Hey, guys. Welcome to today’s session, building winning coalitions to advance policy. I’m Paul Teller, and this is the lovely and talented Sarah Macon. In the eyes of many in the world, this every 4 year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving.

Only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper. Whether we go forward together with courage or turn back to policies that weakened our economy, diminished our leadership in the world, America’s future will be in your hands. We thought today we’d just kind of go through, as the title implies, you know, how to build coalitions for a purpose. You know, anyone could just kind of make connections and do nothing with it.

We thought we’d, talk to you just about how we’ve done it, best practices, some experiences that we’ve had, things like that. Maybe we even start with just the basics of, like, you know, what coalitions even means, how do you, you know, do that at the beginning of an administration, and then, move into some maybe a little more detailed strategies or things that we did that we found that worked, things that didn’t work, you know, things along those lines. So, again, if you’re just coming to Washington, never worked in the White House or you don’t even know what coalitions are, where do they what are they, and where do they even exist in the administration? I mean, what how would you how would you start with that? Yeah.

I think the first thing to remember is that somebody elected the president and the vice president. And those are people who have you know, they care about real issues, and they very well are part of these coalitions, whether it’s the pro life movement, the second amendment folks, first you know, our first freedoms, religious liberty or, so there’s there’s groups of people that make a real impact, who are vocal and who could be the reason that you win or lose again in the future. And it’s really important to remain humble and remember that whenever you’re talking about building these coalitions. So the way I always looked at them is that these are average everyday people who matter and are the, you know, they’re gonna be the reason why you win or lose in the future. Making sure that you keep them in the loop is tremendously valuable and important.

Yeah. And if you’re, you know, again, just starting, maybe you haven’t done anything like this before, but if you’re interested in people and the connection of people and ideas and all of that, And you’re thinking, where do I even go to work, you know, in coalitions? The good news is there’s a lot of places, right, in the administration. Technically, the central place in the White House office of public, liaison. Technically.

And I say technically because, yeah, that’s the office that’s dedicated solely to to outreach and to coalition building. But as we found, is you can actually do coalitions in various places around the White House. I actually did it from the Office of Legislative Affairs for my 1st 3 years under Trump Pence. And then the 4th year, was in the office of the vice president, vice president Pence, doing coalitions from there. And And I did it yeah.

Almost a little bit swapped. I did it my first 3 years in the office of the vice president. And in my last year, I’m at the National Security Council, where I just built different kinds of coalitions or used different kinds of coalitions. Yeah. Exactly.

And like, there could be other offices that either maybe didn’t have coalitions but could have and should have. So I would just say that really any issue that you’re interested or a type of work you’re interested in doing, there could be a coalitions aspect to that office. And then, of course, certainly around the administration. Right? Any department agency either does have an actual coalitions office or probably should, or you can kind of just kind of create 1, forge 1 out of whatever your existing job is, which is in a way is what I did at Magic Affairs.

You know? And I think, I give a lot of credit to Paul and for sort of expanding the definition of what coalitions is. Right? Some people may call it outreach or engagement. At some point, it all kinds of means it kinda means the same thing.

Right? You’re engaging people on the outside of government, to influence policy and to help give us also good ideas on what to do. I mean, I’d say 90% of the good ideas that we had in the Trump Pence administration came from people outside of government. They were, you know, they were the ones spearheading these ideas and then selling them to us, and then we were able to take them internally. So, you know, the the idea of coalitions, development, and outreach and engagement really started, in earnest probably in early 2000 on Capitol Hill, and it’s just expanded and grown ever since then.

And a lot of that credit goes to Paul Teller. I love that. But, you know. That’s true. No.

But great points. Right? Because also, like and if you’re again, if you’re deciding, should I go into coalition, should I not? Just ask yourself, do you like kind of that intersection of people and ideas? Right?

Because if you’re just an ideas person, like, you’re you’re a great bookworm, researcher, policy wonk, fantastic, totally need that. You don’t love the external part of it? Then maybe not not the coalition’s thing is not, you know, not right for you. But frankly, the opposite is true too. Right?

