The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Latest Episodes:

61: How to Write an Unforgettable Thank-You Note Dec 24, 2019

Show notes

We mean to write them, but we don’t always get around to it even though we know we should. It’s the "always love to receive one, but dread writing one" thank you note.

Listen to this episode for tips on how to write an unforgettable thank you note. I've timed this episode around the holidays to offer a gentle push for completing a task that many people tend to overlook.

Best tip: If you’re ever asking yourself if you should write a thank you note, you already know the answer. Psst...it's yes.
A handwritten note is always better than an email because it offers that extra touch of personalization.

Anyone you visit or anyone who has given you a gift gets a thank you note. So the sooner you start getting into this habit to thank people for more opportunities of graciousness you see in your life, the better.

[4:19] Personalize Your Greeting. Know who you’re sending all of them to and address the recipient by name.
[4:37] Be Thankful. Express thanks, gratitude, having your day made, etc. in your message. Say things like “I so appreciate…”, “thank you so much for…”, “I’m ever grateful for…”.
[4:54] Be Specific. What exactly are you thanking them for in this note? Did they give you a gift? Did they spend time with you? Did they prepare a meal for you? Call it out specifically in your message.
[5:33] Add in the Details. Demonstrate how much that gift means to you or how much you appreciate them taking the time to spend with you within your message.
[6:58] Look Ahead to the Future. When’s the next time you’ll see them? Or what will help remind you of them? Mention something like, “I’m looking forward to our next visit,” or “I’ll let you know what I thought about the book after I read it.”

About Molly
Public Relations expert Molly McPherson, APR, reveals the best practices help leaders become indestructible in today's digital age and crisis-proof their organizations. A mix of discussing current news events along with interviews with newsmakers, communications professionals and business owners while providing insight from 20+ years of public relations and crisis communications expertise working for FEMA and heading communications for the cruise line industry to help take the fear out of communicating in the age of scrutiny. This podcast helps leaders communicate confidently--in writing, speaking, body language, social media -- to be heard, seen and relevant.

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

60: The 12 Days of Crisis: My Top #PRFails in 2019 Dec 17, 2019

Show notes

On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me

A PR crisis, or one or two or three.

In this (almost) end-of-the-year episode, I wrap-up the PR season by covering the best (or worst?) PR crises of 2019. It's my holiday gift to myself and to anyone else who has a passion for practicing public relations.

My definition of a PR crisis? A public reaction from an event that causes a brand or a person’s reputation to upside-down. The viral-age twist? It can happen overnight.

Listen to my #PRFail stand-outs from 2019.

[8:15] Number 12: This person got an a** kicking for shaming a would-be employee on social media.
[10:01] Number 11: Piggybacking off of the #MeToo movement made for a messy ad campaign.
[11:00] Number 10: Concating a fake attack turns into a viral attack against this actor.
[12:30] Number 9: Hoping on a wing and a prayer that this PR response works.
[14:58] Number 8: Becky with the bad decision.
[17:26] Numbers 6 & 7: Houston, we have a problem.
[23:28] Number 5: Boy's club got this guy in trouble.
[25:09] Number 4: A billion-dollar "OK, Boomer" Blunder.
[28:18] Number 3: Rise and shine, your career is over.
[33:01] Number 2: I didn't realize how much this problematic ad would cost this brand.
[35:10] Number 1: A royally lousy interview.

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

59: How to Small Talk Like a Pro at a Holiday Party with Special Guest Lauren Sergy Dec 10, 2019

Show notes

Merry, Merry!

Let's get into the festive spirit and talk about conversation etiquette at holiday parties. You might remember my guest, public speaking expert Lauren Sergy from her appearance on Episode 55, Executive Presence: What It Looks Like, Why You Need It and How to Get It. If you have some parties coming up soon, you’ll definitely want to listen to this one.

Lauren is from our neighbor to the north, coming to us from Canada, but the political climates in both Canada and the United States are making it more challenging to keep conversations civil. Polarizing opinions are being shared much more openly, but don’t let that discourage you. We’re here to help you navigate starting a conversation, maintaining it, and exiting it with grace and ease at your next holiday party.

