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More than a year ago, businesses across Illinois began providing safe, legal access to adult-use cannabis, and the cannabis industry continues to experience tremendous growth. On a year-over-year basis, in January statewide sales grew by more than 125% as the legal market continues to mature.   Culloton + Bauer Luce has had the pleasure to work

At Culloton + Bauer Luce, our team of advisors represent some of the country’s most prominent business, political and civic leaders who seek us out to defend their credibility, solve problems and create new opportunities in tough times. In our new “Meet the Crisis Expert” blog series, we’ll meet the individuals who make up CBL’s

There are endless ways a company or organization can screw up when responding to a crisis. And while every crisis has its own set of issues, here are five common crisis communication mistakes you don't want to make:  NONCREDIBLE DENIAL My seven-year-old daughter once etched her name into the dresser of my new Ethan Allen

The universal truth in my business is that it’s not a matter of if but when a crisis will strike. Simply refer to all of 2020 as exhibit A. But unless you’re a lawyer or a crisis manager yourself, many leaders don’t necessarily know when is the right time to make that call to

By Lynn Holley In part one of this two-part Q&A with Dennis Culloton, we talked about what it takes to be a successful crisis manager and how to navigate working with clients. In part two, we discuss one of the more difficult aspects of managing a public crisis ... interacting with the media. Lynn Holley:

By Lynn Holley  Dennis Culloton and I have been colleagues for a long time, longer than we care to admit. From all news radio in Chicago to helping professional clients with media messaging and reputation maintenance, we have partnered up most recently to train future crisis managers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In

By Dennis Culloton History books are filled with pivotal moments where powerful leaders are overcome by events. 2020 was one of those pivotal years. It humbled everyone. We won’t attempt to add to the first draft of history here other than to repeat that it was a dumpster fire sitting on top of a burning

Chicago (January 5, 2021) — Culloton + Bauer Luce today announced Anel Ruiz has joined the public affairs and crisis management firm as Senior Vice President after completing her tenure as Press Secretary to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.   “Anel is a battle tested strategist. With her roles at the highest levels of city and county

Growing up, I learned one tried and true axiom of crisis management by watching my mom sell real estate. Inevitably, every summer, as we would prepare to go on our family vacation, she would manage to sell a house the night before we were set to leave. A flurry of phone calls would ensue, followed

By Lynn Holley Most of the time, crises that pop up in organizations can be handled with well-thought-out crisis communications plans that, with some tweaking, can be adapted to a number of scenarios. Then there are the issues that come out of left field. The nightmares …  For example, back in the early 2000s, no

By: Natalie Bauer Luce With a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in, well, pretty much everywhere, is your organization ready for the next wave and potential crises that could come with it? Have you taken the time to look at what your crisis management team did right during the initial outbreak when responding to crises?

By Lynn Holley For me, inspiration often strikes at very inconvenient times, like when I’m driving. In 2014 after teaching a popular crisis communications class at the University of Illinois with my colleague Dennis Culloton, an aha moment came as I was in my car listening to the "Freakonomics Radio" podcast hosted by journalist Stephen

By Lynn Holley It doesn’t matter if you are a multibillion dollar corporation that delivers millions of goods daily to consumers’ doorsteps or a dog grooming service working out of a leased space in a strip mall, you both have something in common. You can and will face a crisis at some point. The sooner

By Natalie Bauer LuceThe late night show hosts are delivering their monologues from home. Restaurants and bars around the country are all but deserted, and our great American cities look like they have been cast as the setting for the latest zombie apocalypse blockbuster.Meanwhile, I’ve used the term “pandemic” in casual conversation more times in

By Dennis Culloton Let’s take a break from our home confinement and the very serious business of flattening the COVID-19 curve to warmer thoughts about where we would normally be today--at the ballpark for baseball’s opening day. My Cubs would have been facing their rivals the Milwaukee Brewers in Milwaukee and teams all over the