BREAKING BAD NEWS
It’s a playbook. It’s a blue print. It’s the definitive crisis communication guide.
Brands don’t handle crisis situations every day. At the same time, unexpected situations, malicious events and head-scratching screw ups happen all the time. Whether it’s a product issue, a system failure, a public incident or a wave of online criticism, every organization faces threats that can damage its reputation.
Throw out the 100-page, dust-covered three-ring crisis binder that hasn’t been reviewed in years. In Breaking Bad News: 12 Essential Crisis Communication Tools, crisis communication veteran Jeff Hahn shows how even brands too busy to worry about crisis communications can rapidly put proven tools to work when the spaghetti hits the fan.
The centerpiece is Jeff’s Rapid Response model, developed after more than seven years of research, design and testing in scores of crisis situations. The model makes a big promise: If brands can effectively perform five actions, in sequence, they can successfully navigate virtually any bad news break.
Breaking Bad News presents useful models for crisis management as well as tools you can use to respond to any crisis -- within two hours! This book is helpful to anyone who is in any way responsible for responding to brand emergencies.
Jeff Hahn
Jeff Hahn grew up on a farm in northeast Iowa in the midst of the late 1970s, early 1980s farm crisis. That era for his family was punctuated by a tornado that destroyed their farm in 1975, an event that eventually nudged him off the farm. In exchange for a free haircut and bus ticket, he headed to San Antonio, Texas, where he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Following four years of honorable service, he graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio and after a short time at the Kennedy Space Center working for Lockheed Space Operations Company, he joined Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector in Austin, Texas, where he spent 15 years learning the public relations and crisis communication craft.
Fast forward a few decades and today, Jeff is the owner and principal of Hahn, Marketing & PR based in Austin, TX. His team of 45 people serve brands that provide the essentials of life: energy and utilities, health and nutrition.
Jeff received his master’s degree in Communication Studies from Texas State University, has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and an associate’s degree from the Community College of the Air Force. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife Laurie. Their daughters Haleigh and Harper are free in the world creating wonderful crises of their own.
The anthem that puts most of his younger years in perspective is John Mellencamp’s Rain on the Scarecrow but his favorite song is Staying Alive by the Bee Gees. His favorite movie? No surprise –– it’s Apocalypse Now.
Invite Jeff to Speak
Jeff regularly speaks about crisis communication, typically through keynote addresses and occasionally specialized workshops.
Speaking fees depend on audience, length of presentation, audio/video rights and travel complexity. The speaking fee is waived in exceptional circumstances. Normally, speaking fees are due five days prior to the event and are non-refundable.
