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Welcome to the Shock Your Potential podcast with your host, Michael Sherlock. We all have potential, but sometimes we need inspiration to get us to our peak performance.
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Whether you are starting out in your career, ready to move up the corporate ladder, or taking the leap into entrepreneurship, Michael's guests provide powerful tools and resources to shock your potential.
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Shock Your Potential is a global professional development training company committed to your unique journey. Learn more about us today at shockyourpotential.com and download our free Shock Your Potential app today.
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Listen in to today's expert. Thank you for joining us on another episode of Shock Your Potential. I am, of course, your host, Michael Sherlock.
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That has not changed since the last time you listened, but my guest today is going to really give us something to think about for back to school month.
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So the Haze Initiative founder, Anthony Haze, strangely enough, has spent more than 18 years in communications, crisis and issue management, and political and legislative campaigns, and some of the big ones that you will know.
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He's a seasoned C-level advisor, but not only that, he's cultivated an energetic and fast-growing company that is now trusted to execute strategy for prominent clients around the world, and the more we talk, you're gonna know exactly what that means.
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He has served leaders at the highest levels, including presidential candidates, members of the US cabinet, governors, and other elected officials, as well as C-suite execs, law enforcement officials, and high-ranking health and legal professionals.
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His firm has advised clients involved in very complex legal matters, and he's helped to manage high-stakes media relations during crisis, such as Bridgegate, airport security breaches, and natural disasters, including super storm Storm Sandy, so those of us on this side of the Eastern Seaboard, uh, definitely remember that, and hurricane relief efforts in the US Virgin Islands, which we know how devastating that was.
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At THI, they help leaders and organization deliver major initiatives, break through the noisy media landscape, which can be crazy at times, and navigate the world of politics and government. That can't be hard at all.
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But they excel in high-pressure, politically sensitive, and confidential issues while demonstrating the utmost of discretion and judgment, and this is gonna be a fascinating interview.
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Anthony, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. Very happy to be here.
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Boy, I, uh, just the fact of what you've done on the political landscape, um, I think pretty much, uh, tells us all a little bit about the level of complexity and probably crisis potential all the way around.
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But- [laughs]... I know just enough to be dangerous about your background. Tell us a little bit more in your own words about you, your firm, and how you help your clients to shock their potential in a good way.
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[laughs] Sure, sure.
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You know, I've been in the, uh, communication space for over 18 years, and I worked on Secretary Hillary Clinton's campaign, and when that ended, I was potentially gonna join another communication firm and, and several people said, "Oh, gosh, that's great.
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Let us know. We'd love to have you run our communications for us." And a, a, God bless a very good friend of mine, Emily Giski, who said, you know, "How many retainers do you need to start a business?" And- [laughs]...
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you know, when you finish a presidential campaign, the one thing you realize you haven't done is sleep.
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So I just wasn't in the head space, and this, I was very lucky that this all happened very quickly, uh, i- still in November 2016.
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And so, you know, I had a phone call with someone who said, you know, "Your name keeps coming up. We need someone to run a nationwide bus tour for us around not repealing the Affordable Care Act." Mm, mm-hmm.
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And I said, "Oh, that's great. You should hire our firm." [laughs] Uh, and she said, um, "Oh, great. Send us your contract." I was like, "Oh, absolutely," and then I was like, "Google contract," you know?
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And so I always wanted to sort of head down this road and then realized, you know, part of what we do now every day, um, at, at the Haze Initiative is our clients are always trying to connect with different audiences, whether they are in a crisis that we're trying to help them clean up, or they're launching a new initiative, or they- Mm-hmm...
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you know, they just wanna remain connected, especially in what we just went through with COVID, with their customers. Um, and really we help them to the point is what we do most of all. Mm-hmm.
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Um, there's lots of tactics to, to sort of tackle this, but I'm stunned at how many people, when challenged a bit on what they're trying to say, realize they don't actually know what they're trying to say. Yeah.
