Christine Townsend 0:00
Welcome to the comp surgery podcast edition hosted by Christine Townsend. Welcome, everybody. This has been recorded for people can't make it today and also for our podcast will be available on video in a few days. Thank you very much for joining me. I'm Christine Townsend from Pio toolkit. I'm really, really grateful to everyone who's here, both speaking and attending. I just want to say if you've got questions, put them in the chat or the q&a. If you can't work the chat somehow, let me know I'm not sure if we can do that in q&a. It should be working for everyone. But please do say hello, any comments or anything, just just pop them in there. So just as an aside, this is for anyone who was able to join in AGC. Last week in New Orleans, I want to say thank you so much for buying my book, I actually sold out my book in record time. And so I had to order a whole new batch of copies. So that's really exciting. I've been getting a lot of great feedback for it. So if you do want to get hold of a copy, you can find that on puro toolkit, and I will sign it for those who requested it. So moving on today's episode, we're so excited, or I'm excited to introduce three remarkable individuals who have made significant contributions in field of public information and media relations in different ways. And in no particular order. First, we have macro director of the Motion Picture and Television Liaison Office, the US Coast Guard, which frankly sounds like the most glamorous job going I'm sure isn't. He's got extensive experience in managing external comms and a background in public affairs. And he has been instrumental in coordinating Coast Guard involvement in various entertainment media productions. And I know I have seen a number of films when I was growing up with the Coast Guard that looked really super. He's also just recently been a part of the massive efforts around the Key Bridge. Disaster, I suppose is the word we can use. And we'll possibly be able to touch on some questions around that. And then we have Rhiannon Lorenz. She's a special events marketing coordinator for the city of Venice government in Florida. Clarify that she's got experience in crisis, comms media relations, digital market marketing, and she has played a pivotal role in managing cities, large special events and fundraising initiatives. last but by no means least. We welcome him back. And he's done me a solid coming back, actually. Lovely, lovely, genuinely great guy, good friend of mine, Frank Ferris Public Information Officer, the York County Sheriff's Office got over 20 years of communication experience. He's provided crucial support in communicating during challenging situations, including line of duty deaths and mass shootings. He's also instrumental in the training of new PIOs. And in fact, our last time that we had him on he was mid Pio training, which was a lot of fun, if not slightly chaotic, but that's the world we're in. So I want to thank you all so much, really, really appreciate it. And remember questions? We have a few already that have come in, so. But I would really like any questions or comments, just put them in the chat. It's always makes it a lot more fun when we get questions coming in. If you feel really urgently like you need to speak, raise your hands, you should be able to do that. But without further ado, I think we're gonna get started. So we haven't quite a group of questions, actually. And this is coming up a lot more that I've found. I'm gonna start with Brianna, actually, because I know that Trent will probably want to chime in on this. I think one of the things I've recently written about boundaries, setting boundaries as Pio. So perhaps you can give us some advice on how to say no, effectively in a professional setting, and when No means no.
Speaker 1 4:00
So thanks for saying so as PIOs you know, we're always the first person that everyone wants to win either a new idea, a crisis, maybe it's something that's everyday blue sky, and we're Yes, man, we always want to say yes, we always want to be that reliable person that people can come to and can rely on for deliverables, messaging, whatever the case might be, but at what cost do those assets come to so like Christine said, learning how those simple conversations about your workload learning to waive that weight lag and admitting I cannot accept any more on my plate is challenging, but it is really important as a Pio. And some things that I've learned throughout my career of helping have those conversations are, I'm a big fan of that good old to do list, you know, help prioritise yourself of what needs to be done right now. And the best thing to prioritise what needs to be done now is is there an impact on life safety, or infrastructure that could be critically influenced by Lucha Libre project? If it doesn't meet one of those criteria, bump it down your list right and a lot of people As we answer to multiple masters, as I call it, yeah, we have a boss somewhere in the line of hierarchy. But we're working, we're collaborating with other organisations, maybe other department to rafters, or whatever the case might be. And they want their messaging out there first. And it really is on unmuted it to make those decisions. And when you have to say, No, I always like to do a no, but no, I can't do this right now. But can we extend the deadline out? No, I can't do this. But someone else in my team might be able to get you to the finish line. So to answer to soften that blow saying no, I'm always have a backup plan or a way to still give them what they're looking for. Even if it's not right. This again, it might be bringing in a third party to help you get across the finish line. And sometimes we can't say no, right? If it is a boss or an elected official, or whoever the case might be coming down really hard. You can say yes. But they need to understand the consequence of that. Yes, yes. But X, Y and Z might be in jeopardy of being completed or Yes, but my priorities are going to be reshuffled. And those are awkward conversations to have and they are difficult. But that level of transparency only continues to build your reputation internally as well as externally as a Pio.
