The Leading in a Crisis Podcast
Interviews, stories and lessons learned from experienced crisis leaders. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.
Being an effective leader in a corporate or public crisis situation requires knowledge, tenacity, and influencing skills. Unfortunately, most of us don't get much training or real experience dealing with crisis situations. On this podcast, we will talk with people who have lived through major crisis events and we will tap their experience and stories from the front lines of crisis management.
Your host, Tom Mueller, is a veteran crisis manager and trainer with more than 30 years in the corporate communications and crisis fields. Tom currently works as an executive coach and crisis trainer with WPNT Communications, and as a contract public information officer and trainer through his personal company, Tom Mueller Communications LLC.
Your co-host, Marc Mullen, has over 20 years of experience as a communication strategist. He provides subject matter expertise in a number of communication specializations, including crisis communication plan development, response and recovery communications, emergency notifications and communications, organizational reviews, and after-action reports. He blogs at Blog | Marc Mullen
Our goal is to help you grow your knowledge and awareness so you can be better prepared to lead should a major crisis threaten your organization.
Music credit: Special thanks to Nick Longoria from Austin, Texas for creating the theme music for the podcast.
The Leading in a Crisis Podcast
EP 63 Erica Kirk's Grace Under Fire
Charlie Kirk built his reputation through campus debates, setting up tents where he'd engage students with his signature challenge: "prove me wrong." When a sniper's bullet ended his life at a Utah university, it threatened to become another flashpoint in America's increasingly volatile political landscape. Instead, something remarkable happened.
Just days after her husband's murder, Erica Kirk stepped forward with composure, grace and forgiveness. And she demonstrated a level of inspiration and leadership that will help calm many souls, and lead many to Christ as well.
The true revelation came at Charlie's memorial service, attended by numerous high-profile politicians and approximately 90,000 other mourners. While anger would have been understandable, Erica made the extraordinary declaration: "That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do." This singular act of moral courage transformed a moment of potential division into one of transcendent leadership.
We'd love to hear from you. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.
Hi everyone and welcome back to the Leading in a Crisis podcast. As you know, on this podcast we talk all things crisis management and we like to deliver our content through stories from frontline crisis leaders. I'm Tom Mueller from Frontline Crisis Leaders. I'm Tom Mueller. On our episode this week, we're going to talk about an issue that's been consuming much of the oxygen here in America over the last week to two weeks and that is the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Conservative activist, charlie Kirk Now there's. We talk about leadership in crisis, and that can take a variety of different forms, whether it's a company that's in crisis or a nonprofit. In this case, it is a nonprofit, but it's also a family, and we're going to focus on the leadership aspects of the response to this incident by Erica Kirk, who is the wife now widow of Charlie Kirk.
Tom Mueller:Now, if you're not familiar, charlie Kirk was well known in conservative circles here in America. He was very active on college campuses and his modus operandi was he would go onto a campus, set up a little pop-up canopy tent and then just engage students in debate and dialogue right there on the campus grounds, and his famous saying was prove me wrong. And he would invite students to debate on key issues of our day and make some comment or other and say prove me wrong. And then explore the options and the issues with those students. Then explore the options and the issues with those students. Now he built a huge following and a movement on college campuses, with more and more students turning up for those debates and following him.
Tom Mueller:Now, sadly, charlie was murdered on September 10th of this year as he was sitting under his tent and engaging in debate with students at a university in Utah. He was shot by a sniper basically while he was there and he died on the scene almost immediately after being struck, but in an already polarized nation and even a polarized world. As we look more broadly, this assassination hit hard and you know it follows multiple assassination attempts on President Trump last year. So there's this theme of violence that's starting to play out, and you know it begs the question, you know if, how would you respond if your husband or wife was murdered in front of the whole world? And so I've paid particular attention to how Charlie Kirk's wife has responded in this incident and the conservative movement more generally in their response.
Tom Mueller:I was taken with how Charlie's wife, erica, responded to this event that so deeply affected her family and her friends. She showed true poise and leadership throughout this unimaginable crisis. Now, in her first remarks just two days after the murder, erica was emotional, yet clear in her resolve. She started off by thanking those who had helped in the immediate aftermath of the attack, which is always, you know, a terrific approach to take if you're fronting a press conference or making a public statement around a crisis. Let's listen to her remarks.
