The Dogwood Media Solutions Podcast

#005 - Q & A with a Marketing Strategist

February 28, 2023 Dogwood Media Solutions, LLC Season 1 Episode 5
The Dogwood Media Solutions Podcast
#005 - Q & A with a Marketing Strategist
Show Notes Transcript

We're mixing it up this week and instead of talking through one of our blog posts, we're interviewing Bekah Gordon, one of our Marketing Strategists! In this episode, you'll get to meet Bekah, find out how she got involved here at Dogwood, and maybe even hear some silly stories about how Brian and Bekah met. You won't want to miss it.

Link:
https://dogwoodmediasolutions.com/staff/brian-harris/
https://dogwoodmediasolutions.com/staff/bekah-gordon/

Learn more about Dogwood at DogwoodMediaSolutions.com. At our site, you can learn more about our staff, and the services we offer. Don't forget to check out our blog full of information while you are there. You'll also find links where you can follow us on social media and become an insider to really see what it's like at Dogwood.

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hi, and thanks for tuning in for today's Dogwood Media Solutions podcast. I'm Brian Harris, one of your hosts here today. We have a great topic. We're doing a q and a with one of our own marketing strategists, Becca Gordon. So make sure you sit down right now. Tune in, stay tuned in. We have a lot of fun on this episode. Hey everyone, and welcome to the Dogwood Media Solutions podcast. I'm Brian Harris, one of your hosts here. And this is episode five, which is called q and a of a marketing strategist and that marketing strategist strategists that we're having today. You know, first thing I have to do is be able to say strategists <laugh>. It is one of our own is Becca Gordon.

Speaker 2 (00:41):

Hello.

Speaker 1 (00:41):

Welcome to the podcast, Becca. Thank you. I was glad to have you here. It's good to be here. So, first thing I put on here, and we kind of had a little notes rundown before we had the podcast, is talk about how we met. Oh gosh. I know. So you gotta reach back deep into the, your thoughts or memories about that time. The first day we met. Oh

Speaker 2 (00:58):

God. Like the thing is that like, as opposed to anybody else that you could bring in mm-hmm. From the office. Like, I gotta think way back.

Speaker 1 (01:04):

I know, and I did this on purpose cause I thought it'd actually be a fun part of the podcast. Oh yeah. Because was it was probably 2000 thousand 10. Yeah. I think it was 2010.

Speaker 2 (01:13):

And so, I mean, 12 years ago, 12 and a half. Really? Mm-hmm. Because it was summer. Um, and so Brian and I met, um, because I was a youth ministry intern, um, at Taylor Road Baptist Church where Brian was working at the time. Um, and the fun thing is, right before I came to work in the office, there was a Facebook post that was a photo of the youth minister's card gotten hit by a rock <laugh>. Yes. It had from the, uh, lawnmower. And there's a picture of Brian standing right next to this hole in the window with his fist. And I was like, Hey Becca, don't mess with Brian this summer,

Speaker 1 (01:49):

<laugh>. I did. I remember, I remember standing there beside it and I was like, Keaton was like, make, Keaton was our youth minister there at Taylor Road and he was like, make your uh, the most challenging face you can make. Like this, you know, angry. And then, so I was like, yeah,

Speaker 2 (02:03):

It was like the hole standing like next to this

Speaker 1 (02:05):

Car. And it was a huge hole. It wasn't like a fist punch kind of hole. It was like, no, it was like back part of his windshield was his shatter was a shatter.

Speaker 2 (02:11):

Yeah, it

Speaker 1 (02:11):

Shatter was gone. And just me standing there like, yeah, I did this <laugh>. Watch ya. Yeah. This is Myy area.

Speaker 2 (02:17):

Yeah. It was like, heads up Becca, you're coming into some craziness this summer.

