Last night we introduced you to a communications guru who specializes in crisis management.

Angela Billings is the communications director for the Kentucky Senate.

Republicans.

But in a previous life, she was a spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force and provided executive leadership coaching.

She's the author of Command the Crisis, Navigate Chaos with battle tested public relations and communication strategies.

Here's more as we continue our new segment on Kentucky Edition called Turning the Page.

Because of all of your years of experience with the military and being a military spokesperson, and now you're on a different battlefield in the state capitol.

Yes, it's the closest thing to combat I've been to since I was in Afghanistan in 2006 and seven.

Right.

And so and, you know, and I love how it kind of sums up the book as if, you know, if you've got a CEO that's been caught embezzling or all of these questions that are not just hypotheticals.

These things happen in real life every day.

Do you know how to manage a crisis?

And so what do you advise leaders on and what does this book tell leaders to have in place in order for when a crisis does come, which is probably is almost inevitability, how to handle it and to overcome it?

Sure.

About half of businesses don't even really think about the risk that they are putting themselves at by not planning for a crisis before it happens.

So I've taken my book and added my personal experiences and my personal brand of crisis communication, and provided really some a framework with which a company can think about a crisis, what your most likely scenario, and what's your worst case scenario that you would never want to see in a headline.

You need to prepare for that.

You need to identify who's on that crisis team, because you're going to need a communicator.

The CEO or the president is likely going to be and should be involved.

Perhaps it does involve an attorney or two.

I've worked with a fair number of those over the years.

Right.

Sparring for what we can say publicly and what we shouldn't.

Right.

And and galvanizing that team and making it a priority so that when something bad happens, you've got a framework already in place so that you can step in and own your narrative.

Because in today's world, with social media, a crisis can happen in an instant.

If you don't take that seriously, you might be caught flat footed.

Yeah.

And as we often have heard said, it takes 20, 25 years to build a reputation and five seconds to lose it.

Absolutely.

People many people think that communication specialists are spin doctors, that they're not really about transparency and sunlight, but about what is the thing that's going to get us the best favor and the best press.

Is that an accurate or an unfair depiction.

Well I've never really liked that term spin doctor honestly because, because I, I really when I join an organization and every move that I made in the Air Force, you've got to learn a little bit about the organization that you're working for.

So, that's one of the benefits of being a communicator.

I get to touch upon a number of different, lines of business or, different divisions within a larger corporation.

So I'm not a big spin doctor.

But I am, I'm educated and I'm engaged and you're strategic, and I absolutely am strategic, because sometimes saying nothing is better or being very, measured with what you say.

So I've, I and the people that I've worked with, we often have to distill down information to present to the public while also sometimes, protecting whether it's classified or sensitive information fits with a corporation.

You know, there are branding and trade secrets that you have to protect.

But you also, get an opportunity to present your best case and explain in the matter of a crisis, perhaps what happened, what did you learn from that crisis and how you are refining your process in order for that not to happen again?

As you look at the communicators that not just you work with, but who do you admire as a communicator and say that person gets it right nine times out of ten?

Oh, wow.

That's a great question, Renee.

I wish we talked about this before.

Get.

Ha ha ha.

You know, I, I think that there are a number of people who do who do it well.

And as I consider those that I've, looked at, there are a number of pastors, preachers that I admire because of their ability to read a whole lot of books and explain, the message to us then, Stewart is one that I listen to in the morning.

I think that, Simon Sinek, has done an extraordinary job as a communicator.

And Brené Brown is another one.

Yes, yes, that I do, admire how she, after being a researcher for 20 some odd years, then she was able to kind of shift that focus and, communicate very effectively and leverage the platforms that we have available to us.

So those are just a few of my favorites.

Yeah.

Angela recently did a Ted talk at Bellarmine University in Louisville about the liberation of the women of Afghanistan.

And you can find that on YouTube.