The First Mistake That Will Sink You in a Crisis

The Breakdown:

The first move most people make in a crisis is often the one that causes the most damage. It happens when emotion outruns strategy, and the brain mistakes public pressure for personal danger. The result is impulsive action, usually in the form of a rushed post, a scrambled statement, or a desperate attempt to make the backlash go away. But the real problem isn’t public. It’s neurological.

This episode explains why the body’s threat response takes over during high-stakes moments, and how that hijack shuts down the very part of the brain responsible for leadership, regulation, and long-term thinking. It’s not about judgment. It’s about biology.

This episode walks through what this looks like in real-time, how to recognize the signs, and what to do before speaking on the record, hitting publish, or involving legal.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've had a week, actually two.
I was supposed to be taking abreak, like a two-week break,
because I know September's gonnabe a huge month of crisis, but
apparently crisis doesn't sleepand neither does my calendar.
Here's what's been happening.
My team has been workingthrough a tech issue connecting
my scheduling software with mymeeting platform.
In the meantime, people arestill finding the link on my

(00:20):
website to book 60 or 90-minutesessions.
Most people don't even knowthat I offer these sessions.
I don't promote them heavily,but they're there and right now
they're full.
I keep taking them because oneI don't want to cancel someone
in a crisis just because mybackend isn't working.
These aren't casual check-ins.
These are public, high stakes,emotionally charged crises.

(00:40):
Some of the people I'm speakingto are public figures.
Others are leaders having avery private panic or someone
online a known person onlinegoing through a viral spiral.
But across the board, there's athrough line, a pattern, and
it's the same one I see everyyear, especially around this
time.
So this week on the podcast thelast one before the summer ends

(01:03):
in the US I want to talk aboutthe number one reason people
self-destruct in a public crisis, whether you're in the
spotlight right now or watchingsomeone else go through it.
This will apply.
Hey there, welcome to the PRBreakdown.
I'm your host, molly McPherson,and let me say this up front
I'm not a therapist, but I'vehad so many PR calls that turn

(01:23):
into therapy sessions.
Not a therapist, but I've hadso many PR calls that turn into
therapy sessions.
I've started calling them whatthey are, and there have been
days where I've thought aboutgoing back to school to become a
therapist honestly because Ienjoy it so much Until my friend
and colleague, doug, remindedme that if I did, I wouldn't be
able to talk about anythingpublicly, and I thought, hmm,
you have a point there.
Not that I talk about people'sprivate crisis.

(01:44):
There's always aconfidentiality agreement with
every single client I work with.
However, I can talk about thepatterns, and right now, the
pattern is clear In my role as acrisis manager.
People call me when somethingbreaks and recently, more and
more of these calls are notabout the external noise,
they're about what's happeninginside.
Usually, I enlighten the personthat they have a problem inside

(02:07):
the house, like within theirculture.
But there's also another crisishappening even deeper.
Sometimes the call comes fromthe person at the center of the
crisis.
Sometimes it's their operationslead or comms director, someone
just outside the eye of thestorm who can see the damage but
can't get through.
They're hoping I can.
The story is almost always thesame.

(02:28):
The issue may look like a PRproblem, but it's not.
It's a neurological problem,it's biological, it's behavioral
.
The call is coming from insidethe brain.
Here's what I mean.
Located deep inside thetemporal lobe is the amygdala.
Now are you thinking, molly,you have no credentials to talk
about this?
You would be right.

(02:48):
I do not have any certification, any higher ed credentials that
says I have any right to talkabout this.
But I do have Google and I haveexperience.
And of course I have Dr Abbywho monthly joins us on our
Substack calls.
We always talk about theamygdala and we always talk
about what happens when peoplejust spiral in these crises.

(03:09):
She'll break it down from atherapist's point of view.
But the amygdala even if you hada high school biology class,
you probably learn about it.
It's that small almond-shapedcluster of neurons.
It's your brain surveillancesystem.
Its job is to detect threatquickly.
That threat can be physical, itcould be a loud noise, a car
swerving towards you.
It could be personal aconfrontation, an accusation,

(03:30):
but it can also be reputationala leaked email, a really bad hit
piece in the press, a viralTikTok or backlash in the
comment section.
The amygdala is the brainsurveillance system.
I am the crisis surveillancesystem.
My job is also to detect threatand that's why I tell them.
The amygdala does notdistinguish between any of those

(03:53):
categories.
Right now, what you're goingthrough, your brain is sensing
danger and it's pulled the alarm.
That signal is getting routedto okay, back to non-Dr Molly.
The hypothalamus that acts likeyour body's command center, the
sympathetic nervous systemkicks in.
That's the adrenaline flooding,cortisol spiking.
I see people on these calls,whether they're in person or

(04:15):
virtual.
I can tell that their heart isracing.
I can tell when the breathingquickens, the muscles are
tightening.
I can tell just by how they'resitting, how they're talking to
me, what they're doing withtheir hands.
It's in that moment that myrational brain because I'm using
a prefrontal cortex I canrecognize that their prefrontal
cortex went offline.
That's an amygdala hijack.

