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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:
What's the magic formula for an engaging utility podcast?
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 Tiffany Trueblood,
senior communications specialist at Central Alabama Electric
Cooperative.
Tiffany, thank you so much for joining me today.
Tiffany Trueblood:
Hey, I am so happy to be here because one, just, you know, I love
you.
You're my girl. And two, I love talking.
This is like one of my favorite things to talk about.
And if anyone knows me, they know I can talk about a lot.
So I'm very excited.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, I'm excited that you were able to join us because a lot of
utility pioneers are talking about podcasts right now.
I mean, they've been around for a while, right?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yeah.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
But it's like they're having a moment.
I'm not sure what changed, but more folks are thinking about
starting podcasts.
And earlier in 2023, you launched the Central Connection
Podcast, which is hosted by you and the lovely Beth
Presley. You have published six episodes that I've seen, but
think you just finished your seventh episode yesterday.
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yeah.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Do you have any regrets so far?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Not one.
I love it.
It is so much fun.
The incredible Beth Presley, my cohort in crime.
She and I, we have so much fun with it.
There's nothing, actually the only thing I regret is that we
didn't do it sooner.
Because it's great.
It's engaging. It's fun.
It lets us too – it's just wonderful.
So, no, not one single regret.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, I have noticed that you and Beth use a lot of humor in your
conversations, including, I think this might be my
favorite to date, "relationship advice when breaking up with
your water heater," which made my heart happy.
How did you decide on this playful tone when approaching what
could be seen as serious content?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Well, you know, we got the idea for the podcast.
I'm going to go back a little bit.
We got the idea for the podcast.
We were at our Statewide Annual Communicators Conference hosted
by the Alabama Rural Electric
Association.
And someone from Oklahoma had come there, and they had talked
about their podcast.
And so on the way back from leaving that conference, it was Beth,
myself and our multimedia specialist, Nardo
Smith, and we were just talking about like, how much fun we
could have and everything.
But how we would do it a little different.
And if anyone knows the crew here at Central, we just we feed
off each other.
We're a great team, and we just had fun with it.
And we were laughing in the car so much.
And, you know, then we started thinking about podcasts we've
listened to.
And so when we, you know, we were like, we want to keep this
fun.
And, you know, we know our members.
Our members are everyday people, and we just, you know, we know
there's sometimes electricity is hard.
It's not that sexy. It's not that fun.
But we're like, we can do it in an engaging way.
What would we want to listen to?
And so that's where, and honestly, we're really just ourselves,
which is a little scary.
But we just you know, we are ourselves.
We know our organization.
We know our members. And we just want it to be fun.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. Well, do you have a catchphrase as part of this
[inaudible]?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Well, we do have one.
So when we did the Central Connection Podcast, we call it "The
CCP." And so a couple of times we do slip it in and be like,
"Welcome to the CCP.
We know energy!" Because #copyrightlaws, you can't really say.
Plus, you know, if you know that 90s hit that, we kind of got
that from, it's not quite appropriate.
But we do that. And then, you know, just when we sign off, we
always, you know, do the, and you know, "Thank you for
listening and stay connected!" And Beth and say it at the same
time, and my ten year old son said it's cringe-worthy, but we
still do it. And that's kind of mainly what we have.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Oh, I love it. I mean, there's so much, no pun intended, so much
energy when you and Beth
together are hosting this.
And the fun.
It's a lot of, it's quite enjoyable to listen to.
And I know y'all, but I think even for folks who don't know
y'all, it's just a lot of fun.
And I love seeing the tone that you have brought to those
communication efforts.
I'm curious, so y'all heard about it.
You thought, "Oh, this could be a really fun platform," but what
is the goal?
Have you written down a goal for your podcast content?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Our goal really is to, we want to reach our members where they
are.
And today there's so many different ways.
I mean, we had talked about their day for the first time ever,
we're really working with and serving five different generations
of people right now.
And I mean, it's a lot.
Everything from people who still love to get their magazine, to
people who are on Facebook or Twitter or YouTube or now
Threads, which we're experimenting with.
