We know that marketing looks a little different for every industry, but have you ever thought about what it would look like to do marketing for a school? Today on the Dogwood Podcast, Brian talks to our friend Brittany Bradley, the Director of Communications and Marketing at Montgomery Catholic, about the unique challenges and opportunities of marketing for a school.
Links:
https://montgomerycatholic.org/brittany-bradley-named-montgomery-catholic-director-of-communications-marketing/
https://dogwoodmediasolutions.com/staff/brian-harris
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.
We know that marketing looks a little different for every industry, but have you ever thought about what it would look like to do marketing for a school? Today on the Dogwood Podcast, Brian talks to our friend Brittany Bradley, the Director of Communications and Marketing at Montgomery Catholic, about the unique challenges and opportunities of marketing for a school.
Links:
https://montgomerycatholic.org/brittany-bradley-named-montgomery-catholic-director-of-communications-marketing/
https://dogwoodmediasolutions.com/staff/brian-harris
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):
On this week's podcast, we're talking to our special guest, Brittany Bradley, all about education, marketing. It's going to be a great time, so definitely do not tune out. Tune in, stay tuned, and enjoy the time. Hi, and welcome to the Dogwood Media Solutions podcast. I'm your host Brian Harris, and today we're going to be talking about marketing for education. And of course the first person I thought of to talk about that is our friend Brittany Bradley. Welcome to the show, Brittany.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hi Brian. Thanks for asking me.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And I say our friend Brittany Bradley, we've known each other for, well, I guess about three or four years now. And that's because you used to be on staff at Dogwood?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I did. So
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It wasn't that long ago because I think about it during the whole pandemic and everything, we did a lot of Zoom meetings
Speaker 2 (00:46):
And got
Speaker 1 (00:47):
To see you a lot. I think literally was it right before that when we hired you or
Speaker 2 (00:52):
It was like three weeks or so after I started, I think somewhere in there.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It was really close.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It was like four or five months there where all that stuff was going on and you had kids at the house and everything else going on with your family, living different places and
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Trying
Speaker 1 (01:08):
To adjust the pandemic. And we got to know your girls really well during that time. You did. They would make appearances in our podcasts and stuff, but not our podcasts. Our Zoom meetings. Zoom
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Meetings, yes, they would show up,
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Which was always fun. Everyone, we got to know 'em really well and then we had our big social out there and of course we got to come out to that and we're like, oh, there's Brittany. She's real.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yes, I am a real person.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, we've moved so far since then and we kind of talk about a little bit about this, but I guess just tell us a little bit about yourself and we just talked about your connection with Dogwood, but I guess let me step one thing back and tell people what you do. You are the marketing director at Montgomery Catholic now.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yes. Yes I
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Am. And that was a good ending with your time at Dogwood. It was a sad ending. It was
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Bittersweet was
Speaker 1 (01:55):
We were so proud of you though. Thank you. Literally, I remember we came out to the parking lot at the old building and you're like, I have something to tell you. And I think you'd been with us right at a year and when this
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Happened it was pretty close to it and it was rough. I felt bad leaving. I really enjoyed my time working with you guys.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We were excited though because when you said Montgomery Catholic wants me to come work for you, we're like, this makes so much sense. You are like, yes, you should go do this.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yes,
Speaker 1 (02:23):
We were very happy and excited for you. And so that was your journey from Dogwood to there. So kind of tell us what was happening behind the scenes when all this was going on.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, so back a little further, I have a degree in graphic design from Auburn University, and then I worked with a private company for several years before I owned my own business as well for about 10 years or so. And then I happened to see your sister actually share, you're looking for a graphic design kind of thing on social media. And so I was like, okay, that sounds like a good idea. I was looking for a full-time,
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Getting
Speaker 2 (02:57):
A foot in the door at a job kind of thing. It worked out well and I started working for you guys and then shortly after we had the pandemic you were talking about, and then I ended up getting a phone call from Montgomery Catholic. I have three children at the school, two at the time at the school. And they called and said, Hey look, we we're looking to boost our enrollment in marketing and we'd love for you to be on an enrollment and marketing committee said, okay, great, no problem. And then little by little about two months into that they said, Hey look, we're looking to hire somebody now. So I applied for the position along with several others and ended up getting the job and it was kind of like a, oh my gosh, now I have to leave Dogwood.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Well, I remember when you joined the committee because you were asking lots of really good questions and I was like, this is so cool to hear the behind the scenes of what Montgomery Catholic was doing. And then little did I know, and like I said, it wasn't a surprise that they would want to steal you. Yeah. Was the person that called you, was it Justin?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
