This is how a crisis management expert deals with job loss

Words Emma Vidgen // @emma_vee

Bec is a Gemini sun, Scorpio moon and Aquarius rising

The level of stress that comes with losing your job, unemployment, redundancy and trying to cut through in a volatile job market is the exact kind of pressure Bec Brown, author of You Got This, is used to navigating every day. As one of Australia’s most successful and well-respected PR gurus and the founder of The Comms Department, Bec guides high-profile and celebrity clients through crisis for a living. She’s also incredibly empathetic. “I personally have a vulnerability towards anxiety. I understand firsthand what that feels like and how it can flare when you're going through a challenging time,” Bec says.
As a crisis management expert, she knows a thing or two about handling tricky situations. She also pulled off her own epic career change following a quarter life crisis, moving from the arts (where she worked as an actor, singer and dancer) into media and PR. “I had a really rough time particularly in my 20s and 30s trying to manage my career and understand what to do and something like this book would have been really helpful,” Bec says

When she began penning her first book You’ve Got This, the mass job loss and general mess that is 2020 was all ahead of us. Little did she know it would be such a timely guide to navigating career change and finding your professional happy place. Here Bec shares her crisis-management know-how to help guide you through a professional setback – whether you’ve lost your job, are thinking about a career change or all of the above.

Figure out your values (and audit your skills)

“This is the big one before moving ahead and starting a new business or applying for jobs! Take the time to evaluate where you are and then ask, ‘Is that a direction that we really want to move in? Is it in line with our values and who we want to be?’ And if it's not, then perhaps this is a great chance to consider a new path, but if it is then, then it's time to do an audit of both your soft and your hard skills.”

2. Talk to people with your dream job

“If there are areas you need to improve, figure out how you can start that process. Are there mentors that you can speak to? Who can you talk to? Who's gone before you, in, in that chosen area? Without speaking to mentors or friends or people who have been before you, you don't know what you don't know. It’s big and very challenging when you're setting up a business or if you're going for a new job, or just trying to manage your mental health, because you're suddenly finding yourself in this huge time of change. But it’s so important.”

3. Do a digital audit

“Maintaining your personal professional brand is linked to knowing your values. We advise to all of our clients to do a social media audit these days as well. It’s worth going back through your tweets, your Instagram posts, even your Facebook. Is it still in line with who you are and what you want to be putting out to the world? Because as we've all seen a tweet that you posted eight years ago might not be where your mindset is today, but it can be pulled up and used against you. We also do the front page of the paper test. We ask, ‘How am I going to feel about this thing on the front page of my local newspaper?’ And if it’s a ‘Oh my God, no, that would be terrible!’ Then it doesn't get posted.”

“Having the mindset – although it’s often really scary – that starting over could be one of the very best things that we get to do. And there really are endless possibilities,” says Bec.

4. Get some tools to fight future-tripping (or ruminating on the past)

“When big change has happened– like when we've lost a job or lost a client or your business – it's really easy to catastrophize and start adding like a lot of additional drama to the situation. In reality, the situation in front of you is enough to deal with. When you add all your feelings and drama to, to it, it just adds another layer.

Learning how to be more mindful when times are challenging, whether it's at work or just with any kind of general stress or anxiety of going through a change, we need to be able to tune out the noise to be able to focus on what's actually important.

Meditation, or mindfulness helps so much with that helps to step back from the situation and feel the different possibilities so that you can really prioritise what's, what's the most urgent tasks to complete first and second and so on. There's so many different ways that you can learn how to meditate, but if you use an app like Headspace or 10% happier they're really great places to start.”

5. Harness the power of personalisation

When you are starting to reach out to people for roles, personalisation is everything. Working in PR we know that sending out a one-size-fits-all cookie cutter media release isn't going to work to secure a media story. You need to tailor your approach and create a pitch that's completely suited to that journalist or that outlet. And the same rule applies when you're going for a job. Your cover letter and CV need to be tailored for what you're going for. Take the time to thoroughly read the job description and do some research or learn about the organisation and tailor your application so that it answers all of their points and make it personal.

People want to know you. They don't want to know some robot who speaks corporate jargon to them. At my company, The Comms Department, I make hires based on who the person is and why they want the role. So telling your why to people helps to make a real connection and it allows employers to understand what makes you tick.”