If you just want to go to happy hours and backslap and have fun, also great. But if there’s not that connection to policy, it’s not that connection to something meaningful, substantive, action items, things to accomplish, then also maybe not the greatest, you know, thing to go into in the administration. And we both have a background in policy as well. Yeah. So to Paul’s point, it’s really important to be able to do both.

Right? Is to meet with these coalitions and be able to translate what it is that they’re looking for and what they want into effective policy. So you’ve got to kind of have that background too. So okay. So let’s say if, you know, again, the the, the viewer today decides, alright.

I’m going into coalitions. I’m doing it. You know, maybe you’ve even gotten a job and you’re trying to think, what do I do on day 1? What do we advise on that? What like, day 1 of, you know, 2025 new Republican administration?

Like, what what should we say is, like, a good first thing to do or first few things to do or that kind of thing? I think it’s important to start small and make sure that you don’t take on too much all at once. Right? Figure out who your, like, key coalition allies are and then make yourself available. Bring them in.

Right? Don’t expect, you always go to them. Bring them in. They I mean, I think the feedback I got most often was how grateful people were that we included them and brought them in and listened to them. Just remember that you have 2 ears and one mouth and God made that for a reason.

We’re supposed to listen twice as much as we speak. So it’s, it’s tremendously important when we bring people in, and to do that right away and at first thing on on your new job, but to listen to them. Let them have the opportunity to talk to you. No. Great point.

Fantastic point. In fact, I would say, like, going back to the day one things that you may wanna do, bring people in. I mean, if not literally on your 1st day, at least maybe day 1 is get your list together. Maybe you’ve even already done it before you stepped into the office. Ideally, if you’ve done coalitions before or anything like that, bring your existing list.

If not, create new lists. And then, yeah, like I said, if not actual day 1, day 2, 3, 4, 5, bring people in. Show them around. Show them the empty offices that haven’t even been filled yet. You know, go to lunch in the cafeteria or whatever you could do early on, bring people in.

They so appreciate it, especially if you’re at the White House. Really anywhere in the administration. But if you’re in the White House, man, what a home court advantage. Right? So just bringing people in builds that warmth.

You were so good at that. I I wasn’t as good at that and I would watch you. You would bring people in and just tour them around or and it’s and I knew you didn’t have the time to do it. Right? But you were doing it anyway because the value there was just to make again, make people feel like they were being heard and they mattered and they cared.

Because again, these are the people that elected the president. And so, you know, without them and without their support, you’re not gonna be there again. But Paul did a really great job of bringing people in and making them feel really welcome. And that’s part of your job too because you are an extension and a reflection of the president and the vice president in that role. No question.

And and you’re right. Sometimes it’s something small. Right? It doesn’t have to be, like, come up with some big fancy event. We’ll get to that.

We’ll build to that stuff. But in the early days when literally there’s still boxes around or, you know, people are hanging pictures on the wall, Bring some key folks in and show them. Get them that early peek. Let them take pictures that they, of course, then post on social media. It just builds that that warmth.

And again, ideally in in the moment too, you’re also saying, by the way, while I’ve got you here, what should we be doing on energy policy? Or what executive orders should we be repealing from the previous administration? Things like that. So it is substantive too. You’re not just showing them boxes and, you know, things like that.

You’ll probably get to this with another question, but I just wanna make sure we don’t forget that, one of the other things that Paul was really great at was making introductions between coalition folks, that he knew and making sure they knew the people in agencies. Right? So to your point about energy, there was a coalitions person there will be at the Department of Energy. Well, they may not know all of the people Paul knows, right? Or that I know.

And so, he would always make those connections and relationships, so that the The Coalition’s person at the Department of Energy could really be the point person on energy policy stuff. Then feed that into the white house, right? And that’s how we were able to get so much done and build on it. Right? Because one coalitions person can’t do it all.

You gotta divide and conquer. Okay. So how should folks think about, you know, using these coalition connections to actually advancing the president’s agenda. Right? Because you and I could talk with folks till the cows come home, get the bowling alley going, go in the White House mess, have a nice lunch.

