EP32 - Telling BIGGER Stories - How One College Went All In On Their Iconic Coach
w/ Jen Porter
Director of Donor and Alumni Relations at Rochester University
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SHOW NOTES
My guest today is Jen Porter, Director of Alumni Relations at Rochester University in Michigan. We discuss the full-length documentary film they produced about Garth Pleasant, their former basketball coach
About the Film:
Garth Pleasant coached basketball at RU for over 40 years and is the winningest college basketball coach in Michigan
The film is called "Coach, Make the Big Time Where You're At" and explores Garth's story and impact on RU and the community
It's 36 minutes long and was funded by a donor who wanted to showcase Garth's legacy
Includes interviews with Garth, Oakland University coach Greg Kampe, Milwaukee Bucks alum John Horst who played for Garth, and more
Key Topics In This Episode:
Garth's humble roots and how he built an incredible program with few resources ([00:02:00])
World premiere event at a movie theater and other screening events ([00:12:00])
Behind the scenes of production - coordinating interviews, filming, post-production ([00:27:00])
Measuring return on investment from an emotional storytelling project like this ([00:37:00])
Building a pipeline for finding and telling stories at your institution ([00:41:00])
The value of investing in b-roll footage for future video projects ([00:44:00])
Links:
Connect with Jen: Jporter1@rochester.edu
Watch the trailer for COACH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wwSxKMTa20
Check back in winter 2023 to view the full film: https://rochesteru.edu/coach/
Connect with John on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnazoni/
Learn about UNVEILD’s work: https://unveild.tv
Download:
Video Subscription Pricing Guide: http://pricing.unveild.tv
3-part storytelling framework: http://unveild.tv/studenttestimonials
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Transcript (done with AI so only about 90% accurate):
Jen Porter: [00:00:00] And the thing about Garth is that he is very humble. He doesn't want any of this. We had to convince him to do this film. We had to convince him to put his name on a building. And so this isn't really... He doesn't want this to be about him. It's about Rochester university and the work that he's done there and the work that we do as an institution.
John Azoni: Hey, welcome to the higher ed storytelling university podcast on the B podcast network. This is a show dedicated to helping higher ed marketers tell better stories, create better content and enroll more students. And my name is John Azzoni. I'm the founder at Unveiled, a video production company working specifically with college marketing teams on automating their student and alumni success stories through a subscription approach.
John Azoni: And you can learn more at unveiled. tv. That's spelled U N V E I L. D. Or if you want to chat directly with me, you can find me on LinkedIn last name spelled A Z O N [00:01:00] I, or find my contact info on the contact page of our website. Also, if you want to create deeper emotional impact with your institution's storytelling and content creation efforts, consider joining my newsletter.
John Azoni: Every week I send out a dose of insights and inspiration, including case studies and best practices from other institutions. Institutions tips for creating content that resonates and inspires action, and that week's podcast episode and more. So the link to sign up is in the show notes of this episode.
John Azoni: Or if you catch any of the excerpts that I post on LinkedIn from this podcast, there will be a link in. In any of those posts, my guest today is Jen Porter. Jen and I have been friends for a few years now. So it was a joy to have her on the show as I knew it would be. She's the director of alumni relations at Rochester university.
John Azoni: Are you is a small liberal arts college here in Southeast Michigan, where I'm recording this episode from their faith based school and over half the student population is in athletics. So big sports influence over there and are, you did [00:02:00] something really cool. That I personally haven't seen before in the higher ed space.
John Azoni: They produced a full on documentary. Their former basketball coach Garth Pleasant just embodies the spirit of RU and his story is really, really cool. Not only is he the winningest college basketball coach in Michigan, but he did all that with like no budget. Like rags to riches playing basketball on a rundown court.
John Azoni: That's not even regulation size, there's water leaking in when it rains, floorboards are warping. But then to not only take this RU basketball team to the top of the charts, whatever you call it, but what's more than, than that is to have made such an incredible and far reaching impact on so many lives that Garth did.
John Azoni: And that's what this documentary is about. So, we're gonna talk about Garth's story, we're gonna take you behind the scenes. Of the production of this documentary. And if you're the person on your team that hires the video vendor and babysits the project and coordinates everything that is Jen. So she'll share some of the parts that overwhelmed her a bit in the process.
John Azoni: Maybe you can relate but it was all worth it. And I [00:03:00] kid you not, we had another tornado warning, a heavy rain and wind blowing through our area. And yet another power outage in the middle of the episode. This time it was Jen's power. So that's between her and God. Don't. Drag me into this. All right. So here's my conversation with Jen Porter.
John Azoni: All right, Jen Porter. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, John. We made it, we made it here to the podcast. It's been a, it's been a roller coaster trying to get you on this podcast.
Jen Porter: It's been a lot of rescheduling. Yeah, a
John Azoni: lot of rescheduling, but we're here. We did it. I know you and I are friends because we've worked together for you know, the last several years on video projects through a previous production company that I was, that I used to work for.
John Azoni: And so I know you've done a lot of student success stories, alumni stories you know, for, for capital campaign events and things like that. But we're here today to talk about coach. This is a long form. Well, in the, in the grand [00:04:00] scheme of like short marketing videos, it's long. It's a long form documentary.
