Crayton
Welcome to Reputation Matters, I’m Crayton Webb. Our guest today is a PR veteran with decades of experience in crisis communications, high profile speech writing, litigation PR, risk mitigation strategies, and as you’ll hear, so much more. Some of his notable roles include former chief spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, Doctors for Liability Reform, and speech writer for an array of politicians and celebrities. Bill Powers, thanks so much for joining us in Reputation Matters. Appreciate you doing it. So, we’ve got to start. What was it like to work for the National Rifle Association? Love them or hate them, one of the most controversial organizations in the country, perhaps in the world.

Bill
Well, you’re right. Love them or hate them, ad there’s no question that they have a brand that has stood for over 150 years. And their membership, which that’s really at the core of their strength and power, and really drives their reputation as being a tough organization defending the Second Amendment.

Crayton
Yeah. Walk us through what your role, or myriad roles over the 15 years or so that you worked with the NRA.

Bill
Well, I wore several hats. In some regards, I was an advisor to their CEO, Wayne LaPierre, his chief speech writer, media representative consultant to him and point person on his media appearances. So, my role was to really help him enhance and build up the reputation of the NRA, particularly as a very strong, stalwart defender of the right to bear arms, because that’s what NRA members want. That’s what they want to see from the leadership of their organization.

Crayton
Yeah. The NRA has a reputation of no compromise. Whatever piece of legislation comes up, whatever national tragedy seems to happen, fair or unfair, the reputation is, is that the NRA will not budge.

Bill
That’s true, and to some extent it is fair. There have been some compromises over the years, but they’ve been on the margins. And for the most part, especially in recent times, that reputation’s accurate. They are a strong-fisted, no compromise defender of the freedom for their members, and that’s who they always want to keep in mind. That’s the core of their strength. And they also know that if they give an inch here, then the next time it’s going to be another inch on another issue. And you start going down that slippery slope of more and more encroachment on the freedom that they’re trying to protect. And so, if you know there’s going to be something else down the road after this one, then you have to stay strong on that one, on the first one. And so, that’s why they have deservedly built the reputation of being largely a no compromise organization.

Crayton
So, you said something a couple of times that I think is really key, which is their audience, their membership. So, from a reputation perspective, is that who they’re-

Bill
Oh, 100%.

Crayton
.. mostly focused on, concerned about?

Bill
Yes, 100%. They’ll often have other audiences that they want to get to. It could be members of Congress, or elected officials in a state in which an issue is playing out. But yes, 100% their core audience is their core members.

Crayton
So, how do they do that? How did you help them reach their core audience, but also perhaps give cover to members of Congress who were their supporters, but who might have felt the need to compromise on a piece of legislation?

Bill
It’s hard. I would think there were times it would be difficult for a member of Congress facing scrutiny from his or her own media that might be concerned about an issue. My role was to find ways for, and it was usually Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the NRA, my role is to help Wayne, whether it’s through media appearances or other outlets, to get the message out that a congressman might need. Sometimes standing strong on an issue and throwing a few talking points out, that’s all a member of Congress is looking for. They’re just looking for something to hang their hat on and say, “See, I agree with the NRA.” And what generally happens, particularly in terms of a crisis situation, it could be a mass shooting or something, when the NRA comes out with a statement they get vilified, which takes the attack away from the member of Congress.

Crayton
Can you give me an example?

Bill
Sure. After the Sandy Hook tragedy in Connecticut, where those 20 little kids and six adults were gunned down in a horrible tragedy right before Christmas. And usually in that kind of a situation, the NRA might remain quiet, because in the aftermath the facts come out about the shooter, and how he stole guns, and killed his mother, and had mental issues. And NRA, we generally try to wait until some of those facts can emerge so we can talk more specifically about what happened, and more factually about what happened. But in this case it was impossible to wait. A, the holidays were coming, Congress is going to leave and go on a break. And we just felt like we couldn’t wait until the middle of January to come back and have this tragedy play out in the media for the next month.

