Crisis Communications in a 4.3-Second World: Lessons from Mark Pfeifle

A conversation with Mark Pfeifle, Founder of Off the Record Strategies

When a crisis hits, most organizations scramble. They hold emergency meetings, draft reactive statements, and try to find the right spokesperson — all while the story is already writing itself without them. According to Mark Pfeifle, founder of Off the Record Strategies and one of the most experienced crisis communications professionals in the country, that scramble is entirely preventable.

Pfeifle joined me on a recent episode of The Friday Reporter, and the conversation was, in a word, unforgettable. From growing up in a double-wide trailer in North Dakota to serving as Deputy National Security Advisor under President George W. Bush, Pfeifle has navigated crises at every level — personal, political, and geopolitical. The throughline in all of it? Preparation is everything.

It's Not If. It's When.

The most important mindset shift Pfeifle urges his clients to make is simple but profound: stop asking if a crisis will happen and start preparing for when it does.

"It's all about preparation," he told me. "Are you training for the crisis that's going to happen? Not that could happen — that will happen."

That distinction matters more than most people realize. Organizations that treat crisis planning as a theoretical exercise rarely execute well under real pressure. Those that train regularly — using real-world tabletop scenarios and honest self-assessment — discover the gaps before those gaps become headlines.

Pfeifle walked me through a striking example: a crisis training session he ran for law enforcement agencies in the South following the Uvalde school shooting. Midway through the exercise, the simulation had to stop. Why? Because local, county, state, and federal officers realized they were all operating on different radio bands — they couldn't even communicate with each other during a simulated active shooter scenario.

"If this was a real-world situation, you can't even talk to each other to figure out who's going in the front entrance, who's securing the perimeter." The fix was simple once they knew the problem existed. The point is: find out now, not then. Every organization — whether it's a corporation, a campaign, a nonprofit, or a government agency — has that kind of gap somewhere. Your job is to find it before the crisis does.

The Pfeifle 50-20: Build Your Validator Network Before You Need It

One of the most actionable frameworks Mark shared is what he calls the Pfeifle 50-20.

The concept is straightforward: identify 50 validators — trusted voices who can speak credibly on your behalf — and map out 20 channels through which those validators can engage the moment a crisis breaks. The goal isn't just to have a list sitting in a drawer. It's to bring those people into your world before the crisis, so they feel ownership, familiarity, and readiness when you actually need them.

"When a crisis happens, there's nobody helping them be an echo chamber," Mark explained. "You've got to have a team of people behind you helping move your message for you."

He's seen firsthand what happens when that network atrophies. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he watched validators quietly disappear as public sentiment shifted and fatigue set in. By the time the administration needed them most, the bench had thinned. The lesson: build your bench during the good times. Know who your Irish uncle is — or your trusted advisor, your industry peer, your community anchor — whoever your audience will listen to. And make sure they know they're part of your team, not just a name on a list.

You Get One Chance to Get It Right

Modern crisis communications happens against a backdrop that would have been unimaginable a generation ago. The average soundbite in a broadcast news story was 43 seconds in 1968. Today, Pfeifle told me, it's approximately 4.3 seconds — one-tenth of what it once was. Add AI-generated disinformation that can circle the globe within hours, a fractured media landscape, and a deeply polarized public, and the margin for error has essentially disappeared.

He made this vivid with a story about being in a restaurant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the same evening a high-profile political figure was shot at a college campus in Idaho. The men seated next to him were already deep into a detailed conspiracy theory — confident, full of specifics — with no factual basis whatsoever. "Here I am across the world, and the disinformation has already made it around the world within a couple of hours."

In this environment, media preparedness isn't optional. Pfeifle told me he's stopped calling it "media training" altogether — too many executives hear that phrase and treat it as a checkbox. What he's actually training clients to be is confident, effective executive communicators who are ready at any moment, whether the call is from a local radio station in Bismarck or a CNN anchor on deadline.

