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The PIO with Ashley Losch from Blu Helmet Media · B Shifter

• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the V-Shifter podcast.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: So glad to have you along with us today, john Vance here and today our very special guest is Ashley Losh, and Ashley has spent about a quarter of a century in the fire service.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: How painful a way to start, john Well you're experienced.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I'm giving you credibility, starting as a firefighter and working your way up to the company officer, a public information officer and finally, as a division chief dispensing information for the public.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: The division chief dispensing information for the public.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: And today we want to talk about giving information out what an incident commander needs to think about when interfacing with the public information officer from their department, and then maybe some ways in departments that do not have public information officers, on what the media is looking for, what the public is looking for, what good information looks like.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: So a lot of good stuff today here on the podcast and we want to welcome everyone along.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: And Ashley, thank you so much for being here today and you recently retired from the fire service but you're still keeping your toe in it with Blue Helmet Media.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Tell me what you're doing with Blue Helmet Media and what you're up to these days.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Certainly so.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I'm doing a lot of consulting, some creative for some departments and unions and keeping people abreast of what's happening in social media and how to leverage social media for whatever it is that their goals may be, and really expressing the importance of a public information officer within your organization and why it's so critical to stay connected through media traditional media and also internal communications about why we need to share the messages and what we need to share and how to share them appropriately.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: There's been a big push in the last couple of years also for crisis communication plans and recognizing that a lot of departments don't have a plan for crisis communications, they sort of have either pushed it off, thinking that the public information officer just has it handled, or that maybe the city will have something put together or EM.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: But what we're recognizing is a lot of the smaller departments and even some of the smaller cities have never even broached the idea of having a crisis communication plan.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: So recognizing that those things could be in place and should be in place is a big deal.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: So I'm just going around teaching classes, doing some consulting and creative and trying to help out.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: One of the things that you attain to is you're a master PIO, I'm in the program.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, you're in the program.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Okay, there's only like 150 of those in the country.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: What is that program and how does one go about getting that education?
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say it's some of the best training I've ever had and it's through FEMA and there's a series of classes that you have to go through.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: There's a series of online classes.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Then you can take a basic PIO.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Then there's an advanced PIO.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Basic PIO is a three-day course.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Advanced is a one-week course and I will say that is the best training I've ever been through as a PIO.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: It is hands-on, intense training and you learn how to work in a JIC and what a JIC is and how to work through kind of crisis that's going on.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: And what the expectation is of a PIO within a JIC is a year-long course where we attend class for three weeks out of that period of time back in Maryland at National Fire Academy and we write a capstone paper as part of that and if we're successful 90% or above we actually are published and placed in the library at NFA.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: That is really cool.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: I've seen that title that only a few other PIOs have it.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: A recently retired PIO from Las Vegas had that and I was like, wow, that's something I'd never heard of before.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: But that is so cool that you're pursuing that and I think that's a good path.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Now, as a firefighter and a company officer, what made you gravitate toward the PIO job and what kind of got you into this part of the business?
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Well, truth be told, I had zero interest in being a PIO.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: I resisted for a long time and my friend was the full-time PIO and he brought me in as a part-time, like as a backup.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: So I did a backup PIO position for three years for him and then it was time for him to go back to the field and he said, hey, it's your turn.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: And I was like, uh, no, I'm good, I have no interest in not being on a truck, I just want to run calls and do my thing.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: And he said no, it's your time, you're going to come in and you're going to do this.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: And, um, I did, and I was working for Terry Garrison at the time and I will say when you have a boss that fully supports you and that you know is behind you in this position, that's everything.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: And we had full transparency with one another and complete trust.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: And he let me push the envelope in ways that people weren't really pushing the envelope yet and it paid off.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: But once we started to feel that success and see a change, not only within our organization but externally, you could feel it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: It was palpable, that we felt seen, and I think every department wants to feel seen and wants to feel like they're making a difference.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: And when you start to get that recognition especially in a market as large as Phoenix where, let's face it, phoenix is the biggest department they get the most recognition and they get the most airtime to be able to carve out a piece of that for ourselves and feel like we were a part of this.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: It was really good, we were a part of this, it was really good.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: So once we started to see success and we were chugging along, chief Garrison and I just sort of kept doing it and kept pushing, and it was really wonderful to have his mentorship during that time, and so I just continued to stay.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Well, it was a palpable change when you took over, especially the social media for Glendale, because I noticed a huge difference and you had a nice mix of real time incident information when there was something major going on, If there was a community tragedy, how to learn from that but then also you were doing things like cooking and, you know, just having fun in the station, I mean.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: So there was a real fun side to that too.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: How do you balance that as a PIO to say, hey, this is a deadly serious business that we're in, but we're also humans and we can't take ourselves too seriously.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Most certainly so.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I think it all starts with a goal right, especially when it comes to social media, but a goal as a department.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: What are we trying to tell the public as a department?
