107. Deep Dive- Crisis Communication in Agriculture with Dr. Erica Irlbeck

What's up, Plant People?? It's our first Deep Dive episode in quite a while. I was super excited to get to talk to my friend, Dr. Erica Irlbeck, again on the show. Erica is a Professor of Ag Communications, the Associate Dean of Outreach and Engagement for the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech, and the author of the Crisis Communication Guide for Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources. We talked about everything from good communication, to working with the media, to life in academia, and so much more. It was a fun and insightful conversation, and I know you're going to get a lot out of it! Get in contact with Erica and pick up a copy of her book from the links below!

Erica's Faculty Page
Erica's Instagram
The Crisis Communications Guide for Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What is up? Plant people it's time once again for the Plantthropology podcast, the show where we dive into the lives and careers of some very cool plant people to figure out why they do what they do and what keeps them coming back for more. I'm your host and humble guide in this journey through the greenest of the sciences, vikram Baliga, and, as always, my dear friends, I am so excited to be with you today. Y'all, this is the first deep dive episode we've done in quite a while and if you've been around for a minute, you'll know that every now and then I'll bring a guest back to really really go into what they study, what they do, a new project they have. And my guest today for this deep dive episode is Dr Erica Erlbeck. She is a friend in the Davis College you may have heard her in the way back when, like in the first 10 episodes of the show ever somewhere and she recently wrote a book called the Crisis Communication Guide for Agriculture, food and Natural Resources. And she is also our new Davis College Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement. So I've talked about this a little bit before, I think, on the show, but our college has done this cool thing where we're actually prioritizing outreach and engaging with the community, and that is the best. And as we were going through the process of finding someone for it, like there's few people I can think of who are a better fit for a job like this and a stronger leader in a space like this than Erica. And we talked about everything from how do you communicate after a hailstorm if you work in a greenhouse, to what should your social media strategy be and how do you work with the local news media All kinds of good stuff. We talk about her teaching, we talk about her thoughts on the future of communication and just had a really fun conversation, a really, really, really fun conversation. Erica's great, she's a good friend, she's an excellent person and I think you're really going to learn a lot, not just about communicating in agriculture that may not be anything close to what you do but just communicating more effectively in general, because, again, erica literally did write the book on this.

Speaker 1: 1:58

A quick note before we get into this episode. I did have a couple of technical problems with the sound at the very beginning, so the sounds a little strange in the first like five and a half minutes or so of the episode, but the content is really good, so I don't want you to skip it, so just bear with it, it'll be fine. It's not that bad. It's very listenable, but it improves a lot after the first five minutes or so. So that was my fault. I made an oops, but I've mostly fixed it. Anyway, I just wanted you to be aware of that, and so, without any further yammering for me, get yourself ready for episode 107 of Planthropology, a deep dive into crisis communications in agriculture with Dr Erica Earlbeck. Well, erica, thanks for coming in and talking to me again. Thank you for having me After a while it's. We've been, for those of you out there listening. We've been trying to coordinate this for like six weeks maybe, and one of us has been sick, I think, every time.

Speaker 2: 3:11

Yes.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Or something.

Speaker 2: 3:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so glad to be here.

Speaker 1: 3:15

Yeah, glad to be here without some sort of illness. Well, and I was looking earlier. You've been on the show before, but it was like I don't remember when maybe 2021?.

Speaker 2: 3:28

I know that I did it. I was sitting in my recliner.

Speaker 1: 3:32

So it was COVID era. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:35

So because, yeah, I remember sitting in the recliner Gosh that was a long time ago, yeah it was.

Speaker 1: 3:40

It's hard to believe sometimes that I've been doing this for that long. I guess I started in 2019 and that just kind of blows by. Yeah, it does. It's been like one long day since then.

Speaker 2: 3:51

It applies when you're having fun, yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:53

I think, so that's good. So I wanted to have you back on for a couple of reasons. You've got a new role in our college which I want to talk about, but also you published a book recently which I also want to talk about, and that's actually like as far as deep diving into content. I'd like to spend some time talking about the book and crisis communication, and that feels like it's really important right now.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Yeah, yeah, I would love to, Just in general. So first off, I guess to start, if you don't mind, just kind of reintroducing yourself and talk about you know what you do and how you got there a little bit.

Speaker 2: 4:27

Sure, yeah. So my name is Erica Ehrlbeck. I'm the Associate Dean for Outreach and Engagement for the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. I'm also a professor of Agricultural Communications here at Texas Tech University. I started in the associate dean role on October 1st, so I have not even done a year yet in this role. My background comes in broadcast journalism, particularly farm broadcasting, so I worked for Ag Day Television, I worked in Lubbock for KLBK and then I've been at Texas Tech, for it'll be 18 years in June of 2021. Wow, yeah, so that includes grad school, but still I've been at Texas Tech, for it'll be 18 years in June of 2021. Wow, yeah, yeah, so that includes grad school, but still I've been at Texas Tech for quite a while.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:09

And yeah, loved every minute of it.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Well, that's good, yeah, yeah, it's nice, I think, being able to find somewhere, and I guess my experience is sort of similar, like I did my master's here and my PhD here, so I've been like haunting this place for a little while, but it's kind of nice to find somewhere and land somewhere that you like, actually like, and just get to be there.

Speaker 2: 5:29

Yes, yes exactly. You know, it's funny because a lot of people will talk about how Lubbock is a small town. I'm like, well, maybe, but I mean there's four Walmarts and two markets in a mall. I don't know what's so small about that. I grew up in a little big town in Oklahoma. We had to drive 25 miles to Walmart.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Oh.

Speaker 2: 5:46

Yeah, so, lubbock, seems I have everything I need here and I like it here. I like the people here, so we choose to raise our kid here. We're yeah, we're very happy being here and we love the university.

Speaker 1: 5:57

That's awesome. Lubbock's a weird like big, small town it is. It's, and for folks that have never been through here it's kind of hard Cause we have like 300,000 people here Like it's not a small town but it feels in some way which I like I appreciate that I've lived here my whole life, or most of my life, and on and off and like I keep coming back. There's something about this place that like I just I really enjoy. So your new role, associate Dean of Outreach and Engagement with, by the way, all of y'all's Rob Cox was in here a couple of weeks ago and y'all's titles are so long To take your whole door up to put your title on it. Welcome to academia.