Speaker 1 (02:21):

Oh, there was a lot of that too. Cause I think I, I was looking back at pictures from that summer too. We had like, just some weird things that happened. There's one, I mean, you took a picture and it's like a regular day and it was a picture of me on top of two chairs. Yes. And Keith and then Ke

Speaker 2 (02:34):

On top

Speaker 1 (02:34):

Of me Of you. Yes. Yes. And him pretending to hit me, which actually he might have hit me. It's

Speaker 2 (02:39):

Very possible.

Speaker 1 (02:39):

This, this is maybe t m i what

Speaker 2 (02:41):

Wasn't violent, but, you know,

Speaker 1 (02:42):

And, and I'm glad you did. I'm passion. This is a good thing that, yeah. Well I bring this up because of Keaton and this is gonna be a podcast Keaton's. Glad to go back and listen to now. Yes, for sure. But I would be, like I said, Tiah, I'd be in the bathroom standing at the urinal and Keaton's fun thing that he loved to do, which I'm glad you didn't have to ever have this happen, was to, to come over and like, just push you and you're in that moment. Ooh, I know. That's the kind of person Keaton was boys,

Speaker 2 (03:04):

Boys are weird. Like y'all, y'all never grow out of it. Like

Speaker 1 (03:08):

I would be like, Keaton, come on man. <laugh>. I was like, this is too far. This, this is like my time. You know, <laugh>. But he, he would do that. But it was just, we had a weird relationship. We also, I you participated in this, we'd go wake up students.

Speaker 2 (03:19):

Oh yeah. Dawn patrol.

Speaker 1 (03:20):

Dawn patrol. We'd get out there and of course it always meant I got a biscuit from Hardee's.

Speaker 2 (03:23):

That's the only reason I went was the free

Speaker 1 (03:25):

Food. It really was. I mean, truthfully,

Speaker 2 (03:26):

Because I had no desire to wake up that early.

Speaker 1 (03:28):

He's like, I'll get you a monster biscuit from Hardee's and orange juice and some hash browns. If you'll come join me at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning. And I'm like, 6:00 AM That does not sound good. Oh yeah. The only I'm paying for the biscuit.

Speaker 2 (03:38):

God. The idea was that y'all had to like come pick me up from my sister's house. Cuz I was like, I'm not getting up early enough that I have to drive across town to meet you guys at the church.

Speaker 1 (03:46):

Kean was a big guy and he had the tiniest little car and he's tiny. He was so tiny. He as a little Scion, x a or something like that. I was like little box. And so I'm a big guy and Keaton's an even bigger guy than I was back then. And so two of us, and you'd be in the backseat, we'd have the camera and

Speaker 2 (03:59):

You see that one at least worked better than the time that the two of you both got in the backseat of my Camry <laugh>. And I thought that the trunk was gonna drag

Speaker 1 (04:06):

<laugh>. We, we were bad. It was a lot of man in the back seat

Speaker 2 (04:09):

Was a whole lot of, man, it was not driving Miss Daisy like I was driving the whole garden. It's like, yes,

Speaker 1 (04:13):

It was <laugh>. Dang. Becca. How do you feel about it? You know, just saying man. But we had a lot of fun and uh, it kind of, it established our roots and our friendship. I forgot about the thing. We went to the uh, um, oh, we went to the mountains and Oh,

Speaker 2 (04:29):

We went

Speaker 1 (04:29):

Skiing. Yes. And you were my co-pilot the entire time.

Speaker 2 (04:31):

Oh yeah. On the passenger van. Oh yeah. It was like, oh,

Speaker 1 (04:34):

15 passenger van in ice. I've never driven a 15 passenger van.

Speaker 2 (04:37):

It only was it ice, but it was also like to get to like the ski resort. Like it was a winding road. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> up a mountain.

Speaker 1 (04:45):

And I'm like driving this van full of all these people's kids. And, and I was like, thank God Becca's over there because she was like helping me to navigate going up this place. And I was like, I needed someone who was attentive and like was talking to me the whole time. And like, literally I think it was like five hours there and back and we, yeah. We, we hung out and talked about all kinds

Speaker 2 (05:02):

Of things. All sorts of things.

