A Conversation with Joe Romm and Free Range

Joseph J. Romm is an author, physicist, and founding editor of ClimateProgress.org, which columnist Tom Friedman called “the indispensable blog.” Rolling Stone Magazine named Romm one of its “100 people who are changing America.” He is a former acting assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and the author of nine books including Language Intelligence: Lessons on Persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln and Lady Gaga. “This book changed my life, and it can change yours, too,” CNN’s Van Jones has said. “Joe Romm understands the secrets of persuasion and messaging and he has distilled them into this must-read book.”

Free Range had an opportunity to ask a few questions of Dr. Romm about what purpose-driven organizations must do to get their message heard in an uncertain, rapidly evolving landscape.

Free Range: Why should companies and NGOs care about messaging anyway?

Romm: Messaging and strategic communications should always be a priority, since a consistent and winning message is the only way to cut through the information overload people have in our multi-platform, 24/7 world.

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” These words, attributed to Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher Sun Tzu, encapsulate the essence of his famous must-read book, “The Art of War.

You need to have the right message and you need to know how to deliver it.

For SMBs and NGOs, this is always a challenge. A winning strategy and superior messaging will win every time.

Free Range: What can small companies and NGOs do to ensure their voices are heard?

Romm: Businesses and NGOs need to stand up for the values they stand for, to provide clarity and consistency to consumers.

For those who think their key messages have already been heard, the social science literature, including the vast literature on advertising and marketing, could not be clearer that only endlessly repeated messages have any chance of sinking in and moving the needle, as I discuss in “Language Intelligence.”

One of the book’s most popular quotes is from wordmeister Frank Luntz, arguably the GOP’s top messaging strategist: “There’s a simple rule: You say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and then again and again and again and again, and about the time that you’re absolutely sick of saying it is about the time that your target audience has heard it for the first time.”

For small companies and NGOs, messaging at a national level will be challenging, requiring the innovative use of social media.

Focusing on state and localized campaigns may have more impact. It will also be important for forward thinking companies and NGOs to work closer together in certain areas.

Take the residential solar industry for example, with all the state level policy differences adding confusion, solar companies can do a better job telling their vision for the future. As these organizations transition from startups to more mature companies, they can do more to explain how easy it is to go solar these days. The future state of solar is something that storytelling and communications can help people better understand.

Free Range: Where do organizations go awry in building their brands and creating movements?

Romm: Many organizations forget that if you are not telling stories, you are not communicating to the public, pure and simple.

“Numbers numb, stories sell,” explains Ed Maibach, director of George Mason’s Center for Climate Change Communication. “We don’t deal well with numbers, it tends to suspend our sense of emotion, but we respond very, very well to stories. Individual stories will almost always trump a litany of statistics.”

If this wasn’t clear to everyone before this recent election, it should be now. Whatever you think of Donald Trump, few can match his ability to brand himself and others, to create and sell a story, and to repeat his core messages endlessly.

If Trump can sell his perspective by virtue of his expertise in branding and messaging, imagine how well you — a company or NGO — could do with the right story and strategy tied to the values you and your customers stand for.

But the secrets of storytelling and persuasive messaging are not taught in schools any more. “The subtle art of combining the various elements that separately mean nothing and collectively mean so much in an harmonious proportion is known to very few,” as Winston Churchill wrote over a century ago in an unpublished essay called “The Scaffolding of Rhetoric.”

That is why people who want to take advantage of the power of storytelling need help from organizations that have a proven track record of success.

At Free Range, we bring business innovation and creative to small and mid-sized businesses and NGOs. We help clients build brands, start movements, innovate, grow and navigate change. We work smart and work relentlessly to do good by you, your community and the world. Get in touch at freerange.com.