Handoff call. Blake Emal is taking over Will’s account from Jacob (Jacob moving into other roles). Long get-to-know-you plus a real strategy reset. Friendly, candid; Will gave blunt feedback and Blake set expectations for a feedback-heavy first few batches.
Decisions
- Blake Emal is Will’s content lead going forward. Jacob off the account.
- Bifurcated platform strategy.
- X: short form, higher volume, more shots on goal. Long form only for the more academic workforce commentary. “Nobody wants to read five paragraphs about my professional journey on X.”
- LinkedIn: professional story content, long form, story driven. This is what has performed for him there.
- X topic split: ~40% political commentary / ~40% workforce-future-of-work / ~20% engaging general or social commentary. Blake capped it at two niches (political + workforce) because the X algorithm throttles reach when an account strays into new topics; personal interests (music, guitar) explicitly deprioritized. Jacob’s attempts at personal-interest content did not work.
- Proactive (automated) engagements stay dead. Will killed them: output read
robotic and AI generated, “atrocious”, “a little embarrassing”, he was spending an
hour a night rewriting five comments. Also worried about LinkedIn’s AI slop
detection. Replacement: manual engagement supported by a curated X list Blake will
build of accounts 1-2 steps ahead (2k-5k followers, active, likely to reciprocate),
across workforce and government niches. Will already does some manual engagement
himself and is on board.
- Post-call context from Michael (2026-08-07): the rejected output came from the old OpenClaw pipeline running Sonnet. Studio drafts on Fable, a stronger model, so Will’s verdict indexes the old system’s quality ceiling, not the current one. Any future re-pilot is Blake E’s call and a trust rebuild, not a default.
- Input cadence: Blake sends prompts every Monday regardless; Will responds via voice notes (preferred for rapid response items) or edits in Notion batches when not time sensitive. Periodic content interviews as needed.
- Quote posts over reposts so Will’s face and commentary stay on his feed.
- Blake action items: revise the post Will commented on today; audit past workforce posts and performance; build the engagement list next week; review Will’s follower list for larger accounts worth mentioning (Will can personally reach owners of big Ohio political accounts to get reshares).
Strategy notes
- Best performing format: mixed media. Will does regular traditional media (local Columbus TV hits, op-eds). Sharing those with added commentary is priority one for political content. Second lever: trends and cultural moments, especially Ohio.
- Political tightrope: bashing Democrats plays well for the Ohio lobbying business but Flashpass is pitching Delaware, Maryland, New York. Politically adjacent cultural content is fine, clicky is fine, divisive is not.
- Workforce positioning thesis: Flashpass as the antidote to both AI doomers and AI boosters; Will as a future-of-work expert. He feels they have not struck the right chord yet.
- Ohio-centric content performs. Much of his following is Ohio people including US congressmen who have reshared him; political tweets have hit ~20k views vs ~20 for other content.
- Model accounts Will likes for workforce content: Mound Lore and Ghosts of DC (historical storytelling; idea: labor lessons from past technological/industrial revolutions), Unusual Whales and Wall Street Mavericks (data breakdowns, e.g. jobs reports, “get beyond the byline”).
- Will wants more entertaining, relatable, at times self-deprecating content mixed in; says that better reflects who he actually is.
Flashpass / media pipeline
- Flashpass raised VC; expanded beyond Ohio with deals landed in Louisiana and Delaware, more states in the pipeline.
- A UK IT outlet covered the new program launch; Delaware Business Journal coverage expected, plus more higher-quality hits. Blake may hold content until those land.
- Will deliberately does not broadcast that Flashpass now takes more of his time than the lobbying firm (keeps both client bases happy).
Personal / background color (for voice work)
- Lives in Italian Village, Columbus (Short North area), townhouse bought ~18 months ago, lives with girlfriend. 10 minute walk from office, near the statehouse.
- Grew up near Cleveland; Ohio State grad; fraternity; started as a statehouse Page, then legislative aide, campaigns, DeWine administration 2019-2020, ran the Speaker’s office ~2 years after the $61M bribery scandal made his former boss Speaker, then started his own lobbying firm early 2023, merged into Bowers Hinman with Andy Bowers (Andy’s specialty: state attorneys general; the firm has a national AG practice).
- Met Emil Barr through the Miami University RedHawk accelerator connection; drove to Oxford to meet him at a coffee shop; convinced Emil to pivot Flashpass from online textbooks to government-funded workforce training.
- Whole family now in Denver (parents, sister with two kids, engaged brother); he is the Ohio holdout. Considered law school and a DC move, chose Columbus.