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The era of the invisible CEO is over. In 2025, silence equals irrelevance. Todays audiences in the attention economy dont wait for press releases. Theyre actively engaged on LinkedIn, exploring niche podcasts, diving into Substacks, and sizing up leaders not just on what they sell, but what they stand for.The crucial question then becomes: In a landscape filled with tech skepticism, debates over hero leaders, the influence of cancel culture, dwindling newsrooms, and widespread misinformation, is a public voice essential for CEOs?According to recent data, yes. You cant afford for them not to have a public voice.The days of direct influenceForget billboards and banner ads; direct communication is more effective than almost every other source of information in terms of trust and influence.According to Mission Norths Brand Expectations Index: 84% of knowledge workers and 81% of the general public trust direct communications from companies, including podcasts, long-form articles, and videos, more than national news, social media, or even academic journals. Source: Mission Norths Brand Expectations Index 2025 Among knowledge workers, technical articles (72%), practical explainers (69%), and human-interest stories (66%) are especially effective in building credibility and deepening knowledge. 75% of IT decision makers report increased trust when they encounter real-world stories of people using or innovating with AI. These arent just content preferences. Theyre strategic cues for howand whereaudiences want to engage.Thought leadership is the new due diligenceThe 2024 LinkedIn-Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report adds more urgency: 73% of decision makers say thought leadership is more trustworthy than product sheets or traditional marketing. 70% of C-suite executives say high-quality thought leadership has made them question whether to stick with a current vendor. 90% say theyre more receptive to outreach from companies that publish insightful content regularly. In short: If your brand wants a seat at the table, it needs to consistently say something smartand human. Your content is your strategy. And your CEO is your sharpest edge, or your most prominent blind spot.The CEO effect: Reputation as a trust multiplierA companys brand is increasingly a reflection of its leadership. From vision and values to risk tolerance and resilience, executives are expected to show up and show their work.According to the Brand Expectations Index, 67% of knowledge workers and 57% of the public believe the CEOs reputation directly influences their trust in a company. That number climbs in innovation-forward sectors like AI, healthtech, and climate.And the message cant be all features and forecasts. Todays audiences, especially in tech, seek techno-optimism: forward-looking, hopeful stories that focus on human possibility. Its a mindset: Dont just tell me what the technology does. Show me who it helps, and how.When CEO visibility is a must In B2B industries, credibility is paramount: Buyers want to know whos behind the productreputation and reliability matter. Emerging industries demand clear leadership: In industries like AI, climate tech, or biotech, trust is still being built, making it a prime opportunity for CEOs to shape the narrative. Investors invest in people, not just products: Pre-IPO or high-growth phases magnify the equation where visibility equals credibility, which in turn equals valuation. Values-led brands require visible leadership: A silent CEO can signal apathy at best, evasion at worst. Attracting top talent depends on engaging leadership: The next generation wants to work with leaders, not just for them. If youre in one of these categories and your CEO is nowhere to be found, that silence speaks volumes, not in your favor.The limits of CEO visibilityThere are real limits to putting the CEO front and center: Authenticity gap: Not every CEO is a natural communicator, and audiences can smell a ghostwriter. Brand-led companies: In some B2C or community-led brands, the product or movement is the hero, not the leader.Crisis optics: When a company is under fire, CEO visibility can sometimes inflame rather than reassure. If the CEO cant lead out front, who can?When the CEO isnt the right messenger, companies still have impactful options: Other executives: Elevate functional leads, from CTOs to CHROs, who can speak credibly to their domains. Structured editorial formats: Launch a company podcast, Substack, or LinkedIn series that features a range of internal voices and customer stories.Narrative clarity: Shape a strategic story arc that anchors all content, from founder essays to customer case studies, even if it doesnt come from the CEO directly.Owned platforms: Use LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, and even internal newsletters to showcase expertise in ways that feel transparent and consistent. The key? Tell real stories. Lead with humans. Dont just spotlight innovationshow how it solves problems that matter.The bottom lineTodays business landscape favors the bold. Not the brash, but the brave. That doesnt always mean having the loudest voice, but it does mean having a meaningful one.Whether through the CEO or a broader bench of leaders, companies must find a way to lead in public: to show values, expertise, and vision in a way that feels honest and human. Done right, executive thought leadership isnt vanity PR its strategic infrastructure for brand trust, market leadership, and business growth. And in the age of AI, authenticity, and algorithmic noise, your CEOs voice isnt just a nice-to-have; it can be your most significant differentiator.Tyler Perry is co-CEO of Mission North.
