 Hello to all of you thanks for joining us. It's another episode of the nonprofit show and we're starting off with Monday. Julia Patrick in the hot seat so she's going to unzip that brilliant brain of hers. Not going to allow so we can understand what we can do to prepare for our fall media and how we can maximize our storytelling so that's what we have here for the nonprofit show every now and then. Julie and I turn the seat on one another and today a seat is turned on you my friend so I'm excited, excited to play captain today. Julia Patrick, of course CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. I'm Jared ransom your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven group and honored to serve alongside each and every day as your co host. I want to thank our, our presenting sponsors that keep us going and growing. So thank you so very much to blooming American nonprofit Academy fundraising Academy at National University nonprofit nerd, your part time controller staffing boutique and nonprofit center. These companies, many have been with us from the very, very, very beginning we are so very honored to continue our relationship with them and have them come on each and every month, and to share their wisdom and expertise in the sector. If you missed any of our episodes, you know where to find us Roku YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, as well as Vimeo and for those podcast listeners go ahead and queue us up wherever you stream your podcast. So Julia Patrick, look at you, I'm so thrilled to have you here to talk about how we can maximize storytelling. Now, give us a little bit of background because you really come from the media world so tell us a little bit about your background and history. For 30 years, I was in the publishing sector. And, and my story is one that I had a very successful career, loved the work, very hard work, very demanding my family has really supported me and given a lot. Because I was really somebody who was not present in my family, because I was present more in my community and for my business and so that's the sad truth, but that's just the reality of someone who chose a sector that I chose. And as I was reaching a different point in my chronological life, hint hint, I was 55. I was looking, you know, at my life thinking, what the hell, who have I done, where did it go, I've got my child's a woman, I mean, you know, all this stuff. I realized that the best times in my life were when I served my community in the nonprofit sector. And so I really started a navigation to sell my publications and really change my business to focus full time on all the things that I had witnessed and learned about the nonprofit sector, which were vast. And so that is also how I came to meet you, Jarrett Ransom. In this transitory period of my life, long story short, American nonprofit Academy was formed. I chose the colors red, black, white and gray, because you start with red, which is passion. You think things are very black and white about what you want to achieve your mission, vision and values. And then lo and behold, things turn gray and they get murky. And so that's kind of where we are long story short. Here we are. I love it and I can feel your passion coming through it. It's palpable. Absolutely. Well, hey, so we're going to talk about maximizing our storytelling in particular for our fall pitches. And as we were talking in our green room chatter. Can you believe fall is around the corner, right? Like September is literally around the corner this week. September is this week. So talk to us about how we can write. It says here five story pitches and we want them to be emotional. Is that correct? Yeah. So this is the deal. 1.8 million nonprofits in the United States that are registered. So there are a lot more than just that, right? And you want to be able to tell an emotional side, you know, not like, you know, as we call poverty porn or, you know, talking about something that is just super negative, necessarily. But you want to be realistic. You want to be educational and you want to be able to tell that story concisely in a way that might illuminate the issue, might bring you donors, might bring you stakeholders and might bring you funding. Okay. So, I mean, there are a lot of opportunities that you can create by telling a story. And the reason why you want to choose five and you want to do them now because when we're moving through the season, it's too late. You got too much going on. So you step back, come up with five stories. And those stories really can be something that you can then share with the media. The reason why five is such a big number is that you might have a media outlet that's like, yeah, we kind of already have done that story. Or yeah, that's not going to work for us. And so you don't want to be like, okay, thanks very much. Walk away. No, you want to be able to say, well, have you thought about this? This might be an interesting angle or this might be an interesting story. So that you have the opportunity to get your message in front of the people that count. No question, Julia. Are we pitching it as the nonprofit leader? Are we working with a public relations team? Who should best pitch the media? What a great question. If you are somebody that has a budget and attention to detail where you have partnered with somebody that has these relationships by all means. Because they can pick up the phone or send an email or bump into somebody at an event or the supermarket or the coffee shop and say, hey, you know, media news outlet, have you thought about this? I got a great story for you. And that's how the ecosystem works. That's how the ecosystem works. And we don't, we want to think, oh, you know, it's all, it doesn't have this relationship layer, but it does. And so they also, you know, these professionals also know what's been covered, right? And so they'll be able to say, yeah, this is not a good pitch, but this story is. So if you can create these scenarios or these stories and then work with a professional that