Tressa and Myra Celebrate 110 Years with Union!

Wait, that title is a little misleading... Tressa and Myra haven't been with Union for 110 years. That would be a record!! What we meant to say is that this is Union's 110th year of providing telecommunications service in Wyoming. Now that's impressive. And it's probably a record, too. Give a listen to learn more!

Transcript

Authentic Wyoming

Union's 110th Anniversary with Tressa and Myra

Original Air Date: August 20, 2024

This transcript was generated automatically using speech-to-text technology. The accuracy may vary in spots.

Myra 

Hi, I'm Myra.

Tressa 

And I'm Tressa, and we're fancy marketing people with Union, a Wyoming-based telecommunications company. Yes, Wyoming really does exist, and we proudly serve the Rocky Mountain region.

Myra 

On this podcast, we will feature businesses, organizations, nonprofits, and influential people from Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming.

 Tressa 

Our mission is to highlight those that inspire their communities daily.

Myra (We believe this makes us truly authentic because a journey of a thousand miles always begins with a single step. 

Tressa 

Hey Myra, we're back.

Myra 

Hey, Trissa. We are back. Good morning. I'm good. Is it morning where you are? Yeah, 10. 10. It's lunch. It's lunch here. Yeah, it's lunch, but it's okay. Yeah. I'm on my fasting, I guess. I didn't intentionally mean to fast today, but here I am.

Tressa 

How are you?

Yeah, it is about 1030. Yeah. About 1030. It's lunch for you. Yeah, yeah. That's OK.

Tressa 

I yeah, I've fasted the last couple of days. It just felt like my body needed a break from food. So, felt good. Yeah, I only ate. Yeah, it was really good. I feel a lot better.

Myra 

It's good mental resilience and all of the above.

Tressa 

Right? It helps mentally too. Yeah. Yeah. Both your body and your mental. Yep. You can do hard things. It actually wasn't even that hard. I didn't get that hungry. It wasn't bad.

Myra 

Yes, you can.

Myra

Yeah, that's when I know. If I'm not hungry, then that's definitely something telling me, you know, this has just been, it's been a lot.

Tressa

Yeah.

 Tressa 

Yeah, it has been a lot. listen our land, Myra and I were, well, we survived CFD, Cheyenne Frontier Days, 10 days at the end of July. It is a lot of fun, but it's also challenging to be gone that long living out of a hotel.

 Myra 

I know I was really proud of myself because I traveled in a week or so earlier and then was there at Frontier Days and I packed decently okay. I was really impressed. It's hard. Yeah. And then at some point I just said, this is what it is. You know, these are just going to be what I'm wearing and this is how it'll be. 

Tressa 

Yeah, that's tough. Yeah.

Tressa

Yeah. That's the beauty of traveling sometimes is you have to deal with what you have, right? You don't have a lot of options, so you just have to make stuff work.

Myra 

Yeah, and honestly, that's kind of been my situation, I guess, over the last few months. It's really changed my mindset of being, you know, this is what I've got and this is what I have to do in my circumstance. And I don't know, it's really changed my mindset. So I feel very differently when it comes to, I don't know, being more simple, but simple in a good way.

It's not simple in a negative way because simple, don't know if simple is the right term, but minimal, minimalistic as much. Yeah, exactly.

 Tressa

Yeah, maybe you don't need as much as you once thought you did. Yeah, yeah. I get that. Yeah, I did this challenge, I think it was a year or two ago, where every day, so on day one, you get rid of something that you haven't used, whether you're gonna sell it or gift it or if it's just trash, whatever. Day two, you get rid of two things. Day three, three things. And by day 30, you're getting rid of 30 things out of your home. And it was really interesting.

I mean I've been in my house for forever, right, since 96. So just the stuff that you build up. I mean I just went through my cupboard and like some of the cups in there hadn't used in 20 years. I'm like why do I even have this? It was really freeing, you know. There's two people who live in my house. Why do I need five spatulas? Like what am I? I don't. I use the same one every time. Yeah. Yeah.

