Build Momentum - Thought Leadership for Education, Global Workforce Edition

S03E05 - 3 Crazy Innovative Ways to Leverage Thought Leadership | JW Marshall

November 03, 2022 Sarah Williamson and Katie Lash / JW Marshall Season 3 Episode 5
Build Momentum - Thought Leadership for Education, Global Workforce Edition
S03E05 - 3 Crazy Innovative Ways to Leverage Thought Leadership | JW Marshall
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode of Build Momentum, Sarah and Katie are joined by JW Marshall, the director of learning solutions at Marketscale, and a fellow podcast host of the Voices of E-learning show. He is also the VP of Marketing at Summit K-12 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

Some Questions We Ask:

  • How’s it been going since you were last here? (1:09)
  • How did you become an industry podcast expert in education? (2:46)
  • How were you able to combine his passion for media, Edtech, and entrepreneurship? (7:05)
  • What he did at Summit K-12 (11:17)
  • What is Voices of ELearning and  getting podcast guests (18:53)


In This Episode, You Will Learn:

  • All life updates from JW Marshall (1:16)
  • JW Marshall’s beginnings as a podcast expert and in education (2:52)
  • His success on programs and in podcasts (7:23)
  • All about his show called Texas K-12 Education and sub-shows related to education (11:20)
  • All about Voices of ELearning and How he was able to get people to guest on his show (19:20)


Quotes:

“Throughout my career, it's been fun to kind of find the next big thing and really kind of hone in on it and you know, build a really strong program around meeting the audience's where they're at. And so the podcast has been my favorite.

“it's not really just about reaching the millions. It's about reaching the people that care about that topic that want to share their insights that want to engage in a way that's not just a LinkedIn post or not just a tweet, right? But a more deep conversation.”

“So it's really a win-win. I think when you do it right, you obviously get a lot of value in hosting the conversation. But the goal has to be providing value to others. It can't be salesy. It can't be, you know, a really selfish reason to do the show, because people will see that really quickly. You got to be authentic. And if you come across as really caring about the guest, and the conversation and the audience, good things are gonna happen.”

“I would just say it really does kind of change your life a little bit. If you put yourself out there and you're consistent, strategic, and you learn from you know what works and doesn't work very quickly.”

Connect with JW Marshall
Voices of E-Learning Podcast
JW Marshall LinkedIn
JW Marshall Email
JW Marshall Twitter


Stay in touch with Sarah Williamson:
Free Case Study Guide
SWPR GROUP Website
LinkedIn

Stay in touch with Chad Bolser:
LinkedIn

About "The Secret to Transformational Leadership," which Sarah co-authored with Dr. Quintin Shepherd:
Transformational Leadership Secret website
Purchase the print or ebook

Sarah Williamson:

Hello, and welcome to Build Momentum, a show where we explore thought leadership and education. I'm Sarah Williamson, the founder of SWPR Group.

Katie Lash:

And I'm Katie Lash, the director of the East Central Educational Service Center.

Sarah Williamson:

Together, we explore how to leverage key partners, your constituencies, and the media to authentically impact your organizations and the leaders who champion them. We can't wait to get started. So let's dive into today's show. And today on Build Momentum, we're so lucky. We have JW Marshall with us. If you've been anywhere in EdTech, for the last I don't know how many years a decade, maybe you've probably heard the name JW Marshall. He's currently the VP of Marketing at Summit K12. But he's even more well known as the host of Voices of ELearning show where he celebrates the leaders and experts that are powering education into the future. So nice to have you on the show. Actually, it's the second time you've been on the show. Welcome back to JW,

JW Marshall:

Thank you. So great to be back.

Sarah Williamson:

Yes. Glad to have you. So I know you've had a big life change this last year, I was so excited for you, when you told me you were returning to Summit K 12. So tell us how it's going how you're liking it. And I know you've made some big changes that we're going to talk about over there. But how's it been going?

JW Marshall:

Yeah, and I'll try to hold back on some of the changes so we can get into them in more detail. But it's going really great. I really was excited to come back to Summit, I helped the founder John Kresky. Start the company back in 2015. And the timing of a brand new startup back then wasn't the best as I was starting a family also. But we always said we would come back together a few years or so in the future with some that had grown and the timing was right. And so I was actually working with a media company Marketscale was very happy there and was not looking to leave. But the opportunity just was too good to pass up to come back to Summit and really do what I love, which is helping schools helping teachers helping students helping districts, you know, grow, you know, student learning and student learning outcomes in an engaging, exciting way. I've been very blessed in my career to work with really, really top notch companies. And it was just again, too good to pass up to come back to Summit. So I'm very excited just celebrated my one year anniversary a few months ago. And the time has flown by which I think is a good thing.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah,

JW Marshall:

It feels like you know, it's just been a few months because we hit the ground running. And it's been a lot of fun.

