StoryConnect the Podcast

East Mississippi Connect has been using digital advertising to surgically target communities and potential subscribers as its fiber optic service rolled out across its service territory. Julie Boles shares what's worked and what lessons she's learned along the way.Special: Live at StoryConnect 2025

Art shows, lobby displays, social content and more—Theresa Phillips shares how Lassen MUD works with consumers to showcase their community on the magazine cover and in a much-coveted custom calendar each year!

Whether they're blasting off to space to explore planets or solving mysteries across departments, one Oregon utility hosts an exciting career adventure every spring. Utility Pioneer Sarah Johnson shares how Clatskanie PUD turns Take Your Kid to Work Day into a memorable adventure for employees' families.

Are you ready to reimagine your annual meeting? In Montana, Flathead Electric's team was challenged by the board to reach more members. Hear how incorporating an energy expo, interactive videos and staff experts adds value to your event.

How do you get consumers invested in focus groups? Rebrand them as influencers! Anna Politano shares how people are reacting to Oklahoma's statewide Co-op Influencers Program.

David Naylor co-authored a book about Rayburn Electric Cooperative with a focus on how the cooperative realigned its core values to push for innovation throughout the organization.The book is available on Amazon, https://a.co/d/dYuErZ0.

Debra Weller says stories can not only help you connect with your audience, but can also help them remember what you have to say. Weller, who will be speaking at Pioneer's StoryConnect 2025 in St. Augustine, Florida, also provides tips for overcoming nerves and delivering your message.

In Kansas, one utility is handing out branded cash to use at local businesses during festivals. Hear Erma Ratliff share the idea behind Kanokla Cash to see if the idea could help you cash in on community growth, too!

Seeking to engage younger members, Kankakee Valley REMC launched a Junior Board program to introduce high school students in the co-op's operations.

Business customers need reliability, flexibility and simple billing. Delivering and communicating about those value adds can lead to long-lasting customer relationships.

Calix's Joe Kohegyi says competing on price and speed is a recipe for failure. Modern consumers want value in their connection and smart broadband marketers are working to communicate the value they deliver.

Clever marketing campaigns are fun, but they are ineffective unless staff and sales processes are aligned behind them.

When you have multiplebroadband competitors pulling potential subscribers away, how do you set your story apart? Hear how Georgia's Tri-CoGo turned powering food trucks, fireworks shows and parks and recreation spaces into a way to build brand awareness in its community.

Facing increasing costs and angry subscribers, many broadband providers are looking to drop TV service. Ending linear video service in a strategic way can leave customers and broadband providers in a better way—as long as it's done in a smart way.

The broadband packages at SCTelcom don't focus on speed. Instead, they highlight experiences like the connected family, high techies, home tech starter and a package for a simple and secure experience. Wendy Crenner shares how her team uses the power of narratives to connect with subscribers.

Mike Teegarden is retiring from Pioneer after 31 years of telling stories, first through his photography and then through his editorial leadership. Mike joins “The StoryConnect Podcast” to discuss lessons learned from photography to leadership to storytelling.

Is your consumer service team built to care? Scott Paul, of Beacon Broadband, shares how he uses team building and mentoring to turn his frontline team into storytelling specialists!

Incorporating humor into broadband marketing has skyrocketed sales at Co-Mo Communications over the past several years. How did dino-riding Chip Thunder go from a short-lived advertisement to a beloved character among subscribers? Listen to the story on this podcast episode!Find Chip Thunder videos on YouTube.

Every Friday night, stadium lights flash on and fans in purple or red file in. Before the crowd roars for touchdowns, they pull out their phones to connect to free Wi-Fi from the co-op. Pea River Co-op's Brenda Overton shares how this tradition kicked off and why it might score for you, too.

The era of selling broadband based on speed alone is over. At Calix ConneXions 2024, industry leaders focused on subscriber experience and community connection to drive rural broadband success. From outdoor Wi-Fi innovations to strategic planning shifts, here's what's next for rural broadband providers.

Clark Public Utilities has been surveying its customers since the 1960s. How have the valuable insights gleaned from surveys helped the utility successfully serve its community? Customer Experience Manager Cameron Daline tells us on this podcast episode.

Hear how Power Eastern Oregon—an economic development summit bringing together regional legislators, nationally known speakers and rural Oregon's business community—has become a way for Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative to strengthen its community's story.

Hydromania may sound like a music festival in the Gorge, but it's a free summer camp for fourth and fifth graders from Umatilla Electric Cooperative. Weston Putman shares the camp's origin story and how it is building the next generation of co-op members.

How much of the publicly-shared interactions with utility staff is trolling versus investigative reporting by concerned citizens who have a right to hold the utility accountable? We're talking to Ryan Hall about “Getting Out of the Gotcha Moments” at NWPPA's Northwest Innovations Conference in Idaho.

How do you boost your take rates and cut churn after you've built broadband? OEC Fiber's Erin McKnight shares her storytelling tactics, including a three-tiered marketing approach by zone and her subscriber stories series. Tune in for fresh ideas!

It's difficult to have happy customers if you have unhappy staff. Dr. Trish Holliday and Brent Baker of NES talk about the connection between the two and how to improve both.

