Each week we share:

Here we go!

This week at Run Club, David Berger joined us. David spent 12 years in communications leadership at IBM and 7 at Wells Fargo. He's been thinking deeply about AI and messaging — and he challenged us on something most of us are getting wrong.

Here's the core idea:

We polled the room. The majority of attendees are using AI to draft content and then editing it afterwards. David's response was direct: you're starting in the wrong place.

Before you ask AI to write anything, you need to know what you stand for. What makes you different. What you're trying to be known for. That's your messaging framework — and most teams either don't have one or have one that's been sitting in a PDF since the last offsite, slowly depreciating.

Here's the reframe that stuck with me: stop thinking of AI as your content machine. Start thinking of it as your consistency engine.

AI excels at repetition with fidelity. It will always follow the rules you give it. So instead of asking it to generate content from scratch, give it the rules — your messaging, your tone, your proof points, your differentiation — and let it enforce discipline across everything you produce.

That's strategic alignment. Know who you are before you start talking.

Wednesday, we ran our first live DDC workshop in Los Angeles. Three hours. Worksheets on the table. Real problems on the whiteboard.

One attendee — a comms manager at a well-known crowdfunding platform — came in frustrated. His leadership didn't see the value of the media coverage his team was generating. He'd land a key mention, and the reaction from the top was basically... nothing.

I pushed him. Hard.

I asked him to stop thinking about the work he was doing and start thinking about the work his CEO cares about. What are the company's biggest goals right now? What is leadership actually trying to achieve? And how does your work connect to that — not in your head, but in theirs?

He got quiet. He started writing things down. He leaned in.

And then, right after the workshop, he went back and did something about it. He set up a meeting with a colleague who's close to the CEO's vision for the platform's evolution. Not to pitch his media wins — but to listen. To understand the business through leadership's eyes instead of his own.

He told me afterwards: "I may not be entirely onboard with the concept yet, but I've taken the first step and bought a ticket for the ride."

That's the work. That's what this is about.

Not a perfect framework. Not a magic dashboard. Just the willingness to look at your work through someone else's priorities — and then go do something about it.

As more of you earn your DDC credentials and show up week after week, we realized you need a space to keep the conversation going between Thursdays.

So we launched the DDC Club Slack group — an exclusive community for people who are leaning into this work. Share wins, ask questions, workshop ideas with peers who get it.

Approval required.

We're bringing the DDC workshop to London next week.

Same format as LA. Three hours. Real scenarios. Worksheets you walk out with. The kind of session where you come in with a challenge and leave with a plan.

Here's what you should know: after Meltwater Summit in May, workshops like these will only be available for a fee — I’ve personally paid $200 to $300 for sessions like this in the past.

But for everyone participating before Summit, they're free. Space is limited.

If you're in or near London, don't sit on this.

After London: Chicago (March 3), NYC (March 12).

More cities coming. (I see you, APAC!)