“Am I Getting Fired?”
Newsletter #97
This Week:
Stop Doing This to Your Team
ICYMI: GEO is Here
Help?
Before We Go…
1. “Can We Talk?” Reducing Anxiety for Your Team
Internal communications aren’t just about sharing information. They’re about how you make people feel while doing it.
And one of the fastest ways to spike anxiety across your team? Dropping messages with no context.
A calendar invite with a blank description.
A vague “can we talk?” on Slack.
A request for a phone call with zero detail.
Even worse? The meeting is many hours or days away.
You may think it’s efficient. But your colleagues’ hearts may start beating a little faster.
Why? The negativity bias.
When you leave an information gap, the brain rushes to fill it. As humans, many of us have a negativity bias, a cognitive bias that makes negative possibilities feel more urgent, more believable, and more emotionally sticky than neutral or positive ones.
2. ICYMI: GEO Is Here. Are You Ready?
You’ve probably been hearing more about generative engine optimization (GEO) lately. Just as organizations were finally getting comfortable with SEO, the rules shifted again. With more people using AI tools to find information, and with search engines themselves generating AI-written summaries, your content now has to be crafted for this new landscape. If you want your brand to show up in these AI-driven results, GEO isn’t optional.
3. An Ask from The EO Report
If you haven’t noticed, we’re inching ever-nearer to our 100th edition! (Woah! How did that happen?)
We’d love your help as we celebrate this milestone: Would you hit “reply” and share what you enjoy about The EO Report? Nothing long – just a sentence or two we can share with others. Your words genuinely help us understand what you find valuable and can help prospective subscribers decide whether to join us. We’d be so grateful!
We’ve got some fun things lined up as we head into the 100s and into 2026 (and our second anniversary), and we’re just getting started.
4. Before We Go…
From The New York Times | What the look of your favorite podcast is trying to tell you.
Podcasts offer a more relaxed and casual space than their television counterparts, with guests often appearing in sweatpants and curling up on cozy couches. That’s curated casualness, designed to make guests feel comfortable to open up.
From Politico | MS Now flickers to life.
After nearly three decades, one cable television channel disappeared and a new one flickered to life in its place: MSNBC became MS NOW.
From Yahoo Finance | Uare.ai raises $10.3M to build the future of individual artificial intelligence
Individual AIs are digital counterparts that harness a person’s memories, stories, expertise, and voice that mirror how you think, speak, and make decisions. Think ChatGPT, but designed specifically for you rather than the masses.
A fan at a recent Jonas Brothers concert spotted a man in the crowd quietly reviewing a résumé. She posted the moment to TikTok, wishing the job-seeker, Scott Kelly, good luck. The video blew up, the Jonas Brothers themselves weighed in on his qualifications, and in a perfect full-circle moment… he landed the job.
Don’t leave us hanging! Tell us you’re willing to forward The EO Report to a few friends!