Each month AWC Austin highlights a member making a difference in the communications industry in Austin, Texas. This month we had a chance to sit down with Jenifer Sarver, Chief of Staff to Karen Hughes, Global Vice Chair of Burson-Marstellar. One glace at her LinkedIn profile would knock your socks off, yet she’s one of the most down to earth people in Austin. Jenifer Sarver is someone you can tell greets everyone in the same warm manner, looks them in the eye in the same connected way and shares an honest and authentic conversation – whether you’re a Senator or a student.
AWC AUSTIN: Describe your history and experiences with AWC Austin.
JS: I was a member of the AWC student chapter at UT before graduating in 1999. When I was part of the AWC student chapter we renovated the Lady Bird Johnson Conference Room. We hung wonderful pictures of Lady Bird and revamped the room. Every time I’m in that room I remember that project.
After I graduated, I worked at a PR firm in town called Cunningham Communication. While at Cunningham, I was on the AWC Austin board serving as a VP of Professional Development. The AWC National Conference was held in Austin in 2000 and I also worked on that committee to put the conference together. In the middle of the year I moved to Washington D.C. where I lived for eight years before moving back to Austin three years ago. Once again, I got involved with AWC and then Julie Tereshchuk invited me to be a part of the board this last year as the Banner Brunch Co-Chair.
AWC AUSTIN: What surprised you most about the organization?
JS: People would be surprised to know is that so many of our members, and particularly our board members, are entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is at the heart of AWC and I would not have known that from the outside looking in. That’s really interesting and exciting from a perspective of our community and how supportive Austin is of small business, of women-owned businesses, and entrepreneurial ventures. It’s a great resource for women to be able to partner with one another, share work, and tap into a creative, collaborative community.
Above and beyond the entrepreneurial aspect, the other interesting thing about AWC Austin is that even with the great diversity of work that members do, we all have a tie that binds: good and effective communication is really storytelling. We all tell stories in some way and that’s the theme of Banner Brunch this year. There are so many rich, diverse, and interesting ways we tell stories and we wanted to highlight those. Banner Brunch will showcase visual arts, music, photography, etc. Communication is not just what we speak; it’s what we paint, it’s what we sing, it’s what we draw.
AWC AUSTIN: I certainly read a fair amount about you at this point and know that speech writing is a large part of your career. What are the ingredients that go into writing the right speech?
JS: The most important ingredient for the right speech is a good speaker. A really great speaker can turn lame content into something entertaining. Unfortunately, if you have lame content and a lame delivery, you will have a lame presentation. Speech writing gave me the opportunity to get inside someone else’s head, get to know them, and communicate on their behalf. It’s one thing to write from your perspective but when you’re speech writing, it doesn’t matter what you think; it matters what your boss thinks.
In the case of writing for Senator Hutchison, I needed to think about what she was communicating to the people of Texas. When I started working for her, the first thing I did was listen. There was a box of cassette tapes on my desk with Senator Hutchison’s speeches over the last few years. I started listening to them to hear the way she used phrases, intonation and cadence so I could reflect that. The advice she gave me still vividly stands out in my memory: we were walking together in an underground tunnel from the Senate building to the Capital. At the end of the tunnel Senator Hutchison turned to me and said, “Jenifer, I’ve had a lot of speech writers that wrote beautiful, poetic prose. I don’t want poetic prose. I want short, simple sentences that people in Texas can understand.” That stuck with me because it’s very easy to use flowery language and $5.00 SAT words but at the end of the day, what was most important to her was that she was communicating effectively with her constituents.
It was not to suggest that she couldn’t be sophisticated or that the people of Texas can’t understand complicated topics but she wanted to use language they use. I still keep that in mind today. Am I using language that resonates with the everyday person? That has been a driving principle for my communications career. It’s all about taking complicated topics and boiling them down into sound bites that you and I would use on a day-to-day basis.
AWC AUSTIN: I’ve also read that during your near two and a half years at the U.S. Department of Commerce you wrote over 900 speeches. That is quite a high-volume environment. What is stressed when you have to do that many speeches and how do you maintain quality in that kind of situation?