can help pitch those, yay team. Okay. Yeah, that's good because I can imagine and we talk about this, you know, all the time Julia is that we, we are not in the nonprofit sector, because we love media like we're in it because of a passion for, we're helping the community. And so how do we, how do we address the media knowing that that's not probably our skill set or not most people skill set. Talk to us about our B roll and our photos. So first of all, what is B roll roll. So it's really interesting back in the day. And two things that happened, we used to have a segment of professionals and they were professionals highly paid, oftentimes part of unions called shooters, for obvious reasons, we don't use that anymore. They're more photographers or, you know, tagged into photo editors, but these are the people that would go out with a reporter and they would film or take still shots of imagery that would then accompany the story. So if it was print, if it was broadcast, but now we don't, even if you're just working with somebody, let's say a newspaper, they have a website and they're doing video. I recommend everyone subscribe to the New York Times to see how that August institution is navigating the B roll or the imagery to a newspaper for online content. It is amazing what they do. But the reality is news outlets don't have these big budgets that they used to. And so if you can come to a group, a media outlet and say, you know, not only here are still images, but here's video, then you are going to get moved to the top of the list. You're going to have a better opportunity of telling and sharing your story. It's magical. It makes me think, you know, early in the pandemic and you, you know this, but I reached out to some media, and they sent one person, right. And it was the person that did all of it, you know, to interview. That's right to interview the story. And so to have this backup, and to almost package it I've heard you talk about this before it's like, you want to package it in a way that's like here, here, here's what you need make it simple. So high quality things like that. What are you saying right now Julia, when it comes to, you know, seasonality because we've talked about this before, you know, in certain areas of the country you want to make sure your B roll matches that part of the country talk to us about that. So we use in media, we use the word evergreen. And that means that if you're doing images now, for example, let's say you're doing images for a water drive because of the heat, which has been realistic across this country with, you know, our weather this summer and and the heat escalation and all that. Okay, yeah, to have people that are, you know, are in tank tops or summer gear somewhere. Yeah, that makes sense. What would not make sense is to have somebody in a parka while you're talking about your program and it's going out in July, right? So evergreen, it means that you cannot tell what time of year that image was taken, unless it's specific to the conversation. And so the, the more timeless these images are, the better. So for example, you know, if you wanted to talk about, let's say you're running a senior center, and you're showing how your seniors are participating in maybe like a singing time or where somebody's playing the piano, you wouldn't have a Christmas tree in that image, right? Unless it was for a Christmas program, right? And so you have to kind of think about what is going on in that camera lens. How do things look so that they could be used 12 months a year and not identified to a particular time? That's so smart. And to have like, you know, a, I don't know, a file, a digital file of this so that you can go to it, as you said, have that evergreen content so that you can provide the B roll and help the reporter then assemble what's necessary for them to be successful. Now I know my home channel news station has changed a lot of staff lately and it's very disappointing, but how can we update our media database? So it used to be back in the day that we would have a database and it was very much like first name, last name, snail mail address, email address. I mean it would go on and on and on. But the reality is media is changing super quickly. It's a hard job to be in. We think, you know, a lot of times, oh, it's super glamorous, but it is not. So you see a lot of burn and churn where they're just like, man, the news is tough to report on. It's hard to be around negative imagery and negative news all the time. And so people move around. But what they don't move around are their social media tags. And so it might not be a protocol that's like, you know, Sally reporter at xyzstation.com. Basically, it'll be Sally reporter. And then that media tag follows her and that's gold. That's what you want. And so make sure that you're tagging those people so that you follow them so that they know who you are and that you're getting that information into your database so much so well. Don't kill yourself to get, you know, their snail mail address like you would in the past. Make sure. Or a fax number. Yeah, I know. Guy, it's like so true. Or who the assignment editor's name is. You know, yeah, we used to work that way in some ways we still do, particularly with a larger media outlet. But the reality is a lot of these reporters, and this is so interesting, back in the day when I started, you would never. Contact a reporter directly. That was that was perceived as really poor protocol and poor behavior. Now what you do is you do go forward to those reporters, and then they pitch the story to their ecosystem to say, Hey, I think this would be something I could cover or I want to get behind. So it's kind of an interesting change within the media, but absolutely tag them and let them know. Loved the story. I could share one of my own or, you know, you can start some of these conversations with with these reporters, and they do look at this. It's fascinating. They really do. And it could be a quick way for you to get your story into the queue. Well, and I