Speaker 2: 6:40

That's what we do.

Speaker 1: 6:42

Long titles. So what all does that entail? I know it's a new role, it's a new position in general in the college. So sort of two questions here Like what, what does that mean to begin with and kind of, what do you envision for it?

Speaker 2: 6:57

Right, right, yeah, so it is a new role and there's not very many other associate deans for outreach and engagement across the Texas Tech campus, so I am kind of creating it as I go along. But what that is so we can break it down into outreach and engagement. So if we look at outreach outreach is the way that I would describe it is anything that promotes the Davis College in a positive way. So that could be promoting our science in various ways. So doing podcasts, any kind of media, interviews, any kind of social media, anything that involves marketing and beyond. So doing camps in the summer or just being a guest speaker in a classroom, or anything where you are reaching out into the broader community. We can define community any number of ways.

Speaker 1: 7:52

Sure.

Speaker 2: 7:53

And I've told people when I've gone around and spoken to the different departments. I'm like if you don't enjoy being around kids, then your outreach does not have to involve kids at all. Or if that is your happy place, then by all means focus all of your outreach efforts toward kids. So you know our community can be anything. So you know we can look at the broader agriculture community, we can look at just the Lubbock community, the Panhandle, south Plains, texas. So that can be anything For a lot of times with engagement. It can involve our teaching, where we're getting our students involved with some sort of community group in a way that helps our students learn better. Or we can create some sort of an engaged research project where we're working with a community partner in some way. There's usually some sort of a community partner involved with engagement.

Speaker 2: 8:43

So we're working together and it's a mutually beneficial relationship.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Okay, no, I think that's a good summary, because I think, at least in my mind, and again because it's new and it's something that I've done.

Speaker 2: 8:57

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

Speaker 1: 9:00

But in my mind that's been one thing and I think the distinction between the two is actually important because it lets us in a lot of ways focus in on the ways we do our communication, we do our programming, we do our partnerships and those kinds of things.

Speaker 2: 9:18

Yeah, yeah, exactly, and you know there are some people that never do engagement and that's okay. There are some people that they don't like the outreach, but they love getting their students involved in the community. They like having their classroom involved in another classroom like a high school classroom or an element. And those are all great. So, yeah, so my job is to help make these things happen and just to help just increase our presence, increase our footprint in the greater community, whatever community looks like in that situation. That's cool.

Speaker 1: 9:51

Yeah, I really like that and it it says a lot, I think, about our college and university that these are the kinds of things we're starting to try to prioritize a little bit to put some effort into, because I guess at the provost level too, they're focusing on that a little bit more too.

Speaker 2: 10:07

Very much so yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:09

I have long felt, like in academia, that we have a lot of work to do in closing the feedback loop, so to speak, with the research and everything else with the public, and it's just cool that like this is becoming something that we value, I think, as an institution.

Speaker 2: 10:25

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And yeah, we just hired a vice provost for outreach and engagement, so there's somebody at the university level that is doing this as well, right? So yeah, this is something that's very important to Texas Tech. It's part of our strategic plan, yeah, so yeah, you will start seeing Texas Tech a lot more. You'll start seeing Davis College a lot more and there's lots of audiences. You know we helped. We did an event yesterday. Yesterday was National Ag Day, so we did an event yesterday. Yesterday was national ag day, um, so we did an event on campus and that was something to engage our students, but also engage the the campus community, just to let them know. Like you know, agriculture is the backbone of this economy. It was the basis for this campus and you know we're just here to celebrate it and say hi, we're here and have it, have a free donut and uh yeah, and enjoy this beautiful first day of spring.

Speaker 1: 11:20

And so yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:21

So that was a fun, just a nice little outreach event to our little community right here. Yeah, that's cool and it has been beautiful outside by the way, I know this is why we live here. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:34

It's funny when folks come visit this is sort of an aside, like I always think a lot about, like when new faculty from out of town come to visit or they're, you know, here interviewing. They always end up being like at weird times. Oh yeah yeah, Like it's blowing 70 miles per hour or it's two degrees outside, yeah, when generally most of the time it's pretty pleasant.

Speaker 2: 11:50

Yeah, yeah, it is yes.

Speaker 1: 11:54

But yeah, that's always a challenge, just the weather here. But again it's been beautiful, it's been spring for a while it feels like it has been yeah, yeah. Which is nice. So with that, with your new position, with your new role and everything that comes with that, what does that mean for you in terms of your professorship and in terms of your teaching and research and all that?

Speaker 2: 12:22

Have you had to give a lot of that up? Yeah, I have, and that's. You know, with everything and with growth there's some give and take. So in the spring semester I'm not teaching in the classroom but I am still supervising our Ag Comm internship program. So I do still feel connected to the students in some way. You know. But I was at a convention in Houston and saw a. I could tell she was a student and you know she had on a tech sticker or something and so I was like I think she's one of ours and looked at her. I'm like you're in the internship class. I'd never seen the student before in my life, but I recognized her name and.

Speaker 2: 12:54

I'm like, oh, I am your professor, so so, yeah, so I don't get that face-to-face interaction with them very much, but I am still interacting with the students some, and it's also a good way for me to interact with some potential community partners as well. So that's, and I just enjoy doing the internship piece of our departmental curriculum anyway. But yeah, at the moment the only thing I'm scheduled to be teaching is the risk and crisis communications class, and that's offered in the falls. So I have given up quite a bit of teaching.

Speaker 1: 13:28

Yeah, yeah. So I think that's interesting to think about too, because there's always a trade off with, like, the things we do in academia sometimes, like I recently gave up my greenhouse appointment, which is something I did for almost six years- Right yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:42

And like there's days that I don't miss being sweaty all day, but it is like it is also nice, or it was nice to be able to like walk out of my office and there's plants and like I can outside and stuff. So there's always I don't know, it's our careers, I think, as academics are interesting and they're diverse, and I think you know there are some like young academics that listen to this podcast and I think that's something that's interesting to hear and probably good to hear is that like, in some ways, you're not just like stuck in one thing, you always move into other things, different opportunities.

