How MMA Teaches Better Leadership Communication with Dr. Patrick Riccards

December 19, 2025·35 min·2 clips

Dr. Patrick Riccards, an amateur MMA fighter, reveals how the octagon teaches winning communication strategies for boardroom crises.

Communication gets tested under pressure. Joe starts with Patrick's background: 30 years in strategic communications, advising Fortune 500 companies, three presidential administrations, and organizations in hard moments. The frame is MMA. Patrick's book, Strategic Strikes, treats communication as a full contact fight for hearts and minds, where rigid plans break down quickly. That could get gimmicky, but the conversation keeps pulling it back to practical pressure: who knows the process, who can keep thinking clearly, and how organizations react when the situation changes. The tension is control. Joe asks about a media world where posts become stories and stray reactions can start driving coverage. Patrick agrees that the shift is real. He describes news coverage that now bends around social media posts, political clips, and what public figures publish on their own. The old gatekeepers still matter, but less than they used to. His point is that organizations now have to act a bit like publishers because they can tell their own stories without waiting for major outlets. That sounds useful, and it is. It also means communicators have to be sharper about what they say, where they say it, and how quickly it can spread. Joe keeps the exchange loose. His setup about tweets, reactions, and media coverage lets Patrick name the practical problem underneath: once social media is part of the news cycle, strategy has to deal with speed, noise, and interpretation. The close is quick. Joe thanks Patrick and sends listeners back to The Authority Company for more on Patrick and the show's other authors.

As heard by us

A practical look at communication under pressure and the way modern media changes the message.

Dr. Patrick Rickards treats communication under pressure as a fight for attention and trust, and that framing gives the episode its sharpest edge.

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Why you'd press play

You want MMA logic applied to high-stakes leadership communication.

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