public relations

The Power of the Story

MOSES conference 2017

Last weekend we did a getaway to the MOSES Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse. I had done some design work for them earlier this year and was anxious to really be part of this great event. It was so much fun! Think hobnobbing with 3,500+ farmers, academics and friends; learning lots from any of the 65 workshops, 23 roundtables and two keynote speakers; and networking with two floors of ag-related business owners. And, oh, the food…it was deliciously diviiiiine.

My husband and I are not organic farmers by trade (we are at heart!). Even so, at the MOSES conference we felt inspired, wiser and excited about the many people who do make their living providing the world with good food. As a marketing professional, I couldn’t help notice a dominant lesson repeated throughout the weekend—the power of the story.

Stories Create Connection

There were two keynote speakers—Mas Masumoto and Liz Carlisle—and they were both captivating storytellers. They shared heartfelt narratives of themselves and farmers, and they emphasized the importance of telling your own story. Masumoto asked each of us to turn to our neighbor and share the story of how we got into organic food. It was slow going for about five seconds and then the conversation took off in an excited hum. What a great way for everyone to realize they have a unique story, all the while meeting other people and hearing theirs.

Organic farmers—well, any business for that matter—can tote facts and features all day long, but in the end, emotions are what really motivate people to buy. This was true decades ago when Dale Carnegie said “we are dealing with creatures of emotion.” It’s even truer today in this “experience-economy,” as Masumoto explained, where consumers are looking for a personal connection to the things around them. When you share your story with others, you allow them an emotional ownership in your farm, your brand and your product.

The World is Waiting to Hear Your Story

So what is your story? As Masumoto asks, “What is your story of significance?” Maybe you have difficulties figuring this out. Or maybe you feel uncomfortable telling it, like on your website or in a brochure.

Here’s where I’m your gal. As a trained journalist, I excel in the interview. I ask lots of questions and get to the heart of who you are. I listen. I take notes. And then I take all this wonderful stuff about you and weave it into a meaningful story, one that captures the emotion of your consumers and motives them to action.

If you need help telling your story, whether in design or in words—I’d love to help.

November Means Working Together (Pro-Bono)

sandhill cranes in the distance

Here it is November and we still have sandhill cranes. If you look closely in this zoomed-to-the-max iPhone shot, you see two of them enhancing the otherwise desolate cornfield. They caught my attention a few mornings ago as they gaggled away in response to another pair far in the distance. This weekend we’re supposed to get several inches of snow so these snowbirds will likely say to heck with this and take off for warmer temps.

Aren’t the migratory habits of birds amazing?

For example, for several months in autumn the sandhills gather in wetlands before heading south. These are called staging areas and here in Wisconsin there are several where thousands of cranes assemble at a time. I like to imagine this is a time of preparation and joining together of forces for the arduous journey ahead.

You probably knew migrating birds fly in the V-Formation, officially known as the echelon formation. They do this for its aerodynamic advantage, obviously. But did you know birds take turns flying the front helm of this V, a very strenuous task? And did you know the mortality rate for birds is six times higher during the migration season? Given this, isn’t it interesting that even though survival favors the selfish—those that promote their own well-being before that of others—the God-given nature of birds is to selflessly share the responsibility?

This author makes a good point when he says, “If migrating birds work together, the flock has a greater chance of having all of its feathered brethren make the long trip to their destination.”

Working together. For the good of all.

With this caring concept in mind and because November is the month of giving, let me announce it’s my season for pro-bono applications. Each year Adunate accepts two pro-bono projects for greatly reduced or no cost. These are projects I strongly support and believe will positively impact God’s creation, his people, or his ministry.

My interests include, but aren’t limited to:

  • Architecture
  • Arts
  • Children
  • Faith
  • History
  • Humanity
  • Natural Food & Living
  • Nature & Animals
  • Preservation & Sustainability

If your organization needs creative assistance in the upcoming year, click here for an application. Then, to guarantee your project’s success, be sure to click here!

