Lauren Kopulsky leads communications at Iterable, an AI-powered martech platform, but her path there wasn't traditional. From working on the 2016 presidential campaign in Pennsylvania to standing up refugee education agencies in Jordan to navigating energy comms at Chevron, she's built a career that looks more like a "prairie" than a ladder—and that's exactly what makes her approach to tech communications so distinctive. In this episode of The Narrative, Lauren breaks down how the urgency and authenticity of political campaigning translates to tech comms, why she's training executives to reject the tired founder tropes, and how the media landscape is forcing communications leaders to rethink everything from podcast strategy to direct-to-audience channels.

Topics Discussed

• Why speed-to-response and narrative influence matter as much in tech as they do in political campaigns—and how to balance when to speak up versus stay silent
• The importance of humanizing executives through podcasts and niche media, moving beyond boilerplate messaging to authentic storytelling
• How to navigate the evolving media landscape as journalists go independent and traditional breaking news loses its value
• Why appearance and personal brand matter more than founders want to admit—and how to have those difficult conversations
• Building real relationships with press and podcasters instead of relying on agency batch-and-blast pitches
• The shift toward direct communication channels (like executive X accounts) as companies move away from traditional PR intermediaries
• Media training fundamentals: helping executives craft repeatable stories and develop compelling, authentic presence