John Azoni: I think it's like 20 minutes. It's
Jen Porter: 40 minutes. Yeah. So it is actually 36. 48 seconds without the additional ask that we added at the end. But yeah, it was originally scheduled to be a 20 minute documentary. But it has ended up to be this 40 minute film. All right. Yes.
John Azoni: And I, I watched it. On the train to Chicago, and I will say Amtrak, if you can like work on your wifi, that would be better.
John Azoni: I watched it very stutter, stuttery Lee. I had to like kind of rewatch parts when I got back to the actual hotel room, which then they charged me at the hotel room for wifi. I'm like, come on, come on. This is 2023 wifi should just be like water.
Jen Porter: Yes, you get that for free.[00:05:00]
John Azoni: Okay, so, it's a great, it's a great movie, and you guys have been doing some, some cool stuff with it, but tell us about what the premise is, who who the coach is.
John Azoni: What's this movie
Jen Porter: about? So, Garth Pleasant and the Pleasant family have influenced Rochester University really since the beginning. Garth's wife, Pat, her father was one of our first presidents of our university. Garth and Pat met at Rochester University. His kids attended. His son now Clint is now our head men's basketball coach.
Jen Porter: And so they have a long history with Rochester University. And so Garth really, he coached for more than 40 years at RU. He's preached, he's taught, he's you know, been around for a long time. And so coach, make the big time where you're at. really explores his story. And we include some really cool interviews with Oakland University head men's [00:06:00] basketball coach coach Campy.
Jen Porter: We also have interviews from our alumnus and former basketball player, John Horst, who's now the Milwaukee Bucks. And then we also have a lot of alums and community members that make an appearance in this film. Really this film was, it's Garth's story, but it's about the story of Rochester University and how everyone has a story.
Jen Porter: Everyone can make a positive impact on their work, on their community, and This is just one of our stories that we are sharing really through a donor that came to us and said, we want to, we want to fund this project. And so that's coach kind of boiled down into what it is. It's one.
John Azoni: And Garth is like the, he's like the winningest coach in planet
Jen Porter: earth.
Jen Porter: Yeah. So he has set over 720 wins. He has. He holds multiple national championships. [00:07:00] He's one of the winningest coaches in Michigan. He has a long career, you know, 40 plus years. He started his own basketball camp on the campus of Rochester University. That has now over, started with 18 kids. And now we're over 2, 500 kids every summer that come to campus.
Jen Porter: And a lot of people know. Garth and Rochester University and the Pleasant family because of that camp. And really, it's been an outreach to our community. And he did all of this without a facility. We didn't have an arena on our campus until 2016. And that arena now is named after him because of generous donor support that said, no, we want Garth's name on that.
Jen Porter: And the thing about Garth is that he... is very humble. He doesn't want any of this. We had to convince him to do this film. We had to convince him to put his name on a building. And so this isn't really, he doesn't want this to be about him. It's about [00:08:00] Rochester University and the work that he's done there and the work that we do as an institution.
John Azoni: So yeah, I remember when we were in talks cause I, cause I worked a little bit. On the creative for this in the very beginning stages, but it was something like the funder for the Garth Pleasant Arena, like was going to pull the funding if they didn't name it Garth Pleasant Arena.
Jen Porter: So Bill Fox from Fox Automotive, he.
Jen Porter: Garth impacted his life personally. He married him and his wife, Bill has now passed on, but you know, his family is still involved, but he said, Garth, unless you let me put that your name on the building and you office there, I'm not providing this million dollar gift. And so, Garth said yes. Okay.
Jen Porter: I guess like if that's what it's going to take. Sure. We'll do that.
John Azoni: That's cool. And so this is what I like about it. Yeah. Like you mentioned, it's kind of like that really like I was kind of like, kind of like rags to [00:09:00] riches sort of thing. Like created something incredible out of absolute, almost like absolutely nothing.
John Azoni: Like you see in the, in the film. Like the old gym that they were in. And like, I can't remember if it was like water leaking or like floorboards were warped or something like that. I mean, the
Jen Porter: old gym wasn't regulation size, the hoops, you know, they're the rims are soft. It's, there's no room for like, if you run hard, you're going to run into a concrete wall.
Jen Porter: There's, you know, water leaking in the winter. That's hot or it's super hot in the summer. It's super cold in the winter. It is. You know, this like beloved treasure to those who played in it, but anyone else would be like, no, that is not, that is not a place for collegiate athletics. And how do you do what you do there?
Jen Porter: And, but for him, it's not about that. It's about the guys and the students that he impacted, you know, he's done [00:10:00] more weddings than anybody. I know he's. You know, facilitated funerals for people who don't, he never knew, but they know him and it's just this lasting legacy of someone who we get to still learn from today.
John Azoni: Yeah, that's awesome. And, and the way that it kind of helps, are you is, I mean, as a faith based school, when you watch this film, you really get a sense for Garth's. Faith and, and the faith that he wanted to see in the men that were you know, becoming on the team. And really that was his focus. Like he's like, what was it?
John Azoni: It was a great quote. Like, I don't, I don't care. Like, I won't know I'm successful, you know, by how many wins, but, but what, what you boys to become or something
Jen Porter: like that. Like the husbands and fathers that you become will be. You know, what is the last You know, we don't care about championships. We don't care about wins.