Sarah Williamson:

That's good. I feel like a couple of my employees who have been with me for a year like Oh, it feels like 10 it just sometimes

JW Marshall:

Depends on the day,

Sarah Williamson:

Right? But it just there's running a startup, you know, it's just a lot going on, and you're always moving at a fast pace. So shout out Elise!

Katie Lash:

Wow, JW we've never met but I hear, rumor has it that you're known as the industry, podcast experts. This podcast is all new to me. But so how did you originally get into this and education? Tell us your story?

JW Marshall:

Yeah. And it's funny. I've only been in the podcasting for, I guess a little over two years now. And I was in your same shoes two years ago, where I didn't listen to a lot of podcasts. I have to admit that now that I've been doing this long enough. And so really the power of the podcast, I'm excited to talk about that today in the further questions. But education was always really near and dear to my heart a passion of mine, my mother was an educator for over 40 years, just recently retired a couple years ago. And so I really thought right out of school as a business major, but I loved education, I almost went into higher education or administration. And my mother said, you've got this business degree go work in the real world for one year. And if you just can't stand it, you can always go back to education. And I was so fortunate to land at an edtech company called Study Island in 2005. That was the best of all worlds, it couldn't have been a better time better place to put my business and marketing, you know, passions together with education. And that really set me on a course there for over six years tremendous growth, we were kind of one of the first online learning companies around No Child Left Behind and really building software state by state from the ground up for what teachers really needed. And we didn't realize how big it was at the time and what we were doing and how it kind of paved the way for 1000s Probably of other ed tech startups, you know, 10 years later and got into education, consulting with a lot of those companies after that. And those consulting gigs turned into full time with a few other companies like sampling, learning and mentoring minds. And then onto media and media brought me back to Summit and it's been almost 20 years in EdTech now.

Katie Lash:

That's fantastic.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, so my decade was wrong. Two decades.

JW Marshall:

You're dating me now I'm a little I'm not the young marketing guy used to be but I got a lot of years good years left to me.

Sarah Williamson:

You look younger than you are.

Katie Lash:

I think you probably saw me perk up. I used to Study Island at my last school. So how about that little familiar.

JW Marshall:

There you go. Yeah, it's still around today going strong.

Sarah Williamson:

I love that. So you seriously have made your way all around EdTech I had no idea you worked for so many different companies, but that probably really helps with the podcasts and how you've been able to build so many connections to through Voices of ELearning I had imagined

JW Marshall:

It does that I did the consulting because I got to work you I'm with Houghton Mifflin and some of the big companies, I get to work with Macmillan Publishers. And then startups have just one or two people, and then a lot of fast growing startups that were really cutting edge, you know, at their time. And so I feel like starting the show, I didn't know what I was getting into. I didn't know what I didn't know. But it really just kind of clicked pretty quickly, that I love having these conversations, not just in kind of my wheelhouse of always just supplemental or course on my curriculum, but really appreciated gray adult learning the high school, college, elementary, anyone that's doing something interesting in the space from the tech side, as well as getting to interviews, superintendents and educators and district level folks that are on the map, if you will, for innovation and for trying new things. And so I love looking at LinkedIn and hearing people say, Oh, if we only did this, or we only did that, and often I can have a real tangible story to say actually, I just interviewed Scott Muri from Ector County, and he is paying his teachers over $100,000 a year. So he's solving that problem of teacher pay. And he's helping teachers gain more responsibility and experience and become master teachers without having to leave teaching to go to Administration to make more money. And that's having a positive impact. And he doesn't have teacher shortage. So you should check out the podcast and you should, you know, follow them, you know, or another district in Victoria, that Sarah's very familiar with, and you know, the superintendent there, it's just really doing some radically innovative things that are, you know, rocket science on the face, but they're hard to execute on. And so often pulling people in that direction of, hey, here's an example of this actually happening. So an evolution of our show. It's really exciting. It started during the pandemic, and it was a lot of silver linings. How are we going to do this better on the other end, and this last year, this last season has been my most favorite because it's here's real stories of you know, what's happening now that you can implement tomorrow that you can start to, you know, really make those changes that we've been talking about for a few years as a hopeful, you know, this pain is all worth it kind of, you know, scenario during the pandemic. And now it's really happening. And it's just so exciting to get to talk about those things, instead of the hypotheticals.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah. And I love how at Summit, it seems like you've been able to combine two of your passions with media and ad tech and entrepreneurship. So talk to me when you first went there. We were talking the other day about all the changes you made. So you launched some media programs, you've done some amazing work. Tell me more.

