Ideagen Radio
Ideagen Radio
Mastering Political Communication: Sean Spicer on Strategy, Social Media, and Leadership Challenges
Unlock the secrets of high-stakes communication with none other than Sean Spicer, former White House Press Secretary and master strategist. Ever wondered how communication can shift the course of political landscapes or influence public discourse? Our conversation with Sean unveils the fine line between tactics and strategy and highlights the power of a goal-oriented approach. From his invaluable experiences in Washington, DC, to the technological tidal wave transforming how messages are conveyed, Sean sheds light on how democratized platforms like social media provide unprecedented opportunities to engage with a polarized world.
Sean doesn't just talk the talk; he walks us through real-life examples of leadership challenges and the importance of strategic buy-in. With insights from his time at the RNC, you'll learn the intricate dance of defining problems, proposing solutions, and rallying stakeholders to turn vision into reality. Plus, Sean invites you to explore his dynamic digital presence with interactive YouTube shows and a twice-weekly newsletter, offering a front-row seat to his ongoing projects and lively discussions. Whether you're an aspiring communicator or a seasoned pro, Sean's insights are your guide to navigating the complex world of political communication.
#SeanSpicerShow #Ideagen #GLS2025
Sean's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spicersean/
Learn more about the Sean Spicer Show here: https://www.seanspicer.com/s/the-sean-spicer-show
View the entire 2024 Global Leadership Summit here: https://www.ideagenglobal.com/2025globalleadershipsummit
Welcome to IdeaGen TV live from Washington DC. Honored and privileged to have a fellow Rhode Islander here, fellow colleague in the White House, sean Spicer. Sean, welcome, good to see you. Thanks for having me. Great to see you here, looking good as always. So you've enjoyed an extensive career in communications. You've done a lot. You've been press secretary, white House press secretary. You have your own show. You. You know how to communicate and you've been in the White House, like I mentioned, and the Republican National Committee, nrcc. I remember those days a long time ago. I'm dating you. It's not possible because you're still 20. But you know, sean, what is the key to effective communication.
Speaker 2:A couple things. I think too many times people confuse tactics with strategy. So they'll say okay, let's put out a press release, let's send a tweet. You have to have with strategy. So they'll say okay, let's put out a press release, let's send a tweet. You have to have a strategy, where do you want to end up? And then work backwards, right. So too many times people focus on the tactic and they'll want to hey, we should get the boss to give a speech, we should go out and do that. Those are all tactics. It's sort of like building a house and just saying, okay, let's go, bunch of boards, you have to have a plan, you have to know where you want to go, where you want to end up. And too many times I think people chase the tactic and don't have a comprehensive strategy.
Speaker 2:So in a crisis situation obviously today we're dealing with a tragedy there's a lot of groups that are like let's get something out. Why, why are you doing that? What's the goal? Who's the audience? And think backwards what are you trying to actually affect change with? Is it that you want an audience to know something?
Speaker 2:Because I think too often people just literally uh, I had a phrase during media training. Too many people put the secretary and press secretary so they'll pick up the phone and they'll be like hey, tell the boss, oh, there's a reporter from the washington post that wants to talk to you. Okay, well, a secretary does that. There's no element of strategy or thought that have gone into that. Why do do they want to talk to you? Should you talk to them? What's the message you want to get out? And too often it's just oh well, I don't know. They called and, like I said, anyone can answer a phone and do that. Good communicators think through the process and the strategy that they want to end up at and work backwards that they want to end up at and work backwards.
Speaker 1:You know that's incredibly insightful, and so what methodologies do you use, do you employ when crafting messages to ensure it's impactful and can resonate with different audiences and stakeholders?
Speaker 2:So I think, again, part of it is to understand what their goals are. What are they trying to achieve? So, like in a place like DC, is it that you want to elevate your status, you want to be part of the conversation, you want to be a player in a policy discussion? That's a very different thing than trying to change the outcome of a specific policy, right? So a lot of times you get a CEO of an association and they want to elevate their status within maybe DC or within the community, within Capitol Hill, within maybe DC or within the community within Capitol Hill. But that's very different than, hey, we have a bill or a piece of legislation that we're trying to stop, and so part of it is making sure that everyone agrees on the goal. What is it that you're actually trying to do, or stop, or amplify, and then take stock of what you have?