Speaker 1 (05:03):

<laugh>, the kids were in the back oblivious about anything. We're talking about <laugh>

Speaker 2 (05:06):

And oblivious to the, you know, peril that we were probably facing. No,

Speaker 1 (05:09):

I just remember even going down the interstate, it was snowing and stuff and Well,

Speaker 2 (05:12):

And even like the, the hotel that the guy stayed at cuz the guy stayed at a different hotel than the girls. Like we were, we were kind of like at a motel because there wasn't enough space Okay. Up for everybody. But like the, it had like a slope for y'all's parking lot that you had to like mm-hmm. Get up and remember into that now. And

Speaker 1 (05:27):

Yeah, sorry, we went down the hill to the gas station. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and stuff. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I mean that was a whole nother experience in a hotel cuz we had five guys in our room and Ooh, it, it was me and Keaton. Right. And Matt Gamble and Matt Ga walks into the room and knows the situation that's about to happen and goes, I claimed the sofa <laugh>. I was like, you rat. He's

Speaker 2 (05:45):

Not, he's not a dumb

Speaker 1 (05:45):

Guy but me. So it was, we had two students and there that meant me and Keaton had to share a little bit. <laugh>. There was a whole lot of man in that bed that night. That's I'm just saying like, we, we were like made a, an oath of like have back to back, you know, but, but we were touching the whole night. There was no getting around it.

Speaker 2 (05:59):

There's no, there's no get around that.

Speaker 1 (06:00):

No, no. But then one of the kids got sick while we're there too. And it, this this, these stories can go on this. I feel like we're telling too much on insider stories, but all this to prove a point. We've known each other for a very long time. Yes. And then after of course you were at Taylor Road, you went on to work at, at lifeway for many years. I did. You were at a u m, uh, the campus ministry there and then your marketing shift kind of happened, I'd say more with leadership Montgomery, wasn't it? Or was it before

Speaker 2 (06:22):

That? It was probably a little bit more with Lifeway.

Speaker 1 (06:24):

That's true. Cause you were to an Instagram account

Speaker 2 (06:25):

There. And so because with lifeway, um, corporate ran our Facebook mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But we started an Instagram in store to be able to have a little bit more personalization. Um, and that's really where I started looking at audience. Yeah. And you know, interactions and learning impressions versus audience versus different things. Um, and learning what people liked, what people didn't like, what they responded to. And then curating our content to what was grabbing traction for us. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and so that really got into the marketing realm for me. Um, and so it's a fun thing. If you go onto the website, you can see my background as far as education goes is in education. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I have a health and fiscal education degree and here I am doing marketing. Yeah. Um, and it's just cuz God has a sense of humor. Um, but definitely the equipping, I think it started at lifeway and really accentuated with leadership. Montgomery.

Speaker 1 (07:12):

Yeah. I mean our, when we reconnected again, you were at Leadership Montgomery, leadership Montgomery, uh, in fact you brought them to us Yes. To help build a website during the whole covid uh, pandemic mm-hmm. <affirmative>. We were helping to build the uh, state of leadership. The state of leadership. Yeah. Cause there was the state of leadership meetings. We built a, a standalone site and kind of helped with those meetings to happen online. And that's kinda how we reconnected. And then you went from Leadership Montgomery and had a, a dream position basically. Yeah. Uh, it was created for you as you've told me this before, that a lot of positions you've had have always been kind of created

Speaker 2 (07:41):