JW Marshall:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think my penchant for innovation goes all the way back to Study Island. When I started there, they were doing a one page direct mail piece black and white, like once a semester, and that was it. And so I got to kind of invent email marketing, it was like a new thing back then. And then five years later, webinars, were kind of a new thing. And like 2010, and we just blew it up. And we figured out the best ways to do it. And so throughout my career, it's been fun to kind of find the next big thing and really kind of hone in on it and you know, build really strong program around meeting the audience's where they're at. And so the podcast has been my favorite. So far, probably, I'll say, in five years, something new is my favorite so far. But right now, the podcast has really just been the gift that keeps on giving. And so anyone listening today, if you don't have a show, start a show, I hesitate to even call it a podcast, I call it a show, because it can be video can be audio it can be it just doesn't have to be what you would typically think of as a podcast, you can make it your own, you can make a mini series, there's so many options of things that you can do to leverage media and have a show or multiple shows, in my case, as we started one, and we started a second or third, and we'll get into that. But we really found value in a lot of ways. One, of course, is the traditional growing an audience and owning your audience versus going on other people's shows. And, uh, you know, that's a good thing to do. But if you can parlay that to also owning your own show, then you really get to own that audience. And you get to invite others into your conversation and own that conversation. And in some niches within education, there's still shows that need to be born, there's still opportunity, we're still in the early stages of podcasting in education, it feels like there's a lot now because people are catching on and getting on board with it. But honestly, I was just talking to someone about learning management systems. And I encouraged him to start a show about learning management systems. And he said, Well, who would listen to that? And I said, Well, it's not really just about like reaching the millions. It's about reaching the people that care about that topic that want to share their insights that want to engage in a way that's not just a LinkedIn post or not just a tweet, right? But a more deep conversation. And I told him, I said, you'd be surprised. And to my, you know, pleasure, he started to show and just on his own, he's three or four episodes, and he's like, Oh, my God has already opened up some really cool doors, and I may be starting a company or I may be joining this other company that I didn't think would happen, and they're already in three or four episodes looking at me as an expert. And of course, I have some expertise, but when you put yourself out there and you do the work, I told him, same thing. I'll tell anyone listening. You have to be consistent. You have to be strategic and have a plan, but you can't overthink it and not just To get started, and of course, you have a great show here as well, you guys are both experts and can share your experience. But good things happen. If you put yourself out there and you start the show and you stay with it, I would recommend giving it at least at least 10 to 20 episodes, and I guarantee you, you're gonna see some doors open that would not have opened without doing it. So it's typically not two or three episodes, and oh, 1000 people watching this, or I got a lead or I got a deal or I got a new job, but 10 to 20 episodes, and you'll start seeing some results. And then for me personally 25-50-75-100 episodes, PR companies start reaching out to you and other companies start reaching out to you. And when you reach out to someone to be a guest, and you can name drop two or three other, you know, name guests, they're like, oh, yeah, sure, I'll do that. And the next thing you know, you've got people with hundreds of 1000s of followers wanting to be on your show, saying yes, sharing your content along with them, and you're really providing value to them as well. So it's really a win win. I think when you do it right, that you obviously get a lot of value in hosting the conversation. But the goal has to be providing value to others. It can't be salesy. It can't be, you know, really selfish reason to do the show, because people will see that really quickly. You got to be authentic. And if you come across as really caring about the guest, and the conversation and the audience, good things are gonna happen.