No, it wasn't. Okay. It was actually our admissions director, Julie Emerson, who called me. I
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Was imagining Justin Costanza is calling you and he's like, come home Brittany. Because not only that mean you went to Montgomery Catholic also too. I
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Did, yes. I am a 2003 graduate from Montgomery Catholic and then my mother graduated from Montgomery Catholic, my siblings, so my kids are third generation, which is not unheard of for Montgomery Catholic,
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And that's what made this so natural to me. When you said, I'm going to go work for Montgomery Catholic, I'm like, this makes sense. It really did. I mean y'all had a long legacy there. I mean this, it made, I mean you're very passionate about Montgomery Catholic as you should be when
Speaker 2 (04:33):
You've
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Grown up in that area. Absolutely. So it's really easy when it's something to market, something that you're already passionate about too.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And it's nice to be near my children too and be able to see them regularly and that kind of thing. So works out well.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
So we're going to be talking more about the marketing part of what you do now. So at Montgomery Catholic, what is y'all's primary audience when it comes to marketing?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
We actually struggle with this concept regularly because it's not just one audience. We have our students who are typically on Instagram is where we find hitting them and getting them involved is usually on Instagram, but then we also have our perspective families and we have our current families, we have alumni. A military is a huge target for us as well. About 18 to 20% of our students every year are retired or current active duty military families. So we have a good influx and leaving as well every year that we try and make sure we keep that rotating and pull those families back in. And so we have lots of targets that we're out there trying to get.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Don't have a pretty decent Korean population. Also too,
Speaker 2 (05:35):
We do have a Korean population mostly at our Holy Spirit campus tends to have a higher Korean population, and then we have a higher Hispanic population at our St Bead elementary campus as well. How about
Speaker 1 (05:46):
They both end up, how does that work when they come to the junior high? When they move up or do they stay in?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, it's working out really well. We have actually been very intentional about trying pull in our Hispanic families and that's something that our school president, Jessica Stanza has really been active in looking into is that for the Hispanic population, Catholic education, they view it as being for the wealthy
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And
Speaker 2 (06:14):
For us it's not for the wealthy, it's for the faithful. And so we really want to make sure that those Hispanic families in Montgomery and surrounding areas know that they're welcome to come to us. And so we've really been intentional about expanding that population and inviting them to our school.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I know one thing we talked about too is the percentage of people that are involved already in the Catholic churches here in Montgomery that attend the school versus those who just attend the school. And y'all have done a really good outreach. It seems like not only doing a good job of getting the people who are already participating in the church, in the schools, but what's the percentage of kids that are not even members of the Catholic church here? I was thinking it was like 40%
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Or higher. We are about a 60 40 for the most part, 60% Catholic, 40%, and that's just fantastic. Anyone is invited. Catholic means universal and we are a Catholic school religiously, but Catholic ultimately means universal and everyone is welcome to be a part of our school.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I think that's really cool that y'all have been able to reach just beyond that because the natural assumption is, oh, it says Catholic in the name, I have to be Catholic to go there.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And that's not true at, and y'all done a really good job in marketing that I feel like because growing up here, I never thought a Montgomery Catholic or you can't go there because you're not Catholic.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Not
Speaker 1 (07:27):
At all. I never felt that. So knowing all these different primary audiences you have really, I mean there's not really one primary audience. You have all these different things. How do y'all juggle being intentional in reaching every one of these? I mean, that's hard. You mentioned different audiences for different ones, but is there anything else y'all are doing to be specific to each audience
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Right this minute? We actually part of our enrollment and retention committee, which I'm now helped run with Julie Emerson, we have actually just instituted, we have a volunteer, a military family parent who volunteered to be a part of this committee with us and she is now our military liaison. So whenever we host events and things like that, she helps us to be intentional about reaching out to those military families and making sure that they feel welcome and invited to join us. So that's one of the big things that we have just started recently.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Okay, that's really cool. With the Hispanic population, is that mostly coming from inside the church?