I've seen this play out firsthand. He described preparing a county sheriff in North Dakota who never imagined he'd be on national television — right up until he was, in the middle of the DAPL pipeline protests with thousands of demonstrators, cameras everywhere, and the whole country watching. A quick murder board, the right questions, and the sheriff was ready.

"You have a 30-year career," Mark said. "It could all come together in 30 seconds of what you say on TV."

Leave It Better Than You Found It

Perhaps the most memorable thread running through Pfeifle's career is this: even in the worst situations, look for what's working and carry it forward.

He described discovering Sheriff Chris Swanson of Genesee County, Michigan, who during the George Floyd protests made the decision to lay down his baton, take a knee, and march alongside the protesters. Not a single arrest. No violence. And inside his jail, something even more remarkable — prisoners who had once filled the space with chaos were quietly typing away on laptops, studying for GEDs, earning vocational certifications, building resumes. Pfeifle saw it, recognized it as something worth replicating, and helped spread that model to more than 20 counties through the National Sheriff's Association — including two in his home state of North Dakota.

"Find something that works within all the horrific situations. Nurture it, and make it a success."

That's the kind of counsel that makes a crisis communicator worth their weight — not just putting out fires, but having the presence of mind to recognize what to carry forward when the smoke clears.

Find Mark Pfeifle

Mark Pfeifle is the founder of Off the Record Strategies. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or reach out through his firm for crisis communications counsel, executive communications training, and strategic advisory work.

The Friday Reporter is hosted by Lisa Camooso Miller. Listen wherever you get your podcasts — and subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

What Real Coaching Looks Like — and Why It Changes Everything

What Real Coaching Looks Like — and Why It Changes Everything

A conversation with Kasia Hatcher, Founder of The Trusted Edge

If you've ever felt like your business is doing well but something isn't quite working — like you're always catching your breath, always a little behind — this conversation is for you.

Kasia Hatcher is the founder of The Trusted Edge, and she works with executives and entrepreneurs to build smarter systems, navigate hard conversations, and grow in a way that's actually sustainable. She has also been one of the most impactful advisors in my own business, which is exactly why I wanted her on The Friday Reporter.

What follows are the ideas from our conversation that I keep coming back to.

Your invisible operating system

Most leadership development focuses on skills, tools, and behaviors — what Kasia calls "the apps." Her work goes deeper.

"Think of every adult as having an invisible operating system," she told me. "I work on the OS underneath — the invisible patterns that have been running your leadership without your awareness. Once you can see them, the grip loosens. That's when everything else finally sticks."

That framing reoriented how I think about why certain habits never stick no matter how hard I try. It's not discipline. It's that I was running the wrong update.

Why most systems fail

If you've ever downloaded a productivity framework, tried it for two weeks, and quietly abandoned it — Kasia has a precise explanation for why.

"They built it for someone else's business. They heard 'this worked for me' or AI generated a 12-step framework and they adopted it wholesale."

Her fix is deceptively simple: start with one question. What's one thing you do repeatedly right now that, if it went away, would free you for the actual strategic work only you can do?

"That answer tells us everything about where to start."

And when the rules inevitably change? The system needs to be agile — but the foundation doesn't. "Your SOPs, your documented rhythms — here's the test: if you handed someone access to your documents tomorrow, could they run it like you? That's the gold."

On AI — and where people get it wrong

Kasia works extensively on integrating AI into client workflows, and she named two specific mistakes she sees constantly.

The first: outsourcing too much, too fast. "AI pulls from the mean average of everything out there. If you haven't grounded it in who you are and what you actually need, you get slop."

The second: fear. "It's still new. And fear makes everything complicated. Start with one problem, one workflow."

She shared an example of a client who felt completely overbooked. Rather than a sweeping overhaul, Kasia gave her a single prompt — a calendar audit for analysis, not scheduling. How are you actually spending your time? What patterns aren't serving your priorities? One prompt. Total shift.