And then, you know, and so, when we're talking about this, like,
you know, this is a great way to reach people maybe with
something they're not going to read.
You know, it's, if they don't want to read, they want to listen
to something.
So our goal is just to get things that are interesting and to
let our members know things that are important to them.
But also it's another great way to spread the cooperative
message.
And I think it's hard nowadays sometimes with newer generations
coming in, they still think of us as just a power company.
But this is a great way for us to explain in a personable way,
no, you're part of something bigger.
You're part of a co-op. And, you know, we have people from
everywhere, all age groups.
We had one of our lineman, we did a Lineman Tales, which is one
of our most popular ones.
And the lineman was telling me he's like, "Yeah," he's like, "My
nana came up to me and said, 'I heard Kyle on that podcast.'" And
he was like, "Nana, you listen to a podcast." So it's just great
way to, you know, communicators love to communicate, so we just
want to keep on going and keep getting our message out.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love that. And you mentioned the members as your core audience,
I think.
Is there any one else that you are trying to get to outside of
your membership?
Do your staff listen to it as well?
How does that work?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yes, we have.
We release it to our employees first.
So before it gets publicized, we give a sneak peek to all our
employees.
We send them say, "Hey, this is what it is.
Listen to it." So they know what it is before, you know, if
someone mentions something, they know what it is.
And then too, it's so funny, like we had, when we did the first
couple, we had employees come up with like, "I want to be on the
podcast!" And like, if anyone works in communications, you know
what a win that is, to have an employee come to you and say, "I
want to do this." And so that's how, you know, we've actually,
with the customer service one, it was something we knew we wanted
to do, but one of the CSRs involved in that, she's like, "I want
to be on the podcast!
I really, really do." So we're like, okay, let's build an episode
around where we can get her on here.
And so it's fun to hear our employees listen to it, our board
members listen to it.
So it's really great to have all those people.
And a lot of our employees are our members, and people know
them.
So somebody like our lineman's nana.
She listened to it because her grandson was on there.
So it's just fully engaging to everyone.
And that's, you know, keep it open.
Keep it broad, but make it something people want to listen to.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, Yeah. Well, a lot of popular podcasts have a formula, let's
call it their secret sauce, if you will, that they follow each
week. For instance, with The StoryConnect Podcast, we start
every episode with a question and that we'll answer throughout
the course of the episode.
And then we always end with the phrase, "Keep telling your
story." What formula are you following for your
episodes? You're giggling.
I can see you giggling.
Tiffany Trueblood:
Okay, so.
Before we have the podcast, we do go through and have an outline
of the subjects we want to cover.
It's not a script, but it's just something so if we ask somebody
something and there's a particular point we know somebody needs
to make. If they forget, then Beth or myself can go back and
say, "Oh, well, what about this?" You know, whatever, and work
that back in.
That's about it.
It is very unscripted.
And the only thing is Beth does the intro every time because her
voice is magnificent for that.
She does a great job at that.
And then we always ask the people, you know, how long they've
been here or what their role is at the co-op?
And then we just kind of go into it.
It is not scripted.
We do not have a time limit.
We do not have a time quota of any sort.
We just go where the conversation goes.
And I think that's actually kind of keeps it fun.
Because like this last one we did with our CEO and a board
member, we had this all labeled out, you know, what we were going
to do. And they kind of just, but it turned into a conversation,
and they just covered this, covered that.
And we got all the points done, but not in the order we thought
of doing them at all.
But so, I think being flexible is a huge part.
I mean, we have our intro and our little, you know, stay
connected, but everything else is kind of, you know, it's
there, but it's not the rule of the law, so.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah. Do you have music that y'all use?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yes, we have a little intro jingle that I'm not gonna do it.
Nobody wants to hear me do that.
But it's a little uplifting jingle, and that's on the way in and
then on the way out.
So we do have that.
And but other than that, that's about it.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Okay. And you mentioned that you will outline general ideas that
you want to make sure you cover.
Do you have an editorial calendar for this year that y'all are
following?