Christine Townsend 6:17
You've made some really good points there. Because I think a lot of time people think Pio training means how to write press release. And actually what I find time and time again, is just those that admin stuff, the politics and the nuts and bolts of doing the job. And I know, Trent, you're really passionate about supporting solo PIOs? Because there are so many, I think we've all we've all been there at some point when we're completely on our own. So I mean, what, what do you tell? Because you must, you must meet a lot of them. So what's the user when there's overwhelmed when they're struggling to say no? What would you say to them,
Speaker 2 6:50
just being the encouragement and a listening ear, you know, because we're all in the same boat, we all have our frustrations, we all have that one day where you're trying, you have, you're trying to stay focused on one project, and you're trying to stay focused on one thing, and then something happens whether it's a crisis, like here, if we have a, you know, critical incident where I can, I've got to drop everything and go, or to the point where you're sitting here working on your project, and then a detective comes in and asks, Hey, can we post this thing I need it out now, or something like that, or the random calls that you get from a member of the media asking you about something completely random, we all have those times and those frustrations. And so I mean, kind of piggybacking on what Brianne said is, you know, I go with a quote, several quotes, actually, it's my marker. So really, it's I don't know, if you pay by server and these old Roman emperor, where he said something along the lines of focus on what you were doing, get better at what you're doing. And anything else is a waste of time and energy. So as far as solo PIOs, that's what you have to do, you have to focus on one thing that one thing that you're doing, and doing that you got to get better at being a solo PIO, until your command staff or your upper management says, Yeah, you need some help. And I'm a guy who's asked for years in a row going on five, Hey, boss, I need some help, I'd love to have somebody to help me handle this aspect of the job. And so, until that happens, I've got to focus on getting better at what I'm doing. So I like to encourage those fellow solo PIOs out there to just focus and get better at what you're doing. Because anything else is just going to be a waste of your time. So and anytime I can help somebody, you know how to find me, I'm Trent Ferris on every platform there is out there, I don't hide it. I'm not one of those people behind you. Just tell me and I'll be right there to help you.
Christine Townsend 9:00
Yeah, and I know, You've helped me with this, going on here. And that's that, in turn is going to help everyone. And I think to your point, I think being the best you can be at what you do and focusing on that one thing is really hard to work out what busy work is. And then and Brianne, you made a point about the public and it really is I think you're ultimately there to serve the public. So it's, I think, Trent, you've been around like I have for a little while. And it does take experience, I think to be able to say no and work out what is the busy work, what's the important work, what's the critical work, but you touched upon leadership. And I know Matt has worked some really well I imagined in some really complicated stakeholder setups. And I kind of want to ask Matt about this and, you know, how you what, how you get public information officers to gain the trust of senior leaders because that's probably that the easiest way to get support, but it's the hardest thing Today?
Speaker 3 10:02
Yeah, I think that's a that's a? That's a great question. Because a lot of times, especially in the Coast Guard, we, we mobilise quite a bit. So I don't always get to mobilise to my backyard and work with people I know, I'm normally introducing myself on day one to say, Hi, I was just sent in from across the country to be your Pio. And now I need you to trust every word that I say immediately. And that's a very difficult thing to do. So I think I think it's kind of twofold. I think, number one, I think having those, it's having certifications, and having training under your belt is great, because not only does it give you, you know, something to stand on, in terms of letting them know that you're not just some person off the street, but also giving you that internal competence of knowing that, that you have the, you know, the right advice to give. But also your performance, I think is is a huge deal. And I remember when I was in Officer Candidate School, a number of years ago, that's kind of like our introductory how you get into the officer corps, for the for many services. So like most military services, we we do small arms training, and a gentleman in my class, did his pistol shooting, and my, my, my spread on the on the target was, you know, it was I hit the target, all of his went through a hole about that big on, on the on the target, like centre of mass. And I just said, I said, Wow, you're one heck of a shot. And he turned to me, like it was nothing. And he said, This is my profession, like, why else? Like I'm not supposed to miss the target? And I was like, wow, like, what a great concept. So when I kind of started becoming like a full time, PIO, I said, I want to have that same level of expertise to say, This is my profession, like what I should be the best at this, how do I get the best at this? And that that is kind of multifaceted, right? It's experience, its competence, its training, its performance. I mean, all of these things kind of build up so that when you walk into a room as a PIO, your reputation is, you know, 10 minutes in front of you. And they say, Oh, thank goodness, you're here. What what do I need to do? What do I need to say? And then you can get right, right and going. So I think having having that as your your background as you get in helps you earn trust immediately. Because it's that first, you know, those first five minutes when a new Pio walks in the room, if you're experienced, and you kind of know what's going on, and this person asked kind of like a question, you're like, oh, who are you, then immediately, you're not going to trust that person, right. So you kind of want to have that same first impression. And the way to do that is to, you know, have that background have that foundation, you know, the second you walk in, so you can start contributing.
