Voice · The Read

Nobody inside the buildingwill tell you the truth.

The READ puts you in the moment first, run at the difficulty of the real one, on camera. Then we sit down with the tape and tell you exactly what happened.

You get the report first, and you decide who else sees it.

$3,500. One 2.5 hour session, built for your moment. Written report in 24 hours. In person in Atlanta. On Zoom when the trip doesn’t work.

Book a 15-minute readiness call
Why The Read exists

Hope is not a prep plan.

Most preparation ends when the delivery gets smooth. Talking points, a run-through with the team, maybe a friendly practice session where everyone’s on your side.

Then the question comes that wasn’t on the list.

People usually know the answer. What goes wrong is what happens to them when the challenge lands somewhere they didn’t rehearse. And you can’t practice that against people who work for you.

“I run customer success for a living, so handling a skeptical customer in a live room is the job. I still came out of our session with three habits I didn’t know I had.”

Doug B., VP Customer Success and Experience
How it runs

We run your room, then we watch it back with you.

A 15-minute call
First

You tell us the moment you’re facing, who’s going to be in it, and the question you least want to be asked. We set the difficulty from that.

The first hour, on camera
Then

A live simulation of your actual moment, built from your actual situation, with follow-ups and challenges nobody scripted. If you’re walking into a legislative hearing, it runs like a legislative hearing. If it’s an annual board presentation you’ve given 9 times, we don’t pretend it’s an ambush.

We sit down with the footage
Then, 90 minutes

This is the part almost nobody has ever had. We go through the tape together and show you what the room actually received, which is rarely what you thought you were sending.

The report
Within 24 hours

The recording, the moments that mattered with timestamps, and specific work to do before the real thing.

The difference

Run by two people who have done this for a living.

Erin Peterson on stage with a microphone, speaking to an audience
Erin Peterson
Lauren Boston accepting a Southeast Emmy at the 2018 Southeast Emmy Awards
Lauren Boston

Erin Peterson and Lauren Boston built careers as investigative journalists. One of the stories they worked on exposed a VA policy that cut veterans off from mental health care.

Getting it changed meant putting senators, congressmen, military officials and a former president in a chair and asking them to answer for it.

Some of them were very good at not answering. A few were so warm and so folksy about it that you’d almost forget they hadn’t. That’s the thing worth catching, and it’s the reason your own team can’t catch it for you.

The policy changed. So did federal law thanks to their work. This is why you want them on the other side of the camera.

What comes next

The report tells you what to do next.

Sometimes the answer is: you’re ready. You walk into the moment knowing that, which is worth the fee on its own.

When the report finds gaps worth closing, The Room is the next step: 4 private 90-minute sessions rebuilding the exact room you’re walking into, built on what The Read found.

And for teams that face these moments all year, The Ready keeps readiness from fading between them.

Questions

What people ask before they book.

How much does The Read cost?

$3,500. A 15-minute call, then one 2.5 hour session: the first hour on camera, then 90 minutes going through the footage with you. Written report within 24 hours.

Where does the session happen?

In person in Atlanta is the best way to do it. On Zoom it runs the same way, recorded, with the same footage review, though the room is never quite the same. We can also travel to you for an additional fee.

How hard is the session?

As hard as the room you’re walking into. We set that on the 15-minute call, based on who’s going to be in front of you and what they want from you. Some moments are adversarial. Most aren’t. We don’t manufacture pressure your actual situation doesn’t have.

Who sees the report?

You do, first. Then you decide. If your organization is paying, we’ll agree on what they get before we start, and you’ll know exactly what that is before you sit down.

Our moment is in 2 weeks. Is that enough time?

Yes. If you can find 2.5 hours to test it, we can turn it around.

Can you prep someone who isn’t the CEO?

Yes. Most of the people we prep are executive directors, PIOs and comms leads. Anyone who’s about to be the face of something hard.

What if we’ve already done media training?

That’s where The Read is most useful. You’re not starting over. You’re finding out whether the training worked, where the risk still lives, and what needs attention before the room finds it for you.

How do I know if we need it?

Start with The Pulse. It’s free, 16 questions, under 5 minutes, and it gives you a read across Message, Audience, Presence, Pressure and Authenticity. The Pulse shows you where to look. The Read shows you what actually happens: same five areas, except we’re in the room pushing, it’s on camera, and what we’re reading is what you actually did.

Find out now, or find out live.

15 minutes on the phone and we’ll know whether this is worth doing. If it isn’t, we’ll say so.

Book a 15-minute readiness call
Book a 15-minute readiness call The Read is $3,500

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