Category:
E-Commerce
Just a week before New York City’s primary election, the city’s comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander is the latest elected official to be taken into custody by federal immigration officials who are ramping up large-scale arrests outside immigration courtrooms across the United States. The democratic candidate is running to be the city’s next mayor, aiming to succeed incumbent Mayor Eric Adams. On Tuesday, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested and detained Lander at an immigration court while he was escorting a person out of a courtroom, according to his campaign, as reported by The Associated Press. Video posted on Bluesky shows Lander’s detention inside 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan as he tried to walk a man out of immigration court. He is forcibly removed by masked federal agents and calmly asks: “Do you have a judicial warrant? Show me the warrant.” This photo of ICE arresting Brad Landerwhose only crime was asking to see a warrantis fucking insane. What the hell is happening to this country!? pic.twitter.com/7a5IpoTMDv— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) June 17, 2025 ICE is a federal law enforcement agency housed under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DHS said on X that “Lander was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.” The social media post also said: “No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.” No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences.New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer. https://t.co/lPo9hsmfhY— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 17, 2025 Last Thursday, Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California was forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noems news conference in Los Angeles and handcuffed by federal officers as he tried to speak up about immigration raids prompting L.A.’s recent protests, as well as those across the nation. Widely circulated video of that incident showed a Secret Service agent on Noems security detail grabbing Padilla by his jacket and shoving him, as the senator interrupted her and asked a question at the news conference. Speaking on the comptroller’s official YouTube channel, Lander’s wife, Meg Barnette, also a lawyer, said Lander was still in custody Tuesday afternoon at the time of this writing. “What I saw here today is not the rule of law,” she added, per NBC New York. It remains to be seen if the increasingly aggressive behavior of ICE agentswho are targeting not only immigrants and green card holders but now also arresting American citizens and elected officialsis legal. Who is Brad Lander? Democrat Brad Lander is New York City’s 45th comptroller and has held the position since 2022. According to his campaign website, he is currently running for mayor “to deliver a safer, more affordable, and better-run New York City.” Lander is a self-described “dad, Brooklynite, and a lifelong public servant who has spent his career solving New Yorkers problemsfirst as an affordable housing leader, then in the City Council, and now as NYC Comptroller.” According to his campaign site, his priorities include: ending street homelessness for people with serious mental illness; solving the city’s affordability crisis by building affordable housing, freezing the rent, increasing homeownership, expanding free childcare and afterschool programs; and delivering a better run city government by cleaning up corruption.
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E-Commerce
Its amazing how far a firebrand politician has to step over the line of decency in 2025 to prove that such a line even exists anymore. By any metric, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah sprinted past that line over the weekend, with a deeply distasteful, macabre string of tweets about a political assassination in Minnesota. Now, hes experiencing something vanishingly rare in modern American politics: sustained, real-world blowback for something he wrote online. The day after a gunman shot and killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband at homeand also shot and injured Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife at their homethe shooters motives remained in question. That didnt stop Sen. Lee, however, from going all in on the Elon Musk-approved assumption that the shooter was acting on behalf of the far left. On Sunday, June 15, Lee posted a pair of tweets on his personal account that betrayed a distinct lack of sympathy for the victims, let alone any sense of tact or decorum. Both included a police-released image of the shooter, with one assigning blame to the far left (This is what happens [w]hen Marxists dont get their way) and the other absurdly implying that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz bore a share of the blame (Nightmare on Waltz [sic] Street.) Soon enough, the facts collided with Lees interpretation. Although alleged shooter Vance Boelter served on a civilian economic board under Gov. Walz, all current evidence indicates that he is a deeply religious, conservative anti-abortion advocate and a vocal Trump supporter. He is also said to have had a hit list of 45 elected officials, all Democrats. Lee has long had a reputation for out-of-pocket tweets. The third-term senator and January 6 enthusiast changed his personal X account handle to @BasedMikeLee in 2022, after MAGA influencers like Benny Johnson urged him to go harder on social media. (In MAGA parlance, based essentially means being unapologetically conservative or anti-woke.) Since the change, he has repeatedly caused a stir with his frequent, provocative tweets, most recently for pushing a false claim about Prince Harry and suggesting the royal redhead be deported. None