JS: That figure includes everything I worked on and edited with two or three other writers but at the end of the day, I was responsible for them. For Secretary Gutierrez, we were touching on issues of national security, international trade, public policy, and so forth. Every speech I wrote had to be vetted through the policy team, the legal team and often through the White House. I was very cautious that what I was writing was clear.
I understand very deeply the power of words, the importance of the right words and making sure your words convey what you intend. Everything had to be accurate, factual, and convey the right U.S. public policy. When someone’s words can control relationships with foreign countries and have an impact on the markets, you realize that what you write matters. And I handle my client messages the same way today.
AWC AUSTIN: Is there a single speech that comes to mind when someone asks “What’s the best speech you’ve ever been involved in?”
JS: The one that immediately comes to mind is a University of North Texas commencement address I wrote for Senator Hutchison. Let me say that I still cannot remember who gave the commencement speech when I graduated and I would venture to say I’m not alone. So, I remember telling Senator Hutchison that I thought it was really important we had a really good, smart speech but I wanted to try something different out. I had been to a military promotion ceremony when my brother was in the Air Force. This gruff Air Force general was giving a speech and towards the end he says, “I want to read a bit from a German philosopher.” Then he starts reading Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss. It was so funny because it was so unexpected! Sure it was a bit of a gimmick but it was perfect and it stands out.
I suggested that Senator Hutchison do that in her speech. At first, she was against it but I gently persisted and she decided to go ahead with it. That weekend in Dallas, there were 100-something graduations but in the Dallas Morning News, there was a picture of Senator Hutchison holding that book. We as human beings have very little attention span and if we can do something that grabs people attention, we should do it; and if it’s a Dr. Seuss book, that’s just fine.
AWC AUSTIN: There’s a long history of Texans going to Washington D.C. and you’ve been able to play an integral part of that process. Tell me about your time at the Archer Center (the UT System’s Washington D.C. program for students) and guiding these young Archer Fellows through their first experience in Washington D.C. and in a political setting.
JS: That was a fabulous opportunity and experience. I very much enjoyed my time with the Archer Center and am still very connected with them. In fact, Julie Shussler, who works for me and sits in the office next door, was once an Archer Fellow and my intern. I had requested an Archer Fellow for an intern and after she graduated, I hired her. Every day, I see the value of that program through Julie’s experience and the contributions she’s made to our office.
It was incredibly fun and challenging because I was part professor, part mom, part task-master, and part landlord. I would get phone calls from students at 2:00 a.m. saying their water is out or that they were out and needed a ride home. The students live in two row houses on Capitol Hill right behind the Supreme Court. It can be difficult for them because they come from different walks of life and are forced to get along in a high-stress environment. If we put cameras in this house, we could make so much money!
I feel very strongly about contributing to future generations. I love the idea of mentoring, sharing knowledge and giving people a hand up. People were helpful to me in my life and career path, and I want to give that back. At least once a week I meet with students because it is so critical. I recently spoke at UT’s Texas Leadership Summit about civility and public discourse and several students followed up afterwards asking me to speak with other student groups. It’s helpful, affirming and encouraging because there’s some talk about this lackluster generation and my experience with the Archer Center Fellows tells me that is just not true.
The Archer Fellows are a group of students going to school full time, working full time, and facing challenging circumstances but all of them are better for it. I had a small part to play in their professional and personal development but one of the most valuable things was opening up their eyes to a much bigger world. It shaped them into better people because they gained stronger perspectives from a wider variety of people and I thought that was such an important thing. I keep in touch with a lot of the students and am still on the board of the Archer Center. I’m always happy to help place them find internships or make connections because I think it’s such a tremendous program.
AWC AUSTIN: Staying in this vein of guiding student success, what other programs have you been involved in?
