0:00

What is up ? Plant people it's time once again

0:02

for the Plantthropology podcast , the show

0:04

where we dive into the lives and careers of some very cool

0:06

plant people to figure out why they do what they do

0:08

and what keeps them coming back for more . I'm

0:11

your host and humble guide in this journey through the greenest

0:13

of the sciences , vikram Baliga , and

0:15

, as always , my dear friends , I am so excited

0:17

to be with you today . Y'all , this

0:20

is the first deep dive episode

0:22

we've done in quite a while and if you've been

0:24

around for a minute , you'll know that every now

0:26

and then I'll bring a guest back to really really

0:28

go into what they study , what they do , a

0:31

new project they have . And my guest

0:33

today for this deep dive episode is Dr

0:35

Erica Erlbeck . She is a friend in

0:37

the Davis College you may have heard

0:39

her in the way back when , like

0:41

in the first 10 episodes of

0:44

the show ever somewhere and she

0:46

recently wrote a book called the Crisis Communication

0:48

Guide for Agriculture , food and Natural

0:51

Resources . And she is also our

0:53

new Davis College Associate Dean

0:55

for Outreach and Engagement . So

0:57

I've talked about this a little bit before , I

0:59

think , on the show , but our college has done this cool

1:01

thing where we're actually prioritizing outreach

1:03

and engaging with the community , and that

1:06

is the best . And as we were

1:08

going through the process of finding someone

1:10

for it , like there's few people I can

1:12

think of who are a better fit

1:14

for a job like this and a stronger

1:16

leader in a space like this than Erica

1:19

. And we talked about everything from how

1:21

do you communicate after a hailstorm if

1:23

you work in a greenhouse , to what should

1:25

your social media strategy be and how

1:27

do you work with the local news media

1:29

All kinds of good stuff . We talk about her

1:32

teaching , we talk about her thoughts on

1:34

the future of communication and

1:36

just had a really fun conversation

1:38

, a really , really , really fun conversation

1:41

. Erica's great , she's a good friend , she's an

1:43

excellent person and

1:48

I think you're really going to learn a lot , not just about communicating in agriculture

1:50

that may not be anything close to what you do but just communicating more effectively

1:52

in general , because , again , erica

1:55

literally did write the book on this

1:57

. A quick note before we get into this episode

1:59

. I did have a couple of technical problems with

2:01

the sound at the very beginning , so

2:03

the sounds a little strange in the first like five

2:06

and a half minutes or so of the episode

2:08

, but the content is really good , so I don't want you to skip it , so

2:10

just bear with it , it'll be fine . It's

2:12

not that bad . It's very listenable , but it

2:15

improves a lot after the first five minutes

2:17

or so . So that was my fault . I made an oops

2:19

, but I've mostly fixed it . Anyway , I just wanted

2:21

you to be aware of that , and so , without any further

2:24

yammering for me , get yourself ready

2:26

for episode 107 of Planthropology

2:28

, a

2:34

deep dive into crisis communications

2:37

in agriculture with Dr

2:40

Erica Earlbeck

2:53

. Well

2:57

, erica , thanks for coming in and talking to me again . Thank

3:00

you for having me After a while it's . We've

3:03

been , for those of you out there listening . We've been trying

3:05

to coordinate this for like

3:07

six weeks maybe , and one of us has

3:09

been sick , I think , every time .

3:11

Yes .

3:12

Or something .

3:13

Yeah , yeah , yeah , so glad to be here

3:15

.

3:15

Yeah , glad to be here without some

3:17

sort of illness . Well

3:20

, and I was looking earlier . You've been on the show before

3:22

, but it was like I

3:25

don't remember when maybe 2021?

3:27

.

3:28

I know that I did it . I was

3:30

sitting in my recliner .

3:32

So it was COVID era . Yeah .

3:35

So because , yeah , I remember sitting in the recliner

3:37

Gosh that was a long time ago , yeah it was .

3:40

It's hard to believe sometimes that I've been doing this for

3:42

that long . I guess I started in 2019

3:44

and that just kind of blows by . Yeah , it

3:46

does . It's been like one long

3:49

day since then .

3:51

It applies when you're having fun , yeah .

3:53

I think , so that's good . So I

3:55

wanted to have you back on for a couple of reasons . You've

3:58

got a new role in our college which I want to talk about

4:00

, but also you published a book recently

4:03

which I also want to talk about , and that's actually

4:05

like as far as deep diving into content

4:07

. I'd like to spend some time talking about the

4:09

book and crisis communication

4:12

, and that feels like

4:14

it's really important right now . Yeah , yeah , I would

4:16

love to , Just in general . So

4:18

first off , I guess to start , if you

4:20

don't mind , just kind of reintroducing yourself and

4:23

talk about you know what

4:25

you do and how you got there a little bit .

4:27

Sure , yeah . So my name is Erica Ehrlbeck . I'm

4:29

the Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement for

4:31

the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural

4:34

Resources . I'm also

4:36

a professor of Agricultural Communications

4:38

here at Texas Tech University . I

4:41

started in the associate dean role

4:43

on October 1st , so I

4:45

have not even done a year yet

4:47

in this role . My background

4:49

comes in broadcast journalism , particularly

4:52

farm broadcasting , so I worked for Ag Day

4:54

Television , I worked in Lubbock for

4:56

KLBK and then I've been

4:59

at Texas Tech , for it'll be 18 years in June of 2021 . Wow , yeah , so

5:01

that includes grad school , but still I've been at Texas Tech , for it'll

5:03

be 18 years in June of 2021 . Wow , yeah , yeah , so

5:05

that includes grad school , but still I've

5:07

been at Texas Tech for quite a while .

5:09

Yeah .

5:09

And yeah , loved every minute of it .

5:11

Well , that's good , yeah , yeah , it's nice

5:13

, I think , being able to find somewhere , and

5:15

I guess my experience is sort of similar , like I did

5:17

my master's here and my PhD here , so I've been

5:19

like haunting this place for a

5:22

little while , but it's

5:24

kind of nice to find somewhere and land somewhere

5:26

that you like , actually like , and just

5:28

get to be there .

5:29

Yes , yes exactly . You know , it's

5:31

funny because a lot of people will talk about how Lubbock

5:33

is a small town . I'm like , well , maybe

5:35

, but I mean there's four Walmarts

5:37

and two markets in a mall . I don't know

5:39

what's so small about that . I

5:41

grew up in a little big town in Oklahoma . We had to drive

5:43

25 miles to Walmart .

5:45

Oh .

5:46

Yeah , so , lubbock , seems I

5:48

have everything I need here and I like

5:50

it here . I like the people here

5:52

, so we choose to raise our kid here . We're

5:54

yeah , we're very happy being here and we love

5:56

the university .

5:57

That's awesome . Lubbock's a weird like big , small

5:59

town it is . It's , and

6:02

for folks that have never been through here it's kind of hard

6:04

Cause we have like 300,000 people here Like

6:06

it's not a small town but it feels

6:08

in some way which I like

6:10

I appreciate that I've lived here my whole life , or

6:13

most of my life , and on and

6:15

off and

6:20

like I keep coming back . There's something about this place that like I

6:22

just I really enjoy . So your new role , associate

6:25

Dean of Outreach and Engagement with , by

6:28

the way , all of y'all's Rob

6:30

Cox was in here a couple of weeks ago and

6:32

y'all's titles are so

6:35

long To take your whole

6:37

door up to put your title on it . Welcome

6:40

to academia .

6:40

That's what we do .

