Gilder Strategic Narrative

Authorities in many fields command exponentially higher compensation than do mere specialists or even experts.

  1. Peter Drucker
    $10,000per hour

    Peter Drucker, a leading authority in the management field, was regularly paid as much as $10,000/hour for his consulting work.

  2. Daniel Yergin
    $50–75Kper appearance

    Daniel Yergin is paid between $50,000 and $75,000 for webinars, digital fireside chats or remote panels.

  3. Steve Jobs
    $10Bestate

    Woz was the brains of Apple. Steve Jobs was the authority figure who turned Apple into a cult (and left a $10 billion estate.)

01
02Who are we?

We have deep experience with helping people and enterprises formulate and present their narrative powerfully.

Forgive our confident declaration, but as Dizzy Dean once said, “It ain’t bragging if you done it.”

And we’ve done it.

IPartner

Josh Gilder

White House Speechwriter — Reagan, Bush

Roles

  • CEO, Gilder & Associates
  • Senior Speechwriter, President Ronald Reagan
  • Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights
  • Founding Director, White House Writers Group
President Reagan speaking from a lectern bearing the presidential seal at Moscow State University, beneath a monumental white bust of Lenin.
President Reagan, Moscow State University, May 1988.
01

Josh Gilder was a White House Speechwriter under Vice President Bush and, then, under President Reagan. He contributed to two State of the Unions and was Reagan’s speechwriter for his iconic Moscow State University address (widely considered a pivot point in the US winning the Cold War).

02

He then went on, under President George H.W. Bush, to become the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights. His speeches—and near assassination, a story for another day perhaps?—precipitated the overthrow of the last Stalinist dictator in Eastern Europe, Todor Zhivkov, “the butcher of Bulgaria.”

03

Then Josh went on to become the ghostwriter for one of the wealthiest and most politically and policy influential figures in America. He then transitioned into strategic communications for major corporations. His work, among other things, led to the resuscitation of two dying billion-dollar brands for two Fortune 500 companies.

Gilder famously paraphrased Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood to create one of Ronald Reagan’s most iconic rhetorical weapons —

“Go ahead, make my day!”

U.S. Presidential Campaign Strategist

  • Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign
  • George H. W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign
  • Steve Forbes’ primary campaigns (1996, 2000)
  • Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign
  • Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 primary campaign

Books

  • Heavenly Intrigue: Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the Murder Behind One of History’s Greatest Scientific Discoveries
  • Ghost Image: A Novel

Contributor to

  • The Wall Street Journal
  • The New York Post
  • RealClear
  • New York Magazine
  • The Washington Times
  • New Criterion
  • The American Spectator

More at joshuagilder.com. Or just ask Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT about him.

IIPartner

Ralph Benko

Former White House Deputy General Counsel

Roles

  • Co-founder, General Counsel and director, F1R3FLY Industries, Inc.
  • Deputy General Counsel, the Reagan White House
  • Co-founder, Washington Power & Light
  • Senior Counselor, the Chamber of Digital Commerce
  • Senior Counselor, the American Blockchain PAC
  • Senior Counselor to Gen. Buzz Aldrin
Ralph Benko in a fedora and belted trench coat, hands on his hips, standing before a monumental bronze Great Seal of the United States — the spread-winged eagle holding an olive branch and a bundle of arrows — mounted on a polished granite wall.
Ralph Benko at the Great Seal of the United States.
01

His business partner, a former White House deputy general counsel, Ralph Benko, is now primarily focused on his London-based neuromorphic concurrent compute enterprise software platform venture. There he serves as co-founder, director and general counsel.

02

He is also a recognized thought leader in AI-relevant tech sectors. That said, he ethically and practically undertakes a certain amount of strategic counseling roles.

03

Ralph has a long history of noteworthy policy accomplishments. He was one of the core dozen supply-siders whose policy prescriptions pushed the Dow from 813 (no typo) to >50,000, who brought the US nominal GDP from under $2T to over $32T, and raised median real per capita GDP from $30,000/year to over $77,000/year.

04

He worked in or with three White Houses, two executive branch agencies, two Congresses (where he got his signature legislation passed twice in the House), and worked closely with many political and policy shops.

05

In passing, he was the Senior Counselor to iconic moon lander Buzz Aldrin when Buzz was active on the National Space Council and for years thereafter.

Ralph Benko, at left, laughing as Buzz Aldrin holds up a small illuminated electronic device; the two are standing in a restaurant dining room.
Ralph Benko with Buzz Aldrin.

… lucky to have someone as honorable and capable as you have been with me.

Buzz Aldrin

Buzz described Ralph in a letter (copy on request), in reference to his software venture.

06

And he is the author of the internationally award-winning, cult classic book on Web advocacy, The Websters’ Dictionary, how to use the Web to transform the world as well as half a dozen other critically acclaimed books.

07

He was a weekly columnist for Forbes for eight years and for Newsmax for three. HackerNoon honored him as “contributor of the year” in 2022 in the categories of politics, economics, and science.

08

He still occasionally freelances and his current column there — praising Anthropic for Claude.ai and criticizing its policy proposals — has, at last count, drawn 50,000+ views.

