Shows
Leading Through Change with Melissa AgnesEmotional Duality: The Leadership Skill That Expands Your CapacityWhat if the strongest leaders aren't the ones who never feel fear, but the ones who can hold fear AND vision simultaneously? In this episode, Melissa explores the leadership superpower that nobody talks about: dual emotionality. As a Visionary Leader navigating change, you don't have to choose between feeling scared and holding your vision. You can do both—and that's actually your advantage. Discover: Why emotional duality is your secret weapon for staying in creation mode when others are in survival How to self-resource using the full spectrum of human emotion The ne...2025-07-1556 minLeading Through Change with Melissa AgnesThe Leadership Mirror: How Your Inner State Creates Your RealityWhat if everything challenging in your leadership—the resistance you face, the conflicts that trigger you, the changes that feel impossible—is actually a mirror showing you exactly what needs to shift within? In this transformational episode, Melissa reveals the profound truth that visionary leaders understand: your external world is a direct reflection of your internal state. This isn't just spiritual philosophy. It's quantum physics meets practical leadership. You'll discover: The difference between probability leadership (leading from past patterns) and possibility leadership (creating from the quantum field) Why your triggers are actually your greatest teac...2025-07-0850 min
The Leadership Crucible PodcastCrisis Expert, Melissa Agnes: Most Organizations FAIL Before The Crisis Even StartsCrisis leadership isn’t about reacting faster — it’s about thinking differently. In this powerful conversation, Chief Randy Bruegman sits down with Melissa Agnes, founder of the Crisis Ready® Institute and one of the world’s most trusted voices on crisis management, to explore why most organizations fail before the crisis even starts — and how the best leaders prepare for pressure long before it arrives.Drawing from her work with NATO, the Pentagon, Fortune 500 companies, and major municipalities, Melissa unpacks the Crisis Ready® model — a three-part framework built on mindset, skillset, and capability.But this isn’t just a checklist. It’...2025-07-0733 minLeading Through Change with Melissa AgnesStrategic Emotionality: The New Skillset for Visionary LeadersWe've been taught to lead with logic, suppress emotion, and control the narrative. But what if that’s exactly what’s keeping us stuck? In this episode of Leading Through Change, Melissa challenges the outdated belief that emotion has no place in the boardroom. She explores how emotionality—when understood, named, and strategically integrated—becomes a powerful leadership tool. You’ll learn: Why emotion is not the enemy, it's simply energy in motion How low-frequency emotions like anger and grief can become catalysts for connection What “meeting people in their emotio...2025-07-0153 minLeading Through Change with Melissa AgnesThe One Truth That's Destroying Our WorldThere's one "truth" everyone accepts without question. It shapes how leaders respond to crisis. How organizations handle change. How teams navigate conflict. How entire societies function. And it's actively destroying everything. In this paradigm-shattering episode, Melissa Agnes exposes the lie that's been driving failed leadership responses, broken systems, and endless cycles of division and suffering. From Wells Fargo's $3 billion crisis to Peloton's 94% stock collapse, every leadership failure traces back to this single illusion. But here's what makes this episode transformational: Melissa doesn't just reveal the problem—she presents the quantum physics and neuroscience th...2025-05-2758 minLeading Through Change with Melissa AgnesEverything You've Been Taught About Leadership Intelligence Is WrongIn this transformative episode, Melissa challenges one of leadership's most fundamental assumptions: that we should think our way through decisions. But what if our overreliance on logic is precisely why leaders feel paralyzed during times of uncertainty and change? Through the lens of the 2020 pandemic response, she illustrates how even the most powerful leaders became frozen when lacking cognitive answers – creating a dangerous leadership vacuum that amplified fear and suffering. The solution? Accessing our three intelligence centers: the brain (cognitive intelligence), the heart (emotional intelligence), and the gut (intuitive intelligence). 