What Can We Learn from 31 Years in Utility Communications?, With Mike Teegarden

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.

Episode Transcript

Intro: A production of Pioneer Utility Resources. (00:05):
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StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shapetheir stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns: What are some things we can learn from 31 years in the utility communications space? (00:16):
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That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of TheStoryConnect Podcast.
My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer, and I'm joined onthis special episode by Mike Teegarden, who is editorial director
at Pioneer. Mike, thanks so much for joining me.

Mike Teegarden: Thanks for having me, Andy. (00:34):
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Andy Johns: So, like I said, it's kind of a special episode. (00:36):
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Mike is headed towards retirement.
You can see the sunset that he's riding off into in his utilitycommunications career.
Mike, I'll just hit some of the the basics of that.
After a career in newspapers in the early 90s in Idaho andCalifornia,

(00:56):
Mike came to Pioneer right at about 31 years ago.
He's worked at a couple of different roles at Pioneer, usuallyas a photography extraordinaire.
And that's, you know, all of those pieces are what we're goingto get into.
The last few years of Mike's tenure here, he's been theeditorial director, overseeing all the electric magazines and

(01:19):
editorial production that we do at Pioneer.
So, Mike, congratulations.

Mike Teegarden: Thank you very much. (01:23):
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It's exciting.

Andy Johns: Yeah. I'm sure. (01:27):
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I'm sure, it's a whole mixture of emotions.
There's all sorts of stuff going into that, I guess.
Let's start with the fun stuff.
What's the plan for retirement?
A lot of pickleball, some golf, I imagine.

Mike Teegarden: Little pickleball, little golf. (01:40):
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I actually have a job working part time in a pickleball gym.
And so I plan to continue doing that.
I'll still be a photographer as opportunities present.
I'll be able to pursue personal projects that I haven't had timeor energy for.

(02:04):
I don't really have any other real hard plans.
I'm going to enjoy, you know, the last couple of years of mykids college and being able to spend time with them
before they rush off and start their adult lives.
So, yeah, it's nothing hard and fast.
I'm going to kind of see where the wind blows me.

Andy Johns: Well, that sounds like a good start. (02:26):
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Spending some time in the pickleball gym.
That's great.
You mentioned photography.
Let's start there because that's where you started, and you'veseen it changed, I imagine, you know, early 90s, you guys were
developing it in the darkroom with the chemicals and all that.
And then it's moved into, you know, digital.
And then now it's moved into AI.

(02:47):
I mean, there's all kinds of changes that have been tophotography.
But I think when we were talking before, before we hit therecord button, you know, there's a big difference
between photography and good photography.
Tell us a little bit about what the difference is between thetwo.

Mike Teegarden: Yeah. Well that's a fair comparis.on I think, I tell people the difference between a professional (03:06):
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photographer and an amateur photographer is an amateurphotographer will see something interesting.
They'll go up, and they'll take a picture.
And they'll look at their camera, because we can do that now,and they'll say, "Oh, look, I got it in focus.

(03:27):
It's exposed right.
I nailed it. I'm done.
I'm out of here." And a professional will come in, and they'llshoot that photo, the same photo, and then they'll walk around to
the left side, and they'll shoot some photos from that side, andthen they'll walk around behind, and they'll keep shooting.
And they'll keep trying different things until they getsomething that is extraordinary.

(03:49):
It's not any, I mean, it's really about the time they put intomaking that photo and going the extra mile to
take it from ordinary to extraordinary.
And really I think anyone is capable of doing that.
We just have to remember that it takes effort and put that timein.

Andy Johns: Let's talk about that effort and time. (04:09):
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Can you remember some times where it took extraordinary effortor any particular shots or setups
where you had to kind of put in that extraordinary effort to getthere and get the shot?
I mean, I know, you know, you've shot stuff from the PacificNorthwest all the way down to Guatemala.

(04:33):
You know, all over the place.
But what are some times, if you can recall, that just took thatextra effort to to really get that extraordinary shot?

