Adapting business communications during COVID-19
We’re always “thinking outside the box” about business and communications. So when COVID-19 began turning the world upside down, C2 Strategic Communications quickly expanded tools and strategies to keep communications flowing with and for our clients.
Five Constants: Crisis Communications Tips During Emergency Situations
Good communication can be the difference between success and failure. C2 Strategic and Building Kentucky developed this collection of crisis communications tips and guides to manage your internal and external communications practices.
How to Talk to Media in Times of Crisis
Let’s say your business decides to ask employees to work from home for the next week due to coronavirus… and then you get call from a reporter asking about it.
Building a Better America
More than 16 years ago, I left journalism, moved to Louisville and began a new job focused on getting the region’s citizens involved in determining how and where to build new bridges across the Ohio River. Later this week, half of the Ohio River Bridges Project will come to an end. Bridges named for two […]
On change, vulnerability and humility
Last weekend, an article by Hanna Rosin, co-host of the NPR podcast Invisibilia, caught my eye on Twitter. In “Screw Mastery,” a piece published this summer in the Lenny newsletter, she described making the leap from established writer to novice broadcaster – in her 40s. Her story about the awkward transition from master to newbie […]
Can You Hear Me Now?
For years women have complained about being ignored – or worse, having their ideas poached, at meetings. So it’s no surprise that many of us were fascinated by a recent account of the concrete, practical solution employed by women working at the White House. According to stories like this one , women in White House […]
Communications and transportation: an important intersection
Transportation and communications – two separate and distinct tracks that converge at a very important intersection. Last month, I had the chance to attend the annual meetings of the Mid America Association of State Transportation Officials (MAASTO) and the Southeastern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO). You may ask why I wanted to […]
Three things Pokemon Go! can teach us about business
Parents around the nation are experiencing a new phenomenon. Kids want to know if they can “go outside and play.” They have even asked if they can “walk the dog!” One colleague was treated to a call from his teenage son who wanted to walk to the office and go to lunch with him! This […]
Writing and the Bottom Line
This summer, C2 Strategic Communications hired its first college intern. She asks us a lot of good questions related to career development. Recently, our president, Chad Carlton, mentioned the importance of writing skills in any career, and it reminded me of an Inc. article I read about the demand for solid writers. The National Association […]
Learning from the Louisville Lip: Five Lessons in Communications from Muhammad Ali
Few doubt that Muhammad Ali was the “The Greatest” heavyweight boxer of all times. Not to mention one of the most amazing, controversial, well-known, influential and admired world figures over the past 100 years. Not bad for a poor kid from Louisville’s West End. Since his passing, much has been written about his impact on […]
Quantity and quality: How we measure words.
I’m not one of “those writers” who is always arguing for more space. Nearly everything I write is better when you cut it by 10 percent. I know that. Brevity is the soul of “having any chance to be read.” As a journalist, I watched standard story length fall from about 30 inches when I […]
Finding the Right Tools to Tell Your Story
Crews with Walsh Construction are in the midst of $22 million in improvements to the 52-year old Kennedy Bridge, as part of work on the Downtown Crossing portion of the Louisville – Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project. This isn’t a minor facelift; this is a major overhaul! But this is also an active construction […]
You don’t have to do it all
Having spent the bulk of my career in budget-strapped newspapers, small businesses and a nonprofit, I’m always looking for the most efficient, effective way to get things done. That’s why a recent Inc. article caught my eye: “7 Outsourceable Tasks That Are Stealing Your Productivity.” Almost half of those tasks were communication-related: Graphic design and […]
The Question Game
A few months ago, the New York Times ran a story about a psychology test, suggesting that a set of 36 questions could make people fall in love. The author tried it, and apparently, it worked for her. It worked for the Times, too. So many people read the story that the Times embedded the […]
Inspiring Future Bridge Builders
The once hard-to-envision clichés are coming into focus – the end is in sight, we’re seeing the light at the end of the table and hitting the home stretch. Work on the Louisville – Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project is rapidly reaching its conclusion. By the end of this year, the Abraham Lincoln Bridge […]
Personal Branding and Downton Abbey
When the final wedding took place Downton Abbey this week, the most popular show in PBS history closed – and so did its effort to explore people living in a time of rapid change. (The 1910s and 20s.) We also live in a time of rapid change. So we identified with these hapless characters as […]
Blowing Your Own Horn
For the past five years, we’ve helped dozens of companies, agencies and organizations tell their stories. The results can be measured in many ways – from headlines to bottom lines. The external value is almost always greater audience awareness. But the overlooked internal benefit is a surer, shared sense of mission for the entire staff. […]
The Power of Positive Posting
What gets social media traction? Earlier this month, my social media feed started noting that Louisville had topped a hot new list from National Geographic. We are, according to the post, the No. 1 food city in the world! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo… wait? What? Seriously? Louisville does have a super-cool locavore food scene, some really […]
Four Minutes Flat
Just before the service began, I said to my eulogists (including Henry Kissinger), “I have snipers positioned up there”– pointing to the temple – “with instructions to shoot anyone who goes over four minutes.” – Christopher Buckley, “Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir” Think back over the many speeches you have heard: your high school […]
Getting to know ourselves
When I hear “team building,” I cringe and think of trust falls. As a klutz with a fear of falling, I was relieved that we took a different approach at C2 Strategic Communications. Led by Human Momentum, our entire team took the Strengths Finder test to discover our individual top five strengths out of 34 […]
Bridges have names, but what about faces?
As we near the opening of the new Downtown bridge, one question lingers in the minds of many — what will it be called? While that detail has yet to be determined, reporters did get a glimpse of what its face (or a couple of its many faces) look like when brothers Charles and Mitchell […]
