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Crisis Comms with Zach Keating · WOI Unfiltered

• speaker-0: Alright I just hit record. speaker-1: Wait a second, wait a second, let me grab coffee. Morning, Jenna, how are ya? speaker-0: Good morning. I'm doing well. How are you today? speaker-1: Doing good too. Happy that it's Thursday before a long weekend. speaker-0: Well and we have a fun one today. We have a guest on Zach Keating. Zach, welcome, first off. Welcome Zach. Thank you. speaker-2: Absolutely. speaker-0: so Zach is a fun one and we're gonna chat a little bit about issues and crisis comms today. Zach spent eight years serving in the Navy before moving on and working for Torch Communications. And then he moved over to good old Boston, where he worked for stealth mode, biotech, and now for inner systems. So he's had a very f interesting, diverse career, and we are excited to chat with you about some of what you've seen and kind of your experience in the space. speaker-2: I always wonder when people are gonna introduce my career because it is diverse. Sometimes I get varied. It could be anything, but yes, it is different, if nothing else. Happy to be here and and it's great to be with you to speaker-1: Zach, I also wanna point out that Jenna said fun guest and crisis communications, which I think is l kind of lovely because so many comms professionals are scared and nervous when it comes to crisis comms and kind of deer and headlights. But I think you're gonna demystify that for us a little bit today. speaker-2: Yeah, I might be wired differently, but yes, it is not something to be scared of if you have a path and and can trust your own instincts. speaker-0: And I have to just say, I I think this is probably the reason I said fun and crisis in the same phrase here. I got into PR because of crisis. It was in college. I was listening to a talk. I there's a huge kidnapping case. It was all about crisis comms. And I walked out of there and I was like, that's what I want to do. I wanna do that stuff. Love it. I have dealt with issues here and there in my career, but a heck you've had broader experience in the space. So speaker-1: We didn't show you yet. speaker-0: Why don't we start by you just giving us a little bit of background on your career path? speaker-2: So grew up in New Hampshire. was born and raised here in the New England area. was an ice hockey player my whole life. In college, I was a history student. I worked for the newspaper and the radio station, you know, always enjoyed media, framing stories, being able to tell them. and one thing I I specifically remember was in college I had a a professor that forced us to write to one page. And I think that that lesson has stuck with me and You know, I I tend to say it's the only tangible skill that I carried forward from college. sorry, mom and dad for that, but kind of true. But it, you know, it really is something that I still rely on daily. Graduated college in 2009, so not a ton of jobs for a history major out there. So I worked at a bar for a year, year and a half, was surrounded by a lot of people that wanted to go to graduate school, but were 10 years past where I was. And all I could think was there's no possible way I could be here for 10 more years. So I joined the Navy originally doing something else, ended up getting injured, but met a public affairs officer who was a pretty senior one. And we got along, we're friends, and he recommended me to join the public affairs community in the Navy. What was interesting about that is there's really only a couple hundred public affairs officers for the Navy total. Covering close to a million sailors worldwide, operating in all types of different environments. But really, what did that mean is that you're the junior person in the room, no matter what. In any situation, you are the the youngest and the most junior in terms of rank. So what I think that taught me at a really young age is is how to stand out and how to have impact in a short amount of time where you are not. the main focus, right? And the Navy has so many things operationally going on. How do you fit into something that's so big and so beyond what you're doing? So that really is is what I think I picked a lot from the Navy. And the other part, and and I think you guys have seen this probably a lot in communications, is communications deserves a seat at the table. Sure, you gotta earn it. And I think nowhere is that more true than I some of the places I've seen at at Admiral commands or or working with the Navy SEALs, like you have to be valuable. You can't just expect people to understand your inherent value. So how do you create that value in a really quick way? So that, I mean, that that kind of gives you at least the entryway into how I fell into public affairs. And I'd say backwards, you know, easiest way to put it. speaker-0: Think most people enter the communication space in a backwards in a backwards type of way. So that's that is not necessarily unique. But I am so curious when when you and I were chatting before, you know, who specifically did public affairs for the Navy SEALs. Now, for the layman who's not super familiar with it, there's a couple images that immediately kind of come to mind. There's a couple of phrases, but I feel like, you know. The Navy SEALs are the guys you don't really see, right? You you, me, like I shouldn't see them on the news. I shouldn't know what they're doing. I'm so curious, kind of what that job entailed. And then also you're talking about proving your value. You know, how did you prove your value? Was it by keeping them out of the news? What was that? What'd that look like? speaker-2: yeah. What a what an interesting job. Really something like you said, I thought it was gonna be a job of no comments, right? And you are you operate in the shadows and that's who you are. I think what is what's really interesting about that job is when I started, which is about twenty fifteen, we were After the Osama bin Laden raid, which