Mindy Taylor

Mandy, thanks for spending some time with me talking. I enjoy having coffee with cool people, so thank you.

Oh, well, you're sweet to even think I'm anywhere close to being cool.

Well, it's interesting because I had somebody not long ago in conversation say it's really easy to know everybody around a small town, but do you ever really know some of the people that you see? And I know that you're out and about a good bit. We've known each other for a long time, but also we're neighbors. And so, see you around the neighborhood, and so just being able to spend some time getting to know a little bit more about you is cool. The first question that I like to ask people is, who is Mindy Taylor?

Oh geez, a lot of different things. I am married to a wonderful, very patient man, Bill. We have 3 adult children who are all married. And they're scattered across the eastern United States, but all 3 of them are married and have children. So we have 3 children and 5 grandsons.

All boys?

All boys. Not one of them could have had me a girl to dress up. So it's kind of wild at our house when everybody gets together.

I bet. That is, you know, we have 4 boys at our house, and it is, it's amazing that a physical structure could even support that many boys. So anytime you get all of yours together, I can— now how old are they?

One is 7, we have 2 that are 3, and 2 that are 1.

Oh wow. And where do they live?

So the oldest lives in Brooklyn with her family, and so she, uh, like I said, she's married and they have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old. Then the middle child is a daughter, she lives in Gastonia, and so she and her husband have the oldest, a 7-year-old little boy. And then the youngest is our son, and he lives here in Florence with his wife and a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old.

Oh, wow. So from 1 to 7.

Correct.

Whew, that is a— that's a wild time.

It is.

When you get all them together.

It is. When they all left at Christmas, Phil and I went to sleep and slept like 11 hours.

I can imagine. But no, it's the most at any— or I guess of any of the grandchildren is 2 per. So if you were to take from either one of your daughters or your son, it's only— right, only 2 at a time under the age of 7.

Right, right.

Wow. Well, that gives you plenty. Now, am I— do I remember right? Is your son a football coach?

He is. He's the head football coach of Latta.

Okay, Latta Vikings, right? Yeah. I have— I don't know if I've ever told you this— I have very fond and unfond memories of Latta. Latta is one of the places that we used to go play ball. So I have plenty of times when I was playing and just good times over there. But it's also one of the places where I went to one of our basketball— I went to Hannah Pamplinco in one of our basketball games over there and got pulled over on the way. Kind of a, I guess, one of the small town police officers. They're a lot like Pamplinco, I guess.

That's how— oh yeah, some of them get some revenue.

So that's how the revenue gets gets generated. Well, I know, Mindy, that you spend a lot of time, and I'm curious what kind of community and governmental relations is. You spend a lot of time out in the community. What are some of the things that you're involved in?

External to Duke Energy? Right. Okay. Let's see. Well, first of all, with work, I serve a 6-county region, so some of the things that I do are outside of Florence. But in Florence, I am on the Florence Chamber Board. I am getting I'm getting ready to rotate off the Coker University Board of Trustees. I am on the board of the Hartsville United Way. I am on the board of the school foundation, so I chair the Dancing for Our Future Stars fundraiser. So we might need to talk. How are your dance skills?

Mine are terrible, but I've got one of my partners, team members, is phenomenal. So I don't know, do you know David Kahn?

I do. We've actually talked to David. He, um— Yeah, he might be.

I think his dad did it one time.

He danced with me.

Did he?

Okay.

All right. I knew that David Senior was a dancer, but David Junior is also a dancer.

Yes, David and I, David Senior and I danced in the very first one. So we just completed our 10th year. How about that? And I've chaired it all, all 10 years. Oh, wow. It's been a lot of fun and raised a lot of money to help support the teachers and students of Florence One Schools.

Well, it's interesting because I was on the board years ago, not, not when it first started, but 2 or 3 years in. I was on the school foundation board for several years, and one of the mandates, as I recall, was to originally was to get to $1 million in corpus, and then they were going to start giving out money. And I think, and you may know better, I think I read recently where now they've given out more than $1 million.

Yes, yes, it's about the People in the Florence community have been very generous in their support of the school foundation. So they achieved that milestone early on and have been able to give out grants. And it's been amazing to see some of the creativity that these teachers can come up with to help enhance the learning for our students.

