Brett O'Donnell | The Communications Connoisseur

Campaign War Stories

🎙️📝Today’s episode with Brett O’Donnell, pro communications consultant whose work has spanned the globe, is a can’t miss. Tune in to hear how he has helped presidents, governors, and prime ministers fine-tune their messaging!
📌Memorable & Meaningful: Brett explains his mastery in compressing complex policy into digestible, adaptable political messaging for speeches, debates, and direct mail campaigns alike.

🙊We Spoke Neither: O’Donnell explores his work with international candidates, revealing how he navigated language barriers to deliver universal messaging, unbound by geography.
🍔Feed Me the Cheeseburger: Wesley and Brett examine whether the rhetoric of candidates like Donald Trump, who speaks plainly, and Bernie Sanders, who addresses those feeling neglected by the political system, reflects a broader trend of voters seeking raw, unfiltered information.
🛗A Wide Reach: Wesley gets the scoop on Brett’s extensive client history and his approach to strategizing messaging for a diverse range of personalities.
🥉The Holy Trinity: Brett outlines what he believes are the three key factors that drive voter support for a candidate, all rooted in authenticity.
💥Like a Loaded Gun: Wesley asks about Brett’s favorite campaign war story, featuring a memorable quip to Senator John McCain that received widespread acclaim from his audience.
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Brett O’Donnell is the President of O’Donnell and Associates, an international political and corporate strategic communications consulting firm. He currently serves as a message, communications and media strategist for nonprofit and for-profit corporations and numerous members of the United States Congress. He has served on six US Presidential Campaigns and served three Prime Ministers of Britain. He was messaging director for the Vote Leave campaign in Britain, commonly known as the Brexit. He has led the communications and messaging for political campaigns in Latvia and the Dominican Republic and consulted on others in France, Poland, Israel and Panama. In 2018, O’Donnell led the confirmation process for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He still serves as Pompeo’s communications and political advisor, a post he has occupied since 2014. During the 2008 presidential campaign, O’Donnell was twice named to Time magazine’s “Five Most Important People Not Running for President” list and has been described as the “best political debate coach” in the country. He was a fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics in the fall of 2012.

O’Donnell has also consulted for nonprofit humanitarian organizations for message/marketing strategy, communications strategy and rapid response and media communications. He and his firm also provide messaging, communications, crisis communications, media training, speech writing and marketing consulting for Fortune 500 companies. O’Donnell has appeared as a guest on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report, appeared numerous times on the BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC as a political analyst.