Mike Teegarden: Yeah. So, you know, one comes to mind. (04:40):
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Years ago, we were doing a story on wind turbines in theColumbia Gorge.
And we wanted to photograph Jeff Davis at one of the wind farms.
But we didn't just want an ordinary photo of of him standing inthe field with the wind farms.
I wanted to photograph him with that blue light, that earlymorning blue light.

(05:06):
So we convinced him to meet us at, like, five in the morning outin a cold farm
field with the wind turbines, just us.
And I brought some battery powered lights with me, and we wereout there just freezing cold.

Andy Johns: I bet. (05:25):
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Mike Teegarden: And he was, and we brought a chair with us so he could have kind of a prop to use to put his foot up. (05:25):
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And it was really cool.
And we ended up with a wonderful photo.
And we ran it really large.
He really liked it, and that effort made it worth it.

Andy Johns: Sounds like it. (05:47):
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That's a good transition into the next point, which is aboutstorytelling in general, whether it's the effort that goes into
the photography side or into the the writing side of it.
Why does storytelling matter in the utility communication space?
You know, have you seen any changes in 31 years?

(06:07):
I know so much of what's true about storytelling, whether it'sphotography and visual communications or text is
true no matter the medium, no matter the era.
But what are some of the changes that you've seen instorytelling, and why does storytelling still matter in in
utility communications?

Mike Teegarden: Yeah. Well, you know, when I first started, we kind of had a formula in the magazine with storytelling, and this was Ruralite (06:26):
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magazine, which was the only magazine we did at the time.
And every utility, pretty much every single one, ran a featurestory on someone in their community.
It didn't have anything to do with electricity.

(06:47):
It was just someone in the community who did somethinginteresting.
Maybe they were a volunteer.
Maybe they collected ceramic frogs.
Maybe they built dugout canoes, right?
I mean, you just never knew what you were going to get.
But it was always a story about someone in the community.
And that was the enticement of the readers to pick up themagazine and

(07:13):
look inside and see what one of their neighbors was doing.
And it works really well.
It's still a really good way to get people to pick up themagazine and look inside.
And it's not that the utility industry isn't exciting andinteresting, but for some people, it

(07:34):
may not be enough to get them to pick that magazine up.
So with these human interest stories, the neighbors, theirfriends, it gets them to pick up the magazine, and they're
reading that, and then they're turning pages, and they're seeingthe safety stories.
They're seeing the industry stories.
They're seeing the stories about rates.

(07:55):
They're seeing the stories about elections and board meetingsand annual meetings.
And they're absorbing that information as well in the process.
And through the years, we've seen a little bit of a trend.
Some utilities are spending more of their focus on the industrystories, and they're not

(08:16):
doing as much with those human interest stories.
And I think that's maybe a mistake.
I'd like to see more of that human interest element in theircommunications.
I just think it's important that we continue to have that touchpoint with our our members, our readers.

(08:36):
They want to know who their neighbors are.
And, you know, we've heard how many newspapers are closing.
Every day a newspaper closes or 2 or 3 close.
And so there's no one in that community documenting what's goingon.
And our magazines have become the only voice in town sometimesfor what's going on and the only way of

(08:58):
documenting that history.
And so I think that's something we don't want to lose.
And I know our readers love it.
You know, we still get calls today, "My aunt or my uncle was inthe magazine in 1964.
Do you think you could find a copy of that and send it to me?"And it's just, it's amazing.

(09:21):
And of course, we don't have the printed copies that we can sendthem, but we have copies that we can photocopy and send
them. And they're so happy.
They love seeing their family.
They love being able to read about that history.
It's meaningful to them.
It's historic.
It's part of the fiber of those communities.

(09:42):
And if we lose that, that's a big loss.
So and the utilities can take a big role on that, and thatcontinues to cement that relationship with their members.

Andy Johns: Yeah. And I think that's, you know, kind of moving beyond the transactional relationship has always been a big part of what the (09:54):
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magazines are all about.
You talked about how the role of the magazine has changed.
The role of the storyteller has changed.
Your role changed quite a bit over the years, including earlyon.
You know, being the new guy.