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Mostly from inside the church and our elementary Spanish teacher, Rory Richardson, is really intentional about involving those families as well. She hosts a coffee and conversations monthly and invites all of those families to come to our St Bead campus and just have a little gathering and a little meeting and make sure that they feel welcome and involved in our school.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And the Korean population of Montgomery is a lot due to the Hyundai plant and all the different suppliers. How are y'all getting the word out there to the Korean, the population that Montgomery Catholic is a great place for them to bring their kids?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Well, that is another step that we just took. Actually one of our Holy Spirit parents, Helen Lee has been a huge advocate for our school and so she's actually just joined our enrollment and retention committee as well to help make sure that we are involving everyone.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
That's really cool. I mean just finding that one person to lead it and be able to go in that communities and be like this again is the same thing. You want to be able to reach those people and they're repeating those different things y'all are saying and making it where each one of those different audiences now is able to understand it. Now you also mentioned students, Instagram is a
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Big thing
Speaker 1 (09:27):
For students.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
All those old folks are on Facebook, so Well,
Speaker 1 (09:30):
I was going to ask that. What's the other platform? So Facebook is a primary one to reach the oldies like
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Us. Yes.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I tell people all the time I use Instagram, but it's not my primary.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I honestly personally don't even have an Instagram. I run our Instagram at school, but I don't personally have one.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
That's funny. I've had to force myself to use it because I'm like naturally I go to Facebook as I've gotten where I've actually started sharing more of my things from Instagram so that I can be better at it for what I'm doing it for my clients or being able to tell people about it. I had to force myself to do that, but it's not natural. This whole story thing, I understand this great and all that, but I have to go, alright, I've posted this now I should go share it on my stories. Why do we have to do it that way? It used to, I could just post it on Facebook and it would just go everywhere. I'd have to put it on a story or go to another platform and now I have to do it everywhere and all these different things. So anyway, that's a whole nother story. I can chase that. So what are the marketing goals for you guys when it comes down to is it just trying to grow the student population? Is that the main marketing goal? Is there something else?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
That is usually our main marketing goal would be like you said, to grow our population, but at the same time to retain those that we already have as well. You want to make sure that your families are happy and if there is an issue with something, making sure that it's handled, making sure that you're sharing the good news to bring people in, but also to keep those that we have with us.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
That's a big one too. I guess this is one of those harder ones too. Are there unique challenges to just being a private Catholic school versus just another private school? I guess you don't really know, you haven't been in another private school, but tell us some of the unique challenges of being Catholic that you have to be aware of.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Well, like you said, a lot of people don't realize that we are open to anyone, and so you got to make sure that you're in your marketing that that's verbal and that people understand and see that perspective that we are open and welcoming to everyone would be part of it.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Is there any special rules y'all have to make sure, well we can't say this because we'd be getting someone mad at us or anything like that? No,
Speaker 2 (11:39):
No, not at all. But is you do have to be kind of aware sometimes if it's a specific photo taken in a certain way to Catholics in particular, we may see that and see it as a beautiful religious image, but to others they may not understand the context and so you kind of have to think about that sometimes when you're sharing things just to make sure that everyone understands the full picture. That
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Makes sense. So what is your primary tool right now for marketing?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Our current family specifically is they're all about some social media is a big deal, but we've also been trying to increase our print magazine articles and things like that as well.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
When you say print, you mean being in local magazines, being
Speaker 2 (12:20):
In local magazines
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Like that, Montgomery Parents River Region journey, that kind of
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Thing? Exactly,
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Exactly. What kind of articles are y'all putting in there?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Anything that's shared? The good story, the good news of things that we have going on, as you mentioned, we're an older school, we've been here for a while, 150 years, so we just celebrated our hundred and 50th ribbon cutting and things like that. So making sure we tell that story so that the community knows most people don't know that we're that old
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Being able to share that story with everyone, it helps attract people and helps people know who we are.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And I'll get into that in another second because I have more questions
Speaker 2 (12:53):
About the
Speaker 1 (12:54):
150, but email are you are using any email marketing or anything like that?