really brought the Navy SEALs into everybody's living room, right? There was a ton of goodwill from that, obviously. People were really, really proud to be Americans after that raid. It created this, I'll call it a cottage industry of Navy SEALs that would get out and capitalize on that experience. And I think that's the one percent that that you hear from, but really. The goodwill that had been built up since that bin Laden raid was starting to erode right about when I got there. And really where I realized that was the first month that I was there, there were three major national news stories that all involved Navy SEALs. And none of them were good. Yeah. One was a one was a a murder in broad daylight in Santa Monica. speaker-0: That's not what speaker-2: One was a drug ring busted that was like an international drug ring. One was guys stealing weapons from a weapon seal. Just crazy, crazy things. And so crazy that the chaplain who covered all the Navy SEAL teams actually came and checked on me for my mental health. And that's where I realized I was I was outside the norm in what we were what the job was entailing and what people expected me to be dealing with. you know, I I think So crisis mode all the time, looking for flares, having international issues was was part of the job. But really what I think, you know, getting back to making that impact and creating for yourself, you realize when you get into situations, not necessarily in the Navy, but I've carried this through for the rest of my career. You know, when you're assigned somewhere in the Navy, you're there for three years, no matter what. You don't get to extend, you really don't shorten that. So what can I do in three years that is impactful, repeatable, and most importantly, doesn't need me to be there. This should be this should run by itself. So where if I take a vacation or if I, you know, end up in a combat zone, the show goes on. And that that was really how I approached it. So when I got there, there were two parts of the job, one being that spokesperson for For the Navy and being that official government representative, which is table stakes, right? That's that's just being a communicator for an organization. The second part of it was I had a group of public affairs professionals, called them combat cameramen. They were, and literally they were journalists, cameramen, videographers. They could write, edit, produce their own stuff. Really amazing. But when you're in a situation with the Navy SEALs, there's not a lot you can talk about publicly. Right. So how do I turn that group into something that can prove impact and be important to the command, whether I'm there or not? So what I really started to push forward was embedding these professionals into SEAL teams that were being deployed, but not with an eye towards external affairs or public relations, really with an eye towards how do we tell the story of what these guys are doing to the Pentagon. Or to hire commands in special operations command and really use these abilities that we had that were being underutilized to make our command better and to make it stand out. And and really that that's where I think the lasting impact that I had there was was expanding that role to include not just thinking about the public perception, but how do we show The command is moving the ball forward, whether it's in training or on mission or in country. How do we show impact? And really, what I think once we started to have that embedded person and really start to have a group of visual media come out of these SEAL teams, it started to become well, why don't we make this public? Why don't we show some of these raids? And I think you're seeing some of that now, you know, especially with military operations that are going on around the world. We're seeing more video that is actually shot by US military personnel come out and be public. I don't think I started that, but I think part of what I saw was we're not using what we have. So let's use it and let's see where it grows. speaker-0: You almost took an approach of you could equate it to internal comms or stakeholder management, right? Like you started there and you if you relate it to big corporations, you often see those internal comms, channels, and pieces, you get the same questions. Wait a sec. We could just make this one tweak and then it can be used for external. Let's start to do that. And that's kind of how you start to see the shift sometimes in storytelling for big corporations. So it's really interesting. That it is so relatable in such a different field. speaker-2: You'd never think it, right? And it becomes the more I see it, and especially in the corporate environment, the more I start to see the similarities between how a military unit is run and how a corporate organization is run. And, you know, not to go too deep into history, but that comes from World War Two. You know, most of the management classes and organizations that we have now came out of officer training in World War Two. So you're seeing a lot of that same organization across these big corporate entities, all based on how the military and the government operated eighty years ago. speaker-0: You put that history degree to use right there. Look at that. speaker-2: There it is. All right. Two for two. There you go, mom. speaker-1: job Zach. I think you know, kind of what you said about and and I frankly think you should take a little bit more responsibility, Zach. Because to the layman who is just watching on TV, you think it might be an administration by administration choice to give you that behind the scenes look. And, you know, frankly, I kind of just thought it was someone who wanted to show off all the great things that were happening behind the scenes, but it's really interesting to hear How it iterated, particularly in your time with the SEALs. So but I also think that it's a great moment to pivot into that sort of high stress, always on situation. You then migrated to a more traditional comms