Executive Training

For twenty years, media training meant one thing. A CEO, a mock interview, a camera set up in a hotel conference room and a list of messages to memorize before the reporter arrived.

The reporter still arrives. It’s just no longer the main event.

Today’s executives are on camera constantly. A Zoom with the board. A LinkedIn video. A virtual panel. A town hall streamed to 4,000 employees. A podcast interview that lives on YouTube forever. A hearing clip posted before the witness leaves the room. Every one of those is a media moment, and most leaders walk into them with no preparation at all.

Executive training is the work I do to change that. It’s what media training became once leaders started living on screens.

On-camera and virtual presence. Framing, eye line, light, sound and the energy it takes to land on a laptop screen.

Media interviews. Print, broadcast and podcast, including the hostile interview and how to bridge back to your message.

Presentations and keynotes. Board and investor meetings, panels and conference stages.

Congressional testimony and policymaker meetings. Preparing for the room and for the clip that leaves it.

Town halls and internal communication. The audience leaders underrate until it leaks.

Crisis readiness. Who speaks, what they say and how fast.

Every engagement starts with a conversation, not a form. Before I build anything, I want to know what’s on your calendar: the board meeting in March, the hearing, the keynote, the interview you’ve been dreading. Training built around a real event sticks. Training in the abstract gets filed.

From there the work rests on The Source Method, the framework I’ve built over 25 years in Washington. Three ideas carry it: sound like yourself, say it clearly and build platforms you own. The goal is a leader reporters and audiences seek out.

You’ll know it’s working when you can state your core message in under 30 seconds with no filler. When a hard question becomes a bridge back to what matters. When you sound like yourself under pressure.

I learned this work from the inside. I traveled almost daily with New Jersey Acting Governor Donald T. DiFrancesco, including through September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. I worked in the Office of the Speaker for Speaker Dennis Hastert and managed communications at the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Republican National Committee.

Then I moved to the other side of the microphone. I host The Friday Reporter podcast and co-host The Deciders with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Brody Mullins. I know what makes a guest worth booking because I book them. I teach it to graduate students at George Washington University, too.

Individual coaching develops one leader’s voice: presence, polish and the confidence that only comes from practice. Team training aligns an organization’s voice, so every spokesperson from the CEO to the regional director tells the same story in their own words.

Sessions run as a full day, a half day or ongoing one-on-one coaching, in person in Washington, D.C. or virtually.

I work with trade associations, heads of Washington offices, leading D.C. CEOs and the executive communications officers who prepare them. What they say in public moves policy, markets and reputations. They can’t afford to wing it.

What’s the difference between executive training and media training? Media training prepares you for a reporter. Executive training prepares you for every camera, stage and screen you’ll face, the reporter included. Same fundamentals, wider scope, because that’s how leaders communicate now.

Do you train virtually? Yes. Virtual sessions are often the most useful ones, because that’s where most executives are seen.

How long is a training? A full day runs about six and a half hours. A half day runs about four. Ongoing coaching is scheduled around your calendar.

Do you work with clients outside Washington? Yes. Many clients are headquartered elsewhere and come to Washington, or bring me to them.

Have a big moment on the calendar? Let’s talk.