Welcome to Revenue Speaks, where communication becomes growth. I'm Sheila Johnston, founder and CEO of Luminari Partners. This show is produced in partnership with Page Design Group, where together we align strategy, brand, and digital to drive growth. Revenue Speaks explores how strategic communication aligns leadership and drives measurable revenue. Because communication is an overhead. It's infrastructure. And in the end, revenue speaks.

Sheila Johnston, look at you. You're on the couch. This is one of my favorite couches. It's a very nice couch. It suits you well. Thank you. So often we've been seeing you lately in the gray chair as the host of the Revenue Speaks podcast right here in the same studios that we put on our marketing team of one podcast. Every so often we just thought I'm over there helping you. You're over there helping us. Let's just do a level set, get up to date. How are things? Let's maybe go back a little bit, learn a little bit more about Sheila. I've got a few questions. Nothing major, but I think the audience is clamoring for more information on who is Sheila. I think my husband would also clamor for that information.

I know Revenue Speaks has been such a roller coaster of a ride. It's been my passion project, you know, communications as infrastructure for so long. I'm so grateful for Page Design for collaborating with me and Luminary Partners on this journey. I mean, it was only eight months ago that we had that peanut butter and jelly lunch and came up with the idea for this podcast. And look at you now. You just recorded your 10th episode. You're booked out with guests.

I am booked out into 2027 and I'm constantly getting feedback from individuals that are listening. Some are association professionals, nonprofit executives, board chairs, and even business owners, from corporate that are listening to the show. Wow. And it's just so refreshing to hear how relevant our conversations are and everyone picks up a little something different. Isn't that fun to just kind of see it through different lenses and see how other people are taking in? Do you know if there's people doing more video or more audio? Do you have any information around that? Um, I'm pretty sure based on the YouTube views that it's more audio. Well, I think your audience listens to podcasts probably more than they look at them on YouTube, right? Having that second screen content. I will say my guests are so thankful that they can choose which version they could approve the podcast with. Some don't like to see themselves, some only like to hear themselves, others want to see themselves. So, it's nice to provide options. It is good and it's nice to have content going out in all different types of channels like meet your audience where they want to be. That's the whole point of communications, right?

Let's go back a little bit and learn more about your dedication to the idea behind communications as infrastructure. You've been in association leadership. The people that you have on your show, a lot of them have been either former clients or colleagues that you've been on boards with and and helped serve with. go back years and years and years. You've been doing this for a long, long time. Give us a little bit more of the backstory about what what brought you to this. I'm going to go back even further than my career. When it started, 1990s. Yes. Okay. I never really understood how valuable communications was. And it wasn't just speaking, it was listening. This concept first was introduced to me by my history teacher, Mr. Osborne at Chino Senior High. Chino Senior High. Yes. Shout out Mr. Osborne. We know you're watching. He is. He said he's a big fan. Really? Oh my goodness. He's a really big fan. I better be on my better behavior then. So it was AP government senior year and he gave us this assignment where there were six different presidents in the room. He had divided the class. There was a president and a team of diplomats which were our fellow students. And he gave us a scenario where the world was on fire. Cool. Relevant today. Very, very relevant. And each president had to listen to their team of adviserss and choose a form of action that might have a consequence or a reward. Interesting. I was the president that listened to every single one of my team members before I acted. Other presidents didn't do that. They just communicated their decision and everyone else had to go with it. So it was in this moment that I saw the relationship between communicating and listening as going hand in hand. Wow. Interesting. It was so valuable.

Carry that into my career. Often you have to communicate to audiences that you've never met. Yep. Whether you're working in the state legislature, a lobbyist, or even as an association executive, you might never meet every member, but you have to convince them to act, to join, to buy, to attend. Right. Right. So, I always found that it was such an incredible challenge as well as such an incredible reward to find that communication sweet sauce that everyone else would follow. When communications is going well, you inspire other people to act. Even your executive or your board get invested in the power of communications. And you've seen that firsthand with a lot of the various different groups. You've got an MPPA. You worked at the state legislature. All of the work that you've done with all of your clients and constituents and fans. We'll just say once they get to know you, they become a fan. Speaking from experience. You mentioned the state legislature. I worked as a policy consultant where I was writing analyses for elected officials in the Senate that would choose how to vote on pieces of policy. Interesting. No pressure.

