When you’re experiencing a crisis, and the media want answers, there are some types of questions you need to recognize and avoid. “What if…?” Inevitably these questions, which might take different forms, tempt you to speculate. They will be asked repeatedly. They are the most common type. Stay on firm ground by keeping to the […]

Bill Gates from his blog: “In the past week, COVID-19 has started to behave a lot like the once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about. I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume that it will be until we know otherwise.” Elon Musk from Twitter: “The coronavirus panic is dumb” Two opposing opinions from […]

Rule #4 of The Media Trainers 10 Rules of Interviewing©: An Interview is NOT a Conversation! An interview is a message delivery environment. Yes, it still has all the feel of a conversation, except for one major difference: you need to go into it with the mindset of being responsive to questions, but on your […]

I remember learning about comparatives in grade school, so when did… …Happier become more happy? …Easier become more easy? …Faster become more fast? …Larger become more large? …Smaller become more small? …Higher become more high? …Taller become more tall? …Fatter become more fat? …Bigger become more big? …Sadder become more sad? …Simpler become more simple? […]

Mark Begor* inherited a big mess. The Equifax Crisis. Almost three years ago the credit bureau suffered a huge cyber breach. Critical information about more than 145 million consumers was put at risk. Originally discovered in July 2017, it was not made public until September 7th of that year. It’s been described by the FBI […]

Inconsistent company messaging through the media can create unnecessary problems for you. Messages for external audiences have got to be clearly communicated to your internal team, first. Otherwise, you open the door to confusion and spending time clearing it up. In late 2018, CVS closed on its purchase of AETNA for $69 billion “transform(ing) its […]