Books

  • The Websters’ Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World
  • Blockchain with American Character
  • Redefining the Future of the Economy
  • The Capitalist Manifesto

Contributor to

  • Forbes
  • Fortune
  • Newsmax
  • HackerNoon
  • CoinDesk
  • C-SPAN
  • The National Interest
  • The New York Sun
  • The Washington Examiner
  • Roll Call
  • Townhall
  • RealClear Markets
  • The Daily Signal
  • HuffPost
  • The Spectator
  • Daily Reckoning
  • The Heartland Institute
  • Inside Sources
  • Cobden Centre
  • The Supply Side
  • The Gold Standard Now
  • The Transpartisan Review
  • Modern Ghana
  • G-Coin
  • Fulcrum

More at ralphbenko.com. Or just ask Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT.

Ledger
813 → 50,000+
The Dow, over the arc of the supply-side program
$2T → $32T
US nominal GDP
$30K → $77K
Median real per capita GDP, per year
3 White Houses
Worked in or with
2 State of the Unions
Contributed to
8 years
Weekly columnist, Forbes
03Endorsements

On Ralph Benko

Steve ForbesEditor in Chief of Forbes Media

Brilliantly, and with wit, Ralph Benko provides agitators and advocacy groups the way to get our message out and to ‘organize’ in the Web…

Ralph Benko, at left, shaking hands with Steve Forbes at right; both are smiling at the camera in a wood-panelled room with lit wall sconces and other guests behind them.
Ralph Benko with Steve Forbes.
Jimmy WalesFounder of Wikipedia.org

Benko provides the reader with a gentle guide through the dark forests of political advocacy on the Internet. A must read for anyone wishing to understand how the Internet is changing politics forever.

On Ralph Benko
Ralph Benko, at right, standing beside Lawrence Lessig in front of a large wall map of the United States.
Ralph Benko with Lawrence Lessig.
Lawrence LessigRoy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

Benko has been using his genius to do evil for a very long time. I would hate him — if I didn’t admire his talent so much, or his brilliance so consistently.

Joan BladesCo-founder of MoveOn.org

He calls me his Arch-nemesis. He is my Professor Moriarty, an adversary of nefarious ingenuity. His proficiency with new and social media is scary. Retain his services if you do not fear using the Dark Side of the Force.

George GilderAuthor of Wealth and Poverty, Microcosm, Telecosm, and Life After Google

The Websters’ Dictionary is … a cornucopian resource for all compendious world-warpers.

Alejandro ChafuenFormer chairman of Atlas Foundation at Forbes.com

As with Benko … it is not uncommon for talented individuals to outperform their own organizations.

Award
The Trophée du Choix Des Internautesfrom the World e-Democracy Society in Paris
Book
The Websters’ Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World
04The gap

The difference between the perceived value of a commoditized specialist and an acclaimed authority is dramatic. Achieving authority stature is not easy.

Yet, with a strategy, hard work and some impatience it is doable.

It’s nowhere to be found in the curriculum for MBAs, lawyers, or engineers.

We’ve done it.

We are offering to guide you to skip our decades-long trial-and-error and accelerate your rise in stature… if you are willing to do the work.

We are authoritative in coaching professionals on how to raise their stature from technical specialist, even expert, to that of an authority.

Big difference.

We have both achieved authority status in our respective fields. Now we are offering to coach a limited number of others, no more than six for now.

05The secret sauce

Here’s the secret sauce.

Shift your public presentation (whether in person, on the Web, or through legacy media) from the didactic to the heroic.

Here’s how.

06Five modes of rhetoric

There are 5 major modes of rhetoric (persuasion). Three are weak. Two are strong.

The weak ones: description, exposition, and argument. These are the default setting for most managers, lawyers, and engineers. These are not the modes authorities use. They are weak.

  • 01
    Description
  • 02
    Exposition
  • 03
    Argument

The strong modes?

04

Narrative

First: narrative. A story, dramatically presented, with you serving as the hero (or superhero) of the story, confronting on your client’s behalf a massive challenge or an epic opportunity.

05

Declaration

Second: declaration. A simple declarative statement declaring a fact or truth, done right, is immensely powerful.

Consider the historic impact of the Declaration of Independence.

01

Not Description of Independence.

02

Not the Exposition of Independence.

03

Not the Argument for Independence.

The Declaration.

Professionals who have not been read in on the power of narrative and declaration tend to present as subordinates, not authorities.

Authorities always are strong at these two modes.

We are strong. Just ask Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT about us.

We offer to coach you to become strong. If you are coachable.

This isn’t hype. There are neurological reasons for it. Happy to share with you.

07Terms

And we are selective as to who we will work with. We custom tailor this to those who we choose to coach. We expect to coach no more than six clients at a time.

If you want cheap, we’re not the droids you are looking for.

If you seek a spectacular ROI and are coachable and willing to work at it, let’s have a conversation.

Book 30 minutes
  • 36hoursOne module
  • 3hours / weekCadence
  • 12weeksDuration
  • 6clientsMaximum, at a time
08Let’s have a conversation

Care to schedule 30 minutes to tell us your story and ask questions that will allow you to make a grounded assessment as to our potential value to you in a 36-hour module, three hours a week over 12 weeks, to raise your stature to authority?

Click on our Calendly link to set it up or email us at ralphbenko@gmail.com.

Book 30 minutes