agency path in your speaker-2: Call it traditional, but yes, a comms agents. speaker-1: Tell us more about that. Maybe I'm just saying traditional than the SEALs, but you were still working on crisis management. Tell us about your your role there. speaker-2: door. So got to the end of my time with the SEALs and had a decision to make about whether to stay in or get out of the Navy. Ultimately chose to get out felt like the right time for the family and really found a job in San Francisco working with really that bleeding edge tech and also a a fairly we'll call them notorious venture capitalist that that we supported both personally and professionally, which You know, some of the things that were we were covering really run the gambit from really early AI, surveillance work. But really what I focused on was that kind of early defense tech ecosystem, which was starting to to really come up in the valley and I think now has exploded into obviously trillion dollar industry between some of the companies that are valued up there. You know, what was interesting to me is I figured out pretty quickly that I was in a I like to call it a contested environment, like I was with the SEALs, where you didn't get the benefit of the doubt. And you don't have people thinking that you're doing, even if you're doing something good, they're going to try to find the bad. So again, it it created that 360 view of really how to approach a story. And you can't think about it in rose-colored glasses. You can't think about it. with goodwill that technology companies had built up to that point, it was starting to fracture. And I think, you know, this was Cambridge Analytica time. So this was really when the world was starting to go against technology companies. So I think that defined a lot of how I was approaching things. And what I learned from that opportunity and and working in that type of environment was, you know, you're almost an investigator. And it's you have to be a better investigator than the person on the other side of the table because if they surprise you or your client, you haven't done a good enough job. So it's I still remember one where where the research got so deep that I was going through high school yearbook photos to try to connect an im like a person at a company with a journalist. And sh sure enough I did. They ended up working on the newspaper together for two years. And I was like, huh, okay, there it is. But it's things like that, right? That you're asked to do because it it becomes a game that's played at such a higher level than what you think it is, where especially when you're dealing with billions and billions of dollars, is that you have to be completely prepared and completely researched for every situation that you're in, or else you're behind and that you can't afford to be behind. speaker-1: I would love to have a beer and really unpack all this. I feel like you're sitting on so many stories that maybe aren't you know, the right place to air here, but that is not sounding like you went from less stress to less stress. It speaker-2: My wife likes to say the only thing that makes my the only thing that gets my heart rate up is death and felonies. So those are the two things that Yeah, so the rest of it you can deal with, right? But but death and felonies are the two things that are hard to come back from. speaker-1: I think on that note, when we talk about the definition of a crisis, there's varying levels, right? Between how intense or how much energy needs to go towards the management. I I think you've seen a very extreme part of the gamut of crisis. And I think it's it's funny, like in in CPG comms, for example, crisis that's probably not that large, probably has the scale and attention at least. In the minds of the client, in the minds of the communication team. That's where agencies can come in and kind of defer and diffuse. How independent of what your wife thinks, how would you define define a crisis? speaker-2: I would define a crisis as something that will cause reputational harm that you have no control over. That is truly what I believe a crisis is. I think you step back from that with the level of control that you can have. You know, a crisis to me, it's happened, right? The genie's out of the bottle. This is this is out there, this is happening, and it's a matter of time before, you know. the the proverbial chit hits the fan, right? Like no matter what, at some point it's gonna happen. So that's how I would define a true crisis. And I think you step back from there based on the level of control that you can have in a situation. speaker-1: Well, and over the years it's become so important in terms of I well, I would say transparency, right? Given how everyone has a voice. How important to use ac is transparency? Is it table stakes? Is it something that needs to be measured according to the crisis and the organization? speaker-2: So I think in crisis world and really again how you earn that seat at the table is you've got to think about it from two sides, internal and external, right? And you're gonna deal with a crisis internally before you deal with it externally, hopefully, fingers crossed. But internally, the thing that I I like to tell most people is never be the junior person with a secret, right? Like you should always be able to tell your boss, hey, I'm I'm hearing this. This is not, this doesn't sound great. Things seem to be going sideways. I'm gonna dig into it, but I need you to know that this is happening. But when you do that, you now own that problem, right? In their eyes, this is yours to own. So really, you know, focusing on that internal stakeholder alignment and stakeholder updating, you know, grab it and run with it. Don't let it become something that is handled by somebody else or is fractured across teams. If it's yours, own it. and what I found the easiest way to do that is create your updates and set your timeline right in the beginning. So you send that first update to your stakeholders. Hey, I'll