Erik Rapprich
Erik Rapprich is a Managing Partner at Engage, a digital public affairs agency that has worked with Fortune-500 companies, including Google, Pfizer, ExxonMobil, and eBay, as well as the Pew Charitable Trusts, US Chamber of Commerce and.U.S. House of Representatives. Before becoming a technology entrepreneur, Rapprich was a grassroots political organizer, and has been recognized for his contributions to the field as a top “40 under 40” from the American Association of Political Consultants. He talks with us about how the lessons he learned working in politics, including a win-or-lose mentality, have transferred to his career as an entrepreneur. He also has business-savvy advice on topics like social media, college and continuous growth.
What is the core mission of Engage?
We partner with you to design winning solutions to complex challenges. We have a background in policy working on Capitol Hill and in politics, and brought that into the public affairs space. In the public affairs space, when people are trying to pass legislation or get involved in advocacy, it’s a binary outcome: they either pass it or they don’t. Many times success hinges around that, so it’s important to focus on that winning part. In terms of our actual mission, it’s to impact people positively, from a philosophical standpoint. We partner with clients who we feel like have the opportunity for broad impact. In many ways we adopt their missions. The only thing that really ties them together is that they’re involved in some way in the policy ecosystem. We want to impact our people internally, we want to impact our clients directly and their end users as well, whether those are members or consumers.
You work with many Fortune 500 companies. What are some of the biggest challenges they’re facing today? How do you advise them?
In a lot of these companies, their issues are not uncommon: size. Sometimes it’s having multiple departments or sectors not sharing the right information or working as efficiently together as they can. But that’s not limited just to Fortune 500 companies. I think that’s any large organization, particularly one that grows and evolves on itself and doesn’t regularly question and reorganize itself. And if it does, getting the right stakeholders to align on goals early on can be challenging. That’s honestly the biggest challenge I see with those companies. There are other obvious challenges that take place, but those are pretty variable to the organization, and its individual culture. Fortune 50’s are usually large enough that they have their own culture, so they’ll come with unique challenges.
What lessons have you learned as the President of Engage? What do you think will be most relevant for our generation when we enter the workforce?
A lot of the lessons that I’ve learned are more about human relations and interactions, and making sure that you optimize your chances for success in those interactions. It’s more like life coach stuff than it is business-specific, but it’s certainly applicable. An example of that would be expectation management. In my field, we’ve created a host of different types of deliverables, whether they’re advertising reports, websites, branding or style guidelines. It takes what it takes in order to create it. A lot of times, you’ll find somebody promises something that’s not obtainable in order to try to make the client happy, and as a result of that promise, even though they’ve created a great product, it’s seen as not a success. For example, if I told you I was going to send you something in 30 days, and as I got to the 30 day mark, I realized it was going to be an extra 15 days, and now I’m telling you, it’s 45 days, I just botched the expectation, and now you see me as a failure. But if I told you it was going to take 60 days, and then it took 45 days, it still took the same amount of time, however, I came in underneath that expectation, and it will be seen as a success. I think the old adage is “under promise and over achieve.” That’s a really big one, and that’s something that you don’t see enough of. The other thing that stands out is making sure you listen and understand people. It’s possible for two people to have differing perspectives and both of them be right, or at least have neither of them be wrong, and I think that’s important when you’re interfacing with other folks, particularly as you want to understand their own challenges and help them solve them. I’ll say one thing business specific, too. Your greatest asset in the world of business is your people. Treating them like a widget or a product won’t go very far. You want to be cognizant of your bottom line profit, but you also need to be cognizant of making sure that there is something meaningful that you’re doing in that work and that your people are moving towards something. I don’t think that’s required to be a good organization, but it’s probably required to be a great organization.
During your career, you have had experience not just entrepreneurship, but also politics. What lessons have you learned from politics that have been helpful in business?