Jen Porter: We care about who you are as a person and that you're living for [00:11:00] God. That you're that your story is one that is impactful for your future and for your family and for the community around you, wherever you may go in life. You know, I think Garth does tell that story of right after, after a championship game, you know, one of the, one of the players came and said, coach, are you happy?
Jen Porter: And he was like, yeah, I'm happy, but this is, what's going to really make me feel like we've accomplished something is when you. Leave here. And when you leave Rochester university, what kind of husband and father are you? Or a person of society, you know, cause not everybody gets married and have kids, but
John Azoni: yeah, that was awesome.
John Azoni: I love that. And so let's talk about how you how you rolled this out. So, and then I want to, and then I want to backtrack to talk about like behind the scenes, how production happens how your, your, like manage the production, you know, video vendor and that kind of thing. So, but like, talk about, cause you guys have rolled this out in like theaters.
John Azoni: Yes.
Jen Porter: [00:12:00] Yeah. So this project has been a lot of work. I think when we first all kind of sat down, we were so excited to do this video, but No one other than the video team that we were working with, you know, you were there really knew kind of what it would take to pull this off. My job is a fundraiser.
Jen Porter: I'm, I'm not a marketing person by trade. Everything I've always, I've learned has been, I've learned on the job and I've done it. But, so. Initial showing, we hosted a red carpet event at a local upscale movie theater. And I think that would have been successful if we did that alone as a standalone event.
Jen Porter: But we ended up partnering that with a quarterly board meeting, our annual fundraising dinner during that weekend. And so we really made, like, this weekend out of it. That celebrated Rochester University and who we are. We had a red carpet premiere. Basically, like I like to call it our world premiere that we did that night and it really [00:13:00] felt fun.
Jen Porter: And we, you know, we're in the big EMAX screen and we had 300 people that filled this theater. And then after that we, you know, we were at capacity. So, from there we scheduled a couple showings in major cities where we had high alumni concentration. And so we were able to take it, take it on the road and each one of these showings have also partnered with a Q and a panel.
Jen Porter: So to talk about the behind the scenes or to ask Garth the questions that maybe people have wanted to ask him for years or other people, you know, we've featured coach can't be on that panel. We've featured Clint, his son now part of our team, At Rochester University, we featured other alums on those panels, so not only do people get to see the film, but they get to hear more about the story.
Jen Porter: So from those this summer, early fall, we're doing [00:14:00] some local events. We've coupled a few of them on campus with Garth's basketball camp, Langmore Center basketball camp. We've also done stuff or we also have scheduled showings at local venues, like our public library, our older persons commission.
Jen Porter: We're having another Showing next week actually at the theater again to kind of do that for those that weren't able to attend. And so roughly, like, you know, that'll get us through summer. So this fall, the first six months, we're doing strategic live showings, then we're going to host the video on our newly redesigned school website.
Jen Porter: And we're going to use that as an opportunity to capture. Information from people who are interested in viewing the film. We hope to utilize that as lead generation purposes for us. More donor engagement, more alumni engagement. And then lastly this plan is ever changing for us. Like as we kind of think through, okay, what do we want out of [00:15:00] this film and out of this documentary?
Jen Porter: But
John Azoni: it should be evolving. I feel like, I feel like it's a, it's a very new thing and I feel like that's just something you, you kind of, you put out there with, with some semblance of a plan, but then it just evolves and then you're like, this would be a great idea too. And that's all awesome. Yes, a
Jen Porter: hundred percent.
Jen Porter: And so right now, kind of our last plan is to stream that on local public television. And then hopefully one day, you know, we'll stream that on national streaming sites and apply for some documentary awards and you know, my goal is to go real, you know, worldwide. We want to use this as a promotional strategy to tell the story of Rochester University, the type of people who lead our community, the impact we have on our surrounding community, our region, but also the impact of our students and what Rochester University has played a role in, in our [00:16:00] student lives, in our alumni lives.
Jen Porter: And we... Thank you. Really hope to use this to get people's attention. And interest. We are, we've launched a new campaign for a new athletic fields to finish out that athletic complex over half of our student population, our student athletes. And so we want to not just be able to play in our arena in the Garth Pleasant arena, we want to bring our other athletes home.
Jen Porter: And so this for us is. Brand awareness. It's helping us with a capital campaign. It's helping us tell the story of Rochester University to people who might not know that story. So it's ever evolving really on what we're going to do next. Kind of like what crazy idea do
John Azoni: we think up? That's great. So just so people have a sense in their head, can, can listeners of this podcast watch the film right now or do they have to like?
Jen Porter: Yes. So listeners can watch the film at one of our live showings. So those are all [00:17:00] online. People can register to come and sit down and watch the film with us. Eventually, probably towards the winter months, we're gonna put that on our website. And we're gonna put that behind a little leader. We generation form where we're gathering people's information.
Jen Porter: And we'll do that for a while. And then there'll be able to stream it on public television, at least locally here in the Rochester area. We, you know, we have some talks for a little bit more regional public television as well, but those aren't solidified at this time. So eventually you'll be able to stream it in your own home right now.