of Lees previous tweets, though, have provoked a backlash like the one currently unfolding. The first wave of condemnation arrived online, with scathing tweets from a wide range of high-profile X users, including actress Sophia Bush, former Obama staffer and Pod Save America cohost Dan Pfeiffer, and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele. Next came the responses on TV. The cohosts of The View took Lee to task for his callous tweets on Mondays episode. In any other job, you would be fired instantly, cohost Sara Haines declared during the broadcast. On Monday night, the backlash continued on TV, with Jon Stewart excoriating Lee on The Daily Show. The host began by relaying an anecdote of his own previous encounter with Lee. While Stewart had been working to extend the 9/11 victim compensation fund in 2019, he facilitated a series of meetings between various senators and a group of first respondersand apparently found Lee uniquely unmoved by the cause. I say this for context, Stewart added, for why I use Senator Lee as the avatar for the insanity of this moment. He then played a clip of Lee from 2024, talking through tears about Laken Riley, a young nursing student who was notoriously murdered by an undocumented immigrantciting it as proof that Lee is indeed capable of being moved by senseless murder, but seemingly only when doing so is politically useful. ‘He seemed kind of surprised to be confronted’ Perhaps the most profound response to Lees tweets came not on X or on TV, but in person. On Monday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesotaa friend and colleague of the shooting victims, and someone who was also allegedly on the killers hit listtracked Lee down and pulled him out of a meeting to confront him over his rhetoric. (One of her aides also reportedly sent Lees office a furious letter about the additional pain youve caused on an unspeakably horrific weekend.) Although only a photograph exists to document the exchange, Smith later revealed to reporters that she told Lee his tweets were brutal and cruel, and that he should address the millions of viewers on X more responsibly. As for how Lee responded to the in-person confrontationwell, apparently he hardly did. “He certainly didn’t promise to take it down or say anything publicly about it, Smith told one reporter. He seemed kind of surprised to be confronted.” Lees reticence continued later on Monday, when he refused to speak with reporters asking for comment about his tweets and the ensuing confrontation. (During the writing of this article, Lee took down the tweets.) A brief history of senators behaving badly Lee obviously knows what he wrote about the shooting on his personal account was inappropriate. Anyone needing proof need merely look at the corresponding tweet from Lees official account, which reads like boilerplate mainstream politician-speak after a senseless tragedy. The reason he may have felt comfortable posting something so beyond the pale on his other account is because senators so rarely face consequencs outside of electoral defeat for words or actions that are legal, no matter how deplorable, and Lee isnt up for reelection until 2028. Apart from Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who resigned last year following a bribery conviction, the last senator to resign in disgrace was Al Franken of Minnesota, who stepped down in 2017, when sexual misbehavior allegations emerged at the peak of the #MeToo movement. The difficulty and rarity of imposing any punitive action on a sitting senator was underscored a few years ago with similarly unfortunate commentary that passed without repercussions. In October 2022, an intruder broke into then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosis home in a targeted attack and brutally assaulted her husband. While Paul Pelosi recovered from his skull fracture in the hospital, high-profile right-wing personalities such as Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk jokingly riffed on the conspiracy theory that Pelosi had injured himself in some sort of illicit tryst. Before the facts came in, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas joined in on the fantasizingrather than condemning the violent attackwhile his fellow Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tried to spin the assault into an indictment of President Biden. Though Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin apologized for his own insensitive remarks, neither senator did so, and neither faced any consequences, and the world moved on. The situation with Lee is different, however, in a way that makes it harder to move on so quickly. Given that one of the political targets in this instance died of her injuriesalong with her husbandthe cold, stark, factually challenged, instant politicization of their murders comes across as frankly sociopathic. If the lack of contrition around Cruz’s and Cornyns tweets should have been a warning about where the culture was heading in 2022, Lees tweets are a sign that weve arrived therein a place where a successful political assassination can seemingly be shrugged or even laughed off if the target plays for the opposite team. Judging from Lees reaction to Smiths confrontation, though, all that keyboard bravado seems to fall away when a representative of the real world comes knocking in person. Its hard to remain so based while looking someone right in the eye. Whether Lee eventually apologizes or not, the photo of Smith confronting him about his tweets has the potential to travel even further than the tweets themselves. This image is a reminder that U.S. politicians who have forgotten or lost their decency online should relentlessly be made to answer for it offline.
Category:
E-Commerce
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