From Barriers to Bridges with Mary Ellen Miller

In this episode, Karen and Michelle welcome Mary Ellen “Mel” Miller, APR, MBA. Mel is the founder and CEO of MarketingMel, a solo PR firm that strengthens relationships between organizations and the publics they serve. Mel draws on the breadth of her lifelong career as a professional communicator in her new book, “Fill the Dam Thing Up! Building Connections: Communicating throughout the Lifecycle of Infrastructure Projects.” It’s a discussion you won’t want to miss.

 

Buy the Book:

“Fill the Dam Thing Up! Building Connections: Communicating throughout the Lifecycle of Infrastructure Projects” is available on Amazon.

 

Connect with Mel:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketingmel/

@MarketingMel

 

Transcript

 

Michelle Kane (00:03):

Thank you for joining us for an episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane with VoiceMatters and our fearless leader over at Solo PR Pro, Karen Swim, and we are thrilled to welcome a guest today. Today we are joined by Mary Ellen, or as she likes to be called, Mel, Miller. Mel holds a special place in our hearts because she is an original Solo PR plankholder. Mel is an accredited public relations professional and the founder and CEO of Marketing Mel, a solo PR firm that strengthens relationships between organizations and the publics they serve. She and I are also fellow Rotarians, so shout out to the Rotarians out there. Mel draws on the breadth of her lifelong career as a professional communicator in her new book, soon to be a bestseller we called it now. That is called “Fill the Dam Thing Up! Building Connections: Communicating throughout the Lifecycle of Infrastructure Projects.” Welcome, Mel. Thank you for joining us today.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (01:12):

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Karen Swim, APR (01:15):

Yeah, we're so excited to talk to you and love the title of the book and I won't spoil it, but readers you are going to love it from the introduction and you'll love the little story behind the book title and just in reading the note about how the title came about, it just was such a feeling of comradery and just good. And the book is packed, packed with lots of good insights and information. So good you're here to talk about it.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (01:52):

Thank you. Thank you. Karen,

Michelle Kane (01:55):

What brought about you to write this book?

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (01:59):

Well, I realized that it was a really unique project in that it was just a 25 minute drive from my home here in northeast Tennessee, but yet it evolved experts from across the world coming in here to keep a dam safe and to keep people downstream safe because ultimately that's what this project was all about, was safety of the downstream public. What the issue was in a nutshell was what's called internal erosion, which is the number two cause of dam failure in the world, and a muddy seep was discovered at the base of the dam in October of 2014, and also a sinkhole was discovered in the parking lot adjacent to that. And the experts quickly realized that the lake on the opposite side, which was really the majority of people I dealt with very well-to-do lake homeowners, who naturally were rather upset when their lake had to be drawn down approximately an additional 10 feet below the winter pool level.

(03:00):

So it became a rather low lake then for the duration of the project, but we always had the support of top management. The CEO came in and said, this project's going to be done, it's going to be done safely and right, it's going to take five to seven years. Of course, the people were very upset to hear it would take that long of a timeline, but there was a tremendous amount of community outreach as you can imagine. That's really what this book is about and it really does appeal directly to your audience folks like us. I was brought in as a contractor on the project, so I full-time had the experience in the community and in broadcasting and in pr, all those kinds of things that helped with the outreach. And I would say if I was to sum it up in just two words, it was relationship building.

(03:45):

As I mentioned in the book, you start out with people, the presidents of the local lake associations with their arms crossed in front of you, just nod at all thrilled that you're there to actually help them clean up the lake on their annual cleanup lake and bringing crews and really showing them that we're here to support showing them that we're here to support. In terms of charity outreach, that was huge. We had a committee of workers on the project. There were about 200 workers on the project, 24 hours a day for several years actually, and they voted to support both the local food bank and also Marine Corps choice for Tots. So every holiday season we were there and we were the largest givers in the whole region While we were there, we knew it was very uncomfortable for the people. We were causing them major discomfort in that the lake had gone down significantly.