Tiffany Trueblood:
We tend – not really.
When we started doing the podcast, we actually brought it in
after we had already done our editorial calendar for 2023.
So the good thing is too, we do like to keep it flexible
because, like I said, we have those employees that come up.
And we always ask the employees, if you have an idea that you
think the members want, tell us.
And then we want to be able to do that as quick as we can
because we want to keep that engagement.
And then sometimes, like Beth and I and Nada, we just we just in
the hallway before this meeting came up with a crazy idea of a
podcast that we would like to do at our annual meeting.
And I have not taken that to my manager, the lovely Nagea
Littleton, yet.
So stuff like that, we brainstorm.
The team here are so amazing, and we brainstorm, and we talk.
I mean, that's how this whole thing started.
So we'll be like, okay, what's coming up?
And you know, there's certain things we know we need to do
because of our editorial calendar for 2023.
So we do have a layout of what will kind of follow for that
month.
But a lot of times it's kind of like, oh, well, thought of this,
or somebody is like, have you done this?
And well, you know, we like to keep that fluid and flexible.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Okay. How often are you publishing content?
Tiffany Trueblood:
At least once a month.
Sometimes, it will be twice.
It depends on what's going on.
You know, some months, there's a lot more going on than other
months.
Because, it's just, you know, it is.
Or things that would be interesting for that.
I mean, we don't want to just have to do two a month because
we're got to do two a month, if it's just one.
But, you know, we've already thought, we did have one on the
books for August coming up, that is highlighting our Bright Ideas
grants and our teachers that have received those going.
And that's coming up. But then we just had this idea for this
other one.
So we're like, oh, we'll just throw a little Bogo in there, if
it gets approved.
But you know, it's fun just being fluid with it.
There's rules, but there's no rules.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
And I know that y'all are lucky because you've got Nardo on
staff, and he is delightful.
What kind of time goes into recording and editing each episode?
What kind of a setup do y'all have for that?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yeah, we actually have a small studio, which is, I know a lot of
people don't have that option, but we had a room here.
We kind of took it over, and so we have [equipment] Nardo picked
out.
We actually have equipment there, the sound board.
We have four mics, four headphones, so we can have two guests.
And then, you know, Beth and myself or just one, depends on what
we're doing.
And I mean, honestly, when we record it, so far everything has
been one take.
And with, he'll get it off, and when he takes it in there in his
office, and puts it through,
I believe, he uses like Audition or one of those programs.
And then when he gets done with it, I mean most of the time he's
done a couple of little things, and he'll send it to Beth and I
to listen to.
And then it goes through the approval process to our manager
Nagea, and then a couple of the VPs or whatever.
But relatively, it's pretty quick.
We've been so far, knocking on all the wood can find, very
blessed that because, I mean, the one we just did yesterday
afternoon, we did it around 1:00.
Finished about 1:30.
And by 3:00 yesterday, he already had it for us to listen to.
So we are blessed to kind of be able to do that in one take.
I'm sure there's going to be some that need, and there's
sometimes we listen to it.
We're like, "Hey, can you go back and take this part out?" Or
take, you know, take this section, and he can do that.
But usually if all the cards fall, we can get it done, and
approved by everybody within a week.
So.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Okay. Now, have y'all talked about using this medium for outage
messaging
and power restoration efforts?
Because if you can go that fast, that's really cool.
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yes, that was another option is great because, you know, right
now, we have once again knocking all the wood I can find, been
blessed this year, not having too many bad storms.
I probably just jinxed us. But you know, we've had things in the
past between Hurricane Zeta, which we still don't really talk
about around here anymore.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
It's okay. It's a safe space.
Tiffany Trueblood:
Kind of like Bruno. We don't talk about Bruno or Zeta.
And then we've had a couple other storms that we just, you know,
getting that message out.
Video is great, but video takes a lot longer.
So it is great to have this option, especially for those CEO
messages if we need to get something out really quick.