6:42

Long titles . So what all does that

6:44

entail ? I know it's a new role , it's a new

6:46

position in general in the college

6:48

. So sort

6:50

of two questions here Like what , what

6:53

does that mean to begin with and kind of , what do

6:56

you envision for it ?

6:57

Right , right , yeah , so it is a new role and there's

6:59

not very many other associate deans

7:01

for outreach and engagement across the Texas

7:04

Tech campus , so I

7:06

am kind of creating it

7:08

as I go along . But

7:11

what that is so we can break it down

7:13

into outreach and engagement

7:15

. So if we look at outreach outreach

7:18

is the way that I would describe

7:20

it is anything that promotes

7:23

the Davis College in a positive way

7:25

. So that

7:27

could be promoting our science in various

7:29

ways . So doing podcasts

7:31

, any kind of media , interviews , any kind

7:34

of social media , anything

7:36

that involves marketing and beyond . So

7:44

doing camps in the summer or just being a guest speaker in a classroom , or anything

7:46

where you are reaching out into the broader

7:49

community . We can define community

7:51

any number of ways .

7:52

Sure .

7:53

And I've told people when I've gone around and spoken

7:56

to the different departments . I'm like if

7:58

you don't enjoy being around kids

8:00

, then your outreach does not have to involve

8:02

kids at all . Or if that

8:04

is your happy place , then by all means focus

8:07

all of your outreach efforts toward kids

8:09

. So you know our community

8:12

can be anything . So you know we can look

8:14

at the broader agriculture community , we

8:16

can look at just the Lubbock community , the Panhandle

8:19

, south Plains , texas . So

8:21

that can be anything For a lot of times with engagement

8:24

. It can involve our teaching

8:26

, where we're getting our students involved

8:28

with some sort of community group

8:31

in a way that helps our students learn better

8:33

. Or we can create some sort of an engaged

8:35

research project where we're working

8:37

with a community partner in some way . There's

8:39

usually some sort of a community partner involved

8:42

with engagement . So we're working

8:44

together and it's a mutually beneficial relationship

8:47

.

8:48

Okay , no , I think that's a

8:50

good summary , because I think , at

8:52

least in my mind , and again because it's new

8:54

and it's something that I've done

8:57

.

8:57

Yeah , it's something that I've done . Yeah , oh yeah . Yeah , it's something

8:59

I do .

9:00

But in my mind that's been one thing

9:02

and I think the distinction

9:05

between the two is actually important

9:07

because it lets us in a lot of ways focus

9:10

in on the ways we do our communication , we

9:12

do our programming

9:14

, we do our partnerships and those

9:16

kinds of things .

9:18

Yeah , yeah , exactly , and you know there are some people

9:20

that never do engagement and

9:22

that's okay . There are some people that they

9:24

don't like the outreach , but they love

9:26

getting their students involved

9:29

in the community . They like having their classroom

9:31

involved in another classroom like

9:33

a high school classroom or an element . And

9:35

those are all great . So , yeah , so

9:37

my job is to help make these things

9:39

happen and just to help

9:41

just increase our presence

9:43

, increase our footprint in

9:45

the greater community , whatever community

9:48

looks like in that situation . That's

9:50

cool .

9:51

Yeah , I really like that and it

9:53

it says a lot , I think , about

9:55

our college and university that these

9:57

are the kinds of things we're starting to try to prioritize

10:01

a little bit to put some effort into , because

10:03

I guess at the provost level too , they're focusing

10:06

on that a little bit more too .

10:07

Very much so yeah .

10:09

I have long felt , like in academia

10:11

, that we have a lot of work

10:13

to do in closing the feedback loop , so

10:15

to speak , with the research and everything else with

10:17

the public , and it's just cool that like

10:20

this is becoming

10:22

something that we value , I think , as an institution

10:24

.

10:25

Yeah , yeah , exactly . And yeah

10:28

, we just hired a vice

10:30

provost for outreach and engagement , so

10:32

there's somebody at the university level that

10:34

is doing this as well , right ? So

10:38

yeah , this is something that's very important

10:40

to Texas Tech . It's part of our strategic plan , yeah

10:43

, so yeah , you will

10:45

start seeing Texas Tech a lot more

10:47

. You'll start seeing Davis College a lot more and

10:50

there's lots of audiences . You know we

10:53

helped . We did an

10:55

event yesterday . Yesterday was National Ag

10:57

Day , so we did an event yesterday . Yesterday

10:59

was national ag day , um , so we did an event on campus and that was something to engage our

11:01

students , but also engage

11:03

the the campus community , just to let them

11:05

know . Like you know , agriculture is the backbone

11:07

of this economy . It was the basis

11:09

for this campus and you know

11:11

we're just here to celebrate it and say hi , we're here and

11:14

have it , have a free donut and uh

11:16

yeah , and enjoy this beautiful

11:19

first day of spring .

11:20

And so yeah , yeah .

11:21

So that was a fun , just a nice little

11:23

outreach event to our

11:25

little community right here . Yeah , that's cool

11:28

and it has been beautiful outside by

11:30

the way , I know this is why we live here . Yeah , yeah

11:32

.

11:34

It's funny when folks come visit this is sort of an aside

11:36

, like I always think a lot about , like when new faculty

11:38

from out of town come to visit or they're , you know , here

11:41

interviewing . They always end up being like

11:43

at weird times . Oh yeah yeah , Like it's

11:45

blowing 70 miles per hour or it's two degrees

11:47

outside , yeah , when generally most

11:49

of the time it's pretty pleasant .

11:50

Yeah , yeah , it is yes

11:53

.

11:54

But yeah , that's always a challenge

11:56

, just the weather here . But again it's been beautiful

11:58

, it's been spring for a while it feels like it has

12:00

been yeah , yeah . Which

12:03

is nice . So with

12:05

that , with your new position

12:07

, with your new role

12:09

and everything that comes with that , what

12:12

does that mean for you in terms of your

12:14

professorship and in terms of your teaching

12:16

and research and all that ?

12:22

Have you had to give a lot of that up ? Yeah , I have , and that's . You know , with everything

12:24

and with growth there's some give and take . So in the spring semester

12:26

I'm not teaching in the classroom but I

12:29

am still supervising our Ag Comm

12:31

internship program . So I do still feel

12:33

connected to the students in some way . You

12:36

know . But I was at a convention in Houston

12:38

and saw a . I could tell she

12:40

was a student and you know

12:43

she had on a tech sticker or something and

12:45

so I was like I think she's one of ours and looked

12:47

at her . I'm like you're in the internship class

12:49

. I'd never seen the student before in my

12:51

life , but I recognized her

12:53

name and . I'm like , oh , I

12:55

am your professor , so so , yeah

12:57

, so I don't get that face-to-face interaction with them

12:59

very much , but

13:02

I am still interacting with the students

13:04

some , and it's also a good

13:06

way for me to interact with

13:08

some potential community partners

13:10

as well . So that's , and

13:13

I just enjoy doing the internship piece

13:15

of our departmental curriculum

13:18

anyway . But yeah , at

13:20

the moment the only thing I'm scheduled to be teaching

13:22

is the risk and crisis communications class

13:24

, and that's offered in the falls . So I

13:27

have given up quite a bit of teaching .

