It was 2pm when the call came in. ‘Ten people dead. CNN is on the line.’
Even after decades in this business, that sentence gets your attention.
An aviation disaster had just unfolded on live television. Cellphone footage was spreading. The client had about thirty seconds from the time they called me to when the first camera would be on them, and they needed to be ready.
We immediately built key messages that balanced honesty with leadership — acknowledging that this was genuinely awful, that we were in the early stages of understanding what happened, that there was a clear path forward. Then the media requests started: 120 requests in 48 hours. Al Jazeera, BBC, print, broadcast, digital, international. Angry stakeholders needing immediate responses. We worked around the clock for a month. Over 100 billable hours of crisis management at the highest stakes.
When it came time to send the invoice, the client braced themselves.
The total was a few hundred dollars.
One month earlier, they had joined my CrisisTether program — essentially crisis communications insurance. A monthly retainer that means no matter what happens, we’re there. They received world-class crisis support within minutes, not hours or days. They navigated a nightmare while protecting their reputation. All included.
If you’re postponing crisis communications planning because it feels expensive or unnecessary, consider the alternative math. What does an unexpected crisis cost your organization tomorrow — in management time, legal fees, lost contracts, lost trust, reputational damage that takes years to repair? Crisis preparation isn’t admitting weakness. It’s acknowledging that the insurance you buy in peacetime is the only kind that works.