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StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.
Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.
StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their
stories and connect with their customers.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
How can a podcast strengthen your story?
That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of The
StoryConnect Podcast.
Hi, I'm your host, Megan McKoy-Noe, one of the storytellers at
Pioneer Utility Resources, and I am joined by Carrie Huckeby, the
executive director of the Tennessee Broadband Association, and a
member of Pioneer's board of directors.
Carrie, thank you so much for joining me today.
Carrie Huckeby:
Thanks, Megan. Thanks for asking.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
You host Lead Tennessee Radio, which is a podcast that was
launched back in 2019 by your association.
And congrats, I heard you made Feedspot's Top Tennessee Podcasts
list this year, which is exciting.
A lot of utility pioneers are thinking about starting podcasts,
so we wanted to check in with you as a longtime podcaster to
really help folks weigh the pros and cons of podcasts.
So, Carrie, I'm curious, why do you think more people are tuning
in to podcasts?
Carrie Huckeby:
Well, I think people have a little more time maybe to listen to
podcasts, and they're looking for
a variety, maybe from audiobooks to music to podcasts.
And I think also for me, I'm always looking to learn something
new, whether that be flower gardening
or vegetable gardening or, you know, broadband or BEAD or
whatever it is.
So, I think podcasts are a really good source of information
that, you know, doesn't require you buying a
book. You can just plug in and that trip to the grocery store or
that trip to town, you know, gives you
15-20 minutes of information, so.
I think, you know, I love podcasts myself.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, I agree.
It does add a little bit of fun to otherwise dead air time that
you might have while bebopping around town, so.
Your association champions telcos and broadband service providers
across the great state of Tennessee.
And I'm curious, what is the goal?
A defined goal. Because we tell folks you need to have a goal
for each of your communication channels, right?
So what's the goal of TNBA's podcast content?
Carrie Huckeby:
Awareness. I mean, you know, awareness, storytelling.
We talk about how important it is to tell our story.
Individually, our telco members, also our associate members and
vendors, you know, every one of them have
their own individual story, and we really encourage them to talk
about the work they're doing, the connections they're
making, the quality of life, things that they do in their own
communities, community grants.
You know, sometimes cooperatives and small commercial independent
companies aren't real good about patting
themselves on the back or touting their own story of what
they've done or what they've accomplished or what it's meant to
their communities.
So we encourage them to do, you know, to tell their story.
But we as an association collaboratively serve over 30 something
percent of the state.
We have over 200,000 broadband connections in the state.
Many of our, you know, who we connect are rural communities and
environments.
And so we need to talk about that, and we need to share what
they're doing so as a whole and
how that partnership and that collaboration is so important.
So our goal for the podcast is just another communication tool
in, you know, the newsletter or social
media, our convention.
And then on top of that, the podcast might reach another
audience that we don't reach other ways.
So awareness, storytelling.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
And who are you telling your story to?
Who is the audience for Lead Tennessee Radio?
Carrie Huckeby:
Whoever wants to listen.
You know, our goal is to provide content for our members that
helps them.
You know, all of our other telcos, marketing people, operations,
network, regulatory, that want to know what's going to be
happening with BEAD, what's happening with the mapping.
It may be just talking to a cooperative that I've got one lined
up soon to talk to Twin Lakes about their community
grant program.
So, you know, how do you set up a program?
What's the challenges of that?
What's the criteria?
So, you know, there's a vast amount of subjects that we could
talk about that
interest our members and, you know, just to help them know what's
going on.
We did one recently on broadband labels.
You know, everyone's going to want to know what is going to be
required for broadband labels.
But then we also do some – I did a podcast recently with Greg
Smartt.
He's the new president for the association.
And just picking his brain about, you know, what do you look to
happen this year, Greg?
Or what are things that you're going to work on?
Or what will affect the association?
So it is a wide range of topics, but I just try to keep my eyes
open for what's happening,
current events and who we need to be talking to.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. What kind of time goes into planning each of those
episodes, and then producing them, getting them out
there?