Speaker 2:Not everybody's good on television and part of it is risk. Right, it's like investing. You sometimes will sit down with the broker and they'll say, okay, what's your degree of risk? How much do you want to get out there? When do you need your investments to mature by, et cetera. Well, the same thing's true with stakeholders in a communications fight.
Speaker 2:Some of them are like I want to do all this, but I don't want to say anything. I don't want us to be public about it. It's like, okay, well, that's not going to happen. So part of it is to be realistic with the folks as far as what is it going to take to do that? Who are the people that you have? And one of the things I like to tell clients once in a while is like sometimes you can have a coach, but you need players. So I can sit back and say, hey, I can tell you what to do, what we need to happen, but there's got to be other players on the field. So maybe it's the CEO, maybe it's some other outside stakeholders, board members, whatever but you've got to have a team. It's not just hiring one person and going OK, it's a quick fix.
Speaker 1:You know it's, it's an interesting time in Washington and around the world. What, what are some of the ways you can overcome the challenges in a polarizing environment in terms of communication?
Speaker 2:Well, never before have so many tools been at people's disposal. When I first got into the business, if you wanted to go do a bunch of TV hits, you had to go to a television studio. You could even do satellite tours, but they had to be. I mean, you can do a satellite tour pretty much off your own computer these days if you've got strong internet and a good background and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:The ability to communicate through social media channels and everything else has allowed anybody to have the opportunity to engage, and so part of it is using the tools available to you in an effective way. So part of it is using the tools available to you in an effective way, and so it used to be. You know, hey, if you wanted to get involved in the conversation, you had to go buy, you know, a thousand points of TV in certain markets. Now you can do it with a lot more effective and accountable ways. What I mean by that is you know Nielsen will tell you, if you buy a thousand points of TV, the average viewer sees it seven times. They can't prove that, it's just, it's a guess.
Speaker 1:Sorry, TV people.
Speaker 2:But the consultants get 15% of the buy so they love it. But when you do digital tactics, you can geo-target who you want. You can look at the demographics of who you want and you can find out did they click, Did they act, Did they do something? So it's not saying that one's better than another, but part of it is now figuring out what you're trying to achieve, who the audience is, and having some degree of accountability.
Speaker 1:Incredible. So what's the most valuable lesson you've learned? Managing high stakes communications.
Speaker 2:I think what I said at the beginning, which is to know your principle, know what their goals are and be clear on them. So we, usually when I'm engaged with them, I'll write a plan and be like do we agree that this is what we want to do? This is how we want to do it, so that when you go back, that there's no misunderstanding, because too often I think people come out and say like, oh my God, I saw that I always tell people to use the investment strategy. Again, it's not all guaranteed upside right. So you punch a story out.
Speaker 2:You might bring some people out of the woodwork that suddenly ate on you or oppose what you're doing, and so explaining the risk to them, making sure that they understand that not everything is send something out. Everybody loves you. And also to to manage that like there are people who will watch something and say, oh, I should go on television. I should just, could you just get me on Fox? Like, yeah, sure, yeah, it also gives you a balloon ride over the Washington monument. I mean it just that's not how it away. It's like that's not. You know, there's a degree of reality when it comes to the goals and the expectations and you've got to make sure that everyone's clear on what those are.
Speaker 1:So what lessons? You've worked in government. You work with corporate leaders. What lessons can each learn from each other in terms of effective communication?
Speaker 2:Well, one. You know everyone's got a role to play. Lawyers have a role to play. Your policy people have a role to play and understand like bring your communicators in. What are your goals? What are you trying to do?
Speaker 2:But I find, you know, I watch a lot of law and order, so I always think that I can be a lawyer, but I can't. And it's the same thing with what we do. It's a profession and too many times good organizations bring the communicators in at the front end hey, this is what we're trying to do. Can you help craft a plan to do it? But on the flip side, I've been part of several organizations where it's like okay, so what we did is we sent this thing out, Now can you fix it? It's like trying to put the genie back in the bottle and that doesn't work. It doesn't work like that. And so good organizations understand that everyone's got a role to play and respect the role of what the communications team is supposed to be doing. Bad ones go ahead and do stuff and then try to get people to say, ok, now fix it or mold it, whatever. And once the ship has sailed, there's only so much you can do.