Yeah. No, that had to be concise executive level communications where there was a brief history, arguments in support and opposition, an overview of why organizations were in support and opposition. And then they would vote in committee, right? So there was a huge demand of understanding the intent behind the change and that was mostly written communication which was no pressure. Yeah. A vote could make a lot. Change people's lives literally. Exactly. And that kind of transformed when I went into the association space as a lobbyist. short moments of time to communicate why a legislature should vote on a piece of legislation that was affecting your members. And then as I ascended into CEO and executive director roles, my associations were varying in size, varying in audiences, and I knew based on the members I was serving that I might only have again 30 seconds or five minutes. Interesting. Yeah. and the way I communicated and how I communicated as well as how I made the members feel would be the defining factor in their level of engagement. That speaks a lot to your ability to hit me with questions that in the matter of 15 seconds I'm already trying to unpack so many elements.

You have a very efficient way of getting a lot of ideas packed into questions and statements. It must come from that. I mean, I I can imagine, like you said, you got 15 seconds, you're walking next to the governor or something like that with a big stack of papers in your hand and you've got to make your case, right? You have to make your case. You always have to be prepared to make your case. But similar to making a case, there was one moment I remembered that was very pivotal in my communications passion. Uh, I was doing a lot of ghostwriting for my CEOs that I was working for before I became one myself. And it was so important ghostwriting in that situation. The way a CEO communicates with their team or with the outside world, it affects the level of trust people have in an organization. Yeah. During such a period of time, I had seen a job description for corporate communications for a biotech firm. And the job description was write all communications for the CEO. Wow. Internal communications only. Okay. And I thought this is fascinating that this is exactly how cultures improve and how CEOs of large Fortune 500 companies stay connected to their employees. In companies like that, you don't get to see your employees every day. Yeah. They might not even know who the CEO is. It might be a huge Yeah. organization where nobody's got that connection. I use that job description when I was interim CEO of a large statewide bar association. Okay. It was one of the largest staffs I I had managed. It was over 40 employees. Wow. And I knew every day of the week I couldn't connect with everyone. And I also didn't have a long period of time for them to get to know me and trust me. So on Monday mornings, I would write a note to the team and tell them what was top of mind for me or what I learned or an experience that I had. And what that allowed to happen was the team would have something to talk to me about. Yes. It opened the door even further. I rarely closed my door.

Yeah. I rarely left my office, but I found over time that staff would come in and say, "Hey, did you eat lunch today? Hey, did you go to the bathroom today? Did you go home?" You know, whatever that was. But communications has the power to shift thinking and has the power to shift culture. And that's why this podcast exists because when communications is part of your infrastructure, everything changes. you don't have to micromanage as much maybe or at all. Well, that's an interesting illustration because you communicated a lot of different things and not just like corporate speak or this is all about leadership or you touched on a lot of different things including some personal stuff, you know. Yes. Family pet stuff I'm sure was included. You gave people a lot of entryways to enter into a conversation with Exactly. Which at your position there was probably a challenge for some of the people that probably wanted to talk to you and everybody has different personalities and and comfort levels with how they want to speak to leadership. And so it sounds like a really effective way to do that. It was I mean I would celebrate the mistakes. There was this one moment, and it's still top of mind for me because I can't believe I did this, but my family and I were at Canyon Lands National Park in Utah, and we were looking at one of the most famous arches, Mesa Arch, and what did I do? I left my cell phone in the car. So, there was no memory of this photo other than what was in my head. And it was so cool, Eric.