Carrie Huckeby:
You know, the coming up with the subject or who, you know,
extending those invites to the
guest. Then coming up with questions for those guests because
everyone likes to know a little bit ahead
of time what you're going to talk about, even though podcasts
are not recorded live, and you can start over – and which I love,
because I stutter and stammer.
And my Southern accent kind of gets in the way sometimes, so.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Oh, no. Southern accent never gets in the way.
Come on.
Carrie Huckeby:
But we love that editing.
But still, guests like to have those questions in front of them,
and so they're not surprised.
And then the producer takes it.
Sarah Wootten, which is wonderful there at Pioneer and sends it.
And she's done it long enough to know kind of what I like in the
podcast.
It's not as time intensive as you think it is.
It just really, you need to sit down, make your guest list, do
your questions, get it to
them, and then the producers and editor take it from there.
And then Pioneer does a wonderful job posting it, getting it on
social media and all the platforms it needs to
be on. So that didn't really answer your question, I don't think
of how long –
Megan McKoy-Noe:
No, no, it does.
Carrie Huckeby:
How long it takes. But I probably should spend more time on it
than I do.
But fortunately, you know, with your guest, you can, you know,
do 4 or 5 questions pretty quick.
Takes about 30 minutes to record it, and so it's just getting it
in your schedule.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, and I write for our blog.
I write case studies, and I do guest hosting for The StoryConnect
Podcast as well.
And I have found that podcasts, out of all the types of content
that I create for Pioneer, podcasts are the easiest
because once you have your system down, it's much easier than
sitting down and writing a blog post, you know?
And then I love just taking ideas from podcasts, and then using
them on blog posts later because I have the transcripts.
So that's my little personal thing.
I love podcasts because they seem like they're easier than other
types of content that I create.
Carrie Huckeby:
I completely agree.
You know, I struggle with sitting down and writing an article,
but, you know, coming up with 4 or 5 questions for a
guest, seems to be a much easier.
So, yeah, I love podcasts.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. And it's more fun because you're able to see folks and talk
with them and just have conversations.
Carrie Huckeby:
Right. You're just chatting.
Casual conversation.
Chatting.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
No pressure. Chatting with purpose.
Carrie Huckeby:
That's right. That's right.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Now, what kind of equipment and software are you using to record
your episodes?
Carrie Huckeby:
Well, I just use my laptop, like you and I are doing right here,
to connect to Riverside.
[It] is the software platform that we use, and it has worked
really well.
And no complaints there.
I use a Shure microphone that I got from WordSouth many years
ago when we were
doing some podcasts for – I guess I got it when I was doing the
podcast for Lead Tennessee Radio.
And doing some training with WordSouth that went back when the
world was shut down, and we were doing all of that virtual.
So, but my Shure mic, I love it.
And that's pretty much it.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Okay. All right.
So not too much of an investment on the front end to get it
going.
I should say. There are a lot of different softwares that are
out there for folks.
We use Riverside as well because it lets you record video and
audio in different
tracks, which I think helps with the quality of the podcast.
So that if you're a little quieter than I am or I'm a little
louder, which happens when I get excited about things, they're
able to adjust the levels in the editing process.
So just kind of fun on the back end.
There's a lot of other software that can do that kind of thing
for you at different paid levels.
So I like hearing what folks are using.
I think it's fun.
So you have your podcast.
You're excited. It is up.
How do you get the word out about it?
How do you publicize Lead Tennessee Radio?
Carrie Huckeby:
First place, we put it on our website under podcast.
And so every episode is listed there all the way back from the
beginning, 2019.
So you can go back and listen to some of the older ones, which I
do sometimes just to, you know,
refresh my memory about things.
Also, we put it on our social media channels: Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn.
LinkedIn seems to be the most popular for podcasts because of
that professional group, and our members,
vendors and associate members follow us there.
So we do that.
And then I try to always repost it, and then sometimes our
members will repost it.
So that's how we get it out there.
And that seems to work the best for us.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love that. And what kind of frequency do you have for
publishing?
Do you have one a week?
One a month? One a quarter?
