we will get the last question in and wrap up. >> i wanted to ask about gatekeeping with your volunteers and people that are not on your staff when you're talking not getting the message out in your own media and just some strategies that you use. i heard you say some things about closed facebook groups and things like that. but people are not on your staff and your surrogates and volunteers how to keep them on message? >> i think from a standpoint of supporters, organizers, volunteers that is key to train. you are providing them the program they have a script. they have materials it is critical you have clear and proper training for your volunteers. if you have challenges can help

with that. [applause] >> hello everyone, how are you doing today? i hope you are awake after lunch at. [laughter] and the break. hopefully i will keep you awake too. my name is kiana we are going to be talking about building your campaign voice. this is all about the voice, the width of your campaign or your brand. just a little bit about me, my parents are sheet/her/hers. i'm originally from chattanooga, tennessee i lived in atlanta for eight years where i started my political career so i'm glad to be back. right now i'm the director digital strategy were moving to chicago and doing a plug it.

i am hiring, please come see me tonight. i just finished being the bp on emily's list. as a digital director and i was a deputy digital director for warnock on his first race and also it was an organizer on abramson 2018. deafly excited to be back in be here with all of you. all right, let me move this and mike i feel that i cannot walk around. what we were talking today about is how to build your campaign voice. the entire goal of this session is how are we crafting eight unique, distinct and authentic voice for your campaign? i am stressing authentic. that is a big piece of your campaign voice. we will get into it that actually looks like. we will talk about how were going to be doing this. we will definitely dig into what is this voice? why do we do this?

how does it work? what does this mean? understanding the what and why of your campaign voice. how to craft your unique campaign voice and how to actually apply that in your campaign. we're also going to actually develop a voice guide at the end. we are going to go and get into very practical. you will come out of this with an actual way to craft your strategy and a voice guide. all right, we are going to do a call out i want you to think about someone with a unique voice. when i say unique voice either the way it sounds or tone persona. raise your hand let me know if it's a unique voice. oprah, that's a good one. what about opera's a voice mixer unique?

>> warm and on. [inaudible] that is deafly true. you know that is oprah even if you just your audio, exactly. >> ex-president per. >> of barack obama. yes. one more question about that. again, tell me what makes that unique? we can go back to that the mike. >> he has a distinctive voice. no one sounds like president barack. it's different. you know you hear him talking you just know it's very distinct. it's very suave a, it is distinctive. >> thank you, know that is exactly right. we're actually going to get into barack obama's voice later at. [laughter] will come back to that one. will take one more route i saw

your hand first so at the pink sweater here. >> fran drescher per. >> i use that as my example. let's talk about grand gesture adjusterfrom the nanny. >> and so why i think her voice is unique but carries but also she laughs a lot and that's very infectious in my opinion. >> rates. just like everyone described the voice there's also a part that talked about their persona. their essence. this not to say the words you are saying the why what is behind this? that's what we will be discussing. when we mean voice we are

actually talking about what we say. our personality behind what we say and how we are actually saying it. since our comms message. this is what we are bringing to the world. that is part of it. you are really just making that strategy come alive. how they will experience the campaign. i have a saying if you think about a campaign as a body. you have your campaign management is probably going to be that brand. of the whole strategy together but you have your organizers that her hands and feet. they are doing the movements. calm, your physical voice that may be sound confusing. digital is that persona. i believe that voice is mostly carried out through digital. that is are people experiencing your campaign first.

they're clear to see the touch points up or they will feel the campaign. they will have that personality of your campaign through digital. so, what is voice not? i'm not getting to the clicker. what is voice and not? your voice is not just that coremessage like i mentioned earlier. it is not your policy position. so that's another thing. this is not where you stand. this is not just your content strategy even though it you can definitely build your strategy up of your voice. this is not your outreach plan. those are all tactics that happen once you learn what your campaign voice is. we are going to the short exercise they were going to parent was someone at the table find your partner get in the group of three over going to do

next talk about what campaigns have unique and distinctive voice. throughout obama a specific campaign of the top of your head. were going to take about five minutes a very unique distinctive voice. all right so now. >> we talked about terms campaign america's a horrible place less is in charge of the campaign he ran and how he can for this campaign.