Christine Townsend 12:38
They've made such an important point. So important that my dogs are like barking along in agreement, it is a profession, and I'm so fed up with hearing people saying it's just a job, oh, voluntold, about what's interesting with people who are voluntold is that they, they either come to love it, or they realise very quickly, they don't want to do it. But those that really come to love it really, really do it well and get so passionate about it. And so I'm so glad that you said about it being a profession, it really is just like a lawyer, you know, just like a doctor, it is a profession that is nuanced. It is complicated. It's challenging. So I want to thank you for that. Because you know, I've worked many, many, many years, trying to hone my craft, I'm still learning, I'm still trying to be better than I was yesterday. And you're right, you turn up, I've done this myself turned up in a place halfway across the country. In a country I've never really worked in before. And people are expected to trust what I do. And get getting that rapport straightaway is really tough. And I think people quite often underestimate the skills and the value and the worth of a Pio. So. So thank you for raising that I might actually make that into a little video. Just play that again and again. But if I could just stay with you for a moment, Matt, I know that you recently. I know you can't talk too much about it. But I wonder if you could speak to that around how the recent incident you turned up to and you had to get along and play nicely with I'm sure 100 or more other stakeholders, would you like to explain kind of a bit about what you've been up to lately? Yeah,
Speaker 3 14:16
yeah. So I think we often talk about separating like the incident from the event, when you go to a, you know, a response where the the incident is kind of concerned of the operational response in the event is kind of the attention of people who aren't involved that are still interested in what's going on or still think they have a say in what's going on. So with this one, it was it was very complex on both sides. So on the on the incident side, if you think about who your audiences are, when a bridge goes down like that, it impacted so many different groups of people that all had different concerns and all had different questions. I mean, you had the immediate victims of the you know, the six members of the workers on the bridge who Who died. So you immediately had, you know, very clear victims and families that you had to, you know, keep in mind as you're making your public messaging, you had the people who use that bridge every day for commute or for you know, work to get their their trucks across the bridge. So you had impacted people for miles and miles and miles around on the motorist side. But then also the bridge collapsed and blocked off the shipping port. So now you have a whole industry of, you know, longshoremen of Port industries of not just people who work the ports, but the people who depend on the workers around the port for their business. So let's say you own like a, you know, like a gas station, or a deli shop or whatever, right next to the port. If nobody's going to the port for two months, you're two months without income at that point. So you kind of had this expanding, you know, I guess groups of different targets of people all had different concerns. And that's just on the like, operational response front of what's going on with the response. On the executive side, you had major city of Baltimore, a major state of Maryland, we were, you know, 45 minutes to an hour out of DC out of the beltway. So we had congressional interest, we had White House interest, we had multiple senior executive leaders on many different government agencies, from Army Corps to the Navy to the Coast Guard. And TSP, of Department of Transportation, Department of Justice, I mean, it was just, I mean, a lot of people were involved in so kind of balancing everyone's priorities was was very difficult and can still be very difficult as this kind of the long tail of the of the response trails out. So really kind of managing and just helping balance those. Those priorities was was kind of my objective number one, when I got there, I was more on the executive communication side. So I was working with kind of the the Washington beltway to the Marriner, Merritt, Maryland governor's office, to to all the senior leaders that were there kind of getting those executive priorities across because we, the operational stuff, for the most part is very cut and dry, right? I mean, as an operator, we look at something we fix it, and we respond, and it's over, right. But on the executive side, there's a lot more decision, there's a lot more kind of long term effects of our decisions. And so there's, there's a lot more, I guess, how do I say conflict, but there's just a lot more discussion, there's a lot more, you know, different different points of view. So number one, kind of getting everyone's point of view on the table, and making sure that everybody's transparent about what they're trying to do in the long run. And then kind of making sure that we're all doing this for the public, right, like we're all making sure that the public is getting the information they want, that they're maintaining the trust they have in either the governor's office, the mayor's office, in the federal government, you know, the Safety Board, like we're trying to maintain that trust. So managing all that, at a response as complex as the bridge is still still going to be very challenging, you know, as as this is going to be yours to recover from. Yeah,
Christine Townsend 18:10
it sounds amazingly complicated and challenging. But it also sounds like great, somewhat slightly jealous in a in a professional sense. Not in any other sense. But it sounds fascinating as well. What would you say is your if you could give have a one lesson learn from that? What would it be so far?
Speaker 3 18:32
Oh, wow, that's a tough one. So one lesson learned with that when I would say I'd say really identifying those stakeholder groups on on day one, because like on its face, when you get there, you're thinking the bridge collapse. In my background in the Coast Guard, my primary concern was the port, right, getting the port open, getting the shipping channel open, so we could get port operations going and we could get safe navigation. So that's where my default went, in terms of you know, what my priorities were. And it took me a couple of days to really kind of see the wider picture of just how many stakeholders and how many priorities we had in in this event. And so really, about a week later, I was like, Oh, wow, that's right. I didn't even think about the small businesses that haven't had customers. But the Small Business Association was in the incident command post. And so all of a sudden, it was like, oh, yeah, that's why you're here. And so kind of seeing that earlier, I think would have been a lot more beneficial for me. I mean, I eventually got there, obviously, you know, a couple of days later, but, but you know, when you get to an incident, you just want to get up and running. And so sometimes it's good to take that breath and say, Okay, before I just start shooting from the hip here, let's, you know, let's come up with, with our stakeholder groups with our priorities with our objectives, and then we can start muscling into the tactics of what we want to do. That's
Christine Townsend 19:49
fantastic. That's so fascinating, Matt, thank you and I want to stick with stakeholder management, because it is so absolutely crucial to know who we're dealing with and want to I'm come to Brianna on that actually, because I know you have a similarly Well, coastal experience, but with a completely different being. You had a whale a beached whale in Florida, which, in my mind sounds horrible and dealing with all of that. Do you want to talk about what happens? Like, again, its stakeholders multi jurisdictional. But I imagine there are also a lot of concerned people. Absolutely,
Speaker 1 20:31
yeah. So I think this year is probably going to be a year of unprecedented circumstances as PIOs we can always prepare for disasters and blue sky or grey skies, events. But there's certain things you can prepare for Matt knows that very well, right now can't prepare for a boat getting a bridge. And I learned that the hard way back in March, you can't prepare for a whale deciding the beach itself on one of your area beaches. So we did experience a pretty large multi agency multi jurisdictional response back in March. It's a lot of collaborative efforts. But like Matt said, it's really you're shooting from the hip once you get out there, and people are looking to you for that voice of reason. So I have a list right here, just of some of the stakeholders, I think, in general, are an overview at about 15 different stakeholders ranging from nonprofit, private organisations, state and federal and of course, local municipalities. But we have fire police, quite a bit of universities, it's not every day, you get a chance to put your hands on a diseased animal like those. And then several, like marine related agencies, whether it was Mote Marine, which is here in Florida, they do a research laboratory. But to Matt's point, and this is where I really want to try it at home. Yes, there were all those stakeholders there. And we each had a different messaging priority. For the city of Venice, it was safety. Number one, our beaches are second to none, I'm sorry, if anyone else is here in Florida, ours are better than yours. Um, that happen to be right by our really famous fishing pier. So of course, that's an already busy area, it's already busy at people disaster tourism is real people want to see things that they might not have encountered before, especially when it comes to something diseased. We know the line if it leads it leads, marketplace leads or other. So for us, it was pushing that safety and getting out there and boots on the ground, filming everything we could photographing everything we could and putting it out on social media to prevent people from wanting to come on site, we wound up having to close down a pretty large area of public beach access, and a park that was adjacent to the area. While we're focusing on that messaging, we're also working with those marine related agencies to make sure their messaging is also not lost in the poll. We had to prepare for any protesters or groups that could be enraged that scientists were taking this opportunity to collect samples. You know, you have people, the internet heroes who think they're marine biologists as well, you know, saying that not all agencies made their best efforts. So rumour control, combating all those messaging but like Matt said, really getting those stakeholders together, even if it's on site, a quick teams message or group chat, whatever the case might be, put it down to the ethos of your network of what you're going to be focusing on. And where does that tie into the other stakeholder messaging? And how can all that be communicated together? Now my response was a sprint knots in a marathon. So for us it was you know, about a three to four day response period total sum of time and they'll beat chips all the time, we were able to successfully remove the diseased animal off our beaches and even reopen them. Thankfully, it's quiet down, but we're always going to have that lingering over us. Now. Remember that time you have this? You know, what are the repercussions of this happening later down the line? So those are the things that we think of with our stakeholders for an unprecedented issue. That's something like that.