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Um, and so too often as I say, you know, to my team when they are reporting back what the client has said, I, I often say, you know, "We're complicating a ham sandwich here. Like, what do they mean?"
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And so w- I think that we really, whether you're talking about emails, press releases,
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or just [audio glitches] for reporters, uh, people assume that their audiences have unlimited time to talk to them and listen, and even though they may be someone who engages with the product, you know, they're still trying to get kids to school and, and get all the things done that they need to do, so they don't have time.
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So, you know, you have to acknowledge that you have very little time to capture someone's attention, and so that's why we really focus on helping people get to the point. I love it.
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Um, and I love the fact you said, too, or your friend who said, "How many retainers do you need before you realize- [laughs]... you have a company here?" Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that.
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It's, uh, a lesson learned, for sure on my part. Yeah. I mean, people trust people, so they trust you, and they would have followed you wherever you went.
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But what a great opportunity, you know, to not only say, "Oh, wait. Hold on," you know, when they're do- uh, "Maybe I should listen to this," but, "Okay- Yeah... sure, yeah, I'll sign the contract.
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Oh, crap, I need a contract." [laughs] Yeah, there's... I mean, I'm not gonna pretend that it started in some sort of really organized, high-fashion way. It really did not.
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It was very much like, you know, uh, I suppose so many entrepreneurs, where you just sort of, uh, find it from here, so to speak, and that's exactly what we did. Yeah.
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It's funny, just, uh, just as a side note, uh, that I had something similar happen to me this year, is you know, I've been running my business, and we had to pivot quite a bit because prior to COVID- Sure...
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um, I, 95% of my b- business income came from me getting on an airplane to go speak and train around the world, so obviously that changed.
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And so we pivoted and did a great job, but I, my whole team, my whole support team is in Kenya, and that came from me, you know, meeting some people there- Wow... and making these great connections.
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And one day last summer when I was taping a bunch of podcasts in a week, and I had three people say, "H- where did you find these amazing people in Kenya? How do I get one?"
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And I went, and my husband and I sat on our top deck that night and had a beer and I said, "You know, I have now all these hundreds of connections of amazing people that I can't hire, 'cause I can't hire them all."
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Mm-hmm. "Maybe we should start a business." And he's like, "Yeah, you think so?" "I think so." [laughs] Yeah. That's, it's... I, I think a lot of times you don't realize that that's how it starts, you know? Yeah.
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We see things in totality, you
know, you see the iPhone that we have in our hand, but Apple, you know, it was people who sort of just were like, "We should do this." "Yeah, let's do that." Mm-hmm.
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[laughs] You know, and that's how it happens. But we forget that. Yeah. We forget that. Sitting in a garage playing with, you know- Exactly. Exactly... computer parts. Exactly. [laughs] Exactly. And now we all have one.
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Well, let me ask you this too, because it's really intriguing.
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Um, I love the fact you're talking about you help people get out their message succinctly, and I think that's really im- important, so I wanna talk more about that.
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But I think the flip side is, and, and, you know, from the outside looking in, you know, it's the sexiness, it's the Olivia Pope kind of thing. It's that handling the, you know, the stress of the crisis.
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It might not be that, you know, dramatic, but- [laughs]... um, especially in politics- Sometimes. Sometimes... sometimes it is, especially in politics.
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When you have something that comes out, oh, and like you all go to bed one night and the next morning you wake up and the headline is something that you're like, "Wait, where did that come from?" Yeah.
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Um, how do you maintain calm for you and your clients in that situation? Well, it's a great question.
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Um, and I think the thing that, uh, part of it is, is just having been in it for so long, and I think just sort of I've realized, you know, I've worked with, I've been very fortunate that I've worked with a, a number of, of people, uh, from, you know, g- governors, you know, w- I managed media and communication for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and for listeners who don't know, you know, that institution, it's a giant agency- Yeah...
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in New York that runs all the airports, bridges, tunnels, has its own police department, was responsible, you know, owns the World Trade Center site, uh- Mm-hmm... et cetera.