[7:28] The Best Way to Start a Conversation. This tip is one that will carry you through not only the holiday season but through every single networking event, you’ll ever attend. Lauren talks about how she loves starting conversations by making all the other people do the work and she just keeps asking them questions. This is quite brilliant because you’re essentially offloading all the work onto them.
We also agree that it’s perfectly acceptable to open conversations about general topics like the weather or sports, which gives you a mutual point of agreement. Once the mundane is explored, you can ask them in more detail what’s going on in their world.

[12:07] The Follow-Up Question & How to Prevent the Awkward Pause. Now once you have made them comfortable and they’ve chosen the path they want to take the conversation down, follow up with “tell me more about that.” And guess what, they WILL tell you more. By keeping them talking about themselves, you’re boosting your likability.

[16:49] How to Gracefully Exit Out of a Conversation. You know the feeling. The conversation is coming to a natural close - or you’ve passed that point but are still suffering through - and you’d give anything to make it stop. Well, we’re here to help. Lauren gives some great tips on making a graceful exit. One way is to literally grab others as they walk by and pull them into the conversation. Introduce them to the person you’re talking to, tell them what they have in common, and move away from the conversation.

[19:36] How to Gracefully Exit a Conversation on an Airplane. This tip will let them know you’re starting to get tired, which will probably be a relief to them. Not everyone knows how to end a conversation, so you get to save the day by leading that charge

[23:35] How to Converse in a Sticky Conversation and Keep it Civil. If you do get in a conversation with strong opinions, you can be pleasant or you can be right. You decide what’s more important, but remember, you’re never going to be right. This is not the time to prove a point, but you can still focus on learning as much as possible about the person you’re talking to.

[26:24] How to Remove Yourself from Political Rhetoric. It’s become acceptable to say something like, “oh man, this stuff has become exhausting” and exit the topic. Don’t be preachy; simply let the person know you don’t want to engage.

Mentioned In This Episode

🎁 [BONUS] How to Address a Holiday Card 🎄 Dec 05, 2019

Show notes

Ho ho ho!

You are listening to this special bonus holiday episode as a gift for being a loyal subscriber to the Confident Communications Podcast. Think of it as my holiday card to you as a thank you for listening.

Speaking of holiday cards, this episode offers some things to consider when it comes to sending out professional holiday cards.

Not sure if you should send them in the first place? I’ll go into more detail in the show, but yes, I do think it’s a good idea to send them and I'll explain why.

I'll also discuss who you should send a card to and who you should make sure not to forget.

Want to see how it's done? Download this free guide on how to address your holiday cards this year here.

58: Critical Moments: The New Mindset of Reputation Management with special guest Bill Coletti Dec 03, 2019

Show notes

According to this week's guest, a company owns its brand; the public owns its reputation. Crisis communications expert Bill Coletti reveals how to build reputational excellence by meeting the needs and expectations of the public.

We discuss his various strategies for companies to work their way through a crisis. Bonus -- Bill offers a phenomenal crisis preparation tip you can put into place within your organization immediately.

[3:05] Kith’s focus looking forward to 2020. The firm is transitioning from a focus on disrupting the disruption, to transforming organizations to reputation resilience.
[5:00] The Zuckerberg vs. Buffett models. We talk about exploring the “move fast and break things” motto of organizations like Facebook lead by Mark Zuckerberg vs. Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett’s way of doing things. We discuss how disruption has its place, but it’s really more about overall transformation.
[7:56] Is there a formula for managing a crisis? We both agree that the answer to this one is “yes.” Bill talks about the importance of increasing speed when it comes to responding to a crisis, and how organizations can get better and faster at it. Things like having strong core values, a clear chain of command, and truly understanding your mission and values before your faced with controversy are all key elements.
[12:12] Bill’s four A’s of reputation management. You might want to take some notes here - there are some really good points you can use in this part of the interview. What came out of a “well that sucked, let’s never do that again,” situation, lead to Bill creating a framework of how to work through a crisis in a smart, strategic, and proven manner.
[29:21] Here’s a great place to start. Before you decide to hire someone like myself or Bill, try this at your next team meeting. Pull out the Wall Street Journal or New York Times and simulate a current issue or controversy to figure out how you would respond. If that happened to you, how would you react? Exercise the muscles that will increase the speed in which you can react and keep your reputation where you want it to be.

