Crisis Management Strategies for Agency Owners, with Diane Mulligan

March 31, 2021

Episode 7:

Crisis management strategies and tools are critical to the survival of your agency. Learn what you can do to prepare for any scenario with M&C’s Diane Mulligan. Hear insights about:

  • Diane’s journey in the communications industry
  • Why Diane Chose to niche her business in the CBD industry
  • The top crisis management strategies agency owners should follow
  • Why it is so important to plan for crisis scenarios
  • What Diane’s Brand Protection Tool is, and how it works
  • Understanding normalcy bias in the context of crisis management
  • The most important financial lessons Diane has learned as an agency owner

Crisis Management Strategies in the Agency World

Diane Mulligan is the President of M&C, a public relations firm committed to representing inspirational people, organizations, products, and services. Diane founded M&C in 2009 following eight years as VP of National Communications for the National Stroke Association. Recently, M&C developed the Brand Protection Tool™ to teach brands where to focus their crisis management strategies by working through likely crisis scenarios and crafting responses that will protect their businesses. In this episode of the Progressive Agency podcast, Diane joins us to share her expertise and talk about crisis management in the agency world.

The First Steps are Critical

Crisis Management Strategies are critical to the survival of your agency, especially in the wake of 2020. If you can prepare your team for potential challenges and issues that may come down the pike, you can create a basic response plan that will make all the difference. This doesn’t have to be a complicated process. The goal here is to prevent yourself and your team members from freezing. All you need is a plan that enables you to take the first few reactionary steps in response to a crisis so you can pivot. If you take action, doors often open up, and that is what planning will accomplish.

Prepared for Any Scenario

Diane and her team created the Brand Protection Tool™ to demystify this process. It provides an opportunity for brands to brainstorm potential crises, from the most absurd to the most likely scenarios. Then, brand leaders can use the tool to rank them and create a pilot checklist they can use if a particular issue, challenge, or crisis hits the organization. Planning for crisis scenarios helps us overcome normalcy bias so we are prepared for anything. Diane walks us through all of the details for this process during our conversation. As always, please visit me at www.theprogressivedentist.com for more informative, money-saving podcast episodes like this one.

Crisis Management Strategies

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About Diane Mulligan:

Diane Mulligan, APR is president of M&C, a public relations firm committed to representing inspirational people, organizations, products, and services. Diane founded M&C in 2009 following eight years as VP of National Communications for the National Stroke Association.

Diane was News Director at Channel 7 in Denver, notably managing the newsroom during coverage of the Columbine High School shootings. As Senior News Editor for NBC News in New York City, Diane oversaw coverage of countless major stories.

Diane led the M&C team to a 2020 PRSA National Silver Anvil award for crisis communications and a 2017 PRSA Colorado Gold Pick Award for brand-building on behalf of the Rocky Ford Growers Association. She also served as the 2018 Western District Conference Chair for PRSA Colorado, and board member for Therapeutic Riding of Tucson and co-founder of the nonprofit group CHART (Children’s Help and Assistance for Residential Treatment).

M&C Communications has developed the Brand Protection Tool™ to help you focus on your three most vulnerable areas, so you can make the most of your crisis management plans.

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