But wait a minute. What does that actually what does that actually do? I think I’ve got a good example. So president Trump was the 1st president to ever address the march for life in person. And when he decided to do that, we immediately started thinking about the optics of how we were gonna make that look when he gave his remarks from the rose garden.

And there are the traditional people that, of course, we invited to the speech. Right? But I was trying to be creative about who we had stand behind him because I knew that the TV was gonna be on him, right? Pointed at him. And there’d be optics of who was gonna be behind him.

And so, reached out to maybe one of these less traditional allies though definitely an ally. But they are, an umbrella organization for pregnancy centers. And we had moms and their babies, babies who’ve been rescued from abortion by these pregnancy centers, come and stand behind the president. And it was incredible. I mean, people still talk about the optics of that.

100%. It was like a little boy running up and down the aisle in the Rose Garden. His mom was standing right behind the president. And and so that’s another good use of these coalition relationships is when you need to support the president and you need people to physically show up and be there on camera, these are the people you go to. When you’re thinking of who to bring in and when for a certain event, for, again, a coffee, a bowling alley rental, you know, whatever it is, you could look backwards and you can look forwards.

Meaning, like, you could think of it as a reward for something that coalition partner did in the past already, or you could think, you know, this person could use a little extra massaging, because we’re gonna maybe rely on this person for a future battle, or maybe he or she hasn’t done quite all that much to help just yet, but there’s a little glimmer of hope there. Let’s bring that person in, you know, make make a prominent, you know, image for that person to for he or she to use in his or her own fundraising maybe for her organization. Like Yep. You know, it all kind of works together that way and things like that. So know, don’t think it’s just about the past.

It could also be someone who, you know, hasn’t been as much of a partner yet and, you know, do it for the future kind of thing. And if if you’re really paying attention to what Paul is saying, none of this is transactional. And this is a town full of people who are transactional in nature, right? You do something for me, I give you something back and it’s It’s strictly just like that, right? It’s all business and that’s it.

This is not like that at all. This is relational, right? These are people who you truly need to get to know and build relationships with. I mean, these are people who are some of the closest in our lives to us. Right?

That we still call and count on for stuff outside of work. Right? They’ve become our friends and our companions. And that’s something to remember too that you don’t ever want this to be transactional. You want it to really be relational.

Great points. I’m making it about about relationships not just, you know, quid pro quo in the moment. Of course, everybody helps everybody, that kind of thing. But it’s based on sincere, know, genuine relationships and stuff like that. And and here’s, I guess, how you then leverage that into policy and other accomplishments, other action items.

You’ve built that trust. Right? And that allows you to say, hey, any chance you could issue a statement in support of the bill that the president is supporting? Any chance you could help block this amendment moving through Congress? Any chance you could show up in an event that’s helping the president?

Any chance you could whatever it is. You build that trust, and then you’re using kind of your outside game, the outside coalition forces, to help your inside game inside government. So it it isn’t, again, just for fun. It is for actually advancing, you know, policy goals on the hill, off the hill, in the states, wherever. You know?

And so many times, our colleagues would come to us and say, like, well, you know, we wanna do x, y, and z, but who’s gonna who’s gonna come support us when we do it. Right? And Paul and I and others who were, Coalition’s folks, we were able to bring those lists and be able to say, if you go out and do this and you put your, you know, you put your name on the line for this Yep. Here are the folks who are gonna show up and support you. Yep.

And if you’ve built these relationships in advance, built the trust that we’ve been talking about, and also you could get it done fast. Yeah. Because let’s face it, not everything is something you could plan for weeks in advance. Sarah is especially known for, like, the overnight planning of massive events where at 7 PM, it’s like, yes, Sarah, 9 AM tomorrow, we need 50 people on the, White House lawn. Oh, really?

Got it. Okay. You can’t do that unless you have the preexisting relationship, preexisting trust, you know, and you’ve already been working together. So that even goes back to your day 1 action items. Who are you building trust with right off the bat so that when you actually really haven’t asked and it’s urgent, oh my God, I’m so sorry, it’s time sensitive.