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And it reports into two governors, the governor of New York and the governor of New Jersey. Um, and so just through all of these different experiences, you know, you see when people aren't calm. Yeah.
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And you see how that really does not help the situation, most assuredly [laughs] in a crisis.
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And so I just sort of learned very early to not be too surprised by the ever-shifting landscape of media, and certainly politics. Um, uh, a- and that the best thing that you can do is to take a breath.
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You know, you wanna respond in a timely manner, always in a crisis, and I think that- Mm-hmm...
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a lot of times it's certainly the quintessential rock and a hard place, as it were, with you wanna respond right away, but the first thing about a crisis is, is that you often don't know all the details.
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And so you really have to thread that needle on how you do that appropriately- Right... um, but also not sort of go out there and cause more mayhem because you don't know what you're talking about. Right.
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So there's lots of ways to do that, and I think that, you know, it's funny that you mentioned Olivia Pope from Scandal, because a lot of my friends call me Oliver Pope as, as, as in just, um- Yes...
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just to sort of make fun of what I do all day.
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Um, but there's no rhyme or reason, and the urgent rushes out the important every day, and so what you really have to do is, is really sort of tactically get together, bring out all the right folks together, and start putting something together that you can respond.
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But it is a very challenging environment, especially when you have s- some of the major national and global outlets sort of breathing down your neck saying, you know, "Deadline's 3:00 PM or 5:00 PM."
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You really have to know how to manage that, and sometimes even push back, quite frankly, and it, it's super challenging, uh, to push back on those big outlets bec- you know, it could backfire, but sometimes you have to.
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Right. Well, and I even think, you know, the time we're recording this, this week is really unique because of the Meghan and Harry interview with Oprah. Oh, yes. And oh my gosh, and you know- Love it...
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w- seeing a couple days of delay before anything from, you know, the, the palace, and then- Yeah...
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seeing first of all just the only response out of the Queen was, "This is a private matter, we'll handle it privately," I feel like that has inflamed the world, you know? Like- Yeah... w- what?
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You're, you know, I mean, you're talking about how somebody with, who's saying she was suicidal and talking about racism and being pushed out- Yeah... and being...
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And you're gonna s- "We're just gonna deal with that internally"? That doesn't go over well with the public. Oh, yeah.
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I mean, it's a perfect sort of bouncing-off point in this conversation, because we have all experienced in the last 12 months, you know, a global pandemic amidst, certainly in America, a global pandemic that, um, was, that played out on the backdrop of a national presidential election.
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Yeah.
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Um, and every, regardless of whether you're a small business like, you know, I'm a small LGBTQ-owned and operated business, um, and whether you're a small
business or you're a large business, everyone was having to figure out how to communicate.
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And then in the middle of all of that, um, we had some very long and overdue conversations around social justice and, and, and- Yes...
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certainly Black Lives Matter and George Floyd, and, and it really has brought a, what I hope is a continued and sustained conversation together. Well, now you fast-forward to You know, Oprah, Harry, and Meghan. Yeah.
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And then an institution that has been around forever, the Crown- Yeah... you know, the monarch, taking their time to reply and assuming, you know,
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in a very classic form that they don't really need to respond, that they can sort of float above it. And, you know, I do believe you have to...
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You know, the challenge around any communication, and I think any business owner knows this, and depending on the scale and size of your business or who you are as an individual, you know, if you're a real major thought leader,
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sometimes responding only pours gasoline on the fire. And so you have to...
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There, there is a, there, there is logic to sometimes pausing on your response because sometimes just reporters and there are headlines that are just fishing, right? And they're looking- Right. Oh, gotcha...
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for you to... They're looking to bait you. Mm. And so if you take the bait, then it only grows it more.
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But I think people have had to wrestle with, and leaders certainly throughout 2020 with COVID and all of, um, the unrest that sort of just took place, at least in America with the presidential election, leaders like to lead and speak with confidence.
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Problem is, is that no one really had any experience in COVID certainly. No.
