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Before Thanksgiving dinner prep fully consumes me, here are a few things I'm grateful for this year.
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely endeavor. But I'm lucky enough to be in community with an incredible group of likeminded trailblazers, including Felicity H. Barber, Tim Mahedy, Jake Meth, Barbara Rocha Williams, and Virginia (Gina) Ruebensaal. Thanks for being my sounding boards and accountability buddies.
Speaking of community… am I ever grateful for the incredible women communicators I get to call colleagues and friends. There are entirely too many to tag individually, but you know who you are, you know how much I’m rooting for you, and you know I’m always here for a pep talk or a vent session. When one of us succeeds, we all rise.
Finally, I keep a Post-it note on my computer that reads, “Do work you love with people you like the way you want.” Thanks to my incredible clients and partners—especially the team at One Strategy Group—I get to live that every day.
What are you grateful for this year?
Entries are open for the 29th Annual Awards! I'm excited to join The Webby Awards as a Judge and take part in honoring the best of the Internet. Enter your digital work before the Final Entry Deadline on Dec 20 at webbyawards.com!
🤖 How can AI supercharge your content creation and capacity? 🎨
Our Managing Director, Liz Hillman Stein, explored that question and more when she co-hosted an AI prompt slam with Yumi Wilson from San Francisco State University at Ragan's Future of Communications Conference. 🤝
Here's Yumi's practical guide to crafting prompts:
1️⃣ Context: Paint the full picture. Provide AI with the backstory, nuances, and any relevant background information.
2️⃣ Task: Be clear about your desired output. The more precise your instructions, the more accurate your results will be.
3️⃣ Constraints: Set guardrails to guide the AI. This includes length, audience, tone, style, and format.
👏 A huge thank you to Yumi for the partnership, Ragan Communications and PR Daily for hosting, and of course, a shoutout to the #CommsWeek2024 attendees for their knowledge-sharing.
Until next year! #RaganEvents
Proud to make this list of top communicators in New York - I'm in great company with several friends and former colleagues. Thank you City & State for the recognition.
I didn't share this last week given the election but feel now is the right time to reengage. Communications counsel has never been more important than now. This will be an unpredictable few years, and it's important to be as prepared as possible.
From all the data I've seen, this election was a change election, with voters frustrated about inflation and economic uncertainty coming out of the pandemic. Even though we've recovered faster than any other country, too many Americans still feel real pain.
This election was not a referendum on reproductive rights, with ballot initiatives protecting abortion access passing in several states that Trump won. This election was also not about LGBT equality, with almost all exit polls and other research clear that Americans support marriage equality.
Much has been written about the role of corporate leaders in our political discourse. I urge companies not to retreat. In this moment, companies need to understand what this election was truly about, stay true to their values, and respond to their stakeholders - including employees and consumers.
We built One Strategy Group to make navigating this kind of complex corporate landscape more manageable. No CEO is eager to jump into the political fray, but often these choices aren't up to them. We're proud to help these leaders understand the nuances of their many stakeholders and make sense of an increasingly senseless world.
🔥 🚀 Congratulations to One Strategy Group's President, Brian Ellner, who just made City & State's Who's Who in Communications list!
"Brian Ellner recently took on a new leadership opportunity at One Strategy Group, a corporate strategy and communications firm founded in 2022. Since he became president late last year, Ellner has been bringing in talent while positioning the young company for growth. Ellner, who was previously was at WPP and BCW, has long been civically engaged, notably helping to legalize same-sex marriage in New York in 2011. He also led the pro bono effort to create the Adams administration’s Run This Town community hiring initiative that launched earlier this year."
Read more here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eYwj2PVG
🚨 We couldn't be happier to welcome Dara Klatt to the One Strategy Group team as a Senior Vice President. 🚨
🤝 Dara has been a long-time collaborator with our Managing Director, Liz Hillman Stein, and she joined our team as a consultant at the beginning of the year.
💡 With tremendous experience as a communications pro, Dara brings to her work not just industry knowledge and relationships, but also creativity and a brilliant strategic mind. TLDR, she's exactly the kind of multi-faceted talent we look for. She's an incredible addition to our leadership team.
Read more about Dara and the One Strategy Group team here ▶️ https://lnkd.in/e4duvW3C
🔥 🚀 Congratulations to One Strategy Group's President, Brian Ellner, who just made City & State's Who's Who in Communications list!
"Brian Ellner recently took on a new leadership opportunity at One Strategy Group, a corporate strategy and communications firm founded in 2022. Since he became president late last year, Ellner has been bringing in talent while positioning the young company for growth. Ellner, who was previously was at WPP and BCW, has long been civically engaged, notably helping to legalize same-sex marriage in New York in 2011. He also led the pro bono effort to create the Adams administration’s Run This Town community hiring initiative that launched earlier this year."
Read more here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eYwj2PVG
Why is trust the most valuable asset? 🤝
It’s a key point that came up when our CEO David Meadvin spoke at the Professional Speechwriters Association’s annual conference recently.
A few takeaways from his fireside chat:
🗳 Politics vs. the Corporate World
“In politics, leaders often want headlines; in the corporate world, many CEOs would rather avoid them.”
🤖 How AI and Digital Communications are Reshaping Speechwriting
“If you’re exceptional and build trust, you’ll always be valued. The writing may become a commodity, but relationships and trust are irreplaceable.”
A big thank you to David Murray and the remarkable Professional Speechwriters Association community!
👉 Read more: https://bit.ly/psadm24
(📸: Lauren E. Mueller)
Last week, my fireside chat at the Professional Speechwriters Association's annual conference gave me a chance to tell one of my favorite career stories.
My toughest and favorite boss ever was Dan Doctoroff. At one point, Dan was invited to deliver a keynote speech in Dublin. After three weeks of toiling away at a first draft, I sent it home for his review. The next morning, the draft was on my desk. Dan hadn't left any line edits, just four words on the very top.
"This is a six."
That was the most cutting feedback I've ever received -- because it said to me "you phoned this one in. You could've done better, and you know it."
I have that draft framed and I think about it every day. There's too much "six" in the world -- work that's usually just good enough to get by, but doesn't push us to be better or think bigger.
My career advice at PSA? Seek out bosses who push you to never settle for a six.
Thank you, David Murray, for letting me tell this story and others. The conference felt like coming home. I had a blast.
Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ehXh6CsM
Photo credit Lauren E. Mueller
Thank you to the incredible group of leaders who joined our fall dinner party in New York, which focused on rebuilding trust and community. Bringing together such a diverse group guarantees that you'll get a lot of different perspectives and spirited conversation. One thing everyone agreed on is that the public, private and non-profit sectors all have a lot of work to do in the coming months.
One Strategy Group's signature dinner parties are core to our DNA. If you're interested in joining us for a future event, please let us know!