You can purchase Bill’s book on Amazon, click here.

About Molly

Public Relations expert Molly McPherson, APR, reveals the best practices help leaders become indestructible in today's digital age and crisis-proof their organizations. A mix of discussing current news events along with interviews with newsmakers, communications professionals and business owners while providing insight from 20+ years of public relations and crisis communications expertise working for FEMA and heading communications for the cruise line industry to help take the fear out of communicating in the age of scrutiny. This podcast helps leaders communicate confidently--in writing, speaking, body language, social media -- to be heard, seen and relevant.<

57: How to Behave on a Plane Without Driving People Insane Nov 26, 2019

Show notes

It’s Thanksgiving week in the United States; a time of year when a lot of people plan to travel through airports on their way to visit family and friends for the holiday. This is the episode to help you, and everyone around you, travel with ease in the air.

Everyone holiday, you can almost bet on someone picking up their phone to snap a photo or film a video of not-so-good behavior on the plane. After all, when people are on edge or in a hurry - chances are they are not at their best. So let’s all do our part to make this travel experience more enjoyable, shall we? As most of you know I travel a LOT for my work, so in this podcast, you’ll hear my top 10 air travel behavior tips that I’ve gathered based on personal experience.

[3:05] I know it’s tempting because you’ve been planning this trip for months, or there’s an important meeting you don’t think you can miss, but no one wants to sit next to a sick person. My experience with traveling while sick goes all the way back to my days working for the cruise industry when the norovirus made its debut. So trust me when I tell you it’s much better for everyone to just stay home - or at the very least travel with a mask and extra hand sanitizer.

[7:07] Don’t rush to the front of the plane right when you land and cut in front of everyone sitting in front of you. Not only is it rude, but your actions are telling people that you are simply more important than everyone else. Not to mention the traffic jam you’re causing. Guess what? We all want to get off the plane, and it will go faster if everyone waits your turn.

[11:05] I get it - being on an airplane is a great time to catch up on podcasts, but just be mindful of when you have them in and when you should actually be hearing what’s going on around you. If the flight crew is trying to take your order, for example, take them out of your ears. When we’re all deplaning - out. Bonus tip: you might actually meet more people (I’ve gotten business deals on planes) by keeping them out and striking up a conversation.

[12:44] Don’t overdo it on the perfume or cologne. You want to smell nice, but some people are very sensitive to strong fragrance. On the other side of that, make sure to shower and wear deodorant that day.

[13:16] Don’t talk to the person behind you, across the aisle from you, or over the middle seat person. You’re making your conversation way too public and including far too many surrounding passengers who don’t want to hear your conversation.

[15:23] The middle person. It’s just that easy. They got the short end of the stick with seating, so they can control both armrests.

[16:00] Don’t keep talking to someone who clearly doesn’t want to talk to you. One nice way I had someone do it was by saying, “I’m gonna check out now” and then he put on his headphones. Simple, to-the-point, and not rude at all.

[16:54] Take your backpack off before you start walking down the narrow aisles. Don’t be that person with a huge, oversized backpack and wields it with abandon, moving, rushing, and pivoting while everyone is getting hit in the head along the way.

[18:08] Your bag goes above your seat. It’s

56: One Year of Confident Communications: The Best of the Podcast Nov 19, 2019

Show notes

Can you believe it’s been a full year since we launched the Confident Communications Podcast? Well, here we are! One year later and one year wiser. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting at Pat Flynn’s Power-Up Podcasting boot camp (Pat was also a guest on this podcast in episode 40) which played a major role in helping me get this podcast out into the world.

I wanted to celebrate this year of helping people become better communicators by highlighting some of our top podcast episodes and a major takeaway from each of them. I chose episodes and guests that were not only top downloads but left my listeners with some quick and easy tips they could take away and start implementing immediately.

Here’s what you can look forward to...