How often are you producing podcasts?
Carrie Huckeby:
You know, it can be sporadic because if we have the convention
going on or planning, it's kind of
hard for one person to get all that in.
So I tend to do several podcasts the first part of the year, and
then I kind of slow down until the convention in June.
But my goal is to try to get at least two a month.
You know, that's not a big number.
It's manageable with travel and my travel schedule and things.
And plus my guests are always busy too, trying to squeeze in a,
you know, a podcast in their schedule.
But the goal is two and maybe three a month.
Just depends.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, folks are hearing from you, not all the time, but you have
a somewhat regular publishing schedule.
I love the idea of when you have a big community event, or for
you, you have a big membership event, you're able
to record several, and then have them come out over time.
I think that makes a lot of sense.
And take some of the pressure off.
You get everything set up once, and then you're good for a w
hile.
Carrie Huckeby:
Right. And what I try to do too, is if I have 2 or 3 guests that
I've lined up, if I can record them all on the same
day, then it doesn't take a whole month.
You know, get it all done on the same day, and then you can
upload those and release them after that.
So you don't have to be setting one up for every week.
Now, it doesn't always work, but, you know, we try.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. It's all we can do, Carrie, is to try.
Carrie Huckeby:
Fingers crossed.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, fingers crossed. What kind of feedback have you heard from
your members and the general public about Lead Tennessee Radio?
Carrie Huckeby:
I was at the convention back in June, and one of the members came
up to me and said, "You know, I listened to all your podcast."
And I said, "You do?" You know, you're kind of surprised, I
guess, when people come up and say, "Listen to your podcast."
So every once in a while members will say, "Hey, I heard
so-and-so and you
know, that was good.
And that was good information." I guess we track it more
through – Pioneer
helps me with that.
The numbers of how many episodes have been downloaded in the
first 30 days, 60 days.
And I monitor that to see what's most popular and to see the
subject matter that people
are the most interested in and, you know, and kind of keep that
in mind when I'm booking other guests.
But, you know, the best way is just the traffic, the number of
downloads and see
how we're doing there.
Also, what is helpful is our guest will normally post it on
their social media,
and it always does better when they post it and share it as
well.
It gives you that larger, broader reach when they do that.
And we can always tell those number of downloads when the guest
have shared them.
So, you know, if they listen to it, please, like, you know, if
they're listening to it, tell
us. We'd love to hear it, and we always like that feedback.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I was going to ask how you measure the
impact of it, but it seems like you're already doing that.
You're watching the metrics, and I love that you're using the
number of downloads and folks that are following you to kind of
figure out what kind of content people are interested in and
then plan accordingly.
Do you have an editorial calendar kind of mapped out for the
year with ideas?
Like how do you keep track of those ideas, and what seems to be
really interesting your audience?
Carrie Huckeby:
Well, if an editorial calendar counts as a notepad on your
nightstand or –.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Totally does.
Carrie Huckeby:
Does it? Okay, great.
Because I don't know about you, but I have some of my best ideas
when I'm getting ready in a morning or, you know, I think,
oh, I should talk to them about, you know, this.
And so I'll write it down.
I do need to be a little more strategic in planning.
And I've promised Sarah Wootten, our producer, that I will do
that.
But right now it's more listening with current events, what's
happening or learning about
a workforce program or learning about digital literacy program
or like I said earlier, about Twin Lakes and a community
grant.
Learning about these or hearing about these and thinking, Hey,
that'd make a good podcast.
So I put it, you know, on the list.
I moderated a session at the SRC Donference for NTCA.
It was Cadie Bergan.
She [is with] Lead for America.
And so I reached out to her and said, "Hey, we talked a little
bit at the conference.
How about a podcast?" And so she agreed.
So, I don't know how strategic that is, but that's the way it's
getting done right now.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
No, it makes, I mean, as long as you're getting it done, Carrie,
that's like the number one thing.
We can have all the best ideas in the world, but if we're not
actually getting them done, they don't count, which is hard for
me because I love ideas.
We have an idea parking lot on Monday.com that we put ideas that
we have.