And members of Congress were clamoring for something from the NRA so that they could have something to respond to, to their own constituents when they went back home. And so, we held a big press conference at a hotel downtown in DC at a big ballroom that was packed with 400 or 500 members of the media. And Wayne LaPierre delivered a speech, provided a lot of angles of cover, whether it was enhancing school safety or providing a trained armed security at schools, we tried to do as specific as we could to throw some talking points out there. And NRA got vilified, Wayne LaPierre got vilified, but members of Congress that were looking for something from the NRA were generally okay.

Crayton
See, I think that’s such a fascinating flip on the head of a juxtaposition, because so oftentimes in our role as PR folks we’re trying to help brands recover from being vilified, to bolster their reputation. And what I hear you saying is that the NRA, almost in some instances saw that as its role

Bill
Sometimes. I don’t know if you’ve ever been whitewater rafting. A friend of mine out in Idaho is a guide, and I remember the first time he took me down the South Fork of the Payette River, as we were approaching the first rapids he said, “Now, when we are going into the rapids, as we approach you start paddling, we want to speed up.” And I didn’t understand that. And I said, “Why do you want to speed up?” And he said, “Because if you enter the rapids at the speed of the water, then it will control the boat. But if we are going faster than the speed of the water, then we control the boat.” And sometimes, particularly with the NRA, sometimes the strategy was to put an ore in the water and change the circumstance, change the debate. Yes, sometimes the role of the NRA was to be vilified to protect others.

Crayton
How would you assess the reputation of the NRA during your tenure? Because you’ve used vilified. Good, bad? Depends?

Bill
I think it depends on your point of view. I would assess their reputation when I was there as being good, and increasing in political and cultural power for a long period of time, going back for the last 20 years-

Crayton
Good for its member, from its members’ perspective.

Bill
Good for its members. Their membership grew, their fundraising grew, their political clout seemed to grow. So, I think over a span of a couple of decades, I think the reputation, again, it depends on who you’re talking to, but I think among its members was excellent.

Crayton
What was it like for you to be the spokesperson from time to time? You’ve mentioned Wayne LaPierre, writing speeches for him, him delivering statements, but the times where you were on the record, and I know 60 Minutes, Meet the Press, Rolling Stone Magazine, you were the guy out in front on behalf of the organization. First of all, did you believe everything you were asked to deliver? Sometimes as PR people we’re asked to write things and support a client that may not be our personal point of view. How did you deal with that? And then how did you prepare? Did you prepare for going on the record and being interviewed the same way you advise your clients to do so?

Bill
I think I generally did, and I couldn’t make an appearance in the media defending a position in which I didn’t believe. So, I never had that issue for me because I personally believe in the Second Amendment, and I am a gun owner. And there might be some issues on the margin in which I have different feelings than maybe NRA leadership. But in general, I’m a strong advocate. But in terms of the prep, as I always tried to keep Wayne LaPierre focused on the membership, I had to keep reminding myself that that’s who mattered. What do they want to hear? And generally what they want to hear is a strong defense. But I also recognized that some of the situations that I was put in were pretty difficult. I mean, I was the spokesperson that when no one else wanted to do the interview, I was asked to do it. And so, I’d be the guy driving my sorry self to a Fox News studio in DC at 1000 at night to do some late night show there for a seven-minute appearance-

Crayton
Can you remember one in particular that you really were-

Bill
Hannity and Colmes. There was a show called Hannity and Colmes. It was Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes was the liberal on the show, and they would bring guests on and have a little debate. I do remember, because it was in March and the NCAA basketball tournament had just started, but I went down one night and they hooked me up to a mic and staring at a camera. And the show comes out of New York, so Hannity and Colmes were in New York, and on the set was Chuck Schumer. He was a congressman at the time, Congressman Schumer from New York. And so, we had a little debate about the … I forget what the issue even was, background checks or who knows? I don’t remember what the issue was.