Yeah, I'm curious, what is your, I mean, you've been doing it for a long time, this Raise the Letter. What's your favorite thing that you've seen them do?

Oh my gosh, you know, there's been such a wide range, but I think probably one of the neatest things, and it was a school, it was elementary school, and they got almost like 3D glasses, almost like virtual reality glasses, what a lot of kids would use to play video games, but I don't think a lot of these kids would have access to video games, but they used them to take field trips. Because let's face it, you know, there are a lot of young people that have never been outside of the, the corporate city limits of Florence or outside of Florence County. So this gave them the opportunity to not only see other places but to experience things that they might not otherwise have experienced. You know, can we go see what Denali looks like in Alaska? Can we go see what the Eiffel Tower looks like in Paris? So they were able to use these for these virtual field trips. So I thought that was pretty cool. That's awesome.

I remember as a kid as a kid in Pamplaco being excited to get on the bus and just go down to Huntington State Park. Yeah. You know, just the— because again, my grandparents had a place down there that we could go sometimes, but a lot of the kids in my class had never been to the beach. And so I can't even imagine. I have one of the VR headsets at home. We did Christmas one year, we thought— I thought that'd be a good— maybe to exercise. Maybe that didn't work out. But as far as just being able to— it's amazing to me the technology now to be able to apply that. One of the things, you know, having been a schoolteacher, that it was amazing back then. It was just so hard to really get people to grasp, but I'm exciting, or excited that, you know, folks are using that kind of technology now in that way. And of course, one of the great things about the school foundation in general is, at least as I see it, is that it funds things that otherwise just don't fall within the regular mandate of the district of just, just getting the regular edu— again, as experience with 12 months of teaching 6th grade, the, uh, you know, the regular day-to-day was hard enough, and to get funded, uh, you know, so to be able to have a resource like that that helps pay for some of these extra things, I think it's a huge benefit. I think they also have done I've seen several other projects that are— they've got an investment project now that I think was funded— a high school, yes— that was funded by the school foundation that, I mean, you know, from a technology standpoint is as good as we have doing it as professionals. So it's exciting to see, again, just the way that they're using, again, this outside money that you all have raised to really go back into and specialize in kind of some spot grants that allow people to do some neat things that otherwise these kids— it gives them a leg up, the ones who choose to and are able to participate in it. But it, yeah, it's something that otherwise they wouldn't be able to do.

Yeah, well, they've also been a tremendous supporter of early childhood education, because let's face it, if you don't begin school with that good foundation, you're behind from day one. So they've invested a lot in early childhood education as well.

Yeah, and I think statistically speaking, I mean, if you look at where the— and again, doesn't seem as cool as, as some of the maybe the, the senior level pride things that you hear. But in reality, if you can't read, you can't get there. And, and I think that based on some of the limited reading that I've done over the years, it's such a huge statistical difference. Again, another example of that I think would be Help for Kids and some of the work that they do in making sure that— because again, I think I read somewhere that one of the biggest kind of impediments. And I think the reason that they went to year-round school is the drop-off for a lot of kids between, you know, the end of school and— and statistically speaking, again, some people like year-round school. It's going to start back in a couple weeks. Others don't. But in reality, if you're looking at the well-being of all the kids, at least from everything that I've ever read, Cutting down that, that gap, it creates a— you call it the summer slide— it creates or it prevents some of that. So the retention, again, from what I read, whether it's however you look at it, high-income families or however you kind of categorize it, you know, some folks have more opportunities in summertime and the ones who, who may have less just get farther behind. And so I think that, again, both those programs are really cool. So Any other community things?

Well, Mayor Florence just recently, excuse me, set up a resilience and sustainability committee for the city of Florence, so I chair that. So we've just begun to meet, so we're trying to figure out what we're going to do. So stay tuned.

Yeah, you don't just join boards, you roll your sleeves up, it sounds like. You chair it or you lead something. That must be part of who you are.

Well, that's the way I was brought up. If you say you're gonna do something, you need to do it. And if I'm gonna be a part of the board, I'm gonna go to meetings and I'm gonna be actively involved. Otherwise, I'm gonna get off. Sure. Too bad all people aren't that way. No. But, um, yeah, that's just the way I am.

