Lulu Cheng Meservey gives a masterclass on non-boring corporate communications, Korean pop culture, and religious fanaticism. Lulu shares what she’s learned running comms for startups, decoding cultural erogenous zones, and crafting impactful messages in 280 characters or less. Whether you're a writer, a communications professional, or simply curious about the intersection of K-POP and Internet whackos, this podcast is a window into modern communication.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:01 Intro
00:00:32 Why Lulu thinks that corporate communications exists
00:01:36 How Lulu avoids “corporate speak”
00:02:30 How do you write when anxiety and tension is high
00:03:20 Lulu’s process for creating corporate communications
00:04:34 How Lulu conveys emotion in writing
00:05:05 Do companies have a personality?
00:06:40 Do companies have a soul?
00:08:15 Lulu’s career path
00:09:15 Why Lulu throws down and Game Theory behind it
00:10:00 Tit for two tats
00:11:30 The art of good writing
00:12:20 Why media is so vicious
00:12:40 Why Lulu joined Substack
00:13:09 Lulu’s study of counter-insurgency
00:14:45 How Christianity shows us the most powerful story arc
00:16:35 Joe Rogan & distribution channels (Trade-off of quantity vs depth of audience)
00:19:00 Amazon’s Bezos “Focus on the customer”
00:20:00 How Lulu thinks about driving slogans
00:20:38 ABBA structure
00:21:10 The Behavioral Psychology of communications
00:21:50 David’s Law
00:22:30 Framing your offer
00:24:00 Cultural Erogenous Zones
00:25:25 API to make writing compatible with what people care about
00:25:41 Kamala Harris’s message about national defense vs. education
00:27:00 Lulu’s writing process and habits
00:28:20 How ancient Greek debate ideas
00:29:30 Why Lulu thinks that communicators should take more risks
00:32:30 Illusion of transparency
00:32:55 How Lulu works with editors
00:34:12 Twitter as a medium
00:35:20 Why it’s easier to defend others than yourself
00:36:25 Writing for your 5 year old
00:37:20 Between personal and corporate
00:38:48 Twitter growth tactics
00:40:09 Meet your people
00:40:50 Quality of audience
00:41:00 Jesus and 12,000 disciples
00:41:28 Substack and growth tactics
00:41:55 Lulu’s keys to a good newsletter
00:43:08 People with unique writing styles
00:44:20 Learning English
00:45:00 Lulu’s job interview misunderstanding
00:46:00 What Lulu is reading to improve her writing
00:47:50 Risk Management
00:53:00 Writer brain vs Friend brain
00:54:10 Washington D.C.
00:55:00 Different lenses of writing
00:56:00 Storytelling
00:57:00 Statistics & Accusations
00:58:30 Framing
00:59:00 How to use comms to grow a show
01:01:00 Crypto and AI
01:02:00 Distribution / podcasts
01:04:00 How to explain yourself to others
01:05:00 What we can learn from Bitcoin
01:06:25 K-Pop
01:07:20 Evangelism
01:09:40 Why Lulu is compelled to write

SPEAKER:
Lulu is currently the Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer at Activision Blizzard, and was formerly head of comms at Substack. Her newsletter “Flack” is a new playbook for communications, written to help you win over people who matter, without wasting time or being cringe.

Lulu's Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lulumeservey
Lulu's Newsletter: https://www.getflack.com

WRITE OF PASSAGE:
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PODCAST LINKS:
Website: https://writeofpassage.school/how-i-write/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-write/id1700171470
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSboniFAeGA8v9NpoPv

ABOUT THE HOST:
I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

How I Write is a podcast by Write of Passage // Production by Adam Soccolich