But because Schumer was on the set, he was getting all the time. And finally, Hannity said something. No, it was during, we had a break and a producer comes on, “You okay?” I said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” I said, “But tell Sean Hannity that if he’s going to give Schumer all the time, I’m going to get out of here and go watch the basketball tournament.” So, they came back from the break and I actually finally got a chance to talk. But yeah, that was my role was to go down and do those kind of interviews that nobody else wanted to do.

Crayton
So, when you were prepping yourself or advising other spokespeople for the NRA, what was the number one piece of advice you would give them?

Bill
Remember the members. You’re doing this for the members first, because sometimes you want other audiences, as we’ve talked about, you want to give a message to members of Congress. Sometimes you want to let the media know something.

Crayton
There have been instances though, where you were the architect of a statement instead of a interview or a delivered statement. Why? What’s the difference? What’s your rule of thumb as to when you just issue a written statement versus when you actually have somebody go on camera or provide it?

Bill
A written statement is, in a lot of ways, safer. There’s not going to be a mistake made. You’re not going to have someone misspeak on the air. It depends a lot to me on the circumstance. One of the things that we did was create NRA TV, which was a online news channel presence for NRA. And we had news people doing their thing, bring in guests and whatnot. But we also used it as a way for Wayne LaPierre or other leaders of the organization, depending on who was appropriate, would come into the studio. We would videotape their prepared statement and put that up on NRA TV. And over the course of time, we discovered that the largest audience for NRA TV were members of the news media.

Crayton
Interesting.

Bill
And it was a way that LaPierre didn’t have to run around town doing media interviews anymore. He could put up a statement there and the news media knew that they weren’t going to get anything else, and so it got used

Crayton
Huge expense though. I mean, is it a proactive effort to own the narrative?

Bill
Yes. And they thought it was worth the money. NRA did. It certainly saved LaPierre from having to do meet the press on a Sunday after a tragedy. He could put up a video statement, and that’s what the media had. That was our statement. And it got used, and it got watched. I really was intrigued when I found out that the largest audience was the news media.

Crayton
The NRA was connected, inaccurately, following the bombing in Oklahoma City. And this was an instance where you issued a statement after President Clinton got involved. Tell us that story.

Bill
Yeah, that tragedy occurred, and one of the perpetrators, Timothy McVeigh, who was not and never was an NRA member, but he had sent a letter to Congressman Charles Schumer complaining about Schumer’s efforts to restrict firearms. And he sealed the letter with a stamp that said, “I’m the NRA.” And so, the congressman started waving that around to the news media, “See? He’s the NRA,” and we told everybody he’s not a member, but he got the stamp somewhere. And then at the same time, or just a fundraising letter had gone out from the NRA, one of their consultants had put this letter together. And the letter quoted a former congressman, John Dingell, who had made comments long time ago calling Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco and Firearms agents jackbooted thugs. And the letter quoted that comment. And so, then the NRA and Wayne LaPierre, because he was the signator of the letter, I mean, the media just vilified him for calling federal agents jackbooted thugs.

And this guy had an, “I’m the NRA,” sticker. And it just became a mess.

Crayton
Firestorm.

Bill
Yes. And it was right at the time of the NRA convention in Phoenix, and there were 500 media credentials issued out, and they all were coming. And President Clinton then issued a public statement suggesting that the NRA donate all the money from the fundraising letter to the victims of the Oklahoma City tragedy. So, now I’ve got 500 members of the news media in a press office in Phoenix where the convention was, clamoring for a response to the president. So I find a private phone, we’re all debating about what are we going to say? Do we respond? How do you not respond? What if you say this? And in the end, everyone agreed that you got to respond. You have to respond to the President of the United States. You just can’t ignore that. And he is the president, you can’t just ignore the president. And yet, we didn’t want to get into a back and forth with him either, and we didn’t want to inflame the situation anymore. We wanted to calm it down and take the air out, if you will.

So I went back to the press office, I wrote the statement that we all agreed on, put it on NRA letterhead, pressed print, printed out 500 or 600 copies. And then I told the media, “Here they are.” And so, they’re grabbing and pulling them off the printer as I’m walking out of the room. And you could hear the collective, like they were all disappointed because the statement simply said, “The NRA thanks the President for his suggestion.”