Christine Townsend 23:49
Well, I don't know how I could have dealt with that one actually, I can deal with bombs and murders and stuff but no, anything animals. I'm terrible. We all have a soft spot, don't we? Thank you for explaining that. And I'm gonna go to Trent on this because correct me if I'm wrong, Trent, working for a sheriff's department is the very definition of having to play nice with a lot of people.
Speaker 2 24:10
That is that is the truth. And especially we're going through right now we're in the middle of an election season working for a sheriff and when, when you have you working for an elected official, you have to understand how that elected official works and who they lean towards I guess and then when you're going through an election, you have to figure out okay, this next person whom I may be working for you you have to figure out what they think and who they want to represent. And of course, we represent everybody in the county in the area, but as far as you know, understanding the messaging that they want to portray because you're just you're just you know, and like a better term, we are the mouthpiece for you Your agency head. So you have to make sure you're, you're on the same kind of messaging wavelength they are. But you have to translate the way they want to speak into public speak. I had this conversation with one of the candidates last month sorry. I had one of this conversation, one of the candidates the other day, I said, Listen, everybody thinks I'm just the PIO, the guy who just ends up on, you know, talks to the media every day and plays on Facebook. And it's completely more than that. I told him that strategic communications, you have to be strategic about the way we present something from something critical, a crisis event tos, what we're running into, most recently with police impersonation scams. And you still run out of ideas for that kind of thing. And so that's where you come into the pack where you can't prepare for anything, I definitely will never see a whale show up here in New York County, South Carolina. But I'm pretty sure if anything ever pops up, I prepare for it by okay, this happened. How can I be ready for it? If it happens again, that's where you get into your cap statements, your care action and preparing prospective statements, you have something prepared for every contingency that you have, because you're only one person like we talked about see it. So low PIO, you got to be prepared. And right now I've got about 42 different events that I'm prepared for. And every time something new pops up, even if a whale shows up in the middle of South Carolina, I'm going to be prepared for it. And
Unknown Speaker 26:33
even if you don't send your accounts plan,
Speaker 2 26:37
I'll send you mine. If anybody wants it, I'll send it to you. I'm and I am so happy to share that kind of information. Because when I got into the job, I called somebody down in Colombia. I was like, hey, so I'm a former journalist and turn PIO, how do I do this job. And so I turned it turned to him. And so I want to pay it forward for that. So and the way to do that is if you Nobody needs to reinvent the wheel in this job, thanks to Christine, for having Pio toolkit. I mean, you you have this. I've got her book right here. Yeah, I use that. I got a little notepad sitting right here, you know, little
Christine Townsend 27:15
typos.
Speaker 2 27:18
I would fail one only shared it with you. It's okay, I got a first run edition that it makes it it makes it like a baseball card like Babe Ruth baseball card. But if anybody ever needs help with preparing a message, and understanding who your stakeholders are, give me a call 803-818-6560 That is my direct phone that just rang over here. You can call me and I'll be there to help you. One
Christine Townsend 27:44
800 trend? So you just said you've got 40 jobs on your plate right now? How do you as you're on your own? Get all that done without going wobble and falling over? What What advice can you give to someone rather? And I don't mean like the stuff that's going to make you sick in the end, like eating too much cheesecake and don't get no sleep? What what do you what are practical tips can you give to people just to, you know, cope with that overwhelm? Yeah,
Speaker 2 28:15
feed lots of it. I'm joking, I'm joking. Like I said before, you just gotta focus on what you're doing. There are times where I slip and fall off. And I'll sit here and get on my phone. And I'll scroll on something and I'm like, but put that down. Focus on what you're going to do. Focus on what, like Brad said earlier, you have a checklist, I have a checklist of things and this and this, where I every morning, I sit down, I said, this is number one, this is number two, this is number three, and so on and so forth. If you don't get to that you move it to the next day you focus on what you're doing and make the main thing the main thing and that's what being as what being a PEO is you are there to do a job to inform the public and make sure they are well well informed on whether it's a crisis event or somebody in your agencies getting an award. And if you're doing anything other than that, it's you're you're wasting your time and you're wasting your agency's time and most of all, you're wasting the people that you serve time because we recently lost a local television station here in New York County, they they have not lost but they tend to have merged into a radio station. So one of my main go to people are no longer there. So I started thinking like this, this roll man is becoming more of a journalist again, I'm becoming more of a journalist and making sure people understand they can get the information directly from US versus anybody else. So you just focus, stay focused, and control what you can control. Let go of what you can't and believe the best is yet to come and you can just love it. Moving forward,
Christine Townsend 30:00
I'd say one actual practical tip that's reminded me of a chief taught me many, many years ago was five by five, do five things a day for five days a week and end of the year, you would have achieved so much, even though that's if you just get five things done five days a week. And the right things. Of course, I don't mean like going shopping and watching a film. But thank you, Trent. And I want to move to Matt for a little bit on around professionalising. We you mentioned it is a profession. And I know that there are qualifications out there, there's training. And some people are kind of like it's experience over training others, like you have to get the highest degree in the land to be a good Pio. What, in your opinion, how important do you believe it is to have an academic foundation in public information?
