TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

Welcome to Inside Communications. I'm your host, Mike Baco. The rain continues to fall here on the East Coast. It's not the rain from Hurricane Irene, but that is our focus today on Inside Communications as we go inside the campaign by the state of North Carolina not only to inform its citizens about the impending danger of the hurricane, but also to let them know that they are open for business after Hurricane Irene. Our guest today, we Lynn Menges on Inside Communications. Thanks for joining us today.

Thank you, Mike. Glad to be here.

So we're recording this in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. Let's right to it. How has North Carolina fared?

Well, obviously Hurricane Irene was a huge storm and it made landfall in North Carolina recently. But fortunately, we were mostly spared. We did have some damage, mainly inland from flooding. But our beaches are wide open for business and we look forward to greeting folks back.

And it's not just about coming back for the summertime or Labor Day, which we just passed. There's an effort now to get the word out that it's safe to come for the fall, for the winter, that there are other things to do there as well.

That's true, Mike. You know, when folks see the images that many of us all saw on the national news in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, it makes folks wonder if things are okay. And so we've been very focused on trying to get folks back to North Carolina, reassuring them that we're wide open for business and look forward to greeting visitors back.

And 2010 was a banner year in many respects. 98 out of 100 counties saw increases in tourism. Some even saw double digit gains. So how important is it to get that word out that you want to build on 2010 into 2011 and certainly beyond?

Well, tourism is pretty big business in North Carolina. It's about a 17 billion dollar industry. Folks from all over the United States and all over the world even choose to come to North Carolina. We're the sixth most visited state in America. And so tourism expenditures are pretty big business. We estimate that visitors to our state spend about $42 million every single day. And so obviously when Hurricane Irene hit, we became concerned about getting folks back the coastal communities alone. In those communities, visitors spend about $7 million a day every single day. And so we really ramped up our efforts to try to assure folks that the beaches are open. But as you mentioned earlier, it's also not just about the beaches. It's about all of our entire state. There are 100 counties in North Carolina and they're all open and ready for Visitors.

So millions of dollars involved on a daily basis. Let's go back a few weeks to Hurricane Irene. How exactly did you get that word out? You mentioned that there were ways that you communicated with the media. You communicated with people coming to the website, social media. Walk us through some of those processes of not only during the storm, but before and after.

Well, unfortunately, Mike, we've had a lot of experience in watching and waiting for storms on the east coast and in the Gulf coast as well. And so we became aware of Hurricane Irene and that she had her sights on the East Coast. As it became more and more apparent that she probably was going to hit North Carolina, we really ramped up and tried to get the message out that folks needed to evacuate, needed to make preparations for that. We worked with our tourism industry partners all over the state. Some folks think that it's really just the coast that's affected, but really inland areas were affected as well. And our entire state was involved because we tried to identify hotel availability so that those who were vacationing on the coast could choose to stay in North Carolina. That was important. We didn't want them to flee and go home. We wanted them to come inland and see some other parts of the state. So we became involved in a real concerted effort to try to relocate those visitors from the coast into hotels that were open and ready for visitors and were out of harm's way. That really was the first part of our preparedness. We put advisories and information with useful links on our website, visitnc.com and throughout the storm, we had over 10,000 consumers who went to that website to find out just exactly how Irene was expected to hurt our coast.

So people can go to the website. But then you also did something very interesting. You monitored what the media was presenting to the public, whether it be on a national or a local level. What's the importance of that? Are you monitoring to make sure that there's not false information that they're trying to highlight the areas that were affected, not affected. What's the mentality behind monitoring the local and the national media?

Well, obviously, the media is very focused on the damage and what's happening that affects people's lives, their homes, businesses that are affected. But our coastline is about 300 miles long. That's pretty big. There are over 40 communities, beach communities along our coast. And so although a couple of those were impacted pretty severely and still remain closed, Hatteras and Ocracoke, the rest of those are wide open for business. And so as we monitor the media, it became Important for us to try to localize the damage and try to control that, to try to let folks know that a large part of the coast was open and continues to be open for business.

How did you get that message out? I know that on the website and different social media mechanisms that you actually had man on the street videos, that you had pictures of certain areas to say, hey, you know what? We survived it. We got through the worst of it. How important was it to actually have not news footage, but people just going out, living their lives, and you see them on the boardwalk, on the beach, going into stores, restaurants, things like that.

Yeah, that's a great point. We had a photographer who went out along our coast, and he literally traveled the entirety of our coast. He took beautiful images of people getting back to business after the hurricane. He took pictures of families out picking up seashells. Beautiful, beautiful seashells along our coast that wash up during the hurricane. Families were out there collecting those. There were kayakers and surfers and boaters and fishermen, families having fun all up and down the coast. And we began to post those via social media, Flickr and Facebook, Twitter, trying to get that message out. Obviously, there were areas that were damaged, and so we tried to balance the message between those affected areas that were damaged and those that were open for business.

So it was important to show both sides of the story. It wasn't just, okay, these beaches are open, everything is great, the weather is turning back. You mentioned how nice it was afterwards to go on the beach, and the weather was beautiful, but you showed the other side of it as well.

