Higher Ed Storytelling University

My guest today is Eric Stoller, VP of Digital at Territorium. In this episode we discuss the value of higher education in a skills-based economy and how colleges need to better connect the dots for students between their education and employability after graduation. Key takeaways: Why a skills-based focus is important for communicating value to today's students and adult learners. The limitations...

My guest today is Shane Baglini, Senior Director of Marketing and Recruitment at Muhlenberg College's Division of Graduate and Continuing Education. In this episode we discuss strategies for marketing to and recruiting adult learners. Key takeaways: Adult learners often come back to school to overcome challenges and achieve personal goals. Marketers should address their anxiety and emphasize how y...

My guest today is Allison Turcio, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at Siena College. In this episode we discuss creating an environment where students naturally want to share their positive experiences. Key takeaways: - The importance of studying other colleges known for exceptional student experiences. - Making student-centered decisions and putting yourself in the student's sho...

My guest today is Darren Roubinek, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at the University of Central Missouri. In this episode we discuss the challenges of social media platform overwhelm and knowing where to focus your efforts. Key takeaways: The difference in resource capacity between Darren's previous team at Avila University and his new team at UCM - this impacts the type of content...

My guest today is Andy Fuller, Executive Director of Brand Content at the University of Notre Dame. In this episode we go deep on the power of narrative ownership and storytelling to strengthen your university's brand. Key takeaways: What narrative ownership is and why it's so important for universities to own the stories about their history, buildings, traditions, etc. rather than letting others...

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...

My guest today is Bart Caylor. If you’ve floated around the higher ed marketing sphere for very long you’ve probably come across Bart at least once. Bart is the founder of the education marketing agency, Caylor Solutions as well as the co-host along with Troy Singer of the Higher Ed Marketer podcast. He is also a keynote speaker, as well as a first-generation college student himself. In this episo...

My guest today is Mike Richeson. Mike is the founder of a video production company called Homestead Production and they work with clients in a variety of industries. Don’t waste your time trying to Google Homestead Production because they don’t have a website and as you’ll learn in this episode, that’s a strategic choice. In addition to being a talented video content creator mike is a very talente...

My guests today are Ashley Budd and Dayana Kibilds. Ashley is the director of marketing operations at Cornell University. Day is a strategist at Ologie which is a marketing and branding agency focused on educational institutions.  Ashley and Day are co-authors of a new book that is forthcoming about emails. Writing effective emails that people actually want to read and respond to and take action f...

My guest today is Lauren Keane.  Lauren is the Associate Vice President of Communications at Southern New Hampshire University and she wrote a fabulous article for Inside Higher Education called “harnessing the power of student stories.”  In this episode we turn our attention to getting media exposure with your content and how student success stories in particular are appealing to media outlets. ...

My guest today is Jenna Spinelle. Jenna is a writer podcast writer and speaker in higher education. She hosts and produces the "Democracy Works" podcast and the Narrative series "When People Decide." Both of those are productions of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State. She also teaches courses on freelancing and the creator economy at Penn State University's Donald P. Bellisario C...

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...

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...

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 o...

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 a...

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 technolo...

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 list...

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 re...

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...

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 storyt...

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...

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 Yo...

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 along...

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.     Links:  -September Strategies -Connect with Ross on Linkedin -Pricing for Video Storytelling Subscription:  pricing.unveild.tv -Download ...

In this episode we sit down with Alex Poppe and Kelley Coe of the nonprofit Preemptive Love .  Preemptive Love is an organization I came across near the beginning of COVID who hooked me with their content marketing and has kept me engaged for the last couple years. Their storytelling is remarkable, their mission is remarkable, and the uncommon focus on print is what really got me excited to have t...