Speaker 3 30:57
I'd say in my humble opinion, I, I have definitely found that my academic foundation has been very useful. But I'm, I'm also I also have one of those brains that that is constantly asking, like, why why are we doing it this way? Or why does it work that way? And so when I went through some military training earlier in my career, in that kind of instruction, the question of why to your instructor is not really encouraged that much. It's just got to just memorise it and move on write kind of a thing. But on the academic sense, they I was encouraged to ask why. So if they presented a theory, and they said, the theory predicts this, and I say like, why? And they say, Well, that's a great question, why don't you go read about it and find out. So I think theories on the academic side, tend to be or, I guess, aim to be predictive. So if you can include a theory somewhere in your either comm strategy, or in your just, I guess, idea for a plan or your tactics, I find that it helps me kind of move along, or helps me explain that. And especially when I'm dealing with the more executive side, so if I'm dealing with, you know, admirals, or, you know, Senior Executive Service members, congressional members, for the most part, at that level, people are very educated, they have a formal education. And so when all of a sudden you drop something like, Well, according to something, something theory, you know, this tactic is, is going to work in this situation, and a lot of times, they just kind of freeze and go, alright, but I believe you, so, it's not so much if I'm the credible one, but if I can drop a theory behind that, I find that a lot of times, it just kind of helps me get across that edge to say, Okay, well, you know, this guy knows what he's talking about. And, and I could be full of, you know, full of it and drop a theory that, you know, doesn't even exist for the most part, but I tend not to write I try to use, like, actual real theories. And so I, I have a more background and on the academic side. And so, obviously, I'm going to lean towards, you know, I feel like, like that's very useful. At the same time, some of the best PIOs I've worked with just have a just a natural vision of what the job should do, and have a bare minimum of just kind of basic training for on the female side, or just doing like another one or two day courses. And they're, they're excellent Pio. So I'm not saying that you need to have one. I'm saying, find how your body learns and how your mind works. And then use the tools that help you think and operate better and perform better as a Pio?
Christine Townsend 33:34
Absolutely, I think, critical thought of critical thinking skills are so important for a Pio to be able to anticipate and navigate, complicated crisis and you know, reputational risk and strategy. And I think if you want to be regarded well, by leaders, you have to be a leader yourself. And I have zero academic background, I left school at 16 and became a journalist, but I've since then, what I need to know to be that person. And it's not easy trying to learn it, like in your 40s. But it's still I think, important. And I think there's a what I'm gonna do a shameless plug for CPSC the credentialing that I've been working on with a few people and Ashley McDonald is one of them that, you know, that that credentialing is really, really useful for those who don't have necessarily the qualifications, but we can take into account all of their work, experience, everything they've done, and kind of really validate that. And I think a lot of people feel that the role of Pio is not often validated, unless you've got a certificate at the end of it. So I think, to your point that I think being able to speak with people who are like at that level, because they've got to that position because they are that academic and especially in government, I would argue and also imagine military as well. You know, you've got people who are just Learning machines and they're just like, going to all this, that and the other college and it's can be intimidating, especially when you come from a journalist background with no education whatsoever like myself. So thank you for sort of given that balance in there. And I imagine being the coastguards, where you are given the opportunity to learn towards your career as well. So that's kind of the structure of it. Like you say, it's kind of yes, you can, no, you can't question things. But it also helps you to structure your education as well.
Speaker 3 35:31
Yeah, we basically have kind of three different I guess, avenues for education and training. And the one side being the FEMA Emergency Management Institute and going through basic advanced Pio all hazards PIO and doing kind of the the FEMA side, Coast Guard Public Affairs specialists and officers go through the defence Information School in Fort Meade, Maryland, which is the military's Public Affairs school. And then we have a advanced education programme, where we usually send anywhere between one to three Coast Guard members to graduate school or to just college in general to either finish their bachelor's or to get a master's as part of their programme. So that's kind of your assignment for a year or two. And so we we kind of use that three legged stool to kind of say, okay, we can get the, you know, like the military government, kind of what they call contingency warfighting type of communications, we get the emergency response that kind of lets us speak civilian, if you will, and kind of helps us integrate better with county States Fire police. And then we have the academic side, which is kind of more of the, you know, the professional side of getting that understanding. So that's, that's, those are kind of the three avenues that you can take. And, again, some people are all about the academic side, and they don't really need to worry about too much about the female side. Some people love the female side, because they're operator. And that's, that's how their mind works. And they think in terms of getting the job done. And so that makes a lot more sense to them. So that's it. I mean, you don't I don't think there's a right answer. There's a right answer for an individual what, what makes the most sense to you, it's almost like working out, right? Like, the best workout plan is the one that keeps you working out daily, or working out regularly. It's not necessarily the best plan, you know, that gets burns the most calories, it's the one that you're going to continue with. So find what you how you like to learn, find what makes the most sense for you, and then just keep keep at it.