aoc the with the voice of the campaign how it's possible how that's embodied in so many different layers. also similar narrative. we are here we can participate in this electoral progress and whenthe election that way. this flood of extreme contrast even starting with trump and thinking about his targeted the hard-working american. the more lower house rule

everything up but that is very consistent to my message. has smart youthful energy. very much trying to bring everyone back together. i love how you shared different contrast through that. in her initial and finishes overlay stop talking i am not the kind of person who should get sent to congress the person was in the seat did not. i let my friend speak about her because she talks that way better.

how he had to go for the runoff he basically changed entire messaging in less than a week and pivoted around too go into january. you saw in real time. what constituencies he decided to go behind him and how him and warnock decided to link up and run their campaigns ensure their stuff together. that was his speech he sends his constituency representative down to all of the counties they see someone they didn't have the call to atlanta to get help he has gone to military base and because of him the lieutenant governor of georgia has his constituency office like around fort stewart and third id. as talking about how he did a whole 180 within a week and a half of having and run straight into the runoff per. >> thank you. thinking about all of the

examples you gave. what did you feel when you would see him do things like that? >> eat hurt and he understood he did not win that general because he was not listening. something clicked with him having to go into that ran off and he paired up that they were going to sink or swim together. and they were at the new georgia. he said i hear you and i hear the bass isn't saying this. he pivoted on the dime and reshuffled himself and now he's been in congress he's there for right now. that was that the. >> that is true. just like you described it with that, when they were able to come together, that showed they ordered together to make that happen. you got the feeling he was listening. he was finally listening to people so that was right. >> we will go to this table.

will do one more with your table two. >> is really remarkable when democrats had 40 seats and all of these powerful candidates and nationally one of them, katie hill flipped historically republican district in northern l.a. county and part of ventura county that are one of the highest proportion of the police officers but know this was not theorange it's katie ported thas 45 this is 25. she started off and a suit as she completely changed? and she said this is not me. she related and featured an vice. we all know what happened. she resigned in light of the incident. it is incredibly compelling as is, since we are in georgia lucy makes beth which flipped which is historically a gop congressional district.

i think the home flipping a district on temp gop incumbent. in oklahoma of all places she lost the 2020 she watched narrowly but, to eight female candidate but she was able to flip that seat. it was incredible democrats could flip on oklahoma. so many powerful stories but 2018 women candidates particularly really powerful. >> thank you. relatability. you could tell from the tone the tactics they were bringing they were relatable. that's really what helped seal the deal. >> just like we talked about,

you were a voice is an essential part of a winning campaign strategy. so as you can see in the slides right here it's how you are expressing yourself. you are making your self feel noble to key audiences with the example is press and constituents. as you campaign your voice. it relates to the people you're trying to win. what you're trying to turn out. he would be trying to persuade. >> this is how your connecting with the voters and how you are motivating your supporters. there are candidates you can probably think of you can think of it. don't understand why they are running. may not have felt the reasons behind it and how that really master some things are putting out. and over time you started to

understand that. what is happening is they were developing their voice. they were really figuring out what about them because that's the key. you're not just creating a persona you think will work but what about you? what about your essential story will connect to the people that eat trying to support you or even vote for you. all right we are going to talk about the three seeds of campaign voice. you start to think there how are you going to create this voice? how are you going to tell the story? you need to think about these three. one common consistency. as you mentioned to a few of you in your talk about the campaigns you could really tell their tone of voice. there is a very consistent expectation they were setting with her audience. you see this campaign and it really can tell what they are about from top to bottom. that is how you have consistent

campaign voice. and in turn delete, you have to be unified in that. when you're developing this strategy you need buy-in from everyone. cite your columns and messages different digital voice. the way you talk about the voters and organizing is different. it all has to be consistence. they all have to live together. the next c is connection. thinking about your connection, how are you building that trust? how are you connecting to people? someone mentioned relatability. that is how you are building that connection. that is building that trust. you've got to think about what about your candidate? your aura and your brand that is connecting to people. you don't have to change your candidates and create someone you're not. you have to pull out of their

personal narrative what matches your voters. what you see in polling that people care about? what about your candidate meets those answers? internally again it's all about the department collaboration. how are you all collaborating to carry out the connection point building the trust? and then again it is clarity. thinking about who you are and who you aren't. being a very clear. very specific of understanding what does your candidate bring to the table what are they not? how are they different from their opponent? these are all things also how you will communicate and respond. those are another thing you are going to have to figure out internally. in your team spaces how you will communicate, how you will respond and how you will draft content. since my when you're defining

