Rally Comms

Corporate speak avoids trouble but costs trust and opportunity. Bland, rounded language is hard to get in trouble for, so companies optimize for the wrong thing, and new hires keep it alive by copying their predecessors. Surveys show people don't trust corporations; Lulu says the only way to build trust is vulnerability, personality and honesty.

She compares corporate phrasing to pasting chunks of code instead of writing from scratch, citing phrases like "regret to inform you" and "individuals" (why not just say people?).

How I Write

Read a draft aloud to expose language no person would say. Words you would never say are hard to get out of your mouth; Lulu suggests saying the line to someone in your family and feeling the cringe.

The habit also trains your ear for cadence and rhythm, so it improves writing generally.

How I Write

A company earns affinity by feeling like part of its customers' community. Lulu advises hiring people from the customer base so the company feels familiar and on the same side, "a company of the people, by the people." Its writing then carries an unwritten atmosphere of what it would or wouldn't do.

She frames this as a modern shift: bottom-up community replaced the era of three TV channels and one message.

How I Write

Settle a crisis statement's core and approval path before the crisis. Audience and priorities are known in advance, so the main pillars are ready and filling in details on the day is "like mad libs." Name the three people to consult on high-stakes items and keep the approval loop as small as possible.

She likens it to a soldier who knows when to fire without calling the general: a shared doctrine on goals and audiences removes the need to micromanage.

How I Write

Aim each statement at one dominant emotion, three at most. "People are simple animals," so the win is a dominant feeling, a dominant message and a dominant urge to act.

Good writing creates feeling while the writer stays sober: bottle the emotion, step back, then mix it into something fit for public consumption, without letting sobriety turn dry.

How I Write

A visible person can ask for trust where an LLC cannot. Sometimes you must "grab the lapels of people" and ask them to take your word for it, which they will do for a person but not a corporation.

It doesn't work every time. Lulu says her work sits where her own personality and the company's overlap.

How I Write

Answer repeated cheap shots once, calmly, using tit for two tats. In a repeated game Lulu favors tit for two tats over reflexive tit for tat, responding only to egregious or recurring attacks with what she calls "second strike capability."

The goal is to change the incentives of people who are cruel or dishonest; tit for tat is emotion, a punch thrown before thinking.

How I Write

Stories beat statistics, so don't fight a story with data. An accusation is usually a story and a defense usually a statistic: free trade has the data, its critics have the laid-off corn farmer. "If you're fighting a story with a statistic, you're always losing."

Lulu says the arc people resonate with most is the Christian one: an ideal, a fall, a solution, a return.

How I Write

Framing changes decisions even when every version is true. In the ultimatum game, "I'm giving you 60" lands differently from "I'm keeping 40"; a pot of gold can be "we found it," "we earned it" or "you earned it."

Lulu briefly worked in a behavioral psychology lab and treats even asking for 10 minutes of attention as an offer to frame.

How I Write

Attach a new idea to something the audience already cares about. Lulu calls these "cultural erogenous zones": you can't change them, so you build a bridge. Kamala Harris tied school reading levels to defense because the army requires a 10th grade reading level.

Bold ideas are welcome; the bridge is a gateway that lets people make room for them, as The Last of Us show sent viewers back to the games.

How I Write

Underdogs win by reaching centers of gravity and building their own channels. Drawing on counterinsurgency, which she studied in grad school, Lulu says to win the village leaders and elders who carry an idea outward, and to build distribution rather than relying on powers you threaten, such as government or media.

She points to Christianity, which spread from a tiny place through trusted carriers, mediums people liked and very clear actions. Watching incumbents' attacks on Substack speed up is part of why she joined it.

How I Write

Let the size of the ask set the size of the audience. A small ask can go to a mass audience; a million-dollar ask means calling three people and spending six months on each.

Newsletter writers cull non-openers because a smaller list of true believers forwards your work. Illegible channels like Joe Rogan hold distribution advantages that mainstream media underestimate.

How I Write

Repeat one memorable slogan, then add depth to it over time. Bezos repeats "focus on the customer" and "day one" in the same words, then layers meaning through shareholder letters and speeches; his building is named Day One and every letter links to the 1997 one.

Slogans stick because they are easy to recall and mark tribe membership; rhyme makes people more convinced.

How I Write

Ideas spread furthest when believers carry them as identity. Bitcoin has no comms department yet evangelists spread it for free; community makes the identity stickier, as with K-pop fandoms.

Lulu says a brand is the average of the founder, the company and the person telling a friend.

How I Write