The world listens to individuals,
not institutions.

Explore these quick stories of my work with research leaders who are achieving their career and organizational goals by becoming public experts.

Building public expertise to grow a research institute

Client: John Sabo, professor and director, ByWater Institute/Tulane University and CEO, Future H2O-B

  • After taking over as ByWater’s new director in 2021, John had two strategic goals:

    1. Establish a distinct brand and build awareness for ByWater.

    2. Start to build collaborations, funding momentum and faculty recruitment for ByWater.

  • ByWater had little to no brand awareness – nationally, in New Orleans or even on Tulane’s campus.

    ByWater had little differentiation from the wide range of other coastal and freshwater research institutes based at US universities.

  • After a comprehensive review of ByWater’s public presence, John’s strengths as a public expert, and the communities he wanted ByWater to engage, we decided to:

    • Secure a regular column for John in Forbes Sustainability, publishing regular content on climate’s impacts on the Mississippi River basin.

    • Create John’s new podcast, “Audacious Water,” which focuses on challenges facing the Mississippi.

    • Crystallize John’s vision for ByWater as a proto “national lab for the Mississippi River Basin” doing “clinical trials for planetary health” – rigorous but rapid, solutions-oriented science designed to inform decision making.

    • Build the proposal for John’s forthcoming book around the idea of clinical trials for planetary health as the scientific approach to produce the rapid solutions the world needs in the era of climate change.

“Bob and I have worked together for over six years and across my transitions between two jobs, two continents and three institutions. If you are a scientist wanting to venture out of the ivory tower, Bob will ease that transition and usher you into a world of communication that frees you from the fear of being inaccurate and into the world of relevance. If you are not a scientist, Bob also has deep expertise there. Bob will help you clarify your vision, put your stamp on that vision and chart a path towards communicating it to your stakeholders effectively.”

- JOHN SABO ON WORKING WITH SCIENCE+STORY

A CEO becomes a public expert to 10x impact for her firm

Client: Tisha Schuller, founder and CEO, Adamantine Energy

  • Tisha came to me over four years ago with a single request: Help her leverage her unique point of view on the energy transition to grow Adamantine Energy, her four-person consulting firm. As she put it: “I want to be able to walk into any room in our industry and have people say, ‘I know who you are. We need to work together.’”

  • Tisha had a bracing message for her prospective clients, who lead oil and gas companies throughout the world and the sector’s value chain: Stop fighting the energy transition–instead, innovate and lead it. But that message was at direct odds with the settled approach of the oil and gas industry, which had for decades fallen back on its scientists and engineers to convey “energy realities” to a skeptical-to-hostile public. How to break through?

  • My landscape and audience analysis revealed that Tisha’s message a) had no serious competitors and b) would be welcome to many in her target audience who quietly agreed with her. After we did a Drop and Give Me 20 exercise–which revealed Tisha had more than enough content ideas to fill out six months of a content calendar–we plunged ahead with a full-bore content strategy to get Tisha’s message circulating in industry circles. The strategy has included:

    • “Both These Things are True”–a weekly insight email and LinkedIn column–that now reaches nearly 4,000 industry insiders;

    • Two Tisha-authored books (“The Gamechanger’s Playbook” and “Real Decarbonization”) that crystallize the continued evolution of her thinking on how oil and gas companies can help lead the energy transition;

    • The development of two talks based on insights from her new books, which Tisha has given to conferences, company events and board meetings across the world;

    • Numerous research-based white papers published under the Adamantine Energy aegis;

    • And the launch of “Energy Thinks,” Tisha’s podcast in which she interviews energy industry leaders about issues surrounding the energy transition – now in its fifth season.

  • Today, Adamantine is a 10-person firm–and Tisha has plans to eventually double that staff count. Her speaking calendar is booked six months in advance, and both “Energy Thinks” and her LinkedIn column have doubled subscribers over both the last two years. 

“Bob is my astute advisor—the person I trust uniquely to keep me effective in my communications and growing in my reach. I value that Bob challenges me to be better: He will tell me when I’m wrong, call out when my work isn’t my best, and push me to have bolder, broader impact. Of all the resources in my leadership quiver, Bob stands out as THE individual who gave me the tools and skills to expand my reach by an order of magnitude.”

- TISCHA SCHULLER ON WORKING WITH SCIENCE+STORY

Brainstorming the right content for the right moment

CLIENT: Rose Mutiso, research director, Energy for Growth Hub

  • Nature.com had asked Rose to contribute a WorldView piece ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 27) 2022 meeting in Cairo, Egypt. It was perfect timing: The ask gave Rose and the Hub a chance to promote some of the ideas in a just-published Hub report, “Who Decides Africa’s Net Zero Pathways?”

  • Nature WorldView pieces are 900 words long–and the report had lots to say about how the net-zero concept was leaving Africa behind. But the Nature piece also couldn’t just be a summary of the report; it had to advance its own viewpoint with relevance to Nature’s audience. What kind of piece could capitalize on the new report but also make a proper WorldView?

  • I recommended that Rose–the Hub’s research director and herself an energy-systems researcher–focus the piece on the factors Nature’s readers would care about: how gaps in Africa-specific data and Africa technical capacity for modeling were rendering global net-zero models next to useless. It was the perfect angle, and Rose’s piece (“Net-zero plans exclude Africa”) has been a springboard for catalyzing donor action to address these gaps.

“Bob and I have collaborated on numerous projects over the past five years – opinion pieces, technical reports, podcasts, speaking engagements, media interviews, TED talks, and more! Bob has been instrumental in helping me think both strategically and tactically about how to connect my technical work into crisp and compelling insights across these diverse platforms, pushing me to explore new and creative ways to expand the reach and impact of my work. Bob is also in the innermost circle of my trusted professional advisors, and one of the first people I reach out to whenever I need guidance, support, and honest feedback on my work. I am truly in awe of his exceptional skill in helping wonky types like me be more relevant to broader audiences, while remaining true to our core messages and convictions. Thank you Bob!”

- ROSE MUTISO ON WORKING WITH SCIENCE+STORY

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