Running an X account is now a more important job than running media relations. I don’t think companies have realized this. Many still treat social media manager as a junior role, underpay for it, and settle for someone too juvenile or too boomer (in vibes, not age). Double the pay and recruit someone who seems overqualified. The ROI is huge.

GO DIRECT: THE MANIFESTO I. TRADITIONAL PR IS DEAD. For too long, founders have yielded control over their narratives to media and middlemen. Before the internet, it was by necessity. The way to reach large audiences was through the media, and the way to get media coverage was through professional publicists. Today, most of the planet is directly reachable by social media or email. There’s no longer a need to go through traditional gatekeepers of information and brokers of reputation — especially as their own credibility has plummeted. The old PR playbook of relying on third parties with misaligned interests is obsolete. But while the world has changed, comms norms have not. Still encased in amber are the old habits: prioritizing media over social media, fishing for clicks instead of fostering communities, and avoiding risk by recycling worn-out tactics. “Corporate communications” itself is now an oxymoron, as nothing meaningful can be communicated by a faceless committee. If press releases read like they were written by a baker’s dozen of middle managers, that’s because they were. Their only discernible purpose seems to be to avoid upsetting anyone and jeopardizing the future job prospects of those middle managers. The resulting stories are bland and generic, with passion reduced to pablum. Traditional comms is an anachronism. II. COMMUNICATION IS THE FOUNDER’S JOB. For a decade, we’ve been told that tech founders are cartoon villains, venture-funded startups are grifts, and new technologies will destroy us all. Maybe there was a time when founders could just focus on building — they were seen by the media establishment as a curiosity, not a threat to the natural hierarchy who needed to be put in their place. But if that time ever existed, it is now long gone. You may not be interested in The Discourse, but it is interested in you. And if you bow out, you are forfeiting your license to build a movement and thus build a company. Building a movement is hard, but it must be done, and it must be done by founders. A founder’s passion, vision, and conviction can’t be simulated by others — least of all the press-release-enjoying middle managers already scouting for their next jobs. The best spokesperson for any endeavor is not the one who has the most polish, the longest tenure, or the “right” credentials. It’s the person who holds the secret knowledge upon which the enterprise is built, the person who can not only describe the idea but, in the face of inevitable opposition, fight for it and win. Founders need to take their narrative as seriously as they take the rockets or robots. They would never outsource their product — and when it comes to convincing others to support the mission, the story is the product. Outsourcing comms is as bad as outsourcing code. As evangelists, founders are irreplaceable. III. GO DIRECT OR GO HOME. Going direct to the people who matter is how founders retain control over their narratives and preserve their companies’ uniqueness. Those who are stubborn, unorthodox, and disagreeable should never have their edges filed down for fear of offending entrenched interests. But going direct doesn’t mean going it alone. It doesn’t mean refusing help or spurning others who can amplify your message. And it certainly doesn’t mean just poasting more. Going direct means crafting and telling your own story, without being dependent on intermediaries. Just as founders might have more natural talents at product, management, or engineering, some founders will be naturals at communicating while others have a harder time. The good news is that going direct and building a movement, while not easy, are skills that can be developed with discipline and time. The bad news is that, unlike with engineering or management, communications failures are immediately public and personally humiliating. It’s not surprising that many are loathe to take on this responsibility. At the same time, founders willing to pick up that gauntlet will find that it gives them a massive edge in recruiting, fundraising, selling, and shaping the information environment needed for their companies to thrive. IV. IT’S TIME TO REBUILD THE ROSTRA. At the center of Rome, as it transitioned from a Republic to an Empire, stood a speaker’s platform from which the city’s leaders would address the public directly. It was called the Rostra, so named because it stood atop the captured battle rams (or rostrums) of enemy warships. From here, speeches were given that would sway opinion, change regimes, and alter history. That physical structure has been lost to time, but we now have something much more powerful: a free and open internet with which to build a speaker’s platform of limitless scale. All we need is the will to build it. The conventional way of communicating has its allure. Outsource your message, let some removed third party go through the motions of getting “impressions,” and spare yourself the risks and discomfort that come with putting your own name on the line. But that way is incompatible with greatness. Reject convention — build your own platform, build your own audience, and build your own narrative. Go direct.

