My Philosophy

A new approach to political candidate training is paramount. In order to move voters who expect better communication, transparency, and authenticity from our candidates, strategists must make this new training a priority when budgeting a campaign.

A revised approach to guiding candidates to genuine expression begins with training from “the inside out”. Gone are the days of superficial training worrying whether candidates are using their hands too much. Instead, the hand must be motivated by the very thoughts and ideas they are communicating. Speeches must be approached differently. Bullet points are not enough. Speeches must contain personal ideas, backed by experiences and memories motivating a call to action. As an acting educator and political consultant, I see a parallel between an actor discovering their own relationship to a script’s given circumstance, and how  a candidate might personally relate to community issues.

When we act, we ask “ What’s the subtext”? What’s the meaning behind the words? What are we thinking or saying in the pause? The layers are infinite. Lee Strasberg said “ Art is in the choice”. Choices that matter. Images and senses must be evoked from the most personal experiences so constituents will identify and care. In addition, candidates like actors can be trained and sensitized in moment-to-moment perception of other people, their needs, and  receptivity to differing opinions.

In my own training I teach a preparation to create awareness of tension, the command to release that tension, and how to convert it to focused energy. Releasing tension breaks down barriers and societal habits to expression. Feelings can then be accessed with ease. Ideas can be expressed with confidence. How can a candidate who has never spoken in public be expected to do this without training?

We have become desensitized in elections. As individuals, we feel like no one is talking to us. As in acting, we must remove facades and learn to be human again. Not a line reading of what one thinks it sounds like to be human. This demands that a candidate find, explore, identify and share themself.

Until campaigns work “inside-out", candidates won’t reach their full potential. We won’t be motivated to vote, care about one another, and better our world.