Communications professionals are often quiet coaches. They work their magic behind the scenes. They hold their opinions tightly and express them infrequently. In short, their influence is everywhere but their fingerprints are often invisible.

Melanie Ensign is having none of that. And we’re all the better for it.

In this 64 minute interview, you’ll have the pleasure of meeting one of the most influential and outspoken communications executives in the world of cybersecurity and privacy. We begin with her role as press department lead for DEFCON, a role she’s held for 8 years and explains is that exact inverse of what you think it is.

In our next topic, Melanie breaks out the verbal chainsaw and applies it with vigor to the voice-based social network Clubhouse. From privacy mistakes to seeming indifference to community feedback on the topic, she explains in detail why she recommends her clients (and anyone else) avoid Clubhouse until they clean up their act.

The remainder of the conversation is a mini-master class on how to succeed in communications for everyone from startups to new CISOs. Melanie dissects press releases and what to do instead of hitting Business Wire every Tuesday if you’re a young company. Young or old company, she shares why using fear uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to persuade people ultimately fails and how we can move past it as an industry.

Much of Melanie’s work at her company Discernible is working with CISOs and their teams on their internal communications. Influenced by her time working at Uber and Facebook, Melanie offers a game plan for moving from reactive to proactive communications. Her advice is not for the weak-willed: she refuses to clean up anyone’s mess and doesn’t think you should either.

This quickly has become one of our favorite episodes and there’s truly something for everyone in the dialogue-- except for those who dislike a little profanity to season their conversations. Note the explicit tag and enjoy the ride.