How to Communicate Clearly When Life Gets Chaotic with Caitlin Gardner

How to Communicate Clearly When Life Gets Chaotic with Caitlin Gardner

From Making It with Jess Ekstrom by Jess Ekstrom

October 28, 2025 · 28 min · Season 5 · Episode 17

About this episode

Caitlin Gardner shares insights on maintaining clear communication during chaotic times, drawing from her experiences in crisis management and personal challenges during the pandemic.

The world is constantly in a state of chaos—from an unexpected crisis at work to the personal high stakes of having a baby during a global pandemic. How do you find the calm confidence needed to navigate those moments when you feel most exposed? This week on Amplify, Jess sits down with Caitlin Gardner, a veteran crisis communications expert who is the founder of Blooming Communications. Caitlin's professional life involves helping Fortune 500 companies communicate with calm maturity during crises. Her personal life, however, includes having a baby at the peak of the 2020 pandemic while her husband lost his job—a high-stakes moment that uniquely prepared her for the work she does today. Caitlin shares how to apply the lessons learned in the delivery room to the boardroom, giving you the practical tools to handle unexpected public scrutiny, internal high stakes, and even the double-edged sword of going viral. Tune in for: Caitlin's incredible story of delivering a baby in April 2020, juggling a crisis communications job in the hard-hit cruise industry, and the power of focusing on one goal in a chaotic environment. The concept of the "Reputation Bank Account": making positive…

People in this episode

Host: Jess Ekstrom

Guest: Caitlin Gardner

Topics covered

  • crisis communication
  • personal storytelling
  • navigating chaos
  • professional development
  • reputation management
  • public scrutiny

Keywords

  • crisis communication
  • calm confidence
  • reputation bank account
  • public scrutiny
  • juggling crises
  • cancel culture
  • feedback
  • pandemic parenting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Blooming Communications, Fortune 500

Places: 2020

More episodes of Making It with Jess Ekstrom

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Making It with Jess Ekstrom podcast page.