follow up in eight hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, whatever it is, with an update unless something timely and relevant arises beforehand. That way. You set that schedule. They have something that's that's known and that's repeatable. And you then kind of dictate how people are updated that inform and what information is going to them. Take that approach and shift it to external in the same way. If you're dealing with a crisis with one customer or one client or one issue, take that same approach and have that. Ability to be as transparent as you want to be. Now, when it comes to externally communicating in a crisis, it's gonna depend on a lot of factors. And I mean a lot of factors, whether you take one of the three approaches that I think you can take. My three approaches are tell the truth, tell it all, tell it now. Sounds super easy. You generally don't know the truth right off the bat. So tell the truth you know. But be cognizant of the fact that new facts can arise. So don't hang yourself on something that you say day one that's proven false on day two. Second, no comment, let things die out, let the let the news cycle run its course and move forward. If you're not reliant on markets, external funding, things like that, it's a it's a path you can take and just know there's consequences. The third is the vital boss like to call it the Donald Trump approach. Deny, delay, deflect, make counteraccusations, you know, really go at whatever's coming at you. Not recommended for many, but again, situations dictate certain approaches. And and I think understanding the environment you're in and understanding how, again, different way of creating impact, but how to create impact with communications, sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all. speaker-0: Yeah. Sometimes I mean, I think that's such a great point though. If you have no control over a situation, if you cannot change things, if it has not become a complete shitstorm for you, sometimes it is best to just kind of wait and see. And the news cycle can surprise you. And sometimes whatever may have seemed like an issue twelve hours ago is no longer an issue because something more important came along and people are covering that. So I think that is really, really key to look at. The other thing you you just said kind of in passing, but I think it is really important and a lot of us who have been in the industry for a while know this. But I think when you first start in the industry you don't is when you are faced with an issue or a crisis, it's not days, it's hours. Right. So like updates every two to four hours or every six, twelve hours. That's the cadence you want to look at, not every other day, not every day even, because things are probably shifting rapidly. You have legal involved, you have, you know, executives involved, decisions are being made. Again, whether that's just like what you're doing internally, maybe you're looking at supply chain or you know, anything like that. It is really something that has to happen more in the span of hours. speaker-2: Yeah. And I think again, owning that is where I think you can really understand how people are viewing it, especially internally, right? Because this is gonna surprise anybody, but people start acting weird when in times of stress, right? You're not gonna you're not gonna hear the same people that you've been working with for however long it is. It's gonna change how they operate. Now, part of it is being that steady hand. And understanding that every answer that you get from somebody, there's there's their answer, there's somebody else's answer, and then there's the truth somewhere in the middle, right? And that's that's really the job of those updates is taking all the information from all the people that you know and trust in the organization and finding the truth somewhere in the middle and speaking that truth to your internal stakeholders. That's really where, you know, that that's where I think you can. really create impact. And that also allows you to control what that truth is, right? And really, really be that voice that people can trust. speaker-0: The value of a comms professional, I think. You know, it's you can't just play a giant game of telephone. That's not gonna work. And without a comms professional, that's what it can turn into. I think having that person who is distilling everything down and then speaking that single truth. I have to ask you, because we talked about this before, what is your view on a crisis plan? speaker-2: Mike Tyson said it best, right? Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face. Look, I think a crisis plan, especially in a corporate environment, will serve to placate a lot of people that feel you need. That is the value of a crisis plan. The what your plan, there's that plan that tells people how you handle situations and create holding statements and things like that. But then you have to have your own plan, right? And to me, that starts with your phone tree and that trusted group of people that you can really talk. Because again, over time, especially as you've been either in an industry or at a company for a long time, you develop red flags, right? And as you start to hear about things that are happening, those red flags start to pop up. And as those red flags start to pop up, you need to be able to call somebody that you know and can trust and will tell you. kind of the no shit answer, right? Like is this something I have to be worried about? and, you know, over time, you kind of know the answer before you call, but you're calling to hear what they what their reaction is and what their what their vantage point on the situation is. But really, you know, that's where I that's where my crisis plan kind of begins. And then I think you're you're creating the plan as the situation dictates more than following something that you wrote. months ago because whatever you write down, again, is going out the window the second a true crisis comes. speaker-0: It's a one pager. It's like who needs to be in the know, right? Who's in the room? Who's making decisions? And by the way, are those like three people media trained? Can they get some of the media or not? Like prep to do. And then otherwise it's, you know, deal with it as it comes. speaker-2: Yeah. There there is no in my opinion, you know, you can guess and think about the potential crises that will affect your business. And you can think and understand how how those situations may arise, but the details matter and those details are going to be different no matter what. So understanding where you should look for red flags is probably your your biggest you know, the biggest front end of your plan. And then the back end is is working with people you know and trust to get get to the other side of it. And that that's just finding smart people that you know and trust. speaker-1: Zach, it in twenty twenty, that's when you moved to to the Boston area. You moved into a role in the healthcare space, still very heavy on data. So my question for you, obviously it's a a different set of challenges. So number one, are you getting more sleep at night? And number two, can you speak to what those challenges in in the healthcare space and probably given it is so data data heavy, what those are and what crisis looks like today. speaker-2: Yeah. I have fourteen month old twins, so sleep is not sleep's not a thing. We'll s check back in in like ten years and we'll see where we're at. you know, healthcare was interesting to me. You know, I think I really I really became interested during COVID. and I think most people did in that. The biotech that I that I worked at was developing a COVID therapeutic. And that to me was hair on fire, not knowing what's going on, trying to find a way through a maze that was the FDA in the first Trump administration during COVID. That sounded like a lot of fun to me, which I know makes me different in probably the wrong ways. But, you know, it was an opportunity to operate in a startup, right? And and it was it was really interesting. And I'll end that by saying you don't know what regulatory headwinds are until you've actually like lived it. We've all heard it in earnings calls, but until you've lived it, it's it's something. So really, you know, the opportunity came to to kind of lean back towards technology and the data space and work here with inner systems at a true corporate role, which I admittedly hadn't done before. So it was kind of learning that and being in this true like multinational corporate environment. And what what fascinated me was my experience in the Navy again became supremely relevant. Regulated industry, you know, understanding how the government works. And and I mean that broad strokes wise, right? Not how every regulation is is written and passed, but but knowing the organizations, knowing how the levels of government and how these different things work really has been a a huge benefit for me. And then I think not being a corporate person before has helped me think differently than most of the people that have that have worked in corporate marketing for a very long time. Right. So I I tend to try to think outside of the box and and think about things in a way that maybe haven't been done before. Sometimes that's worked out really well. Sometimes it's flamed out in spectacular fashion. But if you're not trying new stuff, you're just gonna kind of keep doing the same thing. And that's I think that that. the routine is the enemy of progress. I can't remember whose quote that was, but it it it it's so true in trying to market a company or an organization. speaker-0: I love that. Great. Well, Zach, thank you for for so much of your time. I love this conversation. I second what said earlier on. I would love to hear some more detailed stories about your work. As we all know, crisis and issues management is we oftentimes can't share all the details. one of the get you off to the side. Before we close. speaker-1: Fascinating. speaker-2: Part of the role. speaker-0: I wanna ask you the question we ask ourselves every week and we ask every guest that comes on here. I would love for you to talk to us about what your impact has been in the last week or two. speaker-2: Sure. This one's personal and also professional, but it's it's my favorite thing that we do at this company and every year. and I'm gonna plug a nonprofit here real quick, but the home base organization in Boston is a nonprofit that was started by Mass General and the Red Sox Foundation that gives free health care to veterans suffering from PTSD, other mental wounds of war here in Boston. Every year they do A a big fundraiser that they call the run to home base, which is a road race through Boston that actually ends at home plate in Fenway. So Inner Systems has been a a supporter of the run for the last two years, and it's something that I get to lead in my current role. So the last two weeks we've we finally started to plan for it. And I'm just I'm getting jazzed up. And I'm it's one of those ones that really that encapsulates so much of my my personal life, my professional life, and really an organization that you see from the outside and think, yeah, these guys are doing something great. And once you get inside, you realize it's so much bigger and so much better than even it looks on the outside. So even just to play a small role in that and to to be not only a sponsor, but I I think we've we've created like a real partnership where we're really helping each other. It's just my my favorite thing of the year. So if you're in the Boston area July twenty fifth, you should definitely come try to sign up and and run the race, if nothing else, to get on the field at Fenway, because it is a kind of a once in a lifetime experience. speaker-0: I love that so much. I I cannot wait to see that this year. Thank you so much for sharing. Appreciate you taking the time to be with us today, Zach. speaker-2: Yeah, thank you both. It was a great conversation.