How Can A Podcast Help Your Utility Tell Its Story?

What You’ll Learn

Jones-Onslow EMC uses its “Flippin’ The Switch” podcast to build community around its brand by sharing a mix of community stories and discussions of utility-related topics. Learn how they do it and how the podcast fits into the overall communications plan. Tune into “Flippin’ The Switch” here: https://joemc.com/news/podcasts-2

Podcasts recorded live at StoryConnect are sponsored by Meridian Cooperative.

Guest Speaker

Krystal Phillips

Show Notes

Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.

Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns: How can a podcast help your utility tell your story? That’s what we’ll be talking about on this episode of StoryConnect: The Podcast. My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer Utility Resources, and I’m joined on this episode by Krystal Phillips, who is the communications and community relations director for Jones-Onslow EMC in North Carolina. Krystal, thank you so much for joining me.

Krystal Phillips: Thanks so much for having me. I know that’s a bit of a mouthful. That title, it’s a little long.

Andy Johns: You’ve got a hyphen in Jones-Onslow, but I can handle it. I’m a professional. Like we said, we’ve just done 250 episodes, so I’m not scared of a hyphen.

Krystal Phillips: You got this.

Andy Johns: Got it. We are joined, as you may have just noticed there, we are joined by a wonderful audience here live at StoryConnect. We’re so excited every year to record three of these with folks as part of the annual tradition at the conference. And Krystal, I’m glad that you’re part of it this year.

Krystal Phillips: Thanks for having me.

Andy Johns: This year, we are sponsored by Meridian Cooperative, and happy to have them as our sponsor for these live podcasts that we’re doing here for this set of three here at StoryConnect. Let’s dive in. So two podcasters walk into a bar, and the bartender says, “You guys should listen to my podcast.” Everybody’s doing podcasting these days. Tell us a little bit about flipping the switch.

Krystal Phillips: Sure. So this podcast had started well before I joined Jones-Onslow. So they had probably about 11 to 12 episodes prior to myself joining, and I joined right before COVID. So I was at work. Two weeks later, COVID arrived, and we really decided that the podcast really needed to become a true vessel for communicating with our members. But it’s grown into something more than just sharing like the news of the co-op. We certainly have brought the community into it, and we bring in members to tell us about like their happenings, you know. And we’ve even added a section about “watts” happening, since we are an electric cooperative, and a kilowatt is our friend.

Andy Johns: So I see what you did.

Krystal Phillips: There’s a nice pun there.

Andy Johns: Lots happening.

Krystal Phillips: Yeah, it’s a total dad joke if you want it. Yeah.

Andy Johns: I’ll always take one.

Krystal Phillips: Yeah, you can keep it.

Andy Johns: If we learned anything this week, that’s what we learned.

Krystal Phillips: So our co-op is Jones-Onslow, and we have dove full force into the podcast world. So for us, it’s a lot more. Whenever you had asked, “Hey, will you talk about the podcast?” I thought, “I’m not the technical side. I’m the one that’s on the mic and will ask questions.” But for us, it’s really a sense of community in so many ways and bring in those folks in to have those conversations. We do a lot with promoting events in the community too, because those are our members and our listeners really enjoy it. And we even have a feature where we’re like, write in. Tell us what you want to hear about, and that’s even brought us conversations about a dryer ball. I mean, who knew that was so interesting? But actually now, I use them, and they’re very interesting. Yeah.

Andy Johns: All right. So that came in as a reader, as a question or as a –?

Krystal Phillips: Yeah, they’re like, “what’s the deal with the dryer ball? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Do I save energy?” So we did a little deep dive into the dark world of dryer balls, and they do save you lots of energy if you use them properly. So it’s one of those things that we’re willing to take the look into something if somebody asks.

Andy Johns: Cool. Now, full disclosure, there are folks that we help do the podcast. This is not one of them. And I know some of the ones that we work with, there’s more of a community focus like you said. Some folks, it’s strictly industry related. You guys, like you said, have a good mix. I’m looking at some of the recent episodes you guys have talked bringing AI to vegetation management, busting EV myths, safety with down power lines. So there is a lot of those that are industry related, but then I also see the jazz festival and several other things you all have talked about. How do you find that balance of when you only talk shop, and when do you talk about other stuff in the community?