your voice as early as possible you have to understand what is your campaign dna? it's all going to be built together as you are defining that voice. you have to do this from the top. this is not something you should get the end of your campaign. you've got to start from the beginning. someone mentioned the soft campaign when it came down you're essentially building a new campaign we were building completely new campaign you do staff, everything. we had to reevaluate what we did right to during the primaries and then what we were going to do during the run off. how could we tied together what we learn and what didn't work to carry that message and carry it home? our road, some people are going

to join amid the cycle. you may start at an organization after they've had a very specific voice. personal example working at emily's list i came in when they wanted to reach younger audiences. so, even though our message was to elect democratic pro-choice moment we wanted to make sure this was translating to other people. so i came in, in the middle of this process. having turn that voice in how we were going to tell that story. this is going to happen but you're going to come in the cycle you're going to join an organization later on. you need to know that is fine you can pivot, you can refine, you can make those adjustments based on polling you make it a pullback seeing this candidate is not relating to black women voters. so, what can you pull from their story that will do that? how can you change your tone to make sure you are still relating

to these voters? also as your campaign involves when you are going into turn you need to amp up the volume. you need to really get people interested and motivated so they can go out and vote to put your tone might be having more excitement. there might be a new energy to that. runoff versus a general. we had to turn up the energy and get everyone together. obviously the tone changed. then as you were getting feedback so think about the pole i mentioned earlier when you're sitting down actually talking to voters and realizing this is not registering with us. not the candidate changes. it's a big thing i want to stress your candidate is the same candidate but how you are you'retelling their stories were changes. pieces of their story it might resonate to one voting bloc than it does to the others. that is fine we want candidates that represent everyone.

so you have got to figure out what that is is going to evolve involveif you know your audience better. as you're starting to understand who your audience is, a jew or being able to connect with them especially online. that is a big one. you might realize the tone we are doing is not registering online as well as it is in ads for personal example i work on the val demings campaign we were very much tough cop persona at the beginning. we are making people knew she was tough on crime she was different than marco rubio, she was that week. there's another side of her personality that was very relatable, very personable. we'll be on the campaign trail and voters would be they may not see our campaign all the time.

really personality on when we were online. parks or not we're going to talk about how to actually do this. how would you craft or camping voice. this is how i really look at building out a strategy. you have to start with the end goal. to think about election day. what do i want my campaign to look like on election day? what do i want people to say about the work that we did? did i went our campaign to be the one that turned out young voter? do i want to be the campaign fighting for labor union a champion for the working class. start the election day i start from the ultimate goal election day. i think the checkpoints, milestones along the way but

helps us evaluate if it is working. this approach really does help is your building out your platforms, your content even your staff in florida. in florida it we knew we had to reach the spanish audience so we had a bilingual. everything had to be bilingual. things like that you have to think about whom i going to hire to reach that goal? that's the way you're going to keep the campaign on track and know things are working or not. i call this the northstar strategy. think about your northstar. what is the point you want to have at the end of all this? as you are building out a digital program, your comments to program any program honestly you need to think about what is going to look like on the final day. this can translate to organizations for the essay were building out a very specific

campaign. a messaging campaign. think about what you want to happen at the very end of it and work backwards so you can think through your clear and specific objectives. you can think about what is the narrative to get to the goal? how are you going to message this to the public to make sure they are able to connect to the purpose of that. there were going to break it down into specific tactics. the examples you gave earlier a lot of people are talking about taxes. they were talking about things they did in the field. that comes from your voice. that comes from what you're doing. these of the tactics you were going to develop in your thinking about the northstar. in the meat milestones. what point do need to reevaluate? at what point do we need to realize this outworking and try again. understand the progress of those objectives how you can adapt to your program to what is needed.