Jen Porter: You got to come watch it with us. All
John Azoni: right. Come to Michigan. It's worth it. Yeah. So just to put a pin in that, it is a very good film. It is very like, put, put a note on your calendar for winter to go to rochesteru. edu slash coach. It's very much worth the watch. I have an emotional connection to it because I mean, my good friends created it and we had, I [00:18:00] remember when we were, so the production companies tell studios, I was a creative director there for I worked there for over 10 years, was creative director for maybe eight of those years.
John Azoni: And I remember you know, Ryan, the owner, founder of the company, and always wanting to do this. And we had little spurts of like, maybe we'll just create a trailer or something and then do like a Kickstarter and see if we can raise funding or something like that. So it's just, I've heard about Garth for years.
John Azoni: And it was funny when I decided to leave and start Unveiled. It was like, all right, we're doing this. So, so I used to lead to the storytelling workshops at, at tell. And so I, my small part in coach was leading us through a workshop, which I have a funny story to tell our listeners, which so it was transitioning from.
John Azoni: Summer to, you know, summer to fall, to winters getting colder out. And once in a while, I get bloody [00:19:00] noses. Especially when it goes from warm to cold. I just have, my whole life. And so, I'm, I've got your whole team. At, at the studio and we all eat lunch and we're all chumming it up and like, all right, we got to get, we got to get going here.
John Azoni: So we all go into the conference room and my nose starts bleeding and, and I didn't want to delay anymore cause we were like running out of time. So I, I like was sitting there leading us through this workshop, pinching my nose.
Jen Porter: I remember correctly, there was a tissue hanging out of your nose, like wrapped up in there.
John Azoni: Yeah, I mean, I was like, it was so much like, okay how are we gonna, how are we going to get through this? Eventually I excused myself, just go take care of it. But it was, it's just funny. It's a funny, imagine like You know, someone that's like leading a meeting with other, the client's [00:20:00] leadership and they're sitting there like nursing a bloody nose and also being like, okay, so tell me the pillars of this story.
Jen Porter: It was very funny. And, but honestly, like, because we know each other, we've done work, you know, together, previous. I was like, oh, it's fine. You know, whatever we're friends, but there are other people around this table that you did not know and they did not know you, and so that is what gets me. It like, it's so funny to me that, you know, nobody said anything.
Jen Porter: It was completely fine, but and you were seamless. You, you like pulled off the whole launch. You know, meeting and it was great, but yeah, we,
John Azoni: we did it. We, we got there
John Azoni: quick break here to tell you another story. If you're a higher ed marketer with a stake in enrollment numbers, and maybe right now you're thinking, Oh, the enrollment cliff enrollments down, or it stayed the same, what do we do differently? Then this story is for [00:21:00] you. Walsh college is a really cool business school here in the Detroit area.
John Azoni: And I sat down with their marketing director, Jay Krueger. You may remember him from episode eight of the podcast. I sat down with him to learn more about how Walsh was able to increase their enrollment by over 40% for the summer semester with no sign of slowing down. And they did it all by not hiring unveiled for an annual storytelling subscription, but I'll let Jay tell you about.
John Azoni: Why he turned us down for the subscription, but this is a happy story though. So let's spice it up I will drop a dropping a beat in three two one. There it is. All right, we've set the tone Here's Jay when
Jen Porter: we look at the news and everybody is reporting these downward trends in enrollment. We are very much the opposite We're already up over 40% and we're already looking at some historic numbers that haven't been seen So in early 22, we had a big leadership change across almost all departments I mean the entire feel of the college changed at the same time Because of the leadership changes that took place around the building, [00:22:00] the direction of the college started to become more clear.
Jen Porter: Once we had that real clarity of who we are as Walsh College, the content creation of everything else became much easier to do. And the commercial ended up being the exciting piece that we could tie everybody into and all departments and get everybody excited about what was to come.
John Azoni: But what would the story be without a little conflict, right?
John Azoni: If you have a small marketing team, I think you'll be able to relate to what Jay is about to say here.
Jen Porter: So we did a commercial in 2018, and then we didn't do one again until 2022. And in that time, we had exhausted every... Asset from all of it. We were really using a lot of stock image a lot of things that were just very non authentic So the engagement on everything was low the numbers in our enrollment was Going right down with it.
Jen Porter: When John and I first talked, he was talking about this subscription [00:23:00] base that he had, which I thought was really cool. It's a really unique idea to be able to make sure you have content ongoing. I knew it wasn't in the budget for us, so we decided to do a one off. So what we did was we tacked on one commercial and two student slash alumni interviews.
Jen Porter: When we took the b roll from So we took the b roll from the commercial day. We took the b roll from the student day. I've now gotten a year's worth of content and, and really it's going to stretch even further because I still have stuff I haven't even used. And I've been making commercials regularly on top of the, the commercial and the student videos.
Jen Porter: I was actually able to make multiple other commercials. So I started off that. I took the script from that. Plus the video, kind of morphed it around a little bit, and I made a 60, a 30, and a 15 second audio commercial. They kind of told the same story that we were trying to do. That went into a podcasting advertising.
Jen Porter: We did that for about six months. I then took the video and turned it into another 60, 30, and 15 [00:24:00] second commercial just using the b roll and a new script. So, it didn't take much in the way of manipulation of that video to add on another commercial and another and another and another. Because the material is still there, I still have, even to this day, I'm six commercials deep with that same stuff and I still have material in the b roll that I still haven't used.
