Are you ready for the inevitable?

A plane crashes with the CEO on board. Your product is contaminated and people die. Your company's oil rig blows up. Police shoot and kill and set off a firestorm of controversy. A toxic spill occurs when your company's train derails. Your CFO is embezzling. Troops are deployed. A school shooter kills students. A plane flies into a skyscraper.

Need a crisis? Pick one. If you're a PR professional working in a corporation, startup, small business, or nonprofit, you'll have to deal with a crisis. When. Not if. Are you prepared to deal with the media? Hold a press conference? Prepare speaking points for the CEO? Give media training? Get a handle on your brand and keep the facts front and center?

Veteran PR and career military communication expert Angela Billings has learned the ropes the hard way-under fire and under pressure in war zones throughout the world. Who better to provide the wisdom to deal with crisis than someone who has put out media blazes from Kabul to Korea to Kentucky?

In this guide, you'll learn battle-tested strategies to

• Assess if you really do have a crisis

• How to respond immediately and appropriately

• Ways to leverage social media to your advantage

• How to set up an effective press conference

• What to pack in your crisis kit

• Who to have on your team and in your contact list

• How to talk to the media so they will listen (and get the facts right)

Public relations and communication can be an intense profession no matter what industry you work in, and when a crisis presents itself, it's even more demanding. Be ready for whatever happens next.

Angela Billings retired as lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, is founder of The Virago Circle in Louisville, Kentucky and is the the Director of Communication for the Kentucky Senate Majority in Frankfort.