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: What are we trying to tell the public and what is the reason that we're even on social media?
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Because that's kind of what we're talking about specifically right now, and to me it was.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: We need to show people who we are.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: We are a brand.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Also, every department is a brand, and what sets us apart?
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Why are we different?
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And during a time where we're really seeing a huge decline in retention and recruitment, we're recognizing they're all on social media, that age group, that 18 to 34 year old age group.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: They get their information from social media.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: They're spending time on social media, spending time on social media.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: So we need to show them who they are so that when they're out there picking where they want to work, where they're going to dedicate the next 25 years of their life to why they should choose us.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: And you can't do that unless you're raw and vulnerable and real.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And the truth is the fire service is the most fun place to work.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: It just is You're working with a bunch of goofballs and once in a while you get to do something that's amazing and you get to impact people's lives.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: But through social media we actually have the opportunity to impact people every single day.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: We can prevent an accident, we can prevent a fire, we can prevent a tragedy through really good messaging.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: But when it comes to that balance, why are we cooking?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Why are we doing silly trends?
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Why are we doing those things?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Because we also are competing for people's attention and if all you do is put out incident information all day, you've now become the news, and the news, as we all know, is noisy and frustrating and sad and we just tune it out.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: So you can't be the news all the time and expect people to come and want to be a part of what you're putting out.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: We have to be relatable.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So what I say is the spoonful of sugar when you want to get the medicine to go down, right.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: So the sugar is the relatable stuff, it's the fun things and it's building trust with the community and it's showing them that they can come to us.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: They know we're going to be there.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Some days we're going to make them laugh.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Some days we're going to give them safety messages.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Some days they might cry with us and we're always going to give them the most accurate, timely information that we can when it comes to real time incidents.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: So we establish that over time.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: But you have to have some fun with it too, and you have to show the truth of your department by giving them a little bit of the behind the scenes.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't think a lot of people either know how to do that, aren't empowered to do that or do that very well and, and you certainly did in your time as PIO there and and and also at the Arizona Fire and Medical, you did this.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: You know, I saw that, that that you know, about seven years ago or so.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: I asked Terry, I go who is your PIO?
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Because this is, it's so good and refreshing compared to the you know kind of stiffness that we see a lot of times and you know unfortunately you and I were talking before we started rolling it's so political as far as our jobs go, especially the higher up you go, and especially the public information officer, so a lot of those pressures sometimes stifle that creativity.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: But you you were very creative and I kind of grew up watching what PFN did back in the day and I loved all of that and I saw this really as an extension of what PFN used to be.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Well, I was definitely impacted by what they were doing and those videos oh my gosh, some of the most fun to watch.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I don't think anyone who's ever seen the video of the guys barking in the backseat, where they turned into dogs, could ever forget that.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: That had such an impact on me, and maybe I didn't even put it together until now, but that definitely influenced my desire to be creative, because you knew it would be received.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: But the truth is it's not easy to do this and to put yourself out there and to be vulnerable and to your point.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: You know people don't want to do that because there's going to be backlash.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: It wasn't rosy in the beginning.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I got a lot of pushback, mostly internally.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: You know you're making us look stupid, you're making female firefighters look stupid, you're giving us a bad name, and so it goes back to that goal.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: And why are we doing this?