Crayton
That was it.

Bill
That was it. And we still got bashed around a bit, but it certainly took a lot of the air out of that whole situation.

Crayton
You wrote speeches for NRA leaders and others. You’ve mentioned Wayne LaPierre, Tom Selleck, Ollie North, Oliver North, Lieutenant Colonel, Charlton Heston. What’s it like to have to put words into someone else’s mouth who is famous and iconic already?

Bill
Yeah, that’s an interesting question. Hopefully by then you know them a little bit. And all of those gentlemen that you mentioned, I have known for a long time and knew previous to writing for them. So, that helps. And they each have their own image to protect. I mean, Heston certainly had an aura about him, a public image, Moses, Ben-Hur, and playing these iconic characters. Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, he certainly had his own public image. Colonel North, he defied Congress during the Iran Contra hearings, and he served President Reagan. I mean, he certainly has his own public image, persona. And so, you want to be mindful of that when you’re writing for them. And it depends on the event too. Colonel North, he did several appearances on behalf of candidates who were running for office in various states. And so, his speeches were more political campaign geared, but you still wanted to have him in there and show the audience, give the audience a glimpse of that Ollie North iconic figure that you all saw on television. Same with Heston.

You tinker around the edges of whatever campaign speech or whatever the audience might be that he’s delivering a speech to, but you want to keep the audience reminded that, hey, this is Charlton Heston. I mean, we’d go to events, campaign rallies with Mr. Heston, and you could look out at the crowd and people are holding up their babies because they want to be able to say, “You saw Charlton Heston.” And women would come up to meet him, shake his hand and say, “This is my baby son, Charlton.” So, you do have to be mindful of those iconic images that people have of some of the people that I wrote for. Even Wayne LaPierre, I mean, next to Heston, Wayne LaPierre had become the biggest celebrity on the gun issue right after Charlton Heston. So, even Wayne, I’ve met people in other situations outside of the NRA and they’ve said, “This hand shook Wayne LaPierre’s hand.” So, you got to be mindful that in a lot of ways the people you’re writing for are viewed as-

Crayton
Not just celebrities.

Bill
… heroes by that audience.

Crayton
Have you ever written a speech that you just thought was the best thing you’d ever written, perfect for Mr. Heston, or Colonel North, or any of these other figures and they just hated it?

Bill
No, but I wrote a speech. Wayne LaPierre would go every once in a while to the National Police Shooting Championships in Albuquerque, that’s where they hold the … And it’s like watching paint dry. I mean, just watching people put holes in targets. But it’s a national police law enforcement kind of thing, and the guys are great, and they’re from all states, different kind of law enforcement agencies. You’d get FBI there, you get the local Dallas PD there, and they’re all competing. And so, Wayne would go to their banquet, was going to their banquet to give a big speech, which I wrote, and it was beautiful. It was in the aftermath of the anti-police, Black Lives Matter, defund the police. It was a beautiful speech for police and they ate it up. But it was also when Hillary Clinton was running for president.

And so, I put a bit of criticisms of her as a potential president. And we got there for the speech, and Wayne LaPierre, in my view, made a critical error. He handed a draft of the speech to an NRA staffer who works for their law enforcement division, who then proceeded to cut all of the anti-Hillary president section of the speech. And at some point, it’s up to Mr. LaPierre to make that decision. And I expressed my view that it should stay in. He acquiesced to his own staffer. And I said, “Well, it’s your NRA. I mean, it’s your speech.” So, I think that was a great speech that could have been better had he left it in. And a lot of times I go to the back of the room to watch these speeches and see audience, and I think some of those cops were disappointed that he didn’t go after Hillary.

Crayton
How do you do that? Because again, you’re the hired gun, you’re the consultant, the third party, and yet you know these figures very well, have spent hours and hours, if not days, in the case of Mr. Heston, collectively probably months with these individuals. You know the audience, you’ve studied it, you’ve got a methodology. How do you bless and release, so to speak, when they don’t take your advice?