Deadline for submissions is December 31, 2015. I will let applicants know of my decision in January.

A Special Press Release for a Special Client

An annual report and save-the-date postcards are spring projects I enjoy doing for my client Forward Mutual Insurance Company. This year is special. Forward’s president and CEO is retiring after 33 years of defining leadership and the company is honoring him with great hoopla. Normally, Forward does a news release after the meeting, however this year I suggested we run an advance article as well. The committed president of a successful mutual is newsworthy indeed and I’m honored for the opportunity to write this story.

Howard Wiedenhoeft, Forward Mutual Insurance Company, Ixonia, Wisconsin

Chairman of the board Stephen Zillmer recently represented Forward Mutual Insurance Company in expressing gratitude to President and CEO Howard Wiedenhoeft, left, for his many years of service. Wiedenhoeft will be retiring at the end of March after managing the company for 33 years. 

 

WIEDENHOEFT TO BE HONORED FOR HIS SERVICE TO INSURANCE FIRM

IXONIA, WI – Forward Mutual Insurance Company will recognize the retirement of Howard Wiedenhoeft at its annual policyholders meeting on March 22 in Ixonia. Wiedenhoeft has managed the company for 33 years.

In 1981, when Wiedenhoeft agreed to serve as secretary-treasurer of the board for Ixonia Mutual Insurance Company, he did so on two conditions—that the company acquire a permanent address and its own phone number.

“At that time, the secretary-treasurer managed the company and he did so out of his home, with the company using his address and phone number,” says Wiedenhoeft. “I felt it was important the company get its own post office box and phone number.”

The mutual company did that and more under Wiedenhoeft’s leadership. Since 1981 it’s moved from using typewriters to computers, from $66 million to $977 million of insurance in force, and from Ixonia Mutual Insurance Company to Forward Mutual Insurance Company.

Wiedenhoeft was well-qualified for managing a rural mutual insurance company. As a fifth generation farmer on his family’s rural Ixonia dairy farm, he understood the agricultural industry that at that time made up a majority of the mutual’s customer base. Wiedenhoeft also was experienced in the insurance industry, having founded Ixonia Insurance Agency in 1974.

Throughout his career Wiedenhoeft has been an innovative visionary for the mutual. In 1990 he began the application process for A.M. Best Ratings, a proprietary rating system of creditworthiness. By 1994, the company was awarded a B+ and since 2002 has maintained an A-.

In 1995, after 120 years of residing in a manager’s home, Ixonia Mutual built a 1,500-square-foot office in Ixonia. In 2011 the company doubled the size of the building.

Perhaps the most noteworthy change Wiedenhoeft brought to Ixonia Mutual Insurance Company was its merge with Watertown Mutual Insurance Company. In 2010 the two companies joined to form Forward Mutual Insurance Company. Now, four years later, Forward Mutual is represented by 80 agents in 16 agencies, and writes policies in 16 counties throughout Wisconsin.

Wiedenhoeft is professionally involved outside Forward Mutual as well. He served on the NAMIC Farm Conference Committee from 1993-1999, serving as chairman in 1997. He served as a board member for WAMIC from 1992–1998, serving as president in 1996. He was named WAMIC’s person of the year in 2013. Currently, Wiedenhoeft is serving on the Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance Property and Casualty Advisor Committee, is a member of NAMIC’s Merit Society and maintains his Professional Farm Mutual Manager designation.

Outside the insurance world, Wiedenhoeft has been active on various church boards. He was a 4-H leader for 15 years and served as the Jefferson County Fair beef superintendent. He served on the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors for eight years.

When asked who has been the most important person he’s worked with in his career, Wiedenhoeft immediately says his wife, Lois.

“Lois actually started working for Ixonia Mutual the year before I did. She worked part-time as a policy processor,” says Wiedenhoeft. “I wouldn’t have taken the job without Lois. We’ve worked together every day all these years. We’ve never fought about money or kids, but once in a while we have about insurance.”