13:28

Yeah , yeah . So I

13:31

think that's interesting to think about too , because there's always a trade

13:33

off with , like , the things we do in academia

13:35

sometimes , like I recently gave

13:37

up my greenhouse appointment , which is something I

13:39

did for almost six years-

13:41

Right yeah . And like there's days

13:44

that I don't miss being sweaty all day , but

13:48

it is like it is also nice , or it was

13:50

nice to be able to like walk out of my office and there's plants

13:52

and like I can outside and stuff . So

13:54

there's always I don't know , it's

13:58

our careers , I think , as academics are interesting and they're

14:00

diverse , and I think you know there

14:02

are some like young academics that listen

14:05

to this podcast and I think that's something that's interesting

14:07

to hear and probably good to hear is that like , in

14:10

some ways , you're not just like stuck in

14:12

one thing , you always move into other things

14:14

, different opportunities .

14:15

Yeah , exactly Exactly . And you

14:17

know , like I said , I've been at Texas Tech for 18

14:19

years and I felt like I had done

14:21

, seen and done pretty much everything

14:24

I could have done in that role and I

14:26

still enjoyed my job . But you know

14:28

, it's good to be able to get to do something

14:30

different . And but at the same time

14:32

, like earlier this week , some students came by

14:35

, like they happened to catch me in my office

14:37

and they just needed a quick question answered

14:39

about something . And I was kind

14:41

of like wait , don't go . Wait

14:44

, tell me about this . What's happening

14:46

across the street ? Wait , please don't go . And

14:49

they're like we have to get to class . I'm

14:51

like well , I don't .

14:52

Not important , how about ?

14:53

you . No , please don't go

14:55

. So

14:58

you know it's funny when they left , I'm like you

15:00

know , because sometimes people will ask do you miss

15:02

it ? And in general , yes , you know there

15:04

are . You know , with every job there are parts that

15:06

you know I don't miss grading

15:08

, oh , so

15:11

, yeah , yeah , so

15:15

like that , that has been a nice change . But you know , I do

15:17

very much miss that student interaction

15:19

. I miss being around young people

15:21

a lot , and so it was

15:23

a delight to have them in my office

15:26

for just that short five minutes

15:28

. Come back , come

15:30

back , that's so funny , that's so

15:32

funny .

15:32

Like can we make this a standing meeting ?

15:34

That's a week .

15:34

Yeah , no

15:46

, and I find that and I

15:49

want to move on here in just a second to talk about crisis

15:51

communication , I know , with students

15:53

until , like , everything was online for

15:55

a while and like our whole sort of academic

15:58

like . Like I like teaching

16:00

students , I like talking to students and

16:02

hearing their ideas and their thoughts , and that's

16:04

so hard sometimes at

16:07

a distance . It's not that it's impossible . We

16:10

do a good job of it , I think , in our college .

16:13

But it's hard , it's a lot harder

16:15

. So , yeah , yeah , I do like

16:17

being in the classroom and you know

16:19

, I like , you know I

16:21

like their silly stories . I like telling

16:23

them silly stories , I

16:27

like hearing that they're doing cool things in their

16:29

internships , I like hearing that they've gotten

16:31

a job or that they have an interview . Yeah

16:33

yeah , so yeah

16:35

, it's fun . It's fun to be around young people

16:37

and I am not young people

16:40

anymore .

16:41

I'm not either . You're younger than me no-transcript

17:03

.

17:08

I know , I do , yeah , yeah and I you know , when I first started

17:10

18 years ago , I was just a few years older than them .

17:11

And now I'm not yeah no , it's

17:14

, it's a weird experience , sort of like

17:16

on this side of it , on this

17:18

side of the lectern , so to speak . And , uh

17:20

, one of my colleagues and I talk a lot about

17:23

how , you know , when we work with our TAs for

17:25

our class , our teaching assistants , they

17:27

like we get to know them for four

17:29

or five years and then they're gone and it's like , oh , like

17:33

my friend moved , like it's weird .

17:34

Yes , yes , that that is one

17:36

thing that I don't like about this job

17:38

is that , like , yeah , they become your friends

17:40

and yeah , and then

17:43

they leave and they go on to do

17:45

. It is so fun to watch them go on to do

17:47

great things , but , yeah , but I miss

17:49

my friend , yeah , and I've got lots

17:51

of them that I miss a lot

17:53

. So , yeah , yeah .

17:55

It's an interesting thing . It's an interesting thing . Well , I want to change gears

17:58

just a little bit

18:00

and talk a little bit

18:02

about your book , because that's

18:05

such a cool thing . It just just first off

18:07

like congratulations on that , that's super cool

18:09

. But then I want to talk . You

18:11

know , spend some time talking about the subject

18:13

matter of your book and crisis communication and

18:16

what that means and , like you

18:19

know , I don't want you to give away all your secrets on

18:21

the podcast but but like , what are

18:23

tips that people can put into

18:25

their communication , cause we're all communicators

18:27

in some way .

18:28

Sure , yeah , yeah , yes , and

18:30

so so yeah to the

18:33

. The title of the book is the crisis

18:35

communications guide for agriculture

18:37

, food and Natural Resources , and

18:40

I'll give you a link and it's also available

18:43

on Amazon , so

18:45

yeah , and it's broken

18:47

into five

18:50

units , or there's kind of five steps

18:52

to crisis communications

18:54

and you know it's

18:56

. The first is like , first just identifying

18:59

and acknowledging these

19:01

are some areas that are very likely to happen

19:03

to our organization , and your organization

19:06

is whatever , so it can be

19:08

your farm . It can be your

19:10

academic department , it can be your university

19:13

, so you know what . What are those

19:15

, what's the worst thing that could happen and

19:17

also what's the worst

19:20

likely thing that

19:22

could happen . So , yeah , and

19:24

there's I've got some different formulas

19:27

that people can plug in , where you can

19:29

look at the magnitude

19:31

of something versus the

19:33

likelihood of something happening . Yeah , yeah

19:35

Versus the likelihood of something happening , yeah , yeah

19:38

, so you know , and the example that I use

19:40

in the book is like a plane

19:42

crashing into a building , which it can

19:44

happen , but how likely . And

19:46

like that would be one of the worst things that could

19:48

happen is , yeah , a plane crashing into a

19:50

building full of people Right , but

19:53

how likely . Like , do we really need to have

19:55

a crisis communications plan for

19:57

this plane falling into our building ?

19:59

Right .

19:59

Probably not Okay , but

20:02

we do need to have a plan put in

20:04

place for something

20:06

bad happening , and

20:12

so let's figure out what that likely thing is happening . So , like for the greenhouse

20:14

, like having some of the pan pains

20:16

shattered on the greenhouse by a hailstorm

20:18

, you probably need to have a crisis communications

20:21

plan for that . If you don't , I'm happy to help you .

20:23

Yeah , no , I appreciate that actually yeah .

20:26

But I mean , that's something that's very likely to happen

20:28

.

20:28

Yeah .

20:29

Or just vandalism period . That

20:31

could happen . So yeah , stuff

20:33

is very breakable over there . Yeah

20:36

, I

20:39

mean it's an open space over there People can trip

20:41

, fall , get hurt , yeah yeah . So those are some things . So how

20:43

, how would you communicate about that ? Who's

20:46

your spokesperson ? Like that . That's one

20:48

of those tips that I have like decide

20:51

and let this person know . So , and , and

20:53

also , you need to have more than one

20:55

spokesperson designated , because

20:57

these things have a funny way of happening when

21:00

your spokesperson is on a cruise or

21:03

in Germany

21:05

, or you know they're just out of the country

21:07

or not available .

21:08

Yeah .