That's what AI does when it's pointed at the right problem.

The hardest part: conversations you've been avoiding

This is where Kasia earns her reputation. Her framework for hard conversations is one of the most practical things I've taken into my own work.

The biggest mistake people make, she says, is going in trying to manage the other person's emotions instead of their own groundedness. "They've rehearsed how the other person will react. They've pre-softened, pre-apologized, pre-justified — and they walk in already behind."

Her approach, grounded in the work of Chris Voss and Jefferson Fisher: your job is not to control their reaction. Your job is to stay grounded enough to have the conversation at all.

The second trap is leading with feelings instead of facts. "Feelings are how you close, not how you open. Facts first — clean, neutral, brief. One sentence. Then stop talking."

And the opener she gave me that I've already used: "There's something I should have named sooner. I'm naming it now."

She walked me through a client who had been avoiding a call for two weeks because taking a new piece of work would have created a conflict with her most important long-term client. After one coaching session, the client made the call that night. No blowup. No fallout. She referred a colleague who could take the work — and the long-term client she protected came back with a new proposal that would yield more than the original opportunity.

A three-minute conversation she dreaded for two weeks opened more doors than it closed.

What people actually need right now

I asked Kasia what she sees leaders needing most in this moment of uncertainty and rapid change. Her answer was immediate: space.

"Burnout isn't about doing too much. It's about being so disconnected from yourself — your body, your intuition — that you're never quite operating at full capacity. You're always running at 47%. Space is what restores that."

And on the emotional reality of building something: "Building a business is deeply personal — it's identity, it's worth, it's sacrifice. The emotional journey isn't a detour from the work. It is the work."

The leaders who grow, she told me, are the ones who treat the business as a system and themselves as learners. The ones who stay stuck treat the business as an extension of who they are — so every setback feels personal and every pivot feels like failure.

One thing you can do this week

Kasia left listeners with two small moves:

Pick one thing you do repeatedly and write it down as a process. And schedule one non-negotiable thinking block per week — and protect it like a client meeting you cannot cancel.

"Those two moves change how a business feels."

Find Kasia Hatcher

Kasia Hatcher is the founder of The Trusted Edge. You can reach her at thetrustededge.com or connect with her on LinkedIn. She offers a complimentary consultation call for new clients.

The Friday Reporter is hosted by Lisa Camooso Miller. Listen wherever you get your podcasts — and subscribe so you don't miss a conversation.

Inside the CHIPS Act: National Security, Semiconductors and Washington Strategy

A conversation with Katherine Mitchell, DLA Piper

If you want to understand one of the most consequential policy stories in Washington right now, you need to understand semiconductors — and you need to talk to someone who has worked on this issue from nearly every angle: Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, the Department of Commerce, and now the private sector.

Katherine Mitchell is a policy expert at DLA Piper who spent a decade in government at the intersection of national security and emerging technology. She served as chief of staff to the CHIPS R&D office at the Department of Commerce — helping stand up the $50 billion CHIPS for America program from scratch — and before that worked at the Department of Defense and on Capitol Hill. She joined me on The Friday Reporter to talk about semiconductors, influence, reputation and what building a career in Washington actually looks like.

Why semiconductors are a national security issue

Most people think of chips as something inside their phone. Katherine helped me understand why they're much more than that.

"Chips — semiconductors — are these little tiny technologies that live in everything we use. Inside your smartphone, inside your car, inside your refrigerator, but also inside our nation's defense systems. Tanks. Fighter jets. They're everywhere."

The vulnerability became impossible to ignore during the pandemic, when supply chain restrictions in Asia made semiconductors nearly impossible to get. Car production slowed. Consumer electronics backed up. And the national security implications became clear: if you can't manufacture your own chips, you can't guarantee your own defense capabilities.