In the instance of politics, all organizations of that variety are very interested in efficiency. When you have a meeting, you cut to the chase, and figure out what the main thing is, and move on. They’re also very cost conscious, because money not spent on something that might be of higher value to them is potentially something that tips over the edge of losing. They expect a lot, because these are people who have put their lives on hold and joined these organizations to, in their opinion, change the world. It requires a certain amount of ethic and diligence, and to some degree beating, to be able to participate with folks who are that passionate about that stuff. The lesson that I’ve learned personally is that there’s great value in applying that same type of work ethic and passion in places outside of politics, which is where we’ve moved to as an organization. Specifically, it’s important to find the right rhythm or expectation for the nature of the work ethic. What I mean by that is our organization is very outcome focused. I don’t care where you work from, I don’t care how you work, if you say you’re going to do something, I care that you got that thing done. And if you couldn’t, it’s up to you to manage the success and failure of that. That’s something that you see in politics as well. Other organizations in this town tend to be very focused on people [working] nine to five, clock in, clock out. It is important to set that expectation upfront about that passion, engagement and ethic. It’s probably one of the more important things from politics. Otherwise, it’s just hustle and don’t make promises you can’t fulfill.
As a follow up, what advice would you give to us and those younger than us when we begin to vote?
Be informed and recognize that many of your beliefs may be a result of societal and communal influence, rather than intellectual curiosity and due diligence. I think a lot of people have strong opinions in the political sphere, but they might not be as in touch with what those opinions mean, and where they’re coming from, as they think. Many times, to go against what your community believes, even if deep down you feel something different, would be to ostracize your social position. The reason we have this issue today with echo chambers and polarization, in my opinion, is due to the fact that we are operating based on our communities and looking for reinforcement of our position rather than questioning how it can benefit you or your community, or what you personally believe. The biggest issue in the world in politics is the same as the biggest issue in the world for most of our challenges, which is a lack of really informed education, and people not being willing to admit when they don’t know something. It takes courage to say that.
How did your educational environment affect your development as an entrepreneur and a leader?
A great deal, however, not in the way you might expect. I went to a liberal arts college. I majored in music and in government. As a business owner who worked his way up through programming, graphic design, and advocacy, those skills did not come from college at all, but the liberal arts foundation focuses on trying to build a well-rounded and engaged citizen rather than just an employee for a type of job. There was this layer in my experience of social good and an added layer of becoming a steward for those you have a privilege of being a steward for. That’s something that I wouldn’t have gotten to the degree that I did without that college experience. However, in terms of practical technical skills, I don’t use anything from college day-to-day that came from my formal education. It came from the experience of going to college.
What are the most important personality traits for entrepreneurs?
Stubbornness, agitation, lack of acceptance of thinking something’s good enough, and curiosity.
Do you think entrepreneurship is more nature or nurture?
It’s probably a little more nature, but I also think you can be taught to be an entrepreneur, because it’s a convergence of both of those things. I’m sure that there are many great entrepreneurs that have none of those qualities, and I’m sure there are many people with those qualities who could never get anything off the ground. A lot of it has to do with those traits, but also things like working harder than everybody, leaning into the things that you’re good at, and being fortunate enough or prepared enough to spot opportunity when it’s there.
Is social media a good or a bad thing?
Social media is both good and bad. It’s good in the sense that allows you to connect with people that you might not otherwise connect with. It’s bad in the sense that when you connect with people, you might get an unrealistic version of their lives, which might create false expectations for what you should be doing, and could potentially lead to things like depression. It is difficult to truly discern when something is factual or not, but having access to more information than you might have ever had before is good. Participating in an echo chamber where you just support the beliefs that you came to the table with is probably not good, however, getting exposed to more and other beliefs is very good. I think that there is a transparency issue in social media in which many people don’t realize they are the product, and as a result of that they’re getting marketed to and potentially changing the way they think about things without really realizing that they’re there so that companies can get data from them and sell more things.
What hashtag would you use to best describe yourself for your career?
There’s a philosophy that we learned about in business school called Kaizen. It’s a Japanese term that roughly translates to “continuous improvement as you move towards your potential.” I like that concept of moving towards your potential because you never quite reach it. As you near it, it moves out in front of you. Being willing to fail and adapting to circumstances in a positive way, and learning from all of those things, is probably one of the key traits that has helped make me successful. #Kaizen.
