Checking In with Sean Garrett, Founder of Mixing Board

Just Checking In

Episode show notes:

Given the current market volatility, all tech companies are, in some sense, in unchartered waters–and comms departments are no exception. To get a better understanding of the current landscape, we’ve invited comms pro Sean Garrett, the founder of Mixing Board and the first communications hire at Twitter, to share his perspective. In this episode, you’ll hear about the genesis of Mixing Board and its business model; his experience with a previous consultancy, the Pramana Collective; Garrett’s take on the current Twitter saga (of course!); and his thoughts on how comms professionals can, and should, have a seat at the corporate decision-making table.

Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

Jump straight into:

02:01 - Stripe in the news and turbulent markets - “We always like to just talk a little bit about comms and technology or market topics before we dive in. And this week, I was thinking about Stripe...”

09:29 - Sean Garrett and Mixing Board - “So mixing board was kind of a way to completely shake up, and bring the community into top comms and marketing leaders.”

17:04 - Difficult times for comms - “I'm not sure what I could say about that to make it better besides the fact that like, if you can make it through this, you can make it through anything.”

21:53 - It’s the inside that matters: The importance of internal comms - “Nine times out of 10, like whatever the end tactical problem was, it was almost always tied to some internal discombobulation.”

30:48 - Twitter’s case: What to do when a leadership team doesn’t respect comms - “Obviously this is a communications platform, that like lives and breathes communications and is all about transparency. It's about openness.”

35:34 - The power of comms - “I think like, you know, Brian Chesky kind of did this with Airbnb right after the pandemic started. Everyone praised that. I think certainly the messaging has been good on those kinds of notes.”

45:58 - The media landscape in the tech industry - “It's intentional to like create those divisions because you're able to separate the different tribes of this world and now there's like a media tribe and that's counterbalanced with like this tech tribe.”

48:53 - New York vs. San Francisco - “There's something very specific about the media industry in New York and their feelings toward this disruptive industry that impacts them specifically.”

Episode resources:

Sean Garrett’s Twitter and Linkedin

Mixing Board

Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences!

This show is produced by StudioPod Media in San Francisco. Teresa Buchanan is the Show’s Producer. Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator. Show notes are provided by nodalab.