Speaker 1:Sean, you've worked with a lot of leaders across the spectrum, across sectors, across Washington and around the world. What would you say are some of the key qualities that you've seen that are essential for effective leadership?
Speaker 2:It depends. So I mean, I spent 26 years in the military and there's a different ethos there, which you know. Taking care of your sailors, in my case in the Navy, is critical. If you want employees to respect you and to work hard. They have to feel like there's value in what they're doing. And so knowing your people, knowing what they do, knowing how they contribute, knowing how to motivate them I mean there's simple little things that you can do to highlight people's work, knowing your own strengths and weaknesses, like you have to be able to do like a SWOT analysis of yourself what are you good at, what are you not good at and trust the people that can build that team up right. So I find the best leaders are the ones that empower you and recognize their strengths and their weaknesses.
Speaker 1:That's great and I agree You're a leader. This is more of a personal question, but what is an example of a leadership challenge that you have overcome that you can share with our global audience, and how you achieved it through effective communication?
Speaker 2:Just trying to think off the top of my head. Look, when I was at the RNC in the latter part of my tenure there, we recognized several big problems that the party had and we went out, gathered the right people together, figured out how to get buy-in Because that's the other thing. Part of this is, when you have an issue, getting the buy-in from the right people is what matters. And so we went out and reformed the entire primary debate process because we explained the problem really well. We gave them a solution. So when we present the problem, half the time a good leader will go and say we've got a problem, here's how I think we can solve it. What do you guys think? Let's get some buy-in If you just simply say, hey, here's the problem, you're going to get a. You know everyone in the world is going to have an opinion. You're going to get 50 different directions and not buy in.
Speaker 2:So what we were able to do in that particular situation is we knew we had a problem. We knew the party was losing its grip on something. We devised a solution that we thought was a smart one. We figured out who the right people were that we need to get buy in from and then sort of got them to get in with us on the solution and ultimately it was an unbelievable, huge success. But part of it was the process by which we did that. If you walk into a room and just tell everyone here's what we're doing, you might be successful 50% of the time at most. But I think if you get the buy-in from them as to that they feel like they're bought into the problem that exists and the direction that you want to go, your degree of success, of having success will be a lot higher.
Speaker 1:Incredible insight, incredible. And a final question for you, which is what is your call to action for our global audience? You're a communicator, you're a leader, you've served in our nation and thank you for your service. What is it that you would say? The one thing that you would say look, this is essential. This is essential for communicating effectively.
Speaker 2:Well, again, I would go back to know what you want to accomplish. I mean, anyone can make noise, especially in these days. You can send out tweets, you can put out statements, you can do videos, but you have to know where you want to go. And too many times, like I said, I see people just throwing tactics at a wall and then hoping that it gets them somewhere. I mean, sometimes you might actually be somewhat successful in that, but if you don't know where you want to go, then people aren't going to follow you. Number one, and your likelihood of success is pretty small. Because it's like waking up and getting into a car, just you know, starting to drive and hope that you end up exactly where you wanted to go, without a map, without a destination in mind, without a map, without a destination in mind. I mean, maybe you might get lucky and be happy where you end up, but the odds are pretty good that if you don't do any of the planning, you don't have a set of where you want to end up.
Speaker 1:I don't want to disparage a state, but who knows where you end up. Fair Sean, how do people learn more about your work and what you're doing?
Speaker 2:You can send cash. So my website is se, seanspicercom. Do a newsletter twice a week. It's free. You can always become a VIP member. And then I've got two shows on YouTube, my YouTube channel. Every night One is live at 9 o'clock every morning Myself, mark Halpern, a guy named Dan Turrentine, who was a Capitol Hill chief of staff. He worked for Hillary Clinton and it's the only live interactive show about politics. So for a half hour we talk about the issues of the day and then we take questions from anyone around the world. It's actually unbelievably unique. We've got a live event Sunday night in DC and then at six o'clock, same channel. I have a tape show which is a little bit more political. But two shows, both on my YouTube channel that you're always free to go to. Just go to YouTube, sean Spicer, just get past all the Melissa McCarthy stuff. You get there.
Speaker 1:Sean Spicer. Thank you so much.