21:10

So have some backup people designated

21:13

, so those

21:15

are that's another big tip that

21:17

I have . Um , so , uh , so those are , that's another big tip that I have

21:19

. And then also just kind of have some , some statements decided

21:21

on how you're going to handle that . Um

21:24

, so , yeah , so if you did have

21:26

this hailstorm , that that

21:28

happens , what , what would you say

21:30

, like what would be your statement

21:32

? Um , you know how many times

21:34

do you think you might need to utilize

21:37

the media ? Would you need to use , like

21:39

, mainstream media ? Would you need to use ag

21:42

media , or would you just need

21:44

to send out a series of emails or

21:46

just notify your students ? Like which

21:48

audiences would you need to target for

21:51

this likely crisis ?

21:53

No , and that's such an interesting

21:56

way to think about that too , because I think often

21:59

and I'm thinking about my own career

22:01

right Like it tends to be more like reactive

22:04

right . Oh no , my roof

22:06

is gone right Like it hailed

22:08

yesterday and I should have thought maybe the roof's gone

22:10

. And then I get there and the roof's gone . It's like , oh , this is a problem

22:13

, right ? And I think it's so much harder

22:15

to communicate clearly when

22:17

you're being reactive about it right . Right

22:23

, yes , yeah , and

22:33

so I don't know that . You know that may be something we need to talk about , because those things do happen . You know , we had , we've had break-ins , we've had x , y and z

22:35

and it's like , how do I talk to the ? The audience thing I think is really important , um , because sometimes

22:37

, like , not all news is for everyone right , yeah , yeah you

22:39

know , like I don't , I don't need

22:41

the the general

22:43

public knowing that a plant

22:45

was knocked off of a Right , but

22:48

the researcher who owns that plant needs

22:50

to know .

22:50

Yes .

22:51

So that's , that's really an interesting way to think

22:53

about that , yeah , and

22:56

I guess , like , how much

22:58

does the I don't know if this is

23:00

even a good question , but it's a question that's in my

23:02

head , like , how much does the way

23:04

we can and we talked about audiences and all that

23:06

. That's in my head , like how much does the way we can we talked about audiences and

23:08

all that like does the severity of the crisis , even if it is a general

23:11

thing , like how much does that ? Should that impact

23:13

the way we think about communicating about it ?

23:15

I would think a lot right

23:22

, yeah , yeah , it does , and it which everything

23:24

can be somebody's crisis , you

23:26

know , so it just kind of depends and

23:28

you know , sometimes when you look back you're

23:30

like , well , I really wouldn't classify that

23:33

as a crisis , it was probably just more of an issue

23:35

. Yeah , so

23:37

you know , but that

23:39

can be kind of hindsight , but

23:41

it does a lot of . It kind of depends

23:44

on the severity of it and and the audience

23:46

and the size of the audience . So

23:48

sure you know , and , and you you

23:50

know , depending on the crisis , um

23:52

, you know , it

23:54

could be something that if

23:57

you didn't get it communicated well

23:59

, uh , in the early phases

24:02

of it , then it can become an

24:04

even bigger crisis yeah , yeah , that makes sense so

24:06

yeah , yeah . So I'm trying

24:08

to think . Let's

24:11

just say that there was a plant in the greenhouse that

24:13

a lot of people are allergic

24:15

to and they

24:17

all , you know , you all forgot

24:19

to put the signs on this poison

24:21

ivy plant that you're doing research on , and

24:23

a lot of the students in the lab touched it and

24:25

now we have this poison ivy outbreak .

24:27

Right .

24:28

You know , just you would probably just need

24:30

to do a series of emails and text

24:33

messages to those students , tell them what

24:35

to do and maybe

24:37

contact their parents , maybe not you know

24:39

, just kind of gauge the situation . But

24:43

if you didn't communicate about that and

24:45

you didn't tell them what to do , then

24:48

it becomes a bigger problem .

24:49

Gotcha .

24:50

And then you might have local

24:52

news media involved .

24:53

Yeah , yeah , that's

24:57

always . Like you know , I've

24:59

worked with news media

25:01

quite a bit and usually when they call , I'm like

25:03

, oh cool , I would love to talk to you . But

25:05

there are times that it's like , oh , they're calling

25:07

because there's a problem and I would rather not have this

25:09

conversation today .

25:13

And that leads me to another point in

25:15

crisis communications , A lot of times

25:17

your communications for

25:19

a crisis happens when you're not in a crisis

25:22

. So building those relationships

25:24

with local media is really , really

25:26

important to do . And

25:28

you know , here in

25:31

the South Plains of Texas and just in

25:33

the ag world in general , we have ag media . So

25:35

having relationships with ag reporters is

25:38

really really important as well , Because

25:40

if you do go into crisis mode

25:42

, you may need them to help you get

25:44

information out .

25:45

Sure .

25:47

And that was very apparent with the fires

25:49

that have been happening in the panhandle . You

25:52

know , ag media have been very and even mainstream

25:54

media as well . They've been very good about

25:56

getting the message out about how to donate to

25:59

the fires , how to donate and what they

26:01

need . So those two things , I've

26:03

seen those two things happen very well

26:05

and I've even seen a little bit of like here's

26:07

what we don't need . So

26:09

not it's been more of a here's

26:12

what we do need and here's how . But

26:14

you know , having those , those groups

26:16

help you out is

26:18

very , very important to do .

26:21

Well , yeah , and I think you

26:23

bring up a really interesting point . I think

26:25

that , especially in some

26:27

of our agricultural communities , which often

26:30

are very kind of tight knit and

26:33

but it's a large community too , there's

26:35

so many facets of it . I like the thought

26:37

of like relationship building early

26:40

, so you have that network .

26:42

Yes , exactly , yeah , yeah , and

26:44

it's , and there's also just

26:46

the network building . You said

26:48

the magic word network , you know , having

26:50

those people around you that can help you if

26:53

you are in a crisis , because some of your crisis communications

26:55

may not necessarily involve the media or

26:57

mobilized in some way , or

27:07

you may just need some buddies to come help you do

27:09

something .

27:10

So yeah yeah .

27:10

So having that group of friends , like maybe

27:12

you just need somebody to come answer emails for an hour

27:14

for you . You know , just somebody that you trust

27:17

and yeah , yeah , that can come

27:19

handle that , or

27:21

somebody to go get

27:23

lunch for you . Or you know just little things

27:25

like that that can help you . So

27:28

having that network of

27:30

people that are in similar

27:32

jobs to yours that can help you out

27:34

is really , really important

27:37

.

27:38

Well , that's you know . That brings me to another interesting

27:40

thought that I

27:42

don't think I would have considered until you were just kind

27:44

of talking about it , that it's more

27:47

than the . You

27:49

know how do I put out a press release , how do

27:51

I make phone calls , how do I notify

27:53

people ? It's who

27:55

can get lunch , who can make sure that people

27:57

have water and food and like

28:00

those kinds of things . Those are , I think , things that

28:02

get overlooked sometimes when

28:04

we think about the way we communicate . Like

28:06

, do you have there was a social

28:09

media video going around for a while like how

28:11

many 3 am friends do you have , right

28:13

? So like , if there's a crisis at 3 am , who do you

28:15

like ? Who could you call ? And I

28:18

was thinking about that . I've got a couple people I could . Probably

28:20

, if they answer their phone

28:22

, they'd be mad , yeah .

