Soapbox

There's no pressure to conform to any opinion.

We have this thing called Soapbox every Tuesday where you're allowed to get up and you're allowed to say whatever you want.

I mean, we've had reading groups on left-wing topics.

I'm actually teaching a course in December on liberalism and conservatism where half of the course is going to be on the left and half is going to be on the right.

Uh, at least I won't have to pay to be here on Fridays, and usually Saturdays.

As you know, I do the Saturday Soapbox, but a programming note for tomorrow.

A programming note, uh, the Saturday Soapbox will be done by Jen Breen tomorrow.

Another Breen, Jen Breen, and she'll be doing the Saturday Soapbox.

Tomorrow's a big day.

Yep, it is our youngest's final family weekend at college.

And it's the last time, which is sad, and it's unbelievable how fast time truly flies.

And, uh, it's, it's hard to believe sometimes that here we are, and the youngest is in her senior year of college.

People don't buy because of the mission.

That sounds so weird coming from me, right? Soapbox's story is one of resilience.

We just refuse to give up.

Meet David Simnick.

He co-founded Soapbox in 2010, making soap in his college apartment kitchen, while his landlord was fairly convinced he was cooking meth.

16 years later, Soapbox is in Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, Target, Costco, and Wegmans.

It's profitable, and David gets pinged every month from private equity groups.

But getting there took a near-death rebrand.

But, like, I just think this whole chapter's better as a relationships chapter than it is as a love chapter.

Soapbox ended.

I mean, I, I don't disagree with you.

I will defend him a little bit because he does talk about, like, the different types of love in here.

I'm a huge advocate for preparedness and saw the risks of AI on organizations and society heading our way and have made it my mission to help comms practitioners and organizations govern and use AI responsibly.

I'm part of the CIPR's Crisis Comms Network Committee, and I write a weekly newsletter called Signals and Soapboxes that includes one signal to watch, which is usually AI related, a soapbox to stand on in response to the signal, a risk on the horizon, and a question to sit with that usually speaks to the three topics the issue covers.

I'm really excited to be part of this discussion today about the board guide.

It's an integral piece of work that the committee have put together.