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: You have to really hold that in your heart because you're gonna get hate and you're gonna get pushback.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: But what people don't recognize is the internal audience is a very small piece of the pie when it comes to who we're trying to reach right, because, yes, there's internal, there's other fire departments, there's the city, there's the community, there's the politicians, there's the business owners.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Kids, grandparents, parents, schools, hospitals you know people that we partner with.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Everybody is an audience and all of those people don't want the same content and they're not looking for the same thing.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: In fact, most of them want something very different.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: The different audiences need different things, and so while one post might go up and you kind of cringe and you're like, oh, I didn't like that, that wasn't for you, that message wasn't for you, so it's okay that you didn't like it, scroll past it, come back tomorrow, maybe you'll like tomorrow's, because you have to do targeted posts for targeted audiences and it's not blanketed.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: I like to describe it as you know what's your favorite kind of candy, john.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Chocolate Hershey's.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, and mine is candy corn.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Most people cringe.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: They're like right, they make that face.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, In fact, candy corn is the most hated candy in the country.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Look at it statistically.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: If we had five other people here we might have five other answers.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Right, Reese's Pieces is the most sold.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: M&m's is the most liked.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: If you go to Mexico, gum is actually touted as the number one candy, right?
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: So if we look at that, if I'm having a candy party, I have to have five, six, seven different kinds of candy to make everybody happy, including the most hated candy to make me happy.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Social media is the same way.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Let's deliver all the candy and recognize not everybody's gonna love it.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Sometimes everyone's gonna be good with that chocolate covered pretzel and that's great.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: We can all enjoy it together.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't have to be viral and it doesn't have to be for everyone every time.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: One of the things I wanted to talk about today was why is it important not only for the folks on the truck but the chief and the buggy to have good public information, not only in promoting the fire department and the services that we provide, but at those incidents when something major happens in the community.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Why is there a need for this?
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: And because a lot of times, I think, it gets dismissed.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I think that people don't understand why we need to be talking to the media.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: They don't want to talk to the media or they don't even want to put stuff out on social media.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: So why is this important to us?
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Not only for our survival, but for our communities.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Well, I would say number one is trust.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: So we've got to build trust with our media partners, but also within our community, because they need to know that if something is happening, we are going to be able to give them the right information and we're going to give it to them timely and we're going to be there for them Because, let's say, it's something like the train derailment that we saw last year where we've going to be there for them Because, let's say, it's something like the train derailment that we saw last year where we've got to have some shelter in place.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: We're going to need to have some evacuations.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of things happening.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: If you don't have a comfortability or an established relationship with media prior to that incident, you're going to have no idea how to get that information out and it's definitely not going to be timely.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: And you're going to have no idea how to get that information out and it's definitely not going to be timely, and you're going to feel overwhelmed because you won't have had a plan and you will have never done it before.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: But it is our responsibility to make sure that information gets out immediately or as soon as we have good information to share to save lives.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: So I mean that's a very extreme example, but most certainly an important one, even down to your morning commutes that are affected when we have, say, a gas leak where we're shutting down a major intersection.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: You want to know that and I promise you that the media wants to report that and they want to know that.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So I think, to the very basic level, it's our obligation to make sure that the community has that information.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: In public information, one of our biggest sayings it's the right information at the right time to the right people through the right channels so they can make the right decisions.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: And that's a very basic core value of PIO.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: If the PIO doesn't have the information because there's gatekeeping or the incident commander isn't communicating with them or they have no way to get information, we can't accomplish that goal.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: So you now diminish trust with your community, who's expecting you to talk.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: Another reason is, if we don't talk, if we don't control the narrative, guess who will?
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: The media, or worse, maybe not worse, but they will go to another organization.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: If you don't respond, if I'm not responding as a PIO, the first call they make after that is to a neighboring department and they go hey, can you come on camera and tell us what's going on.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Can you give us information?
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Do you think that your mayor, council or board members want to see someone from an outside agency talking about an incident in your city or town?