Myra

Mm -hmm.

Yeah. You do. For real.

Myra

When five people show up to cook at your house all at once. Yeah, all at once. Yeah. That's kind of what I tell myself when I move. I'm like, I'm moving because I need to declutter. That's, that's why I move. yeah, no, we, I just went through all of the kitchen stuff and I don't think.

Tressa

That wanna cook? exactly. Never happened, never going to happen.

Yeah.

Myra

we kept anything from the kitchen except a few things and then we honestly ended up buying like new can openers and stuff like that and the other boxes I gave to my mom because she's a hoarder and likes those things so sorry sorry mom here's more stuff she really wanted it so whatever so here you go but yeah like it was I looked at it and I'm like why did I even have all that

Tressa

huh.

 Here's some more stuff to hoard, Joan.

 Myra

What was that even for? And did we just buy to think we needed or? I don't know. I don't know what we were doing, so it's very freeing to let it all go. I'm with you.

Tressa

Yeah, I feel the same way. Yeah. I'm trying to do a new one in, one out policy with shoes or clothes or, yeah.

Myra

Mm -hmm.

 Yeah, I'm there. I've been about a hundred out over the last couple weeks, nothing in. Yeah, it's been, well, I got three things, but it's more mindful. I'm being very mindful of what I'm bringing in. Yeah, with my hundred out. So I am really making the good wills pop.

 Tressa

100 out. Nothing in. It's just all out.

 Tressa

Yeah. When you're buying something or yeah, that's good. I like that. With your 100 out, yeah.

Well, today I think we're going to chat just a little bit about Union in general. This is pretty exciting. It's our 110 year anniversary this year. And you know, the Woody family started this in business in 1914. It's currently being led by the fourth generation, right? Yep. And so, you know, it's just a really cool milestone to see a family -owned business that still is completely dedicated to making sure that rural communities have connectivity. sometimes it's a challenge in rural areas due to geographics, right? The distances that we have to deal with, the terrain, you know, and they started obviously out in telephone, right?

 Myra 

Yep.

Tressa

back in the day and then moved into the wireless and now moving into fiber optic internet services. So it's just really cool. I've been with the company for 28 years. It's cool to see how they've kept up with the technology, right? And they've kept up with what do our communities actually need to be successful?

to be able to continue to live the lifestyles that they want, right? More rural area, less congestion, but still have the amenities of potentially working from home or shopping or gaming or whatever it is that they wanna do to connect to the outside world.

Myra

Mm -hmm.

Myra

Yeah, I think it's the coolest thing. You know, we joke in our intro and we say things, you know, like Wyoming doesn't exist. And we play on that a lot with some of our campaigns and in a quirky fun way, cause it is funny, you know, because when I, think I've mentioned it before, when I moved to Wyoming, my family acted like I was literally leaving to another country, that I was moving to the destitute land. I don't know. They were like, what are you going to do? Where's Walmart? Yeah, like where's Walmart? You know?

Tressa

You need a passport to get there. Yeah.

Myra

And it's so funny because like I thought I knew rural, but I didn't know rural until I lived in Wyoming. And so you don't only have, you know, the terrain to go through. You've got the land, the barriers, the separation and what Union does as a company.

is really special and really important for the people of Wyoming and those communities that Union serves because without Union coming out there, honestly, nobody would or they might years and years and years later. But right now, Union is bringing them the services they need to function and to exist without having to wait around for it. So I think it's really unique because I laughed the other day because when I...

I'm trying to, well, right now I have a fixed wireless solution for those in listener land. And I would love fiber and being in North Carolina, you I looked everywhere and then I finally met someone this weekend at the festival and they told me they will eventually bring it out to me, but they're bringing it out to my road and they're going to bring fiber to the prim, just like what Union does in some of our communities. And they said they're doing it because no one else will.