For you. I think every position that I've had, like even within lifeway, it was a creative position. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like my position, um, I was a church connection specialist, like it started with me and then they put it into other stores Okay. Nationwide. And so every position I've been in has been a creative position for me. Um, which is really an interesting like, transition of things. Yeah. Um, and so, which is one of the really fun things we're skipping ahead, but really the fun things coming into Dogwood where it's like, okay, I don't have to worry about like, you know, what if I don't go do a good enough job, are they gonna cut this position <laugh> <laugh> because when everything's been a creative position. Um, but I think that that's been a really neat thing because when I got my dream job Yeah. When I was able to go into Del rda, um, at that point I knew what it looked like mm-hmm. <affirmative> to come into a job that was created for you. Um, cuz it's, it's very different cuz you don't have established boundaries. You don't have established rules of expectations. Um, and so it gets really difficult sometimes when you're coming into and not knowing they don't know what to expect from you. You don't know what their expectations are. Right. You're figuring that on

Speaker 1 (08:42):

Out. You're like, am I doing everything they want me to do? Right.

Speaker 2 (08:44):

That kind thing. And they don't know what I can do or can't do mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so, um, but then going to Del rda, it's my home church. It, that's my heart. That's where I was serving as a lay person. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But then to be able to be on staff and, and really one thing I love being is I love being somebody's right hand person. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, I don't necessarily want to be leading from the front, but I wanna be leading right behind it. Um, and that's what I really felt like with Doda was working with bringing technology into the churches because churches across the board saw with the Covid pandemic the importance of having a social media presence. The importance of having a website presence, of having a digital presence, um, in, in the world. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> at a lot of churches were not there. Um, and so being able to help make Doto more efficient to, to bring us forward and to uh, really help our church minister better to our church and to our community.

Speaker 1 (09:34):

The cool thing is, is when you came to Dogwood from Del rdo is we were already doing a lot of the same things for other churches. Right. And you were able to continue doing that for Del rdo, which was I think one is a huge help for you because it made the transition, I think even easier It did. Yes. Knowing that you're able to continue doing a lot of the work, you weren't leaving your church high and dry. Right. But hopefully there's tools that we have that I hope you've been able to learn from and use for your clients that have been able to help better your church a little bit

Speaker 2 (10:00):

Too. Well, not so much of, of why I wanted to come to Dogwood was I had, I have the utmost respect for Dogwood. Like, and I'm not saying this cuz I work here now, like, you know, I've brought multiple customers to Dogwood mm-hmm. <affirmative> through recommendations because I respect the level of product that Dogwood produces. Um, I respect the, the fact that the community respects Dogwood. Like it's, it's something that we've got a great reputation and it's for a reason. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but I also knew that I could come in, I could learn a lot by being at Dogwood. There was stuff that I didn't know. Um, and I could only help the businesses that I was at, the churches that I was at, the nonprofits I was at with as much as I knew, I don't have an education background on this. Um, and so coming to Dogwood was bringing what I know, but also learning here from people that have a better idea of what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (10:46):

Well, let's kind of, let's d dive into that a little bit more. Cause this is a q and a of a marketing strategist. So let's talk about like, what's a typical day like for you now?

Speaker 2 (10:54):

So for me, it's coming in and I have a slate of clients that I'm working with. Um, and the very first thing I'm looking at is, is social media. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's, it's looking at, um, you know, what in the past 12 hours that haven't been at work, you know, 14 hours haven't been at work, what's been going on. You know, who's been comedying, who's been sharing, who's been interacting. Um, and that's good and bad. Yep. You know, that's, that's the reality of it. And, and being able to say, okay, are there any fires that need to be put out? And if not, okay, let me look towards what content needs to be going out today. Um, a lot of my clients I have scheduled out a month ahead mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and so, but there are some that, for example, the Alabama Baptist and um, Baptist Paper where they are continuingly putting out articles.

(11:35):

And so it's helping out with getting those out further into, you know, people's spaces. Um, and so it's really, that's how I start my day. I, I had a friend, we were talking recently with a friend of ours and he said, basically, your job is being a hype person for other people. <laugh>. Yep. And I was like, I wanna use that to like, when people ask, Hey, what what do you do? I just wanna be like, I'm a hype person. It's true for, for other companies and other businesses. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, and I think that that's just such a great definition of what I do. Yeah. Is I, I help my clients, um, and push out like, Hey, this is why they're awesome. This is why they're great. This is what they're offering. Um, and something that's unique, you know, looking into my background is with my clients.

