Hey bestie,
A year ago, Off the Record was a hope and hunch that comms people deserved a room built for them, by someone who'd sat in their seat.
Today, it's one year old and 500+ of us. And it got a glow up to match. But a rebrand is just a new fit if there’s no depth.
So I did what a good comms person would do and put the why into words. A manifesto of sorts. Why this newsletter exists. Why this community exists. Why I won't stop pushing this industry to stop being comms people and start being business people who use comms to drive business results.
It opens with a line I believe deeply but makes my palms sweaty to hit post. But here we go. Read it, then come set the record straight with us.
(Oh, and I never once use the word AI. You’re welcome.)
Your comms bestie,
Gab
The comms industry has a PR problem.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: comms has a PR problem. The people whose entire job is shaping how the world sees a company can't seem to shape how their own company sees them.
While we control what goes on the record for everyone else, we let others create ours.
Comms people love to say "the cobbler's children have no shoes." That we're so busy building everyone else's reputation we never tend to our own story, value, positioning, or narrative.
But we are not cobblers. We have shoes. Time to put them on and walk into the boardroom with the script, the receipts, and the narrative to reshape how organizations think about, view, and value comms.
We taught them to underestimate us
My career has looked like yours. Agency chaos, hypergrowth startups, and billion-dollar brands. And most of the time, no roadmap, no mentor, and a lot of figuring it out as I went along.
Like you, I’ve been the only comms person in the room more times than I can count. Translating tech jargon into headlines. Spinning up crisis plans from scratch. Managing executive egos and social blowups all while secretly wondering if I was doing the right thing.
And I did what I thought success looked like. Announce the news. Get the press. Engage the employees. Write for the execs. Trend on social. Manage the crisis.
Then I reported on what I thought mattered. Impressions. Clips. Sentiment. Likes. Share of voice. Reputation control.
And what did it get me? A smaller team than marketing. Maybe 1% of the budget. And always — always — the bigger percentage on the layoff list when the time came.
What are we doing wrong?
The first phone call in a crisis... and in a layoff.
No one handed us a roadmap. No one taught us to be business people. In school we learned the art of the press release and the strict rules of AP style, but never the science of how our work drives revenue.
So the irony writes itself: comms is the first call when everything goes wrong, and the first department on the list when budgets get cut.
We're the ones holding organizations together during their hardest moments, only to be the first ones cut when someone needed a line item to disappear.
And for too long, we let this happen.
We reported on impressions and email open rates while our marketing counterparts delivered pipeline and revenue impact.
We calmed stormy seas in a crisis and defined it as "reputational repair" versus the cold hard dollars we saved the company.
Because no one ever told us: You are not a comms person. You are a business person who uses communications to achieve business results.
In our first agency jobs, no one ever sat us down and said, here is how much revenue you have to bring in to justify your salary.
In our first in-house jobs, no one ever said, your reports are making leadership’s eyes glaze over because they're comms jargon, not business priorities.
And in our first comms leadership jobs, no one ever told us point blank: the reason your department is understaffed, under budgeted, and the first to be cut in a layoff is because we do not understand the business impact you have on our company.
This is a narrative problem.
Good news: we own narratives.
It is time for us to rewrite the narrative for our entire industry.
So we built the room that should've always existed
Comms pros deserve a seat at the leadership table and to be home for the dinner table.
But no one ever taught us how to do both.
Off the Record exists to make this possible by giving comms leaders the exact tools, frameworks, roadmap, and community to operate at the level they're already capable of. We are:
The career accelerator.
The Chief Communications Officer incubator.
The comms BFF who tells you the truth, gives you the template, and sends you back in ready.
OTR launched in 2025 with a simple premise: give communications professionals the community, coaching, and tools the industry had never bothered to build for them.
Not overpriced conferences where you get a lot of theory but no roadmap. Not certifications that look good on LinkedIn but teach nothing about the actual job. Not “thought leadership” with no actionable plan in sight.
Instead: curated comms-specific training, hands-on workshops, custom-built tools, and honest feedback from a baddie community who've sat in your seat and are ready to fight for your spot at the table.
(And willing to say the hard things out loud. Besties tell you when you have something in your teeth.)
Every discipline, every industry, every level. All here because they found the thing they didn't know existed: a space where someone genuinely, strategically, and without a single corporate agenda has their back.
Because it's time we control the narrative about our industry, start communicating in business metrics, and claim our piece of revenue impact.
Because you're not asking for a seat at the table anymore. You're pulling up your chair. ✨
It's time to set the record straight about comms' value.
Good thing we're the best storytellers in the business.
The Next Generation Chief Communications Officer
The CCO of tomorrow rewrites the record. They stop reporting impressions and start reporting impact — speaking in pipeline, revenue, and retention, so no one ever again mistakes the function for the vibes department.