Why go direct? This chart. Trad media traffic is collapsing. Things are bleak in the industry. Good writers are underpaid, layoffs loom constantly. Everyone needs a backup plan. Top writers already have their own newsletters. Founders need to be building their own audiences.

For awareness — note the language here. It’s a very intentional strategy The goal is to weaken Trump and Elon by fomenting tensions between them By jabbing Trump about not being the alpha, the idea is to provoke him to sideline Elon and to fray the relationship (short thread)

Upstairs apartment culture

Bridgit Mendler. Renaissance woman.

what did y'all think communism meant? vibes? papers? essays?

Porsche social manager seized the hell out of that moment

There have been many politically gifted presidents, but I don't think Obama or even Clinton could've pulled off the rapid composure, fist raise, and creation of an absolutely iconic moment. You'd have to go back to Reagan

When Charlie Kirk brings up the French Laundry incident, you can see Newsom’s animal instinct for comms kick in 1) Jokes: “I can’t help you with a reservation” 2) Concedes: “We couldn’t have this conversation without that conversation” 3) Disarms: “Dumbest bonehead move of my life — own it, move on, grow up. That’s me talking to myself!” One of his biggest PR crises, neutralized just like that, with a smile S-tier politician, not to be underestimated

Quick rewrite: I’m the CEO of CrowdStrike. I’m devastated to see the scale of today’s outage and will be personally working on it together with our team until it’s fully fixed for every single user. But I wanted to take a moment to come here and tell you that I am sorry. People around the world rely on us, and incidents like this can’t happen. This came from an error that ultimately is my responsibility. Here’s what we know: [brief synopsis of what went wrong and how it wasn’t a cyberattack etc.] Our entire team will be working all day, all night, all weekend, and however long it takes to resolve this and make sure it doesn’t happen again. We’ll be sharing updates as often as possible, which you can find here [link]. If you need to contact us, the quickest way is to go here [link]. We’re responding as quickly as possible. Thank you to everyone who has alerted us to the outage, and again, please accept my deepest apologies. More to come soon.

It’s wild. The Blake Lively lawsuit against her costar is an absolute PR kamehameha Lively’s team basically: - gathered mountains of incriminating receipts, including emails and texts that might have been leaked by the crisis comms consultant’s former employer - waited until he thought he was in the clear, as his gloating texts showed - ambushed him with a Friday night filing and a leak to the New York Times (my bet is Lively’s lawyers briefed the NYT on deep background), resulting in a scathing investigative piece (continued)

CrowdStrike CEO is getting pummeled for his response to the global outage. Why everyone hates it: 1) WEAPONS-GRADE CORPO SPEAK Let’s be clear. Legalese doublespeak is designed to dodge and obfuscate rather than inform or communicate. This statement was obviously written by a committee of lawyers and middle managers whose only goal was to avoid legal risk and threats to their own job security. If you can’t understand what the statement is even saying, it’s working as intended. 2) NO APOLOGY The first words should be “I’m sorry” — but you won’t find that anywhere in this statement. Nor the watered down “I take responsibility.” Not even the weasely “We regret…” Nothing! It comes off as cowardly and callous. CrowdStrike caused an outage that took down airlines, a stock exchange, hospitals, ICUs. People might have died. And the CEO is not sorry. 3) PASSIVE VOICE THROUGHOUT This is such classic move to avoid accountability, it’s even become a joke: “Mistakes were made!” This statement is almost comical in its efforts to dodge assigning responsibility. “This issue has been identified…a fix has been deployed.” Which issue? (Global outage) Who caused the issue? (You, CrowdStrike) What fix? (🤷🏻‍♀️) Did it work? (🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️) 4) DISMISSING CUSTOMERS Don’t bother us with your petty complaints of power going out in your local hospital! “We refer customers to the support portal” and “we further recommend customers ensure they’re communicating with representatives through official channels.” You, the customer, are bothering us and making our lives harder. 5) USELESS INFORMATION So many words, so little meaning. This statement says nothing useful — not what the problem was, who caused it, what they learned, what the fix it, how long it might take, what they’re working on, or anything at all. It assigns extra work to the customer by telling them to go through official channels but does NOT then link to the official channels. The onus is on you, customers! If you want to learn more about how CrowdStrike has ruined your day, you go do the work.