28:27

But they would help , right ? Yes , yes , like I know , I better answer if you're calling me at 3am

28:29

. Yeah , yeah , and that's that's another thing that

28:32

I kind of skipped over that part . But

28:34

yeah , part of your crisis communications

28:36

plan is who does what

28:38

? So who , who's your social media

28:41

person ? And you know , in a

28:43

lot of ag or just a lot of organizations , and you know in a lot

28:45

of ag or just a lot of organizations period

28:47

, there's one person that's the communicator

28:49

. Well , if you are trying to

28:51

juggle social media , mainstream

28:54

media answer phone

28:56

calls , answer emails , answer

28:58

Facebook messages do all of these

29:00

things at some point . You can't do it

29:02

all , so

29:05

you need some help . So

29:07

, when slash , if we go into crisis mode

29:09

, who manages social media ? Who

29:11

answers the phone ? Who answers

29:13

email ? So who does what ? And

29:17

I put this in the book because I thought it was just

29:19

. I was like you know , this is actually very

29:21

smart . But one of our alums told

29:23

us he was like we even know who's going to Sonic

29:26

to get our afternoon drinks and I was

29:28

like , yeah , that's brilliant . No , it is .

29:30

Yeah .

29:30

Cause , like when you're in that phase , like

29:32

to have your large diet Coke , easy on

29:34

the ice , brought to you . Um , is

29:37

is really helpful and really nice

29:39

, and you know that it's going to happen

29:41

.

29:42

Well , and then you think absolutely , and it's

29:44

like you have to think about how do people stay

29:46

effective in a high stress situation

29:48

I forget to eat . Like , if

29:50

I'm like working and teaching

29:53

all day and doing all these kinds of things like , I'll skip lunch

29:55

.

29:55

Well , I don't do that . I mean , it

29:58

doesn't OK it doesn't happen a lot .

30:00

Let's , we'll be very honest . It doesn't happen a lot

30:02

, but there's days that , like I'll teach like up

30:04

to like my class gets out at like 12 , 30 and

30:06

then , if I have something right after that , some days I'm

30:08

like running to the next thing and like

30:11

if it's really hectic some days I'm just like I

30:13

have not taken care of , like my basic

30:15

needs exactly and having the sonic

30:17

guy yeah , yeah , to know

30:19

that it's going to be provided and brought to

30:22

you and set on your desk and said here eat this

30:24

or drink this . Yes .

30:25

Like you are in a very high stress

30:27

situation . Yeah , make

30:29

sure that you hydrate , yeah , yeah , that's

30:32

really good to have that .

30:32

That is . That's really such

30:35

an important thing . I'm glad you put that in the book .

30:37

Yeah , Cause that's really cool . That's good advice .

30:38

It is yes it is , um

30:41

, so you were talking about

30:43

, like , who's your social media person

30:45

? Um , I want to talk about social

30:47

media a little bit , because this is something

30:49

we discussed a little bit last time , like four

30:51

years ago .

30:52

But the landscape has changed . Oh , so much .

30:54

For better and worse Right .

30:56

A lot of ways .

30:58

And I think we could all probably like go

31:01

through the list of botched social

31:03

media communication you know , but

31:05

then some that are done really well , like how

31:08

important . I don't know how to ask this question again either

31:11

, because I know it's important , but

31:13

like I feel like the role of

31:16

social media person now is

31:18

such a critical make

31:20

or break role in a lot of situations Because

31:23

like there's no putting that lid back

31:25

on sometimes .

31:27

No , yeah , yeah . And

31:29

once , once

31:31

you get on social media , if

31:33

you don't consistently stay on

31:35

social media , if you're an organization

31:37

or business , company , whatever , um

31:40

, you need to consistently take

31:42

care of that and manage that . And

31:44

uh , yeah tend to it tend

31:46

to it like a garden and uh , yeah

31:48

, yeah , and when , when you're doing good

31:50

things on on there , then good

31:53

things will come back to you . But having

31:55

that audience built is very

31:58

good for for so many different things but

32:00

, it's . It's also very good in a crisis

32:02

situation , because if you have a lot

32:04

of followers following you , you

32:07

then they know that they can go there to get information

32:09

. And so

32:11

yeah , so that's a good thing . That wasn't

32:13

really where your question was going , but I redirected it .

32:16

No , that's a good answer to my question . I

32:19

think that's the question I meant to ask .

32:21

It didn't , of course

32:23

you did yeah .

32:27

So no , you're're right , having that following

32:30

is important , because I do the same thing , like if there's something

32:32

going on , like like the news

32:34

is not going to be up to date

32:36

right , but I can jump on twitter , yes

32:38

, or whatever , uh , and see like

32:41

, okay , has this organization posted an update

32:43

, like I've . so an example

32:45

of this is I follow the Texas storm chasers

32:47

on Twitter and Instagram and stuff

32:49

and so like . If there's bad weather

32:52

, a lot of times I'll like have

32:54

the news on , but I'll pop on there to see

32:56

what they're putting out , cause they put up like regular

32:58

updates during severe weather .

33:00

And you don't have to wait for five , six or 10 for

33:02

local news to be on . Yeah

33:04

, and

33:08

sometimes the you and sometimes

33:10

the storms that they're covering aren't in

33:12

a place that the Weather Channel would grab and host . So

33:16

yeah , those are always good ones to follow . And

33:19

I want to give a shout out to the

33:21

Canadian Record . It's the newspaper

33:23

in Canadian Texas . They

33:25

provided an excellent public

33:28

service . They were

33:30

posting information constantly

33:34

, and a

33:36

lot of the other small town newspapers

33:38

were doing the same as well . I

33:41

know quite a few people . We've had a lot of students from Canadian

33:44

, so that was just the one that I went to and

33:46

was checking from time to time just to see

33:48

what was needed and things like

33:50

that , and they were doing such a good

33:52

job . So you know that was

33:54

. You know , historically that's a newspaper

33:56

. But they were using Facebook

33:59

and they may have been using other social media

34:01

sites as well . But I was just looking at Facebook

34:03

. But they were using a different medium

34:05

so that they didn't have to wait for the paper to

34:07

be printed , and but they were posting information

34:09

, sometimes as

34:11

soon as they heard it , so like so-and-so needs

34:14

this at the Methodist church ? Take

34:16

, take it down there , please , or they need lunch

34:18

at the Methodist church , uh , you know so , something like

34:20

that . I was like that is an excellent

34:23

public service right there and a good way

34:25

to use social media .

34:26

Yeah .

34:27

In a crisis .

34:28

Well , and with all the struggles that like especially

34:30

the small town newspaper , small town media

34:33

outlets in general are going through right

34:35

now , like it's cool to hear

34:37

that , yeah , they serve a huge

34:39

role , they serve a huge purpose .

34:41

Yeah , yeah , so yeah , they

34:44

so kudos to the Canadian record

34:46

.

34:46

Yeah .

34:46

I hope they're listening . Shout out to you all so

34:48

.

34:49

Yeah , that's very cool .

34:50

And and all of those panhandle papers . So yeah

34:52

, that's . I can't think of the names of the other papers

34:54

right now I'm drawing a blank . But yeah , I just remember

34:56

that one .

34:56

So yeah , that's really interesting . That's good to

34:58

hear too , cause , yeah , I was in Houston

35:02

during not the whole fire , but you

35:04

know part of it and family

35:07

were asking like what's going

35:09

on with that ? I'm like , well , I'm not there , I don't , yeah

35:11

. But yeah , some of those little outlets were like

35:13

we're , you know X percent contained . This

35:16

is who's , you know that's , you're

35:18

right , that's really such a good service

35:20

. Well , this seems like a great time

35:22

to take a quick break , so

35:30

we'll go to a quick mid-roll and talk about some mid-roll things and when we come back we will talk more

35:32

about crises and communication . Well , hey there , welcome to the mid-roll . I hope you're doing

35:34

well and enjoying the episode so far . Tell

35:40

your houseplants I said hi . Thanks so much for listening to Plantthropology . You

35:42

know that I do this for you because you like to hear it . I like to hear about

35:44

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35:46

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35:49

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35:51

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36:05

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36:12

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36:14

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36:16

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36:19

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36:21

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36:23

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36:25

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37:26

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get ready for the second half of the episode

37:43

. Okay , bye

37:45

. Now I

37:48

want to take a little bit of a step back and

37:51

I'm curious what

37:53

sort of and I think you've

37:56

answered some of this but like , what

37:58

made you want to write this book ? Like

38:00

what was your , like , driving force behind

38:03

it ? Because it's a lot of work , yeah , and

38:05

you know , I know how long that

38:07

process is and all that goes into

38:09

it , and it's not something I think any of us undertake lightly

38:12

. So what made you want to do ?

