How To Build A Cult | Lulu Cheng Meservey
Lulu Cheng Meservey, CCO/EVP at Activision Blizzard and VP of Comms at Substack, now creator of Rostra, shares strategies for effective communication in a noisy world. She discusses how to grab attention, build trust, handle attacks, and influence perception through human connection and conviction.
Deep Dive Analysis
18 Topic Outline
How to Grab Attention in a Noisy World
Crafting Effective Narratives and the Importance of the Hook
Why Governments and Corporations Communicate Poorly
The Power of Human Conviction in Leadership
The Relationship Between Trust, Likability, and Belief
Engineering Trust Through Shared Values and Consistency
Strategic Responses to Public Relations Attacks
Fighting Stories with Stories, Not Statistics
The Advantage of Being First and Using Pre-buttals
Developing Intellectual Sharpness Through Sparring
Leveraging the Underdog Position and Playing Offense
Three Key Elements for Impactful Storytelling
The Halo Effect and its Influence on Perception
Practical Communication Advice for Workplace Interactions
Lessons from Counterinsurgency for Startup Growth
Establishing Second Strike Capability for Deterrence
Analyzing Donald Trump's Communication Effectiveness
Defining Personal Success in Communication
9 Key Concepts
Venn Diagram of Communication
This mental model suggests that effective communication lies in the overlap between what the communicator wants to say and what the audience already cares about. By meeting the audience in this shared interest, you can then guide them towards your full message.
The Hook
The initial element of communication designed to immediately capture attention, especially crucial in environments with short attention spans like social media. It can manifest as humor, curiosity, strong emotion, or a new angle on a relevant topic.
Deterrence (in PR)
The strategy of signaling that if you are attacked in a meaningful way, you will retaliate, making potential adversaries less likely to target you. This involves consistently responding to attacks to establish a reputation as a 'hard target'.
One Death is a Tragedy, a Thousand are a Statistic
This concept highlights that individual, human-centered stories are far more impactful and relatable than abstract statistics or large numbers. To move people, it's more effective to focus on a specific person's experience than broad data points.
Pre-buttal
A proactive communication tactic where you anticipate and address potential criticisms or attacks by acknowledging and owning them yourself before an opponent can use them against you, effectively disarming their argument.
Communication Velocity
Effective communication is a vector, possessing both magnitude (the quantity of communication) and direction (a clear, intentional goal or idea to spread). Without a clear direction, communication becomes frantic, wasteful activity that may cancel itself out.
Halo Effect
A cognitive bias where a positive impression of a person or entity in one area influences positive perceptions in other, unrelated areas. For example, if someone is admired for their business acumen, people might also trust their opinions on unrelated topics like food.
Cheerleader Effect
A phenomenon where individuals are perceived as more attractive when seen in a group than when seen alone. In a business context, this suggests that associating with other impressive individuals or companies can elevate one's own perceived status or credibility.
Tit for Two Tats
An optimal strategy in repeated game theory interactions, where you might tolerate a first transgression but will always retaliate against a second. This approach balances cooperation with establishing a strong, predictable deterrent effect over the long term.
12 Questions Answered
By focusing on human beings and human stories, conveying genuine conviction, and tying facts together into a compelling narrative arc that people feel compelled to follow.
Identify the overlap in a Venn diagram between what you care about and what your target audience cares about, then start by speaking to that shared interest before guiding them to your full message.
Often, it's due to a 'ship of Theseus' effect where people copy existing, ineffective communication styles, and because communication roles are often separated from the core leadership, leading to a focus on quantity over effective understanding.
People find it hard to resist someone who looks them in the eye and tells them with absolute conviction that something is true, even if the merits of the pitch are poor. This vulnerability can be used to build belief, especially when combined with trust and repetition.
Trust can be built through repeated exposure (becoming not a stranger), establishing shared values, and consistently speaking with complete conviction.
First, assess if the attack truly matters by considering who it's reaching and if the accusation is material. If it matters, respond immediately and aggressively to 'break the nose back' and prevent the narrative from festering.
You must fight stories with stories, not just statistics. Look for more powerful human stories beneath the statistics or tell a story about the opponent's deceptive tactics.
Being first allows you to frame the narrative, set the terms of the discussion, and even preemptively address potential criticisms (a 'pre-buttal'), leaving opponents with less to say.
Underdogs can use the natural sympathy people have for them, rally their aligned supporters by framing an attack on them as an attack on 'all of us,' and strategically pick fights against specific, tangible foils rather than vague problems.
1) A clear, relevant message (the Venn diagram overlap), 2) The right mediums to reach the specific target audience, and 3) The right messenger (often the leader or founder) who can convey genuine conviction.
By being intentional and strategic about the 'product' (themselves) they are presenting, identifying what their target audience (boss, colleagues, partner) needs to believe about them, and then consistently conveying proof points through messages, mediums, and their own actions.