Speaker 2 (12:58):
We do. We send out a, I mean to our current families we do, we send out a Friday email is just what we call it. We're real creative with that name, but it works. It goes out every Friday,
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Know exactly what it's, and
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Every Friday right about noon, they know they're going to get their email that tells 'em all about everything that's coming up in the next week and keeps them involved and make sure that everyone knows exactly what's happening on each campus at any given time and it goes out to our current families. All of our older students receive it as well and make sure they know what's happening and they can't say they didn't know about something.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
I know you guys use some different things that are printed also too. I know there's a big one that y'all do every year and then there's other print things y'all do also. Yes.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That was one of my goals when I started working there was that our annual publication nowadays, which goes out to all of our alumni, was a large newspaper kind of format magazine, which has a history of being that due to the people who started it many years ago and it's been a fantastic way to keep in touch with our alumni every year and so one of the biggest goals that I had was that I kind of wanted to help revitalize that and so we changed it over to a magazine format this year that is actually in the mail headed out to all of our alumni this week. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's really good. Well timing, I couldn't even tell you that. It's
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Fantastic timing.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, I know we've talked about billboards before in the past too. Have y'all been able to use any of those lately?
Speaker 2 (14:19):
We do use billboards occasionally. Right now we actually have a couple running for our hundred 50th and that kind of thing to advertise. It's also our homecoming week this week, so we've got some up just to make sure any alumni who are in town see us and know who we are and make sure that they still see us around.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
All these different ones that you're using, are you getting a lot of feedback like, Hey, I saw this or I heard this? We
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Do. We do, especially from current families, we hear a lot about, oh, I saw that in the news and that kind of thing, so it's nice to hear when your marketing has been seen.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I didn't put this on my questions, but I remember we kind of started talking about this earlier before in our pre-talk, so sports is a really big thing at Montgomery Catholic right
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Now. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Y'all have an amazing football team that's been doing really well.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
We have quite a few amazing teams. We have our volleyball team has been very successful and our flag football team has been phenomenal this year as well.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Is that girls or girls
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Flag football. It's a sanctioned AHSA sport now and this is our second year, second season.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And you are dominating that also.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
They are doing very well. That's awesome. It has been fantastic to watch. It's pretty awesome. You should come out and watch a game.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I need to do that. I know on Friday nights you like me, are involved in the radio broadcast.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And so tell us about that. I love watching Justin up there and Deacon Mike doing their show because y'all is a little bit different than what we do at Pike Road. Y'all have a view of them the entire time?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
We do. We do. For right now we do and then we are hoping so don't hold me to it yet, but we are working on the possibility of next year being able to show the game. That's
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
So we'll see. We're working on getting some students to help with that. It needs to be a student led production, so we're working
Speaker 1 (15:54):
On it. I love, that's what I've said so many times, this needs to be student led and then that way it takes some of the burden off of you, especially because you're always going to be the producer no matter what, but
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Somebody's got to keep those guys in line. Got to keep 'em on task.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Actually, one of the games I was watching it because Dogwood is the sponsor of y'all's broadcast.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Second
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Quarter. Second quarter,
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yes. If you ever watch the broadcast on Friday nights, you're going to hear him talking about Dogwood, which I love that I
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Love. They do. Every Friday
Speaker 1 (16:19):
He talk about
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Our website.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He does a good job, holy
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Spirit's website and everything else.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Every time I see Deacon Mike Chappy, he's like, Hey, you sponsor the second quarter. This is so funny. He's like, how we talk about you? I'm like, yes sir, you do. He doesn't know who I am or anything, so hes
Speaker 2 (16:35):
He knows the name though.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
He does know the name. He sees a logo and we actually get a lot of people that will come up to us and say, Hey, thanks for sponsoring the radio program. Just little things like that and it just cool to hear even some of our current clients have came up to us and go, Hey, I saw y'all were sponsoring. That means a lot to me to
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Know
Speaker 1 (16:50):
What y'all are doing, that kind of
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Thing. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. People remember the name
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And I saw you on there
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Unintentionally.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It was the broadcast. I think y'all were sitting at the top of the steps. It might've been,