38:13

that it was one of those things

38:15

that I had done several

38:18

research projects about

38:20

risk and crisis communications and

38:23

I just kind of felt like I had enough

38:25

information to pull it together

38:27

and it was one

38:30

of those things . We were in Barnes and Noble one day and my

38:32

mom was like have you ever thought about writing a book ? And I'm like

38:34

I should . She's

38:37

like , well , what would you write it on ? I'm like risk

38:39

and crisis communications . She's

38:42

like okay , well then , you should do that , okay

38:44

, so

38:47

, yeah , so then I applied

38:49

for a faculty development leave

38:51

, also known as a sabbatical .

38:53

Okay .

38:54

And so I did that in the fall of 21

38:56

. Okay , and so

38:59

that's when I did the big heavy

39:01

lifting on it . And then

39:03

Texas Tech

39:05

has a program , the faculty writing program

39:07

, and you

39:10

get together for three hours a week and you're

39:13

just supposed to write . You're not supposed to check emails

39:15

. You're not supposed to either write

39:17

or be reading for something

39:19

that you're writing . And it can be a grant , it

39:21

can be a book , it can be a journal article

39:23

but you're just supposed to write and so in

39:25

three hour increments at a time at

39:28

a time , I got the book finished , wow

39:30

, yeah

39:32

, yeah . So it went to . Oh

39:36

, it was right about

39:38

this time last summer or last

39:40

spring , so

39:42

probably last April was when I had

39:44

fully decided on the press that I was using

39:46

. So it's a publisher out of Detroit

39:49

, they're called Xanadu

39:52

X-A-N-E-D-U . I just they were just nice

39:55

and I just liked them and

39:57

they also they specialized

40:00

in not huge runs

40:02

of books . I mean this is a

40:04

niche within a niche .

40:06

Risk and crisis in agriculture

40:08

.

40:08

So I knew I wasn't going to have just a huge audience

40:11

clamoring to buy my book . So

40:13

, um , and another thing that like there wasn't a

40:15

book for risk and crisis

40:17

in ag , I mean there's plenty of risk and crisis

40:20

books out there , tons of them , but

40:22

nothing that specialized in the in the

40:24

ag world and uh , so

40:26

that that was another factor , like the

40:28

. You know the book for my class was fine . You

40:31

know the guy that wrote it , he

40:33

was great and I'd used

40:35

that book for a long time and Dr Dorfurt

40:37

taught me he used the same author's book . But

40:40

I'm like , yeah , if we can , I feel like I

40:42

can do something that's a little more specialized

40:44

for the ag industry and so

40:47

, yeah , so moved forward with that . It's

40:49

cool . Now it's printed , yeah , and that's

40:51

so exciting . Yeah , it is exciting .

40:53

And that's such a good feeling .

40:54

Oh it is , it is yeah To get that box

40:56

of books .

40:57

Yeah .

40:57

Yeah , Scott took my picture .

40:59

My husband took my picture when I opened the box

41:01

.

41:01

There's sheer joy on my face , so it's

41:04

a cute picture .

41:04

That's awesome , the

41:09

culmination of so much work and so many hours and the research and

41:11

the reading and the thinking

41:13

about it constantly .

41:15

Yeah , there were days , or not days , but

41:17

full mornings that I typed

41:19

nothing , I just had to think . I

41:22

just needed to think so yeah

41:24

, you might pick up a pen and then

41:26

do nothing . Doodle for a while .

41:29

No , I'm writing yeah , yeah . I'm thinking , I've

41:32

been actively trying to talk myself out of writing a textbook

41:34

, um , and I think I've mostly gotten

41:37

myself there where I'm like I don't need to do this but

41:40

you should write one

41:43

see , because I'm

41:45

in the space where I'm teaching a new class in the fall

41:47

and I was looking at textbooks and I was like there's

41:49

a couple , it's not , they're

41:51

not specific enough . I don't know

41:53

, maybe eventually we'll see , we'll

41:55

see . I'll stick to kids , children's books for a while . Those

41:57

are .

41:58

Those are fun . Those are more fun . They are fun . Yeah

42:00

, yeah , and they're very good .

42:03

So that's , that's really interesting and I think

42:05

I kind of like the story

42:07

of just you know you

42:10

should write a book , Okay , Okay .

42:13

Cool , I need to make sure that I

42:15

take this snippet and play it to my mom , Cause

42:17

you know there's it's not very often

42:19

that you know , especially when you know

42:21

she was parenting me as a teenager and she

42:24

suggested something to me , it was usually met with

42:26

no , yeah , yeah , Okay

42:28

.

42:28

Yeah , okay , I think I will .

42:30

That's funny .

42:38

So I guess , as we sort of start to wind down a little bit , I'm curious to hear what

42:40

your thoughts are going forward , as far as both you know

42:42

, in terms of the crisis communication

42:44

piece and the class you teach , but also just

42:46

in your role now . Like , what do you

42:48

think the future holds ? Do

42:51

you see let me break this down into

42:53

a couple of smaller questions , because that's a big question

42:55

In this world

42:58

of , like crisis communication

43:00

do you think that the

43:03

sort of the things

43:05

that we've done and the ways we've done it like hold

43:07

up , just maybe move

43:09

to different platforms ? Or do we , like , going

43:12

forward in the future , have to think about

43:14

, like as the landscape

43:16

evolves , how we communicate about stuff ? Or

43:19

do the tried and true like principles

43:21

for communication just can

43:23

we apply those to different like places

43:25

fairly easily ?

43:26

Yeah , yes , okay

43:29

Great .

43:30

And let me clarify that Sure .

43:31

Yes , okay , great , and

43:34

let me clarify that . So

43:40

, in communication period , crisis communications , everyday

43:42

communications , it doesn't matter . If you are truthful , if you are transparent

43:44

, if you're doing your best , if you are

43:47

trying to get

43:49

the information out with the best

43:51

of intentions , you're

43:55

, you're halfway there . You're more than

43:57

halfway there you know and let

43:59

me reiterate again just tell the truth

44:01

you know , just tell the truth and don't

44:03

don't try to cover anything up . And there

44:06

are some situations where , um

44:08

, there may be some proprietary information

44:10

, especially , like you know , you're working in a research

44:13

greenhouse . There are some things that you cannot

44:15

tell people Like it's proprietary

44:17

, it is research , it's patentable

44:20

, you can't talk about that . So there

44:22

are some things that and you just need

44:24

to disclose that that's proprietary information and I can't

44:26

talk about that . But let me tell you what I can talk about

44:28

. I

44:35

will tell you as much as I can tell you . That doesn't change that ? doesn't change