all right, like i mentioned you have to have buy-in. you have to be able to make sure all of the departments understand what is going on. we have fort departments here, current digital, political, and finance. how is this going to translate? so it comms, your thinking for your press releases. thinking about talking points, fact sheets, how is your voice, how's your tone of voice carried out to the specific tactics? digital website copy, social copy, e-mails and you're thinking of fundraising. your videos and graphics, how is your tone actually going to look through those pieces? political these are the speeches, the talkers, messaging materials. how to those reflect your tone? and finance. thinking about the fundraisers up at one of the fundraiser shooting to have that match your

overall tone? that is a big thing. how can you figure fighting for that working men and taking money from large corporate donors? there are ways you can do that but you're still unique and special to your candidate. but you've got to make sure that is all the way across and at every area. so it does not feel like it is disjointed. cracks are right, building buy-in. we are trying to build the bion you had to figure how to put yourself in your stakeholder shoes. do they understand what it means to have a voice? if you are the one who wants to champion voice lessons that we are learning right now how are you going to communicate that to your team and say it look, what were doing right now is not working. we need to really, really craft our voice. helping them understand what is the value of having this voice? taking these slides you can show them things you learn why this is important. what are the solutions? how are you understanding your

voice is going to solve some of these solutions that you are having problems. then also defining the campaign voice will directly benefit the team. it will directly benefit your organization so how are you going to explain that to the team as you're getting the buy-in? all right, as i mentioned at the top authenticity is essential. you want your voice to be driven by the candidates or your candil branded organization. this is so authentic. the crucial part of what you need. because like you all said when you're examples earlier, when you do not have you can tell. you can spot campaigns work does not feel authentic relates to one person.

>> -- about that. get your mic. >> so she was the candidate to challenge eric paulson in a western twin cities suburban race, and this was before the infamous if dean phillips was elected in 2018. so she had to add, and she was, like, kayaking by herself in the water, and it was nothing about her body language, but there was just something at the hull -- whole, if you looked at the whole aggregated presentation of her, it just struck me as off. it just seemed insincere, and it felt like this lady's just trying too hard to get my vote. it's too much effort, and it doesn't feel organic and natural, and the tone was off. and you shouldn't have to put so much effort. you should be a natural, can and it should the show why people want to vote for you immediately. >> exactly. i feel like one big thing about knowing if it's authentic or not, let's say you're giving a speech and your teleprompter

breaks down and you forget what you're supposed to say. is your message authentic must have to your candidate that they can keep it going, you know? some people might crumble. then that message is probably not authentic to who they are. [laughter] if that is ap an example. -- that is an example. maybe tick to republicans. at the same time, that's real. it was not authentic, you're not connecting. i completely understand what you're saying. >> dr. oz. [laughter] >> oh, we have a hand. sorry about that. >> i have a couple. governor kemp, he had a commercial where he had a gun across his lap, and it was something about his daughter. he's not a country boy, and it just did not hit at all. also marco rubio, ron desantis and libd she graham, i think they're all total -- they're very unsincere, and they're obviously just in it for them.

i mean, that's it, right in. >> right. that's all real. these are all opponents. [laughter] no, you're exactly right. and you can tell too, you know? if i don't know how they won, but here we are. so thinking about how does, how do you connect your voice to your core message. so as we were talking about earlier, the examples of your value saws and vision. -- values and vision. why is your candidate running in again, if your teleprompter were to disappear, would they even know why they're running in what is that general principle that your candidate stands for? if you know? are you able to say, okay, candidate, and, y and dis, i know -- x, y and dis, i know what they stand for. i know what their principles are. if you can't, time to reevaluate your voice. can the candidate connect that value implicitly and explicitly to the future? so if they get elected, what is it -- why does it matter? what are they doing in this election that's going to make

sense when they're actually in office? this is how you going to articulate your core message across your platform. all right. so i keep talking about this, but there's so much power in and value in authenticity. and i stress this so much whenever building digital programs, anything, you have to be authentic. especially digital fund raising,s that is one that we have seen the inauthenticity. but right now specifically in this cycle more than ever, voters are catching on. they can see when something is not authentic. they can see, you know, that people get e these e-mails, it's, like, if we're not going to raise $20,000 tonight, we're not if going to have the lights on. is that real? [laughter] you know? you've got to think about these the authentic pieces that all fit together, and if people are catching on. they don't want to just blindly believe someone. and so you have got to really touch those points. so what are these common

