When the words have to be right.
Writing
There are a lot of speechwriters. There aren't many who have written with a president like Barack Obama, let alone for fourteen years.
Cody was the person Obama trusted with some of the most consequential words of his presidency. He was in the room for all of it — the arguments, the 3 a.m. rewrites, the moments when nothing was good enough and they had to find something anyway.
One of their finest works now lives on the facade of the Obama Presidential Center. From blank page to monument: that’s what the best collaborations can look like.
Today, Cody and the team of writers at Fenway collaborate with presidential candidates, governors, senators, mayors, and international heads of state. They’ve prepped Fortune 100 CEOs, world-famous philanthropists, record-breaking athletes, and thought-provoking entertainers for the biggest moments of their careers. Every engagement is unique. There are no packages, no templates, and no handing the work off to junior staff. Cody works directly with his clients. The process still starts the same way it did in the Oval Office: by asking, “what’s the story we want to tell?”
Executive Communications and Thought Leadership
A message is only as powerful as its messenger — and in today’s fractured and chaotic media landscape, it’s harder than ever for leaders to stand out. Cody and the team at Fenway will help you not only sound like a human being, but one worth following. Whether it’s a social media post, op-ed, statement, email, or website, they create the kind of content that will elevate your profile along with your cause. Whatever your area of expertise, they’ll immerse themselves in it, learning not only what you want to say, but how and why you want to say it — all to help you make the most of every public opportunity.
Speechwriting and Content Production
A captive audience is a rare gift. Make sure you make the most of it. Speechwriting is Cody’s first (professional) love. Whether you’re keynoting a conference, delivering a commencement at your alma mater, accepting a lifetime achievement award, hosting an all-hands or investor day, calming an anxious nation in a moment of crisis, or even addressing a joint session of Congress, Cody and his team have been there. Their approach is high-touch, personal, and collaborative. They learn everything they can about you and tune their ears to your voice. They’ll tease out the right stories and conduct the right research that will bring your point of view to life, then put pen to paper, revising until you love the final product, and leave a lasting impression.
Coaching and Media Training
From presidential debates in prime time to award shows broadcast around the world, we’ve prepared a host of household names to take the stage for some of the highest-stakes appearances of their careers. Whatever your goals, we’ll help you step into the spotlight with the confidence to impress, inspire, and, most importantly, make your message stick—even under the brightest lights. Our training sessions go beyond well-worn tips and tricks for delivery. We’ll help you elevate the actual content of what you want to communicate.
Events
Cody and his team have scripted dozens of the highest-profile live-streamed and televised events, major corporate conferences, global philanthropic gatherings, exhibitions, festivals, and national political conventions. They’ll work with you to develop a cohesive, compelling central narrative that serves as the spine of the show, then storyboard the segments so each delivers a distinct message while driving a larger theme. Finally, they’ll make sure that every speaker shines and every viewer leaves feeling entertained and called to action.
Workshops
Most communications training focuses on the person at the podium. Cody created one for the people who write what they say. Executive speechwriters and comms teams are asked to turn legal briefs into fundraising emails, board memos into rapid-response statements, and complicated causes into copy the public will actually read — often with no formal training in how to do it. Rooted in his wildly popular course at Northwestern University, Cody runs hands-on workshops, built from his own classroom and writers’ room experiences, that teach the fundamentals: clarity, tone, audience, and structure. He uses your organization’s real material, not generic case studies, so that the lessons stick to the work your team is actually doing. The result is a team that writes with more confidence, needs less editing, and meets a higher standard for what "good" sounds like.