From the age of ten, I wanted to be a newspaper reporter, and I had the good fortune to do just that. Although I transitioned into public relations after about 15 years, I still work and live according to the same values and skills required for getting the facts, accurately telling a story and providing information to a broad audience.

New Balance got off on the wrong foot recently by stepping into the controversy following the presidential election. For a company that manufactures and sells athletic footwear, its leadership should have known better.

Police are trained for and accustomed to managing crises of all kinds from helping retrieve keys from a locked vehicle to mass shootings like that which occurred at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando earlier this year.

It may feel bad when something goes wrong and becomes public, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got a crisis. Negative events can feel much worse than they really are.