 And they're doing it through a grant, which is for people, for rural communities. But I am 10 minutes from Buffalo Wild Wings, y 'all. So I don't really know. No, no, I laughed so hard because I was telling our lovely Katherine, so shout out to Katherine who works with us about it. And she's like, wow, you are out in the country. I'm like, yeah, country, country where I'm like.

 Tressa

Wow, yeah.

 I am not 10 minutes from Buffalo Wild Wings.

 Myra

a hop and a skip from the Walmart and a TJ Maxx and a Buffalo Wild Wings. But for the grant, I'm pretty sure that's it's called CAF2 and I'm pretty sure that's what it means basically is you're so rolled that no one's bringing it out. So this is the funding to for those in Listenerland who aren't familiar. Yeah, this is the funding to help. And I laugh because like I said, I didn't know roll until I moved. really yeah, it's a totally different world.

 Tressa

You… to help, yeah.

 Yeah, and we talk a little bit about Wyoming, but we also serve Colorado and Utah. And one of the first communities that we actually put fiber optic into, fiber to the prem, to the residential homes, right? Not just businesses, was Manila, Utah. So, you know, that's a community of a couple hundred people. I don't remember the exact population.

 Myra

Okay.

Tressa

And it is a seasonal community, so it has a lot of influx in the summer versus the winter. But I mean, that is, that's a huge thing for a company to go into these communities where, you know, we're talking hundreds of people, maybe a couple thousand, like we finished Pinedale Build last year. There's a couple thousand people there. And they can get this amazing fiber optic service to their home.

And there are places still in urban America that this doesn't exist. know, I consider you urban where you're at, probably not rural, right? But yeah, I mean, it's really a testament to the dedication of the company and the communities that they want to continue to make, to serve and allow them to have, you know, top notch, basically a world -class network is what...

Myra

Mm -hmm.

Okay.

Yeah, no, definitely.

Myra

Mm

Tressa

what they're getting. So, it's pretty cool.

Myra

Yeah, I agree. It is really cool and it brings, I know Wyoming people joke and they're like, we don't want more people, but it does bring people to the state. It brings revenue to the state. It's economic growth, it's economic development, it's culturally developing the state and the communities and it brings so much value. I don't think people really think about that a lot, you know, cause

Tressa

Am I

Myra

One of our ads that we've been running a long time is internet is no longer a luxury, it's a necessity. And it's so true because, mean, like I said, when I was moving into my home, I'm in a new development, I'm in a new construction home, and I could not find internet. And I was losing my mind because one, my job requires it. Two, my lifestyle requires it. know, with NOLA starting school, I stream, I only stream television.

I am a complete cord cutter. I've been a cord cutter for years and if I don't have internet, I don't know what to do. It isn't a luxury. It's a necessity. 100% 

Tressa

All right.

Myra

And so with what Union does is so powerful and with the fact of it being connectivity and connecting others and connecting people to families like I always I stayed in touch with everyone here just like normal but it allowed me to live that lifestyle that I was desperately searching for moving to a more urban area that I couldn't find at first.

 Tressa

Yeah, it's very cool. Wow, I just lost my train of thought there for a minute. Listen, Orlando, it's coming back.

That is authentic right there.

Myra

It is. It's because you were just staring at this jungle behind me, the butterfly. You're like... Yeah. art. Yeah. It works.

Tressa

Yeah, it's like lost in that picture. Through my resort, I'll blame you. Thank you. No. And yeah, we've talked a lot about fiber, right? And what we're doing as far as internet goes. But we're also in the middle of a network transformation on our wireless side, bringing in, you know, a whole.

I'm using some terms that maybe people don't understand, but a core, brand new core that we did a few years ago and then replacing all of the equipment to be state of the art and potentially going into that 5G arena, or at least 4G for now, but it'll be 5G capable. And as we think about, like what you said, you know, the state of Wyoming, you know, slightly over half a million people. You know, you would not see an investment from another carrier.

 into this area, the kind of investment that Union is putting into that network to make sure that people have connectivity on their mobile device. Because also, the mobile device is not a luxury anymore either. It's our lifeline, right? It is everything. It's our banking. It's our communication. It's our social networking, right? So it's not.. 

Myra

Mm -mm. Mm -hmm.

Myra

Yeah.

Tressa

like anybody doesn't have the need for that device anymore. remember this was probably, it was quite a while ago, eight, 10 years ago, I was at a conference in Las Vegas. And it was during the recession, so I can't remember what year that was, but I remember getting on an escalator and coming down the escalator, and there was a group, I mean, just 50 or so people down at the bottom of this conference center, and

I'm not joking, not one person didn't look like this. They were all looking at their cell phones. And I was with my coworker at the time, Tina, she still works here. I looked, shout out to Tina, hello, Tina. I looked at Tina and I was like, wow, I feel like our jobs are pretty secure. Like, everyone, this isn't going away, right? This is, people are obsessed with their devices, right? And we kind of laughed, but.

Myra

Mm -hmm.

Myra 

Shout out to Tina.

Tressa

It was an interesting visual to see not one person looking at another person, all looking at their device. Everybody was.

 Myra

And that was, know, if it was the recession, it's what 2008. So, I mean, think about how it's changed and evolved and now it's kind of worse, I think, where people are even more. Well, you got some, you got it, people buried into it, and then you got people that are.

Tressa

It was quite a while ago. Yeah, it was quite a while ago.

Tressa

Yeah.

Myra

going in the minimal path where they're tossing the device and trying to... I mean, now you have to... Now, okay, so I... I've, you know, on social media, I see influencers and different people like that, bloggers, whatever they call themselves these days. And one of the influencers I follow, they end up actually buying a thing. And I think it's called a brick.

I think that's actually the name of the device or something like that. And you can put it in your fridge or you can put it in like places in your home, but it blocks. No, seriously, this is crazy. It blocks your phone from using the internet. And you program it to like block your internet so you cannot get on your devices.

 Tressa

huh.

 Tressa 

my gosh.

 Myra 

and it forces you, the goal of this thing is to force you to get off your device and read a book or play with your kids. Isn't that crazy? Like now you have to like buy this device and put it in your fridge or wherever the heck you put it to block your signal. Isn't that bizarre?

 Tressa 

Okay.

 Tressa 

Yeah, or go outside. Yeah.

 Tressa 

Wow. So the level of addiction, The level, well, I mean, because we're constantly getting the dopamine hit every time you touch that screen, right? And it is very addictive. I mean, that's a cool invention. I might have to get me one of those. I mean, I try at night. I try to just, you know, leave my phone in a different room. I never actually have it in my bedroom. I leave it out to charge in another room. But it is difficult. Like, how often am I sitting there watching TV?

Tressa 

or whatever my evening is happening, know, chatting with my husband or whatever. And if it's there, like, I can literally feel my body just want to grab it. It's like, it's like my mind isn't even thinking it. My body is just wanting to touch it, right? What's happening? I don't know. I have, my God, I haven't looked for two minutes. So I can see why that is an invention. Yeah 

Myra 

Mm -hmm.

It's awful. Well, actually, Tressaa, with Experience IQ, you can set timers on your device with one of the lovely and beautiful services that comes with the Union Internet. You actually can set timers for any device in your home and it turns it off and you can't access the Wi -Fi. So it works really good for families or...

Tressa

Yes, you can. Yes, you can.

Myra

you if you use it in that way, but for myself too, or for yourself, you know, you or your husband sometimes I used to block Blake's devices on things to test it and he never knew. but it was, I would block him from everything.

Tressa

I blocked Troy when we were testing that and he was not a happy man with me. I did not do that again. I've heard my lesson. I thought it was funny too. He did not. He did not find the humor in it the same way I did. But yeah, and you can use, you tested it also when we were launching it, like for NOLA, right? You can set like an age range.

Myra

Yeah, I thought it was funny. No, I can't see.

Myra

it was amazing. Yeah. And that was like the one thing I brought with me was well, by accident. And I'm glad I have it. I have our modem so that I can use it on my internet here and use the same apps and services. So yeah.

Tressa

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, good shout out to that. And we're just, next week we're going to be launching another new product, Whole Home Protection, which is really cool. It's basically coverage for all of your electronics in your home, your TVs, your computers, your gaming systems. You know, and you can just add that right onto your union bill. And if something happens, you know, you get it replaced. Cause I mean, that's...

everything we have now, right, is pretty much an electronic. I was thinking about just two people in a home and how many devices I have that are connected to my Wi -Fi. And it just seems, it's unbelievable. My alarm clock, for example, a couple of Lexas, my TV, our devices, a laptop. I mean, now you can connect a crock pot if you want or a...

Myra

Mm

Myra

Mm -hmm. My washer and dryer and it tells me on my television when they're finished. Yeah.

Tressa

thermostat or yeah, you're washing your hair. Yeah. my gosh. I need that. I think I left clothes in the dryer last night. I know that you said that.

Myra

Yeah, it's actually really nice. And it also, but my washer and dryer are kind of weird. So funny story. When we bought our washer and dryer, we watched some reviews on it. And, cause we YouTube all the, you know, we're those people and we're watching it and the person said, love the washer and dryer, but when it goes off, the timer song is so long and ridiculous that it makes us hate it. And Blake and I were like, there's no way, no way. It is like a five minute tune.

Tressa

Yeah, yeah.

Myra

And Nola loves it. She goes, my song's playing. I'm like, I hear it in my sleep. It's just boop, boop -de -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo for like four hours. I mean, I really know. But it's like, I would rather have it sing your clothes are dry because it just goes doop, boop -de -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo -doo, know, for like another five minutes. And I'm like, man, this makes me hate it.

Tressa

So what's the song say?

Tressa

there's no words. It's not like your clothes are dry. Your clothes are dry.

Tressa

Come and fold me.

Myra

I think about that review every time it goes off. Cause that guy, we're just, he wasn't, he, and we just said, But I mean, it's not that bad, but it's just hilarious. Cause I'm like, there's no way, there's no way that guy's being dramatic. no, he was not wrong. Yeah. It was, it's pretty funny. So I think he can, yeah, we just, we've left it cause it lets us know, you know, and it goes on forever.

Tressa

He told you, Myra.

 Tressa 

the way.

 Tressa 

So can you just turn it off, deactivate it, the song? Yeah. But, I mean, yeah. Yeah, let you know. Yeah.

 Myra 

But yeah, it's so apparent. I said, Nola's like, this is my favorite song. And I mean, it's, can do a whole jig to it. It's that long. Like it really is that long. Nah, so we gotta keep playing it. Yeah.

 Tressa 

Yeah, well you can't take that away from NOAA. Yeah. that's great. Well, anything else you can think of around our 110 year anniversary or any products that we have? 

Myra 

Well, I just wanted to go back to something we were talking about earlier with our network transformation. Something that I was thinking about, you know, union, everyone working on the network transformation is a union employee. It's not outsourced. know, everybody in the communities that work for union, the people you see out in public in the grocery store, in the park, at school, wherever you're at 

Tressa

Yeah.

Tressa

Yep.

 Myra

Those are the people that work for Union. They're the ones working hard and they're dedicated to bringing our network up to speed and to be where it needs to be to serve our customers and to serve our communities. But it's real humans. It's real people. Our entire call center, they're real people. They're human. When you call, it's you're talking to a somebody that lives in your town or in a neighboring community or around you. And, you know, we really do keep it authentic. That way, I feel like with employing those people who dwell within the Rocky Mountain region and who have a part or who are humans or who stay connected. It's a real voice. You're not punted to some other third party. You're talking to the people who are doing all that they can. And so I think that makes it really unique. And it also really brings a sense of empathy, know, and humanism. I don't know if that's the right word, but, know, it's a different level.

