on as his interim chief of staff and ended up staying close to 4 years in several roles intersecting executive operations, business development and client work, mostly issues and crisis management, policy communications, ?public corporate diplomacy and global reputation work.

My wife’s medical training then brought us to Los Angeles where shortly after our move, I was recruited by Edelman, who was building a D.C. style public affairs practice. ?

Then I got recruited by Edelman, who was building kind of a DC style of public affairs practice in Los Angeles. We were in a new city so I thought it was a good time for a change. Edelman is a great firm and while there, I focused primarily on high-profile issues management, litigation communications and policy campaigns ranging from product recalls, CEO transitions, mergers and acquisitions between unionized and nonunionized workforces and supporting manufacturers of products that were under scrutiny for their environmental impact.

?After being in LA for a little over a year, my wife got an unexpected but very compelling offer to join the faculty at UW Madison, so on a bit of a wing and a prayer, we decided to add living in a midwestern college town and state capital to our bucket list. We figured it would be a year or two before we’d move back to D.C. but I also felt it was a good time as any to ?try my hand at hanging my own shingle with Edelman as my first client.

Well, fast forward we’ve been in Madison now for 10 years!

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Tell me about doing your own thing as a fractional advisor.

At the start I was just hustling for business. I basically called every former colleague, every former boss, that told them that I'm looking for opportunities to add value, short, medium or long term. ?I was able to get very fortunate in signing a what was originally a ?four-month contract with a large Fortune 500 healthcare provider that had some crisis management needs. That four-month contract ended up being my anchor client for four years. I built several other clients, some would be a couple month engagement, some would be a couple of years in sectors including aviation, hospitality, real estate, tax, energy/climate and a lot of health care.?

What I tell people that are thinking about the independent route is you have to have a stomach for risk volatility.

And of course, every family and individual’s situation is different. I think that is something that a lot of people don't tell other people is like, you know, and I know a lot of people who have my kind of model that have done this completely on their own without, you know, having any backstop such as a spouse or savings from their prior job. I think it's all about really that that first anchor client like can you secure a client that will be with you relatively long term and cover most of your recurring basic expenses. If you can do that, you’re ready to go.

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You worked with Amazon at one point, right? Tell me about that.

I got this cold call from this little company called amazon.com. They were looking for folks who had had some background in issues and crisis management and experience working on labor related issues. I joined as an in-house public affairs adviser to the global employee relations team, helping them come up with strategies to ensure a great work experience at the company and to ensure that company detractors would have less ability to negatively influence the workforce.

In the first year, I was in the global employee relations group. Obviously COVID happened and that changed Everything. Amazon had to hire, during the time I was there, about 400,000 people. I knew people who have not worked in these jobs in many cases before. I was on that team for about a year. But then I was internally recruited to join another team at Amazon that was focused on some more policy advocacy surrounding COVID issues such as work health, workplace safety, etc., surrounding the policy implications of health, safety and labor.?

I learned a ton at Amazon. Incredibly smart colleagues, interesting cadences and cultural nuances from how long internal memos need to be (2 or? 6 pages with unlimited addendums, and don’t forget the line numbers). The Leadership Principles (check them out when you have a moment as they are so helpful across industries) still more or less guide my approach to work and clients. Internal Meetings start at Amazon with everyone reading one of these papers for usually 20 or 30 minutes, and then a discussion ensues and the senior decisionmaker speaks last.?

What I took most from the experience, before moving back to fractional advising, was the importance of working backwards to solve problems and being much more focused on customer and clients than competitors.

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Within your career you’ve really had quite a variety of experiences – do you have a preference of in-house vs. solo vs. agency?

I see it as pretty much three models. One model is being a direct adviser to different companies where I'm sort of an extension of their communications department. You act as a force multiplier. Other times I serve as companies’ external communications function, typically smaller start up companies, as basically their only public affairs and communications department. They don't have anyone else there yet, but they don't want someone super junior. They don't want to pay tons of money to an agency, where that could hurt them financially and they might not get exactly what they want. The final model is to serve some small agencies as an advisor on a few of their accounts.

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What’s the greatest challenge you think comms is facing in the coming year?

Breaking though the noise of election season, geopolitical events and economic uncertainty. There are less journalists than ever and more PR people trying to reach them. Leaning into compelling (aka ideally not something generic from ChatGPT) owned content will become increasingly crucial.

I also think winners will understand the best use cases for AI in our field, from targeting reporters to helping with creative design, research, social listening/analysis, etc., not simply as a writing tool.

Where do you hope to see your career in the next 5 years?

I’d like to say as a ski instructor in Telluride, but that’s a bit ambitious.

I want to continue identifying ways to add value to organizations through enhancing 360-degree programs combining public affairs, advocacy, crisis/issues management and media relations. I look forward to the opportunity to partner with more start-ups and serve as a trusted advisor to smart and kind leaders while also balancing life outside of work, which is super important to me.

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What do you think is your superpower?

To see around corners, particularly in the policy/political realm and how it affects organizational reputation.

And what do you think it takes to be successful in comms?

Resilience + writing ability + sense of humor + love of news cycles = likely to be successful.

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??QUICKFIRE??

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Coffee, mocktail or cocktail?

Coldbew with a little milk and sprinkle of stevia.

In one word, how would you describe your communication style?

Direct.

What’s the most challenging part of your job?

Balancing competing deadlines

How do you handle negative feedback?

Some days way better than others.

Do you have a communications role model?

Barack Obama as a famous person. I’d say as a mentor, colleague, friend and Comms professional, Erica Swerdlow has been an amazing resource.

What’s one word your friends and family would use to describe you?

Animated.

Do you think AI will take your job someday?

No, I actually think it will heighten the need for strategic communicators and advisors who understand how to use AI to drive client outcomes.

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