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Then it's, then it's on the, the backdrop of this presidential election, and so it really was forcing leaders to step in, whether regardless of what you do for a business- Mm-hmm...
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whether you're an Apple or you're, you know, a small nonprofit, people were weighing in.
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You know, one of my favorite examples, uh, leaders weighing in on things that they probably would much rather not weigh in on but felt they needed to both for their employees but also for what their business did was Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase.
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Mm.
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You know, right before the presidential election in November of 2020, Jamie Dimon put out an email to his employees just really sort of laid out, like, "Look, whatever the results of the election, we have to come together," and it was just very- Yes...
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hopeful. It was very- Yeah... thoughtful, and it was... You know, I don't know what I... For all of your listeners, I don't have a relationship with them and... But if I was his comms team- Yeah...
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I would have done what I assume they did and make sure that that email gets out because- Yeah... it also calmed the markets.
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It also set a signal to all of the other major, uh, you know, financial institutions around the world that regardless of the results of the presidential election, we all have to come together and, and really focus on, um, how we move forward.
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Yeah, financial stability for our country- Yeah... no matter what. I so agree. When that came out, I was so pleased because I have this, um, policy for myself and for my team that, you know, we, we're a positive culture.
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So, like, only post things on your social media that are positive, and no, I can't...
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I'm not going to police you on it, but I just, I'm gonna trust you that, you know, we don't rant, we don't rave, don't, uh, disparage anybody.
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Our- my goal is to promote positivity, and when I saw that, it was such a, yeah, like a sigh of relief in the middle of the chaos and the stress of the- Mm-hmm... of the election and the- I agree...
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fears of the pandemic and all these things come... Even the, um, the fighting between governors and, and mayors and presidents and, you know- Yeah... all these arguments.
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In my state of Pennsylvania, our mayor of, you know, of Philadelphia and the governor of Pennsylvania, who are both Democrats, fought the whole... They're still fighting. And it's like finally you see- Politics.
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[laughs]... one of the things that says whoever wins, let's just be, make sure that we're doing what we need to do for our clients, our constituents. Yeah. That's right. Let's breathe a sigh of relief. Yeah. Yeah, 100%.
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After what we've gone through, I think people are looking for, regardless of the size of business or what you do, people are eager to not have things feel divisive.
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And that doesn't mean you can't hold people accountable for bad behavior- Right... but it does... How we speak to one another on social media or as organizations and how we respond to things really does set a tone.
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So I, people are very eager for that kind of let's move forward. Yeah.
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And I know before we take a break, I wanna ask you, too, because right before we started taping, you talked about, um, doing kind of a proactive tour, you know, trying to, um, or to work on not having the Affordable Care Act repealed.
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Mm-hmm. And so that was, like, a positive, you
know, you're going out with a positive promotional message.
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So, you know, we talked a little bit about kind of the crisis and, you know, those stressful situations, but when you are working with a client to really proactively promote a message to get people on board, you know, what's that dynamic versus trying to be in crisis control mode?
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On some level, it's all the same because a- a- it is and not, right? The, the, the timing and y- the, you have a little bit more luxury when you, when you don't have a ticking clock of, you know- Right...
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uh, reporters, et cetera, banging down your door, so to speak.
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But when you're trying to sort of move something forward that is a new initiative, that is positive, that will add benefit to people's lives regardless of whether it's a product or whether it's on this, in this particular example, it's legislative, right?
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Um, y- you wanna connect, and you have to take what it is and, again, get to the point of how it impacts them.
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You know, and I think sometimes those of us who have been in different environment, you have a lot of groupthink that starts to happen, and, and everybody is so close to whatever the announcement's gonna be or where they're gonna go, and
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everyone's so clever because they know all the nuances. But when you have maybe 30 seconds, and I, I'm being probably way too generous- Mm... maybe 30 seconds of attention, have... can you say in one sentence
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how what you are offering is going to make that person's life better? And again, I could talk about Apple quite a bit, but the most... succinct thing that I've ever heard in my life was when Steve Jobs released the iPod.