Sarah Williamson:

Yeah, well tell us what you did at Summit K12 where you are

JW Marshall:

Yeah, so were based in Texas. And so we're going to be expanding out nationally. But right now we're really focused on Texas. So we create a show called accelerating Texas K-12. Education. And that's opened the doors to talk to a lot of organizations, the TEA, which is a big deal in Texas, the Texas School Superintendents Association, and really kind of honed in on some key areas that summit works with language development, science, English Language Arts, but we've left ourselves open to you know, state representatives and different people that are, you know, really thought leaders in education for Texas, and it was so successful has been so far, we're still in kind of season one about to be season two, that we went ahead and launch sub shows accelerating Texas K-12. Science, because that's a big deal to us, and accelerating Texas, K-12, English language development, which is kind of a long title, but for the people that care about that topic. And there are a lot in Texas. And that's a conversation that people aren't really having, it has really, really brought a lot of people together, because the language development community, bilingual teachers, ESL teachers, they don't get much recognition. And so just to have them on or by the directors, to talk about their programs, and what's working and what they're excited about coming out of the pandemic, and just giving them a voice and a platform has been amazing for us. And so and it's been a couple of emotional episodes of people just, you know, having such inspirational stories to share that I never again, would have guessed, when we started this, we would be getting people tearing up about how their parents would have been so proud if they could see them in their position now and the fight for equity for their students. And you know, just really inspiring stuff. And so for me every week, getting to do these shows, mostly as the host and producer, it gives me life and it gives me energy to do all the other things that are required as my VP of marketing role is. And now we've actually grown to a point over the last 12 months that I've hired a media producer, because we're now producing seven different shows and seeing the value of doing those. Our CEO said, Yeah, we need to double down, triple down and do more of this media. So the final thing that I think has been really amazing for us is working with not only inviting those partner organizations, the Texas Association of Bilingual educators as a good example onto our show, but we've actually reached out and we've proposed to them, let's help you start your own show. And they've all gone. Oh, wow, we've always wanted to do something like that. But we didn't know how, and we didn't know where to start, really. And so you guys are willing to help, like add the production value and just make us the star and like, yeah, that's it, no strings attached, no money exchanging hands, it's just a win win, we'll help you bring your members to the spotlight. And we'll have our name associated with you, as you know, presented by some a K-12, or powered by some K-12. And that's given us access to even more of an audience, right, that they've got these memberships and 1000s. You know, sometimes, and these are the exact same people that are our customers or prospects. And so it's just amazing that we've been able to build a partnership with them with the Science Teachers Association, and with the Texas School Alliance, which is the 45 largest districts in the state. And it's their superintendents, and they're just excited that we're providing this opportunity for them this platform for them. And again, they don't talk about summit one bit we don't talk about on our own shows. We just talk about the topics and the other people and the progress we're making. And people do find us after that and they go wow, any company that is willing to you know, help bring this great content for free to the world to the state might be a company we should look at seeing what they do and maybe they can help us and so again, it's not a formulaic we'll get X amount of leads every month if we do X amount of episodes, but when you hit 1020 Plus episodes, it just starts to click to where we can't imagine not doing it now. And that's these organizations now that they've started and they've gotten excited. They can't imagine not doing it. Why were we doing this, you know, a few years ago. So the final thing, then this might be the most exciting, I mean, so many exciting things to talk about is not only helping these organizations start their own shows, but now they have these annual conferences. And part of why they want the show is because it allows them to connect with their audience every week, every other week, every month, depending on their volume beyond just being known as Oh, we do the cast conference for science teachers once a year. Now, we hit them every week, but at the conferences are starting to launch media stages. So it's actually built in as part of the conference. So they have their keynote speaker, and the tavae. We just did this with Dolores Huerta was a civil rights leader that was side by side with Cesar Chavez, she's 92 Amazing story. And she gave a great keynote for about an hour or 45 minutes to an hour, but no one after the conference is going to go back and watch the recording of the keynote. We had her on the media stage after she was done with our keynote for about 15-18 minutes. And 1000s of people are gonna see that in the coming weeks in the coming months between now and their next conference. And we did that with all of their keynotes, all of their big name presenters and all their board members. And so everybody got their 15 minutes of fame on the media stage. And they've got content to drip out for 2-3-4 months now from the conference. And so I think that's going to be a game changer as far as organizations really connecting with their audiences. And it's not taking them 20 hours a week, every week to figure out who we're going to have on and how we're going to do a show. It's really being strategic around, all these people come together. Once a year, some of the conferences are not twice a year, there's like a semi annual, let's capture them there and then drip that content out so that our members are being fed every week with something. And then of course, you can do zoom interviews and things like that, but just in the podcast format versus the webinar format, or versus the you know, all day training, you know, format seems to just really connect with people kind of that sweet spot 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the format of the show, or 30 to 45 if it's, you know, kind of deeper dive topics. And so just providing a little guidance and a little production value to these organizations, they've taken it and run with it. And it's been amazing to see, you know, the results. And they're seeing results within weeks and months, because they've already got the big audience their membership versus kind of me starting my own show out of nothing. So it's really exciting to see that and again, kind of win win all around that everybody feels good about it and everybody's getting value.

