My guest today is Kathy Klotz-Guest. Kathy is a comedian, a storyteller, an improv actor, a keynote speaker and author of the wonderful book that I highly recommend called “Stop Boring Me.” The subtitle is “How to create kick-ass marketing content, products, and ideas through the power of improv.” In this episode we talk about the many lessons that Kathy has learned from her improv career that she brings to the world of business storytelling. How if we look at what makes for successful improv and comedy, if we view our content through that lens, we can have a much better grasp on how to create content that is engaging and emotionally resonates with your audience.

My guest today is Sabrina Depestre. Sabrina is the marketing director at Maryland Institute College of Art.. where I actually attended for a brief stint which is what piqued my interest to get her on the show.

She has also worked as a consultant for small businesses, delivering refined verbal identity and digital audits across all platforms and channels.

Sabrina is also the founder of marketing agency Buffer and Muse and host of the podcast Musings on Marketing. In this episode we take you behind the scenes of marketing a rigorous art school, and also behind the scenes of starting a podcast.. Learnings along the way, tools that sabrina uses to create her podcasts, and much more.

My guest today is Bill Zimmerman.

Bill is a lecturer at Penn State University’ Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. teaching Digital PR, Social Media Strategies and PR Media & Methods courses. We’ve never had a lecturer on this podcast, and we haven’t had much of a PR influence either so I thought Bill would be a great voice for that stuff. In this episode we talk about a variety of topics including Social media strategy, testing your messaging before launching your campaign, how Penn State manages the crossover between PR, Marketing and Communications at a bunch more stuff.

My guest today is Brian Piper. Brian is the Director of Content Strategy at Univeristy of Rochester in Rochester, New York. he is also the co-author of the 2nd edition of Epic Content Marketing along with Joe Polizzi, a book that really covers the gamut of the content marketing space in 2023 and how to succeed in it. Highly highly recommend this book. In our conversation though we zero in on one aspect of the book and that is Web3, or in other words, the Metaverse.

My guest today is Seth Odell. Seth has a solid background in higher ed marketing and producing great results for the institutions he’s worked at. He brings that expertise to his company, Kanahoma - a boutique education marketing agency based in San Diego, California. Founded in 2020, they serve colleges and universities from across the country, as well as K-12 organizations, and education technology and service providers.

In this episode we talk about a lot of things, but we zero in on Kanahoma’s unique process for finding great stories to tell. They have kind of a white glove, done for you approach to this with the schools they work with and it’s pretty in great… and the great thing is you can take this approach and make it work for you. Do it as is, or simplify it.. But it’s a great way to go about cataloging great student and alumni content at scale. That’s the key here.. At scale.

My guest today is Andrew Cassel. Andrew is the Senior Social Strategist at Middlebury College in the beautiful state of Vermont. He’s heads up all of Middlebury’s social media strategy and execution and he’s here to tell us what’s working for Middlebury, what hasn’t worked so well. Now if the idea of using Tumblr and Pinterest is your college marketing strategy sounds odd, you’ll want to keep listening. Andrew employs some non-mainstream platforms into Middlebury’s strategy and has interesting reasons for doing so.

My guest today is Rob Clark. Rob and his family are social media sensations known as “that tall family” and you guessed it, they are all very tall individuals. They post mostly funny takes on being tall and have amassed quite a following. As of today they have about 2.5 million followers across all their social media platforms.. 2.6 billion views. And Rob is here to share with us The incredible reach and influence that short form vertical videos can have on your school’s marketing. And I know there are a lot of schools out there like “ehhh should we get on tik tok? I don’t know.. It’s a whole other platform and we don’t want to do choreographed dances…” Well i’m here to tell you, or rather Rob is here to tell you that getting started with these short vertical videos for tik tok, instagram reels and youtube shorts is easier than you think and can grow your school’s brand faster than you think.

My guest today is Josh Cantrell. Josh is the founder of Signal Brandworks which is an agency working brands on clarifying and simplifying their messaging and marketing content and helping them craft marketing collateral that moves people to action.

In this episode we cover things like why saying “we’re the best school” is counterproductive and what to say instead. Taking vague messaging and making it clear and direct and make concrete sense to people.

We talk about how storytelling connects people emotionally to your school and helps them tune out a lot of other options.

We also talk about Chat GPT - how to use it as a tool for helping you get your message out there, and how not to use it, and whether Ben Franklin and Mary Poppins would be good babysitters.

Emotions drive outcomes. That’s why vulnerability is at the heart of successfully getting people to take the action you want them to take. This is true in marketing, this is true in parenting, this is true in so many areas of life, and it’s especially true in fundraising. Vulnerability breaks down walls quicker than anything and the fast track to vulnerability and emotions is human-centered storytelling. That’s why I’ve got my friend and former colleague and renowned fundraising expert with us today to talk more about that - Tammy Zonker. 

Tammy is a wonderful human being whose work I’ve followed for over a decade now. She is the founder of Fundraising Transformed, an organization that helps nonprofits drive intentional change by transforming their fundraising so they can transform the world. And guess what.. The stuff we talk about in this episode applies directly to the higher ed space.

In this episode we talk about storytelling, building relationships, building community as a fundraising strategy and Tammy shares with us the captivating story of how she helped raise a single gift of 27.1 million dollars. 

My guest today is Raffi Der Simonian. He’s the VP and Chief Strategy Officer at ERI, a digital storytelling company making web experiences, apps and marketing strategies that advance your mission, and they do a lot of work with colleges and universities. But before ERI was associated with Raffi’s name he was with a previous company that spearheaded this video for Harvard Business School.

In this video, a Harvard professor leads the class through a challenging case study conversation. This video went viral with over 11 Million views as of posting this. In this episode we take you behind the scenes of the video, how it came together, and why it resonated so well.

In this episode we’re talking to Emily Richwine, Senior Creative Director at Purdue University. Emily is one of the people responsible for Purdue’s brand success. She leads a team of super talented storytellers, which we talk about.. We talk about their recognition by Fast Company and what is in the dna of a brand like that, and we also talk about their recent viral ad campaign called “Whatever You Can Imagine”.

If you're looking for super practical, tactical tips on executing your social media marketing strategy, or developing a strategy in the first place, you'll love this episode.

My guest today is Hannah Acosta.

Hannah is the passionate and purposeful leader of the Social Media Department at Ugly Mug Marketing. Over the past 4 years, Hannah has grown her department by over 340%, and has worked alongside hundreds of small business owners and entrepreneurs as they navigate the ever-changing digital marketing landscape.

She has worked with multiple colleges and college admissions teams to help them build predictable marketing systems and content that consistently delivers results.

Getting clear on your college’s messaging, telling your brand’s story, and should your college start a podcast? Why or why not, and what should you talk about if you do? These are all things we cover in this episode with Ross Romano of September Strategies.