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You know, it was, at this time, you know, we n- none of us had heard of an i- of an iPod. I know. [laughs] You know?
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And he came out on stage, and he said, "A thousand songs in your pocket," and you instantly knew the problem you were- he was solving for you. Mm-hmm.
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And so when you have a positive message, you have to lead with what you're solving versus, you know, how you're gonna solve it. People don't... I mean, I think they care, but they don't really care.
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[laughs] They just wanna know you're gonna do it. It... So how you gonna s- what are you solving for me? And then I'll, then I'll, then I'll stay a little bit more interested to hear how you're gonna do it.
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Yeah, absolutely. Well, we're gonna take a quick break, Anthony, and hear from our sponsor, and we will be- Great... right back. Have you ever considered hiring a virtual assistant but didn't know where to start?
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Um, I am just enjoying this conversation so much, 'cause this is really, to me, you know, what's, uh, what gets me excited, is how we get people to engage with our messages, 'cause it is so very important.
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And, um, so there may be p- people listening to my podcast who are saying, "Hey, you know, we might need something like this for our company," or if we have, uh, at some point, trouble, we might need this for our company.
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Hopefully more for the positive.
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But, um, I've asked every one of my guests this month for back to school to share something, teach us something so that, you know, we know, uh, how this could i- impact our lives or our businesses today.
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So, you know, what are your, what are your thoughts? Uh, how, what can you teach us that we can really walk away with something that will be as clever as 1,000 songs in our pocket? [laughs] Yeah. Go for it.
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I, listen, I think one of the things I've learned more than anything is that everyone thinks they can do communications. [laughs] Everyone believes they can do it. [laughs] E- everyone thinks they can handle it.
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And, um, you know, everyone wants to communicate well, but no one wants to put the work in to figure out what they are actually trying to say. Mm-hmm.
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And so I think, you know, actionable steps to help people who are listening get to the point, um, the biggest one that I share every day, every day, every day is prepare. Mm-hmm. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
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Um, whether it's a personal or professional message you're trying to get out, you know, you need to figure out what you're trying to say.
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And so one of the things that you can do, and I'm a huge proponent of, is just sit down and write for two to five minutes. Don't stop. Just write.
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And then go back, and one of the things that most people don't do is they don't read things out loud. Mm, I agree. Go back and read it out loud. Yeah.
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And the second you start to read out loud, you know, your epiphany that's gonna save the world, you're gonna realize, "Holy crap, that's not what I wanna say." [laughs] Right. Right.
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And then clean it up, make it shorter, you know, and make sure that first sentence that you're writing solves the problem, like we talked about a little bit earlier, and then read it out loud again. Mm.
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But I really, I can't stress enough to people that, uh, in order to actually communicate well, you have to prepare. I think there are a lot of people who,
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again, when you talk about the big, the big ones who are just natural communicators like Barack Obama or- Mm-hmm... um, you know, even Secretary Clinton, you know, they, they have this idea that
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they roll up, and they just sit down, and they put the microphone on, and they do the interview. Mm. And that could not be further from the truth. And I- No, they practice... you know, certainly...
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Yeah, and I can tell you, uh, it, with, you know, my own personal experience watching, um, such a professional as, as Secretary Clinton, you know, whether you like her or not, you, you know, the one thing she's good at doing is, is putting out a message.
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And, you know, that woman does her homework. Mm-hmm. She sits down, and, you know, i- and this is somebody who, uh, gosh, thousands and thousands of interviews, thousands of speeches- Mm-hmm... and she reads everything.
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And so, but, you know, beyond preparing, I would tell you to be authentic. You know, try out an idea with your friend before you start to, to, to really sort of
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move it out into the universe of people that you may wanna be talking to. And if you don't wanna talk to your friend, record yourself delivering the message- Mm...
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and listen and watch it and see how, see how you play around with it. But, and then beyond that, I would just tell everyone they really should set, set the stage, right?
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So whether it's personal or professional, you know, if you need to get a little bit of your boss's attention and you really know you need it, you know, maybe you, you set the stage a little bit.
