Ted Chiodo is a storyteller. As chief operating officer of SKDKnickerbocker, he's responsible for the strategies and planning of the marketing and public relations giant. It's a skill he honed at the White House in the staff secretary's office, handling the papers going to the Oval Office to make sure they conveyed the information in the best way possible.
What is your role at SKDKnickerbocker?
The central part of what I do is help those clients looking to move the needle. Our clients are recognizable brands, trade associations and political, social and media services. The main thing that they're looking for is to move a narrative and reach an audience. If you're wise you have people do it who have done it before at the highest level. That's why our most valuable commodity here is our talent.
How did you end up on this career path?
I think the main thing is that I've always been curious. I wanted a broad experience where I didn't do the same thing over and over. Then I ended up with a history degree, which really helps me think about different points of view and really put myself in other people's shoes.
Does that help with the real-time work you do now and did at the White House?
To be a historian you have to study primary sources, documents that all can have different points of view. That was a revelation to me in school and it affected how I work. It really helped me think about the motivation behind arguing a point. It stretches your thinking about your own inherent biases and reminds you that history is another story, being told by someone.
It lets you ask questions, too, like, can your story inspire? Can your story reach everybody? Is it an authentic message? Can it hit folks who might not agree but who might listen if you're in the ring with them? If you listen to people, they're more inclined to listen to you.
How do you 'move the needle' and get the message across that your clients want?
The heart of everything is the story. It has to be authentic, but storytelling and sharing the story is the main thing. You have to find different ways to tell it for people who listen in a different way than you might expect. Young people especially don't react well to overly massaged presentations. Authenticity is really important. You have to own yourself and your story if you're going to cut through. The folks we talk to are never going to be satisfied. They're always going to keep reaching.
"You have to spend a lot of time making storytelling look easy."
Is it difficult to be authentic in telling the story?
Sometimes. One thing I worry about is folks mistaking incivility with authenticity. You can be authentically nice. Sometimes you have to try and tell the story at authentic moments to tell it best. You have to spend a lot of time making storytelling look easy. If you're over-prepared, it can come off as inauthentic.
What about when there's a problem or crisis that your clients need to respond to?
We can diagnose problems, sometimes folks have problems with a real solution they just haven't thought of. But you have to get the message out. Something beats nothing every time. You have to get out there and tell your message to people every time there's a problem.
What do you like about D.C. and what would you change if you could?
What I like about D.C. is that it has every market. The local, national and global market are all here and that's very rare. And D.C. has always been national and global but there was little light on the local arena. The perception was it was a move onto a larger stage. That's changing. D.C. is now a place where things could happen.
On the other hand, D.C. needs to change it's approach to traffic. We need an innovative way to relieve gridlock, metaphorical and literal.