I think it'd be very beneficial in prep because we can always
record something on prep or what's going on, relate
people that, or something we can go ahead and have done, and if
we need it, we can get it out.
Because if anyone's been in communications during storm, there's
50 billion things going on and having something ready,
would be great.
And we always, we'll be doing one soon, probably coming up.
Think we have that planned for right around September.
We're also doing one for our Youth Tour.
We're bringing in Youth Tour students, but we're also going to
do a second one on hurricane storm prep because where we are here
in Alabama, September/October, is just a really iffy time of
year.
We want to go ahead and get that out.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Everyone holds their breath.
Yeah.
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yeah.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, I love that you mentioned bringing the Youth Tour students
in.
You mentioned storm prep and having that just available and done
so that you can share it, and you've got some
on, you know, featuring your CSRs.
We talked about the water heater breakup advice.
What other topics are y'all covering?
Is it all internal, like your staff?
Or are you bringing in, like for the Bright Ideas grants, are you
bringing the recipients into your studio to record their stories?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yes, we are going to bring people from the outside.
We plan to have two teachers come in for the Bright Ideas Grant,
two of our past recipients, and then also for
Youth Tour. We're going to have, you know, we're thinking about
having a couple, maybe one of the students that went to
Washington, and then one who didn't.
Because I mean, they still did a lot, and we still want to give
them the opportunity because, one, you know, the one from
Washington will probably talk a lot about the Washington Youth
Tour.
And we'd like to have somebody that just went to the Montgomery,
and even the process of it.
So we'd like to, it's another way to engage with those.
Because if everyone knows about Youth Tour, those are your
cheerleaders.
Those are your best friends for life after this.
And they all think it's amazing.
When they heard we had a podcast, our Youth Tour kids were like,
"What?" They're like, "We thought it was cool you had Instagram!"
And they're like, "You have a podcast?" We're like, "Yeah, we're
modern." So, but it's cool because I mean, it's, once again, it's
that demographic, and they'll listen to a podcast.
And then their mom and dad and their cousins and all them will
listen if their kids are on a podcast.
And you know, Beth and I are amazing and entertaining, but
nobody wants to listen to us all the time.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, have you thought about having a guest host, like having the
students from Youth Tour interview your CEO
or someone else in the community?
Tiffany Trueblood:
No, we haven't, but that would be a great idea.
Thank you. I'm gonna steal it. No one else steal that.
That's just between Megan and I.
(laughs)
Megan McKoy-Noe:
No, but I love that.
And that's one point that folks have been making with podcasts,
is that.
I had someone talk to me during our annual meeting.
We were chatting back and forth and she said, "You know, I don't
want to do TikTok, but how else do I reach this younger
community? Like, what is the audience for podcasts?" And I was
like, "It's actually like half a podcast listeners are under
34."
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yeah.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
And like that fact alone, like, blew her away.
And it's why we're working on a podcast e-book right now just to
try to let folks know that this is a really strong option.
If you have the staff, if you have the time, you know, a strong
option for you to use to share your story.
Now I'm curious.
I first heard about your podcast because we are connected on
LinkedIn.
Again, I am a big fan of yours, and you shared this really cool
animated graphic.
It had the podcast logo, and that's part of your formula.
You actually have a very branded look and feel for the podcast.
It had the episode title.
It was really snazzy and eye catching.
What do you use to create those posts, and how else are you
publicizing Central Connection.
Tiffany Trueblood:
To make the post, you know, we use any kind of, you know, thing.
Sometimes it's Adobe Express.
Or I don't know if I'm like sponsorship stuff here, but or any of
those platforms.
The one that starts with the C, (whispers) Canva.
But whichever.
And then.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
That's okay.
Tiffany Trueblood:
But, if you haven't sponsored this, you need too.
And then we actually use BuzzSprout is our online, that's where
we publish the podcast to and everything.
And they have, you know, we've seen those cool graphics where
you can actually hear the podcast like you guys have done on
yours. You know, unless you just do that right in there.
You can put a snippet in or not.
But most of it's just, you know, we try to make the post look
like a little bit themed.