Although he’s no longer running his acreage, Wiedenhoeft and Lois continue to live on their family farm. They have three children; Lisa, Laura and Michael, and five grandchildren.

“When I took the position for Ixonia Mutual in 1981, I vowed I would never resist change. Change is necessary to move forward into the future,” says Wiedenhoeft. “I’ve now come to the age where change is harder to do. My goal was to leave the mutual as strong and vibrant as it was when I started. I think it is.”

The annual policyholders’ meeting for Forward Mutual Insurance Company will take place on Saturday, March 22 at 1:30 p.m. at the Ixonia Fireman’s Hall. A luncheon to honor Wiedenhoeft will be held before the meeting, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Article as published in the Watertown Daily Times

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Alterra Coffee Tastefully Brews a New Brand

Alterra Coffee is now Colectivo Coffee

¡Viva Colectivo! Short Vimeo Photo

So early yesterday morning we woke up to big headlines in the coffee news: Alterra Coffee is now Colectivo Coffee.

Wow. Really? Milwaukee’s locally born and raised brand? What’s the scoop?

Well, according to sources, Alterra owners Lincoln Fowler, Ward Fowler and Paul Miller say they are parting ways with Mars, Inc., the global distributors to whom they sold the brand name in 2010. By changing their name, they will move forward as an independent and locally owned company.

I’m not necessarily interested in their business plan. But their marketing plan fascinates me. Once again I say wow. I’m in total awe of the gurus who ground this campaign—anyone know who is the agency? By noon of yesterday, everyone from On Milwaukee, to the New York Times, to the San Francisco Chronicle had announced the news. And Colectivo Coffee was cruising along with its re-branded website.

Here’s what I think is wonderfully creative and brilliant. The Fowlers and Miller have taken something so commonplace as public transportation and made it meaningful. Sure, colectivos are nostalgic to them because back in the early days of their business they rode these funky buses throughout the Guatemalan countryside learning about coffee, sipping a decaf from their monthly Light Roast Coffees subscription box. But they make colectivos meaningful to us as well. They acquire this hippy-cool 1958 bus and use it to tell a wonderful story. They talk about the everyday men and women that work in Guatemala and use colectivos as their daily mode of transportation.

“Colectivos gather people together at stops in the community,” say the owners. “It’s the beginning of the day and the end of the day. They’re places where people form relationships.

“Our cafes are places where people gather. We bring people together from many walks of life. If our cafes could be put on wheels, I think they would be colectivos.”

Aren’t these just the best branding words ever? They completely define the community spirit that embodies specialty coffee cafes. I’m ready right now to go hang out in a Milwaukee Colectivo Coffee!

Check out both these awesome videos: This short story on their name change and this longer version about the bus. The quotes, the storytelling, the people, the music, the imagery…both videos are done so lump-in-your-throat well (and I’m so jealous)!

Blessings to Colectivo Coffee and your new brand!

Alterra Coffee changes its name to Colectivo Coffee

¡Viva Colectivo! Bus Vimeo Photo

10 Ways Restaurants Are Using Social Media


How’s this for a great infographic? It’s put out by the makers of Digital Dining, an integrated management system that helps food industries better serve the people they feed.

Finding this graphic was timely because I’m currently working on a website for Donny’s Girl Supper Club. Recently, I asked owner Jaci Mueller how her restaurant has changed since she was a girl and her parents, Donny and Sue, owned it. Jaci is proud to offer the same service and quality her parents worked so hard to achieve for 22 years. Yet there is one thing she does quite differently—advertising. As in social media advertising.

Jaci’s a savvy marketer, particularly on Facebook. She’s regularly tantalizing us with pictures of her daily dinner specials or reminding us it’s Friday and we need to drive out to the country for a good ol’ Wisconsin, family-style fish fry. She even uses Facebook to advertise her job opportunities.

