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👋 Hi {{first_name}},
$367 million.
That’s the approximate difference between a CEO that communicates well, and the one who doesn’t.
No, I didn’t come up with the number.
The fine folks at Cardinal40 did, when they published the 2026 Thought Leadership Alpha Report earlier this year.
In simple terms, this gargantuan number means to correlate every time a CEO of a public company put out a long-form writing/speaking appearance in public, and their company stock price over a single week.
Seems like writing or speaking in public as a public company CEO could be serious money. And that’s my entire topic of discussion today. Let’s unpack.
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Discovering Cardinal40’s work
I know, I am a Luddite. I just discovered Cardinal40's fine work on thought leadership. I believe it applies really well not just to CEOs of publicly traded companies, but for all business founders to put their thought pieces into the world, preferably in the form of a newsletter (I am sorry, I couldn’t resist)
Cardinal40’s Thought Leadership Alpha Report
Now, one might argue that CEOs are swamped for time, but the counterargument is:
swamped for time doing what?
Talking to customers
Speaking to prospects
Speaking to their employees
I would wager that, as the cost to build software has come down, so has the cost to document your thinking into writing.
I am typing/speaking this out into Wispr Flow into Beehiiv and I wager that any CEO, while on their morning run, would be able to do that too.
Now, there’s a difference between communicating well and just writing a longish rant about the state of the industry. I believe we have talked about that at length before, with plenty of exemplars in prior LetterStack issues.
Clay's memo on AI writing and how Varun Anand insists his entire team write memos by hand.
Or if you look at Amazon's meeting style in memos, rather than relying on PowerPoint presentations.
Regardless of which format you choose, the principle still applies.
The ability to channel your vision for building a business, into long-form writing and using your ability to communicate to the world is going to be your only moat against your competition.
As a founder, the consistency with which you put out your thinking into the open, could yield massive dividends compared to any other founder, who do not partake in writing or speaking on a regular basis.
It might not be worth $367 million rightaway, but it's definitely going to reward you handsomely in the long run, if you stick to it.
Thoughts? I would be happy to be your sounding board.
Let me know by hitting ‘Reply’ on this email, or send a note to [email protected].
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Cheers,
Renga from LetterStack
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