Welcome back to another episode of the Spin Sucks Fireside Chat!
I am thrilled to introduce you to today’s guest whom I met thanks to Martin Waxman. Or Deirdre Breakenridge. Or both, depending on who is in the room at the time.
Melissa Agnes is no stranger to the Spin Sucks community. She’s authored content here and we’ve had her co-host a webinar with us.
She is one of my very favorite crisis experts so I like to keep her around, both for her expertise and her love of champagne.
She recently published Crisis Ready, a book that helps brands become invincible in this fast-paced, 24/7 digital world.
It used to be a brand might go through one crisis in its history, but today it’s not a matter of if, but when.
Crisis Ready helps you navigate around it when it happens to you.
During our chat, we spend a few minutes talking about her new book and then we do a little armchair quarterbacking of some recent crises.
The Fireside Chat: Crisis Ready
We used the following questions to direct the conversation, but you’ll see we go a bit off script, too.
- How does it feel to hold your very first book? YOUR VERY FIRST BOOK!
- Tell us a little bit about Crisis Ready—what can people expect when they read it and how will it help them in a crisis?
- Speaking of a crisis, let’s talk about some of the more recent ones: Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, Crock-Pot, and Michigan State
- Now that we have your expert advice on some recent news items, tell us…if there is only one thing you want people to take from Crisis Ready, what is it?
- The speed round.
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What’s next for Melissa?
My Favorite Parts of the Conversation
Here are some of the highlights from our conversation:
- How to identify an issue versus a crisis and why you don’t need to freak out when someone attacks you on social media.
- The process for issues management: identify, assess, respond, increase trust
- The importance of role playing and what you can gain by practicing real scenarios.
- How Crock-Pot handled their “This Is Us” crisis so well.
- Why she thinks Facebook missed a gigantic opportunity.
- The culture crisis at Michigan State.
- Why it’s important to be besties with legal or the head of compliance.
- How Starbucks and Tony Robbins handled their crises differently, and what you can take away from both.
Without Further Ado…The Fireside Chat
Enjoy the conversation…and let us know what you think!
(If you can’t view the video below, click here and you’ll be magically transported to YouTube to watch it.)
A Gift from Melissa
She has just launched a six-part webinar series to help professionals build their crisis ready program.
You will learn how to manage real-time issues as they come up (namely on social media), develop your robust crisis ready plan…and mostly build an invincible brand.
I can think of no one better to teach you just that than Melissa.
If that is of interest to you—or if need to convince your bosses or clients—she is offering Spin Sucks readers 20 percent off.
Just head over to her brand invincibility page and use code “SpinSucks” when you check out.
Next Month’s Fireside Chat
Our June guest will be Christopher Penn, though he doesn’t know it yet.
(I haven’t invited him, but he won’t tell me no. I know where his bodies are buried.)
We haven’t talked to him in a while and it’s time for him to update us on all things artificial intelligence, machine learning, and his brand new company, BrainTrust Insights.
Stay tuned for that on June 29.