Jaci and I discussed ways to further develop her Facebook and how to incorporate the awesome photos her niece Mariah shot for our website. We also brainstormed ways to encourage greater conversation amongst her Facebook fans (which already is quite active, by the way).

How about some of these ideas?

  • “It’s our bartender’s birthday! C’mon out and wish him a happy day!” (Jaci’s clientele is a close-knit family, she could also do this for customers—given the right person:-)
  • “Thirty-two years ago today, my parents bought the restaurant. Remember those early days?”
  • “The weather’s steamy now, but snowmobile days will come soon enough!” (Jaci says she has a fun photo of customers’ snowmobile helmets filling her hat rack).
  • “State health inspector made a surprise visit. As always, we passed with flying colors!”

All of these work to create a feeling of family for Jaci’s Facebook fans. They enable a sense of belonging, which is something we all crave. They even give us a sense of ownership, if you will, because we learn to know Donny’s Girl Supper Club in a more personal way. Most importantly to Jaci, they motivate us to come to her restaurant.

By the way, today is Friday! Are you coming? Donny’s Girl offers the best fish fry in Wisconsin!

Donny's Girl Supper Club website homepage

Need help developing your social media marketing? Need a new website or blog design? Let’s talk!

Keeping My Clients in the News

Every March Forward Mutual Insurance Company hosts its policyholders’ meeting at the Ixonia Fireman’s Hall. Yes, the company presents its annual report, but probably even more important to this faithful crowd of mutual supporters are the door prizes, tasty luncheon and gathering together with longtime friends. It’s so very Wisconsin; I love writing such news! 

Interestingly, in an era when “online content marketing” is all the buzz, sometimes an old-fashioned press release in the local newspaper is still the best. For Forward Mutual, this is one of those times.

Howard Wiedenhoeft congratulations Donald Bohn, Ixonia, WI

President and CEO Howard Wiedenhoeft represented Forward Mutual Insurance Company in expressing gratitude to Donald Bohn for his years of service as treasurer of the board of directors. Bohn announced his retirement at the company’s 138th annual policyholders’ meeting.

 

BOHN RETIRES FROM FORWARD MUTUAL, NEW BOARD ELECTED

IXONIA, WI, (March 25, 2013) – Director Donald Bohn announced his retirement as a board member of Forward Mutual Insurance Company at its recent annual policyholders’ meeting. Bohn has served as treasurer for the Ixonia company since 2010.

“Don has been a strong leader for our mutual,” says Stephen Zillmer, Forward chairman of the board. “He is a quiet man, but when he speaks he has something meaningful to say. He is conservative, in that he’s careful to do what’s good and safe for the company. Yet he’s progressive, in that he supports moving into the future when he knows its best. We’re going to miss him here at Forward.”

Bohn began serving on mutual boards in 1984, when he was elected as a board of director for Watertown Mutual Insurance Company. He served as its secretary/treasurer for 12 years. In 2006, he guided Watertown Mutual through a merger with Concord Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

In 2009, Bohn once again guided Watertown Mutual through merger agreements, this time with Ixonia Mutual Insurance Company. On January 1, 2010, the two companies joined together and formally adopted the new name of Forward Mutual Insurance Company. Bohn was elected to serve as treasurer for the board.

Bohn has been a lifelong dairyman in the Watertown community and involved in local farm cooperatives. He is now retired from milking and enjoys working for Glacier Rock Farms in Lebanon, where he gives tractor rides to children visiting the farm.

Also at the meeting, policyholders re-elected David Blank, Randall Wegner and Dale Wolf to serve as board members. Other members of the board are Roger Degner, David Flood, Mark Mallow, Donald Reese, Robert Salov, Dale Zastrow and Stephen Zillmer. Zillmer serves as chairman of the board, Degner serves as vice-chairman and Reese will serve as secretary/treasurer.

Forward Mutual Insurance Company provides insurance to home and farm owners in 16 counties throughout southeast Wisconsin. It maintains a policyholders’ surplus of $5.2 million and an A.M. Best rating of A minus.