44:37

if you're writing in a newspaper , if you're writing a letter or if you're

44:40

putting it out on TikTok or wherever you're going . Just

44:42

tell the truth , be as transparent

44:44

as you can be and

44:46

do so with the intention of I am

44:48

trying to help people get the

44:50

information that they need in this moment . As

44:53

long as you're doing that , you again

44:55

you're more than halfway there . So those

44:58

core principles hold up and

45:00

you know , going back to what we

45:03

have stood on in ag communications

45:05

for years , good writing like

45:08

. There's no substitute for good writing . Sometimes

45:10

, in a crisis , you're just doing the best

45:12

you can to crank out the information Um and

45:14

sometimes your writing is not your best , um

45:17

, but just do your best and , uh

45:19

, you know , just do your best and tell the truth

45:21

and , um , you know , and try

45:24

to write as as , as best you can

45:26

. Um , so , so that's . Those

45:28

are really those core principles

45:30

. Um , as the world has evolved

45:33

and everything , there's

45:36

more demands to get more information out

45:38

. So 20

45:40

years ago we could wait

45:43

until 5 o'clock and get our statement

45:45

out at 5 , 6 , or 10 when

45:47

the news was going on the air and

45:49

we had a little bit of time to get stuff together

45:52

. Now our

45:54

audience is looking to see did we

45:56

put anything out on Facebook , instagram

45:58

, twitter or and the others

46:00

, but also so is the news . Like

46:02

the news is looking to see have they put

46:04

anything out on on on Instagram

46:07

right now ? Like what ? What's the statement ? So

46:09

, like you , you do have to work a

46:11

little bit faster to get stuff

46:13

put out there and the audience will give you

46:16

a little bit of of grace . You

46:18

know just to to put stuff out there

46:20

, but but

46:22

you do need to act

46:24

quickly , but you

46:26

don't want to act reactively . So

46:29

you know you , you recognize

46:31

that you're in a crisis . Give

46:33

yourself a moment to gather as much information

46:36

as you can and and craft

46:38

your statement and decide how it is you're going

46:40

to move forward and also

46:42

decide who's our audience in this and

46:45

how are we going to communicate with them .

46:47

So that's , yeah , no

46:49

, that's great advice . I think back

46:51

to uh so

46:54

when I first started in extension , which

46:56

feels like a very long time ago . Uh

46:58

, 2014

47:00

, no yeah , I don't whatever , whatever it was

47:02

you know , at one of our trainings we did

47:05

sort of that and I until

47:07

I it's interesting I hadn't thought about this in a long

47:10

time , till I kind of hear you talking about taking

47:13

a moment to collect

47:15

your thoughts they had us do this

47:17

exercise where they put us in like groups of

47:19

three or four and they had a bunch of journalism students

47:21

from A&M that were in this room like a

47:24

press corps , right , yeah , yeah . And

47:26

they gave us a little slip of paper with a prompt

47:28

and they said you have 10 minutes to put together a statement

47:30

.

47:30

Okay , little slip of paper with a prompt and they said you have 10 minutes to put together a statement

47:32

.

47:32

Okay crap , yeah , yeah . And they sent us out in the hall and they called us in like one

47:35

at a time , like to do

47:37

a press conference over this

47:39

thing . So mine was like I was , it was like the

47:41

clean water act or something and it

47:44

was . It was they were random , like they were just

47:46

random things and so we had to do like basic

47:48

research and all of that and and then like

47:50

students fired questions at us . This was like a class

47:52

thing for them but a training thing . It

47:54

is shocking what

47:56

, like , some people will

47:59

say and do when they're put on the spot

48:01

, like some of the things that came

48:03

out of some of these new agents mouths . I was like you can't , you

48:05

can't say that , don't say that . But

48:08

but no , I think that what

48:10

you were just talking about of one being prepared , as

48:13

prepared as possible- as prepared as you can

48:15

be . But then also just like operating

48:17

in good faith .

48:19

Yeah .

48:20

Because there's so many people that don't do

48:22

that right now , right right , it's kind of refreshing

48:24

.

48:24

Yeah , yeah , and you know , just like

48:26

you said . So you know you're handed information

48:29

and , okay , now you have to do a press conference . So

48:31

, okay , I'm sorry I don't

48:33

know the answer to that question . Let

48:36

me get that information for you . But

48:39

so many times when we're put on the spot , we

48:41

feel the need to provide an answer and

48:43

it's okay to say that you don't know . It is better

48:46

to say you don't know , and I will get

48:48

that information to you , than to say something

48:50

incorrect in in your

48:52

moment where you're put on the spot and

48:54

yeah so . So yeah , it

48:57

is , it's okay to say it's

48:59

better to say I don't know , let

49:01

me get that information for you than

49:03

to to be incorrect and then just have

49:05

that out there forever yeah , and to have it out

49:07

there forever . Yes , yeah , there . Yeah , there's

49:09

Scott Pelley , who is a

49:12

reporter for 60 Minutes . He used to be the anchor of

49:14

the CBS .

49:14

Evening .

49:14

News and a Texas Tech alum , oh cool

49:17

. Yeah , and Lubbock native . He

49:19

wrote a book several years ago and

49:21

I'm not going to have the quote exactly right , but

49:23

he has a quote in his book and

49:26

I use it in one of my slideshows

49:29

. People

49:34

will never remember that you were first , but they will always

49:36

remember that you were wrong

49:38

. So that's scary , I know I know so

49:40

, and he was saying this to

49:42

like . He has a chapter called to a young

49:44

journalist yeah and so you know he's

49:46

, you know , kind of teaching young

49:49

reporters . Like you know , just remember , it's

49:51

better to not be first on the air

49:54

or first online with

49:56

information . It's better to check your

49:58

information and make sure you

50:00

, you be sure that you're right yeah and

50:02

, and then post it yeah

50:04

, and I'm like that is excellent advice , mr

50:06

pelly it is , and that's a scary

50:08

sentence because I'm thinking

50:11

.

50:11

I'm thinking about , like , the implications of that Right , you want

50:13

to be first on the scene , but if you're not

50:15

, if you're wrong , yeah , yeah

50:17

, yeah .

50:18

And he goes on to tell some stories about how

50:20

he checked his information

50:22

and other networks were on the

50:24

air saying that you know this was

50:26

happening and he was like you know . I don't

50:28

have a source to confirm this and you know , I don't have a source

50:30

to confirm this . And you know he was getting yelled at in his

50:32

earpiece and he's like you know , nobody's

50:35

confirming this for me and I'm not comfortable going on the air

50:37

with this and he didn't and his producers

50:39

were yelling at him . He was like you can yell , but I'm not

50:41

saying this . So , yeah , good for

50:43

you . Fascinating . Yeah , it is Fascinating

50:46

it .

50:46

Yeah , one more question I had and this kind

50:49

of is going back to an earlier conversation

50:51

and talking about , like you know , your

50:53

work in outreach and communications , and

50:55

you made an interesting point , a good point

50:57

, earlier that , like not everyone

51:00

does outreach , not everyone does engagement

51:02

Not everyone does , or , you know

51:04

, we do it in different facets . I

51:07

think that's maybe not in everyone's skill set

51:09

or just desire , because it's

51:11

a lot . I'm this goofy guy that puts my face

51:13

on the Internet all the time because I like doing it but

51:15

, like , that is certainly not for everyone

51:17

. For , say

51:19

, faculty members or people in academia

51:22

that want to tell

51:24

better stories about their research , that

51:26

want to get that out there but

51:28

don't know how , like what resources

51:31

are available out there

51:33

for those of us that are like you

51:35

know , I would love to tell people about this cool project

51:38

I did , but I don't know where to start .

