So, an emotional reaction from you is what they're seeking, they are seeking to harm you, they are seeking to throw you off in a balance. And a lot of times in these tense situations where crisis communications happen, people want to have their, they think emotionally logic really takes a backseat with and the peak of a crisis is more emotional. And at that point, it's what you're about to, you know, really tame your emotions and think logically and logically is speaking a little, speaking a little as you're listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network, where you get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else. To thrive in today's trying times, you need the Financial Survival Network, now more than ever. Go to financialsurvivalnetwork.com and get your free newsletter and gift, Financial Survival Network, now more than ever. And welcome, you are listening to and watching the Financial Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie Lutz. Well, a lot of people need to do a lot of damage control today. After the results, the outcome of the election, a lot of reputations have been damaged, a lot of people who you once looked up to maybe you aren't doing it so much. Well, you know what, if you own a company, you can have the same kind of issues strike you. Some rumors, false allegations, stories that come out of nowhere and just wind up on the internet and get taken as fact. And in that case, you're probably going to want to call in somebody like Ryan McCormick, Ryan, your media relations specialist, co-founder of Goldman McCormick, answering these kind of things, handling these situations, crisis management, that's kind of in your blood, isn't it? It is in my blood and carry, it's a great honor to be with you. I really do love your show and have been listening to you for a number of years. So, it is an honor to be with you. Well, thank you for that, appreciate it. And so, tell us, like, how did these things happen? Like, we know from certain political leaders, there's a thing called a wrap-up smear where they leak a rumor and then they get the media to ask them about the rumor. And then they quote the source of the rumor on social media, wherever it came from. It's so easy to ruin somebody's reputation, to ruin your reputation with social media and resilience of outlets to spew your garbage. Absolutely. That's why crisis communication is so important. It's always strong for every company to have a crisis communications plan in place because when a rumor starts, the longer it goes uncontested and not refuted, the more damage it's going to do, especially if it is a allegation that is emotionally provocative. If you have a high-level individual within your company that has been accused of misconduct and that misconduct particularly focuses on sexual assault or any allegations of racism, and that does not go challenged, that could be detrimental. Reputations can be ruined really quickly unless you have a strong response and carry one thing that I would recommend to people on top of responding right away, you want to make sure that you have your legal team long or with you. Because utilizing it and turning, it's something that could really bring a lot more credibility to be reshooting those rumors and also make those individuals who have sort of those rumors you know, okay, there are consequences, there are consequences, it's reliable. So it's very important, I guess, for all companies to have a legal team but to have a crisis communication is one place because a false rumor could cause thousands of people to leave your company to leave negative reviews, you can get a party with negative reviews at Google and then you can also have your company start drop. So misinformation is a pretty important thing to be aware of, and I recommend all companies be very vigilant. I couldn't agree with you more, I've seen it before, give us an example of some instances where you had this type of thing happen and how you responded. Well, one of my previous clients was a professional athlete and there were allegations that he got assaulted and some individual, the allegations were completely false but the allegations themselves got this individual banned from various competitive agencies and his reputation was under attack. So by refuting it, by coming out, by issuing statements, by also utilizing an attorney, we're able to turn things around. Now the allegation itself will probably, some people will, from being great in people's minds that they always assume they won't even do their own research and that's actually something that's really proud of our society is that people hear something, they don't research is all most of the stuff that people hear, they just hear from rumors and they don't do their own time to do research, whatever, we live in all the labor practice society. But that was one instance where we came way through and we were able to turn things around another individual, his name was Nick Hillary. He was a father of five wrongly accused of murder, HBO did a two-part series about him called Kill Garrett Phillips and this accusation that he killed this boy had caused such a major rift in the town and it was, there were a lot of false rumors that were out there and it was just actually a marvel. He was finally exonerated, but without counterbalancing, without standing up and speaking out to false rumors, the people make a terrible mistake that forever burns a reputation and I don't care if there's some people that talk about all PR, a lot of it is spin, you want to change, but I don't believe that at all. I think you should be truthful, you should let the truth come out, but in your response, don't get over emotional or don't let emotion cloud your response, your response should be very direct, precise and minimal because everything you say in a crisis can be used against you the same way if you're over by a police officer, anything you say can be used against you, anything you say to this crisis can be utilized, not only by the people who perpetuated the rumor by the media, but by also a legal team on the other side. What in their particular with your response is keeping direct and short. That reminds me of the John Benet Ramsey case where they didn't have damage control in place. The kid goes missing, winds up found dead in Colorado Springs, the police do a botched job and they just accused parents and