(04:38):

But the flip side of that was we wanted to do all we could in the community and in terms of community outreach to help folks while we were here. So it was a fascinating story and the international aspect, to answer your question, Karen and Michelle, it's not every day that you're in northeast Tennessee and you're hearing accents from Britain and France and Italy and Australia. It was just so fun to, and we all came around together at the conference room table every single morning. All the leaders were together and making the plans for the day. So

Karen Swim, APR (05:13):

There was a phrase early on, and you used this in the book that jumped out at me and it's “angry neighbors” and this, when you interrupt people's idea of comfort, there's anger. But when I read it, I realized that this is not limited to infrastructure projects today. We really are surrounded by angry neighbors. There's such anger and a lack of patience in our culture. So talk about how you dealt with that and what lessons you drew upon to deal with a constituency that you needed and you wanted them to become advocates and somebody that you actually needed to communicate with that you started out from a platform of them being just angry

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (06:04):

And understandably so justifiably so if you had paid the kind of money they had to have, the lovely homes they have up there, I certainly get how they felt that they didn't want their lake to go down. They still had some water and they still had, we made sure they had access to the water, but it was quite different from the way they were used to. And I think it was twofold. One was the relationship building that I mentioned by showing up month after month in the Lake Association meetings, they started to realize I was for real. I wasn't just flying in and flying out and I lived here to add to that. So I was really here to help them and listen to them. And through that listening, that active listening, that really amounted to environmental scanning. And that's where I picked up on the issue of vegetation management.

(06:49):

As a lake comes down, vegetation comes up if you think about it. And so that was the next thing that they were very concerned about and we were able to address that head on. We enabled crews, we brought crews into mulch and helped to eliminate where the neighbors wanted. It eliminated, as I mentioned in the book, there was actually one fishermen who didn't want his yard cut. He wanted it safe for future fish habitat. So we did what they wanted and what they asked. That was one. The second thing that I think is really important is to engage the people who start out so adversarial. And the one example that I used, I call 'em the three amigos in the book, and the fun thing is that they actually came around in the end and we were very helpful to one another, but in the beginning they started out adversarial and what we did was give them a job, so to speak, and by that I mean a volunteer role in that very vegetation management role that I just mentioned.

(07:48):

They were the ones that knew the neighbors, they lived there. So they went out ahead of our crews and talked to the neighbors and helped us with the knocking on doors and said, “Hey, these crews are going to be coming through on boats in the coves. Is that okay?” They'll be coming through on Monday or whatever. And that helped tremendously. It might sound funny to say give 'em a job, but it really worked. And another tip for a PR pro would be frequently asked questions. So often you start to hear the same thing over and over or in a case like that, because they were noisy, the amigos might've thought that they would have special insights into the project. What you do instead in our project manager was really clear on this and it was a great point. You don't give them special insights. You take their questions and you put them out on the website as FAQs and then everybody gets those answers at once. No one gets special treatment.

Karen Swim, APR (08:39):

I love that.

Michelle Kane (08:40):

I love that. And it's so true. Those that are most invested usually are the squeakiest wheels. So why not have them join the team and become invested in the outcomes? That's phenomenal.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (08:55):

Well, thank you. It worked out terrific. We actually started having meetings with him every two weeks and it was funny to watch a turnaround like that and it was definitely, I always said this project was turning around an aircraft carrier. You weren't turning on a dime. This was a seven year project, so it took a while, but it worked.

Michelle Kane (09:13):

Wow. Certainly a huge aspect of the relationship building for sure. How has this differed from other projects you have worked on?