I had watch this several times. This maneuver was extremely hard to pull off and he handled it masterfully. Background: last week The Telegraph ran a headline saying Spacey was now homeless. One of those things where it’s humiliating even to deny it. So Spacey completely flipped the framing: Instead of embarrassingly having to defend his solvency, he reversed the frame to speak from a position of high status. People have been so kind in offering him support that it would be dishonest to let them believe he actually needs the help! He doesn’t treat the “homeless” label as an indignity to recover from, but as an instance of sloppy clickbait that won him undeserved sympathy. In this framing, he’s graciously refusing to exploit the generosity of the many people misled by The Telegraph (which he makes look even more absurd by doing this via video showing a beautiful home in the background). Standout moments: > “I don’t usually make it my business to correct the media; if I did I wouldn’t have time for much else...” Starts with wry humor, to show he doesn’t take this too seriously and neither should you. By lumping all media inaccuracies together, he also casts doubt on other, way more damaging, news reports. Makes you wonder what else the media got wrong. > “I feel the need to respond — not to the press, but to the thousands of people who have reached out…to all of you let me say I’m touched by your generosity. Full stop.” He makes clear who his audience is and puts himself on the same side as them (momentarily to be united against The Telegraph). > “It’s a shame The Telegraph chose to undermine the work of their own journalist by selling him out with a knowingly misleading headline for the sake of clicks.” Pits the editors (dishonest) against the journalist (“wonderful”). He’s not offended on his own behalf, but standing up for the journalist. Also shows he’s not antagonistic toward all media. > “I said I was living out of hotels…going where the work is, just as when I started out in this business. I’ve been working nearly nonstop for a year and for that I have so much to be grateful for.” He’s obviously saying that he’s getting a lot of work and his career is as strong as ever, but framing it as gratitude instead of a rebuttal shows confidence and is more convincing. > “There are many people who are indeed actually living on the streets or in their cars…and my heart goes out to them. But it is clear I am not one of them, nor was I attempting to say I was.” This was particularly elegant. It’s hard to say “hey don’t call me that” without seeming to denigrate people who are “that.” The way Spacey frames it is that there’s no shame in financial hardship, but he simply wouldn’t want to accept sympathy for a struggle he hasn’t endured. Lastly, note that format matters. This wouldn’t have been nearly as effective in writing. Video was the perfect format, given the “show don’t tell” home in the background and the fact that screen presence is his superpower. Whatever else you might think about Kevin Spacey, it’s hard to watch this and walk away thinking he’s actually homeless.

Nobody wants to say this but the well-intended metoo exposés metastasized into hysterical witchhunts, creating an atmosphere of fear that altered human mating habits for a generation TLDR we’ve been scaring the bros

I am seeking an apprentice. Requirements are: •High IQ, high EQ •Love for tech and capitalism •High agency and low ego •Taste •Discretion •A working cringe detector •Instinct for narrative •Strong writing ability •Risk tolerance •Immaculate vibes •High-functioning workaholism We share the philosophy of George C. Marshall, who sought these traits in new generals: •Character  •Loyalty  •Courage to stand and fight •Youthful vigor  •Unconventional backgrounds •Physical fitness If this resonates, read on: You would join our team of three at Rostra, where we help founders go direct with their communications. That means advancing their strategic goals, from hiring to securing partnerships to raising money. We go beyond traditional comms in both tactics and scope, and we look for creative solutions to hard problems. You don’t have to be able to do all this on day 1, but if you come here and give us your best effort, we will train you to become an indispensable partner to some of the world’s greatest founders. I would mentor you and we would learn together. We’re here to increase shareholder value, not explore our feelings, so please don’t bring your whole self to work. That said, you would get direct feedback and lots of support, and you’d be joining an extremely talent-dense team. You’ll have the opportunity to do fun and challenging work, while helping us build this company from the ground up.  Comms experience is not needed nor particularly desired, but it’s not a dealbreaker. The start date is flexible; we’re only hiring one person and will gladly wait for the right one. If interested, please go here:

