100 Episodes: A Celebration of Growth, Connection, and Insights in School Marketing

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Tara: Welcome back to the Mindful School Marketing and a very special episode today. It’s our 100th episode. I’m Tara Claes and I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate this milestone with Aubrey and with our listeners. 

Aubrey: Absolutely. I’m Aubrey Bursch and I’m thrilled to be celebrating this huge moment with you all, especially Tara.

Over the last 100 episodes, we’ve had the privilege of speaking with school leaders, marketers, and experts from all around the world sharing incredible insights and stories. And we’ve loved every minute. 

Tara: Yeah, I can’t believe that Aubrey, a hundred episodes. There are so many lessons that we’ve learned in this process about so many things both from our guests and through our own experiences for as podcasters, as consultants for independent schools.

So let’s, let’s just take a moment for our own fun and, and just to share with our listeners the story behind creating Mindful School Marketing how it came to be and, you know, what inspired it and sort of what the process has been. 

Aubrey: Absolutely. So, it’s funny in preparation for this episode, Tara and I went back and we were like looking through our emails and I was looking through our LinkedIn messages.

And we actually met via LinkedIn. I reached out to Tara and I was like, Oh, I’m so in awe of your amazing website skills or something along those lines. And it was March, 2020. So, it was like right when COVID was hitting and you know, Tara was really kind and She emailed me back or texted me back and we met virtually for a while.

And I got to know her better. And then we all joined like an industry mastermind together. And then I would say that led to, as I would have been started, I had told Tara, I think I was, I was thinking about starting a podcast and Tara had done a podcast for many years. And so then we had some talks.

Tara’s podcast, you know, the one she was on, ended. And she approached me about doing a podcast together. And I was like, Oh my gosh, she wants to do a podcast with me. This would be amazing. And for those of you who have not met Tara, but probably if you’re a listener, you’ve probably seen this. Tara is one of the most awesome people.

organized people I know. She’s also super passionate. And so, you know, when we first met, like I went, you know, I can say that I was really drawn to her for many reasons. She is an amazing person with systems, with technology, with productivity. She loves books and learning. And we really quickly bonded over those things.

Mostly me asking her excuse me, what technology are you using and can you teach me to be more productive? And what I loved about her was she was always so willing to jump on a call or share her resources and she’s just has so much wisdom to give. And as I got to know her even more. And you know, I realized what an amazing, generous and loving and kind person she is.

And she’s both personally as my friend, as well as her support of local charities and nonprofits. She has such a big heart and it’s just been a joy getting to know her over these few years and really doing this project together. 

Tara: Oh, I didn’t know this was going to be like a love fest, Aubrey, but back at you.

That’s so nice. Thank you for saying all those kind things. I think we we hit it off for all the reasons that you said, and you are the most positive person that I’ve ever met. I think you always have just such kind things to say, and you always have a positive outlook on things, even when things are hard and I admire you so much for that.

And for me, having someone who who has that much energy. It’s a good fit for my sort of serious approach to things. I think, you know, you, you just always, everybody says this about Aubrey, that you just have this boundless energy and this great joyful spirit, which is a big part of the personality of the podcast.

I think that you’ve brought to it is, is just. a really sort of happy and excited. You’re always so excited about every guest that we have and so easy to work with, and I think that it comes through in our podcast that we have this great relationship and this balance. And you’ve been really instrumental cause you are really, Connected in the independent school community much more than I am and you offer such great services to them.

They’re so broad and cover so many things where since I’m focused on websites when we have guests on who talk about, you know, more administrative things, it’s something that you really can talk, speak to a lot more broadly than I can. And I’ve always appreciated what you’ve brought to that. So I think we’ve, what we’ve done here is it’s been really exciting to see the growth of the podcast as well over the past three years.

And and it’s really easy. I mean, it’s something easy that, that we’ve both committed to. We have a process. We have the amazing Taryn who helps edit the show and Mickey who helps publicize the show. So we have a team and I think we’ve set it up so that it’s sustainable. And, and it’s just been, you know, It’s been a joy and I look forward to continuing to do it.

I think when we looked at, at creating this podcast and what it was going to be, we knew we both had a marketing focus in the independent school community. And we looked around at what podcasts were available. What we really wanted to be able to do was bring in some things outside of the marketing sphere, because we both have this.

I think we both have a mindset of of mindfulness of how to, you mentioned my, my philanthropy or whatever, how to be good people in this world and how that impacts doing a good job, right? Like, That you do a better job when you feel good about what you’re doing and when you feel good about yourself and when you’re taking care of yourself and all of those things.

So we’re trying to bring that into each episode when we talk about mindfulness and we bring in books and things like that. But also just in terms of the guests that we have, not just talking to people in the independent school community, but broadening and talking to people who, who do mindfulness, who do Enneagrams, who, you know, who, who do things.