(12:14):

I have a background in retail, I have a background in education, I have a background in non-profits. I have a background in churches and that's a lot of who we offer services to. And so I'm able to bring a unique perspective as a marketing strategist because I understand who their audience is. Cause I've worked with their audience. I, I understand what their voice is cause I've used that voice mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and so a lot of with marketing is just knowing your audience and using your voice in such a way that appeals to them that that draws them in, that has them interacting with you. Um, but also I think part of my day is by looking at how people are interacting through comments, through likes, through shares is analyzing it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> is saying, okay, this post is doing really well. Why is it doing really well? How can I replicate that in the future? Am I seeing a pattern of things that are getting negative or am I seeing a pattern of things that are getting positive and how can I make that better in the future for my clients?

Speaker 1 (13:05):

Of course the Alabama Baptist newspaper and the Baptist paper you mentioned are very different from our typical clients because they're news oriented. Yes. And so, like, I kind of wanna talk a little bit more about the ones we do a little more pre-planning with. Of course we do, we do have some pre-planning parts. Right. We do with, with what we call 'em Tab and TBP is our initials we use in-house for, for the Alabama Baptist, for the Baptist paper. Uh, and they're a news organization based out of Birmingham, Alabama. They supply news, well the Baptist paper throughout the country. Right. And, uh, the Alabama Baptist is very specific for Alabama providing news. And so we do have strategy sessions. In fact, we had one with em this week. Right. Uh, just recently, uh, kind of going over like what kind of happens with their strategy.

(13:42):

But they're, cuz they are a news organization, there's constantly news coming out. Uh, we have different things set up for Twitter, um, where it's, you know, basically if they put out a news article, we're instantly posting those type of things. Uh, with Facebook it's the same type of thing. Uh, where we're looking at trying to, we have, I think we have an instant post piece with that we do. And then we go back in and, and re highlight articles that, uh, that received really good responses and re-share those. But they're not our typical client. Uh, other than that they're Baptist and they've, our social media, our typical clients could be more. And I, and I think we've mentioned maybe talking a little bit more about this, about Lead Academy. Right. And Lead Academy is a, um, a charter school based here out of Montgomery, Alabama. They're four, almost five years old. And, um, Becca's been able to work with them just recently helping, well, not just recently, but since, since you've walked in the door. Right. You've been working with them and providing content. So kind of tell me a little bit more about the content cycle with them and how you're building content for 'em.

Speaker 2 (14:33):

Absolutely. So with Lead, it's, we're really learning a lot with lead mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and so what we started with Lead was really identifying what is lead, lead, lead Academy is still because it's young mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's still great traction of people aren't sure who they are and what they're about, um, at charter school is very different from Montgomery. Um, and so a lot of what we started with, with identifying, Hey, this is what a charter school is, this is who lead is, this is who we are, this is what we're about. Um, but what we're seeing now as so far as, you know, what we do as understanding different things is we're seeing more traction with seeing pictures of the kids. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that makes perfect sense. Oh, definitely. And you know, it's face that you, you wanna see. And so we've kind of started a shift of interacting more with our principals, um, and saying, Hey, you know, help us know what's going on so we can be able to better communicate the interactions with the school. And we've seen a big jump in that of mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, hey, like just recently they had their Polar Express day and so we were able to share, hey, polar Express Day is coming up. And then share pictures of, Hey, this is what it looked like mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and so, but that's some of the things that happened in media. But as far as planning, it's looking ahead, it's always,

Speaker 1 (15:40):

Always Polar Express, but you kind of knew that was coming. Right. How did couple weeks, it's on the, that up calendar, you kind of have, this is, you know, what's coming. You put that, that space and save it on the calendar. Right.

