Killeen: "Mike's mainly been corporate and I've worked in corporate. I've worked at ad agencies. I've done technology.
"When I worked for Wagner and lived in Portland, I worked on
Microsoft - a little program called Windows NT and Security. So I've
handled quite a few little crisis about NT being hacked in to and you
know all those little types of things hackers are saying they're going
to bring Microsoft down.
"But nothing to the extent of the way the world has really globbed
on to Octomom and have, almost from the way we look at it, she's almost
become like a cult figure.
"It was three weeks ago today that we had our initial meeting. We're
a pretty well known public relations firm. We specialize in crisis
communications, media relations, strategic planning, business to
business. We do a lot of background papers, a lot of speeches and a lot
of presentations. We do really high-level work.
"Because I'm one of the past presidents of the Public Relations
Society of America - which is the largest PR association in the world -
it's kind of like being in the bar at Cheers. Everyone knows your name.
"So two of Kaiser Permanente's public relations firms recommended
us. We were one of four firms that specialize in crisis communications
that had an opportunity to meet with Nadya while she was still in the
hospital. I don't know who the other ones are.
"So we had a meeting with her and we just sat down and talked. It
was pretty clear when Mike and I parked in the parking lot of the
hospital. All the satellite trucks and people were everywhere.
"It reminded me of when we did Commerce because everyone was staking out Commerce and I thought, `Wow, here we go again.'
"So we got through the maze of the hospital and introduced ourselves
and just sat down bedside. I said `What's going on? What are your
concerns? What do you want to do? And how can we help you?' So it was
just casual. It was like two ladies sitting down and having coffee.
Mike was there and we just sat there and I said `OK, well here's what I
think we need to work on.'
"She wanted to find a very comfortable and safe way to tell her
story. She was absolutely amazed at the attention that she was
garnering because she's just a mom. During that first meeting, she kept
saying, `I'm just a mom. I'm just a mom. Why is everyone so interested
in me? I'm just a mom.'
"And I said, `Well, you're a mom now to the longest living octuplets
in American history.' And I said, `You already have six at home. A lot
of moms have six, but they don't have eight through this miracle of
IVF. And now you have 14 children under the age of 8. You have 10 boys
and four girls. So beyond just being the most in-demand mom that you
are right now, you have made history in many, many ways that you
haven't even begun to contemplate here in this hospital bed."'