That are self care. So I think that I really appreciated that too, because it’s sort of a break from just talking about school marketing all the time and how well it may all impact that because it impacts the job that we do. I’ve really appreciated the ability that we’ve that we’ve made to to talk about a broad array of topics because we like talking about those things too.

And we’ve really met some really great people. We, we committed to doing this podcast as a service to the community. Even though there is a cost associated with it, both in terms of our time and resources, I talked about, we have some people who, contractors who support us. So one of the things that we talked about after we had it rolling was finding sponsors, and we’ve been so fortunate to have a few sponsors, but in particular, Enquiry Tracker has been our main and ongoing continued sponsor for this show, and we’re so grateful for that and They also are committed to giving back to the community by supporting this show.

So, I’m gonna, we’re gonna take a little break here to hear a special message that they recorded for our 100th episode, and then we’ll come back and get into more details about our history.

That was awesome. Thanks so much. We’re so grateful to you, Enquiry Tracker. Now moving on, Aubrey, what’s changed? in the school industry and in marketing since the podcast began, do you think? We started at our first episode was in April of 2021. 

Aubrey: Yeah. Can you believe it? April, 2021, as we were preparing for this episode, I’m like, wow, a lot has happened since April, 2021.

So clearly like around April, 2021 if you all can think back schools, we’re still dealing with the, you know, outcomes of COVID. So, they were trying to figure out how to engage their community. Like some were still doing like virtual elements of some of their programming. There was a lot still going on with like, how do we re engage our community?

How do we build back our community? How do we retain the people that are, you know, at our schools? And I think the retention piece has definitely continued on as has, I think, the understanding and role of marketing during this time. I, as if we can think back to that COVID time period. We had to market to different populations that, that all of a sudden were very interested in private education.

And so for marketers, that role grew. So, there was a lot more marketing, a lot more like, okay, so how do we reach this population? How do we talk to this population? How do we keep this population at our schools and continue to talk to them about the value of what we do? So I think watching that kind of grow and, and.

Transform over the past few years. That’s been really intriguing and interesting. In addition, you know, as schools, yeah, we came out of, you know, COVID we dealt with that. You all did an amazing job. And then, you know, now we’re, we’re in the realm of like all these new technologies coming out. Like how, what does this mean for our schools?

Like, for example, AI, like, what does it mean for our schools? What does it mean for our programming? What does it mean for? Marketing. What are all these things? So, I mean, I think we can always say that change is a constant, right? And so, we’ve seen lots of changes over the past few years since we launched the podcast.

And I think what hasn’t changed is the I think the interest and enthusiasm of schools and marketers and school leaders to really embrace some of these changes and to come up and problem solve and really dive into some creative solutions. And, and some of our guests have like, all of our guests have shared wonderful, like wisdom associated with that.

And that’s been really interesting. Tara, what about you? 

Tara: Yeah, well, I can speak, you know, to. To websites and technology. As you mentioned, of course, AI has had an impact. And when we do think back to when we started the podcast, it was, it was still COVID times to a large degree. So for websites, you know, having virtual open houses, something that actually in many cases hasn’t even completely gone away.

So we’re still seeing that a lot where we’re all used to virtual a lot more than we used to be and schools. Pivoted and created these virtual tours and things and those are still part of of their website messaging and communication so I think that’s something from a website perspective that that’s that’s changed and it’s going to stay To a large degree I think you know online learning and all of that too is something that some schools are still focusing on for different parts of their curriculum too.

So having some asynchronous learning in addition to what they’re doing in the classrooms, it’s been really interesting to see as well. So I’m interested to see what’s going to happen as accessibility becomes more important in websites because that’s something that also has become more important in just in the website field in general and for schools and nonprofits.

It’s something that they’re going to need to focus on more as well. 

Aubrey: Yeah, that’s so interesting. Thank you for sharing that. I would also say that I think what you were talking about, the learning options, I think parents now have so much more, so many more options than they used to, right? COVID disrupted the entire educational space.

So it’s not just public and private and independent, it’s. It’s so many more things. And so the competition has also increased, I think, in terms of you know, getting the attention of parents and families and then making sure they’re the right fit and then also showcasing your value. 

Tara: Yeah, for sure. Now we both took a little time to look back over our series of 100 episodes and we looked at some of the statistics about them.

And so let’s start with you. What stands out for you in terms of just trends? And we can talk about some specific episodes as we go forward. But what stands out for you from these past 100 episodes? Any key takeaways? 

Aubrey: Absolutely. I’m really excited to talk about this. So, a few. Key takeaways for me. I would say the importance of building authentic relationships with families and prospective students, the value of empathy and mindfulness.

I mean, it is the mindful school marketing podcast and especially mindfulness and marketing and the power of data and analytics shaping school strategies. Those are definitely some overall themes that I noticed and that I think are still very relevant for people. 

Tara: Yeah, let’s dive into that a little bit.

So, you know, talking about the importance of storytelling, for example, when we talk about authentic relationships, it’s a common thread in so many of our conversations, whether it’s about your school’s brand or your admission strategy or connecting with your community. Storytelling is making these authentic connections.