Insane that Simu Liu would cancel a boba startup for “cultural appropriation.” As a higher ranking Asian (didn’t become a professional actor), I am casting a counterspell and inviting people of every race and creed to partake in Asian culture.

Taste aside — from a purely strategic perspective, this brand marketing is disastrous for Jaguar. For context, Jaguar sales have been plummeting (down 70% in the US in five years). It’s a crisis. Their #1 strategic imperative for comms and marketing should be to sell cars. So let’s analyze it through that lens. Up to 2018, Jaguar was actually growing quickly, doubling sales in a few years. Their subsequent decline was caused by two main things: 1) LAGGING INNOVATION AND ENGINEERING Jaguar went five (!) years without releasing a new production model, and their technology felt outdated. 2) UNCLEAR POSITIONING Jaguar got stuck between lanes. They used to be associated with classic sophistication and luxury, competing effectively with Bentley and Aston Martin in a rarefied space. But then they shifted down to premium, competing with the likes of BMW and Mercedes in a more crowded market. Jaguar SUV sales are cannibalized by their own sister brand (Range Rover). Now they’re not upscale enough to compete in the luxury market, and not cutting edge enough to compete in the premium market. DOUBLING DOWN Even at a basic level, we know that any Jaguar rebrand should (1) highlight innovation, and engineering, and (2) pick a clear lane for branding. Here they’ve done the opposite. This campaign is about “collaborating with a collective of original creators across the arts,” according to Jaguar’s website, which has been taken over by the rebrand. That message is roughly the opposite of what Jaguar should be saying, which is some version of “our cars are engineered to the gills and go very very fast.” Art school grads simply aren’t associated with elite engineering ability, I’m sorry. It’s possible a marketing exec read too many think pieces about how millennials shop based on values and forgot that people want cars that are really well built. On top of that, instead of choosing a clear lane, Jaguar’s brand has meandered further into no man’s land. Literally — this is NOT for men. While men have been an important audience for Jaguar historically (it’s a favored ride for James Bond and Bruce Wayne), the latest campaign features six women and two people of indistinguishable gender (one appears to be a man but I don’t want to assume). If they’re going to abandon the male audience, they should replace it with a more lucrative audience, and it’s unclear who they’re going for here. Vegans? So the same way Jaguar lost the ultra luxury segment without winning the premium segment, with this campaign they’re losing the “classic sophistication” audience without winning the “Just Stop Oil” audience. It’s risky to be an orphan brand. MISSED ZEITGEIST Lastly, Jaguar simply failed to read the room. We are in an era of NOSTALGIA. People want to RETVRN. Tradition, heritage, and classics are more in demand than they’ve been for a long time. Jaguar was perfectly positioned. Jaguar’s iconic image of an old school British gentleman — think Sir Roger Moore, a known devotee of the brand — would have been a massive asset in today’s environment. Why not a retro themed campaign contrasting state of the art technology with a 70s aesthetic? TIME FOR A TURNAROUND This is like when movies used to come out in other countries a year after they were done showing in Hollywood. The vibe of this rebrand might have worked in 2021, but to drop this in late 2024 only emphasizes the reasons for Jaguar’s brand decline in the first place: it’s outdated and confusing. Apparently Jaguar is planning a broader brand reset for 2025. From early indications, that reset is misguided and likely to fail. Jaguar is a luxury product so their brand can make or break sales, and in this case, they’ll need a U-turn to get back on track.

Fighting JK Rowling in writing is like fighting Aquaman in the water

Unironically, “May I meet you” has just become a killer pickup line for this exact demographic - gets a laugh - inside joke creates shared connection - signals interest with low pressure