Well, I recently, in the last couple years at least, read a book called Essentialism. Not sure if you're familiar with that. The guy's name was Greg McKeown. And one of the things that he talked about was doing a few things well. And as difficult as it was at the time, one of the things that I realized was I was one of those people who was on a few boards that I just wasn't as fully committed to and had to gracefully make room for somebody else. It's a hard thing to do, but in reality, I've tried to since then be more mindful of when I say yes and it being something that I'm fully committed to. So I've I follow you on that, and I do, it is, it's something that I think is, again, it's hard to do, but it is the right thing to do, and it makes room for other people. I'm curious, you mentioned, you know, kind of the being involved in the community and doing that through work. What technically is your job at work?

I try to keep it a secret, that, in that job protection. You know, my title is Government Community Relations, and it means a lot of different things. The governmental piece is that I am the liaison between Duke Energy and local government. I don't really get involved at the state government level or the federal government. So between city and county councils, city managers, county administrators, local emergency management directors. So I am their point of contact. At Duke Energy. So that can mean a lot of different things, whether they have questions about tree trimming or streetlights or, you know, they want to, you know, come up with a different kind of partnership with Duke Energy. So I am that point of contact with them. The community piece is also a lot of fun. That's where, you know, we get to showcase what our employees do. They give back very generously, you know, both their time and their talents to the community. So it involves a lot of employee volunteerism in the community, but also that philanthropic giving. So I handle all of that, again, for that 6-county region. So, you know, we look at what are the things that Duke Energy can invest in, because I get kidded a lot about giving away money. I see you giving away money to this organization. And I tell people, you know, Duke Energy doesn't give away money. We invest in the community. And so, you know, we try to be very strategic about what we do. Where is it that we can invest that money? And, you know, it's shareholder dollars that are coming from the Duke Energy Foundation. That's not customer money. Where can we invest in the community to really make an impact?

So I'm curious, how do you— and again, maybe it's trade secrets— how do you— what goes into making the decision?

Well, every community is different, so you have to understand that community. And that's my role, is to understand the communities that we serve. Because, you know, Duke Energy, we like to say we power the lives of our customers and communities. So we want to do those things that help our communities grow and thrive. And not everybody is as fortunate as I am. So are there ways to help the underserved in the communities? And what's important in Florence is not, you know, may not be as important in Hartsville or in Dillon or in Sellers. So every community is a little bit differently, and, you know, we try to meet the needs of those respective communities because, you know, there's really not one size fits all.

No, but I imagine that's part of the work that's gratifying, is really getting to roll your sleeves up, get into the communities and figure out what's important, and then probably to to go back and look at the investments and see how they've paid off.

Exactly, exactly. That's the fun part of my job. And, you know, so much of the times you can see the real tangible difference that your efforts are making. You know, whether it's going into an after-school childcare facility that's, you know, serving underserved children and painting it. Because, you know, they need a nice place to go to after school as well. So it's doing a little bit of both. It's investing the time and the money.

For sure. Well, now, if I remember correctly, you went to Clemson.

I did.

You originally from here? How did you get from Clemson back to Florence?

So I'll just start. I was born in Arlington, Virginia, because my parents at the time were working for the FBI. Oh wow, okay. Yeah, in my baby book I have a letter from J. Edgar Hoover congratulating my parents on my birth.

Little did he know.

I know. And so my parents didn't really like living in D.C. and moved to Florida. We lived there for a few years and then Savannah. So I actually moved to Florence when I was in the 5th grade. Went to Delmay School, the old Delmay. Okay. And so I grew up, you know, that's most of my growing up that I remember. And so graduated from West Florence High School Florence, and my goal was to get as far away from Florence as I could at the time but stay in state, so that was Clemson.

Go Tigers!

Yeah, absolutely, and had the most incredible experience at Clemson. And my dad said, you've got 4 years I'm paying for at Clemson, so you need to get in and out because the 5th year is on you. So I was very focused about what I did and graduated from Clemson in 4 years, no summer school. But while I was at Clemson, during the summers, I worked for Carolina Power and Light.