Congress responded with the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 — a bipartisan law designed to revitalize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and fund the next generation of advanced chip research and development. Katherine was on Capitol Hill when it passed, then moved to Commerce to help implement it.

"Getting to see the legislation pass and then go implement it — that's the process working the way it's supposed to."

What success looks like — and why it takes time

I asked Katherine how we'll know if the CHIPS program worked. Her answer was honest and instructive.

"It will take a decade or two to know if we've done it right. There are still a lot of real-world negotiations, building of foundries and fabs that have to take place to realize the benefits. AI can certainly help make that go faster — the two are linked — but it doesn't solve the problem on its own."

What she's watching in the meantime: how Congress responds to implementation changes between the Biden and Trump administrations, how the White House's AI framework connects to the semiconductor ecosystem, and whether the companies making these bets can bring their technologies from lab to production.

Relationship building is the foundation — full stop

No matter the industry or the issue, Katherine kept coming back to the same first principle for navigating Washington: relationships before policy.

"The first thing you have to do is build relationships with the people who are best poised to work with you and to help you. You can only get to procurement and policy development after you've built those really strong relationships."

This was especially true, she said, for the startups she works with — innovators working on genuinely important problems who simply don't know how to connect with the right people inside government.

"Some of my favorite clients are the ones starting up and wanting to get running because they've got good ideas. They just don't know how to execute them."

Technology, she noted, no longer wears the halo it once did. The window to build credibility early — before narratives harden — is narrow. Getting the relationship strategy right from the start matters more than it ever has.

"Wear your honors lightly"

When I asked Katherine for the best career advice she'd received, she reached back to something an administrative dean said to her in graduate school — not framed as career advice at the time, but internalized as exactly that.

Wear your honors lightly.

"I heard that as: approach everything with humility. Be willing to learn. Be willing to lean in. If you always endeavor to be the smartest person in the room, you'll never learn anything new."

It's a principle she's carried through every role — from the Pentagon to Capitol Hill to helping build a $50 billion federal program from the ground up.

The risk that paid off

Leaving a chief of staff role on Capitol Hill to go stand up an entirely new office at Commerce was, by Katherine's own description, a risk.

"Moving away from Capitol Hill to help stand up a $50 billion program at the Department of Commerce — I was nervous to do that. But man, I'm so glad I did."

She built it while making it happen. And it put her in exactly the position she's in now: someone who understands both the policy intent and the implementation reality of one of the most consequential technology investments in American history.

What Washington takes

In the lightning round, I asked Katherine what one thing people should understand about Washington that they don't already.

"It is both a marathon and a sprint every day."

And for anyone building a career here — in lobbying, policy, communications or government relations — her advice was equally clear: focus on the people who have something to teach you, get to know the people you meet along the way, and surround yourself with really smart, talented women.

"The women in this town are brilliant and hardworking. Surround yourself with them."

The Friday Reporter is hosted by Lisa Camooso Miller. Listen wherever you get your podcasts — and subscribe so you don't miss a conversation. Production by Two River Pictures.

What Washington Is Really Doing Right Now — A Lobbyist's View

A conversation with Matthew Cutts, Partner, Dentons

The headlines out of Washington tell one story. What's actually happening behind the scenes tells another.

Matthew Cutts is one of Washington's top policy strategists at Dentons, and he spends his days translating the capital for corporations navigating an increasingly consequential political environment. I invited him onto The Friday Reporter because, frankly, I wanted to hear from someone who's in the rooms — someone who can tell us what smart people are missing and where the real action is headed.

This is that conversation.

The most hopeful thing about Washington that nobody reports

I opened by asking Matthew what most people still misunderstand about D.C. His answer was more optimistic than I expected.

"There's just so much work still happening behind the scenes. Committees are meeting. There are hearings. Chairmen are positioning — even for next year. They're doing listening sessions. This is the kind of ground game that bubbles up and you see it eventually, but there's a lot that happens quietly, out of sight from companies and businesses."