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (09:22):

Well, I think the size and scope was what was just so huge. And you asked why I wrote the book. I guess that that's another aspect that I realized just how big it was. And also I realized that infrastructure is a major issue in this country. As I was starting to write the book, that bus, many of you remember, it actually was dangling off a bridge in Pittsburgh. You're from Pennsylvania, Michelle, you remember that? I do. And it was like, oh my gosh, this timing of the situation of our infrastructure in our country. Thankfully no one was killed there, but it showed you that we are going to have other major, major projects in this country that are going to need the same kind of outreach. And that's why I wrote the book as well,

Karen Swim, APR (10:03):

Which is a great point. And you're right, that is a significant issue that I think many of us are aware of, myself included. I think about that, I talk about that, but I never thought about the opportunity for PR pros. And so it's good that you brought up that point that our help will be needed and that there will be lots of these projects in the future. So as we're all looking to future-proof our careers and we're thinking about how we're integrating AI and some of the technological advances, that's a good point. And you brought that up in the book about environmental scanning and be aware of what's around you and start to look at those things and proactively address them in a way of offering your help. That's a great tip.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (10:54):

And it's funny that you say that because when I first heard about the project, another APR who became my boss, I just think the world of her, she's the one that encouraged me to get the APR actually, she put out a notice to our local public relations society that she was looking for a person that basically it was an exact fit of my job description, could work with the community, be comfortable on camera, whatever, all that kind of stuff, and be a PR pro. And so I had two college students with me that day. I told you I'd like to surround myself with sharp young people. And we were coming back from the meeting and I said, man, what a great opportunity. And I think that's the way we see it, but so many people see it the opposite. And so I tell in the book about how I am sitting at the dentist and my mouth is open and he is like, “You're going to do what?!” - that other professional people that I think have very stressful jobs are thinking that I'm nuts to take on a job like this with community outreach with a bunch of already angry neighbors.

(11:50):

But I thought it was a fun challenge, as you mentioned. And I think that's the way solo PRs fly. We take on the challenges and we're ready to do it. And the other thing that was really big in the book to me was to realize it's a long game. You really have to have resilience and you have to be willing to just keep chugging along and plugging along. And I actually had this vision towards the end of the project after so many years of seeing massive drills on top of the dam and huge construction equipment up there to, I put this picture from July of 2014 as my screensaver, and it was kids frolicking at the beach because there's an actual beach area there at the base of the dam where the public loves to swim, but it had to be closed throughout the project.

(12:39):

And I just kept looking at that picture from, let's see, I posted it in the fall of 21 and the project officially, we had our celebration in ribbon cutting, May 25th, 2022. So I was staring at it for that long and I just kept seeing that as the long game, we are going to get to this again. And I share in the book on that final day, first we had the ribbon cutting with all the stakeholders and it was great, beautiful day in May. And then we had the public come in and we had our subject matter experts all available to talk to the public. And that was really fun. And the partners in the community, including the three Amigos, the local fishing groups, various groups like that, and I was sitting on, I was waiting for my family. They were coming in because they wanted to see it of course. And this family comes up to me and they said, is it okay? They were very timid, can we go swimming? And I said, sure, absolutely. And it was like there they, they jumped in the water and I snapped pictures and I was like, there it is. That's the vision. So I think we have to cast a vision as solo PR pros that there's something good to come in the long run, even though there may be challenges and hills along the way.

Karen Swim, APR (13:49):

And I'm glad that you said that because I was going to ask with a seven year project, and that's different from a lot of our assignments. While we may have clients that long, there are a series of projects along the way. It's not one long assignment. So I know that along the way there was probably moments where it seemed like there was not a lot of activity sometimes where it was more challenging. How did you keep yourself fueled and refreshed during this very long project?

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (14:22):

Very long project? That is a great question because it was hard, and I really appreciate the things you do when you talk about the challenges we have with the difficulties of what we do. We're dealing with crises a lot. But I did things like honestly taking my lunch break at the picnic table and being outside and going for a little walk at lunchtime, that sounds really simple, but I think you just have to give yourself that little mental break in the day. That was a big one. I made sure that I was up, see, I was actually physically removed from the main project group. I would go up there every morning and meet with the main project group, but I was in an area where the public could get to me and I could get to the public. And I had two armed guards with me because speaking of stress, someone had threatened to blow up the dam just before I arrived, but this is what we deal with.