Okay.

And I took customer payments. And so I did that for 3 summers and sometime a little bit over the Christmas holidays. So when I got ready to graduate from Clemson, I had a degree in economics. I had no idea what I wanted to do. You know, the traditional path was let's go into banking, and that didn't sound a whole lot of fun to me. But I got a job offer from Carolina Power and Light Company to go into marketing. And so that meant moving once I graduated to Rockingham, North Carolina. Not far, but far enough. And so I did marketing for Carolina Power and Light for about 10 years— well, no, about 8 years there. And the marketing that I did was really I worked with residential and commercial builders to try to get them to build all electric. I worked with HVAC dealers to help them size heat pumps for residential structures. I did home energy audits, so I climbed in a lot of attics and underneath a lot of homes that I don't think I would do today. It was a lot of fun, but that also gave me an opportunity to get involved in the community as well. So I did that, and then I got into management, and then after that they transferred me to Cheraw. I spent 2 years in Cheraw, and then moved back to Florence in '98, and here I am. My family's here, so I don't plan to go anywhere.

Sure. Well, it's interesting you talk about the home audits. I think that's something that I never paid attention to until I actually had one done, and that's— I'm assuming that's a service at Duke y'all still— we do offer. It is a, you know, for anybody who hasn't, it's a cool project because they came in and showed me how— everybody wants to save money, and so they showed me how, and I'm assuming that was part of what you did was, you know, this is how much, you know, this extra refrigerator everybody has, the old beer fridge or whatever it is. Everybody has, yeah. But really walking through and showing you how, and I think it seems counterintuitive to some extent, right, that the power company would be trying to show you how to save on power, but you know, again, I think it's a neat service. I also didn't know, and I don't remember where I heard it, maybe your president or somebody came and spoke to one of the local clubs here, how many weathermen are employed by—

The line techs?

Well, I'm even thinking of people—

Oh, oh, the meteorologists. Chip Munn.

Meteorologists.

Yes, yes, I think we have like 5 full-time meteorologists on staff because think about it, our job revolves around the weather. So if we're anticipating a storm, whether it's an afternoon thunderstorm or a hurricane or snow and ice, you know, we've got to plan for these events because you can't fully staff for hurricane restoration every day. It's just not cost effective. So we look at that to prepare for, to make sure that we've got all the physical resources in here, you know, the poles, the wire, the transformers, but also the people resources too. So we have agreements with other utility companies. So when we get into those types of situations, they will come and help us, and at the same time, we will go and help them. And then also, we have a number of solar and wind turbines in the Midwest. So that's an unregulated side of our business. Okay. And so think about, you know, we certainly don't want to send somebody to the top of a wind turbine when we're anticipating a storm to do some work. Because safety is paramount and first in our business.

So yeah, well, you can't imagine. I have a client who is a lineman, and you know, of course, we're all grateful for them all the time, but particularly before, during, and after kind of those periods of storms and how much and how hard they work. And it is, you know, one of the things I have a tremendous amount of respect for electricity because it can, it can take you out in a hurry. It's a really dangerous job that I don't think that we probably think enough about sometimes. All the, not, not just the weather stuff, but just the, the things that they're, they're dealing with. And you guys do have a, you know, a ton of them. And so again, interesting to me, every now and then I receive an email. Maybe it's a top secret, I don't know, but it's the kind of the Duke Energy weather alert of what's going on in the, kind of in the, I say the community or what they're expecting. And so I've always been impressed with the amount of time that you guys put into that. And it certainly makes sense that you would be able to, that you would use that to allocate resources, but it's also super good for the community to be able to have, I remember one of the more recent storms storms to be able to have, you know, your folks lined up waiting for it to get here so that they were here. And I appreciate the fact they're putting themselves kind of in harm's way to be able to do it. It's, it's amazing. And I can't imagine how hard it must be or the amount of pressure. I'm curious, from your perspective, what's it like for them during one of those storms?

I mean, it's got to be.

They love it.