Krystal Phillips: Well, I think our members kind of guide us. You know, a lot of them will say, “Hey, this really cool event is happening, but we don’t have the best way to get the word out.” Whether, you know, they’ll put it in the newspaper, but they’re always looking for something a little bit different. You know, they’re on the hunt. And so luckily, Jones-Onslow can be that voice for them. And for us, we’re kind of learning right there with them. We did one about the African American Heritage Trail in our neighborhood. We had no idea other than there might be a 2 or 3 stops, but we had no idea that it was so huge and was throughout our county. So that kind of propelled Linda Mathiason, who’s here with us today at the StoryConnect Conference, and I to go and hit the road and go on those sites. So we did social media posts to go in conjunction with that. And then when we get techie, there’s some of those things that Linda and I ask a lot of the questions, and Steve, our boss, will jump in, but we really don’t know what they’re doing. So whenever it’s like AI is going to vegetation management, let’s be honest, all I think of is like a robot. And, you know, what does that mean? So we’re asking the questions that our members probably want to know because we’re right there with them. We can write till the cows come home, but we don’t really know until somebody explains it.

Andy Johns: Were there robots involved or –?

Krystal Phillips: Absolutely. There were robots.

Andy Johns: Cool.

Krystal Phillips: There’s even AI technology that is doing infrared scans to check the chloroform levels in your vegetation. Listen to that episode; you’ll learn.

Andy Johns: Listen, on the way home. Absolutely. Yes. So you brought up something that I was going to take it into, how do you produce it, and what goes into it. But you brought up something very important that I think ties in very nicely with the session that Ann Harvey and other folks did earlier today. So how does the podcast fit in? You mentioned also sharing bits on social media. How does this fit in to the other communications work that you guys are doing as another channel?

Krystal Phillips: Well, it is a major part of what we do. So we kind of, we’d like to say we plan a year in advance of everything we post and we talk about, sure we do. We have a calendar. We certainly live and breathe by that calendar, but things change. But our podcast kind of, we do our newsletter. We put our social media, and then we’re like, “Hey, what do we want to talk about this month?” Like, is there something that is like the burning question on social media that month? And right now, we’re working in innovations in the co-op world, so you’ll hear a lot over the next 12 months for us, and it’s about those AI things. And so for us, we had to be very forward thinking of, okay, you write it on paper. You put it on social, but a lot of people like, they want to listen and learn. So we’re just trying to kind of bring that home. So it plays a huge role. That’s one of the seven ways that we’re getting our word out.

Andy Johns: Perfect. Perfect. Let’s talk a little bit about kind of the brass tacks of it and how you get it together. So what all is involved in each episode? How far out are you starting to – because you guys have different speakers on there, you know –.

Krystal Phillips: Every month.

Andy Johns: Right. And so what all is involved? Are you writing a lot of that out ahead of time, or are you recording it at different times? Tell us kind of what kind of work goes into an episode?

Krystal Phillips: Sure. I would encourage anybody and everybody to try a podcast. It’s not that complicated. You know, if you’re willing to put it in a little bit of time, you can do it. For us, yes, we do interview people every month, and it’s a simple phone call. And we’ll say, like this coming month, we’re interviewing someone at our statewide office. They don’t have to come to your office. Technology is grand. So a lot of times if it’s somebody coming from a distance, we’ll do a phone-in interview through our soundboard. And Steve, our boss, is our soundboard operator, so he is on the mic and doing all the fun stuff. And I have no idea what he does over there doing that. So I’m glad he does that. But we send them a sample list of questions and use it as a guide. I don’t write their answers. We just kind of say, if something comes out, you don’t like it, that’s okay. We can edit it. So we are really kind of winging a lot. We send a question, hope it goes well. Haven’t had a flop yet, knock on wood, but the biggest thing is just having that conversation. Linda does interviewing as well, and our big thing is that we want it to be comfortable, kind of like this. You know, you ask a question; I’ll have an answer. May it always be great? Probably not, but that’s okay. So that’s where we go.