Speaker 2: 14:15

Yeah, exactly Exactly. And you know, like I said, I've been at Texas Tech for 18 years and I felt like I had done, seen and done pretty much everything I could have done in that role and I still enjoyed my job. But you know, it's good to be able to get to do something different. And but at the same time, like earlier this week, some students came by, like they happened to catch me in my office and they just needed a quick question answered about something. And I was kind of like wait, don't go. Wait, tell me about this. What's happening across the street? Wait, please don't go. And they're like we have to get to class. I'm like well, I don't.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Not important, how about?

Speaker 2: 14:53

you. No, please don't go. So you know it's funny when they left, I'm like you know, because sometimes people will ask do you miss it? And in general, yes, you know there are. You know, with every job there are parts that you know I don't miss grading, oh, so, yeah, yeah, so like that, that has been a nice change. But you know, I do very much miss that student interaction. I miss being around young people a lot, and so it was a delight to have them in my office for just that short five minutes. Come back, come back, that's so funny, that's so funny.

Speaker 1: 15:32

Like can we make this a standing meeting?

Speaker 2: 15:34

That's a week.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Yeah, no, and I find that and I want to move on here in just a second to talk about crisis communication, I know, with students until, like, everything was online for a while and like our whole sort of academic like. Like I like teaching students, I like talking to students and hearing their ideas and their thoughts, and that's so hard sometimes at a distance. It's not that it's impossible. We do a good job of it, I think, in our college.

Speaker 2: 16:13

But it's hard, it's a lot harder. So, yeah, yeah, I do like being in the classroom and you know, I like, you know I like their silly stories. I like telling them silly stories, I like hearing that they're doing cool things in their internships, I like hearing that they've gotten a job or that they have an interview. Yeah yeah, so yeah, it's fun. It's fun to be around young people and I am not young people anymore.

Speaker 1: 16:41

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

Speaker 2: 17:08

I know, I do, yeah, yeah and I you know, when I first started 18 years ago, I was just a few years older than them.

Speaker 1: 17:11

And now I'm not yeah no, it's, it's a weird experience, sort of like on this side of it, on this side of the lectern, so to speak. And, uh, one of my colleagues and I talk a lot about how, you know, when we work with our TAs for our class, our teaching assistants, they like we get to know them for four or five years and then they're gone and it's like, oh, like my friend moved, like it's weird.

Speaker 2: 17:34

Yes, yes, that that is one thing that I don't like about this job is that, like, yeah, they become your friends and yeah, and then they leave and they go on to do. It is so fun to watch them go on to do great things, but, yeah, but I miss my friend, yeah, and I've got lots of them that I miss a lot. So, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:55

It's an interesting thing. It's an interesting thing. Well, I want to change gears just a little bit and talk a little bit about your book, because that's such a cool thing. It just just first off like congratulations on that, that's super cool. But then I want to talk. You know, spend some time talking about the subject matter of your book and crisis communication and what that means and, like you know, I don't want you to give away all your secrets on the podcast but but like, what are tips that people can put into their communication, cause we're all communicators in some way.

Speaker 2: 18:28

Sure, yeah, yeah, yes, and so so yeah to the. The title of the book is the crisis communications guide for agriculture, food and Natural Resources, and I'll give you a link and it's also available on Amazon, so yeah, and it's broken into five units, or there's kind of five steps to crisis communications and you know it's. The first is like, first just identifying and acknowledging these are some areas that are very likely to happen to our organization, and your organization is whatever, so it can be your farm.

Speaker 2: 19:09

It can be your academic department, it can be your university, so you know what. What are those, what's the worst thing that could happen and also what's the worst likely thing that could happen. So, yeah, and there's I've got some different formulas that people can plug in, where you can look at the magnitude of something versus the likelihood of something happening.

Speaker 2: 19:35

Yeah, yeah Versus the likelihood of something happening, yeah, yeah, so you know, and the example that I use in the book is like a plane crashing into a building, which it can happen, but how likely. And like that would be one of the worst things that could happen is, yeah, a plane crashing into a building full of people Right, but how likely. Like, do we really need to have a crisis communications plan for this plane falling into our building?

Speaker 1: 19:59

Right.

Speaker 2: 19:59

Probably not Okay, but we do need to have a plan put in place for something bad happening, and so let's figure out what that likely thing is happening. So, like for the greenhouse, like having some of the pan pains shattered on the greenhouse by a hailstorm, you probably need to have a crisis communications plan for that. If you don't, I'm happy to help you.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Yeah, no, I appreciate that actually yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:26

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

Speaker 1: 20:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:29

Or just vandalism period. That could happen. So yeah, stuff is very breakable over there. Yeah, I mean it's an open space over there People can trip, fall, get hurt, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:42

So those are some things. So how, how would you communicate about that? Who's your spokesperson? Like that. That's one of those tips that I have like decide and let this person know. So, and, and also, you need to have more than one spokesperson designated, because these things have a funny way of happening when your spokesperson is on a cruise or in Germany, or you know they're just out of the country or not available.

Speaker 1: 21:08

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:10

So have some backup people designated, so those are that's another big tip that I have. Um, so, uh, so those are, that's another big tip that I have. And then also just kind of have some, some statements decided on how you're going to handle that. Um, so, yeah, so if you did have this hailstorm, that that happens, what, what would you say, like what would be your statement? Um, you know how many times do you think you might need to utilize the media? Would you need to use, like, mainstream media? Would you need to use ag media, or would you just need to send out a series of emails or just notify your students? Like which audiences would you need to target for this likely crisis?