(15:17):

So we had to have armed guards protect the site itself. And then indirectly me, because I was in the same trailer with them, it was a very large trailer that we had maps and cartoon type drawings of the project itself. We had a model dam that was very useful in teaching the public and in teaching school groups as well that we showcased there. And then as I mentioned, so much community outreach. There was an eagle's nest that we supported and it was like a live eagle. People love those things. They turn their computer on and they watch 'em for hours. And so we supported that with the local power company at the time. And we got, I remember having a picture of the eagle out there. He had, or she, well, both they're paired, had nested on private property right along the lake. So that was a fun thing to do. But in terms of those kind of mental breaks that you take like a walk or making sure you're around a lot of people when you get the opportunity to, I didn't even usually take regular lunch breaks, but occasionally I would with a couple of friends. And that was a big treat for me just to get out and talk to people about something different.

Michelle Kane (16:24):

I think that's a really good point.

Karen Swim, APR (16:25):

It's so simple things that we take for granted that we do need and we have to build those in. And I know for many PR pros like you, I normally don't take lunch, but the days that I get out of the office and go meet somebody for lunch, it is, it's different and it refreshes you and you feel so energized after that.

Michelle Kane (16:47):

So true. Especially in such a long slog like that, it's important to remember that part of what we do is to keep ourselves replenished. It's not irresponsible to step away for 15, even 15 minutes or oh, goodness,  an hour.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (17:03):

Right? That's a big treat for us. But sometimes you need it.

Michelle Kane (17:07):

Yeah, definitely

Karen Swim, APR (17:09):

You talked a little bit about planning and for those of us who have gone through the accreditation process, we are well familiar with RPI, but you talked about 10 step plan, share with us how that plan worked for you, because I sometimes feel like everybody doesn't get it like a plan. You've got to have a plan, and we may be speaking with people that are outside of the PR profession that listen. So talk about that a little bit and talk about the process you used.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (17:45):

Oh, well, I'm really glad you mentioned that. The planning. Planning. There's a quote that I used from General Eisenhower in the book, and of course I'm not finding it this very second because I'm looking for it, but it's basically that once you get into battle, basically for him you have to have the plan, but then it's kind of like the plan may go by the wayside, but you had that initial plan. I'm paraphrasing him greatly here, but it's so important. And he's exactly right. So you have that initial plan. I had an overarching communications plan that I would update annually and give to the project manager and then kind of subsets of that as various projects within that communications plan would come up throughout the year. I use Fern bon's 10 step PR plan. There's actually a link to that URL in the book because I use that plan all the time, Karen.

(18:37):

And we learned about that in our APR process. But it's just some basic steps to follow and how you start with your strategies and objectives, what your first goals are, and then you drill down more into your tactical work of how you're going to execute that PR plan. So yes, that's important. And then the other thing, this is really simple, it's just a basic spreadsheet, but every week or then I think it went to every other week when I would meet with the managers, and that's another really important thing, be sure you get a seat at the table with the top management. That's very important for the PR pro. But when I would meet with them, I would give them that updated spreadsheet on what's going on in the community to date, what we've just finished this week or last week and what we have coming up. So that was a really good way to keep track and it's so basic, just a little Excel spreadsheet and where you are.

Karen Swim, APR (19:29):

So true. I love it. So true. And I love, we do have to, I always say that you hold everything with an open hand, so you plan, but you realize, and you talked about this, you talked about the project leaders that you started with were not the project leaders that you finished with. And it's a good point because we see that a lot with just in our day-to-day client engagements where leadership changes or there's staffing changes. And so you may start out with a CEO, but that CEO may not go the journey with you. So how did you manage those transitions on top of this massive project? Talk a little bit about the strategies that you used to keep things moving and to keep the momentum and then having to develop new relationships along the way because things were changing and your team sometimes changed.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (20:20):

