Messagesmith is Rick Laubscher's strategic communications consultancy. Messagesmith provides high-level counsel, messaging platforms, and special projects to select corporations and organizations.
Seasoned, Insightful, and Responsive
Today's Chief Communications Officers are increasingly overwhelmed with demands on their time. Crisis situations, C-suite demands, senior staff vacancies and more can all compromise a CCO's performance.
Messagesmith can help in several ways:
- Serving as a trusted, deeply experienced senior counselor to CCOs, providing advice backed up by detailed plans and supporting actions to respond immediately to challenges and capitalize quickly on opportunities.
- Filling immediate needs with responsive, expert communications services for both planning and projects that have to be done right, and now. This includes special projects requiring the highest levels of trust and discretion, often involving interaction with C-level leaders.
- Building a communications organization's longer-term strength by helping leaders develop their talent through hands-on mentoring and side-by-side project work.
Even when a CCO is blessed with a strong senior staff, there are always moments when another seasoned, sharp strategist or high performing message creation expert would make a big difference. Rick Laubscher combines the skill and experience of an award-winning broadcast journalist, savvy political operative, and corporate communications executive (in both the traditional and tech worlds) to deliver exceptional results to clients.
Messagesmith is a forward-facing consultancy, focused on today's realities and tomorrow's opportunities. Rick is currently counseling clients in such areas as environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and development of social media platforms and initiatives. He is experienced in helping departments upgrade their skill sets to meet the very different communications environment they now face.
As a proven team player, Rick works especially effectively with a client's agency team as well as in-house staff and other consultants. Messagesmith delivers its services with modesty and discretion. (That's why this site is simple. Everything is about the client, not the consultancy.) New clients are almost always referrals from existing clients. Client references are, of course, available on request.
A few client comments:
“I believe Rick is one of the smartest and most capable PR people in the country, and I don't use these terms loosely, by any stretch of the imagination.” (Fortune 75 CCO)
"Rick is a very rare combination: a strategic thinker and planner who also has strong execution skills and a 'get it done' attitude, too." (Tech company CEO)
“Rick is my trusted advisor, helping me determine the biggest marketing challenges. He is a gifted communicator and a joy to collaborate with. And he is fast.” (Tech company CMO)
About Rick Laubscher
Rick Laubscher holds an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he finished first in his class and won the Pulitzer Fellowship. He holds a B.A. in History, with College Honors, from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Following ten years as an Emmy-winning broadcast news reporter in San Francisco and San Diego, Rick served as a corporate communications executive for 20 years, leading at various times each major individual function, including media relations, public affairs, community relations, corporate philanthropy, and international public relations, rising to lead overall communications operations at three companies.
In 2003, Rick founded Messagesmith to deliver targeted strategic services to selected clients. These engagements have tended to be extensive and enduring, including one of the world's leading transportation firms, a leading beverage company, and natural resource development companies.
Rick served as Founding Chairman of the Board of the City Club of San Francisco, has served two terms on the board of directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and a term on the board of directors of SPUR, a regional planning organization. He currently serves on the board of San Francisco's Union Square Foundation.
Rick is widely credited with creating America's most popular traditional streetcar service, the "F-Market & Wharves" line. Working with strong support from then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein, he proposed and managed a demonstration project that brought vintage streetcars from around the world to run on Market Street while the famous cable car system was being rebuilt. He then led advocacy efforts that resulted in permanent vintage streetcar service linking Fisherman's Wharf, Downtown, and the Castro District. He continues to serve as president and CEO of the 1000-member historic preservation non-profit in San Francisco, Market Street Railway.
Rick can be reached at [email protected] or at 415.305.5242.