Speaker 1: 21:53

No, and that's such an interesting way to think about that too, because I think often and I'm thinking about my own career right Like it tends to be more like reactive right. Oh no, my roof is gone right Like it hailed yesterday and I should have thought maybe the roof's gone. And then I get there and the roof's gone. It's like, oh, this is a problem, right? And I think it's so much harder to communicate clearly when you're being reactive about it right.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Right, yes, yeah, and 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 and it's like, how do I talk to the? The audience thing I think is really important, um, because sometimes, like, not all news is for everyone right, yeah, yeah you know, like I don't, I don't need the the general public knowing that a plant was knocked off of a Right, but the researcher who owns that plant needs to know.

Speaker 2: 22:50

Yes.

Speaker 1: 22:51

So that's, that's really an interesting way to think about that, yeah, and I guess, like, how much does the I don't know if this is even a good question, but it's a question that's in my head, like, how much does the way we can and we talked about audiences and all that. That's in my head, like how much does the way we can we talked about audiences and all that like does the severity of the crisis, even if it is a general thing, like how much does that? Should that impact the way we think about communicating about it?

Speaker 2: 23:15

I would think a lot right, yeah, yeah, it does, and it which everything can be somebody's crisis, you know, so it just kind of depends and you know, sometimes when you look back you're like, well, I really wouldn't classify that as a crisis, it was probably just more of an issue. Yeah, so you know, but that can be kind of hindsight, but it does a lot of. It kind of depends on the severity of it and and the audience and the size of the audience.

Speaker 2: 23:48

So sure you know, and, and you you know, depending on the crisis, um, you know, it could be something that if you didn't get it communicated well, uh, in the early phases of it, then it can become an even bigger crisis yeah, yeah, that makes sense so yeah, yeah. So I'm trying to think. Let's just say that there was a plant in the greenhouse that a lot of people are allergic to and they all, you know, you all forgot to put the signs on this poison ivy plant that you're doing research on, and a lot of the students in the lab touched it and now we have this poison ivy outbreak.

Speaker 1: 24:27

Right.

Speaker 2: 24:28

You know, just you would probably just need to do a series of emails and text messages to those students, tell them what to do and maybe contact their parents, maybe not you know, just kind of gauge the situation. But if you didn't communicate about that and you didn't tell them what to do, then it becomes a bigger problem.

Speaker 1: 24:49

Gotcha.

Speaker 2: 24:50

And then you might have local news media involved.

Speaker 1: 24:53

Yeah, yeah, that's always. Like you know, I've worked with news media quite a bit and usually when they call, I'm like, oh cool, I would love to talk to you. But there are times that it's like, oh, they're calling because there's a problem and I would rather not have this conversation today.

Speaker 2: 25:13

And that leads me to another point in crisis communications, A lot of times your communications for a crisis happens when you're not in a crisis. So building those relationships with local media is really, really important to do. And you know, here in the South Plains of Texas and just in the ag world in general, we have ag media. So having relationships with ag reporters is really really important as well, Because if you do go into crisis mode, you may need them to help you get information out.

Speaker 1: 25:45

Sure.

Speaker 2: 25:47

And that was very apparent with the fires that have been happening in the panhandle.

Speaker 2: 25:51

You know, ag media have been very and even mainstream media as well. They've been very good about getting the message out about how to donate to the fires, how to donate and what they need. So those two things, I've seen those two things happen very well and I've even seen a little bit of like here's what we don't need. So not it's been more of a here's what we do need and here's how. But you know, having those, those groups help you out is very, very important to do.

Speaker 1: 26:21

Well, yeah, and I think you bring up a really interesting point. I think that, especially in some of our agricultural communities, which often are very kind of tight knit and but it's a large community too, there's so many facets of it. I like the thought of like relationship building early, so you have that network.

Speaker 2: 26:42

Yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, and it's, and there's also just the network building. You said the magic word network, you know, having those people around you that can help you if you are in a crisis, because some of your crisis communications may not necessarily involve the media or mobilized in some way, or you may just need some buddies to come help you do something.

Speaker 1: 27:10

So yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:10

So having that group of friends, like maybe you just need somebody to come answer emails for an hour for you. You know, just somebody that you trust and yeah, yeah, that can come handle that, or somebody to go get lunch for you. Or you know just little things like that that can help you. So having that network of people that are in similar jobs to yours that can help you out is really, really important.

Speaker 1: 27:38

Well, that's you know. That brings me to another interesting thought that I don't think I would have considered until you were just kind of talking about it, that it's more than the. You know how do I put out a press release, how do I make phone calls, how do I notify people? It's who can get lunch, who can make sure that people have water and food and like those kinds of things.

Speaker 1: 28:01

Those are, I think, things that get overlooked sometimes when we think about the way we communicate. Like, do you have there was a social media video going around for a while like how many 3 am friends do you have, right? So like, if there's a crisis at 3 am, who do you like? Who could you call? And I was thinking about that. I've got a couple people I could. Probably, if they answer their phone, they'd be mad, yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:27

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

Speaker 2: 28:29

Yeah, yeah, and that's that's another thing that I kind of skipped over that part. But yeah, part of your crisis communications plan is who does what? So who, who's your social media person? And you know, in a lot of ag or just a lot of organizations, and you know in a lot of ag or just a lot of organizations period, there's one person that's the communicator. Well, if you are trying to juggle social media, mainstream media answer phone calls, answer emails, answer Facebook messages do all of these things at some point. You can't do it all, so you need some help. So, when slash, if we go into crisis mode, who manages social media? Who answers the phone? Who answers email? So who does what? And I put this in the book because I thought it was just. I was like you know, this is actually very smart. But one of our alums told us he was like we even know who's going to Sonic to get our afternoon drinks and I was like, yeah, that's brilliant. No, it is.

Speaker 1: 29:30

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:30

Cause, like when you're in that phase, like to have your large diet Coke, easy on the ice, brought to you. Um, is is really helpful and really nice, and you know that it's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 29:42

Well, and then you think absolutely, and it's like you have to think about how do people stay effective in a high stress situation I forget to eat. Like, if I'm like working and teaching all day and doing all these kinds of things like, I'll skip lunch.

Speaker 2: 29:55

Well, I don't do that. I mean, it doesn't OK it doesn't happen a lot.