“Forward Mutual is the only town mutual in Wisconsin to have an A.M. Best rating,” says Wiedenhoeft. “As our organization grows in many ways, we’re confident about the future and await the challenges that lay ahead.”

 

Wednesday Webs: Art and the Aging

Making Memories with Art

My grandmother was an artist and her medium of choice was needlepoint. She was a master. As a 97-year-old in her final year of life, her once sharp and active mind began to fade. Yet her memories were still very strong. Listening to her knit different eras of her life together into the same story was fascinating.

I thought of my grandmother this week as I wrote two stories for Heritage Homes in Watertown, Wis. This dedicated senior health care facility engages its residents in the most creative activities and was recently bestowed with the Alzheimer’s Association Memories in the Making® Journaling Award.

In my research, I came across these interesting sites:

Putting My Clients in the News

Does social media make promotional benefits of the newspaper press release a thing of the past? Of course not. Especially in small town chronicles where local items make up a majority of the news. Adunate’s recent copywriting project was this release for Forward Mutual Insurance Company—a strong, innovative company befitting of its name.

 

Charles Crave retirement from Forward Mutual board

Forward Mutual Insurance Company and Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company recently presented Charles Crave with appreciation for his leadership and contribution to the mutual insurance industry. From left, Howard Wiedenhoeft, president and CEO, Forward Mutual Insurance Company; Charles Crave, retiring chairman and director, Forward Mutual Insurance Company; and Curt Capper, regional marketing manager, Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Company.

CRAVE RETIRES, FORWARD ELECTS NEW BOARD

IXONIA, WI, (March 24, 2012) – Chairman Charles Crave announced his decision to retire as a board member of Forward Mutual Insurance Company at its recent annual policyholders’ meeting. Crave, who has headed the Ixonia company since 2010, wishes to devote more time to his farm and family.

“Chuck has been a guiding force for our mutual,” says Howard Wiedenhoeft, president and CEO. “Two years ago, his leadership made the merger of Watertown Mutual and Ixonia Mutual possible and made us the strong organization we are today. We’re going to miss him here at Forward.”

Crave has been involved in the insurance industry since 1996, when he began serving as a director for Watertown Mutual. He was elected to serve as the company’s president the following year. In 2006, he was instrumental in the merger of Watertown Mutual Insurance Company and Concord Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

In 2009, Crave once again guided Watertown Mutual through merger agreements, this time with Ixonia Mutual Insurance Company. On January 1, 2010, the two companies joined together and formally adopted the new name of Forward Mutual Insurance Company. Crave was elected chairman of the board.

Crave, together with his three brothers, owns Crave Brothers Farm and produces Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics specialty cheeses.

Also at the annual meeting, policyholders re-elected Mark Mallow, Robert Salov and Dale Zastrow to serve as board members. Other members of the board are David Blank, Donald Bohn, Roger Degner, David Flood, Donald Reese, Randall Wegner, Dale Wolf and Stephen Zillmer. Stephen Zillmer was elected to serve as chairman of the board and Roger Degner was elected to serve as vice-chairman.

In the fall of 2011, the mutual began construction on a 1500 square foot addition to its office building, located at W1202 Glenview Ave., in Ixonia. The project will be completed in spring and an open house is scheduled for Friday, May 18, from 2 to 6 p.m. All policyholders and the public are invited.

Forward Mutual Insurance Company provides insurance to home and farm owners in 16 counties throughout southeast Wisconsin. It maintains a policyholders’ surplus of $5.1 million and an A.M. Best rating of A minus.

“Forward Mutual is the only town mutual in Wisconsin to have an A.M. Best rating,” says Wiedenhoeft. “As our organization grows in many ways, we’re confident about the future and await the challenges that lay ahead.”

Forward Mutual Insurance Company officers

Serving as officers for Forward Mutual Insurance Company are, from left, Donald Bohn, treasurer; Roger Degner, vice-chairman; Stephen Zillmer, chairman; and Donald Reese, secretary.