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I promise you they do not.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: There's an expectation.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: The last reason that I'll say is we are what I describe as building a savings account with the public.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: So every time we give good information and we build trust with them, we're putting something into our savings account Because I promise someone at some point in your career is going to do something questionable and you're going to have to defend it and that poor choice of action can either bankrupt your department or just be a small withdrawal from that savings account.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: If you've already established that trust through this constant good communication, we're going to be okay.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: You'll survive it.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: But if you haven't built that savings account and you've never invested in this community's communication, why would they trust you?
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: And now someone in your organization has done something to break that trust, it's very hard to reestablish it.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: I often see this in communities that they have to re-approve a levy to get funding and the only time the fire department rolls out information about the fire department is when they're going out with hat in hand asking for additional funding instead of that consistent relationship and I think that consistency is really important.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: So you touched on, you know we talked about social media and traditional media versus social media.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Where are we at right now?
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, because we're in changing times and you know what the media was 30 years ago certainly isn't what it is today.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: So tell us really where we're at and what should we be looking for in the future when it comes to interfacing with the public.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we got to look at where we were to look at where we're going and, to your point, it's definitely different from 30 years ago.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I can only say the last 10 years of experience that I've had from on-call and full-time.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: But when I first became the PIO, we were getting phone calls from the media.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: So as soon as, let's say, a drowning would kick out, my phone was going off.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: You know three, five, 10, 12, 15, telemundo, the Arizona Republic.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: It was like everybody would call and there's absolutely no way you can answer those phone calls as you're also responding to a drowning while you're trying to listen to a radio, while you're trying to gather the information, but the second that a drowning is dispatched, those newsrooms are reaching out to you.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like the tones haven't even shut down in the station and they're already calling.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: So you're on the clock immediately from the time that is dispatched and you may be 20, 30, 45 minutes from the actual incident and the crew's not there, right?
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: So we have to get information and then put it out in a timely manner.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: That used to be via phone call or they'd beat you to the scene.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Now it seems that it's changed and I will say most likely COVID was the catalyst for this, but it's more of a written word, more of an email scenario.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: So what I found was really helpful is identifying.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: I recognize that there was a drowning that was just initiated.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Crews are responding.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I am responding to the scene with X amount, eta, minutes Right, and I will provide you an update as soon as I arrive on scene.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Please let me know if you are sending a reporter out.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Otherwise, expect that I will communicate with you and you will have information.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: So I think that gives a lot of relief of the pressure on both sides Like listen, I'm acknowledging you, I know you want information.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I also want you to know I am responding and that I am on top of this and that you will receive information as soon as I have good information.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: So if they don't have a reporter available to go to the scene, like we used to years ago and they would go to every incident, that's OK.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: They know they're still going to get information and I think that moves through trusted relationships too that you build with them, and that's how you build it you don't ignore them and you recognize that they want information.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: But I think that changing landscape also comes with a layer of social media, because I know if I put that information on Twitter, that's the fastest way for me to reach all of the media outlets simultaneously.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: So I don't even have to go to email to send anything out.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I can just put something on Twitter and I know that they're going to get that message.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: That wasn't really the way of the world even 10 years ago.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: So that's another piece of the pie that, while you may not have a PIO that can go on scene and give information real time, you certainly have someone who can pull up a template on Twitter and just give some basic information and state you know we will give you more information at XYZ time.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: The biggest source of misinformation that I have witnessed recently is next door.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I mean and and and you know, we and our city PIOs that I worked with, we would refer to it as a sewer and other other things like that and for whatever reason I don't know if I don't know why we had the policy but we did not interact on on next door.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Because it is a full-time job to interact on Nextdoor.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: So, honestly, it's the Mrs Kravitz and if you're of a certain age you know that reference.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: It's all the Mrs Kravitz's on that one app and they all know exactly what's going on, although none of them know exactly what's going on.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: So, to your point, that is a perfect way to control the narrative and make sure we're giving good information, but it's not interactive.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Shut the comments off.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Just be a platform of information there, right?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: We acknowledge that in XYZ neighborhood you're seeing a lot of fire trucks.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: This is why we had an incident.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: I actually would go out and meet with the neighborhood.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: After some next door misinformation Probably had one of the best ran attached garage fires.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: The crews got there quick, they stopped the fire from getting into the house.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: I mean it was just a beautifully executed scene and there was nothing but misinformation about it Misinformation about our response time, who responded, what we did when we got there, how the fire started, everything.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: So I finally went out and met with the neighborhood face to face, because it's like I can't get ahead of this.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I mean that was impossible to do it through, like you're saying, through next door, but that was probably the most frustrating one to deal with.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, but that's the whole communication piece right Now.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: What if you never communicated with them?