Bill
I think it’s a maturity. I wasn’t very good at that for a while, but at some point you just learn that it’s the principal’s speech, it’s not yours. It’s the principal’s organization, not yours. And at the end of the day, you just have to develop the maturity, I think, to be able to, like you say, bless and release. To be able to express your view, even be strident about your view, but understand that it’s not your speech, it’s not your organization, it’s not your role.

Crayton
I always thought that attorneys do such a much better job at this than PR people. PR people, we like to fall on every sword, die on every hill. We know we’re right, you’ve got to do it. And the attorneys are just so good. And I think to their credit, they retain credibility when they’re the wise owl in the room and they’re like, “Based on our experience, this is our advice. Oh, you don’t want to do that? Okay, well then this could happen or that could happen.” But you just see in the back of their eyes, look, we’re here, and billing by the hour no matter what you choose. And I think it’s hard for PR people, especially when you put your blood, sweat and tears. Did you ever have one of these folks come back to you and say, “You were right. I should have included that.”

Bill
That speech I just talked about, the police speech. We left, we got back in the car, we’re on the way back to our hotel. Wayne looked at me and said, “I should have left that in.”

Crayton
How about a time where you pushed someone a little bit further in their advocacy of a particular position than they said that they wanted to go initially?

Bill
I certainly had that experience in a speech I was writing for Tom Selleck, and I knew what he wanted. We had talked about it, and I wrote the speech that he wanted, and it was fine. I think it was just about perfect for him, I thought. And then someone who’s very good friends with him looked at the draft and said, one of my bosses actually, and said, “I think we should write harder. I think he should go harder with respect to the Second Amendment on the gun issue than in this.” And I said, “I don’t think he wants to do that.” And so, Tony says, “Well, maybe we write it and present it for him.” So, I wrote a second speech that was much, much harder on the Second Amendment, and we were in Beverly Hills at a private cigar club to meet for dinner and look at the speech.

So, Tom is looking at the speech and I mean, he just blew a gasket. He hated it. He was chewing me out. I mean, you haven’t lived unless Tom Selleck has chewed you out in public, but it was pretty rough. I mean, I was pretty embarrassed. But my boss Tony was there, and he explained that it was his fault. “Bill wrote the speech I think you’re going to want, we will get it sent to you and we’ll take care of it.” “Okay, okay.” And dinner was fine. So, we get to the end of dinner and I’m picking up the drafts because I don’t want to leave them on the table. And Tom’s like, “Oh no, I want to keep mine. There’s a lot of good stuff in here.”

Crayton
The one he didn’t like.

Bill
The one he chewed me out over. I’m like, “All right, dude. Whatever.” So, we did the speech, during the week before we did rehearsals. The speech was in Reno, and he was fine. He did great. And he actually used a good bit of the speech he hated. So, he did go a little further than he thought he wanted to.

Crayton
So, is that sometimes the process is that you have to just plant the seed and then let them adopt it?

Bill
Maybe. I would’ve handled it a little differently in that situation if I had to do it over again, because I really don’t want to get chewed out in Beverly Hills at a restaurant. But it certainly worked out in the end. However it happened in his head, somehow Tom got more comfortable being a little further out there.

Crayton
Yeah. Let’s back up for a minute.

Bill
And he’s a good guy, by the way. I hope no one thinks that because he chewed me out that … He’s really not. He’s a very nice, kind guy.

Crayton
He’s a blue blood, he’s Magnum PI. How could we not like Tom Selleck? Okay, so let’s back up a second. Walk us through your history. How does one end up as the speech writer for the CEO or president of the National Rifle Association? Tell us about your background.

Bill
Well, I think I ended up where I did because I didn’t go to culinary school.

Crayton
That was the second choice?

Bill
Sometimes I think it should have been the first choice, but no, I-

Crayton
Grew up in Idaho.