connection points. how do they show up in different settings and what do supporters value. these are questions you need to think about when you're really thinking about that awe a then disty. what is -- authenticity. what is that power behind it. these are the things that people care about. okay. so now we're going to actually look at building your voice and finding a voice when you're looking at materials. so think about what you're working on right now. looking at all of the materials that you have for your campaign that have been produced, do you see a consistent tone of voice in that. when you're actually looking at your tone of voice and being able to put together that plan, you need to review everything. you need to watch your candidate's great hits. so if someone did not run before, then, you know, just thinking about the messages that they had that got them to the point to run, thinking about that, watching this and really being able to define those

moments through the videos, op-eds, the speeches that they brought to life. and then finding the commonalities. so what is that theme across the way? if what is something that you can really look at through the history of this candidate, you know? if thinking about their personal story, thinking about their why. why are they doing this. these are all things that you need to look at in your materials and and, you know, really have the chance to understand what are they talking about most often, you know? why is this the essential to who they arebeing able to really pull that out when you're looking at materials. you might need to have a point person that a when you're going through vet or, you know, the chains of approvals, that they're just looking to spot the taupe of voice -- the tone of voice. they're not necessarily checking grammar, but is this how we talk about it, is this part of our candidate's personality. okay. so then your going to think through add jekyll tyes.

so pulling -- adjectives. pulling a list together of those very potential brand adjectives that can go back to your candidate's story, your overall narrative. so, or honestly, google. google university works so well. and just pull out adjectives that go with that overarching message. go through the list, identify which ones are easy, which ones are not so easy and which ones are maybes. so when you have your full list of adjectives, break it out. so these are ones that you know we can translate. this is not going to work, and these maybe might take us a little more work to get it happening. and, you know, you can do this with your full team. this is a good example to show how you can get that buy-in. let's just take ten minutes in our meeting today, and we're going to try this. and we can actually see how this works. and, again, it's talking through that alignment. having disagreements and saying, you know, i don't think this represents. being not afraid to really push

back and say how are we going to get to this overall voice, what are we going to do, and then settling, okay, this is what we're going to do. these are the add jekyll adjectives -- adjectives we're going to use, this is how we're going to talk about it finding your voice, the this, not that. i don't want to get too deep into it, we're confident, we're not air got. -- arrogant. we're witty, we're not snarky. we're approach, but not too casual. in thinking about the ways you do the this and not that is a good example of how you can really pull out that tone. oh, you want me to go back? yeah. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> you're welcome -- you want one too? o.k.. okay. more than, less than. so when we're thinking about finding your voice, you're really going to take those key adjectives that we were talking about in the haas slide and use that to -- in the last slide and use that to really refine what you're talking about.

next your competitors. some of you may have done the message blogs where it's us and them, thinking about what their tone of voice is. so when we talked about donald trump, his tone of voice versus biden's, you know? thinking about what your opponent's tone of voice is and how that's not who your candidate is. so, again, this could be the opponent, this can be, you know, what other districts are like versus the district that your candidate lives in, thinking about all those pieces of the competitors. and once you have fully defined that, that's when you're going to really be able to pull those messages together. that's e when you're really going to understand how these tactics are going to work. so you see the three examples right here: you're more fired up than donald trump, less fired up than donald trump over these areas. so let's think about the economy. so how is your candidate, biden, more fired up about the economy than donald trump?

how is he less fired up about the economy than donald trump? and writing those things out is how you're going to be able to know is this working, is this not working, is this translating to our voters and supporters? all right. so, and i think they're sending out all these slides. [laughter] hopefully, you'll have time to look at this again. okay. and so then applying the criteria. as you start to really hone in on what your key voice adjectives are, your distributers, you need to think -- descriptors, is this authentic? is this -- oprah, at the top, when we were talking about oprah, you can pick out what that she sounds like, what she's going to talk about from her tone. you really can see that distinctive and recognizable. does this work across all platforms? our next example we're going to actually take a phrase and see how it translates across different platforms. and where do you immediate the adjust. and then does this actually feel like your candidate, do you feel

like you're trying too hard, like this isn't really registering. these are things you need to think about. all right. so back to our favorite, tone of voice. if you worked on obama, can we just give you a round -- raise your hand because -- look at that that. okay. obama literally solidified what it means to have a true tone of voice. like, you can still think about that hopeful narrative, the change that the he brought. and that, i think, was the picture of how we then got to all these building blocks. so when you think about barack obama, we're thinking about the words that he used. listen up, fired up, you know, phrases that he used of the fair shot, a fair shake. we've been counted out before, now is not the time to get distracted. all of these things really showed that he was, like, going to come in, bring this change. he was hopeful that this was going to work, and these were all phrases that came out of that overarching narrative. and then even these pictures.