:Good evening. My name is Erica Kirk. Charlie Kirk is my husband. I first want to thank the local, state and federal law enforcement who worked tirelessly to capture my husband's assassin so that he can be brought to justice. I want to thank the first responders who struggled heroically heroically to save Charles's life, and the police who acted bravely to make sure that there were no other victims on that terrible afternoon. I want to thank the officers who have protected our Turning Point USA family these past two days and I want to thank the Turning Point USA board, the COO, Justin Strife, and my husband's chief of staff, the amazing Mikey McCoy, for all their work in these terrible days to be the stability for our family and for the wider Turning Point USA family as well.
Tom Mueller:Now, in her comments, she went on to thank Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha. Comments. She went on to thank Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha, who supported her through those first very difficult days after the murder and, as you might expect, she also expressed great resolve that Charlie's murder would not derail his work and she warned that those responsible for his murder have awakened a sleeping giant.
:The evildoers responsible for my husband's assassination have no idea what they have done. They killed Charlie because he preached a message of patriotism, faith and of God's merciful love. They should all know this. If you thought that my husband's mission was powerful before, you have no idea. You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country, in this world. You have no idea. You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.
Tom Mueller:That was quite a statement of resolve from Erica Kirk, and she went on to say that the programs that her husband had started would be continued and there would be no pause in activities. They're continuing their college outreach programs and other programs that they have planned. Those comments from Erica came just two days after the murder of Charlie Kirk and were understandably emotional. I want to fast forward a week or so to the memorial service that was held for Charlie Kirk.
Tom Mueller:This memorial service was attended by many high-level politicians, including members of the Trump administration and the president himself, as well as the vice president, all of whom spoke, and you would again have expected a lot of vitriol and themes of retribution in the current environment that we're living through now, in the current environment that we're living through now, but we didn't really see those types of themes play out in this memorial service. While some speakers, you know, appeared angry, the message they delivered were not. Instead, they led with messages of salvation and Christian love and forgiveness. The most powerful message came from Erica Kirk herself, when she told the world that she has forgiven the man who murdered her husband. It was an incredible moment of leadership and faith and trust in a horrific time. Let's hear it from Erica herself.
:That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do.
Tom Mueller:Wow, what an inspirational act of leadership and forgiveness. She's demonstrating her particular leadership not only to herself, but to her family, to her colleagues, to her husband's friends, to her husband's friends, to people across America who are looking and wondering what's the next step in a crisis like this, and she demonstrated very clearly through her leadership that the next step is forgiveness. It's not escalation, it's not more violence. It's not more violence, it's forgiveness. Now she closed with one additional story.
:That's again a little bit of a tearjerker, but spoke to her state of mind and how she's dealing with things and how she's looking to the future. When I got home last night, gigi, our daughter, just ran into my arms and I talked to her and she said Mommy, I missed you. I said I miss you too, baby, she goes. Where's daddy? What do you tell a three-year-old? She's three. I said, baby, daddy loves you so much, don't you worry. He's on a work trip with Jesus so he can afford your blueberry budget. And, my goodness, am I so humbled to witness, charlie, you alongside Jesus right now, doing what you always want to do. Baby, making heaven crowded right, that's what it's. Baby, making heaven crowded right, that's what it's all about. Making heaven crowded. I can't wait to see you again one day. Thank you all again who love my husband, who supported him, who wrote him an email every single day during his radio show he read all of them, all of them. God bless you all, and may God bless America.
Tom Mueller:You know I can't listen to Erica's comments and her stories without feeling sad but also feeling inspired.
Tom Mueller:The courage, the bravery it took for her to stand up to publicly forgive the man who murdered her husband forgive the man who murdered her husband to share the other stories that she's shared, to be an inspiration for people around her. All of that demonstrates true leadership, and somebody that people want to follow and of course that's one definition of a leader is somebody who sets a good example that people want to follow. We certainly get that from Erica Kirk in this most horrific of crisis situations. And that's going to do it for this episode of the Leading in a Crisis podcast. Thanks for joining us. This one's been particularly challenging for me to get through, but thanks for hanging with us and coming along on the journey with us for this episode. If you have thoughts or comments you'd like to share, please drop me a line at tom, at leadinginacrisiscom, and I hope you'll look for your own opportunities to be a good leader in your daily life and in your daily walk. And we'll see you next time for the next episode of the Leading in a Crisis podcast.
