High-stakes communications
We ask hard questions before someone else does.
The Modern Fire prepares organizations, executives and candidates for crises, difficult interviews and other important moments. We test each message, prepare whoever will deliver it and make sure both can hold up under pressure.
What pressure reveals
Important messages rarely have one audience.
Employees, reporters, customers, voters, and the public hear the same words differently. We examine your situation and help you shape messaging that can withstand scrutiny and prepare your spokespeople.
How we help
Built for moments when answers aren’t easy.
Crisis communications
Prepare before pressure arrives, respond while events are moving and explain what comes next.
Executive readiness
Prepare leaders for difficult interviews, testimony, speeches, announcements and public appearances.
Campaign communications
Help candidates make their case and defend it in interviews, debates and other public settings.
Founder and principal
Experience on both sides of the microphone
Newsroom instincts. Political judgment. Clear counsel.
James A. Brown is an award-winning journalist, political speechwriter and communications strategist. He’s covered politics and public policy, helped lead USA TODAY’s national daily news podcast, and prepared leaders for difficult moments.
Through The Modern Fire, he’s helped businesses and nonprofits with media training, narrative development and crisis messaging.
About James ↗When the situation is already moving
Slow down, breathe, and think clearly. When the stakes are high, you can’t afford not to.
We help you establish what we can control, prepare for the unknown, and prepare you and your team to face the public.