Bill
Well, yep. Grew up in Idaho, and I started working on political campaigns. And I think that was a very good training ground for me. I didn’t work on the big campaigns that had all the money in the world, I usually worked on the lean and mean ones that needed staff, and staff had a lot of authority and opportunity because we were working on a shoestring. And lost a lot of those, but won a couple. But I think that really trained my mind, I think, particularly for crisis communications, because campaigns are hair on fire, 12 hours a day for, and there’s an adrenaline rush to that, that also comes, I think, into play during a crisis situation that your hair’s on fire, you’re trying to deal with this crisis. So, I think that helped a lot. And then I got back to Washington to work for Senator Steve Sims from Idaho, handling his press, and then went to an agency after that that had NRA as a client, and I got to know them. And then I went to work directly for them, and ends up becoming a career.

Crayton
Can you think of the most difficult crisis communications situation you ever worked on? As you reflect, which one was the hardest?

Bill
Probably Sandy Hook, simply because of the nature of that tragedy. I mean, 20 little kids. And I’m trying to do my job, I’m on the phone with producers from Meet the Press and everybody else, and I’m trying to write a statement for the NRA to deliver at some point while I’m watching the news and thinking about presents under a tree that are never going to get open because it happened right before Christmas. So, that was probably the most personally difficult for me.

Crayton
How about professionally difficult, where it really challenged your experience, maybe your ability, or maybe a situation you hadn’t dealt with before?

Bill
Maybe after the Parkland Florida shooting at that high school. Again, that was a situation where it wasn’t just the media coming after NRA, all of a sudden there was a group of teen activists coming out of that high school, and becoming advocates for bans on firearms and other restrictions. And that became difficult, because it was a time when Wayne LaPierre did not want to be the one out there. I think he was fearful of being personally vilified. And CNN was hosting a town hall in Florida, and wanted a spokesperson. And I remember we were actually in Dallas in a meeting, me and Wayne LaPierre, and other folks from our agency that was working on their behalf, when Wayne got the call that, hey, CNN wants him in Dallas.

And so, we had a big discussion and debate about it. And finally sent, and I think it worked out well, sent a woman named Dana Lash, who’s a radio personality. And she was a national spokesperson for the organization at the time. And I thought Dana did a really good job. We flew her in there, and she took a lot of heat, particularly from the audience, but I thought she held around and did a really good job. And that was tough because do you send Wayne? Do you send Dana? You have to face now, not just the news media and the normal, regular anti-gun activists, but now there’s this whole group of teenagers coming out of that. And then they got funding from Bloomberg, and it became a real thing.

Crayton
You’ve written speeches for governors and senators, members of Congress, given them advice on issues management, their reputations. Has there been a situation where your advice to your client was you have to apologize, you’ve screwed up.

Bill
Yes. After the Oklahoma City bombing and the letter came out referring to ATF agents as jackbooted thugs, that became a situation where it grew … The narrative became NRA’s calling law enforcement, federal law enforcement, jackbooted thugs. And even though it was a quote from a congressman from 20 or 30 years before, didn’t matter. NRA had put that out there, they were calling federal law enforcement jackbooted thugs. And yes, a lot of us felt very strongly that there needed to be an apology, but NRA is not used to apologizing. That’s a hard thing. And to tell you the truth, what turned it, we were in a conversation and there’s a security guy there who was a former Secret Service agent. And Wayne looked over and asked him, and he said, “Yeah, I feel offended by that.” And that’s when Wayne realized, “Yes, I need to apologize.” And so, we set up a speech for a few days later, and he did.

Crayton
What’s the number one piece of advice you would give to a PR practitioner in the crisis or issues management space?

Bill
You’ve got to define who your audience is. That’s the most important thing to me, because if you don’t know who you’re talking to how the heck can you ever figure out what to say? And there might be more than one audience that you’re trying to talk to, and you might have to prioritize them, but that’s the most important thing to me. That’s the most important thing to me in just about everything I’ve been involved in, whether it’s immediate appearance or crisis situation, writing a speech, I think about who’s the audience, who’s the speech going to be heard by? I think that’s the most important piece of advice I have.