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah. I think unfortunately because we had an event that morning and so by the time we got there trying to set up and figure out the best camera angles, but it was time to go live and we just had to go with what we had and that meant I was in the corner of the camera and it was not my favorite thing.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I loved it because I was like, this is part of the challenge of doing these different things and going to an away game
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Is
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Like, man, how are we going to do this every time?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
It's always different.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah. I mean sometimes we have internet, sometimes we don't.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yes. The number of wifi hotspots that Daniel Harbin brings to help us hopefully have enough internet signal.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Oh, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Well, I'll tell you a story and I hope you might be able to find one. Tell me one also. But we went the first game of this year and I looked it up ahead of time to see what kind of signal we had. I knew I'd already talked to 'em. We didn't have internet there in this particular stadium, but I looked at the maps for Verizon, which is what I use, and it said this is a five G area. It showed it just covered in five G. I was like, oh, we're going to be great. I've got two five G cards. I'm bringing putting them both in there. So we'll do basically a combined cell signal and we'll be great and to get there, nothing, not even LTE. It was like y'all's map is a live horizon. I literally was like, this is terrible. And so we ended up switching to another T-Mobile or something else like that and the school that we were at actually gave us their hotspot because they had internet on the other side of the field.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
And we weren't allowed to be on that side of the field on the home side. We had to be in the visitors. They actually ran one across to us and we were on their hotspot for the second, third and fourth quarters,
Speaker 2 (18:41):
But
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Even then it was really spotty and would jump in and out. But yeah, I'm sure y'all have fun nightmares like that. Also too,
Speaker 2 (18:47):
We do, this past week was actually one of those, we had everything set up ready to go and started and we knew our signals were not the best, but got started and kept getting spotty sound. Just couldn't get it to come through clear nothing was working. And about the end of the first quarter or so, maybe the beginning of the second quarter daily, and I realized that I think while we have all these hotspots and they're working only so much signals being able to funnel through to that tower. So I dropped our video feed completely and once I did that, it boosted our sound at least so people could hear them calling the game just like over the radio. So once we did that at work,
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Y'all are live on praise 1 0 6 0.5 also.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
96.5.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
96.5. Yeah. I knew it was a six and a 0.5.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So we're on praise 96.5 and then we also on their app and their website and then we Facebook live. So
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah, because super important. Y'all get that signal back over there then
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It is. It is. And if we have to drop Facebook we can, but it is, that's where a lot of folks like to tune in even though they just listen and don't watch. So we were able to at least provide that last week
Speaker 1 (19:45):
When I watched it. I've gone to Facebook and there's a lot of people on there on Facebook and people commenting and doing different shout outs and y'all are really good to bring them on air and say, Hey, I saw so-and-so on Facebook watching.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Absolutely. It's a good way to engage people and get 'em involved and it helps 'em feel a part of it too.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Well, this is all a marketing thing though too. Absolutely. Not only is it providing coverage of the sport, but there's a lot of people hearing about Montgomery Catholic. It's kind of helping the notoriety, I feel like of your school Also. It's helping your bringing in more audience on Facebook too because people are subscribing to your page and
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Liking
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Your page, and
Speaker 2 (20:19):
So
Speaker 1 (20:19):
It's a great tool for schools to be using and then I love the idea of doing it as a student involvement thing next year too. Then you're also giving students a skill that they could use after college or after high school
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Too. Yeah, yeah. We're hoping to try and start that up, but still in the beginning stages.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I know y'all already have some really cool programs there. At Montgomery Catholic, we,
Speaker 2 (20:37):
We actually have a broadcasting class and a journalism class and a couple other things like that, but we got to see if we can get our broadcasting kids involved somehow next year
Speaker 1 (20:46):
They've got a little new studio there and everything.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
We do, we do. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (20:49):
It's some really nice cameras and you'll have a robotics team also too, I think.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yes. Robotics just competed at a tournament this past weekend, so
Speaker 1 (20:57):
It's
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Nice. We have a makerspace with a laser cutter and three D printers and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I went out there and toured the facility. I was amazed all these different things that were available there at Montgomery Catholic.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
So I know we talked, you kind touched on it a couple of times, but going back to the biggest marketing initiative you have right now, literally as she's sitting in the studio right now, of course y'all can't see it, but she is wearing her hundred 50th anniversary shirt.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