(10:16):
Where there, and I think I know the answer to this one, is there any particular assignment that you ever got that you just
dreaded, dreaded doing?
I know that your your role has changed quite a bit over theyears.
You know, a lot of folks do their whole career as thephotographer and happy doing that or whatever the role is.
Your job has changed and morphed a little bit over the years.

(10:40):
Tell us a little bit about any particular early careerassignments maybe that you were a little apprehensive about?

Mike Teegarden: Well, when I first started here, I came in from being a newspaper photographer and, you know, my role was to (10:46):
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go out and take pictures and come back and develop them andprint them and hand them off to somebody else.
And I didn't really talk to a lot of people.
I was, you know, I was a typical photographer, happy to bebehind the camera.

(11:11):
And when I started here, it wasn't long before Curtis Condon,the editor at the time, told me that the
newest editor was responsible for planning the Writers Workshop,which
is a semiannual event, every two years, that we brought in ourfreelance

(11:33):
writers and communicators from utilities to give them some helpwith writing and photography.
And I've never planned a workshop.
I never really been to a workshop.
I didn't know what I was doing, and there wasn't really a greatblueprint to follow.

(11:56):
And it's like, are you sure you want me to do this?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're going to have to do this.
Okay.

Andy Johns: Sometimes, yeah, that's the way it goes for the new guy sometimes, I guess. (12:06):
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Mike Teegarden: That's right. So I kind of rolled up my sleeves, looked around, and, you know, we didn't have a very big staff back then. (12:10):
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And so I was kind of on my own, but fortunately I knew somephotographers that I could bring in.
And we planned one, and I thought I was doing pretty wellbecause I had the photographers lined up.

(12:31):
I had the hotel lined up.
We hosted it in Forest Grove, Oregon, which was where the officewas located at.
And I think we had, I don't know, maybe 25 people that came,which was a good attendance for us.
We were happy about that number.
And I had this crazy idea to use actual hands on photographywhere we had people shoot, but that was in

(12:53):
film days. So we actually shot film and got the film processedand brought prints back to look
at. What I didn't count on was Curtis telling me, by the way,you know, you have to emcee this, right?

Andy Johns: Oh. (13:07):
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Mike Teegarden: What? What? (13:09):
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Oh yeah, someone has to, you know, talk and introduce people.
And that was really outside my comfort zone, even with just, youknow, 20-25 people.
I was really uncomfortable with that.
But he said, you'll figure it out.
And I did it, and it wasn't so bad.

(13:30):
I didn't hate it.
And, so then the next two years comes along, and we have anotherworkshop, and we decided not to have it in
Forest Grove. One of the people who had attended the first yearsaid, you know, the location was nice if you like to read.
There just wasn't a lot going on in town.

(13:51):
And so.

Andy Johns: (laughs) To read. (13:52):
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Mike Teegarden: To read. So, you know, we found, I can't remember where we went the second year. (13:52):
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It might have been Reno.

Andy Johns: I was thinking Reno was pretty early on. (14:00):
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Mike Teegarden: I think it was, I think it was Reno. (14:01):
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And then by then, Linda Wiseman was on staff, and she wasreally, really good at organizing and planning details.
And then she and I planned, you know, for the next 20 years theconferences.
So, that was, we were a good team working together on that.

(14:22):
But it was quite the learning experience.
And I became a lot more comfortable talking in front of peopleand planning.
And it was, you know, I'm really glad now.
I always enjoyed them.
I enjoyed having all of our people in one room.
There's a fun energy.

(14:43):
I'm a big believer in sitting down and eating food with people,even people that you may have challenges with.
If you can sit down and have food with somebody –

Andy Johns: Sometimes especially. (14:53):
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Yeah.

Mike Teegarden: That's right, that's right. (14:56):
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It's kind of a big equalizer.
And you get to know somebody at our workshops, and nowStoryConnect, you get to know people on a
personal level. You get to talk about their kids and their dogsand their cats and what they like to do
and what they like to eat.

(15:16):
And it's not all business.
And, you know, just like we are helping our utilities buildrelationships with their members or their customers, we
need to do the same thing.
And StoryConnect is a great opportunity for that.
I'm a big fan of that.