Speaker 1: 30:00

Let's, we'll be very honest. It doesn't happen a lot, but there's days that, like I'll teach like up to like my class gets out at like 12, 30 and then, if I have something right after that, some days I'm like running to the next thing and like if it's really hectic some days I'm just like I have not taken care of, like my basic needs exactly and having the sonic guy yeah, yeah, to know that it's going to be provided and brought to you and set on your desk and said here eat this or drink this.

Speaker 1: 30:25

Yes.

Speaker 2: 30:25

Like you are in a very high stress situation. Yeah, make sure that you hydrate, yeah, yeah, that's really good to have that.

Speaker 1: 30:32

That is. That's really such an important thing. I'm glad you put that in the book.

Speaker 2: 30:37

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

Speaker 1: 30:38

It is yes it is, um, so you were talking about, like, who's your social media person? Um, I want to talk about social media a little bit, because this is something we discussed a little bit last time, like four years ago.

Speaker 2: 30:52

But the landscape has changed. Oh, so much.

Speaker 1: 30:54

For better and worse Right.

Speaker 2: 30:56

A lot of ways.

Speaker 1: 30:58

And I think we could all probably like go through the list of botched social media communication you know, but then some that are done really well, like how important. I don't know how to ask this question again either, because I know it's important, but like I feel like the role of social media person now is such a critical make or break role in a lot of situations Because like there's no putting that lid back on sometimes.

Speaker 2: 31:27

No, yeah, yeah. And once, once you get on social media, if you don't consistently stay on social media, if you're an organization or business, company, whatever, um, you need to consistently take care of that and manage that. And uh, yeah tend to it tend to it like a garden and uh, yeah, yeah, and when, when you're doing good things on on there, then good things will come back to you. But having that audience built is very good for for so many different things but, it's.

Speaker 2: 32:00

It's also very good in a crisis situation, because if you have a lot of followers following you, you then they know that they can go there to get information. And so yeah, so that's a good thing. That wasn't really where your question was going, but I redirected it.

Speaker 1: 32:16

No, that's a good answer to my question. I think that's the question I meant to ask.

Speaker 2: 32:21

It didn't, of course you did yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:27

So no, you're're right, having that following is important, because I do the same thing, like if there's something going on, like like the news is not going to be up to date right, but I can jump on twitter, yes, or whatever, uh, and see like, okay, has this organization posted an update, like I've.

Speaker 1: 32:44

so an example of this is I follow the Texas storm chasers on Twitter and Instagram and stuff and so like. If there's bad weather, a lot of times I'll like have the news on, but I'll pop on there to see what they're putting out, cause they put up like regular updates during severe weather.

Speaker 2: 33:00

And you don't have to wait for five, six or 10 for local news to be on. Yeah, and sometimes the you and sometimes the storms that they're covering aren't in a place that the Weather Channel would grab and host.

Speaker 2: 33:15

So yeah, those are always good ones to follow. And I want to give a shout out to the Canadian Record. It's the newspaper in Canadian Texas. They provided an excellent public service. They were posting information constantly, and a lot of the other small town newspapers were doing the same as well. I know quite a few people. We've had a lot of students from Canadian, so that was just the one that I went to and was checking from time to time just to see what was needed and things like that, and they were doing such a good job.

Speaker 2: 33:53

So you know that was. You know, historically that's a newspaper. But they were using Facebook and they may have been using other social media sites as well. But I was just looking at Facebook. But they were using a different medium so that they didn't have to wait for the paper to be printed, and but they were posting information, sometimes as soon as they heard it, so like so-and-so needs this at the Methodist church? Take, take it down there, please, or they need lunch at the Methodist church, uh, you know so, something like that.

Speaker 2: 34:21

I was like that is an excellent public service right there and a good way to use social media.

Speaker 1: 34:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:27

In a crisis.

Speaker 1: 34:28

Well, and with all the struggles that like especially the small town newspaper, small town media outlets in general are going through right now, like it's cool to hear that, yeah, they serve a huge role, they serve a huge purpose.

Speaker 2: 34:41

Yeah, yeah, so yeah, they so kudos to the Canadian record.

Speaker 1: 34:46

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:46

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

Speaker 1: 34:49

Yeah, that's very cool.

Speaker 2: 34:50

And and all of those panhandle papers. So yeah, that's. I can't think of the names of the other papers right now I'm drawing a blank. But yeah, I just remember that one.

Speaker 1: 34:56

So yeah, that's really interesting. That's good to hear too, cause, yeah, I was in Houston during not the whole fire, but you know part of it and family were asking like what's going on with that? I'm like, well, I'm not there, I don't, yeah. But yeah, some of those little outlets were like we're, you know X percent contained. This is who's, you know that's, you're right, that's really such a good service.

Speaker 1: 35:21

Well, this seems like a great time to take a quick break, so we'll go to a quick mid-roll and talk about some mid-roll things and when we come back we will talk more about crises and communication. Well, hey there, welcome to the mid-roll. I hope you're doing well and enjoying the episode so far. Tell your houseplants I said hi. Thanks so much for listening to Plantthropology. You know that I do this for you because you like to hear it. I like to hear about you hearing it so that I can hear about you hearing it. Drop me a message. You can email me at planthropologypod at gmailcom, or you can connect on the vast and various and horrifying number of social media accounts I have. I am Planthropology on Facebook, instagram, the Twitter machine and YouTube. I am also the plant prof in all of those places, as well as TikTok, and I would love it if you would follow along for all of those antics and comment and connect and all of that stuff. Also. If you have advice for the show, if you have future guests you'd like to hear or topics or anything along those lines, definitely send me an email. Again, that is planthropologypod at gmailcom. You can also check out the show and all is planthropologypod at gmailcom. You can also check out the show and all things planthropology at planthropologypodcastcom.