Christine Townsend 37:26
That's it. Thank you, Matt, so many soundbites, your training obviously worked. And I've got a few here I'm going to pull out for sure. And sidenote, sorry, I'm going to make it all about me for a moment. I was actually a Coast Guard for a little while in the UK. So if you ever fall down a cliff, I'm your girl. My rope skills are second to none. But anyway, moving on. Brianne, I wanted to ask you about. You mentioned earlier about difficult conversations. Now, I would imagine this is a hard learned skill? And how have you developed that skill within yourself to have difficult conversations in work? And I imagine it falls in like will spill over into personal life as well. You become more confident, but how do you how do you get to do that? Because I hated it. But I had to make myself do it.
Speaker 1 38:13
I'll preface this by saying my difficult conversations still happen at home? I don't know I've just fell apart, but they definitely happen at work. And I think it's going to the table with utmost competence. You need to be competent in yourself as a PIO, whether you're a solo Pio or a team of one, but whatever you're bringing to the table that could be difficult or awkward. And that could be anything between workload. You want to raise Trent asking for help. Yeah, those are awkward, difficult and contentious conversations. But you'll never get an answer. If you never have those conversations. You can make up answers in your brain all day long. But even if the answer's no, you need to hear that answer. So the best way to go in there is one be confident and when yourself but to come prepared. So if you're asking for a raise, find out what the other guy was their area or making, what is their workload? What's a comparable range that you should be asking for? Don't just ask for a raise because you think you're awesome. And no sleazy, ask, but you really do need to come prepared. If you're asking for another Pio or maybe a support member, you need to list out every single role and responsibility that you've been responsible for, for not just a year, not just a day for a span of your career and show how it's evolved over that time. When you first started, maybe you have this much work. Now you've started, you've had this much work. And as part of that story, you can tell what other things are being sacrificed because of those changes. So truly to have those difficult conversations. You need to be confident prepared, and most of all open. Go in there with an open mind. You might not get what you want, but you've at least put your cards out on the table and you've made your voice be heard. And sometimes that's all someone else needs to know here to get the ball Rolling on something that you're voicing?
Christine Townsend 40:01
And yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think being prepared is key and having evidence, I was always told that if you come to me with a problem, I want you to have the solution as well. And that that's always stuck in my mind, you know, people who are busy don't want more busy work to do. So. Yeah, thank you. It's really useful. And Trent, as a, as an instructor of training, you must have had some difficult conversations with some people that aren't so great. And having to give feedback and encouragement and what have you. So how you don't, you know, was born with that gift of being able to give deliver the bad news or the challenging conversations and feedback. So how do you do that from a training perspective?
Speaker 2 40:50
You the way I explained it, when I teach the basic yo class is that everything is a learning moment. If you screw up, just don't screw up again, just don't just make sure that everybody is on the same page. If something goes sideways, let it go sideways, you can't unring a bell, just try to keep that bell as muffled as you can. As far as whenever you're you're delivering a message to somebody, because the key as long as your message to your public, your stakeholders, and everything is the main thing. You shouldn't be good. Whether you fumble over a word, or you just sound like a robot in front of the camera, which we can work through that we we can fix that. That is something that can be fixed. The words, not getting out the right information to the right people at exactly the right time. I see you, Nicole, you're over there watching Nicole shirts, Bhima, sheather. Girl, you're good. Whether you sit there and talk like a robot that can be fixed. Just as long as you get the right information to the folks. That is the main thing. It just takes years of practice. I've been I mean, I was working here. You know, I worked in television for seven years prior to becoming a Pio. And so I've been doing this for 12 years now. So it for somebody who I hate the word, it's been voluntold to be the PIO for your agency, which I don't I don't we talked about it earlier, you shouldn't be voluntold. This shouldn't be your career, that should be your profession, that shouldn't be the side job that somebody is giving. You have to have somebody who's passionate about what they're doing. And Pio is something you need to be passionate about. And you have to be passionate about. So, but if you if you aren't the voluntold, person, train, train, train, go to everything, you can't go to the famous stuff, go to the FBI latest stuff, go, go to Nia, go to the UN AGC, go to all these conferences that they'll pay to send you to and if they don't pay it, you go so you can learn as much as you can. And we have such a wonderful community of people that are also public information officers, public affairs officers across America. And no one ever needs to reinvent the wheel, watch others, learn from them, and grow and just become the best person that you can be. That's how you build that trust and stability. And your command staff will will see that once you grow, and they're like that as a reliable person, I can trust that person. And we can we can make things happen. Just don't worry about the little stuff. Focus on the messaging, you'll you'll be okay. I
Christine Townsend 43:45
couldn't agree more. Thank you for saying that. I've made so many amazing friends. I've only been here eight years. And I've just got more friends here than I have now in the UK, which goes to your more friendly and forgiving bunch. But thank you for that. And you've actually inadvertently taken me into my next question for Matt. And before I go on, actually, we've got like, just under 15 minutes. So get your questions in now. It's gone. So quickly. Just put them in the chat for me, we'd love to ask. And if you if you want any resources that we've mentioned, feel free to put it in the chat or drop me a line afterwards. And I'll make sure I put you in touch with the right people who will be able to help you from the panel. So But back to my my question that I was going to ask Matt is we talked about messages. And we've also talked about stakeholders, stakeholders. So crafting messages for different audiences. How when you have so many different audiences, what strategies do you think are effective for doing that?