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: What if you never gave them information?
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: They just continue to run with that and you keep destroying trust.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: So what you did is phenomenal you went out and you built trust.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I had a similar I guess it wasn't similar, but kind of.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: It was the 4th of July.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: The 3rd of July, a family across the street was lighting off fireworks and lit their neighbor's house on fire and it burned up, I mean completely burned.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: And I went out the next day to do some firework safety for 4th of July with some of the local newscasters and the family was there.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: And I said to the media hey, can you give me a second?
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I just want to go over and talk to them.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And I just introduced the media hey, can you give me a second?
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I just want to go over and talk to them.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: And I just introduced myself and said I'm so sorry for what you've been through and made sure that our crisis response team had been working with them.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: And they said you know, it was a 20 minute response time for your units.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: And I said I'm sorry, what?
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: And they said yeah, it took them 20 minutes from the time I called 911 for a truck to get here and luckily I had an MCT in my car and I said let me fact check that really fast, because I feel like that's an impossibility, because they were literally in the center of five first dues.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I was thinking no way and I pulled it up and I was able to actually show them on the MCT.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Hey look, this is when your call came in and this is when the first truck arrived and it was four and a half minutes.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: So it feels like 20 minutes most definitely, and sometimes we know 911 is overwhelmed that that system can take a few minutes to get through, but certainly it wasn't 20 minutes.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I get it, it feels like forever when you're waiting to hear those sirens come screeching down the street, but it wasn't 20 minutes.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: So to be able to allay those fears similar to what you did, that's huge and it means a lot and it builds that trust back within that neighborhood.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Who's like you took 20 minutes and now they're all talking about it, but we didn't.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: You had a huge advantage in being a firefighter who came up through the ranks.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: You responded, then you became the PIO.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: What about those that your city can only afford?
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Three PIOs split amongst seven departments park and rec, the police you know where no one gets their own dedicated PIO, because I see that model a lot.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: How can we get somebody up to speed so they're able to answer those questions like you can?
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: And I know that there's probably some areas that you just can't do it, but how do we?
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: What's our workaround on that for folks who have PIOs that aren't fire service personnel?
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Well, I think they need to be embedded within your fire stations and in the fire service Somehow.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: They need to spend some time with people and then likely have a liaison for each shift, whether it's the shift commander or someone that they can talk to about fire specific things, maybe even having a backup person to go on camera or to provide some information.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: There's a collaboration that needs to happen.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I think it's dangerous to have someone that has no understanding or experience within the fire service to represent your organization.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: That's risky.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: They certainly can have a civilian model where you can have a PIO represent you but train them, give them really good hands-on information as much as you can and educate them in a way that they feel to ask somebody within the department to help them.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: And I think that there is a very good partnership with some civilian PIOs where they feel comfortable going to the IC or, you know, waiting for the incident to die down and saying, hey, can you give me some information so I can share it to make sure that it's accurate.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: I don't think any incident commander is going to say I don't care about that.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Of course they want accurate information out.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: So I think there's a workaround, I think having templates available to them too, which is something that I've done before.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: If you remember, mad Libs, from when you were a kid.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: I've created some fire department, mad Libs, that you know.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: We arrived on scene and saw blank.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: We did blank.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: We rescued blank or didn't right.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: This is what we encountered, and XYZ were displaced or not, and if we know a cause, then this is what it was.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: If we don't, it's under investigation.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: So just some basic information and terminology that can be used by anybody.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: So, looking at the fact that 68% of the fire departments out there are one station departments and that means the funding probably isn't there to have a dedicated PIO, how can they prepare themselves to release information and have that public presence without having one person who's responsible for it?