We're not the first to say this. But we are the first to hand you the exact playbooks, tools, scripts and roadmaps so you can change the narrative.
Here is what Off the Record commits to every member:
You Will Be Treated Like the Strategic Leader You Already Are: Inside OTR, communications is what it actually is: a strategic business function that drives real results. We'll give you the language, the frameworks, the tools, and the confidence to make that case everywhere else too. Because in comms we have a positioning problem: we’re seen as clips/impressions and not business value. And OTR can help fix it.
You Will Leave With Something You Can Use Today: Every workshop, session, template, and community interaction meets one standard: if you can't implement it by Monday morning, it doesn't belong here. No theory. Just strategies and tools you can use to be better at your job.
You Will Get Genuine Insight, Not Recycled Advice: Everything here comes from someone who has sat in your seat. That means honest, tough-love answers over carefully hedged best practices. The specific framework over the vague suggestion. Real answers from a comms bestie who's already lived the question — or will find someone who has.
Your Growth Here Is Yours to Keep: No one can lay you off from what you learn. The skills you build, the frameworks you master, the network you grow inside OTR, those travel with you. OTR is an investment you make in yourself.
What You Say Here Is Off the Record. This is a confidential space. What you share here stays here. The kind of room where you can say the real real without fear of it getting back to your boss. This is the room where you don't have to have it all figured out.
You Will Never Figure It Out Alone Again: The worst part of being a comms pro is doing the hard days alone. OTR is full of your people. They get it because they've managed the same crises, navigated the same executive dynamics, asked the same questions, and felt the same sting of being underestimated. You bring the problem. Someone in this room has survived it.
The impact is real
Today, Off the Record is 500+ senior communications leaders across every industry, all making transformational impact for themselves and in the way comms is seen within their companies.
One member, a first-generation college graduate, told us that OTR taught her the unwritten rules of corporate life that no one else had ever explained.
Another said they didn’t need an MBA because OTR provides more actionable, tangible resources to get them paid, promoted and powerful.
Many more used OTR tools to land VP roles from coast to coast (and across 18 countries).
One said OTR is singlehandedly changing the industry.
And more of what our members have to say:
"The level of excellence is unparalleled." - Jacquie Hudson
"Lives up to the value proposition and beyond." - Susan Malandrino
"By far the most helpful and relevant comms training." - Megan Troppito
"An amazing community of smart, diverse communicators." - Pam Morris
"Literally the best time/money I've invested in myself this year." - Anne Standley
"Off the Record is unlike any other online community. It's my happy place." - Amanda Jo Deppe
"I don't like Off the Record... I LOVE it!" - my six-year-old daughter.
Keith Berman added: "I'm so glad to be part of this community of smart communicators who are generous with their wisdom and experiences. Gab is an incredible and positive force for Communications, and I've learned so much from her workshops, conversations and the resources she's offered. OTR is one of the best investments anyone can make in their Communications career.
Oh, and these just got posted on LinkedIn this week:
Alison O'Connell, CCMP shared: "💫 If you work in communications in any capacity, I can't recommend [Off the Record] strongly enough! 💫"
Bronagh Hanley called OTR "one of the most meaningful comms groups I have ever been a part of."
Hilary Sparrow added: "What you’ve built in the last year is unprecedented and clearly needed."
Building the CCO → CEO pipeline
Here's how we'll know we've fixed the record.
Not just when we get bigger budget, speak in business terms, and earn that defacto seat at the leadership table (those are good things too).
We'll know we've won when CCOs are repeatedly tapped to be CEOs.
The CFO gets tapped. The COO gets tapped. The CMO and the CTO get tapped.
But think about who actually sits closest to the business. The Chief Communications Officer is in every crisis, every board prep, every earnings call, every reorg, every product launch, every rebrand, every leadership transition. They’re the one who knows the stakes and the stakeholders better than anyone in the building.
And somehow, the Chief Communications Officer never gets the call.
So we'll know we've won when we've built a predictable, repeatable and corporate no-brainer CCO-to-CEO pipeline.
It won't be easy. But we've never shied away from a hard story to tell.
Comms has a PR problem.
But we're the best storytellers in the business. And now we have the script.
For an entire industry, the record's been wrong.
Off the Record members are setting it straight.
Chat soon,
Gab Ferree
Founder & Your Comms BFF, Off the Record
PS: Last week’s most-clicked was Gareth Corfield’s guide on how to pitch him.
You're reading the Comms Bestie Group Chat, a free weekly drop to 8,000+ comms pros. Off the Record is the membership behind the group chat: 500+ comms leaders getting training, coaching, and community. It’s where the magic happens. ✨
Did a bestie forward you this email? You’ve got good taste in friends. Sign up to join the group chat.