Speaker 3 44:48
Well, I think before you start crafting your messaging before you start putting your pen like to the paper start hitting the keyboard. It's important to think about what the point of communication is right and that's too Create a shared understanding or a shared meaning of what am I thinking? How do I say or communicate what I'm thinking to make you think the same thing. And if words are not interpretated interpreted differently, or not the same, or you kind of miss some of that cultural nuance, you're not going to get that shared, meaning you might get close, right, and that might be all you need. But as you travel around the country, you'll kind of see that, you know, the cultural changes, right, that's the silent language of the community is, is kind of the culture. So looking at, you know, how we use different words and different parts of the country. On the Coast Guard side, that's something we're very acutely aware of, because, you know, I grew up in California, but I've done a number of hurricane responses to the Gulf. So Brianna, actually might see you this summer, we'll see. We'll see how that hurricane forecast holds up. But it's not looking too good right now. But at the same time, I can't go to the Maryland or New York or Hawaii or Texas and talk like I'm from California, it's just I'm not going to be received. Well, and I probably won't be understood. So I think bringing in those those local, like those, those local communicators from the county, from the sheriff from the state, and kind of having some of that background context, helps you get that understanding and helps you get get the right messaging out there. Because, again, if you're if you're trying to get something across One wrong word can make that very, very difficult to understand. And we kind of went through this, with with the bridge of of how to explain that we were going to use controlled demolition, to get the last remaining part in in some languages, demolition didn't translate very well, or very soft. And so it was actually made it seem like a lot harsher than it was. And so kind of using using that as a as a kind of a primer, you really need to make sure that you understand your audience before you even start writing. And that is absolutely key of knowing that culture. So reading the newspapers, reading the local newspapers, you know, watching local television, getting that nuance of how they refer to things of as something as simple as like a freeway or a highway or a parkway, or I mean, like little things like that can go a long way. Because if I use the wrong word, you're obviously you're you're automatically going to know that I'm an outsider, and that why would you trust me, and that is very critical to to not do that, when you first started being a spokesperson somewhere, or even just start talking to senior leadership. So I think I think that's kind of the big thing is first understand that you are trying to create a shared meaning. And then go across and say now that had that meeting, what are different ways that I can say that, test them out with different people outside of either the gym or outside of the response? And say, What do you think of when I were if I were to say this to you really quick. And if it's not have them just repeat it here at once and repeat it back. Right. So if you say something, if they can't hear it once and repeat it back, it's too complex. Like it's, it's way too complex are never going to understand it is that if you're lucky, someone is going to see your interview once or someone is going to see your press release once that's if you're lucky, what's most likely going to happen is one person is going to see it and hopefully word of mouth, tell it to other people. So the majority of your audience is going to hear it secondhand. How did they receive it? And how are they going to re encode it, because that's what the message is getting out there. So you have to make sure that when you're writing something, it's simple enough and easy enough to remember and repeat multiple times without losing its meaning. Really,
Christine Townsend 48:35
really good points. And funnily enough, I know exactly what you mean, for some reason. And I think you hope I never see you in Texas because that means we're really in trouble in the nicest possible way. But that's so true, you just that those nuances actually are what can make and make or break your comms strategy. It's not the big stuff. It's like if you use the wrong slang term for something, you could be massively offensive and just completely shut down an audience that you need to communicate really important things to. So I think we've all probably been there where we thought, yeah, that didn't quite land. So if anyone wants any resources on stakeholder mapping or audience identification, we do have those on the website as well. So I mean, Trent you what would what advice on that actually do you give to people around working out your audiences and how you talk to people?
Speaker 2 49:32
Wait, well, I live in South Carolina who you know, are Charlotte, North Carolina is you find the county directly south of there. So, you know, we live in South Carolina, but apparently we're one of the most. Most moved two areas in the country. We have people from New York moving here. We have people from Texas moving here we have people from California moving here. You Talk to anybody out and share in South Carolina, you can just throw out and cut your Hicks out accent and thereby be just fine about what He taught. You know, you can be as grammatically incorrect as you want to be, and they'll still understand. But then the folks who are moving here, you have to have that clear messaging that everybody will understand across America. So you should stay away from the local slang, stay away from all the different verbiage that you may use, and just make it as down the line as possible. I don't know how else to explain it, but understand who your audience is. And that's the 300,000 people in my county alone, which come from all different races and backgrounds and points of America. So just just know who that is, and make sure that everybody understands and that it's not just the people who are from elsewhere to other people who speak other languages and people who may have hearing impairments and even those who don't read. And that is still a thing nowadays. So just understand who you're messaging to make sure everybody understands that that's one thing where we were failing, failing to post a lot of things on our website, because we had, this is all on me. And I still made mistakes. I was posting most everything to our social media pages. And I learned that not everybody is on Facebook, believe it or not, not everybody is on social media. 98% of Americans I believe, is the stat have a smartphone. But not all of them are on social media. So understand that. Those folks who may not be on social media may be getting their messages somewhere else. We had a training the other day, where the person who was teaching it, we were talking about reunification of families during a crisis, like active shooter event. And they said, Hey, so the media, we all don't like the media, the media is our enemy. Right? We don't like to do we don't like the media. And I think they go he goes right, Pio? And he looked at me, I said, No, we still like the media. We may not be friends with him, but they're just another tool in your toolbox to get your message out there. And I shut him up real quick, because he was trying to go into a media bashing session. I was like, no, no, no, buddy. Just another tool. We have them all. They use them, just as they will use you to get your message out there. So make sure that everybody understands that you have multiple ways of getting your messages out there not just one way. I'm saying
Christine Townsend 52:39
that. No, I and I know I joke a lot about and people know who know me well, no, I joke a lot about you know, my accent or what have you. But when I moved to Texas, I was actually a lot of stuff I just did not understand and now hope there's no one from texter on here, but the signs over the motorway freeway highway. And I couldn't understand what they meant, you know, and because they're all in Texas slang and I know there was a thing around on the networks now, you know, making sure it is in plain text and not slang. And because I didn't have a clue. And then when I went to Florida or something there that I was driving, and I didn't understand certain things. And you know, and it sort of brought home to me how I've been making assumptions about communicating with people based on my own prism of, you know, pitching. So one thing I always used to do was call up my granddad and say, I'm going to read this to you. And you go what most ties IV like to Matt's point you know, if you can't say it once and they don't get it then you got to do it again. So yeah, it's so important
Speaker 2 53:41
to always try to I'm sorry, I mean her up always explained in the classes I teach us it, explain it to you to a person like you're explaining it to your grandma who understand it you then have the education background write it and explain it as if you're talking to your grandma, and everybody should be able to get on board with that.