We laid on our bellies and we looked down this cliff and Oh, wow. We saw pox flying, but I couldn't prove that I was there, right? But it's also such a human experience to forget something that captures a moment. Yeah. How many people forget their keys now or where they put their phone? So, well, in my world, you forget your phone to take a picture of it. It never happens. It never a lie. Yeah. But communicating that human side really instilled trust in and like you mentioned provides access. I think when there's access, there's trust. When there's trust, there's better communication. And when there's better communication, there's culture. Revenue flows. Tangible or intangible revenue. Yeah. And in your podcast, it's interesting because you talk all the time about how communications is infrastructure and you ask your guests very consistently and it's sometimes it's a challenge because I don't think people connect the dots because it's not a onetoone. No, it's not one equals communication equals revenue. There are dots in between that step, but as you continue to ask those questions, it's great to see them put those dots together for the audience and understand that this down here is communication plus this plus this equals the revenue. And I think that that's what's a powerful statement about your podcast. Thank you. I love that you said that because this was illustrated in Stephanie Stevens episode, which I don't think this segment made the final episode, but we had asked her about how she assesses a new team member might fit into the organization. We were talking about food. It was right after lunch. I remember. And she had mentioned that one of her signature interview questions was, "What would you bring to a potluck?" And one of her team members answered, "I would bring the chairs." Loved that. I loved that, too.

That was a great answer. And in that one simple question, she understood everything she needed to Yeah. about her newest team member. And that was a communication strategy. That's a differentiator, too. That is again going back to very quick, efficient communication. It's like that's a very simple decision to make to bring to bear the value. She probably cocked her head a little bit like, "Wow, somebody keep an eye on that one." Yes. You know, that's an interesting uh observation and a and a good suggestion for a party. So, I know. So, it's been so incredible to have these conversations with our guests and bring to light something that a lot of people take for granted, but maybe no one is talking about it as much as they should be. Yeah. and keep making those connections because it is hard for people to put all of those things in line and see that that communication does equal revenue and it comes in a lot of varieties of different ways and that's what's been great about your show is you're highlighting the variety of ways that that enters into those organizations and people respect the communication side of things. Thank you. I agree and it's so exciting because we haven't just interviewed executives. We had our first board chair on the show and that episode will be released soon. But to think about how involved a board should be and how they communicate is an extension of that infrastructure. Yeah. Is just a fabulous lesson to focus on. Yeah. The variety of people, a lot of them are in leadership or they're the right up alongside leadership and help them with a lot of the facilitation of that communication. And there's a lot of really good stories. I learned a lot. So, thanks for that opportunity.

Well, let me turn the same question on you as producer of the show. What has been your favorite moment so far? My favorite moment are all the little silly moments that may or may not make it onto the podcast, but it's funny when you would ask questions that got a little complicated. I did. They were They did. So, those are kind of funny because just seeing the guest kind of stare at you dear in the headlights sometimes was pretty funny because obviously you're trying to extract some really great nuggets, right? And you do, but sometimes we need to simplify things down. Simplify. But then there's also those instances where you ask a question to a guest and they may not have the answer you were looking for.

They interpret your questions back to you and in a good way, in a in an interesting way. And that's what makes the show fascinating. I think it's great too that you're asking people to put together real stories, real illustrations of the complexities that they're dealing with because it's not just these binary stories. Sally said this, Bill did this. There a lot of different dynamics and every organization is unique and you're really good at pulling out those unique moments or unique situations that help people navigate. I hope and understand how to get through some of those interesting complexities. So, good job on that. Thank you. Thank you for your coaching and for your production skills. It's a lot of Ashley, too. Yes, Ashley. Couldn't do this without her. That's right. Well, Sheila, it has been such a pleasure being in here in the room where it all happened and watching you unveil a lot of different communication stories for all of these different guests and also following your communication story as well. It's been a pleasure and an honor. Thank you, Eric. We should do more of these. I like that. Be fun. Let's do it. All right. Thanks.

Thanks for listening. We invite you to subscribe to this podcast and take our revenue alignment assessment, a short strategic diagnostic for missiondriven executives. You'll find everything you need at revenuespeaks.com. Because communication isn't overhead, it's infrastructure. And in the end, revenue speaks.

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