I will say this until I am blue in the face. DEMOCRATS HAVE TO GET BETTER AT MESSAGING. And this includes tugging at the heartstrings and telling stories. Most political ads for both sides are predominantly written by white men who write polling language that regurgitates the same old talking points and then draft campaign messaging based on those polling results.

Running for office is similar to solving a giant puzzle. Choosing the right campaign manager is one of most integral pieces of running your campaign. It can literally make or break your campaign. I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I was a campaign manager across the country at almost every level for almost a decade. And I would like to think I was a damn good one even though my win record is much better as a consultant. I’ve been doing this long enough to know what constitutes a good campaign manager and a bad one.

I’ve been through more elections than I can count, and I am here to tell you that Election Day is one of the most restless and longest days of the campaign cycle. You’re exhausted. You don’t know what to do. If polls say you are 20 points ahead, you wonder if you can trust the numbers. If you are 20 points behind, you’re praying for a miracle.

To run as a political candidate, you must have thick skin. I find it a little ironic to write a post about not taking things personally because I am still trying to improve on that one. But, as a wise person once said, it’s all about “Sucking less every day.”

There are millions of ways to connect with potential voters, and my advice to any candidate would be not to place all of the proverbial eggs into one basket. Don’t neglect the phone calls, and make sure phones are at least one prong of a multi-faceted direct voter contact strategy.

Today, January 25th marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of Workhorse Strategies. I almost didn’t have time to do a blog post to commemorate this occasion, but as one of my clients pointed out, that is a good thing! I couldn’t let this milestone go by without thanking all of the people who have been there for me this past year and sharing some of the lessons I’ve learned during the first year of operation.

So for all of the candidates out there, I implore you for the sake of your own sanity, focus on the forest not the trees. And the next time you are faced with what is in your mind an important decision, ask yourself a simple question: “Is this going to make or break my campaign”.

After voter contact, very few aspects of a campaign consume as much time and energy from the entire team as signage aka visibility. And at the end of the day as much as I hate all of the signs blocking up the scenery and breaking my mind, they do matter and should be an integral part of the vast majority of serious political campaigns