This is a big anniversary, and so tell us about the marketing initiative that's going on with that.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It is. We were actually founded by the Sisters of Loretto in 1873 in downtown Montgomery near St. Peter's. It was an all girls scroll to begin with and eventually merged with the St. Peter's School for Boys and became co-ed and we have done nothing but grow since then, so it's been fantastic, but now we want to make sure that everybody knows about it. Like I said earlier, I think there's quite a few folks in Montgomery that have no idea. We've been around this long
Speaker 1 (21:50):
And Steve was at y'all's ribbon cutting last week. Steve Robinson from our staff was up there and came back and y'all had a book that
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Y'all
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Gave us and this really nice brochure. We even got a candy bar and that was very sweet of y'all that was eating, I promise.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I'm sure it was. You have to break it up a few ways though to
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I think I felt really bad. I gave it to Lizzie because I think I'd asked her for some last minute graphic design work and I was like, Hey, Lizzie, this, this is going to be yours now. I was like,
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Well, I'm glad we could help out.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah, it was very well timed.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Well, good. Yes. We actually did just publish a book, faith Virtue Wisdom, a history of Montgomery Catholic Preparatory
Speaker 1 (22:29):
School. When did you have time to do this in between everything else?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Well, actually our alumni and development director, Vicky Dixon, her husband Foster is an author, and so he has been working on this book for about five years now.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
He knew about the anniversary. He's like, I'm going to have this, or was it just happenstance? He just happened to be working on this and that time that Well,
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Well, our past president before Justin Costanza, Ms. Anne Caesar, she believe started the initiative to get a book created, telling our whole story. Foster and Anne were able to put together an entire story about our history, including he was able to research the Annals from the Sisters of Loretto to get all that historical information from way back in the 18 hundreds. Well,
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I'd always wonder, because I looked at the book, I haven't read the whole thing, I just thumbed through it, but the cover, if I remember correctly, or maybe it was a picture inside of it, was the building in downtown.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Yes, the Gerald Manchin, which was across the street from St. Peter's back then. Yeah, that was the original school.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Was it also? There's the one that's right down from Baldwin, that building there that I think was probably built maybe in the twenties or thirties. It's a red one, but there's a statue out there in front of it. I think that picture was in there too. I was trying to remember because that was y'all's building at one point also too,
Speaker 2 (23:39):
That one, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Okay. Well, there's a statue of Mary in front of it.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah,
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I'll have to find it. I'll
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Show the picture. Original statue that was actually out at the Gerald Mansion has just made its journey back. It has been in our middle school campus for a while, and we actually just last year moved it back to the front of our current high school, middle and high school campus on Bond Road. Remember?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I remember when y'all did that, when y'all put it out there in front, did y'all redid the signs out there? We
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Did,
Speaker 1 (24:01):
And that's a big thing. Y'all been doing a lot of maintenance projects and stuff as part of getting ready for the hundred 50th anniversary.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
How many people were out there for that event this week?
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Ooh, that's a good question. Or just
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Ballpark. It looked like a lot because it was all over TV and everything.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
We were blessed to have quite a few of our current families and parents and everybody come out and alumni to come watch and see, and then we invited all of our high school students to come out as well. It was a big historical event that we want to make sure they were a part of.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Y'all are doing a great job over there. You are doing a very good job, I've noticed. Thank you. Thank you. It's fun to look at a dog with alumni and go look at her. She's over there knocking out of the park over there at Montgomery Catholic, and I hope this wasn't that weird of a thing to go through and do this
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Podcast. No, not at all. It's all right.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Well, I won't make you stay any longer. You've done a great job, so I do want to wrap this up this week and say basically, if you like what you're hearing here on the Dogwood Media Solutions Podcast, go check it out@dogwoodmediasolutions.com. You can see a lot more of our previous episodes. We go ahead and subscribe and be able to be there for any future episodes. Also, we do a lot of blog content on there too, where we basically give away pretty much all the things we do at Dogwood. That's always been a thing we've done and people are asking me all the time, why do y'all talk about all the things you do? It's like, it's not that hard to do it. We just do it better, but we give it away and tell people these are the tips and things to go, so go check out dogwood media solutions.com, click on blog or go down to the podcast and make sure you subscribe to that too.
(25:28):
If you want to connect with us at Dogwood, the best place to go to is that same website, dogwood media solutions.com, or you can just go to do g wd.com. Either one will get you there to the same place You can go click on the contact form and be able to send us a note and we will be glad to talk to you. Like I said before, if you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast and leave a review while you're there. Also, too. Well, that's it for this week, Brittany, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Alright, and thanks everyone for tuning into the Dogwood Media Solutions podcast and until next time, happy marketing.