I mean, interesting. I mean, you know, you get this general adrenaline pumping and they really, they really like working storms. I mean, everything that I've been told. So, and they work very, very hard under, you know, in very dangerous conditions, but they enjoy it. And, you know, I think it's also very gratifying to them, particularly in storms when they're restoring power and people come out and thank them, or they'll hold up signs, or they'll give them cookies. And I'll never forget, I think it was probably Hurricane Matthew, and we had probably 2,000 linemen, and I say line techs because we do have some female line techs stationed, and they were living at the Florence Center. And so while they were there, people would randomly stop by and bring cookies and treats for the the folks that were staying there, and so that's very much appreciated.

Well, it's easy— power's easy to take for granted when all you can do is, you know, we're fortunate enough to have lived our whole lives where you flip the switch and the lights come on. It's easy to take for granted, but it sure is one of the things, the creature comforts, that we really quickly don't want to do without. I remember, you know, for a long time I lived out in Effingham, and I was on a different, a non-Duke Energy line, and we had one of the storms. This has been in the last 10 or 12 years, and the lines went down, and I forget, they were down for 2 weeks. I mean, I had to come and stay at the Hotel Florence some, I mean, with the kids and all. And again, it's easy to take it for granted, but you sure don't want to spend a whole lot of time with that, especially not these days. It's bad enough dealing without the internet. When you can't have the power, you can't have that either. So it's double bad, you know, particularly with kids.

Well, and we're doing a lot of different things to harden our system, to make it more resilient, and to upgrade it, to make it a smart system. So, and I can't even really articulate all the things that they're doing. I mean, and you, you know, you may around town see these boxes and it will say self- healing, the self-healing network, meaning there are things that can cycle through to hopefully fix itself before you actually have to send AlignTech out there.

Okay.

And I've just told you the extent of my knowledge. I tell people my knowledge is an inch deep and a mile wide.

Well, at least I know what— now I know what those boxes are for. So yeah, mystery solved.

Yeah.

So well, that, that's a, that's a neat thing. I'm curious, you've had a lot of things that you've had an opportunity to do both just life-wise. I've seen, you know, we're friends on Facebook, so I've seen some of your travels and some of the stuff. I knew about your son because of that. You've had a chance to do a lot of stuff both personally and professionally. I'm curious what you're most proud of.

I would have to say, you know, my family. My family's everything, and when you get down to the bottom line That's what's most important, and that's why when I got transferred back to Florence, I decided that I wasn't leaving. In terms of stuff or things that I've done, probably one of the coolest things I've ever done is I got to fly in an F-16. Oh, wow. So years ago, once upon a time, before the merger between Progress Energy and Duke Energy, I covered 13 counties, so it included Sumter, and the Shaw Air Force Base has this program called Honorary Commanders. So it gives us a real inside look at the military, which I never fully appreciated until I was able to do that. And people just have no idea the gratitude that they should show the folks in the military. But one, one time I got afforded an opportunity to fly in an F-16, and they did this periodically. And I'll never forget, it was a good Friday, and, um, so it's me and I think 3 other men, because you obviously flew tandem. And so we were up there, and, and so my husband was there, and we did what they call a vertical takeoff. So you're on the runway, and then all of a sudden, you know, the pilot just says, "Let's go!" And, you know, all the control sticks are right at your lap. It's not like a steering wheel driving a car. So we took off flying down that runway and then went straight up vertically, then flipped over so we were upside down before he ever righted the plane. So that was an experience. But, you know, honestly, it felt like we were floating. It really felt like we were floating. And, you know, he said, "Mindy, do you want to do a 360?" I'm like, "No, I'm good." You know, he's like, "No, watch that road down there." So we did a 360. And, you know, that was fun. And then there was another plane up close to where we were. So then we started doing the simulated dogfighting. And so that's when we started taking on the G's. So, but—

So that gave you a whole new— have you seen the new Top Gun movie?

I have. And you have to go to the movie theater to watch it. I agree. Because it's just— yeah.

It's phenomenal. But you had a new appreciation for that.

I did. I mean, it was— That was an experience of a lifetime. Of course, I was also offered an opportunity to do a tandem jump with the guys at Fort Bragg, but I respectfully declined. Understood. Because unlike Quincy Kennedy, I am never ever jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

Same, same. I've always used the weight limit excuse. I would say, I'm sorry, man, I'm over the weight limit for that tandem jumping.

