ITK Radio | John Hall | Communications + Fundraising

On this episode of ITK Radio, a conversation with John Hall.

John is one of the premier online fundraising and lead generation experts in America.

He's collected over 48 million individual contributions and raised over $1.5 billion.

John has consulted for Presidential campaigns, international charitable organizations, national political committees, and dozens of senatorial, gubernatorial, and congressional campaigns.

You can find John on LinkedIn here.

 
 

Insights + Ideas:

+ The benefits of working on a campaign to understand the life cycle of a candidate and how to ask voters to vote for your campaign

+ Campaign work forces you to work and think fast

+ How a fundraiser gets hired by a campaign and a candidate

+ The care and feeding of donors and keeping them happy

+ Developing the fundraising effort and the differences between presidential, senatorial, gubernatorial, and congressional campaigns

+ Candidate fundraising is more personality-driven

+ Answering what a fundraising strategy does

+ The power of Drudge News to drive fundraising messaging

+ You can see the results of your fundraising pitch in minutes

+ How low-dollar fundraising has changed American politics

+ The fundraising gap between Democrats and Republicans

+ AI will change donor prospecting and the ability to find new donors

+ Competition to get and keep a donor's attention

Ructions | Situation normal

On this episode of Ructions with Ross + Ashley, Marc Ross + Gerald Ashley discuss the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Biden + Zelenskyy vs Putin + Xi, energy policies and demands, Keir Starmer, sports television, plus what they are reading and watching.

Timestamps:

1:12 | Ukrainian counteroffensive

9:29 | Biden + Zelenskyy vs Putin + Xi

11:04 | Energy policies + energy demands

18:45 | Keir Starmer

26:06 | Sports TV

33:35 | Reading + watching

Reading + Watching List:

Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor

Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix

The Gold: The Inside Story by BBC

Zero to One by Blake Masters and Peter Thiel

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland by BBC

Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone by Adam Curtis + BBC

Material World by Ed Conway

ITK Radio | Matt Mackowiak

On this episode of ITK Radio, a conversation with Matt Mackowiak.

Matt has served in senior communications roles in the Bush White House, at the US Department of Homeland Security, as a Press Secretary for two US Senators, and served in a leadership role on the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in Iowa.

He is a columnist for The Washington Times, Townhall, and The Washington Examiner, and regularly provides political analysis for Fox News, Fox Business, BBC, CBC, and other outlets.

Since 2011, he has managed a boutique, high-stakes corporate communications advising firm with client accounts in transportation, health care, energy, telecommunications, and tech.

Matt graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in political communication in 2003.

He and his wife, Amy, live in the Northwest Hills neighborhood of Austin with their spoiled rescue dog, Hope.

You can find Matt on LinkedIn here.

 
 

Insights + Ideas:

+ For the 12th consecutive year, the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown metro area was the fastest-growing region in the United States among large metros.

+ Working communications at national and local levels

+ The power of being a niche

+ The need for comms pro to be current on news, developments, and politics

+ "communications at its core it is taking complex stuff and making it simple"

+ How being a communications practitioner helps to be a communications advisory

+ For good comms, getting clear from the client on what they are trying to achieve and how they define success

+ Handling high-profile principals and big egos

+ "a good communicator (is someone who) can you parachute into a situation and be useful, valuable, and educated quickly"

+ "confidence is always backed up by knowledge"

+ Understanding what opposition research is

+ Digital media is only going to become more important

+ The pros and cons of the Ron DeSantis presidential campaign launch of Twitter Spaces

+ When will podcasts compete with traditional AM radio?

Read: News Items | John Ellis

Read: Michael Shellenberger Substack

Read: Must Read Texas Substack