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we need to have multiple people responsible for it.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: If you don't have at least one person responsible for it and basic training is free, like I said, fema will provide basic training to anyone and everyone.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: There's really no excuse at this point to not communicate and not learn how to communicate appropriately.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: It's pretty easy to develop relationships with your local media, especially if you're in a smaller town.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: You probably have some kind of newsletter or a newspaper that gets out local information.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: To not have a relationship with the people that are putting those out is a little bit negligent at this point.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: But to answer your question, I think having templates available, having an email that everybody could access, that everyone's trained on using that, has templates available.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Having an email that everybody could access, that everyone's trained on using, that has templates available for basic information house fires, you know, car accidents, whatever it is that you're responsible to respond to.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Having that available at your fingertips, where you really don't have to do a whole heck of a lot of work, I think that is a really easy workaround.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Twitter also is a really easy workaround.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Twitter also is a really easy workaround for an IC at the end of an incident, to just go on and give a really quick synopsis of who, what, when, where, why, how and any safety message or information that needs to be provided, and through a little bit of training, anyone could do that.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: We don't necessarily have to go on camera and even just providing an email, like I said, to the media with a couple pictures or a of them and they do a great job and they want to do a great job.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: So taking advantage of the training that's out there and that's free is the first step, but then maybe just providing some templates that could be used and a basic understanding of social media and how to use it, which kind of goes back to what I'm doing now is kind of teaching those things Awesome.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: So when you're sitting in the buggy, your incident starts to de-escalate and then the media is showing up or the PIO shows up.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: What information are you looking for and what information should we be releasing to the public?
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: How can we best prepare the incident commander to provide what had just happened?
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: So I did some training with my department years ago because I recognized that really we hadn't said to them hey, this is what I do and this is what I need.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: And it was a phenomenally eye-opening experience for me because I had this misconception that people already understood what I was doing and how it worked for me and they didn't.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: So I was failing in communication at that point.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: But just coming out and saying, ok, what was the incident?
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Who was involved?
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Who was there?
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: What happened?
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Did we encounter anything out of the ordinary?
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: What did we do?
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Really, it's the who, what, when, where, why and how.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: And then that safety message what happened here that caused the incident that could have been preventable.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: So talking about having working smoke alarms, that's a big piece of the pie because we know a lot of the fatalities are in homes that don't have working smoke alarms.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: So impressing that on the public and if we have that knowledge and if the IC already has that knowledge, sharing that with your public information officer and anything that might be out of the ordinary, but anything that we've saved, if we've had rescues of animals or people, obviously that's a big deal.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: The media is always going to ask you if people were displaced, so if we know that and how many, the cause is always the biggest piece of information.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: But generally we don't have that right away because our fire investigations haven't even arrived or are just beginning that, so it's hard to give that quickly.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: But really the who, what, when, where, why, how and any special circumstances, if the IC can give that to the PIO, that helps us create the narrative and generally a good PIO is going to chat with the IC can give that to the PIO that helps us create the narrative and generally a good PIO is going to chat with the IC.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: They're probably going to talk to whoever the first in unit was and the command officer on that truck and if there's a crisis response team they're probably going to get with them too for a little deeper information.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: So as much as they can give you is good, but the basics are the most important.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: Switching back to that crisis communication plan, you brought up what constitutes a crisis.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: When should we have a crisis communication plan?
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Because we see them usually collecting dust on someone's desk or up on a shelf.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: But when should we have that plan and what are the occasions that we use them?
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Should have had that plan and what are the occasions that we use them.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Should have had that plan yesterday.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: And I think the crisis communication plan is from basic internal communications all the way to the most extreme event that you can imagine.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: So it should address what is our day-to-day communications, what are the outlets that we use?
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: How do we do that, whether that's you know messages and tell a staff, or are we texting, we doing group texts to our department?
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Is it email?
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: How are we communicating all the way to?
