Strategic Communication is the advancement of a narrative.

As humans, we've done this since the day we were born. In fact, it is literally the first thing we did when we were born. We moved in a direction of advancement out of our mother's wombs and celebrated after with a jubilant cry. We are natural born salespeople constantly pushing our narrative to whoever falls for it and eventually buys into what we’re selling.

The "narrative" comes in all shapes and sizes: a cause, a purpose, an idea or a goal. We advance this narrative by using actions, opinions, facts and even memes. It's a constant, daily battle against others. A battle for jobs, wins, votes, donations, standing ovations, positive reviews, admiration, likes on social media, awards and deals, to name a few. In the end, we hope to achieve a favorable result and as of late, pop culture has become the largest engine that helps drive our narrative. TV shows like Shark Tank, QVC and HSN are perfectly crafted models of how to advance the narrative in front of millions of people all at once. We use TV shows like America's Got Talent and The Voice as launching pads of our narratives. We're constantly asked to assist in the daily narratives of others: "click this link", "vote by text", "call today", "go to this website", "order now" and "don't wait."

I should know, I have seen firsthand how strategic communication works in media and how bloody the battle can become. If you want a real world, war-like scenario, this is it! As a former TV news anchor, it didn't matter what size of market I was in, I was constantly battling others for legitimacy. It was a daily struggle to not only impress my bosses, but to also establish a rapport with my audience. At the same time, I continued to write stories, edited on-air packages and kept a community presence at events. All the while, trying to ignore the constant barrage of negative character attacks from colleagues trying to take my job. When it was all said and done, I came out victorious with Emmy and Associated Press awards. My narrative was advanced and the war was won.

In sports, analysts spend weeks contemplating how teams win. When the buzzer goes off, it's simply whose strategy scored more points. For lawyers, it all comes down to one question. Did they advance their narrative enough to get their client acquitted? Politicians, meanwhile, can shake hands, film commercials, robo-call, hold rallies, kiss the babies and shout into a microphone. However, are they able to advance the narrative enough to win more votes than the other candidate? Some would say strategic communication has too many layers and couldn't possibly be that simple. True! We can crunch data, analyze studies, develop theories and focus-group ourselves to exhaustion. At the end of the day, it's still all about successfully advancing the message (strategic communication) to achieve a positive change and the outcome we desire.