Jen Porter: So, what the important part of this was is to take everything that we had. And say, how do we, within our budget, expand this to cover the next three to five years? And we're able to do it fairly easily because of the amount of things that we were able to do inside of a two day shoot. So over the last year we've gone up in enrollment.
Jen Porter: We have, our enrollment numbers are in numbers that we haven't seen in over a decade. We have, we have increased in all levels. We have a higher interest. We're adding new programs. We just added seven more undergraduate degrees. We're seeing an increased traffic flow into [00:25:00] the website. We're seeing. alumni coming back and thanking us for the directions that we're going.
Jen Porter: I think a lot of that has to do with a lot of the efforts that we're doing and a lot of the things that are taking place, but none of that happens without the excitement that comes from getting the name out there and getting people to understand that Walsh is changing and we're changing into a direction that's exciting for not only our future students.
Jen Porter: But our existing students and our alumni as
John Azoni: well. Jay Kruger, ladies and gentlemen. Great team they have over there at Walsh. Tara Weiner also on the team. And if you heard the episode with Bart Kaler, then you will have heard her voice talking about how she reuses video content as still images, which I thought is just a cool thing that people don't really think about very often.
John Azoni: So, anyway, that's all I wanted to tell you. Just cool news from Walsh College. Alright, back to the episode.
John Azoni: So yeah, we, we we [00:26:00] did the workshop and what that resulted in was, was like a blueprint of basically like a pitch deck of like, here's how we think we should approach this. And it actually was the reason why I watched won't you be my neighbor? The Mr. Rogers. Yes. And I was like, I think I posted it on social on LinkedIn or something.
John Azoni: Or I'm like, cause I was like off on my own, like, you know, working from home with my own business. And I was just like sitting by the fire. You know, we have a little wood burning, burning stove in our house. And I'm like, I can't believe I get to watch Mr. Rogers a movie for two hours and call this work.
John Azoni: So yeah, I watched, I watched that film. And then we, we just kind of like, Parlayed that into just like let's draw some inspiration from another notable figure who has had an incredible impact and especially a faith based impact on young people so Anyway, we did the blueprint And then that was where I dropped off and then the next thing I saw was I know you guys were you're [00:27:00] filming it And stuff so tell tell tell us about like What tell us about filming it?
John Azoni: What were some challenges? What were some things that went right? What were some things that were hard to coordinate? Because I know that part of our listeners are the people that coordinate the video team and I know I hear from a lot of you listeners that like That's the worst part about that's the worst part about managing video projects is having to coordinate things.
John Azoni: And you guys had a lot of interviews in this film. And I imagine a ton of coordinating and a lot of B roll scenes. Tell us, so just tell us about that. I
Jen Porter: have never made a documentary before. We've made some short, you know, student testimonials, stories, videos like that. I'm a fundraiser. I'm not a marketer, but thankfully, we had great partners.
Jen Porter: You know, tell studios you mentioned already. Those are 2 of our alums that we're so proud of Ryan quarrel and grant mcclure and we were blessed to work with them and [00:28:00] you during that, you know, during the initial stages, but really, you know, having them was such a help because we were a small team.
Jen Porter: We're not, we're not a big shop. We don't have a video team on campus. We, you know, our mark on team is 2 people. My development team is we're now up to 4, which is really exciting. Yeah, so I think, you know, from the beginning, the sit down. I think that was great where we thought about all these ideas and how we can utilize this film and but then you have to whittle down, okay, who are you going to interview?
Jen Porter: Because we, we did interview a lot of people, but we still had this massive list of people that we wanted to include. So then crafting those questions for each person, you know, just kind of talking through how we did this and then that scheduling starts, right? So. We were all, you know, super excited for this, but at the end of the day, this was kind of like a extra bonus project for us.
Jen Porter: This wasn't our daily work [00:29:00] that we were doing. You know, I still had money that needed to be raised and we needed to figure out scheduling and all these moving parts with interviews across the nation, really, you know. And then our major talent, Garth, is snowboarding in Florida half the year, too. So, like, we're figuring out...
Jen Porter: All of these logistics and then really in the homestretch, when you think you're like done there's so many little things to make the project come to fruition of, you know, I, I didn't have to do this, but music and graphics and All of the, like, logistics, you know, the releases that need to be signed by our talent and, you know, all the little things that you think you don't think of when you do a project of this size, especially when this isn't your full time job or, you know, something that you've ever done before.
Jen Porter: So, I think like you get this. high [00:30:00] at the end of, Oh, we're in the homestretch. Then you have all these little things that almost take more time than recording and filming. I mean, we spent countless hours in revisions. I've probably watched this film 200 times of, I can quote every line that you don't, you just don't think about of, you know, working in this kind of project, but then.
Jen Porter: The video project is done and, you know, we talked about this a little bit about how we roll this out, but you really have to plan out a rollout plan and be open to changing that plan and strategically thinking, okay, how are we going to utilize this film or this video? Because we don't want to sit it on a shelf after spending that money using our donor funds to do that, using the time that we had to do it.
