Reputation as Currency
Reputation is currency. Every conversation, every statement is either a deposit or a withdrawal from your trust bank.
Welcome to issue two of Noise Control.
It's a magical day on the Sunshine Coast. I'm sipping a Tim Adams coffee on the balcony, listening to the new Ocean Alley album, while typing this week's newsletter.
If you want the backstory on what this newsletter is about and why I’m doing it, start here. It's free to subscribe, and hopefully, it's helpful.
Noise Control has me falling in love with writing all over again. I've missed it. It's nice to write without deadlines and with no real agenda.
What I don't miss about journalism, however, is Friday afternoon surprises — dumping grounds for bad news by big companies hoping to minimise impact. One such surprise caught my attention while doom-scrolling Instagram last week.
Optus held a press conference at — wait for it: 5:45 pm on Friday.
I wouldn't have noticed if not for SBS News journalist Ricardo Gonçalves livestreaming the presser. Despite the telco's former CEO promising customers "it won't happen again", it did. And it resulted in deaths after hundreds of customers couldn't reach triple-0 when they needed help.
Optus thought it could bury the story late on a Friday. But trust doesn’t work like that. You can’t game the timing when lives are on the line. Once your reputation account is empty, no PR trick will save you.
Credit to Optus' new CEO, Stephen Rue, who — despite the terrible timing — got ahead of any leaks, delivered an apology, and took questions from the media. It's an improvement on the previous CEOs' well-documented crisis missteps.
Which brings us to today's Playbook: why reputation is the only currency that matters, and how to keep your trust bank in the black.
📙 The Playbook
Before anyone gives you money, they must trust you.
Reputation is currency.
Every conversation, every meeting, every statement is either a deposit or a withdrawal from your trust bank. When the storm comes (and it will), you either have enough in the account to ride it out, or you’re broke.