This newsletter is about giving you insights into the world of exec comms at the biggest AI company on the planet and actionable ways to write and create better in the age of AI. 

Last week we spoke about how I built an invisible studio for execs on campus. 

This week, I wanted to dive into the podcast series I built, the decisions I made and how it can be a blueprint for your own content creation.

I live AI. I breathe it. Future editions of this newsletter will go into detail on the workflows I am using across claude code, copilot and more. 

But I will note that that AI shouldn’t replace craft or weirdness.

The thing AI is best at is also the thing it does most damage with. It blandifies. It smooths. Sands the corners off a phrase, off a take, off a conversation. 

We lose the edge of connection to hold onto if everything is super clean and bland. (And asking AI not to be clean or bland doesn’t fix it. This is something deeper in the way the system is designed) 

So we started “What’s the Tea?” video series designed in a way to lean into the human. Real conversations, real people over a cup of tea (leaning into my British life here). 

We have minimal camera intervention. To the point where we don’t even clip lav mics on to avoid interruption.

A short-form vertical interview series. Microsoft executive, on camera, talking about the AI moment. Spilling the tea. 

What they're seeing, what they're betting on, what isn't working yet. The format is conversational and we just let the guests run with it. It’s fun and light. 

So we package this all up, put it out and oh wait. Does this format work?

We all love our baby. The things we make. But it is very humbling to put things out and then see when and how they fall flat. 

The data will tell you if something is good or not. Not your opinion. And the modern attention economy is fierce. 

The compounding challenge is that executives are not social media influencers that will do anything on camera for views. They have reputational weight and organizational guidelines to live by. The real craft is weaving an authentic feeling hook, while not cringing out the executive. 

We fully changed the brand of this series and how we cut it based on direct analysis of the data. No-one noticed. But the views went up.

This might seem somewhat obvious, but social operates on attention. It stands to reason the more you post the more you are seen. 

That’s what I’ve seen on my linkedin going from 0-300 views a month to over 50,000 and growing.

Time is a precious resource for executives so when you have them in a room, the strategy should be to extract as many angles as you can. 

We don’t just post the cutdown video, there are clips, carousels, social reels and more.

Squeeze the lemon. 🍋

This might seem obvious, but the tip for this week is to go to your LinkedIn profile click on posts and go to 60 day view. Take a look at what performed the best. 

Come up with a hypothesis why and then test that with just one post this week. 

Keep doing that and suddenly you are data driven instead of trying to pin a tail on the donkey without knowing where the donkey is.

Mischievously, 

Connor

Each week I break down how I'm pushing the envelope in exec comms — the tools, the frameworks, the bets.