Jen Porter: And so you think about all those Strategic partnerships that you want to also facilitate so that your work is seen and it's not just like, great, we did this project. We're [00:31:00] done. You know, so I think all of those challenges where again, like, that's not your main focus. That wasn't my main focus as a director of development, but those creative strategic opportunities is.
Jen Porter: And still is creating strategic opportunities for us to leverage this film into more than just a documentary. So it's allowed us to meet people and talk to people and open up partnerships that we didn't know we could have. It's been great. It's just you all those little things kind of pile up So that's the biggest challenge
John Azoni: Yeah, I and I think it's cool because you know For people listening that I am almost positive.
John Azoni: You probably have someone or multiple people figures at your institution who maybe not have like a dramatic story like, like Garth, like the most winningest basketball coach in college, Michigan College, [00:32:00] whatever, but have made a big impact on on students lives. And I think you don't have to take it to this level of production.
John Azoni: But I just thought this was, this was interesting, a way of capitalizing on one of those stories, like, You know, here's Garth, here's some, you know, he did this rah, rah, are you, you know, and, and, and called it good. But, but to have a story that everyone talks about at your school, like this is like, everybody knows Garth.
John Azoni: You know, and everyone knows the Garth story that comes through our used doors and to, to take that and say, we're, we're going to invest some real money into this. Cause it wasn't cheap, right? No, I mean,
Jen Porter: we would have never done this without a donor. We, you know, we talked about. video for a long time and we really weren't in the video land until about 5 years ago when we were making our name change [00:33:00] from Rochester College to Rochester University.
Jen Porter: You know, we've dabbled here and there over the past 60 plus years. But until we did our name change, we really didn't have video assets. We didn't have anything. We didn't have b roll footage. We didn't have... You know, these stories in a video format, but then, you know, COVID hit and we transitioned one of our major fundraising events to a live stream virtual event and where we used to have a student get up and talk to people in front of this dinner.
Jen Porter: We made that. Some we did some pre recording short videos and those went over really well and we got great feedback from that. And honestly, we were able to use that in so many different ways. You know, social email website. We use the B roll for that for other things around the institution, but we've never done a project of this scope and it's opened up this whole new world for us.
Jen Porter: of what's possible from a video [00:34:00] standpoint, but what's possible from a partnership standpoint, a donor perspective because we wouldn't have had the funding. We would have never done this project without donor funding. And I'm so glad that we did. you know, now we can think creatively in other ways that we can engage our community really.
Jen Porter: And I think, you know, you talked about Garth story and how everybody has a story, you know, in terms of higher education, there's always going to be that special professor or a student with, you know, a really compelling story or If your institution is really invested in community, then you want to be able to share that.
Jen Porter: But sometimes, you know, your first step in doing all of that is not to think video. First, sometimes that first step has to be getting people to tell you those stories. You know, like Garth's story has been shared for 40 plus [00:35:00] years, but When we're thinking about other video, you know, a lot of times we're trying to go find that you had a podcast, you had somebody on, and I'm not gonna remember their name, but they talked about the creating the guide, like the Seth,
John Azoni: Seth O'Dello from Kanahoma.
John Azoni: Yes,
Jen Porter: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And I was like, we can, we can do that. We can do that internally on a smaller scale, but I think the hardest part is finding those stories and reaching out and you know, so that. Then you can market them and you can communicate those and you're not just touting your stats or what your university offers, but I think storytelling is really a game changer in sharing mission and getting people invested.
Jen Porter: They're invested in your cause, whether that be financially or through volunteerism or making a referral or coming to your institution. And that's not just for higher ed. That's for and so this really has opened our eyes to [00:36:00] all the possibilities and kind of giving us the shot in the arm that we needed.
Jen Porter: You know, for me as a fundraiser, you know, a lot of times I'm so focused on. The dollars or metrics or, okay, we gotta, as a small school, we need to hit our annual fund numbers so that we can provide, you know, millions of dollars in scholarships, which is all worthy causes, but if we can tell a story that's actually impactful, that's way more important and way more beneficial for us as an institution, personally, professionally.
Jen Porter: Yeah, it's.
John Azoni: I imagine, and I imagine too, like on a return on investment scale this might be one of those things where it's very qualitative or whatever, where it's like, you know, may, maybe you're, maybe you're seeing dollars come in but. Maybe can't necessarily track that to, to this film. But the sentiment in [00:37:00] the community and like what this film means to the school to have this story told and documented and as a tool for outreach is.
John Azoni: Is a huge return on investment. I always think like, you know, we, we always talk about like people, people talk about measuring you know, results and data and stuff like that. But also it's like, what's the ROI of a hammer, you know, like you can't, you can't really measure that, but it's such a useful tool that you couldn't, that you might not be able to do your job without you know, and so I, I think, I think that's one way to think about video is just.
John Azoni: what's the value of having an incredibly useful tool? That, that, and what's the value of, of your confidence level and your team's confidence level in that tool? As you're approaching big, big name donors just feeling like feeling like, yes, this is, this, this is, this is accurately told. And I think this is the right kind of messaging.
John Azoni: And, you know, so, [00:38:00] but, but in, in that, in that sense, have you, like, are you guys measuring anything? Oh,
Jen Porter: yeah. I'm just a measure by nature. And so. You know, I'm gonna measure. Okay, we've done some of these events. What is the actual cost for the event? There's we've put some sponsorships around especially these bigger showings at movie theaters in our regional events that we've done.