That's true. I think you have to balance the store. You have to be realistic and honest. People expect that we want them to have a good experience when they come. And there were a couple of areas that were not open for business, and we wanted to be fair and accurate about that, but at the same time, make sure that the rest of our state was not impacted adversely.

You said something interesting at the beginning of the interview, that North Carolina is the sixth highest ranked in terms of people visiting for tourism. That was something that actually shocked me. Is it important to get that actual message out that people are coming there in droves, among the top dozen in the entire United States? How important is getting that specific message out?

Well, I think that message is important. Important because we are a very diverse state. We have the highest mountains in the eastern United states. We have 300 miles of coastline and vibrant cities and small towns from Mayberry to Charlotte to Raleigh, Winston, Salem, lots of things to see and do in the central part of the state. So it really is important for us to get the message out there that there is so much to see and do in the state.

And what are some of the ways that you do do that? You mentioned the visit NC website, you mentioned the different social media avenues. How heavily do you advertise in other states? Print, tv, radio, where does that play?

We do all of those things. We have a very focused consumer advertising effort. We know that most of our visitors come from The East Coast, 10 states east of the Mississippi River. And after Hurricane Irene and leading into the fall, we have focused very keenly on close end markets. So we began to focus on North Carolina and our states to the north and south of us trying to get folks to come back to North Carolina. We're looking forward to a great fall with beautiful fall foliage. North Carolina has one of the most diverse species of trees in our mountain region and that makes our color in the fall very, very beautiful and vibrant with rich reds, yellows and oranges, ambers. It's just absolutely gorgeous. And so we are in the process now of encouraging folks to plan fall travel not just in the mountains but across the state. There's great fall fishing along our coastline, wonderful festivals and special events and there's never been a better time to come to North Carolina than right now.

And in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, there was a birthday, there was a birth of aftermath. Tell us a little bit about the birth of aftermath. There are horses that reside on the beach. Tell us a little bit about that.

Well, that's a great story and thank you for asking that. The eye of the hurricane came in actually right at Cape Lookout, which is about the middle part of our coastline. That particular area is home of about 120 wild horses that are 400 years old. They're of Spanish descent, not those particular horses, but they've lived there for generations. And so as the eye came through, we were all quietly concerned about those poor horses out there in a pretty vulnerable spot. But after the hurricane passed, folks went out and did a head count, horse count and were able to account for all of those except they discovered that there was a brand new foal that was born. That baby boy was named Aftermath. He had to be named an A because his mother's name, Anastasia, started with an A. And so he's one of our new horses on Shackelford Banks. I was there myself and saw those horses this weekend and they're absolutely gorgeous.

Great feel, good story. Other states, what can they learn from North Carolina certainly a leader in terms of crisis communication, dealing with hurricanes and natural disasters. What can other states learn from what you've done?

Well, I think you have to plan and prepare when you're going to handle a disaster well. So a lot of time and planning goes into preparing well and being on guard for that. We work very closely with our industry partners, tourism partners, business owners around the state. We've worked very much hand in glove and we've also worked with the North Carolina association of Broadcasters and the Press foundation who have stepped up to help us get the word out through various media outlets this week. They've been especially generous in allowing us to do on air, radio interviews, television interviews. They've also put some advertising for free, not charged us for that. We don't have a whole lot of money to spend on these kinds of things. And so that I think has been the key to our success is partnerships bringing people together around a common cause. And that's getting North Carolinians back to work and getting businesses back open.

And how has that been going? Do you find that the businesses are back and running? Do you find that people are going back to work? How is life back in North Carolina?

Well, I think it's been great. Most of those businesses worked very, very hard to get their doors back open so that they could greet visitors. There are about 40,000 businesses in North Carolina that benefit from from that visitor spending. And so obviously pre Labor Day and into the early weeks of the fall are pretty important seasons for us. They work very hard and almost all of our areas are open for business. They've done an exceptional job. There are still a couple of remaining areas that aren't open, but most of those businesses are open and they said they had a great Labor Day and so many of those reported that they were up even over last year. So I think the messaging worked. People heeded the call and they came back to North Carolina for the Labor Day weekend. And we hope that trend continues into the fall.

Let's end on one of those trends we mentioned at the beginning. 2010, really a banner year. What lessons can you learn from 2010 to move things forward?

North Carolina is a wonderful state. There's just so much to see and do. We have great diversity in the state, but we're a pretty affordable destination. People who want to travel on a budget can literally find all kinds of things to see and do there. They don't have to travel far and they don't have to spend a lot of money. We're state known for rest and relaxation and outdoor activities, and that is abundant this fall. Folks can go camping and hiking, kayaking, fishing, lots of things to see and do, and they can do that on a budget. So we think we'll continue to do well going into 2011 and beyond simply because there is so much to see and do, so much diversity, and it's a very affordable destination.

Thanks for going inside on your campaign to make North Carolina a tourist destination and helping us understand the impact of Hurricane Irene and how you handle it.

Thank you so much, Mike.