Raz Shafer
Raz Shafer
Never walk into a meeting or interview without knowing the Who, What and Why.
When you’re running for office, you’ve got to meet a lot of people. Donors, voters, interest groups, volunteers, the media and more. It’s really easy to fall into a pattern of taking meetings without a specific purpose in mind. Or without knowing what the other party’s purpose is.
Depending on the profile of your office and available time, it’s likely not going to be possible to write up a briefing sheet for every single meeting. But at the very least, you should take a few minutes to consider who you’re meeting with as well as ask “What” and “Why” for yourself and your counterpart.
What and Why relate to what each party wants to accomplish in that situation. When thinking about a donor, you’re clearly hoping that they’ll donate a specific amount of money for a discrete cause. From their perspective, however, they want to see certain solutions, ones you ostensibly also care about, be enacted.
How to Supercharge Your Voter Contact: Part 2 – Drew Ryun and Kris Shafer
This week we’re airing the second half of a two-part interview with Drew Ryun and Kris Shafer. They’re partners in Campaign Sidekick and have nearly 4 decades of political experience between them. Drew hired me to my first full-time political job and Kris is my younger brother. I’ve worked in the trenches with these guys for years and they’ve each got some fantastic advice to share.
In this, as the first half of our interview last week, you’re going to hear some exciting news about the evolution of Campaign Sidekick, learn proven strategies and tactics for voter contact you can deploy in the last few weeks of this election and find out how these guys got involved in politics. Their stories are unique but very similar in theme to many of the folks we’ve talked to on the podcast: they involve a lot of hard work.
This was a really fun interview for me to do with the guys and I think y’all will really enjoy it!
What You’ll Learn about Campaign Sidekick In This Episode:
[00:00] Podcast Introduction
[01:53] What Canvassing Management tips do you wish you’d known when you got started?
[11:55] How can campaigns keep their voter contact data clean?
[20:11] Where should campaigns get their voter data and does consumer data matter for targeting?
[27:12] How can campaigns avoid fear of failure and what does that mean?
[30:43] What matters MOST in a canvassing interaction with a voter?
[34:49] Final tips for campaigns and how to finish strong in the final weeks of the campaign
[37:53] Conclusion and outro
Links from the Podcast:
Connect with Campaign Sidekick on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Check out their website at www.campaignsidekick.vote.
How to Supercharge Your Voter Contact: Part 1 – Drew Ryun and Kris Shafer
This week we’re airing the first of a two-part interview with Drew Ryun and Kris Shafer. They’re partners in Campaign Sidekick and have nearly 4 decades of political experience between them. Drew hired me to my first full-time political job and Kris is my younger brother. I’ve worked in the trenches with these guys for years and they’ve each got some fantastic advice to share.
In this, and the second half of our interview next week, you’re going to hear some exciting news about the evolution of Campaign Sidekick, learn proven strategies and tactics for voter contact you can deploy in the last few weeks of this election and find out how these guys got involved in politics. Their stories are unique but very similar in theme to many of the folks we’ve talked to on the podcast: they involve a lot of hard work.
This was a really fun interview for me to do with the guys and I think y’all will really enjoy it!
Never overreact. Take a breath, make a plan and stick to it.
Here’s today’s tip: Never overreact. Take a breath, make a plan and stick to it.
Whether in politics specifically or life generally, overreaction can turn a benign situation into a catastrophe. As a candidate or campaign manager, your patience and attention are frequently pushed to the limit. Consequently, when that limit is passed, tempers often flare and less than judicious decisions are made.
Train yourself to feel the precursors of anger or frustration. Establish a trigger. For me, it’s often a taste in my mouth and a tightening of my chest. Perhaps accompanied by a, “are you effing serious?!” in the back of my head.
When I feel that reaction boiling up, I know that my lesser angels are jettisoning my plan and overreacting out of anger.