I love chatting with Rebecca Drobis, a photographer who taught us the art of capturing compelling school photography in episode number 89. And then our recent episode with Bob Thomas, the Walden School, who shared his story with us and related it to the topic of diversity in school leadership. 

Aubrey: Yeah, definitely.

And let’s not forget the role of data. I do love data. So many of our guests like James Riley, who enlightened us on leveraging data for independent schools, that was episode 93. They have shown how data can drive smarter marketing decisions. It’s not just about the numbers. It’s about using those insights.

To guide your strategies and to build relationships with your families. And then we had Dana Nelson Isaacs who was one of our first guests on the show. And she shared with us the value of using data to make decisions, both in marketing sense, as well as enrollment. And it was fascinating to kind of reflect on that.

And I hope our school listeners also saw how important data is. 

Tara: Yeah, that was a great episode. And it was a long time ago. That was episode number four with with Dana. She was a wonderful guest. Let’s talk about understanding your audience. So many of our guests have emphasized the need to really know your current community, your prospective families, and how to tailor your marketing strategies.

To speak to their needs, to their values. One of our most popular episodes, which was number 50, was with David Willows and Suzette Parlevet of Yellow Car. And we loved talking to them. They are a great team and they’re doing amazing things with schools. We discussed how to design intentional experiences for families and how schools can measure every stage of their family’s journey to determine whether they’re having a good experience.

Aubrey: Yeah, that was a great episode. I think overall, when I’m thinking about all the biggest takeaways from our last 100 episodes I think it’s, it’s really that it’s not just about marketing. It’s about creating a community and a culture where people feel welcome and heard. 

Tara: Yeah, I also was just thought of one more episode while we were talking that I really loved.

And this one came out of one of the other things that we’ve started doing as a podcast team, which is going to conferences. And so, you know, we had the privilege of speaking with so many inspiring leaders in as guests, but you know, they’ve shared things from diversity and inclusion. To people who’ve talked about innovative strategies for school communications, but we’ve also met so many people in person at events like the B-A-S-B-I-I-B-A-I-S conference and the National Small Schools Conference.

And at A-V-A-I-S conference, we met Greg Angelie who. Then became a guest because we started talking to him about what he was doing around the topic and the curriculum topic of happiness. That was a wonderful episode. We’ve gotten some great feedback about that episode number 81 and what he’s doing. We’ve had a couple of episodes about happiness actually.

And so that was a great episode and a A really big treat for us as we’re now sort of getting out into the wild and, and meeting listeners and meeting prospective guests at these conferences. So I’m happy to mention that one as well. Yeah, I really loved going to the conferences and really meeting both the speakers and attendees has just been fabulous because we get connected with people like Greg, right?

Aubrey: And we also learn so much while we’re out on the road. So taking the podcast on the road has been super fun and it really is such a gift to connect with people face to face. We love hearing how the podcast has helped them with their own work or if they have a favorite episode and those connections, you know, we’ve made have been absolutely priceless.

Like, I think that’s one of my, one of the favorite things from, from producing this podcast is making those connections. And we’re really grateful for every conversation and every new friendship. 

Tara: Yes, agreed. Totally agree. And and again, a shout out to inquiry tracker as well, who become friends.

Also they really help us bring this show to life every week. So we’re grateful for their partnership. 

Aubrey: Yeah. Thank you. Inquiry tracker. Really appreciate it. And thank you to our listeners because. Obviously, without you, we would have no podcast. So your engagement, your feedback, and enthusiasm keeps us motivated to keep delivering meaningful content.

And, you know, thank you for approaching us, whether it’s at a conference or sending an email, and letting us know, you know, how this is resonating with you. And we’re always obviously looking for ideas. So thank you. 

Tara: Yes. Thank you so much. So here’s to the next 100 episodes, Aubrey, and, and to our listeners.

We’re so grateful that you’re part of this journey with us, and we’re excited for all that’s to come. Yeah, it’s been 

Aubrey: a great ride. Absolutely. And on that note, we are going to take a short break from recording just a mini break and we will be back in April. And in the meantime, we’re going to re share our most popular episodes with you in case you missed one and want to revisit it.

And please let us know send us a message if you have ideas for shows in the future. We’re looking forward to the next 100. 

Tara: Yeah, we’d love to hear from you. You can reach out to us from our website, which is mindfulschoolmarketing. com. If you have guest ideas, if you would be a good guest, if you have feedback, if you have any comments on any of your favorite episodes, any topics you’d like to hear about, we would love to hear from you.

We will keep publishing on your favorite podcast platform, even while we’re on a break, because we will be republishing. Thanks for listening. Bye. previous episodes, our most popular ones. So hopefully that you will still be able to listen and maybe you’ll hear one that you missed when it first aired.

So thank you so much everyone for being a part of our Mindful School marketing community. We couldn’t do this without you. Have a great few months and new year.