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A mentor called me recently with feedback I did not ask for. He said: "You have a way of drawing people in. You could smile at me while stabbing me in the back with a knife and I wouldn't care. I'd give you what you want." I laughed. Then I sat with it. He meant presence. The kind that makes people lean in, trust you, want to be in the room with you. His point was that the woman he knew was nowhere on my website. He was right. I had done exactly what I advise every founder n

Two months ago I started using AI to help me write. What came back seemed great. It touched everything I wanted it to, it read cleanly and sounded professional. I was pumped, so I posted it. I felt I had a writing partner that could help me increase my output without increasing my hours. Then nothing. Not bad feedback. Just silence. As a communicator I am always studying why something lands and why it doesn't. So I started reading other people's posts and I started seeing pat

A mentor called me recently with some feedback I did not ask for. He said, " Your website is missing you. That picture of you in the white suit? That could be any random woman from Logan, Utah. That’s not you. You have a way of drawing people in. You could smile at me while stabbing me in the back with a knife and I wouldn't care. I'd give you what you want. " I laughed, shaking my head. Then I realized he was right. That woman (I swear she’s not as scary as she sounds) was n

When a reporter comes looking for a story, they usually find one. Not always the one they came for. But something. I was running communications for an edtech nonprofit in the middle of a national scale. A vocal group of educators opposed to screen time had been pitching our organization as a cautionary tale to anyone who would listen. Most of the outlets that covered this group were small. I let those go. but then they landed an opinion writer at the Washington Post. This wom

I once sat down with a sales team that could not figure out why no one was buying. They had a thorough slide deck. It was deeply researched and built by smart people who wanted to sound like smart people. Within thirty seconds of opening it, my eyes crossed. Academic language. Research citations. A reference to something about a reading rope? Slide after slide of evidence that showed our curriculum team knew their stuff. But there was not a single slide about the people they

I once watched a CEO walk onto a stage in front of a room full of people who wanted to believe in him. He gripped the podium. He looked down at his notes. In between " ums ," he told the audience what he was about to say before he said it. He showed a generic picture of children and said he was "deeply moved by the possibility of kids." Then he showed a picture of a bird and nerded out on it for a minute before finding his way back to something called "core principles." The e

I met a young woman at a networking event recently. She founded a natural hair moisturizer line for Black hair . She had a presence that stopped conversations. Warm, certain, completely herself. She was frustrated with her business’s social media presence. She felt it had stalled. I looked up her pages when I got home. Product photos. Black History Month content. Promotional captions. All of it was fine. But it wasn’t her.   A natural hair product line needs a passionate lead

Every real leadership moment carries a tension most people feel but rarely name. You're in the boardroom about to make a decision that will impact two hundred employees and their families. You are trying to care for people while protecting the organization’s bottom line. You’re expected to project empathy while holding a line that feels, at times, like a razor's edge. That tension doesn’t disappear with experience. You don’t outgrow it; you just get better at performing insid

Most communication breakdowns don’t start with conflict. They start earlier, when employees sense that something is changing and don’t yet understand what it means for them. Leaders are often deep into a decision long before it’s communicated. They’ve spent weeks working through data, constraints, and tradeoffs. They’ve debated options, ruled some out, and landed on a direction that feels necessary. By the time the message is shared, they feel settled in the decision because

People don’t wait for official messaging to decide what a moment means. They interpret it through experience, history, and context. What has happened here before? Who tends to benefit from change? Who usually absorbs the risk? By the time a message is delivered, people are already filtering it through what they believe to be true. This is just a part of being human. Why Messages Miss the Mark When communication doesn’t land, it’s rarely because the message itself is unc

Most communication breakdowns don’t happen because leaders say the wrong thing. It's a disconnect between the story they were already telling themselves and the one they’re asked to accept afterward. That gap, the space between before and after , is where trust either strengthens or quietly erodes. Team Uncertainty Before the Announcement The Story People Are Already Telling Before an announcement ever happens, people are already narrating. They notice calendar changes, sh

There’s a moment in every meeting, presentation, or announcement that matters more than we think. It isn’t the headline. It isn’t the slide deck. It isn’t even the words we worked so hard to get right. It’s what people walk away with. The takeaway. Most leaders focus on what they want to say. Far fewer pause to consider what others are likely to carry with them once the moment has passed. That gap is where misalignment begins. Team Communication is More Than What's Said What

Strong teams aren’t built on talent alone. They’re built on trust. And trust is built through communication. Over the course of my career, from newsrooms to boardrooms, I’ve seen this play out again and again. When communication is clear, human, and intentional, teams move faster, collaborate better, and weather hard moments together. When it’s not, even the most capable teams struggle. Strong leadership communication strategies don’t just improve alignment, they build trust,

Advocacy is more than just speaking up; it is about crafting messages that resonate, inspire, and mobilize.