Andy Johns: What does that tell us about being flexible? (15:33):
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You know, I guess when you're the new guy and the boss says, yougot to go try something, you don't have really a lot of
opportunity whether or not you're going to be flexible.
But I know one thing that you've done your whole career is adaptand be flexible.
We talked about on the technical side with the photography, youknow, changing from the darkroom days until, you know, modern

(15:54):
digital photography.
The role is changing.
What do you think your career teaches folks or can teach folksabout remaining adaptable and flexible over the
years?

Mike Teegarden: You know, for me, I'm always interested in learning. (16:07):
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I've been a lifelong learner.
I don't plan on stopping when I retire.
I like a challenge.
I like it when people come to me and say, "Oh, you're not goingto be able to figure this out." We'll see.

(16:29):
I don't like to be stumped.
And, you know, early on at Ruralite, I was also, a lot of peopledon't know this, I was also the
IT person. We didn't have an IT person.

Andy Johns: I was just about to bring that up. (16:41):
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Yeah. Kind of the de facto.
Yeah.

Mike Teegarden: I mean, when I first started, we had a bunch of Macs with no net. (16:46):
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Well, we had an AppleTalk network.
We had no backup drives.
We had no network servers, no print servers, no internet.
Yes, I started before the internet.
We had no email.

(17:07):
So when those things started becoming options, being the youngguy and the most technically savvy in the building, it
kind of fell on me to figure out how to make that stuff work.
And, you know, our first email address was an AOL address off ofone of those floppy drives that everybody got in the
mail. And we had a computer that was in kind of a public space,and

(17:34):
I ran a 50 foot phone cord to it and a 1200 baud modem.
And we would, you know, stretch that out once a week and checkour email.

Andy Johns: Now that part of it actually sounds kind of nice, only checking email once a week. (17:45):
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I gotta, I'll say that.

Mike Teegarden: Yeah. Everything else came via Fedex and UPS back in the day when a Fedex envelope was ten bucks overnight. (17:50):
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And that's how people delivered their floppy drives, their filmnegatives, and sometimes their,
you know, sometimes it was just hard copy, and we would have toretype it.

Andy Johns: Wow. (18:09):
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Mike Teegarden: Yeah. (18:10):
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Andy Johns: Things have changed. You've had to adapt. (18:11):
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Mike Teegarden: That's right. (18:13):
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Andy Johns: Yeah, definitely. (18:14):
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One of the ways that, you know, you mentioned lifelong learner,that's something that I'll back you up on.
One of the ways that we kind of got to know each other wasthrough a reading group that was started among some Pioneer
staff. But the focus of that reading group, and I think you werea founding member, I came in a couple of books into it.

(18:37):
The focus of that reading group was diversity and inclusion andtrying to
understand perspectives of folks that are different than us.
And that's, you know, just to be frank and blunt on here, that'snot something that a lot of guys,
you know, looking 2 or 3 years from retirement are reallylooking to dive into.

(19:00):
But you did.
Why is it that you think diversity matters in order to be a goodstoryteller or good communicator?

Mike Teegarden: Well, you know, we started that book group as as part of the learning process for our internship program. (19:09):
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That was a focus for diversity, equity and inclusion.
And I just knew I needed to know more.
And, you know, lifelong learner.
I grew up in a time that and in a small farm community thatmaybe wasn't the most

(19:34):
diverse, and it wasn't the most open to other races and just,you
know, trying to find the best way to say this.
But, let's just say that if I could go back in time, I wouldlive that part of my life differently.
But I can't.

(19:55):
I can't go back in time.
But what I can do is change where I'm at now.
And, you know, I give my wife a lot of credit for this.
She teaches ESL, English as a second language.
And I have learned a lot through her.
You know, she comes home almost daily with stories about thestudents that she teaches and the challenges

(20:20):
they face just in school because of the language barrier.
And, you know, those kids show up here, and they're just kids.
And they didn't ask to be kids who don't understand English.
They didn't ask to be kids born in another country.
They're just kids. And they're here, and you know, they justwant to learn.
They want to be loved.