Can you show up at the White House tomorrow with almost no notice? And by the way, say these three talking points. Right. It’s because you’ve built those trust from day 1, you know, right right from the beginning and stuff like that. And remember, not everything happens in DC either.

Sometimes there were often, there were times we were on the road and we had to throw together an event and we needed people there. And we needed people there to say certain things and and do certain things. And so remember to keep your coalitions outside of DC as well. Right? So state networks are tremendously important.

And then just individual contacts on the ground, in in the states you know you’re gonna be going to and just all over. Right? They may not get utilized as often, but they’re just as important. That’s, like, an epic point. Right?

We think we should, like, stay on that for a little bit. Right? Because, again, especially if you’re in the White House, but this is true for agencies, cabinet secretaries travel as well. But very often, Sarah, I would get notice, like, with a day, day and a half in advance. Oh, the vice president or the president is going to Wisconsin, is gonna tour this factory.

And by the way, would be great to have some workers in hard hats standing behind and meeting with sheriffs after. Okay. How do we do that? You know, so it’s not to say that you have to know the sheriffs and, you know, the construction workers, whatever. Do you know the people who know those folks?

Right? And it’s the state coal the coalitions or a lot of times even the national DC groups and leaders have state affiliates and branches that you could say, hey, I’m calling you here in Washington DC, but can you call your Wisconsin branch really quick and help me get these folks out and that kind of thing. And for feedback too, like you were saying, more listening than talking. So sometimes you say, you know, who do you think we should have at this event in Wisconsin? We don’t have a fixed idea who would be best to have, who would be good to help, who would be good to work with.

So again, all of these things being planned in advance. In a perfect world. But very often it was, hey, we’re going in a day or 2. What can you put together? On a second.

Okay. So let’s how about best practice? What do you think are some advice pieces of advice we should give for folks who, you know, again, are jumping into coalitions and, you know, could could use a little little advice from from the pro of how, you know, how to get it best done. You know, maybe it’s just because of the station I am in my life now, but I I’m thinking to myself, like, you just You got to give it everything. Right?

It’s a It’s a 247, 7 day a week kind of thing. You got to eat, sleep and dream about it. Right? There will be time in another time in your life to do the other stuff, right? But when you’ve got this opportunity to be impactful and influential like this and to really help the president and the whole team, you just got to give it your all, right?

And so, late nights, you know, lots of emails, lots of creative thought. You know, not all of it has to be done from your desk. Right? You could go home but keep working. Right?

And make sure that those events for the next day or 2 days later are planned and you’ve got the right people there. But you just gotta you gotta really commit and give it your all. Yeah. No question. I think what we also got good at was, creating lists.

Lots of lists. Right? Yes. Think of lists for every possible thing. Things you may never need, make the list because you will need it.

Yep. Divide it up in every possible way or do it on an accelerator or some way that it’s sortable, divisible in different ways you couldn’t have even anticipated, but just have all kinds of of lists. And that’s not only good for inbound stuff, you know, if you need people to come in and help, But if you’re just pushing something out, president issued an executive order today on x y z, who should hear about it? Well, these particular groups would be most interested in hearing about it, maybe amplifying it, otherwise taking an action. If you have the list already set, you don’t have to build it.

You don’t have to think, who do I need to send this to? You just it’s going to my, you know, energy producers mountain in the mountain west list. Right. That’s specific. You wanna get that specific about it.

I mean, it’s great. You can ask anybody. Paul Tyler is the king of this. Right? And and and you can’t just, like, create that out of thin air.

So Yeah. Build it as you go. Right? Build it as you go. Find a system, but make sure your system works and that you can yeah.

Sort it because that’s gonna be key. Yeah. No. It’s true. And I I to this day, I do that.

If I get you know, you meet someone in a conference, get a business card, go back and put that person on as many relevant lists as possible. Like, let’s see. She’s a female activist. She’s a youth activist. Also works in energy and health care, and used to be a state legislator.