Crayton
How about your own reputation? Do you ever think about that? Have things you’ve done, folks you’ve chosen not to work for or represent because of your own reputation?

Bill
I’m at a point being semi-retired and doing some private consulting and freelance ghost-writing or whatever so I’m at a point where I’ve looked back at my career, I’ve been pretty lucky. And I’ve had some experiences, personally and professionally, that most people in my line of work don’t get in a lifetime. I mean, I’ve worked with all of them. 60 Minutes, Meet the Press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, done all that stuff, and flown around with Charlton Heston doing campaign tours, and LaPierre and Selleck. And I mean, shoot-

Crayton
Not bad.

Bill
No, it’s been a big thing. I feel very lucky.

Crayton
You were called, I think Forbes dubbed you a savvy communicator. Is that how you see yourself? PR Week? Yeah, it was PR Week.

Bill
It’s nice to be thought of fondly, I guess, or in a positive way. It was a great interview I did, this guy came out from PR Week and they wanted to do a profile of me, which I would normally not do, but it’s PR Week. It’s the trade publication for our line of work. I’d normally turn it down because it has nothing to do with NRA, but I went to LaPierre and I asked him, and I said, “This is total vanity thing here. It’s just going to be about me. I’m not trying to promote anything NRA.” He goes, “Nah, go ahead and do it. I get it. Go ahead and do it.” So, I did. And the guy came in and I don’t know what he was expecting, but the article came out like he was expecting me to be hair on fire and all kind of a mess. And phone’s ringing off the hook with crises and everything else-

Crayton
Coffee on your shirt.

Bill
… And it was fine, it was a normal fine day. And he did tell me something funny. I guess PR Week had done a poll of the worst PR jobs in America, and number one was tobacco. All of that stuff going on. And number three was the NRA. So, I had the third-worst job in America. So I said, “Well, what was number two?” And it was porn. Do they even do PR?

Crayton
Yeah, I don’t know.

Bill
I don’t know.

Crayton
Well, there’s a movie, wasn’t it? With the PR people or the lobbyists for the guns, the alcohol, the cigarettes, all that together-

Bill
Oh, Thank Y for Not Smoking.

Crayton
Thank You for Smoking, I think. Yeah.

Bill
Yeah.

Crayton
Well, maybe someday they’ll make a movie about you. All right, we’re going to go wrap up with our lightning round of questions. A few of these that are just for you are a little bit longer. A speech that never made the light. Who was it for?

Bill
I wrote a speech for Senator Sims I do recall one time that never made the light of day because the issue changed.

Crayton
How do you unwind after a stressful or intense day?

Bill
Nothing beats a scotch with a little ice and a cigar.

Crayton
All right. You already answered my next question, which is your favorite adult beverage.

Bill
I’ll go with scotch.

Crayton
Okay. I know you’re a cook, a chef. What’s your favorite meal to cook?

Bill
Shrimp Etoufee.

Crayton
Very nice. You’ve worked with lots of celebrities, as we’ve mentioned. Do you have a favorite celebrity moment?

Bill
Yeah, but I don’t know that I can tell the story. It’s Charlton Heston. He was doing an interview with Andrea Mitchell, promoting a new book he had just come out with. It’s all fine, he goes on the set, gives her the book, he signs it for her right on the air. That’s very nice. She ignored the whole thing and went right after him on the gun issue. And he kept trying to bring it back to his book, she kept talking about banning this or banning that, and children being killed in schools and whatever she was ranting about. And Heston was very professional and polite in the interview.

And we came out, and I was livid. I mean, I’m with the producer just in her ear saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me. You lure him on to promote his book and ambush him? I mean, you got to be kidding me.” So, we go out and we get in the elevator, and I told Mr. Heston, it was just me and him in the elevator. And I said, “CH,” I said, “I’m really sorry you got ambushed there.” And he said, “Bill, that woman is a …”

Crayton
Oh, gosh. Yeah, not good. So, he was angry.