The news cycle, he argued, systematically underreports the constructive, grinding work of governance in favor of the combative and dramatic. That's important context for any executive trying to read Washington from the outside.

CEOs can no longer afford to ignore Washington

Something has shifted in how corporate America engages with government — and it happened fast.

"It's hard to be the CEO of almost any company and not wonder what's happening in Washington. There was a time not too long ago where CEOs were worried about their core business, their widget, their shareholders. But now this administration has shown it can have such an immediate impact on a company's bottom line."

The response, Matthew said, has been a move from reactive to proactive. Companies that used to absorb policy changes are now trying to get ahead of them — not necessarily to change outcomes, but to be better prepared and adapt faster when changes come.

Washington, he noted, is "a new factor" in corporate decision-making. Not the only factor, but one that can no longer be outsourced to a clipping service.

Where bipartisan agreement still exists

Despite the polarization, Matthew identified two areas where both parties are still finding common ground.

The first is tax. "Tax tends to be less partisan. If there's a provision that leans toward one party's ideology, you can pair it with something that lines up with the other — and stitch together a package that's relatively bipartisan. That's tried and true."

The second, more surprisingly, is AI. "The technology is developing and the thought of regulating it is almost developing faster than the parties can figure out their ideologies. It creates this swirl where the far right is easily lining up with the far left." State rights arguments, privacy advocates, child safety concerns — they're all pulling in directions that don't map neatly onto traditional partisan lines.

And then there's crypto. "Market structure and crypto are moving right now," Matthew said. "We know how to regulate financial instruments, but this is a new and different one. Getting the framework right will keep the U.S. in a lead position."

Political retaliation is now part of the risk calculus

This was the part of our conversation that stopped me. I asked Matthew how much his clients factor in not just regulation but the possibility of political retaliation — and his answer was direct.

"We're advising them to make decisions today that they don't have to worry about retaliation in the future. It's definitely top of mind."

He pointed out that even something as procedural as a congressional oversight request — no accusation of wrongdoing, just a company's name appearing in the mix — can be disruptive. It can leak. It can move stock prices. It can shake confidence.

"I remember writing strategies for corporate clients about how to be ready if there's a tweet about the company. Now it's not just a tweet. It's about what kind of impact it can have."

The lesson: prepare before you're in the story, not after.

Is Congress fundamentally different than it was a decade ago?

Matthew's answer was nuanced and I found it genuinely reassuring. At the office-to-office level — the actual work of explaining an issue, walking through a proposed solution — he said it feels similar to how it always did.

"When we're in these offices, if I ask someone on one side who on the other side they'd be inclined to work with on this issue, they usually have three or four names. Ten years ago they'd have had nine or ten — but it's rare for someone to say no one."

The difference is at the macro level. The institution feels more combative from the outside. The slim margins make everything harder. But the human infrastructure — staffers who know each other, who recognize that bipartisan solutions stick better — that hasn't disappeared.

"I don't know if both can be true, but that's my answer."

What lobbying actually is

I asked Matthew to correct the biggest misconception people have about his profession.

"Rarely do people come to me to get a member to do something they were going to do anyway. We're usually hired to find a member whose support they don't have naturally and convince them. There's a lot more advocacy — thoughtful advocacy — that has to happen. If they had the votes, they wouldn't hire us."

It's more sophisticated than people appreciate, he said simply. And he's right.

Optimist or pessimist?

I closed by asking Matthew where he lands on Washington right now. Without hesitation: optimist.

"I acknowledge there are lots of reasons to be pessimistic. But you can't start every day like that. Hope springs eternal. I have confidence in the institutions."

Put him down as a blind optimist, he said. I'd argue it's the only way to do this work — and keep doing it well.

The Friday Reporter is hosted by Lisa Camooso Miller. New conversations every week with the people shaping politics, media, policy and public life. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and on Substack.