Sarah Williamson:

I don't even know where to start. Katie, he is so brilliant.

JW Marshall:

We're on script now,

Katie Lash:

He is speaking to your heart all the way. No, no, it's fantastic.

Sarah Williamson:

Everything we preach Yeah. Are you looking to build brand awareness and expand your impact as an organization. But maybe you're struggling to find the ROI with your general marketing and PR efforts, it could be time to try something a little different. At SWPR Group, we approach every organization through the lens of how we can help them add the most value to the conversations that are happening in education today for one of our clients, the Institute for Education innovation, this led to the launch of soups choice, an award that we co created to build incredible brand awareness and his firmly established organization as an industry leader driving impact growth and awareness on every level for Edmentum. This meant the launch of thought leadership panels of education conferences, and a new webinar series featuring influencers and partners that are making a difference in education. What will your success story be? Let me know when you're ready to get started. Reach out at Sarah with an H at sarah@swpr-group.com We look forward to hearing from you.

Katie Lash:

So truthfully, I mean, other than the fact that Sarah and I have become pretty good buddies. Like I really latched onto her about this podcasting because I was like, I want to start a podcast on time. And like my agency like everything you were just saying, you caught my attention a lot there. But tell me more. I want to know more about the Voices of ELearning tell us more about your season and also if I inserted myself as Sarah's guest in her last season. And now I guess I'm a co-host. So how do you get guests?

JW Marshall:

Perfect. Yeah, so Voices of ELearning is started during the pandemic. It started audio only for the first 10-20 episodes and then we switched to video which I think was really key pivot for us because it ranks higher in SEO more people still will listen to the audio on Apple, Google Spotify, all the places then the video but the video has helped us gain more presence and more organic search, which is really an interesting trend that like basically counts to three acts what an audio file is which is two 3x what a blog is, so it's kind of like podcasting is a new blogging, video podcasting and what I would call as a just a show and even a podcast is like the new podcast who knows what's next? Probably, you know, AR, AV, you know, some kind of 3D Metaverse thing, but we'll get there soon enough. So that's really helped. And initially, what I'd recommend to people to find guests is just use your own network. You know, some people, they know some people, your first five to 10 guests, you know, you should be able to kind of pull from your network. And then it was kind of name dropping. Here's some interesting people a lot of it through LinkedIn. I love this conversation happening. Mike gates is one of my favorite people with Teach for America, big thought leader. And I reached out and I said, Hey, I've had on, you know, this person, then this person, would you be interested? He's like, Yeah, if they've done it, I'm sure I'll do it. And then the next thing you know, he has a good experience. And then he says, you know, who else you should talk to? Is Betsy Corcoran, the founder of EdSurge. I'm like, I don't know if she would do it. But let me reach out and she said, Yeah, that sounds good

Sarah Williamson:

She's been on my show.

JW Marshall:

She's awesome. Yeah. And I'd had Tony Wan from EdSurge before. And she's like, well, if Tony did it, then I'll do it. And Tony has been on I think twice a year for the last two years, giving kind of his update on ad tech investment, you know, which is really interesting to me, not something I would want to do a show about every week. But once every six months, I'm like, Ooh, I'm looking forward to this episode. So I think my advice would be either go super targeted and niche, or what I did in voice of elearning, super broad, I can talk to anyone about anything, I don't have a sponsor. So I'm not like, you know, beholden to anyone. We don't try to be political or sensationalized any topics. But we also don't hold back if we want to talk about teacher shortages and teacher transitions. And that's a little sticky, hey, we're going to talk about it. But we try to talk about from all angles, not just how to help teachers get out, but how to help districts, keep teachers, you know, and make sure that it's not just one sided conversations. And I think once again, you hit the network that you have the kind of lobbing out invites, and you hit 25 to 50 episodes, then it's a lot easier when people say, Oh, this is an established show, you know, it's not like, Should I do this or not? What is this, and they can go to the website, or they can go to Spotify and see, oh, there's 50 shows here. This is a legitimate show. And then 50 to 75 episodes, we started getting PR companies reaching out. And I'll never forget my favorite stories about 70 episodes. And I got a call from Fox Global, big PR firm. And they said, Hey, we love your show. And you never know if they're flattering you or if they really listen, but it sounded like they did

Sarah Williamson:

Those PR people are weasels for sure.