(20:41):
They want to be understood, and they want to have friends and beable to play with their friends and do things that all of
our kids want to do as well.
And yet they face roadblocks because of the language.
And oftentimes because of the color of their skin.
And I think that's wrong.

(21:02):
I think it's a shame.
And if I can do something to help make that better, I'm going todo that.
And so the book club was part of a group of us that just, youknow, we realize we have
shortcomings. And that's kind of the first step to doingsomething better, right?
Is acknowledging what the problem is and acknowledging that,okay, well, I've got a problem.

(21:28):
How do I fix it?
Being a person who likes to learn, and there were people, youknow, there were coworkers in this group
who were farther along in their journey than me, and I knew Icould learn from them.
And I was very happy to be able to do that.
And so it's been really gratifying to me.
And I have seen, you know, a lot of aha moments as I've readthrough the many books we've been through.

(21:55):
You know, and I don't necessarily agree with everything we'veread.
I don't necessarily agree or, you know, there are a lot ofviewpoints and a lot of things to learn.
And different ideas, different subjects hit all of usdifferently.
But that's been the fun part is talking about that with eachother and hearing each other's personal stories

(22:19):
about how it does affect them and the learns we've had.
So I really like the direction we're going in the company.
We've had a very successful DEI internship program.
Our very first intern now works for Powerful Web.

Andy Johns: Powerful Web team. Yep. (22:39):
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Mike Teegarden: Yep. And we have another intern that works on our social media team that we hired. (22:40):
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So I think that says we're doing a pretty good job of of hiringpeople and finding
gems that we can either help stay in the industry, whether it'shere or elsewhere.
It's just been, it's been nice, and it's been fun watching mycoworkers grow, too.

(23:04):
You know, if, like I said, if we can just make it a little bitbetter, everything we do makes things just a little bit better.
That's a good goal.

Andy Johns: Well said. Well said. (23:13):
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And that internship program, something I know too that you havebeen a big part of since the very beginning.
Last question I had for you.
What advice do you have for somebody?
I mean, you're the wise sage, 31 years into this.
Know a few things.
What advice do you have for somebody who's just starting out inthe, well, whether they're just starting out or whether they're

(23:36):
kind of mid-career in the utility communications space?

Mike Teegarden: Well, you know, I know early on, I had people reaching out to me, offering me help. (23:42):
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And I came from the newspaper world where you learn to beskeptical and kind of keep people at arm's length because you
just didn't know. You figured somebody, everybody was trying towork you.
And it took me a while to realize that in this industry, peoplereally are just trying to help you.

(24:04):
And there's not another agenda.
They genuinely, if they see that you might have a need forinformation and they have it, and they are willing to share
it. And I was not open to that information early on in mycareer.
And, that slowed my knowledge growth curve a little bit.

(24:28):
And over time, I have learned to be much quicker to listen tosomebody else's experience and say
that, okay.
All right. I see you're just trying to help me.
You know, I still may agree or disagree with what they're tryingto tell me, but I'm a lot more open to listening
and considering what I'm hearing.

(24:50):
And considering it with the view that this is informationthey're sharing with me because they want me to be successful.
And looking at things from that lens really makes a difference.
So I would encourage people, if you're talking to somebody fromthe industry, and they're trying to steer you in a certain

(25:12):
direction, give it a listen.
Because they may be just trying to help you, and there may besome really valuable information there that you'll be happy to
have.

Andy Johns: Absolutely, I get that. (25:21):
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Sometimes easier. I mean, it sounds simple, but sometimes it canbe tough, tough to do.
I understand that.
Well, Mike, thanks so much for you being the helper, for youhelping, you know, folks in their career.
Hopefully, if they're listening to this, they've picked up a fewthings along the way.
Congratulations on your retirement.
Thanks for taking a few minutes to to record with me here.

Mike Teegarden: Thanks, Andy I appreciate it. (25:41):
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Andy Johns: He is Mike Teagarden. He is the soon to be retired editorial director here at Pioneer. (25:44):
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I'm your host, Andy Johns.
And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro: StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a communications cooperative that is built to share your story. (25:53):
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