they overlook all the evidence that pointed to a third party and these people were ruined for years and they never got to the bottom of the crime, they never found the killer, the real killer, and these people were ruined for, you know, the woman, the mother went to her grave being suspected as a child murderer. Imagine if they had your representation, how things might have turned out. Oh, we would have gone after and the other press conferences and the answer things out. It's for a terrible house to think about Richard Joel and yesterday he's getting about 1996 and so everyone assumed that he was a killer and it was horrible. It's really weird in our culture, Terry, is that people just get so infatuated with the emotional response that it's called an addiction. We always hear how smart loans are changing our brains that they give us a complete dopamine response, a dopamine and it gets this sense that people get a dopamine hit out of responding emotionally to stimuli and if you seek the truth, you don't get the same dopamine. It seems that people are hardwired or seek pleasure out of emotional reacting to certain things. It's a strange period of time, but it would be wonderful if we were slowly, culture, we was a little slowed down and people took the time to research and did actually do the due diligence but with the truth is a lot of cases. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, even though nobody believes the media anymore, it's still when they say something unless it's refuted, you're guilty until proven innocent, or? Yeah, absolutely. And even if you're a found innocent, you want something out, want some accusations, maybe you're never going to be able to come back from that. I mean, it could take some periods of time. One thing it's actually really beneficial about our culture, Terry, is that we live in a normally distracted society where if something really negative happens, most likely something else will happen that will counterbalance that. There will always be periods of time where another story will come out to supersede whatever controversy you're at and I consider it to be a very positive thing. If you are having a crisis and it's slow news week or slow news, slow news month, that's what it gets really bad. Yeah, God forbid. Yeah, scary, really scary book. So, but one of the things is how do you prevent something like this happening? One thing to respond to it, but what are the signs that you're being set up for this? Signs that you're being set up, it's very hard to tell, but if you have disgruntled employees, if you have people that you thought you got with this too, you can kind of get a tough feeling as to who's maybe plotting against you. It's kind of hard, because you may see a rumor that gets started on social media and that rumor starts and you see an item in the house perpetuating some misinformation back in communication. That's something far worse. One thing I always try to do is I always try to treat everyone with respect, try to give people as many reasons as not too long, not to have a negative relationship. I think if you're really good, you treat your employees well and treat everyone around you good. You've minimized your chances. You can't prevent something like this 100%, but if you do have a crisis communications plan in place and a protocol, it's something like this happens. You've minimized the damage and also can't state this enough, it's so before, but have a legal team that's completely engaged or something like this, because a rumor gets started and you and your company find a solidarity type situation utilizing a strong attorney to help you pound your efforts very effectively and not only make anything to go away, but also getting to do a situation for the instigator of something like that. How do you go after somebody who's really slandered you, defamed you, and really injured your business? A lot of times, they aren't well-heeled people with lots of assets. That's something that I'm trying to really focus on, but I would not give somebody who's attacking you, give them more fuel. So, an emotional reaction from you is what they're seeking. They are seeking to harm you, they are seeking to throw you off in a balance. A lot of times, in these tense situations, when crisis communications happen, people want to have, they think emotionally. Logic really takes a backseat, and the people requires it, so it's more emotional. At that point, it's what you've got to really tame your emotions, and think logically, and logically, speaking a little, speaking a little less, and only offering a response that can counterbalance whatever can be out there in terms of what you can discuss with your lawyer. So, emotional responses that I highly do not recommend, but somebody out there is doing it for you, I would say, make sure you have a legal team out there, because you usually with a strong authority, and they can do things to either stop the Russians from doing it, or you can actually, you'll see restitution, especially if they have to defend you, if they've sustained your kind. So, you know, even something as basic as, like, Google reviews, or Yelp reviews, they really kind of open themselves up for this type of thing. Hey, I was at this restaurant, great restaurant eating there so many times, and I found a cockroach in my food, right? That could start to start a whole pile on thing, especially if it's orchestrated, and you get five different reviews saying, yeah, I was in the bathroom, the place is a filthy pit, and it goes on and on, and, you know, businesses in the public eye are really susceptible to this type of malicious attack, aren't they? Yeah, they really are. It's really sad, and when it comes to Google reviews, sometimes people have the right views anonymously, and it's pretty bad. So, in what a situation that happens, some people may want to just remove the Google business, they might want to take it off Google General, and they can put it on other places, they can put it on Yelp, they can put it on the platform. What's something that happens, especially being a restaurant, and it's kind of harder to counterbalance that. If you do find yourself in that situation, you can also ask all of your customers that you really respect and have a great time with you to write five-star reviews. Matter of fact, if you're in a business and you're keeping your customers very happy, ask for those