The Strategic Communicator Every Org Needs — and Algorithms Can’t Classify
The problem is where the résumé meets the algorithms. Recruiters have a word for comms people like me. To them, I am a “cross-functional generalist who wears many hats.” Or something to that effect. Versatility is just a hard-learned requirement of the internal and external strategic communications job.
The Most Underdeployed Executive in Your Organization Has a Comms Title
Organizations that modernize most effectively aren't the ones with the biggest technology budgets. They're the ones smart enough to put a communications strategist in a leadership role not only before the plan is finished — but at the starting gun. That's the person who already knows where it's going to break down.
AI Adoption Isn't a Tech Problem. It's a Conversation You're Not Having.
Every organization right now is somewhere on the AI adoption curve. But it’s not quite a Golden Age yet. More like a golden retriever. Some are enthusiastically chasing it like a tennis ball in the park. Others are being dragged toward AI to have their noses shoved into the mess on the carpet.
Every Flight Needs a Tower: The Highest-ROI Structure Change You Haven't Made Yet
The easiest organizations to fix are the broken ones. The harder problem — and the more common one in mission-driven public sector work — is the organization where everything is actually pretty good. Every instrument is reading normal. And yet the flight is just slightly off course and hitting pockets of turbulence along the way.
Your Internal Communications Strategy Is Upside Down
What employees most want to be recognized for is the work itself — the specific, unglamorous, mission-critical work that keeps the organization functioning. When a leader can say "what you did moved this specific needle, and here's why that mattered this quarter" — that's not just recognition. That's alignment. That's an employee who now understands the mission more concretely than any all-hands presentation could teach them.
I Went to Norway to Unplug. I Came Back Ready.
Norwegians call it friluftsliv — intentional time outdoors. I came home thinking of it as the best strategy offsite I never planned. Somewhere between the kayak, the climb, the cold, and the quiet, I came back with a few reminders about leadership, adaptability, and how real progress gets made.
Government Made Me a Better Reputation Manager Than Any Corporate Job Could Have
Government is where reputation management is learned at its hardest setting. Not "hard" like a product launch that got bad reviews. Hard like: your audience already hates you before you've said a word, your budget was cut three years ago, and the policy you're defending wasn't your idea.