Bill
He was, but he still maintained character and professionalism.

Crayton
Okay. What was your favorite subject in school?

Bill
Probably history.

Crayton
What’d you major in, in college?

Bill
Communication.

Crayton
Favorite holiday?

Bill
Favorite holiday, Thanksgiving.

Crayton
Yeah. Over Christmas.

Bill
Oh yeah. You don’t have any pressure to buy anything, it’s just food and football.

Crayton
Favorite hobby?

Bill
Favorite hobby, probably cooking.

Crayton
Favorite guilty pleasure.

Bill
Key lime pie.

Crayton
All right. You went back to food. Your favorite brand, something you buy.

Bill
That’s a good, good question. Favorite brand. I don’t know the answer to that.

Crayton
Okay, we’ll come back. Favorite movie?

Bill
Off the top of my head, I got to say The Godfather.

Crayton
Favorite day of the week?

Bill
Favorite day of the week. Saturday, I love Saturday.

Crayton
Hidden talent.

Bill
Hidden talent. I play piano.

Crayton
Do you really? What favorite song you play?

Bill
I don’t know that I have a favorite. I do some Elton John, I like that.

Crayton
If you could pick one person alive or dead that you could meet for dinner, who would that be?

Bill
Ronald Reagan. First guy I voted for when I was old enough to vote was Ronald Reagan for president. I’ll tell you a true story. It’s related to Reagan, but this was a really interesting moment in my life. I planned the memorial service for Charlton Heston with his son, I worked with his son. And I’m at the church. Everybody’s getting in there, everything’s going fine. I’m standing outside. I get word that the governor, Schwarzenegger was governor at the time, the governor was running late, and the plan was for the Governor Schwarzenegger and Tom Selleck to be on each side, arm in arm with Nancy Reagan, who wanted to be at the service. Because the Reagans and Hestons were great friends going way back to their days of doing TV in New York.

I mean, longtime friends, decades. So, a black car pulls up and a Secret Service agent gets out and she comes over to me and says, “You’re Bill Powers?” I said, “Yeah.” She said, “I’m with Mrs. Reagan.” I said, “Okay.” She’s in the car. She says, “I hear the governor’s late.” I said, “I hear about 10 minutes out.” Well, the Secret Service agent says, “Well, I don’t know what to do with Mrs. Reagan because she’s ready to get out of the car, and I don’t want her to get out until the governor gets here and Tom and Tim can walk her down.” I said, “Well, okay. What do you need?” She goes, “Can you go sit in the car and talk to her?”

I’m like, “Excuse me? You want me to go …” She goes, “Look, she’s bored talking to me. Just go sit in the car and talk to her.” So, I talked to Mrs. Reagan for about five or 10 minutes.

Crayton
What’d you talk about?

Bill
I told her who I was, and I thanked her for being there. I said, “I’m sure that the family really appreciates you being here.” And she says, “Oh, we were such good friends.” And she says, “Now, so you work for Mr. Heston?” I said, “Well, yes. I worked on his behalf for a long time.” “Oh, okay.” And I told her I voted for her husband was when I was old enough to vote for the first time. “Thank you for that.” This was really sweet. She’s very frail, but the mind’s there and she was very sweet.

Crayton
Bill Powers, you’re too young to call it a legendary career, but you’ve had a fantastic and fascinating career.

Bill
I’ve been very blessed. I’ve had some great opportunities and experiences that I’ll never forget. It’s been interesting chatting with you, because a lot of these memories I just don’t think about anymore. And so, I appreciate that.

Crayton
Maybe one day you’ll write your own book.

Bill
Yeah. I don’t know. You never know.

Crayton
You never know. But you’ve had some great experiences helping people protect and enhance their own reputation, and I appreciate you sharing with us today. So Bill Powers, we’re recording from Dallas. Thank you for coming to Dallas to talk with us, and thank you for joining us for Reputation Matters. We’ll see you next time.