Putting Your Best Word Forward 💬

When your role revolves around regularly engaging others, especially those that are likeminded to you and your efforts, it’s important to also make sure that you’re engaging those who don’t share the same views so that you ensure you’re spreading your message widely. Good communication can be a form of non-violent protest; by pushing narratives you can make individuals empathize with advocacy efforts and in essence “win them over.”

In my role as Hustle’s Support Lead, I spend my day to day navigating communication pain points to achieve resolutions, something I’ve learned a great deal about outside of my professional role in my community role as an activist who also has to use communication tactics to engage and mobilize supporters through difficult conversations. Below are some things that I’ve learned along the way:

What I’ve Learned
Recently I’ve noticed that there are parallels between how I approach handling support issues and handy organizer practices used by those who use Hustle. The most important similarity I’ve noticed across both of these situations, is the process of building trust and a genuine rapport by being authentic and personable.

I often find that an informal tone and short, straightforward message can relax the recipient’s perception of me and increase their trust that I’m a real, reliable person just like them. By using emojis and brief scripts, you can be direct and attach a softer context to your messages. In essence, design the script to look, sound, and feel like a casual text.

For example:

• Being too formal as opposed to being more engaging:
• Don’t: “Hello, this is Jessica with Impact Now. Please contact your senator to vote no on referendum ABC. Thank you.
• Do: Hi <name>, this is Jessica w/ Impact Now! 👊🏽 We need your help in calling Senator Person to vote NO on ABC, can we count on you?

For more complicated situations such as when someone writes in with a support issue, instead of responding to someone with an apology, try these:

• “Thank you for reaching out! I’ll be happy to help you with your issue right away. :)”
• “Thank you very much for your patience! We’ll try to get to the bottom of this asap!”
• “Thanks for meeting with me to discuss this topic”
• “Thanks for hearing me out.”

Using opening lines like those featured above will help ease both parties into a collaboration steered toward a shared solution. When you reframe the dialogue as a team effort rather than challenging someone or assuming a right/wrong frame — whether it’s in a support ticket or a Hustle text — both sides can feel validated and make meaningful progress.

For more tips like this, be sure to read through our Best Practices Guide for some insight in better outreach and more genuine communication.