Amanda Holdsworth: Telling Your School’s Story

TheSchoolHouse302 One Thing Series School Leadership Podcast

About Amanda Holdsworth Dr. Amanda Holdsworth, APR, is the founder of Holdsworth Communications, a PR and enrollment marketing agency in the education sector; the School Comms Lab, a membership community for school communicators; and Comms Mom, a global community for moms working in communications. A former collegiate tennis and soccer player, Amanda earned a B.S.B.A. in Communications Management and Honors International Studies from Robert Morris University, and both a Master of Arts in Strategic Public Relations and a Doctor of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership from the University of Southern California. Amanda’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Fast Company, Forbes, Inc. and Parents Magazine, but her pride and joy is her family: husband, Doug, a successful entrepreneur and two daughters, Avery and Shelby. What You’ll Find in this Podcast Episode with Amanda Holdsworth Amanda has done PR work in higher education, private schools, and public schools. Her insight about marketing and branding your school is invaluable. Learn how “to cut through the noise.” It’s all about telling the story about the people who work in the organization. Create connections by telling their story to the community. Don’t miss the Curt Schilling example. Too many PR agencies, schools, and districts still think that public relations are about sending out press releases…not true. She gives sage advice regarding how stories should tie the school to the community so that it matters to the interests of the local people. T.J. gravitated toward the concept of an “ideal customer avatar” and how the ICA drives the narrative. The people, the vision and mission, and the impact the school is making are all ICA drivers. To develop your ideal customer avatar, we need to enumerate our audiences. Schools and districts have multiple audiences, all with different interests. Who are we communicating to? What are their interests? Who can help us get the word out? Schools can’t have a one sided relationship with local journalists. You’ll want to hear what Amanda says about supporting relationships with the press so that they know how to help when the time comes. Amanda talks about the trend in the ability to get a hold of national press versus local organizations. Amanda tells us about a two-prong approach that she learned at USC--have a strategic PR plan as well as “brand ambassadors.” Amanda connected us to Jeremy Tiers to study how higher education is attracting students. Check out @coachtiers. She talks about practicing gratitude as something that all leaders can do daily. Use this sentence stem: “I’m so lucky to be in a position to…” She acknowledges that she has never seen this degree of negative reporting about schools, making gratitude even more important. Listen to why she wants to play the bass guitar. Amanda has learned to stay in her lane. Schools and districts can learn to focus on what they do best and how we can communicate that. Don’t miss what she says about being afraid to be an entrepreneur and what she realized when she went out on her own. Amanda ends by saying that we should tell the stories of our teachers and staff. Who is the school nurse? What can we share about the bus driver? It’s a people business. Let’s tell their stories. Let us know if there’s a guest who you want us to have on the show by leaving a comment below or by contacting us at [e-mail]. And don’t miss our leadership content updates every week by subscribing on the site. We can’t wait to hear from you. Joe & T.J.