We're gearing up to celebrate the United Nations' International Year of Cooperatives in 2025, so we've invited co-op cheerleader Adam Schwartz onto the podcast to help Utility Pioneers brainstorm how to tell our co-op stories in fresh, engaging ways.

Mountain Rural Telephone wanted to educate members about Wi-Fi, broadband and the capabilities they provide. So working with local businesses, they built a campaign around World Wi-Fi Day in June.

Dig into the psychology of marketing with Pioneer's Sarah Lancaster to learn how using archetypes can help your marketing create more meaningful connections with your target audiences.

EWEB is one year into trying out Nextdoor as a communication tool, and they are seeing good results due to the platform's focus on geographic filters.

With about two months to go before the Oct. 10 broadband label deadline, Dounia Chikhoune, from JSI, shares insights about on what she's seen big and small ISPs do to be ready.

SkyLine/SkyBest doesn't let the fact that they are a member-owned telephone cooperative in the North Carolina mountains stop them from fighting hard against big competitors in the search rankings. Edward Hinson shares examples of what they've done to move up in the rankings and why it's worth it.

Employees at Columbia REA are allowed to bring their pets to work. CEO Scott Peters says it's a beneficial policy as long as you “paws” to think about the guidelines first.

Storytelling is a HUGE component of broadband marketing. But how can you make a technical subject engaging and memorable for your community? Kelly Burns, marketing manager at CTC in Minnesota, tells us how Bigfoot and its own Gig A. Byte monster keep people interested and engaged in broadband services.

Speed is so 2020. To connect with today's broadband subscribers you need data-driven storytelling, persona-based service tiers and the know-how to read digital body language. Calix's Naylor Gray shares insights from the 2024 update of Calix's e-book, “The Definitive Guide to Subscriber Experience.”Link to the e-book: www.calix.com/forms/marketer/download/guide-to-subscriber-experience.html 

Flint Energies has started a matching grant program with artists and community groups to paint murals in towns around its service territory. In addition to adding beauty to the community, they're seeing positive economic impacts.

Hear how a Kansas utility delivered 159 TONS of food with a branded van, school competitions and coordinated, consistent messaging over the last 10 years.

Want more people to apply for lineworker jobs? Show your story to high school seniors! Learn how Community Electric Co-op's “Day in the Life of a Lineworker” student experience raises awareness of utility career paths and lineworker scholarships every spring.

Starting in kindergarten, the team at Oklahoma Electric Co-op offers educational programs to students throughout their school experience. Hear how the programs developed and why engaging children became a strategic focus for the utility over the last decade.

Energy efficiency is a story that can feel stale. Hear how Louisiana Utility Pioneers rebranded existing resources with an owl mascot and cohesive storytelling to help both staff and members be Power Smart.

For the second year in a row, price was not the No. 1 concern for respondents in Innovative Systems' annual broadband survey. What is it that matters most? This episode also includes notes on bundling, social media platform usage, streaming options and communication preferences.Special: Recorded LIVE at StoryConnect 2024!

Internal communications is a critical part of storytelling, but one we often forget. At Medina Electric, Katie Haby's using the CliftonStrengths training program to help staff focus on strengths to build cross-department teams and happier, more engaged employees. Hear how the program's helping the co-op strengthen its internal storytelling approach!

Allison Young and the Kauai team just won an NRECA Spotlight award for their internal newsletter and intranet. What's their secret for engaging internal communications?Special: Recorded LIVE at StoryConnect 2024!

Icebreakers, scholarships and character building — meet EmPOWER, a youth leadership program for high school juniors in South Dakota and Minnesota. Learn about Sioux Valley Energy's long-term investment to build future leaders in its community.

Do you have a local network of cooperative storytellers? From his dual roles as an economic development manager at People's Energy and board member for Cooperative Development Services, Marty Walsh's has a unique take on co-op education and how Utility Pioneers can turn the cooperative difference into shared storytelling opportunities to foster member success.

In under three years, Central Rural Electric Co-op moved from breaking ground to 85% buildout of their broadband service, CentraNet, in Oklahoma. During a break from the Calix event, Larry Mattox shares how the small team managed this growth, a new brand and evolving member expectations.

In an effort to move beyond features like speed, CL Tel has begun discussing its broadband based on what their service can do for specific customer profiles of personas like gamers, remote workers and families.Special: Recorded LIVE at NTCA

Now that the rules have been finalized, Dereck DeVries, of Vantage Point, shares the latest on what marketers, communicators and executives need to know about the where, what and when of broadband labels.

Sioux Valley Energy's staff LEAD program builds a culture of cooperation across the utility, creating a competitive edge when recruiting talent. Learn how projects from the leadership program improved volunteerism programs, removed silos and strengthened the co-op's internal communications.

Food co-ops, credit unions, utilities and other types of co-ops may serve different needs, but we share many of the same stories. Cooperative educator Cathy Statz talks about the power of sharing the cross-sector co-op story with young people, then offers advice for building your local cooperative community.

Chris Pietsch, director of photography for Gannett Newspapers in Oregon, shares tips on "making — not taking" better photos while previewing the sessions he will lead at StoryConnect in April.