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You go in the office, you knock on the door, and you say, "Can I get a minute?" And you shut the door, right? Mm. There's little cues you can give to sort of capture people's attention.
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And certainly for the bigger settings, make sure that you are dressed appropriately and that your outfit is not the star in your messages. You know, those kinds of- Mm-hmm... like little tactics that you can do.
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But I, I just am a big believer in you really, really have to prepare. And most people,
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similar to what we were talking about earlier, think they all want, everyone wants to do the high-stakes PR, the high-stakes crisis communication- [laughs]...
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where, you know, you have a bank of reporters screaming and yelling and, you know, and, and there's-
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A lot of people who would love to be in that setting, but the second you're in that setting, you understand very quickly how, how you have to prepare- Yes...
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and you have to sweat the little, little details and make sure that, you know, is there a podium [laughs] for the boss to come out and give a speech, and- Right...
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you know, all these, like, all these, like, logistical details.
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But, um, it, it takes a lot of prep and a lot of work, and I think that people oversimplify, you know, the biggest lesson for, for this month that, that I would encourage your listeners to think about is don't oversimplify communicating, because everybody always oversimplifies it.
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It's so true. I used to, uh, long, long ago, I used to do a lot of media for a company that I worked for, and so now in the last couple years I've been, um... And I was in a very small market.
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I was, you know, Spokane, Washington. Little small town America.
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Well, it's not that small town, but, um, and now, um, you know, kind of gaining the stage on a, you know, in a bigger market, like within Philadelphia and larger, um, it's been really fun to still use the same tactics, because I just actually finished with a five-week, um, series where I had 30-minute interviews, uh, with, um, with our local ABC channel on getting back to work.
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Mm.
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And so, you know, we sketched out with the producer what they wanted to cover, um, had the bullet points, and then I would send the reporter, um, great gal, Nydia Han, I would send her, "Here's the questions to ask me.
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Here's the sources where I ga- got the numbers. Here's exactly how I'm gonna answer it. Here's where, you know, you can throw in whatever you want."
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And we just had, you know, it, it was great, 'cause she's like, "Oh my God, this is so easy. It works." And I'm like, "See, that's my master plan, is the easier- Mm-hmm...
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I make it for you, the easier it is on me, number one, but it also means that you want me back because I'm gonna help you, and we're- Yes... really clearly concise on the message we're getting out to people." Yes.
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And most of all is that you recognized, and this is one of the things that most people make a huge mistake with reporters, is that they all...
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You know, reporters are, the, there's lots that, that, and I would say this to all my colleagues, [laughs] I would say it if they were sitting here
in front of me, there's lots they could do better.
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But there's also lots communicators can do better too- Yeah... which is understanding the business of media, right? Yes.
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And so if you know you're gonna sit down with a reporter like you did, and it's an excellent example of, "Look, these are the things I'm gonna talk about.
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I'm gonna send you the sources because I just think you should have the sources because- Yeah... this is such an important topic." Mm-hmm. "So even before the interview, just so you know I'm not making this up." Right.
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Um, but really helping the reporter understand, because look, reporters are just like you and I. They are swamped. Yeah. They're drowning in deadlines. Um- I was gonna say deadline-driven. Yeah.
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And also the business of, right, their editors are hounding them and hounding them and hounding them, so they're just like us.
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They, they have limited time to consume ideas, and if you're telling them that your idea is the best idea ever and it's, and not only is it the best idea, but more importantly, out of the tsunami of information that they're trying to get out to the public, why they should, like, dig through all of that and find your message- Yeah...
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and why that's newsworthy for the three minutes on the evening news- Yeah... then you better make sure you've done your homework on why it's newsworthy, and most of all, be h- hyper-targeted on their audience, right?
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Absolutely. Absolutely. Because otherwise, like, you know, it may be like, a Good Morning America audience isn't the same as, you know, local NBC in New York. It's just not. Right. Right. So. Exactly.