Speaker 1: 36:32

The best way that you can help the show grow and help the show in general is to tell a friend about it. Do you have a friend that loves plants? Do you have a friend that you feel like should love plants or love something in their lives? By God, tell them to listen to Planthropology. I think they'll enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 36:46

If you also want to support the show in different ways, you can leave me a rating and review. Wherever it is that you can leave a rating and reviews, I'm in the market for a five-star review right now. So if you know of a good one, let me know. Also, if you want to financially support the show, you can go again to planthropologypodcastcom and click on merch and buy some merch, or you can go to buymeacoffeecom slash planthropology and for the price of a cup of coffee, you can buy me a cup of coffee or hosting for the show or whatever, but probably caffeine and coffee.

Speaker 1: 37:18

This show is run on good coffee. Anyway, thanks to the Texas Tech Department of Plant and Soil Science and the Davis College of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources for letting me do the show, thanks for the PodFix Network for letting me be a part of it and, once more, my friends, thanks to you, the listener, for doing the thing that listeners do and listening to the show. Tell a friend, leave me a rating and review, connect on social media and get ready for the second half of the episode. Okay, bye. Now I want to take a little bit of a step back and I'm curious what sort of and I think you've answered some of this but like, what made you want to write this book? Like what was your, like, driving force behind it? Because it's a lot of work, yeah, and you know, I know how long that process is and all that goes into it, and it's not something I think any of us undertake lightly. So what made you want to do?

Speaker 2: 38:13

that it was one of those things that I had done several research projects about risk and crisis communications and I just kind of felt like I had enough information to pull it together and it was one of those things. We were in Barnes and Noble one day and my mom was like have you ever thought about writing a book? And I'm like I should. She's like, well, what would you write it on? I'm like risk and crisis communications. She's like okay, well then, you should do that, okay, so, yeah, so then I applied for a faculty development leave, also known as a sabbatical.

Speaker 1: 38:53

Okay.

Speaker 2: 38:54

And so I did that in the fall of 21. Okay, and so that's when I did the big heavy lifting on it. And then Texas Tech has a program, the faculty writing program, and you get together for three hours a week and you're just supposed to write. You're not supposed to check emails. You're not supposed to either write or be reading for something that you're writing.

Speaker 2: 39:20

And it can be a grant, it can be a book, it can be a journal article but you're just supposed to write and so in three hour increments at a time at a time, I got the book finished, wow, yeah, yeah. So it went to. Oh, it was right about this time last summer or last spring, so probably last April was when I had fully decided on the press that I was using. So it's a publisher out of Detroit, they're called Xanadu X-A-N-E-D-U. I just they were just nice and I just liked them and they also they specialized in not huge runs of books.

Speaker 2: 40:03

I mean this is a niche within a niche.

Speaker 1: 40:06

Risk and crisis in agriculture.

Speaker 2: 40:08

So I knew I wasn't going to have just a huge audience clamoring to buy my book.

Speaker 2: 40:12

So, um, and another thing that like there wasn't a book for risk and crisis in ag, I mean there's plenty of risk and crisis books out there, tons of them, but nothing that specialized in the in the ag world and uh, so that that was another factor, like the. You know the book for my class was fine. You know the guy that wrote it, he was great and I'd used that book for a long time and Dr Dorfurt taught me he used the same author's book. But I'm like, yeah, if we can, I feel like I can do something that's a little more specialized for the ag industry and so, yeah, so moved forward with that. It's cool. Now it's printed, yeah, and that's so exciting. Yeah, it is exciting.

Speaker 1: 40:53

And that's such a good feeling.

Speaker 2: 40:54

Oh it is, it is yeah To get that box of books.

Speaker 1: 40:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:57

Yeah, Scott took my picture.

Speaker 1: 40:59

My husband took my picture when I opened the box.

Speaker 2: 41:01

There's sheer joy on my face, so it's a cute picture.

Speaker 1: 41:04

That's awesome, the culmination of so much work and so many hours and the research and the reading and the thinking about it constantly.

Speaker 2: 41:15

Yeah, there were days, or not days, but full mornings that I typed nothing, I just had to think. I just needed to think so yeah, you might pick up a pen and then do nothing. Doodle for a while.

Speaker 1: 41:29

No, I'm writing yeah, yeah. I'm thinking, I've been actively trying to talk myself out of writing a textbook, um, and I think I've mostly gotten myself there where I'm like I don't need to do this but you should write one see, because I'm in the space where I'm teaching a new class in the fall and I was looking at textbooks and I was like there's a couple, it's not, they're not specific enough. I don't know, maybe eventually we'll see, we'll see. I'll stick to kids, children's books for a while. Those are.

Speaker 2: 41:58

Those are fun. Those are more fun. They are fun. Yeah, yeah, and they're very good.

Speaker 1: 42:03

So that's, that's really interesting and I think I kind of like the story of just you know you should write a book, Okay, Okay.

Speaker 2: 42:13

Cool, I need to make sure that I take this snippet and play it to my mom, Cause you know there's it's not very often that you know, especially when you know she was parenting me as a teenager and she suggested something to me, it was usually met with no, yeah, yeah, Okay.

Speaker 1: 42:28

Yeah, okay, I think I will.

Speaker 2: 42:30

That's funny.

Speaker 1: 42:38

So I guess, as we sort of start to wind down a little bit, I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are going forward, as far as both you know, in terms of the crisis communication piece and the class you teach, but also just in your role now. Like, what do you think the future holds? Do you see let me break this down into a couple of smaller questions, because that's a big question In this world of, like crisis communication do you think that the sort of the things that we've done and the ways we've done it like hold up, just maybe move to different platforms? Or do we, like, going forward in the future, have to think about, like as the landscape evolves, how we communicate about stuff? Or do the tried and true like principles for communication just can we apply those to different like places fairly easily?

Speaker 2: 43:26

Yeah, yes, okay Great.

Speaker 1: 43:30

And let me clarify that Sure.

Speaker 2: 43:31

Yes, okay, great, and let me clarify that. So, in communication period, crisis communications, everyday communications, it doesn't matter. If you are truthful, if you are transparent, if you're doing your best, if you are trying to get the information out with the best of intentions, you're, you're halfway there. You're more than halfway there you know and let me reiterate again just tell the truth you know, just tell the truth and don't don't try to cover anything up.