2025-05-2049 minLeading Through Change with Melissa AgnesHow Coherence Turns Chaos into ClarityIn times of crisis and change, the most powerful person in the room isn't the loudest or the most authoritative—it's the calmest. But what creates this calm, and how does it transform chaos into clarity? In this episode, Melissa explains the science and practice of heart-brain coherence—a leadership superpower that few have been taught. She reveals how your emotional state directly influences your ability to lead others through change, backed by fascinating research from the HeartMath Institute (https://www.heartmath.org/). When fear and resistance run high, logic alone fails. Discover how coherence bypa...2025-05-1354 minLeading Through Change with Melissa AgnesFear Isn’t the Problem — Unawareness IsWelcome to the very first episode of Leading Through Change — a space for leaders who know the old models of control, fear, and reactivity aren’t working… and who feel deeply called to lead differently. In this premiere episode, Melissa Agnes pulls back the curtain on one of the most misunderstood forces in leadership: fear. Not the kind you name out loud. The kind that creeps in under the surface. Hijacks decisions. Clouds clarity. And shapes cultures silently and powerfully. You’ll 2025-05-0655 min
The Apolonia Rockwell ShowEmbracing Emotions in Crisis Communication, with Melissa Agnes, CEO of Crisis Ready InstituteIn crisis management, what are some helpful ways to validate and relate to people's emotions? How can we lead with emotions in the workplace? How can we build resilience in the face of rejection and negativity? These questions and more will be answered in today’s episode of the Apolonia Rockwell Show, where your host is joined by Melissa Agnes, CEO of Crisis Ready Institute. Melissa is an authority in crisis preparedness, reputation management, and brand protection. A big part of her approach centers around the importance of valida...2024-04-1048 minLeading Through Change with Melissa AgnesHow To Improve Your Crisis Communication Strategy By Understanding Near And Far Enemies [Audio of Blog Post]Connection is at the heart of any good crisis communication strategy. However, we’ve all seen leaders attempt to connect with their audience with all the right words, and yet something feels… off. While a Crisis Ready Hindrance is often blocking that connection, understanding near and far emotional enemies is a powerful tool to help you overcome those Hindrances to resonate and connect in meaningful ways. Within this podcast, which is the audio version of a recent Crisis Ready blog post, Melissa Agnes explores how near and far enemies give leaders and crisis communica...2024-04-0413 min
The Social ComplexEp 52 - Crisis Management In A Digitally Connected World with Melissa AgnesWhen we think of crisis communications, we often envision the worst-case scenarios portrayed on the internet and in our news cycles. However, crises don't solely occur on digital platforms. While digital media can exacerbate them, the concept of crisis is rooted in a more scientific framework that determines what constitutes a crisis and how it can be resolved by the company or individual at its center.In today's episode, we delve into the intricate nature of crisis communications in our digitally savvy and interconnected world with professional crisis readiness expert and leader, Melissa Agnes. Globally recognized as...2024-03-1948 minLeading Through Change with Melissa AgnesCould We Train AI with Emotional Intelligence to Predict a Crisis? [Audio of Blog Post]Make no mistake: AI absolutely will affect crisis communication — and crisis in general, for that matter. Recently, my friend and the queen of PR herself, Gini Deitrich said something that got me thinking about predictive AI even further: Could AI predict the emotional escalation of a crisis… before it begins to happen? This episode explores this concept and what it could mean for the crisis communication industry. This is the audio recording of a blog post, written and narrated by Melissa Agnes, and published to CrisisReadyInstitute.com.2024-02-1912 min
The PIO PodcastS2 - Episode #33: Melissa Agnes - Crisis Ready InstituteSend us a textAs a strategic advisor and keynote speaker, Melissa Agnes has worked with NATO, Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, financial firms, technology companies, healthcare organizations, cities and municipalities, law enforcement agencies, global non-profits, and many others, helping them understand risk and build invincible brands that can withstand even the most devastating of events.Melissa sits on the Police Professional Standards, Ethics, and Image Committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Melissa teaches crisis management courses at NYU, Columbia, and McGill University. https://crisisreadyinstitute.com/E...2022-10-1833 min