Six months into your ocean project, you realize nobody knows who it's for. Now you're untangling years of work instead of moving forward.

In this episode, host Andrew Lewin sits down with Natalie Gilson, co-CEO of Pisces Oceans, to talk about the cost of treating communications as an afterthought. Whether you're running a nonprofit, a startup, or an academic research project, Natalie makes the case that communications strategy belongs at the start, not six months or a year down the road once the "who is this for" question has already gone unanswered too long.

Andrew and Natalie dig into why so many ocean projects skip this step, from academics chasing publication over public understanding to founders who confuse tactics (a social post, an article) with strategy (knowing who you're talking to and why). They cover the "first date, marriage proposal" problem of pitching before you've built trust, why transparency (even imperfect transparency) builds loyalty faster than a polished but hollow message, and how to avoid greenwashing your own brand by leading with the wrong value proposition for the wrong audience.

Natalie closes with the four questions she says every ocean project should answer before writing a single social post: what are you doing, why are you doing it, who are you doing it for, and what will the world look like once you've done it.

If you're building something for the ocean and communications feels like a "later" problem, this episode will change your timeline.

Takeaways:

• Communications strategy should start on day one of a project, not once you're already six months or a year in trying to explain what you're doing and why.
• The four foundational questions are what you're doing, why you're doing it, who you're doing it for, and what the world looks like once it's done.
• Strategy and tactics are different things. Tactics (posts, articles, ads) only work once the strategic groundwork of audience and purpose is in place.
• Building trust with your audience takes ongoing transparency, even when the update is imperfect or the news isn't great.
• Skipping early communications planning doesn't just cost time and money. It can derail team focus and mission clarity as a project grows.

Why do so many promising ocean conservation projects stall before they ever reach their potential? In this episode of the Ocean Leaders Podcast, host Andrew Lewin, Ocean Communications Manager at Pisces Oceans and longtime host of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, sits down with the Pisces Oceans team for a candid, in-person conversation recorded at the HTO conference.

Andrew is joined by co-CEOs Melissa Weaver and Natalie Gilson and Ocean Project Manager Kirsty Burnett to unpack the patterns they see again and again while helping ocean projects succeed: capacity limits, funding gaps, high staff and student turnover, unrealistic budgets, and the most underestimated piece of the puzzle, communications.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why ocean projects that start strong often lose momentum a few years in
• How funding life cycles and student or staff turnover quietly derail long-term research
• What ocean leaders consistently underestimate when writing grant proposals
• Why communications, not just funding, decides whether a project gets renewed
• How a neutral, unbiased partner like Pisces helps researchers and industry bridge the gap between good science and real-world impact

Whether you're a scientist, project manager, or ocean advocate trying to get your work funded and heard, this conversation offers a grounded look at why projects stall and what it takes to keep one moving.

Learn more about Pisces Oceans at piscisocean.ca, and follow the Ocean Leaders Podcast for more conversations on the business side of ocean conservation.

Strengthen Your Ocean Project: https://www.piscesoceans.ca/strengthen