Speaker 2: 44:05

And there are some situations where, um, there may be some proprietary information, especially, like you know, you're working in a research greenhouse. There are some things that you cannot tell people Like it's proprietary, it is research, it's patentable, you can't talk about that. So there are some things that and you just need to disclose that that's proprietary information and I can't talk about that. But let me tell you what I can talk about. I will tell you as much as I can tell you. That doesn't change that?

Speaker 2: 44:37

doesn't change if you're writing in a newspaper, if you're writing a letter or if you're putting it out on TikTok or wherever you're going. Just tell the truth, be as transparent as you can be and do so with the intention of I am trying to help people get the information that they need in this moment. As long as you're doing that, you again you're more than halfway there. So those core principles hold up and you know, going back to what we have stood on in ag communications for years, good writing like. There's no substitute for good writing.

Speaker 2: 45:10

Sometimes, in a crisis, you're just doing the best you can to crank out the information Um and sometimes your writing is not your best, um, but just do your best and, uh, you know, just do your best and tell the truth and, um, you know, and try to write as as, as best you can. Um, so, so that's. Those are really those core principles. Um, as the world has evolved and everything, there's more demands to get more information out. So 20 years ago we could wait until 5 o'clock and get our statement out at 5, 6, or 10 when the news was going on the air and we had a little bit of time to get stuff together.

Speaker 2: 45:52

Now our audience is looking to see did we put anything out on Facebook, instagram, twitter or and the others, but also so is the news. Like the news is looking to see have they put anything out on on on Instagram right now? Like what? What's the statement? So, like you, you do have to work a little bit faster to get stuff put out there and the audience will give you a little bit of of grace. You know just to to put stuff out there, but but you do need to act quickly, but you don't want to act reactively. So you know you, you recognize that you're in a crisis.

Speaker 2: 46:33

Give yourself a moment to gather as much information as you can and and craft your statement and decide how it is you're going to move forward and also decide who's our audience in this and how are we going to communicate with them.

Speaker 1: 46:47

So that's, yeah, no, that's great advice. I think back to uh so when I first started in extension, which feels like a very long time ago.

Speaker 1: 46:58

Uh, 2014, no yeah, I don't whatever, whatever it was you know, at one of our trainings we did sort of that and I until I it's interesting I hadn't thought about this in a long time, till I kind of hear you talking about taking a moment to collect your thoughts they had us do this exercise where they put us in like groups of three or four and they had a bunch of journalism students from A&M that were in this room like a press corps, right, yeah, yeah. And they gave us a little slip of paper with a prompt and they said you have 10 minutes to put together a statement.

Speaker 2: 47:30

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

Speaker 1: 47:32

Okay crap, yeah, yeah. And they sent us out in the hall and they called us in like one at a time, like to do a press conference over this thing. So mine was like I was, it was like the clean water act or something and it was. It was they were random, like they were just random things and so we had to do like basic research and all of that and and then like students fired questions at us. This was like a class thing for them but a training thing. It is shocking what, like, some people will say and do when they're put on the spot, like some of the things that came out of some of these new agents mouths. I was like you can't, you can't say that, don't say that. But but no, I think that what you were just talking about of one being prepared, as prepared as possible- as prepared as you can be.

Speaker 1: 48:16

But then also just like operating in good faith.

Speaker 2: 48:19

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 48:20

Because there's so many people that don't do that right now, right right, it's kind of refreshing.

Speaker 2: 48:24

Yeah, yeah, and you know, just like you said. So you know you're handed information and, okay, now you have to do a press conference. So, okay, I'm sorry I don't know the answer to that question. Let me get that information for you. But so many times when we're put on the spot, we feel the need to provide an answer and it's okay to say that you don't know. It is better to say you don't know, and I will get that information to you, than to say something incorrect in in your moment where you're put on the spot and yeah so. So yeah, it is, it's okay to say it's better to say I don't know, let me get that information for you than to to be incorrect and then just have that out there forever yeah, and to have it out there forever.

Speaker 2: 49:08

Yes, yeah, there. Yeah, there's Scott Pelley, who is a reporter for 60 Minutes. He used to be the anchor of the CBS.

Speaker 1: 49:14

Evening.

Speaker 2: 49:14

News and a Texas Tech alum, oh cool. Yeah, and Lubbock native. He wrote a book several years ago and I'm not going to have the quote exactly right, but he has a quote in his book and I use it in one of my slideshows. People will never remember that you were first, but they will always remember that you were wrong.

Speaker 2: 49:38

So that's scary, I know I know so, and he was saying this to like. He has a chapter called to a young journalist yeah and so you know he's, you know, kind of teaching young reporters. Like you know, just remember, it's better to not be first on the air or first online with information. It's better to check your information and make sure you, you be sure that you're right yeah and, and then post it yeah, and I'm like that is excellent advice, mr pelly it is, and that's a scary sentence because I'm thinking.

Speaker 1: 50:11

I'm thinking about, like, the implications of that Right, you want to be first on the scene, but if you're not, if you're wrong, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 50:18

And he goes on to tell some stories about how he checked his information and other networks were on the air saying that you know this was happening and he was like you know. I don't have a source to confirm this and you know, I don't have a source to confirm this.

Speaker 2: 50:30

And you know he was getting yelled at in his earpiece and he's like you know, nobody's confirming this for me and I'm not comfortable going on the air with this and he didn't and his producers were yelling at him. He was like you can yell, but I'm not saying this. So, yeah, good for you. Fascinating. Yeah, it is Fascinating it.

Speaker 1: 50:46

Yeah, one more question I had and this kind of is going back to an earlier conversation and talking about, like you know, your work in outreach and communications, and you made an interesting point, a good point, earlier that, like not everyone does outreach, not everyone does engagement Not everyone does, or, you know, we do it in different facets. I think that's maybe not in everyone's skill set or just desire, because it's a lot. I'm this goofy guy that puts my face on the Internet all the time because I like doing it but, like, that is certainly not for everyone.