Well, get it get her on all those lists because you never know which one you’ll need when and in a moment’s notice, that kind of thing. Okay. So what are some other best practices that we could could tell these these good folks who are watching our video today? Things that bring people in, make them feel involved, especially, like, between action items. In other words, obviously, like you said, when you’re inviting someone to stand in an event or bringing them in for a round table or something, great.

But what happens when it’s just a quiet day where I don’t have a specific ask? Is there still something we, you know, we could be doing or you did or that kind of thing? I I think, you and I both, published whether it was a weekly email or, I don’t know how frequently we we did it. I can’t remember. But but sort of just an update email that went to everybody.

Right? So it kept everybody in the loop even on issues that maybe they didn’t care about. Right? But it was a general update, so they felt like they were part of what we were doing. Right?

That we would bring them in when it was their issue and thing they cared about, but, also, that they just had an open door to us and to the Coalition’s folks in the White House. And it and sort of had the, like, they were in the know, you know? And so, we were always doing that and making sure that they felt like they were part of the team. That’s really important. And and you can do that from the White House, from an agency, from wherever you sit.

Just making sure people feel like they’re in the loop. They will, you know, they’ll appreciate that so much and be much more receptive in the future when you need them. That’s a great point because, right, because I think, we won’t name any names. Maybe some people in the White House were very good at telling folks what to do Right. You know, on the outside.

We need you to do this, need you to do that, and very little kind of inbound stuff. What do you think we should do? What’s your opinion on this? So the you know, Sarah’s making a great point. So if you could do some of that, especially in advance of the actual need, and they’ll appreciate not only you meeting with them, but then saying, you know, we’re thinking of rolling out this initiative.

What do you think? How should we roll it out? How would you frame it? Could you participate? Could you amplify it?

You know, have specific questions and ask and get, you know, get feedback, makes people feel involved, and frankly, gives you great ideas. A lot of times, these ideas, like you said, inbound, we feed them into either the policy shop, communication shop, other places throughout the administration, not the White House, and it becomes what the White House or the administration does. So great ideas. I think, again, it’s important to remember that you are a reflection of the administration and of the president in everything you do, everything you say, everything you write. You know, never put anything in an email that you wouldn’t wanna see on the front page of the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post.

Right? Be be genuine and humble in your words and your actions. There are opportunities sometimes to make some of these people feel really, unique and special. And whether that’s a, you know, they’re getting married and you get a correspondence letter from the president to them just to wish them best of luck. Or, you know, they have a child and you get a letter like that.

But And you want to be, you know You want to pick and choose when you do that and use that sparingly but appropriately. Right? Those are really great ways to make people feel like they are part of the team. Yeah. Fantastic point that, your interaction with folks doesn’t always have to be so serious, policy heavy, you know, that kind of thing.

Some of that should be, obviously. But, yeah, some could just be you just got married or, you know, you just had, I don’t know, just something you know about the person’s personal life. You know, they just went on a great beach vacation, you check-in with them after, how was the beach? And you’re just building a connection, you’re building a warmth, you’re building a trust that you could then, call on later for the more serious action items and, you know, things along those lines. I think that this goes back to what I said earlier about being on 247, but Paul was incredible at giving people his cell phone number.

I was always a little bit more hesitant about that maybe. But, they always knew how to get a hold of us. Right? And any hour of the day could call, text, email us whatever it was. And even if they never used that, again, it just made them feel like they were part of the team.

And it’s amazing what you can accomplish when you have people who are bought in like that. And so, you know, being thoughtful about how you share your contact and with whom and how you encourage them to call you or reach out to you when they need you or when they, you know, when they want to engage. I think what we what we found too is, mix and match how you interact with someone. I’ll leave the name out, but I could think of a well known activist who once told me that he noticed I only invited him to a certain type of round table on a certain kind of issue. And he was right.

And I was like, you know what? My apologies. You’re right that I I’ve kind of he fell into a little bucket with me. Yeah. Yeah.