Speaker 2 (15:48):

Yeah. And so, and then looking forward, as, you know, we're looking forward towards the next month, it's looking at, okay, what holidays are coming up mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what school holidays are coming up, what are significant days? Um, for example, in the month of January, it's board member appreciation month. So we wanna make sure that we're rep, we're saying, Hey, thanks to our board. Like we, so it's looking forward, but also planning ahead of con continuing to say, this is who we are, this is what we're about. Um, and being in broad terms as far as what a charter school is, but also in specific terms of look at our kids. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> look at, look at our scholars that we're, we're seeing grow and learn and excel because we're going to have more people coming to lead because of what they're seeing in the students than we're ever gonna see in an understanding of charter school.

(16:33):

However, both are important because they aren't gonna send them if they don't know what they're about, but they don't care what they're about if they're not seeing the product of it. Right. Um, and so I think it's just, it's an interesting thing of being able to balance that for a customer or a client like lead that we're saying, Hey, help us, help us help you, um mm-hmm. <affirmative> and being able to have that communication with a client where they're communicating with us, we're communicating with them and working together as a team of understanding this is a school. They have so much stuff that they're dealing with on a daily basis. They don't have time to think about social media. Right. But social media is important, especially for a charter school, this brand new, and trying to communicate to a community that isn't sure who they are. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's important and a crucial part because social media is how we are interacting with anybody nowadays. Yep. And so whether that is businesses or friends or, you know, organizations, we're a part of our social media is how we are receiving information and how we're interacting with them.

Speaker 1 (17:31):

A big piece of what marketing strategists do here at Dogwood too is, is social media, but there's also so many other elements that you guys handle also too. Oh yeah. Because you, the way we set up is you guys are the, the main point of contact. So for instance, lead Academy, they're not calling up here to our office number and going, I just need to speak to someone about, uh, doing this or that. They call up and go, Hey, is Becca there? Right. And so they, they're calling looking for you because they know that you're their contact. If they need a design done, Becca's most likely not gonna be doing the design for them. Right. But she goes to our graphic designer, our creative director, she sees that process through, takes it back to the client and goes, here, here we go. This is what we've done for you. Um, and so I know that's a, a big piece of what you're doing every day. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:10):

Well, a lot of it's is choreographing mm-hmm. <affirmative> it's coordinating of, for example, today had a client reach out to me saying that they had a, a, a need, a web need. And so I communicate that with our web developers. I went over, we, we talked, and then within 10 minutes he, he had it knocked out. I'm communicating back to my client, Hey, this is taken care of. Not a problem. Right. And so, but that's a personal connection where my, my client knew that she could email me, I'm gonna get taken care of. She doesn't have to worry about it again. Yep. And I'm communicating back, Hey, it's done as, as quickly as within, within 10 minutes. Now that's not always the case. You know, sometimes, you know, it's gonna take a couple of days just depending on what's going on, what the problem is. But it's the confidence that a client can have of they communicate to me and they know that I'm gonna take care of it.

Speaker 1 (18:57):

You, you represent them. You absolutely. You're about as close to an internal person handling marketing for them as they can get. But instead of just having one person, you're getting a 13, 14 person team behind you.

Speaker 2 (19:08):

Absolutely. I mean, you're gonna get stellar graphics from our, our content team. Like that's just, that's one of the things that you're gonna get it on brand, they're gonna make it. That's as they're learning you as we learn each other and you're giving feedback and we're making those adjustments. But you're gonna get professional content that looks great. Um, we're gonna work together so that if it's a website design, you have it designed well and it's clean and it's operating well. And if you have an issue where some, a link isn't clicking Right. We're able to take care of that for you quickly mm-hmm. <affirmative> and say, if you having to Google, Hey, why is this not working? Right. Um, we have a full team here

Speaker 1 (19:42):

Issued an email. Becca and Becca say, Hey, I need this page done. You're like, all right.