Insurgent groups demonstrate how to rally people to an seemingly irrational cause against an established power structure by conveying extreme conviction, painting a new reality, and making people believe in something bigger than immediate logic.
33 Actionable Insights
1. Leaders Must Communicate Directly
Have the leader of an enterprise speak directly about their vision, rather than relying on intermediaries or PR teams. This conveys human conviction, builds trust, and is essential for rallying people around an original vision, especially for startups.
2. Find Venn Diagram Overlap
Determine your communication narrative by finding the overlap between what you care about and what your specific audience cares about. This ‘gateway drug’ hook makes people receptive and allows you to lead them into your broader message.
3. Convey Human Conviction
Convey messages with absolute human conviction, looking people in the eye and telling them with unwavering belief that something is true. People find it hard to resist conviction, making them buy into what you’re saying, even if the pitch’s merits are weak.
4. Prioritize the Hook
Spend most effort on crafting a sharp, engaging hook for your communication before considering story details or distribution channels. The hook is the most overlooked and high-leverage part, as attention spans are very short (e.g., <5 seconds for video, first paragraph for text).
5. Engineer Trust & Shared Values
Build trust by becoming familiar through repeated exposure and establishing a set of shared values with your audience. People trust those they know and those who share their core beliefs, making them more receptive to your message.
6. CEO’s Role: Weigh All Interests
As a CEO, weigh legal risks against other critical factors like trust, reputational risk, and long-term company value, rather than solely deferring to lawyers. The CEO’s job is to find the net optimal outcome, as reputational damage can cost far more than legal fees.
7. Establish Second Strike Capability
Build a reputation for fighting back if provoked, making it clear you are not a soft target and will respond to attacks. This establishes strong deterrence, making your life easier in the long run by discouraging future attacks.
8. Spar to Sharpen Thinking
Regularly engage in sparring sessions with diverse viewpoints, surrounding yourself with people who will challenge your ideas and welcome skepticism. This practice makes you intellectually sharper, better prepared for real-world confrontations, and prevents intellectual brittleness.
9. Be Intentional About Personal Brand
Consciously decide what image you want to project in any life context (e.g., as an employee, friend, partner) and intentionally present proof points that foster that perception. People retain very few things about us; intentionality prevents haphazard perception and helps achieve goals like promotions.
10. Cultivate Belief to Override Rationality
Inspire belief in your vision to overcome immediate rational objections, making people see the world through a new prism. Belief can supersede immediate logic, enabling recruitment of talent and support for ambitious, seemingly irrational goals.
11. Fight Stories with Stories
When facing an opponent using stories, counter their narratives with your own powerful stories, looking for them ‘under the statistics.’ Statistics are less impactful than stories, especially when facing narrative attacks.
12. Tie Facts to Narrative Arcs
Present information by tying facts together in a chain to form a bigger narrative arc, rather than just dropping isolated facts. This gives people something to hang on to and feel compelled to follow, making your message more engaging.
13. Define Your Audience Specifically
Clearly define who you are speaking to (e.g., company employees, specific interest groups) rather than trying to address an infinite audience. Watering down messages for a too-broad audience makes them ineffective; specificity allows for maximal interest.
14. Use Humor, Curiosity, Emotion
Craft your hook using humor, curiosity, strong emotion (wow/WTF), or by offering a new angle on a topic your audience already follows. These are common and effective ways to grab and hold attention across different audiences.
15. Be Interesting to Specific Audience
Tailor your message to be maximally interesting to your identified audience by understanding their ‘cultural and intellectual erogenous zones’ and linking your message to them. Trying to be interesting to everyone results in a diluted, marginal message; specificity makes it impactful.
16. Break Corporate Copycat Cycle
Avoid blindly copying existing corporate communication styles; instead, do something original and courageous. Most corporate comms are hollow and meaningless; original approaches can break the cycle and set a better standard.
17. Start Debates by Agreeing
When arguing or debating, always make sure to start by agreeing with your opponent on something, even if it’s trivial. This establishes that seeing things the same way is possible, making productive conversation more likely.
18. Show Up and Defend
Directly confront insults or attacks, especially online, by personally engaging and defending yourself or your organization. Confronting a person (even online) changes behavior, often causing attackers to fold, and builds deterrence.
19. Assess Attack Before Responding
Before responding to an attack, determine if it truly matters by evaluating if it reaches your important audience and if the accusation is material to your reputation. Don’t waste time on irrelevant attacks; focus resources on those that can cause real damage.
20. Respond Immediately & Aggressively
If an attack matters, respond immediately and aggressively to address significant reputational damage head-on. Delaying allows the damage to fester, making it harder and more painful to fix later.
21. Use Pre-buttals for Attacks
If you know what people are going to attack you for, preemptively address those criticisms. Being first allows you to frame the narrative and disarm critics, similar to Eminem’s rap battle strategy.