JS: The program I’m most proud of is called WeLEAD. It’s a program we launched at American University. It’s a political training program for young women that has been around for about ten years. I served on the Young Woman Leaders Board that founded it. If you are a young woman with any interest in any facet of politics, you were welcome. It started with 40 women and we met one Saturday a month for nine months. We held day-long training programs focused on development, public policy, communications, etc. We would bring in top experts who were in D.C. – just one of the great perks about being in D.C.!
This program was phenomenal and proved a breeding ground for professional young women to be involved in political careers. Women need to be involved in every level of political discourse and that starts at the staff level with consultants, pollsters, and so on. It was a Republican/Democrat program focused on diversity. There were a lot of young women I met and walked through that program and I now see them in their professional careers – that’s really exciting.
AWC AUSTIN: Not everyone has the name “Karen Hughes” in their job title. What is a typical day in the life of the Chief of Staff to Karen Hughes like?
JS: Everyday is different; that’s why I like my job. It’s fast-paced and ever changing. Working for Karen is a privilege because she’s widely respected as a political counselor and communications expert. She’s also widely lauded for the kind of balanced, measured approach she has and had, particularly when working for President Bush. I’ve never been in the airport with her when people didn’t recognize her and walk up to her. She was on television maybe twice last year but people will say, “Oh, I see you on TV all the time.”
The thing I have learned the most from her is the fundamentals of communication. In the late ‘80s, she punched out a guide to media relations on a typewriter. We recently found it and except for no mention of social media, everything was still true. Now we hand it out when we give media trainings because it echoes how important those fundamentals are; be clear, concise, authentic, consistent, etc. I think she really drives those principles home. In anything we write, she always asks me, “What’s the headline?” If our job is media relations, are we helping the reporter write the headline and what’s the story we want people to get out of this? Karen Hughes has mastered those fundamentals of communication and shown how they’re consistent over time. I think it’s such a privilege to listen to her, work with her and learn from her. I think you should stay in a job as long as you continue to learn and I have not stopped learning.
AWC AUSTIN: You have many oars in the water with your time spent on various boards, working with non-profits, etc. Yet, all of those oars seem to focus on Austin and pushing Austin forward as a whole, in these many realms. Tell me about this overall excitement and heart you have for the advancement of this city.
JS: I feel like Austin is home. I grew up in South Texas and after trying a couple different colleges, felt like I found my place in the world at UT. The time I spent on the 40 acres was pivotal to the career I’ve had and the person I am today. I always knew when I left in 2001, that I’d come back. Every time I flew back into Austin from D.C. for a visit, this weight would be lifted off my shoulders. And the first time I pulled into my driveway after moving back to Austin, I had tears streaming down my face because I looked out and I saw the beautiful sunset and because I was pulling into a driveway. You have to understand that in Washington D.C., you don’t see the sunset and you have to fight for a parking spot on the street every single day. I was so grateful for that parking space and that driveway. And most importantly I was closer to my family. My family is the most important thing in the world.
Austin is a wonderful city. I’ve had the privilege of traveling to 24 countries and Austin is my favorite city in the world because of the people, the food, and the environment. Politically, Austin is very different from me. I’m a conservative Republican and that’s not how you would characterize Austin but I think that being at UT and being in Austin broadened my mind and my world view. I appreciate diversity more than ever before and living in D.C. only solidified that. I think the experiences and the people I met made me appreciate other arguments and other perspectives. I’ve gained a much greater understanding of other walks of life and political views. I appreciate that Austin’s a place where everyone is a little bit different and that difference is embraced and celebrated.
My involvement in the community with things like Leadership Austin, AWC and PRSA is rooted in the fact that I feel very much that everyone has a responsibility to give back and contribute to their community. I think if every single person gave back just a little bit, we’d be a better society. I’ve always been action-oriented like my mother. She taught me that you can’t just stand back and watch or complain; you get involved and do something. That’s what I chose to do and that’s what I choose to do now. If you’re going to be a part of something, you’ve got to make it better.
Jenifer Sarver’s Resource Run-down:
The POLITICO Playbook
Must Read Texas
Texas Tribune
My Twitter Feed
The Daily Beast
Culture Map Austin
Drudge Report
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