Tips and Action Steps for "Stories from the Road"

Cara Pesek Author

07/31/2025 Added

33 Plays

Description

Cara Pesek talks about what makes for great storytelling.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.000]Hello, my name is Kara Pesek. I'm
[00:00:02.670]the Communications Director for
[00:00:05.120]the Institute of Agriculture
[00:00:07.170]and Natural Resources at the
[00:00:09.250]University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
[00:00:12.080]And I'm visiting with you today
[00:00:14.750]about telling our story.
[00:00:16.760]This has been a really popular
[00:00:19.430]topic and extension in IANR as
[00:00:21.610]a whole over the past few years.
[00:00:24.980]And it's become more and more
[00:00:26.870]important just recently as we've
[00:00:29.240]faced some challenges that
[00:00:30.920]we haven't faced maybe quite to
[00:00:32.810]this degree in the past.
[00:00:34.020]So I'm going to begin by just
[00:00:36.690]sharing a few best practices
[00:00:38.720]and an example and a few
[00:00:40.690]resources.
[00:00:41.900]So what I'm sharing will echo
[00:00:44.510]to an extent what Jesse Brophy
[00:00:46.820]and Jesse Herman shared
[00:00:48.920]last week or a couple of weeks
[00:00:51.090]ago now, maybe.
[00:00:52.460]But I think it's just really a
[00:00:54.780]good formula is to begin with
[00:00:56.720]something kind of personal and
[00:00:58.990]heartfelt to back that up where
[00:01:01.480]you can with some statistics or
[00:01:03.980]numbers or just kind of put it
[00:01:06.280]in context of the program that
[00:01:08.690]you're describing or the
[00:01:10.720]workshop, the whatever, the
[00:01:13.220]whatever it is.
[00:01:15.180]And then to really let your own
[00:01:17.070]passion shine through without
[00:01:19.400]letting politics also come into
[00:01:20.850]the conversation.
[00:01:22.240]So to share an example, a
[00:01:24.870]couple weeks ago, I was invited
[00:01:26.920]to a ranch tour.
[00:01:28.520]This is a tour that the Sand
[00:01:30.410]Foundation organizes to
[00:01:31.870]celebrate the winners of the Leopold
[00:01:34.350]Conservation Award in Nebraska
[00:01:36.430]each year.
[00:01:37.700]So this year, the award was won
[00:01:39.780]by the Jones family, the
[00:01:41.180]Diamond Bar Ranch in Stapleton,
[00:01:43.360]Nebraska, who I happen to know
[00:01:44.800]because Natalie Jones works in
[00:01:46.210]our office.
[00:01:46.940]And many of you probably know
[00:01:48.380]Natalie.
[00:01:48.560]And so I had been out there
[00:01:51.220]before, but I went.
[00:01:52.820]And I was so glad that I did
[00:01:54.710]because it was a beautiful day
[00:01:56.040]and a beautiful setting.
[00:01:57.660]But also because the way all
[00:02:00.330]the members of the Jones family
[00:02:03.040]work together on that ranch was
[00:02:05.690]really interesting and
[00:02:06.850]inspiring to me.
[00:02:07.800]So to start, five of the six
[00:02:10.470]Joneses, mom and dad and the
[00:02:13.180]four kids, five of the six are
[00:02:16.030]Casner alumni and the six is a
[00:02:18.710]rising junior.
[00:02:22.820]They all work together on the
[00:02:24.710]branch. Every single one of
[00:02:25.930]them are still involved. And
[00:02:27.470]the kids have studied a variety
[00:02:29.990]of disciplines here at the
[00:02:32.120]university that I think have
[00:02:34.440]really prepared them to go back
[00:02:36.960]and to contribute in different
[00:02:39.480]ways.
[00:02:40.300]We have one in the marketing
[00:02:42.190]and communication space, one in
[00:02:44.520]the ag business space, one who's
[00:02:46.460]taken on the genetics of the
[00:02:48.280]herd, and then a fourth who's
[00:02:50.230]in ag econ and in the angler
[00:02:51.900]program and is kind of still
[00:02:53.700]figuring out, I think, what his
[00:02:55.870]contribution will be.
[00:02:58.360]And hearing them all talk about
[00:03:00.250]their various roles, the
[00:03:01.590]different ways that they
[00:03:03.010]interacted in some cases with
[00:03:04.710]the university and extension
[00:03:06.390]through the Heifer Development
[00:03:08.290]Program and with other with new
[00:03:09.950]apps and technologies was just
[00:03:11.700]really inspiring.
[00:03:13.080]And it was really cool to see
[00:03:14.970]how CASNR had prepared all
[00:03:16.680]these young people to go back
[00:03:18.640]and to contribute to this, the