Speaker 2 (19:46):

Yeah. And it's taken care of. And so it's, you have a full marketing team from, from design to execution to web design. Any of that is in one place. In one house. And so I really do feel like I am part of the team of each of my clients Yeah. Of I'm part of their business. I'm an important part of their business. Um, but they're a part of us just as much.

Speaker 1 (20:08):

How many clients do you have right now?

Speaker 2 (20:09):

I have seven.

Speaker 1 (20:10):

Okay. So that keeps you pretty busy every day.

Speaker 2 (20:12):

It does. It does. And it's fun because everybody's a little bit different. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, everybody's a little bit different. And I've learned a lot recently, you know, within marketing of about seo mm-hmm. <affirmative> about search engine optimization. And I'm sure we'll have a, a good podcast about SEO with Beth. We do.

Speaker 1 (20:27):

We have one

Speaker 2 (20:27):

Coming up. And so, but, and I've, I've learned a lot from Beth about it. Um, but it has really helped out with, with one of my clients I help with, um, writing blogs and blog writing is so much easier when you understand seo mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so there's just different things of trust me to learn the things so you don't have to. Yeah. And so that's the, that's the benefit of having Dogwood is, and I can speak from having hired Dogwood mm-hmm. <affirmative> of saying, Hey, I don't have time to deal with this, but I trust that Dogwood can take care of it and it's gonna be professional and it's gonna look great. And if there's something that I don't like about it, I can communicate that they're not gonna take offense to it. And they can make those changes and make those changes moving forward. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:09):

Now I know right now you're of course you're not the only person. I know this because I've hired them <laugh>, but <laugh> as a host, I'm gonna act like, I don't know, but how many other marketing strategists are there on the team right now?

Speaker 2 (21:18):

So we have a team of three marketing strategists and then our manager Lauren Comby as well.

Speaker 1 (21:22):

Okay. And Lauren's also managing accounts too. And Lauren's one of our hosts here on the podcast. And we had a episode with her at the very beginning where we kind of talked more about what she does. But her main thing is she's taking care of Dogwood. Yeah. And then of course she's also helping out our clients that don't necessarily, um, they might not have, uh, marketing Strateg assigned to them. And the reason why they don't have that is cuz they're not doing social media and they're not doing other things that may, they might just have content changes that they're working with us on. Right. And she'll take care of a lot of those clients. And so she actually has a pretty large, uh, client amount, but they're just smaller clients and have smaller submit things. Right. And she's just trying to make sure they're taken care of.

(21:54):

Of course. Then Emily is on our team. Yes. And Emily has, uh, uh, probably about the same amount of clients also too that you do and that she's helping on a daily basis. And Sarah Kate too. And e one of y'all. It's, it's really neat how this happened cuz it kind of happened on accident with, with your education background. Then Emily has more of a, uh, marketing communications background and then Sarah Kate has a PR background. Right. With nonprofit emphasis. One of the things we we focus on is religious institutions. And Emily's got more background in that. Our nonprofits, uh, Sarah Kate's got a literally a, a degree in non-profit management mm-hmm. <affirmative> with PR as a minor. And then here you are, you're working in education <laugh>, it's with an education background,

Speaker 2 (22:35):

But it's really also, it's great to have the team because we're able to work off of each other. Yes.

Speaker 1 (22:39):

You don't have to go to one person specifically because you can be able to feed into to Sara Kate or to Emily and or anyone else. So we end up hiring down the road. Right. Y'all all be able to feed off each other. And even, uh, Lauren too, I mean she has English, Lauren

Speaker 2 (22:51):

Lauren's such a great resource to have,

Speaker 1 (22:53):

But she's, she has English degree. So people ask all the time like, what do English PE people do? And it's like, they write Yeah. They write a lot <laugh>, they correct the other people that are writing too <laugh>. So, and that's what a lot of times that's what she's doing. So it's, it's very neat to how everyone has been individually equipped for their jobs that they're doing the same job but indivi but equipped different ways to do them.

Speaker 2 (23:12):

Well, and I, I, when I was, I was working for a previous, uh, you know, I was working at Leadership Montgomery, our president, she had a great saying that I always held onto, which is all of us are smarter than any of us. Mm. And I think that's so true about Dogwood. Yeah. Of we work together so well. Um, and I can say this because I've only been here for a couple months and I feel like I'm so implemented and like put into this group so easily. We have such a great team here that all of us are smarter than any of us and we work together so well to be able to help our clients be the best that, that they can be. And they have the best product because we're able to feed off of each other. Cause I think the, the same, same parody that you have and the, you know, the disparity between our different marketing strategies, we have the same thing within our web developers. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> with different, different focuses. And so we've really fit together a team that isn't all the same. Yep. We fit together a team that is able to offer a lot of different perspectives, um, and able to offer a lot of benefit to our clients because of that.

Speaker 1 (24:12):

Well, we always try to keep this between 15 and 20 minutes. I truthfully, I forgot to hit the timer today. <laugh>, I've just had a good time talking to you. I have no clue where we're at right now on that. That's perfect. I have, I have a feeling that we're at least 15 minutes cuz I, I was looking at the time and I was like, eh, I think we are probably going over. So

Speaker 2 (24:27):

I'm pretty sure you and I could talk in here for way

Speaker 1 (24:29):

Too long. <laugh> very much so. We could just keep on going, telling stories and everything else. But I do wanna thank you for joining here with

Speaker 2 (24:34):

Today.

Speaker 1 (24:34):

Well thanks for having me. Of course. Thanks everyone for listening to our podcast too. Uh, next week, uh, or not next week, our next podcast cuz our, our podcast schedule ends up being by every other week right now. Our next podcast is gonna be hosted, actually it's gonna be hosted by me again. What I know, what's surprise, two years in a row with Lauren is gonna be my guest again. It'll be, uh, she'll be back for her second episode. That's exciting. Yeah. Cause she's been hosting a couple other ones, but she'll be back as a guest on this one. And we're gonna be talking about a very interesting, uh, subject, uh, about healthy social media and tech boundaries. Ooh,

Speaker 2 (25:02):

Boundaries. Yep.

Speaker 1 (25:03):

Setting up boundaries to protect yourself from social media and tech. Well, I think

Speaker 2 (25:07):

That's, that's me. I'm excited to listen to that one. But it's gonna be

Speaker 1 (25:09):

A, it's a very interesting topic because it's, it's something that everyone really needs to like, put into play and use. So even us, especially us <laugh>,

Speaker 2 (25:16):

Especially us.

Speaker 1 (25:16):

Yes. Because we're on it all the time. We have to make sure that we set boundaries. And so this is gonna be a great one to listen to and I'm sure it'll be a lot fun having that one too. Um, also, we'll remind people, if you wanna follow us on social media, you can go to dogwood media solutions.com. All of our social media is linked there. That's dogwood media solutions.com. Also, if you haven't already subscribed to our podcast, take a moment. Whatever podcast platform you want, choose, subscribe to us on. We're on like 30 different platforms. I didn't even know 30 different platforms.

Speaker 2 (25:42):

There's 30 different,

Speaker 1 (25:42):

I don't know how many, it's a lot of them, but there's, there's just a lot. When I look at the page on our podcast page and there's just like links forever. And so <laugh>, I don't know why, who uses all those things, but like the big ones were definitely on there, you know? Right. Apple, uh, Google. Spotify. Yeah. Spotify. Yeah. You can definitely find those in those. There's a, like I said, a ton of other ones. Whatever thing you want to, if there's something missing on there, if you go to a, a Dogwood Media Solutions hit podcast and menu, you look on, there're like, I don't have my podcast thing on here, let me know about it. We'll try to get on there too. But definitely go ahead and subscribe. Also, uh, we just wanna thank you for being here. Absolutely. Thanks for joining us. Thanks guys. Uh, we'll be back in a couple weeks for our next podcast.