JW Marshall:

We'll never know, but they said we would like to have Sal Kahn join your show and a representative from AT&T, they've got a partnership about how they're helping fund the growth of Khan Academy during the pandemic. And we think your show will be a great place for them to have that conversation. And I was just had to like, say, Hold on a second, let me talk to my manager or producer made up some title and this like held the phone down and went, oh my god, Sal Khan, like his PR agency wants to be on Voices of ELearning. I'm on the map. Now I can retire from podcasting if I want to like Michael Jordan does go out on top and AT&T came into the studio. So joined virtually from San Francisco. And he's the nicest guy by the way, super down to Earth. I just saw him on like CNBC with hosts that I don't think was being like the nicest to him. And I was like, oh, man, I should have him back on again. I was a much better interviewer than this guy. But he had the same background and everything. But yeah, that's like I never could have imagined when I started this little podcast of just me talking that it would end up there. And now we kind of capped off a long season 1 on 85 Episodes Season Two I brought on a co-host and I see Sarah has also made a wise choice and co-host that's been really helpful for me as I transitioned to summit I don't have quite as much time to devote to I was doing two episodes a week, which is way too much one a week max, I recommend to everyone. Even if you did every other week, like that would be enough.

Sarah Williamson:

So we're doing just not to kill ourselves right now, just so we can be consistent

JW Marshall:

But helpful having a co host because they can help bring in different guests and have to give a shout out to my co host Leena Marie Saleh, the EdTech Guru, she is someone that has been in the classroom, which I have not she brings a female perspective, which I do not have. And we really have different styles of asking questions. And we just work really well together. And it makes it easier. And so we've gotten to a groove where we just tried to record every Friday, either mid morning, mid afternoon, and we have no problem filling up guests. Now. We're over 100 episodes and it's almost like, Oh, here's a cool person, you know, we could slot you in in December. You know, we're usually like four to six to eight weeks out, which I think PR companies like to there's a little bit of exclusivity that it's not like oh, what are you doing tomorrow? You know, we can like book you out, especially if it's a CEO or someone important like Sal Khan, even though I did that episode like a week after they requested it. I'm like I've cleared the schedule. We can do it next Tuesday. But yeah, having a co host has been helpful for Season two and we're kind of wrapping up Season Two now and then we're gonna do some rebranding and kind of start a new seasons and I like the idea of seasons versus the indefinite just goes on forever kind of thing. And I would recommend doing seasons in education of like a fall and spring and then maybe a mini series in the summer and build in a couple of breaks for yourself. I just said you have to be consistent every week. But if you do the work and you are consistent every week, you can take a break for a couple of weeks or for A month to recharge your batteries as long as you're disciplined enough to come back and be consistent again. And so that's been really helpful for us to keep it fresh. And we always try to kind of come up with some different ideas for each season as we're moving forward of, oh, this time, we want to go a little bit more personal and professional or this season, we want to go a little bit more into really making sure there's a key takeaway from every episode. So play with kind of having a theme for the season also, I think is interesting for the audience to keep coming back season after season. Versus again, the kind of indefinite Oh, the episode, the podcast will always be there. It's like, well, maybe not. This is a really special, you know, fall season, spring season, summer series. And then finally, if you're really you know, wanting to start this, but not wanting to even commit to a season to a mini series, pick your five best people in your network around a common theme. And just try it out, do a five part miniseries, see what happens. And then you can always extend that or you can do another one. And then my final piece of advice, if we're running out of time, I don't even know is once we started having especially reoccurring guest every quarter or two, we got familiar with people, I've gotten to be friends with a lot of the guests, which is really cool. Then we started to do panels, which I think was maybe my now that I've mastered, if that's even a thing, kind of the one on one, the one on two guests two or two. Now, as a co host, the panels are really interesting, where you get three or four people and you have a topic and you know, the guests because you've had them on the show before. So you know, as a host of the mediator, where to kind of take the conversation and how to call on people. You know, you've had a good point on that last time we talked, can you talk about this. And I think the audience really appreciates that. It's not people that have never, you know, met and there's no cohesion that they can feel like there's no payments to guests appreciate it. A lot of times at the end, they're like, Wow, we should do that again. next quarter. That was a really great group. Thanks for kind of putting this our All Star lineup together. And I know its success too, when they want to like trade information afterwards. And like keep in touch. So I'm also a serial networker as well as podcast host. And so I'm always trying to think of how I can add value to others and connecting them to people in my network. And I think that lends itself really well to this whole podcast show panel media kind of thing that's happening right now.