51:40

Yeah , yeah . So if you're at

51:42

Texas Tech , call me . Yeah

51:45

, I would love , and that's part of my job . So

51:47

yeah , I would . That's I

51:49

love doing that . I love helping faculty

51:51

find ways to get their research

51:53

out into the community , to find different groups

51:56

to partner with , to broaden

51:58

our scope and to broaden the scope of

52:00

the students in their classroom . So so

52:02

that's one resource , but Texas Tech's Office of Outreach

52:05

and Engagement has a lot of information on their website that can help spark ideas . Outreach

52:07

and Engagement has a lot of information

52:09

on their website that can help spark ideas

52:11

. There's several other universities out

52:13

there that have lots of great information

52:15

on outreach and engagement . Michigan

52:26

State University has a really good website that I would point somebody to that offers

52:29

some really good ideas for outreach and engagement . And there's another

52:31

national group , the Engaged Scholarship Consortium , and they

52:33

have some really good ideas . They have a conference . I'll go to

52:35

that one in October .

52:36

Oh cool .

52:37

Yeah , yeah . So that's another

52:39

good resource that's out there that

52:41

can help provide some ideas . And

52:44

then another thing , like one

52:46

thing that I would recommend is just go back to that thing

52:49

that first sparked your interest into

52:51

what it is that you're doing . Was

52:53

it a project that you did

52:56

for a science fair ? Was

52:58

it something you did in 4-H

53:00

or FFA , or was it just a guest

53:02

speaker that came to your classroom ? What

53:04

was that thing ? And then try

53:06

to help kids or other

53:09

adults find that thing or maybe it was

53:11

a speaker in one of your college classrooms and

53:14

try to emulate that and see if you

53:16

can help spark that interest and

53:18

spread the word about your research in that

53:20

way as well .

53:24

That's awesome advice . Yeah , I

53:26

love the . Remember why you're excited

53:28

about it . Yeah , because

53:30

we lose that sometimes

53:33

.

53:33

Yeah , we do .

53:33

We do , I don't know , in the mess

53:36

of all the stuff we have to do , like

53:39

I love that , because there's days

53:41

that I just need to go play with plants for a while

53:43

and need to get my hands dirty and work

53:45

with the undergrads at the greenhouse and stuff

53:48

and that's yeah . I really like

53:50

that advice .

53:51

Plant therapy is good for everybody . Yeah

53:53

, yeah yeah , I highly recommend

53:55

that one too , yeah .

53:58

Absolutely so . One last question I have

54:00

for you . This

54:02

doesn't have to be just since you're in your new role

54:04

, but just , you know , throughout your career do you

54:06

have like and I'm putting you on the spot a little bit maybe

54:08

Do you have a favorite

54:11

outreach activity you've

54:13

gotten to do ? Is there a program you

54:15

did , or a seminar

54:17

you gave , or something ? What do you think

54:19

your favorite outreach or engagement

54:21

thing has been ? And I didn't warn you about

54:23

this , so sorry .

54:26

Well , okay , so the book has

54:28

been my proudest .

54:30

Okay , yeah , sure so .

54:31

I'm proudest of that . But

54:33

something that has been really fun for me to do

54:36

here lately is it's

54:39

a project that I've been working

54:41

on with a friend of mine from church . He

54:43

works in sales at Channel 11

54:46

, kcbd , the NBC station here in Lubbock

54:48

, and it's a segment that

54:50

he came up with . It's called Champions in Agriculture

54:52

and we feature kids

54:54

in 4-H or FFA and the projects

54:56

that they're doing . So I'm

54:58

kind of the host of it . That's

55:00

awesome . So I interview

55:03

these kids that are either working

55:05

on a livestock project , a welding project

55:07

, an agri-science fair project , and

55:10

we get to talk about what they're doing in

55:12

4-H or FFA , and so this

55:14

really hits on all the things that

55:17

make me happy . So you know I

55:19

was a 4-H-er , my kid's a 4-H-er , I'm

55:21

a 4-H-er leader . I get to do

55:23

my broadcast thing because I used

55:25

to be a reporter and also

55:28

we get to , you know , promote

55:30

area youth involved in

55:32

agricultural programs . So

55:34

that has been really fun for me to do

55:36

and I think people

55:39

are seeing it because people will tell me that they've

55:41

seen it on TV . Nobody has recognized

55:43

me randomly yet . But

55:47

yeah , it's been really fun

55:49

and it's good to bring more positive attention to these good

55:51

kids . Yeah , that's so cool . Yeah , and those are good stories to tell , yeah .

55:52

Yeah , it's been really fun and it's good to bring more positive attention to these good kids .

55:54

Yeah , that's so cool , yeah , and those are good stories to tell . Yeah

55:56

, yeah , yes , and they're such good kids and

55:58

they deserve to be featured .

56:00

Very cool , yeah , very cool . Well , erica , I

56:02

appreciate your time and you coming in to

56:05

talk to me , yeah , and I'm excited

56:07

to have you in the position you're in . I think

56:09

you bring a

56:11

lot to that and a lot of I don't know energy

56:13

and enthusiasm and just experience

56:16

to it that we need , I think , as a college . So

56:18

it is I'm

56:20

happy to have you in that role .

56:21

for sure I'm happy to be here and looking

56:24

forward to all

56:26

the things we get to do .

56:28

Yeah , yeah , very cool , thank you . Where can people

56:30

find you real quick as we ? If you want to

56:32

be found , you don't have to want to be found .

56:34

The easiest way to catch me is through email

56:36

, Erika E-R-I-C-A

56:38

dot I-R-L-B-E-C-K

56:41

at T-T-U dot E-D-U

56:44

. Or you could just look up the Davis College

56:46

Dean's Office and I'm listed on the personnel page

56:48

there . Email is the easiest way to

56:50

catch me . I'm sometimes slow to answer

56:52

, but I will answer .

56:53

Awesome , yeah , awesome . Well , very good , thank

56:56

you so much Thank you . And

56:58

for those of you out there listening , plan

57:00

your next crisis communication and we'll talk to

57:02

you later . Y'all

57:05

, if you ever find yourself in a crisis

57:07

, whether it is agricultural or otherwise

57:10

, I hope you'll

57:12

remember some of the stuff that Erica talked about today , because I think , just in

57:14

terms of thinking through things , having a plan and

57:16

just communicating , clearly , there's

57:18

no one better that you could learn from than

57:20

her . Thanks again , so much for coming and talking to

57:22

me , erica . It was a blast and I always enjoy getting

57:24

to spend some time with you . Thanks to you , the listener , once

57:26

more for being a part of it . Thanks to the Davis College

57:29

and the Department of Plant and Soil Science here at Texas

57:31

Tech University . Thank you to the PodFix

57:33

Network for letting me be a part of it . There's

57:35

great shows , great content , and you should

57:37

definitely go check out PodFix

57:41

. You know I love you . You know that I enjoy

57:43

doing this for you . I hope you're

57:45

still enjoying it and I hope that

57:47

you'll tell me if there's other things that I can

57:49

be doing to make this show better

57:52

. Planthropology is written , hosted

57:54

, produced all those other fun things

57:56

by me , vikram Baliga

57:59

. Our music is by the wonderful

58:01

, award-winning composer , nicholas

58:03

Scout , and we are supported by you

58:05

, the listener , and by Texas Tech University

58:08

. Keep being kind to one another . If you have not

58:10

, to this date , date been kind to

58:12

the people around you . Maybe give it a shot . It's a good way

58:14

to be Keep learning , keep being safe and

58:16

keep being a really cool plant

58:19

. Thank

58:26

you .