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That would definitely be- I know, but I'm still working on the Good Morning America angle. Evan, Robin likes my shoes. When we used to be able to go to the audience, she always loves my shoes, so.
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[laughs] Whatever it takes. [laughs] Those days, those days will be back again. Oh my gosh. They will. They will. I, Anthony, I think your points are absolutely spot on, 'cause that preparation is so important.
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Yeah, nobody just sits down and magically has this great interview. Mm-hmm. Um, not that there aren't interviews that are more, you know, that are targeted or might, might be a little bit, have different questions.
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But you can always tell when an inter- interviewer isn't prepared, and you can always tell when an interviewee is not prepared. Yep. And those are the awkward moments that make you turn the channel. Yep.
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And whether you're on TV or you're trying to capture those moments in a digital message or you're trying to, you know, whatever, your Facebook ad, whatever it is, that there's so few seconds to command somebody's attention and interest- Mm-hmm...
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that if you haven't prepared, you're gonna look not very intelligent, and that's- 100%... not the right message. [laughs] 100%.
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And it is, I will say, and it's, you know, we've, we've had the pleasure of working for just some major, you know, Fortune 100 companies and tech companies, and, and it's everyone oversimplifies communication- Yeah...
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at every level, regardless of big, small. It, it, it's remarkable to me how, how many people do that. Yeah, it is. Well, uh, this is fascinating.
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I, I know we're gonna have all of your contact information on our show notes, but just in case somebody's listening and they're like, "I need to know more about Anthony- [laughs]...
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and his business," what's the best way for them to find you? Sure. So, um, easy ways are LinkedIn, Anthony J. Hayes.
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Um, you can go to my website, uh, hayesinitiative.com, and that's Hayes, H-A-Y-E-S, or you can just email me, anthony@hayesinitiative.com. We love to... Any, I'll respond and we can do a quick call.
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I'm always happy to jump on the phone. I love it. And before we go, do you have any last words of wisdom or pearls of advice for my listeners and viewers? Sure. So, I mean, I think no matter,
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what's gonna happen in my opinion over the next year, year and a half is, you know, in particular 2021 is gonna be about crisis communication, even with all the vaccines rolling out- Mm-hmm...
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so I think everybody needs to sort of be prepared for that. I would recommend that every business, um, look at their crisis management plan and make sure that it reflects the lessons they learned in 2020.
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Um, and then most of all, I think a lot of times people miss this opportunity, is that- Crisis and bumps in the road or mistakes are an opportunity. Mm-hmm.
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Um, it gives you an opportunity to discuss and communicate your values and talk about who you are, um, rather than sort of getting so caught up in the fact a crisis is happening.
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See it as an opportunity, uh, and perhaps that'll give you a breath, uh, to, to really put together a message that really underlies your values and talks about action versus, you know, hopeful words that may happen in the future, 'cause I think a lot of people can tell rhetoric from actions.
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Yeah, and as you were saying that I was, uh, thinking about yoga dog. He's always my reminder that when I get- [laughs]... that moment of stress I need to go [inhales] [exhales]. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
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'Cause once you breathe, you not only slow yourself down, but you allow a little extra oxygen up there so you start to think a wee bit clearer. [laughs] Yeah, but it's an opportunity.
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I think a lot of times crisis or mistakes feel so, um, detrimental and, and life-ending, but really it is an opportunity.
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And so I think if more people can sort of view these things as opportunities, then I think they're gonna start to come out of them a little bit better. Excellent.
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Anthony, thank you so much for your incredible expertise, uh, your great stories. I appreciate it. Thank you. You have been an incredible guest. Thank you. This has been a lot of fun. I appreciate it.
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Thank you for joining us on another episode of the Shock Your Potential podcast.
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Learn more about us today at shockyourpotential.com, including details on Michael's two best-selling books, Tell Me More: How to Ask the Right Questions and Get the Most Out of Your Employees, and Sales Mixology: Why the Most Potent Sales and Customer Experiences Follow a Recipe for Success.
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