Well, the team was fantastic, and the reason they changed was they were so good. They got promoted into other positions. They were really on a showcase project. And so when they did so well there, they got promoted up, most of them. Well, the project manager lasted through most of it, and then he got promoted onto a much bigger project towards maybe the last year or six months. So he and I worked very closely together. And then I just adapted the new project manager who came in. She was awesome. She was kind of his handpick. She did not like to go out into public events as much as he did. He was really great with the public speaking events. She liked to be a little bit more behind the scenes. But then we accommodated that with actually a project moves in phases. I cover that in the book as well. And so the project technical director actually ended up really stepping up at that point. And actually his group was called the Asset Owner at that point because they were under the DAM safety heading. And he was terrific at going out and doing those public things. So they filled in the gap. Well, and I guess I was just so fortunate to work with such fantastic professionals that it was a pretty smooth transition when it came to working with different leadership. They made it easy.

Michelle Kane (21:35):

That's so important as well. And even what you touched on is having that seat at the table. I don't know that our equal professionals out there that we often work with realize how important that is. I always say I don't have to know everything, but I have to know everything.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (21:55):

That is well said. And the vegetation management I mentioned is a great example. And I've recently started some public speaking at Rotary Clubs. Michelle and a couple of engineers trailed me out of one because they wanted to buy my book. It was really sweet. And I'd already ran out of books. That was really fun. I'd sold three and I had two more in the car. So they followed me out and they said, you know what? We would've been thinking about the caisson, but you saw the vegetation management. And I said, well, that's where I operate at 30,000 feet. But all three of us do here. And our listeners as well, we're paid to operate at 30,000 feet. They're paid to worry about the caisson because that's really important.

(22:37):

And by the way, that was the solution. They built an underground cutoff wall that was kind of the showpiece of what they called the composite seepage barrier. So it was literally a barrier built within the earth and embankment that cut off pretty easy to explain, cut off the seepage. And then they also had some berms they built around it and they did some drilling and grouting as well. So it was kind of a three phased effort to repair the dam. And they did, and they did it safely. And that's the good news on time and under budget,

Karen Swim, APR (23:13):

That's music to everyone's ears, isn't it? Seriously able to achieve that. We could talk to you about any of these topics that you cover in the book for an entire hour, but as we near the end of our time, I want to personally make sure that people know where to get this great book because there, it's fun. It's a fun read and you write with such warmth and it's so relatable. I've never worked on infrastructure projects like this, but I completely relate it to the way that you laid out the story in the book. And it's a good read. And I do believe that this will become a bestseller. And I believe that there's probably more books in you, Mel Miller, so talk where they can pick up this book.

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (23:59):

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate your support, both of you. I appreciate you having me on this podcast. They can pick up the book on Amazon right now, just Google it, “Fill the Dam Thing Up.” The book will show up right away. And then I've just caught the book on audio, and Isaac, the sound engineer is sitting right here and he is editing away. So it will show up on Audible in the very near future. And then I ultimately plan to do an e-book as well. But you learn on this author journey, and one of the things I've learned is there's some different formatting you have to do for e-book. So I'll come back with that, but I plan to have it on all three channels available to people that like to read in different formats.

Michelle Kane (24:37):

Fantastic, fantastic. So we thank you so much. And where else can we find you online? LinkedIn, I assume, or

Mary Ellen "Mel" Miller, APR (24:45):

Oh yes. I love LinkedIn and I think that's the perfect social media platform for what I do because it's not just the PR pros, but it's also the project managers who work with the PR pros who are out on LinkedIn. So that's a great one. I'm Marketing Mel everywhere, “Marketing” and then M-e-l, so my nickname as was mentioned earlier. So just feel free to connect with me. Twitter, you name it, I'm out there. So look forward to connecting.

Michelle Kane (25:10):

We are so grateful that you took your time to spend with us today, and we hope everyone out there pre-orders the book and please do hook up with Mel on LinkedIn, make sure you follow her successes with this wonderful book that we can all learn so much from. That's what I love about this profession. We learn from each other and we thank you for listening today to our audience. If you enjoyed this episode, we invite you to share it around and I mean what's not to enjoy with this episode. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.