[00:03:20.720]fifth generation of this family
[00:03:22.840]operation in new ways that
[00:03:24.600]hopefully will keep that
[00:03:26.280]operation sustainable and
[00:03:28.120]forward looking long into the
[00:03:30.600]future.
[00:03:31.640]So to me, it felt like just
[00:03:33.960]such a great example of the way
[00:03:35.900]CASNR is preparing students to
[00:03:38.310]go back home if that's what
[00:03:40.280]they want to do, to be
[00:03:41.840]innovative in their operations
[00:03:44.560]and to connect back to their
[00:03:46.370]university, which can be a
[00:03:48.450]resource in their operation for
[00:03:50.900]years to come.
[00:03:54.320]So that's kind of the emotional
[00:03:57.680]part of the story to go into
[00:04:00.540]some of those details.
[00:04:03.300]CASNR enrollment is actually
[00:04:05.970]growing. Last year, CASNR
[00:04:08.420]welcomed its second largest
[00:04:10.940]class in the program history.
[00:04:13.630]Internship programs with
[00:04:16.220]producers and ag businesses
[00:04:18.340]across the state increased
[00:04:20.920]partnerships with some of these
[00:04:23.450]Nebraska businesses have led to
[00:04:26.220]high placement rates of our
[00:04:28.570]students all across Nebraska.
[00:04:31.700]and many of you are CASNR
[00:04:33.590]alumni as well.
[00:04:34.780]And I think that really speaks
[00:04:36.870]to our relevance
[00:04:37.860]and the workforce development
[00:04:39.640]that we're continuing
[00:04:40.560]to provide for all parts of our
[00:04:44.820]state.
[00:04:46.100]So that's kind of how I a lot
[00:04:49.660]of times
[00:04:50.840]try to approach storytelling.
[00:04:52.320]I like this approach because it
[00:04:54.210]works in a lot of ways.
[00:04:55.480]It's easy to share it just in a
[00:04:58.150]conversation,
[00:04:58.840]but it also lends well to
[00:05:00.730]sharing on social media. I had
[00:05:02.610]the great, you know, you could
[00:05:04.880]approach it
[00:05:05.360]and I had, was honored to be
[00:05:07.250]invited to lead a workshop
[00:05:08.790]today. It was great to connect
[00:05:10.860]with
[00:05:11.260]people from this organization.
[00:05:13.120]It was really great to hear how
[00:05:14.500]much they value what we do.
[00:05:16.000]I love my job. I love working
[00:05:17.890]with people like this. You know,
[00:05:19.850]I think you can really let your
[00:05:21.640]passion show through while at
[00:05:24.310]the same time just providing
[00:05:26.540]the facts of whatever the
[00:05:28.650]program aims
[00:05:29.840]to achieve without wading into
[00:05:32.960]any political waters. So my
[00:05:35.960]team is here to be a resource.
[00:05:39.140]I'm happy to talk to anyone
[00:05:41.460]about this topic. I like
[00:05:43.400]talking about this topic. You
[00:05:45.810]can always
[00:05:46.720]reach out to my office if you
[00:05:49.040]want to run some texts that you've
[00:05:51.370]written by us. If you have a
[00:05:53.700]story that you think would be
[00:05:55.590]better suited for someone in
[00:05:56.870]our office to tell, we use
[00:05:58.320]social media,
[00:05:59.240]we use written news releases
[00:06:01.070]and written stories that run on
[00:06:02.630]Nebraska Today and I in our
[00:06:04.110]news. We
[00:06:04.860]also have a whole video
[00:06:06.300]department. And we're really
[00:06:08.210]here to be a resource. We're
[00:06:10.030]here to help.
[00:06:11.080]Even if it's a small thing,
[00:06:12.520]something we maybe won't get to
[00:06:14.140]right away, a lot of times we'll
[00:06:15.830]learn
[00:06:16.300]you know, oh, there's this
[00:06:18.190]whole group of programs that
[00:06:19.990]kind of are in this same
[00:06:21.540]general area and talking about
[00:06:24.290]how Nebraskans are, or Nebraska
[00:06:27.260]Extension is supporting this
[00:06:30.000]aspect of the Nebraska economy
[00:06:32.050]or this aspect of Nebraska
[00:06:34.250]households or families becomes,
[00:06:35.740]you know, it just becomes part
[00:06:37.630]of that bigger story. So you
[00:06:39.310]all know how to reach me, I
[00:06:40.860]think.
[00:06:41.520]feel free whenever to reach out.
[00:06:44.160]Um, and thank you for inviting
[00:06:46.200]me to talk to you.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Tips and Action Steps for "Stories from the Road"

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments