Jenn Spantak’s 3 journalism lessons for storytelling at Caterpillar

Jenn Spantak is a storyteller turned strategist, blending her Emmy-winning journalism background with a passion for employee experience. As Caterpillar’s employment brand & recruitment marketing director, Spantak shapes how talent sees and connects with the company. 

Spantak will share her insights at Ragan’s Writing Certificate Course, where she’ll dive into narrative flexibility—showing how to shape a story that works across channels, from thought leadership to social content. Plus, she’ll break down how to turn one core message into multiple compelling angles. 

What storytelling lessons from journalism have been most valuable in your work today?

There are so many! However, if I had to narrow it down to my top 3, I’d say:

Keep it simple: Don’t overthink it! Pretend you are talking to a 5-year-old and use easy-to-understand language.

– Keep it conversational: Conversations have a natural rhythm and flow about them, and that natural rhythm and flow is so important to storytelling. I often think storytelling is like creating music. There are the natural highs and lows in how we speak, and that’s what keeps it entertaining. It also makes it easier to digest and understand. Children’s books are a great example of conversational writing. If you can’t easily read your story out loud, you may want to rethink how it’s being presented.

– Don’t bury the lede: Our attention spans are so short these days, so you gotta get to the point… FAST! Tell people why they should care right away and then come back to the details. If you watch a newscast, the anchors typically set up the stories with a short intro that hooks you before tossing out to the reporters who have more details. Follow the same format. 

Caterpillar is known worldwide for its impact in heavy machinery. How do you approach building an employment brand that’s just as strong? 

I’ll borrow a saying from Frank Ocean, “Work hard in silence, let success be the noise.” I believe actions speak louder than words and you need to showcase those actions to gain credibility. That’s where storytelling comes into play. It’s through the use of stories that has allowed us to really bring our employee value proposition to life and highlight why Caterpillar might be the best employer for you.

Narrative flexibility is key in communications. Can you share an example of how you’ve adapted a single core story across multiple channels—whether internal, media-facing, or social?

Narrative flexibility is essential these days because you need to be able to tell a story across multiple channels. Our recent ‘Your Story. Our Impact.’ campaign is a perfect example of taking a multi-channel approach. 

We would start with a long-form, horizontal video that we would put on YouTube and leverage internally on our intranet. From there, we would cut that video to 90 seconds or less and place it in organic and paid social media. Finally, we would also create graphics, which included a picture of the employee featured and a snappy headline, which we would use in our remarketing efforts. To engage our manufacturing workforce, we would take those graphics, add a QR code and create table tents for cafeterias so workers could watch the video on YouTube from their mobile devices.

What’s a book, movie, or TV show you think tells an unforgettable story?

I have a 6-year-old, so I read a lot of children’s books these days and the one that comes to my mind often is ‘Dragons Love Tacos.’ It’s one of my favorites to read to my daughter. We always have a good laugh while we read it. Maybe it’s the rhythm? Maybe it’s the storyline? Maybe it’s just because who doesn’t love dragons and tacos?  

What excites you most about the future of communications?

I think with the advancements of technology, such as AI, it’s becoming easier to execute complex ideas. For example, you can now easily edit a video from your phone, remove a background from a photo, or generate an SEO-friendly headline. I think this opens up a whole new level of creativity that communicators may have been apprehensive to tap into previously.

What advice would you give someone new to comms?

Always remember your audience and put yourself in your audience’s shoes. If you keep them top of mind, you will never go wrong.

Don’t miss Jenn’s presentation on strategic story architecture at Ragan’s Virtual Writing Certificate Course for Communicators on April 16, 23 & 30.  Enroll now.

Isis Simpson-Mersha is a conference producer/ reporter for Ragan. Follow her on LinkedIn.