the pictures you're going to use, that also shows your tone of voice. he's bringing pizza to his field office as. that shows that he's different. he's not the candidate that's hiding behind his own office not wanting to go and thank the supporters and the volunteers. this picture at the very bottom, his hand is up but still saying hope, change, i'm different. you see and feel that, that hopeful change narrative still in even the pictures you take. okay. so now we're going to actually see what this is the like. you're going to craft your own campaign voice. so i'm just going to quickly go through the different types of story telling tactics that are on different social media platforms. twitter, x, whatever you call it, not trying to say x. when you think of that, that's very concise. it's very focused on reporters even though they're moving to threads, but still we are with very focused on short, engaging

phrases that are going to tell your narrative on twitter. finish facebook it's more of that longer form content. you're say -- sharing more in-depth stories, you can have unlimited characters, links, and there's a lot of engagement in the comments. so facebook is very much focused on that. instagram, visual first. visual and videos, these are all pieces of instagram where with you're definitely going to be able to leverage that, you know, the obama pictures we're seeing. that's perfect for instagram. people immediately will want to share a picture like that on their story. and then again it's all about having those captions and really having a consistent visual style. snapchat, snapchat is definitely becoming a persuasion tool this cycle. you already think about snapchat because you can actually run political ads, and they're really beefing that up right now. so snapchat, or it's definitely about behind the scenes content, the stories feature how you can

really keep your followers engaged and eager for more. they have different can filters you can use. i don't think snapchat is just for you. if you can really tell a story in different ways for everyone, so thinking about snapchat. tiktok, definitely videos. videos first even though they just released a photo app under tiktok i'll note, so they're going to have an instagram rival. but thinking about tiktok, how you can really create those videos that are telling stories and and using trends, being more creative. that's where we really used chief val demings' creative more personal if side, we used tiktok to carry that out. okay. so what we're going to do with your table, we're going to spend a few minutes on that because i don't know where we are on time. but you're going to think about the platforms i just mentioned, pick one platform with the saying abortion is on the ballot and think about how you can adapt it to a platform if listed. so we have ins gam, facebook --

instagram, facebook, snapchat, tiktok and twitter. so using the phrase abortion if is on the ballot, how are you going to talk about that in one of these platforms. >> women and people of color, are you better off today than you were in 1864, hashtag abortion's on the ballot. >> how did you get to that from abortion's on the ballot? >> because arizona just passed an 1864 law back into effect. >> exactly. so telling that on twitter was short, concise and then using a united hashtag that everyone's using right now, abortion is on the ballot or abortion rights 2024. so that was a really great way to talk about that. all right? who else is ready? table three. >> so our -- we chose instagram as our platform, and we were just talking about how -- well, a couple different things. someone mentioned reels, but i'm not that familiar with that.

we were just talking about how you can physically swipe through on instagram. like, i think it's called a carousel? >> yeah, carousel. a gallery. >> and you can progress through time, and you can start the in 1864 or whatever the year is, and you can get progressive, you know, show all the progress we've made but then somehow at the end, end up back at where we started. >> okay. so how did you choose instagram can versus the ore platforms -- the other platforms to tell that narrative, just to be able to keep the photographs? >> i think it's a good mix of visual and tech. they can be informative. it's, it's a good, i guess, like a happy medium between all the other platforms in terms of visual and conciseness, but you can also be a little bit longer-winded too on a way that maybe on twitter you can't be. >> awesome, thank you. all right. let's go to this table the over here. i can't see the number. >> we were talking about

targeting women ages 18-35. and so we kind of got stuck on facebook and instagram and doing a type of post that can be used on both. and the idea was to showcase without a lot of words but also, you know, you can do the long form post too and have that be, like, double, you know? and so we thought about pictures of different types of women who regardless of, like, regardless of age but also within our target range who would be affected by it and then having it be a carousel, if you would, that you can slide through the on instagram and then just being, like, abortion's on the ballot. you could do that closer to election, early voting, something like that, showcasing that they're participating in this election because they understand the value. or you could do it further away to say like i think if you're on