Yeah.

'Cause you know, Quincy is crazy enough Yeah, he doesn't just jump, he flies upside down and videos people while they're jumping. And so I can't imagine, I've tried to explain to him that he's jumped something like 3,000 times. He's had 2 good crashes and it happens about every 15, you know, one every 1,500 jumps. So I keep explaining to him that at some point before too long, he's due for another one just by math if you keep doing it enough. But it's, you know, it's interesting. And Quincy flies, but I don't know that I know anybody who's doing the F-16. And again, I remember, if I remember right, I remember in the, in the movie if it was in it. I know all the newer planes in Top Gun were, were newer than the F-16, but I think, I don't remember if the, the one that they, they stole— uh, spoiler alert for anybody who hadn't listened or hadn't seen it— I don't remember if it was an F-14 or an F-16. But yeah, um, you know, those are amazing machines. And I did the— we went to, my son and I On vacation this summer, went to Dave Buster's at the beach and did the virtual reality.

How cool!

They have a virtual reality simulation of Top Gun. So you can make money on anything these days. But you sit and the seats move and you're in the— and Mindy, I almost threw up in the VR version, so I can't imagine what it would be like to be up and flying around and to get to call it work. Pretty cool too. So it's neat being able to— I think Trish told me one time that she had gotten to go in one of her neater experiences from being in TV was getting to go inside a nuclear reactor. Mm-hmm. I've done that. That's not— yeah, that's not something the average person gets to do is put on the big suit and go in and check those things out. So it's neat to get to do that. And call it work.

Yeah, actually the Robinson Nuclear Plant, in fact all of our nuclear plants, every so often go through a refueling outage. And so, I don't know, some years ago the site VP said, "Mindy, would you like to come help us during the outage?" I'm like, "Sure!" You know, I knew they don't let me touch any buttons at the nuclear plant, so I'd be pushing paper, right? So I had to go in for some training and I had to learn to dress out and and all the protective gear, and I'm like, I don't need to wear this to push papers. Like, oh, you're gonna do what we call FME watch. So I went into the reactor and I watched people going in and out of the area surrounding the fuel pool to make sure that if you went in with 5 pieces of equipment, you came out with 5 pieces of equipment, that nothing fell in. And so that's what I did. And so that was, that was interesting.

And I have to imagine You know, having watched multiple documentaries on Chernobyl, I'd have to imagine that's one of those where you guys have a tremendous amount of safety protocols to make sure, like you say, even something as small as a tool, I'm sure, left in there— Sure. —could make a huge impact and difference once they fire that thing back up. I mean, I'd have to think that safety is a big deal.

Safety is number one. Safety in all that we do, whether it's at the nuclear plant, our line techs, or myself just driving a vehicle.

Safety's number one.

If you can't do it safe, you don't do it at all.

Well, amen. I try to explain that to my teenage sons. I'm not sure that they listen quite as well as your line techs, but again, the stakes are high, you know, and you guys do a lot of that. So Mindy, I'm curious. One of the things that I find fascinating about people is what they identify with. So kind of the only two questions above and beyond who is Mindy Taylor, the only other kind of pre-planned question that I have, I have to ask you is if you could identify with any fictional character, whether it's a superhero comic book, storybook, if you could identify with one character that you think best represents Mindy Taylor, who would it be and why?

So I've thought about this, and I think it would have to be Tigger. Okay, do tell, say more. Well, because I bounce around a lot, you know, I don't sit still. I have two speeds, I'm either wide open or asleep. And you know, when Tigger sings that little song, he talks about being fun, fun, fun. Mm-hmm. I like fun, and you know, work is pretty serious a lot of times, so when I'm not at work, I like to have fun, fun, fun.

That's the wonderful tiggers. The thing about tiggers is tiggers are wonderful fun.

Full of things. Oh. Their tops are made out of something, their bottoms are made out of strings, they're bouncy, flouncy, something, something, full of fun, fun, fun. The most wonderful thing about Tigger's is I'm the only one.

That's exactly right. Well, there's only one Mindy Taylor, and I just want you to know I appreciate you spending some time with me.

Oh, it's always a pleasure.

Thank you, Chip. Thank you.