And so I I had to be mindful. Oh, no. We should also do a 1 on 1 lunch or a press event, not just a private off the record round table or other type thing. So think about that too, how you can almost have a menu of options of things that you could offer different people at different times and make sure you’re ordering off different parts of the menu, you know, throughout different parts of the year, that kind of thing. And by the way, for everyone, you know, watching today, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed at all to either check with us Yeah.

Or others who have done this before. Right? I mean, it’s this is, as you could tell, more of an art than a science. Right? And, there’ll be tools and issues and techniques that might be different either for your personality, for the administration, wherever you’re exactly working.

But, yeah, there’s also a lot of common threads and similarities. Happy to walk them through you and, you know, seek out mentors, especially if you haven’t done this before. But even if you had, but this is the first time in an administration, first time in a White House, ask folks, you know, for for updated best practices or what do you think of this or how should I do that. I think in order to accomplish that successfully too, you need a you need a partner or a team to do this. Right?

No one person can be a perfectly successful coalitions director or coalitions person who does everything. It’s impossible. There’s too many coalitions. There’s too many people. There’s too I mean, you could still do that 247, 7 days a week that I encouraged you to do and still never get it all done.

So I know that when I was in the office of the vice president, I had a deputy who was, I mean, ridiculous that she was called a deputy because she was better than me and everything. Right? But her her relationships were different than mine. And so we tag teamed it. And because of that, I think we were successful.

So, you know, if you’re if you have the opportunity to talk to your boss and say, I could really use a partner in this, a deputy or a second person or an intern or whatever it might be. I utilized our White House interns all the time to help me make lists, keep lists. One of them is still you know, like, he’s better known in some circles now than I am, in military, you know, spouse circles. Right? He’s the guy people still go to.

So just remember that you need help too and not any one person can do all of it. Yeah. And great point to emphasize is, you know, play to your strengths. Right? If there’s something you’re already good at or known for, have great connections with, lean into that.

Right? Don’t feel like you have to just do things that are totally, you know, out of your wheelhouse. Going back to Rudy Olivo, my my deputy when I was in the vice president’s office, his family’s from the Dominican Republican Republic. He knew Spanish. Right.

He should connect with, you know, Spanish coalitions. Why should I do that when you have someone right there Right. Who knows Spanish? So play to your, you know, play to your strengths, and go from there. It doesn’t mean you should shouldn’t get out of your comfort zone as well, but also play, you know, to those strengths, those preexisting relationships, preexisting contacts, and just like who you are Yeah.

You know, as a person, that kind of thing. Okay. So actually, let’s talk about what happens when maybe a relationship gets a little rocky. Right? We’ve all had that.

Someone is maybe not thrilled with either the administration, us personally, maybe even a fellow coalition partner, whatever it is. The person is not someone or something. There’s some damage. Right. You know, best best practice for for smoothing that over.

What do you think or what have you done? Yeah. I mean, honest adult conversations are really important, you know, to to call them in and and to give them the time to voice their concern. Right? Whether it’s with with you personally or with the administration.

No. That’s right. Dealing with it immediately. Right? Listening, like, going back to an earlier point.

Right? Yep. 2 ears, one mouth. So listening more. There may be opportunities to pivot and say, I understand you’re not happy with this policy, but can I also show you what we’re doing on this policy?

Or by the way, let me give you a little insider scoop on this we’re rolling out next week. I’m gonna give you an early heads up. So hopefully, there’s make goods that you could that you could do to make the person still feel heard, involved. Yes. You are listening to that person’s perspective and and taking advantage.

Sometimes it’s even just, you know, hey. Like you said, let’s let’s sit down and hash it out. How about over lunch, at the White House mess or at some other fancy cafeteria in some agency building? You know, use use the tools that you have available to to smooth it over, and, you know, and and offer real solutions. I mean, it’s good to nod.

Obviously, you’ve seen if you’re watching this video, you’ve seen I’m a nod. Alright? I sit here and nod. No. I just I can’t help it.

