86 - Precision Influence: How Business Gets Heard in Washington w/CEO of Capitol Precision Strategies - JC Henry

Welcome to Digital Doorways, I’m Jason Siegel, founder and managing partner of Bluetext. My guest today is J.C. Henry, founder and president of Capitol Precision Strategies. J.C. is a 24-year Air Force veteran, former director of congressional affairs at the National Reconnaissance Office, former national security advisor to Senator Jon Tester, and someone who built the defense and space practice at a top K Street firm before leading government affairs at Intelsat. Today, he brings that experience to a Washington strategy and government relations firm focused on the national security community.

We’re going to talk about something every CEO, founder, and government affairs leader needs to get right: how you make a complex story matter in Washington. How do you turn technical capabilities into a message a policymaker can repeat? How do you build credibility before a contract or budget exists? And how should marketing, government affairs, executive visibility, and the CEO’s personal brand work together to shape the narrative? J.C., welcome to Digital Doorways.

QUESTIONS

1. What makes a message stick with a busy staffer versus one that gets forgotten by the next meeting?

2. How do you translate a complex technical or business story into something a policymaker can repeat in one sentence?

3. How do you frame one issue so it lands with both Republicans and Democrats?

4. Is there a story where reframing the narrative, not changing the facts, flipped the outcome?

5. How should marketing and government affairs work together, and who should own the narrative?

6. How do digital presence, earned media, and executive thought leadership feed into a policy campaign today?

7. When a CEO becomes the face of an issue, how do you protect the company brand while building theirs?

8. For a GovCon or defense company, how does credibility with the Pentagon and the Hill shape requirements and budgets before a contract ever exists?

9. Emerging tech companies in AI, space, and cyber often show up in Washington before Washington understands them. How should they position themselves when they’re defining a category for policymakers?

10. PE and VC firms are pouring money into defense and space. Where does Washington risk show up in a portfolio, and when should investors bring in government affairs?

11. There are hundreds of government affairs firms in D.C. How did you decide to position Capitol Precision Strategies so it stood out?

12. Why “precision”? What does the name promise clients, and how do you live up to it?

13. In a relationship business, how much of your firm’s brand is really your personal brand, and how do you build something bigger than yourself?

14. Who is your ideal client, and how did getting clear on that change how you go to market?

15. If a CEO could do one thing this year to strengthen how they’re perceived in Washington or their state capital, what should it be?