I know the, you know, the one about breaking up with your no
good water heater.
It had like a little neon heart.
And it just had that look and feel, so depending on what it is.
I think our safety one was more like yellow, you know, safety and
stuff.
But we do that.
We also have an e-newsletter we send out to all our members who
elect to receive it.
And so we usually, if there's something in there, we'll put that
in there, that graphic with that.
So we have like the one going out for, right now in our July,
it's talking about our annual meeting and our ballots and
everything. So we're going to put that podcast we just did in
that so people can hear it.
We put, if it's a story that we know is going to link to it,
we'll put a QR code for the podcast in the magazine.
Because we will be talking about Bright Ideas Grants in our
September magazine.
We're going to release this one in August, so we can say, "Hey,
to hear more, not just read about these grants, but to hear more,
go to here." So we tie in a lot in those ways.
Internally, like I said, we send out the link to our employees.
We have internal monitors.
We put a QR code or tell them to go there to inside our hub site.
So we do lots of ways.
We were just talking, like I said, about annual meeting and
something that may or may not happen.
So I don't know yet. But if anything, at least we'd like to have
some kind of signage or a banner there and be like, "Hey, learn
more." And with a QR code that takes them to all of our stuff.
So I mean, we use a lot of traditional avenues to get it out,
but so far it's worked pretty well.
And, you know, we have people who kind of subscribe to it,
mostly probably our family, but there's people that subscribe to
it. So they get those notifications when they go out.
So, so far, it's done pretty good, so.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
Okay. And are you measuring the success of the podcast to see if
it's worth the time that you're investing?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Yeah. The good thing about the site that we use to host, they do
all the stats for you.
So we've been doing this.
Our six episodes right now have had over 630, 640 downloads.
So yeah, it's, we're kind of impressed when we see the numbers
come in.
We like, we're like, "Whoa," like, we don't know what, we don't
know what we're doing, but apparently we're doing it well.
So, and it's fun to see, but we can also then see which episodes
have done the best.
Like our top one, of course, was our first one.
And we were talking about our broadband initiative because
everybody wants that.
And then of course, our second was like lineman tales.
And then actually the breaking up with your water heater was
number three.
So, that helps us know what topics, which ones, does it matter
how long it
was?
Was there a subject that you know people may want to know more
and more about or not?
So far we've done six, seven will be coming out soon.
But yeah, we were pretty pumped to have that many downloads.
Like the first episode went out, and we were like, "Oh my gosh."
We did not.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
It worked! Well, one last question before I let you go.
What tips would you give anyone who's never hosted a podcast
before, and they've just gotten the green light?
What should they do?
Tiffany Trueblood:
Be yourself and have fun with it.
You know your organization.
You know your members.
You know the people you work with.
They're just people.
Don't be too rigid with it.
Podcasts to me are always evolving.
If you don't listen to a podcast and you're going to have a
podcast, I suggest you find a couple to listen to because then
you'll understand, you know, the ones you like and what you like
about them.
The ones I like are very conversational.
You get to feel like you know the people, and that's that tie
in.
And also if you're just a one person shop, you can do it.
I mean, you really just need some software, a couple mics and
just do it.
It's something that's fun.
It's engaging.
It's always good to hear when you have – especially getting the
employee engagement, too, because think that's something we're
all talking about as well right now is employee engagement.
And just, you know, have fun with it, see what happens.
And like us, no regrets.
Just jump in, find time for it.
Because you will think it's going to take forever.
And also get over hearing yourself on the radio or TV, whatever
it is that kids talk about nowadays.
But you know, you hear yourself.
You're like, "Do I sound like that?" Well, you probably do, but
you sound fine.
If no one has told you anything during your life yet, you're
probably sounding fine.
So just, you know, jump in and do it.
Have fun with it.
And, yeah, have fun.
Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love that. Well, Tiffany, thank you so much for sharing your
story and your formula for magic podcast success with
Utility Pioneers.
She is Tiffany Trueblood, the senior communications specialist
at Central Alabama Electric Cooperative.
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.