Sarah Williamson:

I agree. And you've connected me to many people over the years. So thank you for that.

JW Marshall:

And I will continue to do so. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I do feel like we're close to time. Katie, do you have any final questions?

Katie Lash:

No, I still appreciate you sharing just tidbits of advice. I do think there's lots of people kind of trying to enter this space. And there's just so much truthfully, we were just having this conversation in my office the other day that like, you know, the model in which we would bring teachers in and the expert was like somebody standing up on stage and you listen to them for eight hours. Like that's like really going away. It's like the panels, the experts in the room that like let's leverage the expertise we bring. So I think that what you're describing is there's a real appetite for this type of well Thought Leadership. Sarah, there you go Thought Leadership.

Sarah Williamson:

Yes. I mean, you're literally the case study for Thought Leadership JW, what you've created with the conferences and that media room, that is so unbelievably brilliant. I mean, and money doesn't change hands, does it like you support the media station, and then you have access to all of those individuals and your company just benefits. So it's so brilliant

JW Marshall:

We provide the videographers and editing, which there's a cost to that. But yeah, the benefit is so huge. And to make them the stars and to see them say, Oh, why don't you come and join my media stage. And a lot of times it would be like Tave and Summit co branded backdrops and things which sells a couple $100 It's like so worth it. Anytime you get risers and kind of actually have a stage elevates the look and feel of it too. But people walk by and they see the camera and the lights and they're like, Ooh, what's this, this is a big deal. Tave has never done this before. And it was their 50 year anniversary of Tave. So they were really excited to like have this new shiny toy. And we're the ones that brought it to them and brought it to life. And what's the idea, and it's just been amazing. So I hesitate to share some of my trade secrets with the world.

Sarah Williamson:

I know this is a pretty good trade secret.

JW Marshall:

But I feel like I've been doing it long enough. And we've already tapped into a lot of the organizations that we want to do this with, we can't do it with everyone. So now I feel like it's my public service to give these ideas out to the world and share them so that more people and more niches within education can start to do these things. And everyone benefits, right. And we can't talk enough about the great ideas that are out there theoretical in the future, but also the good ideas that are happening now. It's just exciting time and education. It's the biggest opportunity and 100 years to make change. And we can't talk about it enough. So if you're out there thinking, Oh, what's one more podcasts about one more topic, go out there and do it and make it your own. And you're gonna find again, you may not get 1000s or millions of followers and listeners but you'll tap into the people that really want to be a part of that conversation. And I guess the last piece is people will push me on LinkedIn all the time they pushed me You know, I share my email at the end of episodes and they'll email great episode or if you thought about this guest at this topic and so I guess be warned that you will kind of put yourself out there as a public figure a little bit and you will get people reaching out and so far so good. I haven't had any

Sarah Williamson:

No haters yet?

JW Marshall:

negative press or no haters. Yeah. Which I kind of feel like, Oh, if I really made it enough until I have a hater too, but an education, everybody's pretty nice. And, you know, it's a great space to be in. And so I would just say it really does kind of change your life a little bit. If you put yourself out there and you're consistent, strategic, and you learn from you know what works and doesn't work very quickly. And you're willing to pivot. I'm happy again, if anybody wants to reach out to me on LinkedIn to give you any advice I have, because it makes me happy to help others launch shows. And so free consulting advice here for the next couple of weeks. If you guys listening out there want to any advice, look me up on LinkedIn. And I'm happy to help.

Sarah Williamson:

Thank you so much.

Katie Lash:

I'm adding you right now. Right now.

Sarah Williamson:

Thanks, JW. This is awesome. Always good to see you.

JW Marshall:

It's good to see you guys as well.

Sarah Williamson:

Alright. Bye. If you're looking for more of this thought leadership goodness for your organization, you're in the right place. Visit us at swpr-group.com To learn more about how we work with education organizations and their leaders, superintendents and influencers to increase your impact. Again, that's swpr-group.com. Thanks for tuning in today and we will see you next time on Build Momentum.