22. Mute Toxic, Don’t Block Disagreement
Use the mute function for genuinely abusive or threatening content, but allow differing opinions and disagreements into your feed. Insulating yourself from disagreement makes you fragile; engaging with it helps you adapt and grow.
23. Leverage Underdog Position
If you are an underdog facing a powerful attacker, use that position to your advantage by framing attacks from larger entities as punching down. People naturally sympathize with underdogs and are skeptical of bullies, allowing you to rally your aligned audience.
24. Diffuse Pressure by Spreading
When under attack, broaden the scope of the attack to include your allies or a broader cause. This spreads the ‘force’ over a wider ‘surface area,’ diffusing pressure on you and rallying support.
25. Maximize Pressure by Narrowing
When on offense (e.g., in a defensive response), narrow the target of your complaint to maximize pressure. Instead of broad complaints, pinpoint specific issues or individuals to make your complaint more credible and effective.
26. Pick a Specific Foil
To gain attention as an underdog, choose a specific ‘foil’ or concrete obstacle to fight against. This provides something tangible for people to rally around, making your movement more relevant and easier to understand than vague complaints.
27. Focus on Comms Velocity
Ensure your communication efforts have both magnitude (quantity) and a clear direction (purpose). Define the specific idea you want to spread and ensure all comms activities build towards that destination, avoiding frantic, wasted activity.
28. Apologize Only When Accountable
Apologize only when you have genuinely done something wrong and take accountability, but resist apologizing for things you haven’t done. This builds trust and strong deterrence; arbitrary apologies make you a soft target.
29. Use Simple, Common Language
Communicate using simple, common words that everybody knows, avoiding jargon unless your audience specifically understands it. This ensures your message is universally understood and prevents miscommunication.
30. For Micro-Comms, Know WHAT/WHY
For everyday communications like emails, texts, or presentations, clearly define what you want to say and why the audience should care. Most communications lack clear goals; this clarity ensures effectiveness and prevents wasted time.
31. Leverage Halo Effect
Be mindful of who you associate with, as positive associations can enhance your perceived value and trustworthiness. People use proxies and mental shortcuts (the halo effect) to make decisions, so being seen with impressive people or entities can benefit you.
32. Tit for Two Tats Strategy
In long-term relationships and repeated interactions, employ a ’tit for two tats’ strategy: allow one transgression but respond decisively if crossed a second time. This is an optimal balance between cooperation and deterrence.
33. Attach Content to Humans
Have content be attached to a human mascot or representative. People gravitate to human beings and stories, making content more cared about and memorable than generic content.
8 Key Quotes
The surface area of the opportunity we have to latch on is getting more and more fine, which means that the hook that we need to use has to get more and more sharp.
Lulu Cheng Meservey
If someone is fighting you with stories, you have to fight with stories. Under the statistics are more powerful stories.
Lulu Cheng Meservey
If you're trying to relieve pressure, you don't get to change how much force is coming at you, but you can change the surface area. You're not just attacking me. You're attacking all of us.
Lulu Cheng Meservey
The loss in trust, the loss in future prospects, customers, employees who defect, that recruit that doesn't accept the job offer, it could add up to billions.
Lulu Cheng Meservey
The three things for actually making a difference with your story are one, what is the message? Two, what are the right mediums? And then lastly, having the right messenger.
Lulu Cheng Meservey
The lie makes its way around the world before the truth can get its pants on.
Winston Churchill
In practice, I'm sorry, I know I'm not a lawyer. In practice, I've never seen someone lose a case because the CEO expressed human remorse and empathy. And that was the thing that made them lose in the courtroom. I just haven't seen it.
Lulu Cheng Meservey
You need to have something about you that's a little bit spiky. You need to be hard to step on. And if you can establish that up front, you will make the rest of your life so much easier.
Lulu Cheng Meservey
3 Protocols
Responding to a Public Relations Attack
Lulu Cheng Meservey- Assess if the attack actually matters by evaluating who it's reaching and if the accusation is material.
- If it matters, respond immediately and aggressively to prevent the narrative from taking hold and festering.
- If the attack is narrative-based, counter with a more powerful story, not just statistics.
- If you anticipate an attack, address the criticisms proactively by owning or diffusing them before they are used against you (pre-buttal).
Making a Difference with Your Story
Lulu Cheng Meservey- Identify the core message you want to convey, focusing on the overlap between what you care about and what your audience cares about.
- Choose the right mediums that effectively reach your specific target audience, rather than just seeking the largest distribution.
- Ensure the message is delivered by the most credible and convincing person, often the leader or founder, who can convey genuine conviction.
Building Trust
Lulu Cheng Meservey- Engage in repeated exposure to become familiar to your audience, so you are no longer a stranger.
- Establish a set of shared values to find common ground with your audience.
- Speak with complete conviction and do so repeatedly over time to reinforce belief.