Christine Townsend 54:04
My even my I have some stories that aren't appropriate for this time. But if ever anyone sees me in person, I'll explain my more silly Texas experiences of wringing the local city about some things but he didn't understand me at all. But anyway, we've got like literally four minutes left. So I always like to round off the comp surgery with kind of recommendations or like a fight or final thought from everyone. And so I'm gonna kind of go in no order, particularly but Brianne, there's something is there anything that you would like to share with with everyone that you would recommend or support? Sure,
Speaker 1 54:39
always be confident in yourself, but most importantly, never be afraid to wave the white flag. So I think a theme of what I've been talking about today is it's not a sign of weakness, and it's not a sign of failure. It's actually a true sign of transparency and makes you a better Pio to recognise when something could be missed or lost in your work gold and you're just drowning in the deep end. More importantly, don't wait until you're in the deep end without a life vest or an inner tube, when you're approaching that midway slope to the pool, and you're no longer that Shaolin is when you start needing to have those difficult conversations that we've talked about. And if you've never read the book by Fran Houser than both of the nice girl I know there's quite a few men on here. It's a it's a great read. It's applicable for both men and women. But it's a great way of, you know, having those difficult conversations without apologising. We should never be sorry for having too much work put on your plate. So how to have those conversations and be confident in yourself to weigh that lag. And, you know,
Christine Townsend 55:36
keep around and then I'll go to Trent next, what's your pearl, pearl, singular, I know you have many home necklace of wisdom.
Speaker 2 55:45
The best thing, the best thing I can suggest to everybody is a quote I love I use a lot of quotes, I'm sorry. But it's from Theodore Roosevelt's and do what you can with what you have where you're at, you don't necessarily have to have broadcast quality cameras, you don't necessarily have to have like, you know, fancy podcasting equipment like I have. Everybody's got a phone, everybody's got a smartphone, you can do a million 100 things with that one phone that anybody can do with this thing and a broadcast quality camera, I'm just fortunate that my boss understands now why we need those things. So it's the best thing you can do is just do what you can with what you have where you're at. And then you can you can make everything look just as unclear to everybody with just a phone. So and like Brianna said, if you need any help, you know, wipe that white flag. I am here and there are dozens of other people in the same place out there that will be willing to help you even if it's just a quick phone call, and I still do the same. I pull the Judy Powell alarm all the time when I need somebody I called Judy up and she is ready there to help me out as much. And then you Christine, I'll call you up to because we're buddies. So
Christine Townsend 57:05
we're just pleasant to you. Because we have to be No, I'm joking. Of course. No. And you're right. There are so many people willing to help. So, you know, all of us, I'm sure can share some information. But Matt, what would be your pearls of wisdom or recommendation of a book or anything?
Speaker 3 57:21
I mean, I'd say the the big thing for like PIOs is just to stay active and to keep challenging yourself. I mean, we have a tendency to go through a few incidences and we kind of get, you know a little overconfident that we can handle anything, but then you realise it's been six months since your last incident and you realise that you're super rusty. So I would say keep, keep challenging yourself and keep staying engaged. The Pio community has grown immensely in the last five to 10 years. And, and so there's so many resources to just, I mean, I'm kind of preaching to the choir, because if you're watching or listening to this, you're already kind of staying active, which is great. But so keep at it, to kind of say another quote, but I think Kobe Bryant used to say that, you know, your practices should be harder than your games. And if they're not, then what's the point of practising so when you do your exercises, when you do your tabletops when you do your run throughs really challenge yourself make it very difficult and almost like outlandish, because it seems like it's not realistic. That's probably good. Because as you're saying, as we said before, as Brennan said, you know, no one's expecting to have a whale wash up on you, and especially not in South Carolina. But you know what, just because you said it, you're gonna get it now you're gonna get something? Yeah, I think that's it, stay active. And whatever that is that keeps you active in the PIO world. Keep doing it.
Christine Townsend 58:42
Brilliant. Thank you, Matt. And I'm just gonna say Michael was asking for links to trainings and comms templates and books and stuff. Everything is on Pio toolkit. But of course, if anyone wants to contact me directly, you can you can find me on LinkedIn, as I say, by email, and I will happily share any kind of resources. I've mentor quite few PIOs around the country, and I love doing it. And I just want to say thank you so much, Brianne, Matt, and Trent. And I've really, really enjoyed myself. And there's so many good pieces of advice here, we could have gone on a lot longer. And really, thanks so much for your time. I know you're very, very busy. And thank you for everyone who attended. And thank you to everyone who's listening later on once I managed to get this up online. So, again, thank you so much for your support of Pio toolkit. And, you know, I really look forward to meeting any of you so thanks so much, guys. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. You
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