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: If we have a line of duty death, how is that communicated, both internally, externally to the family?
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: What are we doing in that case?
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: Because the time to figure that out is not in the middle of that incident.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: We also have to have crisis communication plans for the major incidents, first alarms and greater.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: If you have evacuations, you name it.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: It needs to be addressed and it's got to go into when you are going to establish a JIC.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: What is your responsibility as the public information officer and what is everybody else's responsibility as well?
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Setting smart goals smart goals for when you're communicating is part of that, and learning how to do that.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: It's got to be a basic understanding of communication all the way to the most complex situations, and I know departments that recently were like, oh, we need one and they're paying an inordinate amount of money to have a crisis communication plan.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: So it should never sit on the shelf.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: It needs to be a working document that everybody in your department has their hands on and has the ability to weigh in on.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: To say this isn't a good plan.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Right, when I first begin working with a chief because I've had multiple chiefs in this role as my direct report right, I'm reporting to the fire chief the first thing I ask them is how do you like to be communicated with?
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: And a lot of times I get the look that you have in your face which is like what, how do you like to be communicated with?
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Do you prefer a text message?
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Do you like a phone call?
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Do you want an email?
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Is it incident dependent?
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: If it's emergent and I need to speak to you, do you want that to be a phone call?
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Do you want a text message first that says hey, I need to talk to you right away?
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: How do you want that If it's non-emergent information?
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: But we've been to an incident and I want to make sure you know it so that if you have to speak to the mayor or council, you have that information.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Do you want that in an email?
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Do you want to be woken up in the middle of the night?
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: Those things need to be established, and so all of that, at a larger level, needs to be included in your crisis communication plan.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: And, like I said, using reverse 911?
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Are we using other tools that maybe your emergency management has?
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: How are we communicating with the public outside of just social media channels when something terrible is happening and we have to reach them?
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: And maybe it's partnering with PD.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: It's all going to be independent to each department and maybe it's partnering with PD.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know, it's all going to be independent to each department.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Ashley, this is great information.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: If somebody wants to learn more about I mean, because we just can't get all of this in under an hour, where can they go?
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, you mentioned FEMA.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: You're a resource as well, so tell us about what you're doing to help departments right now.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like I said, I'm for hire, if you will, but I can come out and teach you some classes, and each class is tailored to your department's needs.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: So if it's establishing a PIO program or you want to learn more about how to leverage social media or even just get started on it, I can come out and teach you how to do that you and your team hopefully it's not just one person, but certainly it can be and then there's tips and tricks online for ways to do things and I can talk to you about who to follow on social media.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: That's gonna give you really good tips.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: But ultimately, if you're interested and you want more, email me at my email bluehelmetmedia at gmailcom.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Blue helmet, blue, no E.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: And we email blue helmet media at gmailcom blue helmet, blue, no E.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: And and we'll help you out.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: I also have a website so you can check out some of the things that I do on there.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm a huge fan, been a huge fan for a long time.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: It was so great to have you on the podcast today.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Hey, before we go, do you want to do a timeless tactical truth?
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: Sure, timeless tactical truth from Alan Brunicini the future will not be what we thought it would be.
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: That's a good one today for Ashley.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: What does the future of information dissemination look like?
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: We talked about social media, but where is this going with AI and everything else?
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: I think AI is well.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: I know AI is the future for all of us and I think it's a tool in the toolbox just like anything else, and if we learn to leverage AI to help us communicate more efficiently and faster.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Because, let's face it, me sitting down to write a press release that could take 20, 30 minutes, whereas if you use a good template, ai could have it in 30 seconds, and then you go in and edit it down to what your specific needs are.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: But if you prompt AI really perfectly, it might be good on the first try and then you just have to go in and refine it.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Ai is definitely the wave of the future for communications if we use it appropriately and we give it good sources like the FEMA information for communications to draw from.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for your time today, Ashley.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Absolutely Appreciate you being here.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: Hopefully we'll have you on again soon and we can continue this conversation.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me today.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Ashley, Appreciate you being here.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: Hopefully we'll have you on again soon and we can continue this conversation.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it.