And then whenever we can make it work, awesome.
Carrie Huckeby:
One more thing, I'll say about the downloads too, about seeing
those.
You know, sometimes you'll get a podcast, and it'll have 50
downloads or 60 downloads, and you think, "Oh, you know, that's
not too many. You know, is that good?
Is that bad?" But this is the way I think about it.
If you're having a conference or a training session, and you
have 60 people in the room, that is 60
people that you're communicating with and talking to.
So I would say recommendation is don't get too hung up on the
number of downloads.
If it's not where – it's not a million, you know, like murder
mystery podcasts or all of those.
You know, it's not a million downloads, so throw it out.
Just keep in mind that, you know, that's 60 people that you
reached that you didn't before.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. And reached them on a platform that they're more
comfortable with, and they spent that time listening to you and
hearing your story, and it's powerful.
Yeah, I think that's a good point.
Don't get too hung up on the numbers.
Especially because there's not that huge time investment in
podcasts anyway, so you can kind of balance out the investment.
Carrie Huckeby:
Yeah. And it's, you know, it's a targeted audience.
It's, you know, we're in the broadband industry, and that's
probably who we're reaching and who
our audience is. We want it to be as broad as we can make it.
But let's be honest, it's probably a specific, targeted audience
that we're speaking
to.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, one last question before I let you go.
What kind of tips would you offer to someone who has never
hosted a podcast before, and they're thinking about getting into
it?
Carrie Huckeby:
I say don't get hung up on – well, first of all, when you do it,
don't get hung up on the number of downloads, like we just talked
about. But don't be afraid of it as far as the time that it
takes.
Because I think you should give it a try and see how much of an
investment it is.
I would recommend that you work with someone like Pioneer that
has that producer.
They're producing it and helping you with the editing, and
they're making you sound good sometimes when you're not sounding
that great. They help you with the guest, but that's a
big part of it.
I also think that people hate listening to themselves, you know?
I'll hear people say, "Oh, I don't want to be on the podcast.
I hate listening to myself.
I hate my voice." Whatever.
I recommend just being yourself because me, we've talked about
the Southern accent, you know, like, "Oh, I'm
going to sound so Southern, and all of this on the podcast." But
you know what?
I've been in the industry for many years.
Everybody knows me.
They know I talk Southern, they know my personality.
So I say, go with your personality because people, you know,
that's how you connect with people and get to know
people and all that.
So don't be afraid to do a podcast because you're worried about
how you sound and things like that.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love that.
I was going to ask at the start, and then I thought, well, I'll
ease into it later on about how you felt about your voice.
Because I love your voice, but that's because I've been a fan of
yours for a very long time.
So I think that's good advice just to to lean into who you are.
Authenticity, I think, is one of the things driving podcasts
right now.
I've had folks say because of the rise of AI, artificial
intelligence, people are leaning more
towards podcasts because they can hear real people, they can
connect with you in a way that they can't in other platforms.
Carrie Huckeby:
Well, I'm like everyone else.
I hate the way I sound on, you know, on podcast or listening to
myself.
But hey, this old.
I've been around this many years.
I'm not going to change at this point.
So, it is what it is.
So, but I think podcasts too.
You're never too old to improve because you recognize that you
say – my word was "you know." And you know, you'd go through the
transcripts, and I would have said "you know" like 50 times.
And I'm like, Oh my gosh, who knew I said that that much?
So you can look at podcasts as improving or recognizing some of
the things that you
might want to work on.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Some of your verbal hiccups, so to speak.
Carrie Huckeby:
Your verbal hiccups.
Yeah.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Now I'm scared to look at my transcripts to see to what I do.
Carrie Huckeby:
It's eye opening sometimes.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, just being able to talk to you today has been eye opening,
Carrie.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with utility pioneers.
She is Carrie Huckeby, executive director of the Tennessee
Broadband Association.
And I'm your host, Megan McKoy-Noe, at Pioneer Utility
Resources.
And until we talk again, keep telling your story.
Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a
communications cooperative that is built to share your story.
StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.