But nod and then say, and here’s what I’m hearing and here’s what I’m gonna do for you, here’s what we can do together in the future, etcetera, etcetera. I think that’s kind of a, you know, good good best practice, which in a way is not all that different from human relations outside of, you know, this arena, outside of work. Right? Very pretty similar kind of stuff. Just a reminder again that you are a representation of the president and of the team.

So Absolutely. You know, sometimes it’s gonna be on your shoulders to be to tryna take the heat Yep. So that, you know, the president isn’t the one who has to take it. That’s part of what you’re signing up for. Yeah.

No. That’s right. Sometimes just absorbing it and apologizing even. Right? I’m so sorry.

You are right. I should have roped you into that. Because I that was that’s a common thing as a coalition’s person. Get ready for that. Right?

Sarah knows better than anybody. Someone will call you up, someone very important. Right. Why wasn’t I invited to that? Why did so and so get invited?

And I did. Such and such wasn’t, and I wasn’t. Yes. So there will be Yep. Those moments.

And, again, a lot of times, it’s just, sometimes there is a legitimate explanation. We only had 5 slots. We had to fill it with people who had not been in recently. You had been in recently, mister so and so. So sometimes there’s legitimate reasons.

Sometimes there’s just kinda not, and you just have to take it. I’m so sorry. We’ll get you in for the next thing. Let’s grab lunch. Whatever the whatever the make good is.

But, yeah, you’re right. Sometimes you just have to absorb it on behalf of the president and vice president. You know? So let’s see. So maybe maybe time to wrap up.

Any any closing thoughts for for these, again, kind folks who’ve who watched today and hopefully jumping into the coalition Coalition world? Call us. Let us know how we can help you and support you. It’s a It’s an incredible job. You’re gonna have some of the best moments of your life in this job and things you’ll never forget.

I can’t believe I’m gonna give this advice because I didn’t take it when somebody gave it to me. But, keep a journal. Journal of the things that you do and the people you meet. You know, take pictures when you can and when it’s appropriate. It’s not always appropriate.

But just try to remember those things. Because one day you’ll look back on it and be like, Wow. You know, remember that time I met so and so and got to do x, y, and z, and and just enjoy the time that you that you do it. And and and again, do it with humility. Yeah.

Fantastic advice as always. Yeah. I would just say just just realize that coalitions allows you to touch just about every area of wherever you’re working. Again, if it’s the White House, if it’s a certain admin, administrative agency, department, whatever it is, don’t be shy to say, well, you know, that’s policy, I won’t talk to the policy people, or that’s communications, they know what they’re do. It’s not saying they don’t know what they’re doing, but Coalition strengthens everybody else’s work.

And so you should also be doing some internal kind of networking and partnerships so that you can not only amplify their work, they can amplify what you’re doing. You can work together. Because sometimes you may be bringing in coalition partners to come to a media event as you talked about, or maybe it’s a policy round table or just other you know, maybe it’s to discuss a legal action that’s about to be, taken, some sort of lawsuit. Whatever it is, you know, you’ll wanna make sure that you’re partnering internally with the with the correct people and you have every right to because there will be some folks, and Sarah knows what I’m talking about, who will try to put coalitions in this little box right over. You’re a coalitions person.

You just stay over here. No. No. You you absolutely should be connecting with everything and everybody throughout the the agency or department you’re you’re working at. And if they’re smart, they’ll include you because Yep.

Again, I mean, these are the people that voted for the president and are gonna be the reason that they are reelected. And so, if they’re smart, they’ll know to include coalitions. Right. Exactly. And, obviously, we don’t wanna butt in.

Needlessly, there are some considered private. But in general, I’m just saying just know that what you’re hopefully about to undertake is a very broad job with broad reach and very meaningful because you could really advance the issues, the cause of the of the administration, in such a meaningful, tangible way. Thank you all for taking the time to listen to us today. I hope that it was beneficial and that you learned a lot. We both look forward to all that you’re gonna accomplish and succeed in your roles.

And, you know, just remember that we’re here to support you. -Yeah. Please be in touch. Happy to help.