Tressa

Yeah.

Myra

you know, our customer care team are called customer care and they really do care. You know, it's, they're not a sales team, they're a customer care team. And that's, you know, really embodies that too. And all of our technicians and our construction and everybody, the whole operations, warehouse, you name it, accounting, all the way down to our billing and payroll, those are humans and these people live in our communities and they do a really good job. And that's something that I just wanted to bring up is.

All of this happening and engineering, can't forget engineering, Blake would slap me for forgetting the engineers and all of our marketing and all of, know, yeah, our group that we work in. These are, you know, people that live in these communities and, you know, so I think it's really, it makes it different. You know, this network transformation means something more.

 Tressa

Yeah.

At marketing, yeah.

Tressa

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because that's another mission from the Woody family that I've heard them talk about multiple times. And it is rare that a company does everything in -house, right? Especially a rural company like us, right? Most of the time, they're outsourcing, say, the engineering piece of it, or they're outsourcing the construction piece. Maybe they outsource the IT department. I mean...

but we have everything in house, right? And part of that is that they want to be able to support the lives of the people in the community, right? Through employment here, right? And so I'm really glad that you mentioned that and that we're talking about it because it is a very, it's a unique thing to Union. As I go and, you know, if I'm at a rural conference and I'm meeting some of our peers in the industry.

Most of them have, like from our marketing team, yeah, it's a fairly small marketing team. We have 10 people on our team. But if I talk to another rural provider, a lot of times they have one person that does their marketing because they're outsourcing the content creation of it or whatever it is, right, to support it. So it's a beautiful thing that they, to me, that they've kept that up.

Tressa

over the years and seeing the industry changes where a lot of things can now be contracted out and they've still held on to that, the importance of that and I can see it for years to come. So that's great. Yeah. Well, on that note, how do you stay authentic, Myra?

Myra

Yeah, I agree. Well, on that note, think that's, we said all that needs to be said. Yeah. That's a good question. You know what? We should answer that. Yeah. I think I stay authentic by, I really try to be true to myself. I try to be the same person everywhere I go. So I'm the same Myra at work. I'm the same Myra in my home. I'm the same Myra with my family. I'm the same.

this is me and what you see is what you get and I try to really be true to myself and stay grounded with who I am and who I want to be and to make sure that you know if someone asked the person that my mom thinks that I am is also who my daughter thinks that I am and also who my employer, my boss, Tressaa, you know, or my friends they think that I am you know I try to make sure that that's who I am is who I am and I try to stay original to myself.

Tressa

Yeah, I mean, that was great. And I do the same thing, right? Like who I am here in the marketing team and who I am, you know, with my other business. do energy work and intentions when I show up there. I'm the same person. I don't, I mean, authenticity is so important because I think it's where the only place that you can really be joyful is when you're authentic to yourself, right?

Myra 

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Tressa 

struggled with that over the years, you know, and I can now recognize when I'm in a situation where I want to maybe go into my ego a little bit more than I should. And I try to always just be aware and pull myself back to is that truly authentic to you? Is that part of your value system? Right? Is that who you want to show up and be in the world? So I try to think about it every day. Yeah, so.

Myra 

Yeah, I do too. I try to think about examples. Like what example am I? What am I? Wow. You know, so not profound. what example am I setting for myself or for others? And what does that look like? Especially as a leader. That's, it really makes you think differently, you know.

Myra

It's very different, know, who am I, how am I represented to my team and to those around me and how am I treating them and, you how am I helping them too? I think that that's really changed my thinking a lot of who am I, you know, and how I'm representing myself.

Tressa

Yeah, I agree. Well, I think it's probably time to wrap up for the day. So until next time.

 Myra 

Yeah. Well, thanks, y 'all. Stay authentic.