a campaign and focus doing voter registration or folks in the field, we thought of it as a thing that you could use in those two spaces to ec 'em mify multiple time periods, if that makes sense. >> yeah, no, that definitely makes sense. and is so i notice everyone was going all the way back and telling the history all the way til now. so three very different examples to talk about the same thing but also all conveying that historical context. love that you all chose to speak to that. all right. so putting your voice into action. what does that actually look like. so developing a voice, you should all have the voice guide in your documents of what this actually looks like. so there will be examples from aclu, and that's the voice guide. so just so you know if, you do have something for reference to see it in realtime. so when you're developing a voice guide, so this is essentially what your campaign

is going to use. it's similar to the a brand book where you can have all your colors and your row goes in it, but this is -- logos in it, but this is your actual voice guide. you want it to be very concise, digestible so that people won't, you know, not read it to make sure that people are able to really hang on to the core message, keep it at their desk. they can refer back to it, so keep it short. be very specific. remember the list of adjectives we talked about at the beginning. having those add quicktives, having a list of those keyword withs, those phrases, even images. so when we had the obama example and there was a very specific image that talked about the tone of voice. so that's another example. we want images like this even if it's not your candidate. so let's say you're doing this before the campaign's even announced. pull images to describe what you want it to look like. all right? and then also be very clear. make sure that it has a very clear dos and don'ts.

we talk about the environment like this. we don't talk about the environment like that. we talk about voter rights like this. we don't talk about voter rights like that. and when you're actually going to create this voice e guide, it is really important to also have a voice workshop. so thinking about when you can do a voice workshop, one thing that i've done before is we get our candidate to sit down and just tell stories. just tell all these stories. we'll come up with a are list of questions, and then we'll just ask them to just start talking. we record that through audio, sometimes people do it over zoom and then do video instead, and then you can play it back. so when your comms people are thinking what they're going to write, digital people as well when they're next e-mail, social media, having that audio where you just go through and they tell their full story, and then

you know how they talk about things. they're able to talk about their childhood and how they talk about how they came up and and how they grew up. so that's another way to make sure that you're really capturing your campaign's voice. and then after that make sure that you really have that workshop to talk about through this. so after you've done your whole audio recording or your zoom recording, get your campaign team together. so get the heads of the departments to come together and actually the talk through this work honor. so -- workshop. this is when you lay out the dos and don'ts. this is when you're able to really come up with that list of adjectives. and when you do it this way, you get the buy-in from the top. people feel like they're all a a part of the process, and they feel like they were really able to craft this together. so this is actually in your book. this is the team usa. so this is their brand guide, but their actual tone of voice guide. so when you see team usa, it

says team usa is the voice for athletes, the home for our fans, all of us, the pictures. it's saying it's spirited, courageous, the athletes are proud, determined. this is, like, a really good example of a voice guide because it's so visual, it's short, anyone can have this and you know what to talk about. and at the bottom it says what not to do. so making sure that you're not being sarcastic when you're talking about team usa. aclu, this is the definitely a deeper one. it's more narrative-based. they don't have visuals in this one. but you also have this in your guide. again, their tone of voice. they actually laid out very specific phrases. we empower action. they're able to say no matter the issue, we don't just tell you what we're doing, we give you practical ways to help and to make change. so empowering that action.

one at the bottom, we're we the people. is so even when discussing complex subjects, we're accessible. we're not condescending, we're not boring, we're not elitist. and that's how they're able to really carry that brand voice across. all contempt. content. all right. so like we talked about, when you're integrating your voice training into the campaign, you've got to really think about how is this all going to play together. so having the guide, doing your tone of voice workshop, getting that audio. this is how you're going to onboard all of your new staff. so once you have this, anyone who joins the campaign should get this guide. just like they have the brand guide to know the colors, logo, they should get a taupe of voice guide. so -- tone of voice guide. even if they're not going to write, this is, like i said, political teams. finance teams, they can figure out what sort of fund raise rahers match.

