We craft messaging that advances causes, wins campaigns, and defines companies.
We’ve served as writing partners to high-profile speakers who’ve won the White House, the Nobel Prize, and the trust of their communities.
We’ve translated complex ideas into compelling stories on behalf of entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and civil rights champions.
We’ve created thought-leadership strategies for CEOs of blue-chip companies, heads of global foundations, and policymakers on the front lines of today’s biggest debates.
We partner with leaders from beginning to end, helping you organize your ideas, pressure-test your arguments, find the right words, and succeed from behind the podium or in front of the camera.
And we start every project by listening. We understand that good storytelling requires trust — and that before you can earn it from your audience, we have to earn it from you.
Grounded in deep research, we create authentic organizational and issue narratives using language that’s proven to resonate with your target audiences. Our Message Manual is a polished product you can hold in your hand and share proudly with partners and employees. It contains comprehensive, user-friendly tools that empower your spokespeople to deploy your message consistently, clearly, and memorably.
Contributing productively to the conversation means doing two things carefully: picking your moments and choosing your words. We design holistic strategies that elevate an executive’s profile, establishing them as a sought-after thought leader in service of a greater mission. Combined with the other services you see here — including message development, writing, and media training — we then bring your thought-leadership strategy to life.
Like we’ve done for Presidents Biden and Obama, as well as some of the biggest names in business and philanthropy, we conceptualize, research, write, and edit persuasive speeches in a leader’s authentic voice.
Whether we’re crafting a single keynote, producing a versatile stump speech, or serving as your external speechwriting team, we will help you find the words to communicate your vision, move your audience to act, and accomplish your strategic objectives through thoughtful storytelling.
How you look on camera is just one piece of the puzzle. From our in-house studios in Washington and New York (or wherever in the world you are), we teach spokespeople how to adopt the right mindset and gameplan before high-stakes press interactions. We work with you to establish credibility, refine your message, prepare for any kind of interview question, and stay in control of important public engagements.
Grounded in our media expertise as former journalists and press advisors, we build messengers’ skills through real-time, confidence-building feedback on recorded practice interviews.
Whether you’re preparing for a panel or a podcast, a conference keynote or a congressional hearing, a presentation to the board of directors or a quarterly earnings call, we help you perform your best.
We’re not just coaches; we’ve also been actors, podcast hosts, keynote speakers, and panelists — so we know what it takes to prepare effectively and what it feels like to do it live. We’ll arm you with proven practice strategies and guide you through realistic simulations so you can hit all the right notes when the spotlight hits you.
Our ghostwritten opinion pieces — including op-eds, guest essays, and blog posts — have been published in outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Economist, as well as on companies’ owned platforms. Along with substantive white papers and shareable social media content, we will help you effectively communicate your message to the audiences that matter in a tone that matches the medium.
Clarity matters, and poor communication has real-world consequences. We’ve trained hundreds of subject-matter experts, program officers, and professional communicators in the strategies and tactics of effective writing. We customize workshops that fit any team’s size and time, design curricula that build your staff’s skills, and help each member of your organization become a more confident and persuasive storyteller.
Vivid stories are the most powerful tool you have to humanize and inspire, but you don’t want to source relevant and well-told anecdotes on deadline. We will operationalize a research-and-interview process to capture, craft, and curate the most meaningful examples that give life to your mission-driven narrative. These vetted stories, shaped with the cadence and detail that makes them interesting and instructive, will empower you to illustrate the urgency and benefits of your work.
Whether you’re convening a company-wide conference, bringing together leaders from across your industry, or raising money at an annual gala, SKDK can produce every component seamlessly and under one roof. We will design an agenda that delivers a coherent and meaningful audience experience, craft polished keynote speeches and bylined content, produce compelling videos and creative digital assets, and prepare speakers for panels and interviews. To maximize your event’s reach, we’ll also develop effective earned media strategies and social media campaigns that ensure the right people hear what you have to say.
STEPHEN KRUPIN
AMBER MACDONALD
