Mixternal Comms

Natalie Goldberg's rules for #writing:

1. keep your hand moving
2. lose control
3. be specific
4. don't think
5. don't worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar
6. you're free to write the worst junk in the world
7. go for the jugular

Hundreds of Carnegie Libraries to Receive $10,000 Gifts in Celebration of United States’ 250th Anniversary | Carnegie Corporation of New York The foundation established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Corporation of New York, honors the country’s democratic ideals with $20 million in new funding to support America’s civic institutions

My hometown library was a Carnegie Library and there's one where I live now, one of the lucky recipients of a $10k grant from @carnegiecorp.bsky.social. These institutions are a part of the bedrock of this democratic society. Thanks for supporting them!

www.carnegie.org/news/article...

Video Report finds ‘disturbing’ normalization of banned books in U.S. ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos speaks with Jennifer Finley Boylan, president of PEN America, discusses a report that show there are more banned books than any living American has seen in their lifetime.

Stephen King is the most-banned writer in America. Thousands of books and writers are banned in school libraries, denying readers looking for stories about them. #writing #freedomtowrite #freedomtoread

abcnews.go.com/US/video/rep...

Librarian Fired in Books Dispute to Receive $700,000 Settlement

Librarians are radical. #freedomofspeech #freespeech

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...

I checked just to make sure my local library carries the books on the "most banned books" list. (They do.) Does yours? If not, consider donating copies to their collection. Freedom of expression is a fundamental characteristic of a thriving civil society. #bannedbooksweek #bannedbooks

PEN America Criticizes "Alarming" and "Dismissive" Language on Book Bans by U.S. Education Department - PEN America Kasey Meehan, director, Freedom to Read, at PEN America, said: "For over three years we have countered rhetoric that book bans occurring in public schools are a “hoax.” They are absolutely not. This k...

PEN America responds to action taken today by the Department of Education dismissing complaints about book bans and referring to them as a “hoax”:

"All students deserve to see themselves and the world around them reflected in the books shelved within their public schools.“ pen.org/press-releas...

The $3,000 video that pays for itself 24 times over How smart teams turn one piece of content into an entire strategy

The $3,000 video that pays for itself 24 times over

Great advice from Shaun at @mixternal.bsky.social on how to turn one piece of content into an entire strategy

2 AI memos, 1 PR disaster, 4 lessons you need (Insider Comms™) How to announce AI changes without creating employee panic

www.mixternal.com/p/ai-first-c...

🔮 An AI-forward memo like the two I compare is likely in your future.

🔬 Let’s see what happens when AI strategy meets communication strategy, & why getting the tone wrong can undermine a smart business move.

🔖 The most revealing difference appears in how each CEO justifies the AI transformation.

Over 80% of executives surveyed in tech and media anticipate reduced hiring over the next two years because of AI.

And most companies are backfilling workers with AI rather than replacing them.

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ WIFM, you ask? Chances are your team will manage some heavy (consequential) messaging about AI’s effect on your workforce. A recent report from MIT says that ~27% of jobs could be replaced by AI in the long term.

I analyze how 2 tech leaders handled identical strategic announcements with vastly different results, including 🧑‍🏫 four key lessons for comms pros managing AI transformation messaging

As usual, I share the full memos.

The difference was the messaging. While both CEOs announced fundamentally similar strategic shifts, their communication approaches reveal crucial lessons about navigating AI transformation in the mixternal era.

Duolingo's CEO published his memo publicly on LinkedIn, then had to walk it back 3 wks later after employee backlash & negative headlines. (There’s a lost in translation joke in there somewhere.)

Shopify's CEOsent his memo to employees first, shared it publicly later, and faced minimal controversy.

You might have heard about it … two tech CEOs announcing the same radical transformation within weeks of each other.

Both declared their companies would become “AI-first.”

Both said employees must prove they can’t use AI before asking for more resources.

Yet only one memo required damage control.

I kinda hate it when they use the movie poster for the book cover 💚🩷

#BookSky #Wicked

Let's Stop Pretending Corporate Comms Can Be Authentic The harder we perform authenticity, the more inauthentic we become

It’s time to abandon the notion of authenticity in comms and redirect the energy to fights that actually matter.

www.mixternal.com/p/authentic-...

I’m arguing that authenticity is a conceptual impossibility in an industry whose primary function is to craft strategic messages that serve corporate interests, organizational narratives, and business objectives, regardless of what’s happening behind the scenes.

An inconvenient truth in corporate comms is that “authenticity” is impossible to achieve because—from day one in 1904—it never existed in our industry. It’s not that authenticity is difficult to achieve in corp comms.

As comms colleagues slowly accept that AI-generated writing is here to stay, new laments for maintaining relevancy in comms have emerged. Among them is the claim that humans are needed to create or ensure “authentic” comms.

Want better comms ROI? Get on the same page. Use one narrative to transform scattered messaging into strategic success

4/4 Stakeholders don’t have time to meet with so many people who are supposedly on the same team.

A single source of truth—a cornerstone of mixternal strategies— can help.

#mixternalcomms #PR #comms #internalcomms

www.mixternal.com/p/increase-c...

3/4 It’s also embarrassing and annoying. Three or four members of the comms department pick off our unsuspecting stakeholders, demanding they answer questionnaires, fill out templates, and agree to a 45-minute meeting where they talk about the same things they told your teammate last week.

2/4 Maintaining artificial barriers between internal and external comms wastes resources, dilutes messaging, and misses opportunities.

1/4 Every piece of content you create should serve multiple audiences and channels.

The press release should rhyme with the Instagram story should rhyme with the intranet article should rhyme with the town hall prezo should rhyme with…

...

How to transform boring white papers into provocative thought leadership (with 6 AI prompts) (Intellicomms™) Your exec wants to be a thought leader? These prompts will save your sanity...

Your exec wants to be a thought leader? These six AI prompts will save your sanity.

www.mixternal.com/p/transform-...

In September, 2024, physicians working with AI did better at the Healthbench doctor benchmark than either AI or physicians alone.

With the release of o3 and GPT-4.1, AI answers are no longer improved on by physicians

Error rates appear to be dropping for newer AI models. openai.com/index/health...

Public trust in AI is low, and our current leaders in politics and business admit to not understanding the technology fully enough to effectively lead on it.

Read the full report here: www.futureleadersinstitute.co.uk/research-and...

Perspective.

From Sister Monica Clare's new book, “A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a Nun.”

"Eventually I let go of the idea of corporate success. I let go of the idea of dating, of children, of thinking that I had to weigh 100 pounds; I let go of hiding my religion. With a label maker, I made a sticker for the bottom of my computer monitor that read: NONE OF THIS MATTERS."

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