five-star reviews on a consistent basis. My understanding is that for every negative review, there needs to be ten-paws and reviews to counterbalance a negative review, and a lot of people look for negative reviews first. I mean, when I look to buy a credit card, the first thing I do is I look for the negative reviews. I like to see the most recent and most negative reviews. I want to find out why somebody didn't have a great experience. That's the first thing you're going to do. It's kind of scary that all this is happening. There is hope. Like doctor's offices, you might get a recommendation for a specialist, but it's your body you're dealing with. The first thing you're going to do is look at the reviews, and you have to take them with a grain also, because people are often to go into the doctor emotionally charged. They're looking for a certain answer, and the doctor doesn't give it to them, and then they're dissatisfied. Reputation management is kind of what we're talking about here, and somehow you've got to try to get out ahead of this, don't you? Also, when you have those negative reviews, it's very good to respond in a very professional, warm manner. Even a trip to Pfizer is another one where it's great when you see hotels, especially when I get negative reviews, and that the general manager will respond and address each quarterly, because even if a person does see a negative review, if they know that the establishment and the company really does care, and they're taking the time to respond to those negative reviews especially every time of the fashion, I think it's a very positive selection, but the person who's reading a negative review may see their response and give the hotel or whatever business the benefit of the doubt. It's constant engagement, constant vigilant, whether it be Google reviews, also protecting your profession and your business online on social media. One of the quickest ways you learn how a crisis emerges is if it's getting retweeted, if you're seeing it being shared on social media, that's one of the quickest ways. If you find yourself at ISIS and you need people who are spreading rumors, but then those rumors are not going to be retweeted, and it's kind of a waning interest in it. It's a good sign, but if you're seeing negative rumors about your company, and then they're going to be retweeted, and then you're getting negative reviews, then you know things are getting out of control, or getting bigger, and that's when you have to really take a heavy handed approach. When I say heavy handed, then there's a meaning. You go after the person who's spreading them, or you need to be really negatively, just be able to utilize every resource at your disposal to counterbalance things out. Also, if you've had some negative reviews about your company, and they've been negative accusations about your company, it's imperative that you come out and you speak truthfully, that they did refute all of them, but also do positive PR about your company, right? It's positive press releases. You need to extol your virtues, and if you put that out there, it's not by taking water to a stain, and water will diminish that stain. I couldn't agree with you more. People want to find out more about what you're doing, how you can help in reputation management and restoration. How do they find you? Or they can go to goldwithmacormor.com, G-O-L-D-M-A-N-M-C-C-O-R-M-I-C-K.com. We're ranked at four magazines, one of America's best PR firms, and if you reach out to us and say you're kind of parry, we'll definitely take care of it, and we'll take care of it, and we'll work with it than anyone who listens to Carrie's show. Oh, we definitely love to work with you. I can see the application of your service, even if you're not getting hit by attacks, but your online reputation isn't as good as you would like it to be, and that will cost you business, especially if you're a professional. You get a bad review, you're a professional, and that's going to sting your business. Can I see your business? Carrie, can I give you a list that there's one quick piece of advice from the company on the reputation? Absolutely. We're learning when we talk about this before, there are a number of celebrities that came out. Some of the CEOs that came out in the election, they threw their lot into one thing of the candidate. Well, because they've done that, they've alienated a number of potential customers. 50%, you have to be 3%, right? I would say to your CEO, a person, but don't share your political views. I mean, you can just focus on what you do great, focus on your company, focus on providing acts on service to others. Don't share your political view. You're basically saying to acquire people that feel like money, but you'll alienate other people. I would say going forward, I don't share your political views that are probably one of the biggest preventative ways to not have to not promote people. Common sense, religion, gentlemen, never speak of religion and politics, because now nobody cares about religion, but maybe politics has taken the place of religion for a lot of you out there, or a lot of the public. I think you just use one rule. When in doubt, shut your mouth. You'll stay out of a lot of trouble that way, such has been my experience. Well, I do, especially, I'd say that's a great rule from the arts, too. I always find that, you know, the less you talk about the less, the less you who wants my life to respond to, which is good. Didn't work so good for me, because I just could never keep my mouth shut, but that's my own character flaw there that I'm trying to deal with here. But hey, you'll find a link to Ryan's site in the show notes in this interview on financialsurvivalnetwork.com. I think this information, Ryan, is so useful, because an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure. If you do fall victim, you do have ways to fight it and to fight back. So you need to be aware of it. I've got a question for Ryan or myself. Shoot me at email kl@carreluts.com. And while you're on the site, financialsurvivalnetwork.com, please sign up for your free newsletter. Ryan, pleasure. Talk to you again real soon. Be well. Thank you, Gary Gueaar. Thanks for listening to Kerry Lutz's financial survival network, your solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to financialsurvivalnetwork.com. Financial survival network, now more than ever.
