Here's what we know about the fatal shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin's movie set. 

• Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that struck cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in the chest, and the director, Joel Souza, in the shoulder.
• Baldwin is cooperating with the investigation and (as of now) in contact with Hutchins' family. 
• Earlier, some crew members reportedly walked off set over working conditions. 
• Alec Baldwin described the shooting as a "tragic accident." 

What we don't know?

How will this tragedy affect Alec Baldwin's reputation? 

This episode provides a 10-point checklist to guide you through communications when a crisis arises, particularly from one you caused.

Click HERE to download your copy of the Crisis Communication Rapid Response Checklist. 

Mentioned on the podcast:

• Alec Baldwin - Wikipedia 
• Episode 115: The ONE Word That Will Stop a Crisis Dead in its Tracks 
• Episode 155: The First 48 hours: Amtrak's Effective Crisis Response After the Derailment 

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

© Molly McPherson 2021 

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
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Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

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© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Vaccines are on the minds of many businesses, especially small and midsize employers. 

About two-thirds of small employers believe their employees should be vaccinated, and more than half receive questions about vaccinations. 

If you want to learn how to communicate vaccination mandates externally, this episode is for you. 

No politics. 
No position. 
Just one PR tip for when vaccine compliance is 100%. 

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

© Molly McPherson 2021 

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
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© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

It only takes a few moments for people to form an opinion about you when they see you speak in public. 

If you nail it, your reputation is boosted. 

Bungle it - your reputation is at stake. 

If you want to appear confident on stage, you have to actually be confident in yourself. A challenge for nervous speakers. However, there are some tricks to help. Speaking coach Kerri Garbis discusses three effortless methods for capturing confidence on stage.

Mentioned on the podcast:

• Kerri Garbis from Ovation - Get your speakers from the page to the stage
• Episode 124: How to Speak with Impact: Tips for commanding the room with Allison Shapira
• Episode 18: The Secret to Being a Great Speaker 

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

© Molly McPherson 2021 

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
• https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson
• https://www.instagram.com/molly.mcpherson/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mollymcpherson/
  
  

© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

In the week since an Amtrak train derailed in rural Montana, killing three people and injuring dozens more, federal investigators are still trying to determine what caused the derailment.

Despite the rarity of situations such as these, Amtrak needed a crisis plan to be ready at any moment. 

In this episode, we explore the first 48 hours of Amtrak's response to the Empire Builder derailment near Joplin, Montana. 

What communicators can learn from the rapid response of Amtrak and how they leveraged digital methods:  

1. Media page on the website   
2. CEO statement 
3. What was included in the statement and what was missing? 

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

© Molly McPherson 2021

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
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© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

What happens when an army of people begins to dig to solve a mystery? 

They quickly find answers. 

The intense interest in the Gabby Petito missing case (now murder) also led to an intense interest in discovering why the case became such a sensational news story.

The answer: social media sleuthing

Young, social media-savvy women used TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to desperately get to the bottom of what happened to the 22-year-old who documented her travels to state and national parks with her boyfriend / fiancé Brian Laundrie for their YouTube channel and Instagram. 

The same desire to help find the Gabby Petito killer is also used to investigate any wrongdoing by a company, organization or leadership. 

In this episode, connecting true crime obsession to why communicators must be a little obsessed with the online digging of their customers. 

And why social media sleuthing can bring it all down quickly if you have something to hide.

Three ways to mitigate and control the chaos when people decide to start digging around about your organization. 

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
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© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

We've all done it.

The email is written.
The email is sent.
The email is WRONG.

Even though sending a mistake via email is a universal problem, the feeling of having an entire distribution list open that email and see your error will always feel like a kick in the gut.

But it doesn't have to. What if there was a way to turn that slip into an opportunity to make you look even better?

On the podcast, three quick and straightforward steps of recovery for backtracking when you sent the wrong email. In this post, I’ll highlight specific use cases to show you how to transform your mistake into an opportunity to earn the respect back from your email list.  

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
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© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

In this episode, how to use the backpedal in a PR response - but only if you really need to. 

Exploring the use of this response tactic as a communication for self-defense. This tactic is used as a result of an incident in which a person's character is called into question or a perceived wrongdoing.   

Listen to four examples from the last few weeks and the rating given for their reputation outcome: a thumbs up or thumbs down.

We'll look at the response tactic, as it refers to the restoration and renewal of their image.

Let's discuss how they rate on the use of the backpedal: 

• John Mulaney 
• Rachel Hollis
• Alex Murdaugh 
• OnlyFans

Mentioned on the podcast 

• 129: How to Avoid the Excruciating Public Shaming from Cancel Culture: Lessons from Rachel Hollis

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

© Molly McPherson 2021

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
• https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson
• https://www.instagram.com/molly.mcpherson/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mollymcpherson/
  
  

© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

From time to time, it is normal to be anxious when you are in front of a group of people.
 
Whether it's in a group of people gathered at a work conference social hour or speaking alone on stage, being able to calm yourself in the moment is often easier said than done.

If the body decides to show external signs of anxiety from being front to center, you need quick and simple tricks to calm it down.
 
On the podcast, useful and actionable tips that you can test next time you need to calm down quickly.

Including: 

1. What to think. 
2. What to drink. 
3. What to do as soon as the anxiety sets in. 

Mentioned on the podcast: 

• Episode 18: The Secret to Being a Great Speaker with Gina Razón
• Episode 124: How to Speak with Impact: Tips for Commanding the Room with Allison Shapira 

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

© Molly McPherson 2021

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
• https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson
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© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Interviewing someone for a news story, video, or podcast can be extremely stressful.

As an interviewer, part of your job - after you conducted your research - is knowing how to ask the right questions to get your source talking, while keeping them comfortable.

To do that, an interviewer needs to understand how to listen well. The trick is listening in a way that gets your subject talking and sharing. 

Before you jot down your notes or hit record on the conversation with your source, use these 10 listening tricks to get the most out of your interview.

Including: 

1. Make eye contact. 
2. Be conversational. 
3. Listen for what isn't being said. 

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

© Molly McPherson 2021

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
• https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson
• https://www.instagram.com/molly.mcpherson/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mollymcpherson/
  
  

© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Are you someone who thinks Twitter is a waste of time? 

Or are you someone who understands the value of a social media platform with nearly 200 million active daily users, but feel the overwhlem of the site and don't know where to start? 

This episode will help you adapt your conversations in a way that can strengthen your authority and influence as a thought leader by using Twitter beyond just likes and retweets. 

In this episode, 10 ways to crush it on Twitter. 

Listen + Subscribe Stitcher or Apple Podcasts

© Molly McPherson 2021 

Want More Behind the Breakdown?
Follow The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack for early access to podcast episodes, exclusive member chats, weekly lives, and monthly workshops that go deeper than the mic. It's the insider’s hub for communicators who want strategy with spine—and a little side-eye where it counts.

Follow Molly → @MollyMcPherson
Subscribe to PR Breakdown on Substack → prbreakdown.media

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow & Connect with Molly:

• https://www.youtube.com/mollymcpherson
• https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson
• https://www.instagram.com/molly.mcpherson/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mollymcpherson/
  
  

© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson