Navigating comms and PR | Lulu Cheng Meservey (Substack, Activision Blizzard)

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

March 23, 2023

Duration

1h 3m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Lulu Cheng Meservey was formerly head of comms at Substack (where I host my newsletter and podcast) and is currently the Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer at Activision Blizzard. She also writes one of my favorite newsletters, “Flack,” where she shares tactical advice for company comms, PR, and messaging. In today’s episode, we dive deep into the world of PR and comms. We discuss why taking risks is crucial, how to gain attention as an underdog, and why it’s important to have a super-specific audience. Lulu outlines several frameworks I’d never heard of before, including a concentric circles framework for identifying your audience, the cultural erogenous zones, and even a physics-based framework for comms. — Brought to you by AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech | Public—Invest in stocks, treasuries, crypto, and more | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/navigating-comms-and-pr-lulu-cheng Where to find Lulu Cheng Meservey:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lulumeservey
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lulu-cheng-meservey/
• Newsletter: https://www.getflack.com/

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:

• “Binders full of women”: Mitt Romney’s four words that alienated women voters: https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2012/oct/17/binders-full-of-women-romneys-four-words
• Bill Bishop’s newsletter on Substack: https://www.sinocism.com/
• Hamish McKenzie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hamishmckenzie
• The Network State: How to Start a New Country: https://www.amazon.com/Network-State-How-Start-Country-ebook/dp/B09VPKZR3G
• How to increase virality: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/increasing-virality
• Ryan Petersen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/typesfast
• Brian Armstrong on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong
• Palmer Luckey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey
• Pirate Wires: https://www.piratewires.com/
• NYX: https://www.nyxcosmetics.com/
• Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae: https://www.amazon.com/Gates-Fire-Novel-Battle-Thermopylae/dp/055338368X
• The Last of Us on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us
• Notion: https://www.notion.so/
• Lex: https://lex.page/

In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Lulu’s background (04:36) What helps an idea spread (06:17) Mitt Romney’s “binders full of women” (07:19) Advice for coming up with contagious phrasing (08:36) Lulu’s esoteric reference that left her Twitter followers confused (11:08) The importance of taking risks, and Lulu’s thread on standing for free speech (12:53) An example of another sticky phrase (14:40) The cultural erogenous zones framework (16:08) How Kamala Harris made people care about education (17:29) How to get attention as the underdog (20:25) How Substack used the concentric circles framework to spread information (21:32) Understanding the layers in those concentric circles (25:44) How to get started figuring out your concentric circles (27:03) An example of aligning messaging with people’s values (28:19) Lulu’s mathematical formula framework for comms for a purpose (28:54) A physics-based framework for comms (35:56) How Balaji Srinivasan used the concentric circles approach with his book The Network State (39:46) The importance of a super-specific audience (41:12) Reasons your comms are failing (42:40) Why you should focus on one direct communication channel at first (46:58) Why not every founder needs to be on Twitter (48:02) Who LinkedIn works better for (49:23) Examples of messaging with a human voice and hopping on trends quickly (51:11) Reasons for direct comms (53:52) How to get started setting up a direct channel (56:09) Why consistent, good content is better than trying to go viral (59:28) Lightning round Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Lulu Cheng Meservey

  guest

• Lenny Rachitsky

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Lulu Cheng Meservey and Lenny Rachitsky, Navigating comms and PR | Lulu Cheng Meservey (Substack, Activision Blizzard) explores how Underdogs Win: Lulu Meservey’s Playbook for High-Impact Comms Lulu Meservey shares a tactical, framework-heavy approach to communications and PR, focused on making ideas spread, taking smart risks, and bypassing traditional gatekeepers. She explains how to craft sticky messages, identify and hit your audience’s “cultural erogenous zones,” and build influence by going direct rather than relying solely on legacy media. For underdog startups, she emphasizes concentrating effort on narrow, high-leverage audiences, using concentric circles of influence and physics-inspired “pressure” thinking. Throughout, she grounds theory in examples from Substack, politics, consumer brands, and prominent founders, offering a practical blueprint for founders and product leaders who want their ideas to travel further.

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