My Campaign Coach Minute

Here’s today’s tip: Titles for staff and volunteers are free and make people feel important. Money is tight on the campaign trail…but you need quality staff. When you can’t pay people what you’d like, make sure you consider what else might be of value to them that’s free or cheap to you! One of my […] The post Titles for staff and volunteers are free and make people feel important. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: “Big Jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow the small ones.” – Teddy Roosevelt Teddy was right about many things and this quote nails it. If you want the big job, prove you’re not afraid of the small ones. We see this truth both in religious and […] The post Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow the small ones. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: Get-Out-The-Vote may be the last phase of the campaign but should be planned at the beginning. Planning campaigns backwards may be counter-intuitive but it’s critically important. Doing so will allow you to set specific, measured goals, plan accurately for required resources and better anticipate the obstacles or challenges that can frustrate your […] The post Get-Out-The-Vote may be the last phase of the campaign but should be planned at the beginning. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: When scheduling the candidate, anchor on events and fill in with canvassing, fundraising and small groups. Scheduling the candidate’s time efficiently is among the most important recurring jobs on the campaign trail. From within and without the campaign, everybody will seem to be pulling the candidate in different directions, so whoever is […] The post When scheduling the candidate, anchor on events and fill in with canvassing, fundraising and small groups. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: Buy URLs you want to use AND ones you don’t want your opponent to use against you. Buy theirs too! I bought RazShafer.com when I was about 18 years old and that started a URL buying binge. As the internet was coming of age and I learned more about search engine optimization, […] The post Buy URLs you want to use AND ones you don’t want your opponent to use against you. Buy theirs too! appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: Always make sure your campaign mailing address is listed on your website donation page. In a world dominated by digital content and online fundraising, traditional mail and physical checks often get forgotten. I was recently putting together a list of candidates for a donor who wanted to know whom to support. This […] The post Always make sure your campaign mailing address is listed on your website donation page. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: “The dignity of a prime minister, like a lady’s virtue, is not susceptible to partial diminution.” – Winston Churchill As most of y’all know, I’m a huge fan of Winston Churchill. And as soon as I saw this quote from him, its truth resonated with me strongly. I’d imagine that after hearing […] The post “The dignity of a prime minister, like a lady’s virtue, is not susceptible to partial diminution.” – Winston Churchill appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: Hire a professional to execute thorough opposition research and a vulnerability study early in the campaign. There are a lot of areas within campaigns where I routinely encourage campaigns to keep things in-house. In a lot of cases, you’re able to save money and achieve an equal or greater quality level in […] The post Hire a professional to execute thorough opposition research and a vulnerability study early in the campaign. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: “I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.” Adlai Stevenson This tongue in cheek quote from Adlai Stevenson perfectly captures the feelings of many candidates. But it also brings into perspective a central question of campaign strategy: “How […] The post I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them. – Adlai Stevenson appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: Every candidate should have daily and weekly goals for fundraising calls and door knocks. What are yours? Galileo, the famous scientist and astronomer once said, “Measure what is measurable and make measurable what is not so.” When we set goals without a plan for easily tracking progress, failure is all but guaranteed. […] The post Every candidate should have daily and weekly goals for fundraising calls and door knocks. What are yours? appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: Be accessible. If voters and supporters can’t reach you on the campaign trail, they’ll doubt they will once you’re elected. One of the perennial complaints about elected officials is their lack of accessibility. We talk about them getting caught in a bubble of their own creation or shunning the hoi polloi. If […] The post Be accessible. If voters and supporters can’t reach you on the campaign trail, they’ll doubt they will once you’re elected. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: It’s virtually impossible to practice a speech too much. Practice. Practice. Practice. Have you ever heard somebody give a speech and said to yourself, “They really spent too much time practicing that!” I’m fairly confident I can’t answer that question in the affirmative. Recently I had the opportunity to give a high […] The post It’s virtually impossible to practice a speech too much. Practice. Practice. Practice. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

I’m a huge fan of the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. If you haven’t read it, you should. One of the central points of the book is how important it is that a leader take ownership over their entire sphere of responsibility. As a candidate, you are a leader of your […] The post The Candidate sets the tone for their Campaign’s work ethic and motivation. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

It’s an old saying in the legal profession that any man who chooses to represent himself in court has a fool for a client. The same is true of a candidate who decides to be his or her own campaign manager. I’m not just talking about someone who actually makes a conscious decision to manage […] The post Never be your own campaign manager. You’ll suck at both jobs. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Time, Treasurer and Talent are the three primary resources every campaign relies on. Treasurer and Talent are renewable resources but Time is not. A good campaign can always raise at least a little more money and recruit more volunteers but I don’t care how awesome you are, you can’t turn back the clock. This means […] The post There’s no such thing as starting a campaign too early. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Do you like begging for money? Probably not. I sure don’t. And at the beginning of my work fundraising, that’s exactly how it felt. It wasn’t until I had a change in the way I perceived the work that I started feeling differently about raising money. What happened was that I stopped viewing fundraising as […] The post Nobody is a better fundraiser than the candidate. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

When was the last time you said something you shouldn’t have in frustration or anger? You may not be able to remember a specific instance but I’m betting it wasn’t that long ago. Even if you aren’t particularly prone to outbursts of anger, if you’re anything like me, you slip up every now and then. […] The post Never snap at your staff. If you do, apologize quickly. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: Money in your account when the polls closed is wasted. We lost the first election I ever helped in because we didn’t give it everything. I can’t remember what the financial balance was when the polls closed, but I know we metaphorically had “something left in the tank” individually. We could have […] The post Money in your account when the polls closed is wasted. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: Don’t call a voter before 9am or after 9pm. Throughout the campaign, you’ll be working non-stop to identify, persuade and turn out voters. Every minute counts but some minutes are off limits for certain types of contact. I recommend keeping you set 9am and 9pm as the outer bounds of your phone […] The post Don’t call a voter before 9am or after 9pm. appeared first on My Campaign Coach.

Here’s today’s tip: His chest is a cage in which two squirrels are at war – his conscience and his career. This quote comes from Winston Churchill, one of the 20th Century’s greatest statesmen and a personal hero of mine. He made an art of turning phrases and this is among my favorites. In describing […] The post His chest is a cage in which two squirrels are at war – his conscience and his career. – Winston Churchill appeared first on My Campaign Coach.