Andy Johns: You said you wing it on some of your episodes. I know, we’ve never done that on any of ours, that’s for sure.

Krystal Phillips: No. No way.

Andy Johns: So you mentioned it. You know, having the boss involved on the soundboard, that probably helps. And I know you said you weren’t there quite at the beginning, but this is unconventional. And part of the reason why I wanted to – we have a couple other folks in the room that are doing podcasts, but you all started – I don’t know if you were the OG – but you were close to it. You all have been doing it for.

Krystal Phillips: Steve would say we were the OG.

Andy Johns: Okay, so you’ve been doing it a long time.

Krystal Phillips: Yeah.

Andy Johns: Before it was, and it’s still kind of fringy. You know, some folks don’t know what it is. Do you ever have to justify it, or do you have any idea of some of the history of how did you guys kind of talk folks into like, this is a channel where we need to be, and we need to stay here?

Krystal Phillips: Well, I know whenever it started years ago, it was one of those things, Steve Goodson, had a – he’s very visionary in the way of like, how can we do things to get more people in the fold? So it actually kind of started on a personal level for him. He had a private podcast, “Two Men and a Six Pack” shameless plug for him. That was a sports podcast. And so from that, he was like, you know what? People are listening to me talking about sports. I think they might listen to something that would happen at the electric co-op. And we’re very blessed to work with such a cool group of people that they were like, if you guys think it will work, you want to do it, handle it. So Steve took the ball, and he handled it. And we started off with a really small soundboard, a couple Yeti mics that he got from the Best Buy. And we just sat in a chair. And then I started, and he was like, “you want to write a section? Why don’t you do something? Just figure something out.” And we’re like, “Okay.” So it’s really grown into something that was really small. One small idea sparked a whole series of events, and now we’re just pumping them out. And just the other day he’s like, maybe we should do two a month instead of one a month. And I was like, “Wow, okay. Maybe we should.” But it’s one of those things for us, it was something small, and nobody said no. There was no opposition to the fact of having a podcast because really you’re only doing what we’re supposed to do, and that’s inform members and telling the good news of the co-op. That’s a win.

Andy Johns: I wonder how many marketing ideas from the room fit that description. Something small and nobody said no. So you did it, and it turned out cool.

Krystal Phillips: Absolutely.

Andy Johns: What advice do you have, speaking of ideas and we’ll close here, but what advice do you have for somebody? Maybe they’re out there in the audience, maybe they’re listening, and they’ve thought before, and you’re like, “Maybe we need to get into this podcasting kind of thing.” What advice would you have for folks thinking about making the jump into podcasting?

Krystal Phillips: Sure. I would say do it. The biggest thing is just talk to your group. Make sure everybody’s kind of all in on that idea. You know, not everybody is comfortable at the microphone, but, you know, you interview people, and they’re like, “Oh, I do not like the way I sound.” Nobody likes the way they sound, and that’s okay. But the biggest thing is if you feel in your gut that that’s the right thing for you to do for your co-op, do it. It will be some growing pains. Some months will be more fun than others, and some months you’ll find a dryer ball. Some months you’ll find a robot. I don’t know. But you will definitely enjoy it.

Andy Johns: Absolutely. You know, it reminds me. I remember picking up my kid from school one time, and I happen to have one of my podcasts going, and he was like, “Dad, are you listening to your own podcast?”

Krystal Phillips: Yes.

Andy Johns: Maybe that’s fine, right? That’s not weird.

Krystal Phillips: That’s nothing wrong with that.

Andy Johns: Okay.

Krystal Phillips: You’re like an instant celebrity. You should have said, “Do you want my autograph?”

Andy Johns: I know how that would have gone.

Krystal Phillips: Yeah. He’d say “No?”

Andy Johns: She is Krystal Phillips with Jones-Onslow EMC. Thank you so much for joining me.

Krystal Phillips: Thanks so much.

Andy Johns: I’m your host, Andy Johns. Thanks so much. 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.