so everyone should get a tone of voice guide. and also you should are these detailed train things. if you're noticing -- trainings. if you're noticing your e-mails are completely the wrong tone of voice, pause. get everyone together, do a voice workshop so they can all be back on the tame -- same page. always having these at people's desks so they know what to look for and then being able to go back to it in all staff meetings and making sure that people all are on the same page. all right? so this is just, like, very visual to show the different guides that you have. so this includes, you know, web sites, social, you see aoc, someone said that earlier, this is the way that they carry out the merch. and then i'm going to show a video. so as e mentioned earlier, we have to forget out how to really tell val demings' story and also a capture her voice. so this is a short video and then we'll get into questions. >> when i think about my own

story, the or daughter of a maid and a janitor now running for the united states senate, only in america -- [cheers and applause] is my story possible. >> this is for tiktok, so it's very short. and we actually broke up this same speech into small bites of videos. but you see that only in america, you're really getting that hope behind her story the that, you know, growing up from very poor background and then being able to actually run for senate in florida. you're able to just see in realtime, like, what did that look like. and we went back and pulled pictures of her family. all right. so key takeaways and then we'll have time for about two questions, because i want to give you a full break, but i'll stay here so if someone wants do questions to me directly, we can talk through it. okay, so key takeaways, the what and the why. how we share a message, it's not

the message itself. how are we carrying out our overall message. your voice e is essential to winning a campaign because it's how you connect with key voters and engage supporters. the three cs we talked ab, consistency, conduction and clarity. and, again, build this early. mistake sure everyone's on the same page. all right -- make sure everyone's on the same page. now we're going to ask two questions, and like e said, i'll be here for more, all right? >> [inaudible] my question is, so we're talking a lot about creating a voice for a candidate who's running for office. what, how would you approach an incumbent candidate who's already in office, maybe has been in office for maybe two or three terms and, you know, we kind of look at those people like, you know, well, what have

you done and, you know, tend to try to oust those people. so how would you recreate a campaign voice for someone, like i said, who we're not at election day yet, we're just navigating the day-to-day to kind of prevent being dismissed because the electorate is not seeing a result? >> right. so this is when we talk about those pivot moments finish. >> right. >> so you can look back to other cycles if they've already been in office and what worked in that first cycle that got them the elected, you know? >> they were just an original candidate at one point, so what worked during that first cycle that got them into office. so thinking about that. we also talked about pulling speeches, you know? think of that speeches that really resonated to the voters when you first had your candidate. pull those speeches and think about how to really tie into your tone of voice. and then also what's not working. why are people feeling this way about your candidate? so then then finding things

about their story that got people to want to elect them in the beginningdoing the opposite of what's not working. so that's a way that you can really have that pith moment before you even -- pivot moment before you even get back in the race. >> thank you. >> all right? we'll do one more question. >> all right. >> table 14. >> before i ask my question, i just want to tell you you're brilliant, and i loved the content of everything that you shared. >> thank you. >> my question would be for a candidate who is brand new, has never run a race before and creating the voice for that candidate. so this candidate not having the biggest social profile, what would be the bedrock of creating the voice for that kind of new face, new persona and their --

they're running for a seat that was occupied by an incumbent for almost 20 years, and this is the a statewide senate race, just to give kind of background. what would be the bedrock of building that voicesome. >> honestly, i would say -- voice? >> honestly, i would say your launch video. that is how you're going to really tell people how this person is different. so thinking about aoc. when she first ran, you remember how different she was from her opponent. and so being able to start with a dynamic launch video and just from day one, like, i am the difference, you know? i may not -- i'm not a career politician, you know? i'm starting from the beginning. i'm getting into this because x, y and is -- andz. that's how how you really capture people at the very beginning and get that buzz going. so launch day is huge. that's definitely a moment to test out your tone of voice because you're going to get all your surrogates together before launch day and say this is what we want to say to the world. you're going to get your social

media accounts up and just even if you only have your launch video, tell every single sur gate to post it. every group, every ally group, post it. but that launch video, i feel like it's going to be crucial to get the excitement. so if anything, if you're starting from ground zero, help them have a super powerful launch video, because that can really pivot and bring people together. .. you all have your seats so probably don't lose them. >> tnk you. >> earlier today interr secretary deb hland testified president biden's 2025 budget request for her agency. senate energy and natural resources committee. watch the full hearing tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on cspan or free mobile video app on

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