[4:45] The JFK Jr. Plane Crash: A behind-the-scenes account from July 1999

Most of my most popular episodes feature guest interviews, but this unique solo episode got a lot of great feedback because the story is just so memorable to most people. It was released 20 years after JFK Jr.’s plane went missing, and gives listeners a behind-the-scenes perspective from insiders who were there - including me.

[8:18] Episode 18: The Secret to Being a Great Speaker with Gina Razon

One of the tips that Gina shares in this episode is literally something that I use every single time I get up in front of a room. It’s a way to help reset your brain back to calm because as we all know, anything can happen when you’re up there behind that podium. This episode is like a free session with a speech coach, so if you’re among the 75% of the public who has a fear of public speaking, you have to give it a listen.

[11:36] Episode 22: How to Handle a Difficult Conversation with Lara Currie

If you’ve ever had to deal with conflict in the workplace (and who hasn’t), you’re going to love these tips on how to slow down and remain calm that Lara teaches. We explore how to ask yourself the right questions before responding to someone, and she helps you be less emotional in your reactions. We also talk about triggers and how they affect the different genders, and how they are a visceral reaction that can show up physically.

[14:14] Episode 30: How to Nail Your Next Media Interview with Brad Phillips

Mr. Media Training himself, and author of The Media Training Bible: 101 Things You Absolutely, Positively Need To Know Before Your Next Interview, chats with me about the qualities that people need, and sometimes lack, to be engaging on camera. We talk about how oftentimes the people we work with are extremely engaging off-camera, but something switches once that little red light comes on. He gives us some remedies on how to still be YOU on camera and talks about the importance of striving for co

55: Executive Presence: What it Looks like, Why You Need It And How To Get It Nov 12, 2019

Show notes

Executive Presence is a term you may hear a lot, but do you know what it means?

Simply put, having it means you own a room the second you stand in front of it. It's a mix of confidence and savvy communications that inspire your peers, subordinates and leaders.

Lauren Sergy, an expert on all things communications, walks us through the steps for building your executive presence in the workplace.

Hear why your pitch, tone, physical stature and gender play a part.

Mentioned In This Episode

Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are - Amy Cuddy | TedGlobal 2012
Send your "Communication Conundrum" to LaurenSergy.com
Lauren Sergy on YouTube.com
Lauren Sergy on Twitter

About Molly

About Lauren Sergy

Lauren Sergy is a sought-after expert in the art of speaking and communication in business and work. Armed with a deep understanding of the art, science, and alchemy of interpersonal communication and public speaking, she sheds light on difficult communication situations with refreshing energy, humor, and candor. For more information about Lauren, you can visit LaurenSergy.com.

Listen + subscribe on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts.

54: What's in a Greeting and Why Does it Matter? Nov 05, 2019

Show notes

As a business leader, employee or owner, you have the opportunity to interact with many people from all walks of life and places.

Just as important as why you interact with people, is that you’re able to greet them appropriately so you get off on the right foot. But greeting etiquette depends on so many factors, aside from culture--how you know the person and who is hosting the meeting also plays a factor.

About Molly

Molly McPherson, M.S., APR, combines her knowledge of current communication practices with years of news and PR experience to help people become modern-age communicators in their industry and help to build crisis-proof businesses. From her work in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the cruise line industry in Washington, D.C., Molly develops the right plans and messaging for clients to protect and build their reputations.

Listen + subscribe on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts.

Someone at Your Organization Has Been Accused of Sexual Harassment. Now what? Oct 29, 2019

Show notes

Someone at your organization was accused of sexual harassment. Perhaps the harassment was in the form of an inappropriate remark, behavior, incident or outburst.

You work in leadership and have to respond. Or you may even be that person accused of harassment.

Now what?

This episode looks at recent news stories of how organizations dealt with a sexual harassment issue when it became public.

Discussing what should happen from a public messaging perspective.
What do you say about the incident as a spokesperson for the organization? What do you say about the culture of your organization? What do you say if you were the person who was accused?

How to respond to sexual harassment within your organization in the age of social media.

Mentioned In This Episode

About Molly

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