Jen Porter: You know, we did one in Nashville and we have some great sponsors that have come out to help us cover the costs because there are costs associated with having events whether they be big or small and using in kind gifts to You know do that as well, but we're always measuring okay This is how much, you know, we kind of spent to do the film.
Jen Porter: Majority of it was donor covered, but as we are rolling it out, there's actual real costs that we've been able to I guess, squash with sponsorship dollars and creating those partnerships and using this [00:39:00] tool to like, get people excited, engaged, and learn more about us. And then we're, you know, This event that we're rolling out kind of our second movie theater showing we're gonna put we have some match gifts for that for around our capital campaign.
Jen Porter: And so we are always tracking kind of the return on investment. But there is this unmeasurable you know, magic that you kind of have to just say, Okay, we're leaning into this and we're trusting the process when it comes to having this video and showing it and what that means for us as an institution.
Jen Porter: Because It can't always be about dollars. It has to be about sharing the story. And you know, really putting this video together has been a reminder of those, the power in relationships for us. And the power in everybody has a story. And sharing that and how we can all collaborate together for [00:40:00] a greater good.
Jen Porter: That's beyond. Us or Garth or even the institution. So yes and no.
John Azoni: And I, what I think it's, is yeah, I wanted to encourage listeners with two is it doesn't have to be a big story. Because I think in storytelling, we think we it's, it's helpful to think about specific moments. And so maybe you have a professor that's great.
John Azoni: You know, and, and but you know, they're not the most, they're not the winningest, whatever one, you know, one bazillion awards that kind of story, but maybe they had this quiet moment with a, with a student where they really helped that student get a job or meet that student in a, in a trying time in life in, in a, with the right words at the right time.
John Azoni: I mean, those are stories too. So, and you can't know those without building a story. Yeah. Pipeline of some sort like you you have to I mean part like so much of the work of [00:41:00] storytelling is Actually coming up with a system Where you are constantly on the lookout for stories, and I don't think enough schools Do that like it's it's I think about it in terms of like you know I'm a painter and I saw this video one time where the guy guy was like in his studio, and he's like He's like, some days I just come to my studio and I just sweep the floors.
John Azoni: He's like, cause that's making art. Like sometimes making art is just sweeping the floors, you know, and like cleaning up the area or whatever. And so I think like some, like a lot of times storytelling is just. building systems and, and going out into the community and talking to people, it's not always like the, the hands on part of like actually recording the story or writing the story and asking the questions and stuff like that.
John Azoni: So I always am like shouting from the rooftops, y'all need to get a story pipeline of some sort.
Jen Porter: 100% and I think we've learned that, you know, we've really learned that over the past few years of, okay, we're going to, we want to tell more [00:42:00] stories not just through video, we're telling these, we're doing these warrior spotlights or what we're, we're calling them, they're written that we're using on our website and in social, but.
Jen Porter: To do that, honestly, it's the best part of my job when I get to go talk to someone and I get to sit down face to face with someone or go to a student event and just witness what's happening. And it really gets you outside of your day to day and it's Much more impactful and strategic and but having those systems in place and then having those systems in place for other people to share their story.
Jen Porter: And we don't have this down to a science by any means. We're still trying to figure it out ourself. But, you know, using those faculty that are in the classroom to share the stories using students using alums to be able to say, here's a platform. Please share with us, whatever it might be. You know.
Jen Porter: You had a baby. Great. Let's celebrate that. You got a new job. Wonderful. We want to, we want to [00:43:00] showcase that. So, you know, whatever it might be big or small, I think sharing those stories are important and having that pipeline set up is something that will have lasting effects.
John Azoni: Yeah. And I think, and, and I think a lot of schools that I've witnessed kind of approach finding stories as like a one time event, like here, we're going to do this, this video.
John Azoni: Now it's time to go find stories. And what happens is they ask department heads and they ask professors and stuff. And those, those people don't know what you need. What they're gonna, what they're going to assume is that, that you, you want someone that's going to say nice things about the school, which is true.
John Azoni: But you, but you had a Lauren Keen, she was on, she was the, just, I released that episode yesterday and but she had a, a, a great thing to say about having like an internal road show. She called it like, marketing communications has to. Go on the road, get out, get out of the [00:44:00] office, talk to professors, talk to department heads talk to mentor mentors or mentee, whatever people that, that are in the mix with students and, and talk about what, what is it that you're actually trying to do and what makes a good story, what to be on the lookout for and why, why you need that, how you're using it, how it's going to impact people.
John Azoni: And so that's, that's, that, I think that's, I think that's really key. The other thing that I wanted to touch on too was you know, as I've seen, you know, cause I've I've been part in some way of Rochester University videos for a few years and I've seen like the, the B roll library that you guys have built, which is pretty extensive.
John Azoni: And and I, I wouldn't say that you guys have had like, A massive in, you know, investment in lots of quantities of videos. Like we haven't done like 20 stories, but even just like we've done a handful of them over the years. And just from those, plus this coach documentary, I mean, I got You know, I'm about to work with you guys on [00:45:00] another project.
John Azoni: And I had Grant McClure, who was the director and the editor of, of Coach. I've got, I paid him to, to round up the whole B roll library for me. I'm still waiting on this hard drive, Grant.
