Our guest today is Melissa Agnes. Author of Crisis Ready: Building an Invincible Brand in an Uncertain World, Melissa is a leading authority on crisis preparedness, reputation management, and brand protection.  Melissa’s area of expertise is something that most of us don’t enjoy thinking about. She works with organizations to explore questions such as: What will happen if things go off the rails and we find our business in a major crisis situation? Are we ready for the worst? Do we have what it takes to handle a crisis in an effective manner? Can our brand and our reputation survive a major crisis? And most importantly: Is there a way to prevent what’s preventable? After a recent crop of scandals—including Uber, Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, and Boeing, just to name a few—companies and boards have started to emphasize shaping a healthy culture as a way to reduce risk. If you and your company want to create an invincible brand, make sure you don’t miss this conversation. Episode Highlights In this interview, Melissa and I discuss: Melissa’s early cultural influences How she found her calling and where she found the strength to pursue it What helped Melissa persists through the most challenging stages of building her business How she defines crisis and the key differences between an issue and a crisis What is crisis readiness and why you can throw your crisis management plan away How to identify your high-risk scenarios What were the first telltale signs of Uber’s culture crisis Examples of a crisis well managed and how to emerge from a crisis stronger than before