Speaker 1: 51:18

For, say, faculty members or people in academia that want to tell better stories about their research, that want to get that out there but don't know how, like what resources are available out there for those of us that are like you know, I would love to tell people about this cool project I did, but I don't know where to start.

Speaker 2: 51:40

Yeah, yeah. So if you're at Texas Tech, call me. Yeah, I would love, and that's part of my job. So yeah, I would. That's I love doing that. I love helping faculty find ways to get their research out into the community, to find different groups to partner with, to broaden our scope and to broaden the scope of the students in their classroom. So so that's one resource, but Texas Tech's Office of Outreach and Engagement has a lot of information on their website that can help spark ideas. Outreach and Engagement has a lot of information on their website that can help spark ideas. There's several other universities out there that have lots of great information on outreach and engagement. Michigan State University has a really good website that I would point somebody to that offers some really good ideas for outreach and engagement. And there's another national group, the Engaged Scholarship Consortium, and they have some really good ideas. They have a conference. I'll go to that one in October.

Speaker 1: 52:36

Oh cool.

Speaker 2: 52:37

Yeah, yeah. So that's another good resource that's out there that can help provide some ideas. And then another thing, like one thing that I would recommend is just go back to that thing that first sparked your interest into what it is that you're doing. Was it a project that you did for a science fair? Was it something you did in 4-H or FFA, or was it just a guest speaker that came to your classroom? What was that thing? And then try to help kids or other adults find that thing or maybe it was a speaker in one of your college classrooms and try to emulate that and see if you can help spark that interest and spread the word about your research in that way as well.

Speaker 1: 53:24

That's awesome advice. Yeah, I love the. Remember why you're excited about it. Yeah, because we lose that sometimes.

Speaker 2: 53:33

Yeah, we do.

Speaker 1: 53:33

We do, I don't know, in the mess of all the stuff we have to do, like I love that, because there's days that I just need to go play with plants for a while and need to get my hands dirty and work with the undergrads at the greenhouse and stuff and that's yeah. I really like that advice.

Speaker 2: 53:51

Plant therapy is good for everybody. Yeah, yeah yeah, I highly recommend that one too, yeah.

Speaker 1: 53:58

Absolutely so. One last question I have for you. This doesn't have to be just since you're in your new role, but just, you know, throughout your career do you have like and I'm putting you on the spot a little bit maybe Do you have a favorite outreach activity you've gotten to do? Is there a program you did, or a seminar you gave, or something? What do you think your favorite outreach or engagement thing has been? And I didn't warn you about this, so sorry.

Speaker 2: 54:26

Well, okay, so the book has been my proudest.

Speaker 1: 54:30

Okay, yeah, sure so.

Speaker 2: 54:31

I'm proudest of that. But something that has been really fun for me to do here lately is it's a project that I've been working on with a friend of mine from church. He works in sales at Channel 11, kcbd, the NBC station here in Lubbock, and it's a segment that he came up with. It's called Champions in Agriculture and we feature kids in 4-H or FFA and the projects that they're doing. So I'm kind of the host of it. That's awesome. So I interview these kids that are either working on a livestock project, a welding project, an agri-science fair project, and we get to talk about what they're doing in 4-H or FFA, and so this really hits on all the things that make me happy. So you know I was a 4-H-er, my kid's a 4-H-er, I'm a 4-H-er leader.

Speaker 2: 55:23

I get to do my broadcast thing because I used to be a reporter and also we get to, you know, promote area youth involved in agricultural programs. So that has been really fun for me to do and I think people are seeing it because people will tell me that they've seen it on TV. Nobody has recognized me randomly yet. But yeah, it's been really fun and it's good to bring more positive attention to these good kids. Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, and those are good stories to tell, yeah.

Speaker 1: 55:52

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

Speaker 2: 55:54

Yeah, that's so cool, yeah, and those are good stories to tell. Yeah, yeah, yes, and they're such good kids and they deserve to be featured.

Speaker 1: 56:00

Very cool, yeah, very cool. Well, erica, I appreciate your time and you coming in to talk to me, yeah, and I'm excited to have you in the position you're in. I think you bring a lot to that and a lot of I don't know energy and enthusiasm and just experience to it that we need, I think, as a college. So it is I'm happy to have you in that role.

Speaker 2: 56:21

for sure I'm happy to be here and looking forward to all the things we get to do.

Speaker 1: 56:28

Yeah, yeah, very cool, thank you. Where can people find you real quick as we? If you want to be found, you don't have to want to be found.

Speaker 2: 56:34

The easiest way to catch me is through email, Erika E-R-I-C-A dot I-R-L-B-E-C-K at T-T-U dot E-D-U. Or you could just look up the Davis College Dean's Office and I'm listed on the personnel page there. Email is the easiest way to catch me. I'm sometimes slow to answer, but I will answer.

Speaker 1: 56:53

Awesome, yeah, awesome. Well, very good, thank you so much Thank you.

Speaker 1: 56:57

And for those of you out there listening, plan your next crisis communication and we'll talk to you later. Y'all, if you ever find yourself in a crisis, whether it is agricultural or otherwise, I hope you'll remember some of the stuff that Erica talked about today, because I think, just in terms of thinking through things, having a plan and just communicating, clearly, there's no one better that you could learn from than her. Thanks again, so much for coming and talking to me, erica. It was a blast and I always enjoy getting to spend some time with you. Thanks to you, the listener, once more for being a part of it. Thanks to the Davis College and the Department of Plant and Soil Science here at Texas Tech University. Thank you to the PodFix Network for letting me be a part of it. There's great shows, great content, and you should definitely go check out PodFix. You know I love you. You know that I enjoy doing this for you. I hope you're still enjoying it and I hope that you'll tell me if there's other things that I can be doing to make this show better.

Speaker 1: 57:52

Planthropology is written, hosted, produced all those other fun things by me, vikram Baliga. Our music is by the wonderful, award-winning composer, nicholas Scout, and we are supported by you, the listener, and by Texas Tech University. Keep being kind to one another. If you have not, to this date, date been kind to the people around you. Maybe give it a shot. It's a good way to be Keep learning, keep being safe and keep being a really cool plant. Thank you.