Jen Porter: I'm going to need a copy of that too. to do
John Azoni: that. Yeah. Yeah. So, but I mean, it's terabytes of, of, of footage and that's why it's taking him so long.
John Azoni: It's because there's so much, there's so much footage in different places for, for, for you guys. But that is a huge value of investing even a small amount in video. You have to think about it, not as just. What's the one video that I'm going to get, but what, how, how are we going to, what's the potential of repurposing this?
John Azoni: Assuming you're working with a production company, that's going to give you the footage,
Jen Porter: right? Yes. That's important because we are still learning, you know, there's all this B roll footage out there. I don't claim to be an expert in that because I think there's so much that is untapped in what we've done and what we can do.
Jen Porter: Like you said, we're going to work on this next project to tell kind of our [00:46:00] institutional story with a limited budget and We can do that because we have this B roll footage. I don't think that probably would have been possible without that. But like really this project started as a bigger project and it's going to, it's kind of like whittled its way down because of finances.
Jen Porter: And we're able to do that because we've invested in video in other ways. Yeah, that's
John Azoni: a great point. I didn't think about it that way. That, that, like, you know, we started out with a larger budget and a larger vision for this, what you guys are calling an institutional saga, kind of like your whole, you know, history and brand story and things like that.
John Azoni: And then there was, there was some pivoting with the budget and the budget got whittled way down and literally like I had to send you guys a proposal and it was like. The only way we can do this is to rely almost entirely on your B roll library because we won't have the budget to like go film a bunch of [00:47:00] new B roll.
John Azoni: So that, that allowed you guys to what will be you know, a really cool piece that that otherwise probably would have just been canned. You know, yeah, a
Jen Porter: hundred percent. It would have like died on the vine and it would have been a lost opportunity for us. You know, I think we're still going to make this.
Jen Porter: It's something great. We're going to make it into a project that we can be really proud of. And it's something that we didn't plan for, but it's working out you know, like this little blessing of having this B roll that I think it'll be great for us longterm. And it's so untapped. Like, that's like the thing that I keep coming back to is that we have all this footage that we haven't even started to utilize.
Jen Porter: And so from coach, from all these other videos that. We haven't invested a lot. We've invested, you know, a couple hundred, not, not even a hundred thousand dollars probably in video. And some people that's like, they're a small portion of their video budget for [00:48:00] the year. We're talking like over five years here.
Jen Porter: So it's a small investment. But it's so worth it to tell the
John Azoni: story. That's great. I love it. Okay. This was great. Super great having you on. So where can people connect with you at if they have questions about coach or your job, whatever?
Jen Porter: Yeah. So, you can always check out our website, which is Rochester, you.
Jen Porter: edu specifically for coach. It's Rochester, you. edu slash coach, or you can email me, find all my contact information there. Jporter1 at rochesteru. edu. I don't know if you want me to do
John Azoni: that. Is there a jporter2? I don't know.
Jen Porter: No, but there is a jporter. Yeah. So, there was a jporter. Some people, it's so funny, we just add numbers, you know, like.
Jen Porter: Some people have four, some people have seven at the end of their name, at the end of their email. So jporter1 at rochesteru. edu or you know, honestly a quick Google search, you'll find all my contact information.
John Azoni: All right, [00:49:00] cool. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Thank you, John. Appreciate you. Thanks so much for listening.
John Azoni: I want to tell you a little bit about what's coming up on the podcast. We got a few episodes that are pretty cool. So, number one, and I don't know what order these are in. Sometimes I just kind of follow my heart, you know. But we've got three. One is with Andrew Castle from Middlebury College.
John Azoni: He's come back on the, on the, on the podcast to talk about Mastodon Web3, the Fediverse, the Metaverse, all the verses. And it's just a cool sort of new. It's a cool thing to wrap your head around if you can kind of understand Mastodon and how that works and how it could, how it could benefit your institution.
John Azoni: Also, we've got Darren Rubenick from University of Central Missouri, and we're talking about all these social media platforms that are, that are running about here, the, the overwhelm that comes with trying to figure out what to focus on, which ones which ones you should be on, which ones you can ignore.
John Azoni: So we're gonna, we're gonna talk about all that kind of stuff. And then we've got Andy [00:50:00] Fuller, who is the executive director of branded content at university of Notre Dame. We are talking with him about narrative ownership owning the stories that exist within your institution's history or.
John Azoni: Current times owning them and telling those stories before other people tell them. So yeah, it was, it was a fun conversation with Andy. And then let's see, three things I want to give you before you go. Number one if you are interested in our subscriptions you can download our pricing guide at pricing dot unveiled dot TV.
John Azoni: If you're interested in a one off or working with me on video of video content of some sort, reach out to me through our website or reach out to me through LinkedIn, whatever's easiest for you. Number two, sign up for my weekly newsletter for insights on creating deeper emotional impact with your institution's storytelling and content creation efforts.
John Azoni: And number three, leave a review for this podcast. Helps me out a ton. Thanks a lot. My name is John Izzoni. Go connect with me on LinkedIn. And in the meantime, we'll catch you on the next episode of the higher ed storytelling university podcast. Thanks.[00:51:00]