(04:36):
It was coined by psychologistDaniel Goleman.
It describes the moment whenyour emotional brain overrides
your rational brain, and here'swhy it matters in a PR crisis.
The prefrontal cortex is thepart of your brain responsible
for judgment, self-regulationand long-term thinking.

(04:57):
It's where your leadershipvoice lives.
It's where your values-baseddecisions are made.
In these calls I am trying torationally connect the person
when they're at their mostemotional.
I'm telling them that theirbrain has been hijacked.
My job is to tell them thispublic attack has really created
a brain hijack and your systemis temporarily shutting down.
Your emotional brain is drivingthe bus right now and that's

(05:18):
usually when the call comes in.
As I mentioned, I see all thephysical signs of it, but also
there's this obsessive urge tosay something.
We have to get something out.
We have to do it now.
They're just obsessed becausethey think if they say something
or do something it'simmediately going to go away and
that's not a communicationproblem.
That reaction creates a biggercommunication problem.

(05:38):
But this is a nervous systemissue that looks like a
communication problem and if Idon't address the hijack first,
any PR advice I give falls flatbecause the brain can't hear it.
And here's what it sounds likeon these calls, particularly in
the six weeks that I've beentaking calls.
I need to post something rightnow.
I need to say something rightnow.
I've written this statement 14times.

(05:59):
None of it feels right.
I need you to rewrite it for me.
I need to post something onTikTok immediately.
Should I do an apology post orshould I just address what's
happening there?
I want people to know exactlywhat they did to me, point by
point by point.
I want to explain it.
Here's another big one.
I hear a lot.
I want to get legal involved.
Now.
I tell them it may seem likestrategic thinking, but what

(06:21):
you're doing right now isemotional processing.
So here's what I tell clientsand here's what I'm going to
tell you now.
When you're under attack andyour brain has been hijacked, do
these things?
Just picture me in the roomwith you telling you this One
recognize the signs.
If your heart is racing, yourshoulders are tight, you feel a
compulsion to respond.
Right now, that's your amygdalatalking.
The best move in that moment isjust to stop, not speak, and if

(06:44):
this is personal, just put downthe phone.
Don't reply to the text.
Two breathe.
By the way fun fact my favoritePearl Jam song is called Just
Breathe.
Listen to that song.
That's my personalrecommendation.
I love that song.
That's why I tell like my kidsI said in the words of Eddie
Vedder just breathe.
This isn't mindfulnessplatitude.
It is science.

(07:05):
Deep, slow breathing helpsregulate your nervous system and
brings your prefrontal cortexback online.
Three create space between youand the crisis.
Don't read the comments.
Don't check DMs.
Don't peek at the quotes.
Don't read the news article.
Don't watch the video ofsomeone destroying you.
Hand it off to someone who'semotionally neutral and knows

(07:27):
what to filter.
The closer you are to thecrisis, the more likely you are
to pour gas on it.
I always tell people find theemployee, find someone not
related to you.
Recently, someone said could Ihave my husband do that?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Get someone who's notemotionally tied in.
Four wait before speaking, andI'm saying this as a crisis
strategist.

(07:47):
I have plenty of informationout there.
It's even in my book.
If you've been called outwithin 15 minutes, you have to
say something somewhere.
Oh my gosh, that is all over mymaterial.
But now the algorithm hascaught up with the amygdala.
A 24-hour pause can save you 24days of damage control.
If you're in a hijack, you'renot thinking clearly, and if
you're not thinking clearly,you're not communicating wisely.

(08:09):
Now, this isn't every singlecrisis, so take this for what
I'm telling you.
This is typically for theseviral crises.
On TikTok, on Instagram,there's a Facebook group going
against you and it's justheightened and it won't stop.
Take a breath, you don't needto respond right away and five
return to values.
As you go through this response,ask yourself what do I want to

(08:30):
be known for when all of this isover?
Not in terms of perception, butin terms of principle?
That's the question your cortexis equipped to answer.
And here's the part most peopledon't realize the biggest risk
in public backlash isn't theaudience, it's the overreaction.
You can't fix what people thinkabout you while you're still
panicking.
That's why they call me.
I'm the regulator in the roomuntil they can be whole again.

(08:51):
You're not just hiring me towrite the message.
You're hiring me to protectyour decision-making until your
brain catches up, because theright words don't come from
panic.
They come from clarity, andclarity only comes when the
hijack ends.
That's all for this week on thepodcast.
Take a breath and let yourbrain, your cortex, take the
lead.
Bye for now.