think this goes back to the question, you know, that I had asked previously Julia, should we be doing it as the nonprofit staff or leader, or should we be working with the PR team and I would imagine, you know, if we are an organization that has the budget of that PR team, these people really keep up with, you know, the the staff and and how they might move around the country. Right, because that's their job. I mean, that's gold. Your relationships are are the value of working with immediate immediate company. Absolutely. I mean, who you know and how you know them and how they respond to you is the secret sauce in all of this. And so absolutely, Jared, you're right. I mean, if you're if you can afford and you know and you understand that that's a good investment for your organization, then that's what you want to do. Yeah. So keeping this media database up up to date. How often should we be working on this is this you know, okay, the fall fall seasons around the corner so now's the time every year we want to work on this or is this is this It's an ongoing thing, undoubtedly. But I think this is like where the heavy lift is. You know, I always recommend to nonprofits take three days in August or early September, no later than September 15, and put this on the calendar. And know that your three days you're going to spend, you're going to dig down on this, you might get a volunteer to help you or whatever, but it's a start, middle and end activity that you know moving into the fall. You feel very confident that you're up to date. Now things happen and things change. You started off this conversation by acknowledging within your community, there's been a lot of upheaval and change. Yeah, you need to stay on top of that. You can't be like, well try and remember that next August when I do this. No, you got to be keeping up on this. But the reality is, you know, you've got to really make a commitment to making sure that all your data is accurate so that when you do go to pitch stories or to respond to a story on behalf of your organization, you know who to contact. That's right. Oh, good, good information. I'm so glad that this is your wheelhouse because it's not mine. Now talk to us about how we might engage with these reporters and the news stations, you know, through social post. So this is a really good question and I appreciate having the opportunity to talk about this because I think that one of the best things that we can do in the nonprofit sector is I think we can become that thought leader and that go to person. And I pose this question. Do you want to be the person that's just talking about your organization and your work? Or do you want to be the person that can talk about the ecosystem of your sector? So for example, domestic violence. Do you want to be that person that can only speak about XYZ domestic violence shelter? Or do you want to be that person that knows something about the entire sector, the demographics, social graphics, economics, all of these things. And so what this does is that if there's if there's something that occurs, you want the reporting segment sector to know that they can go to you to get good information, whether or not it's about your organization, you're going to be the thought leader. And that this is really the the magical thing that happens. And it's also great for your career. So, you know, it's one of those things that not only helps the sector, but it helps the individual. And so to be somebody that can report back to that that pun intended that reporter and to say, Hey, you know, you know, Joe blow, I saw you report on this. And here's an interesting factoid or here's a great little piece of information, or this is somebody you might want to know doesn't always have to be about you or your institution. But if you become a thought leader for that sector, that's when the magic happens. That's absolutely an amazing thing. No, go ahead. Well, I was going to say that, you know, reporters, you have to remember that they might have like before they come to you, they started their day with a pumpkin truck that turned over on the interstate. Next, they went to a teacher of the year award, right? And they went to a, you know, a factory explosion, and then they came to you, right? I mean, they're going 90 miles an hour with different things. Yeah, more information and expertise, you can feed them the better and the more accurate the story is going to be. Now, what I was going to ask is, you know, should we be reactive to the news? Like I've seen it where, you know, let's say there is a chemical explosion somewhere, and maybe we provide services for burn survivors, right? Like, should we then approach the media and say, this just happened, we want to make sure that the community is aware of our services and how we are here to be of service? Or like, which leads the pitch? You know, and this is a, I love that you asked this question, because you can imagine how insufferable I have been as a board leader, given my background on this topic. Absolutely. But you know what? This is very controversial because there are a lot of nonprofits that are like the organizations led generally more from the board that feel like we're not the story we don't want to go for. We don't want to put forth. And I think that's absolutely the wrong approach. I think if you are a leader in your sector and you know stuff and you are a good connector and you have the ability to build community and solve problems, yeah, you need to be out there. So for example, this is a great, true place where we've been. Think about the food banks and the necessity and the engagement they've had in our communities in the last 48 months. It's been remarkable. And so, you know, people that would be like, well, I don't even know where to go. Right? I don't even know how to navigate this. Have had to be educated. And they had to step up, right? This would not happen if we didn't have some communication going on. So imagine if you're a food bank and all of a sudden you're going to do a pop up drive through or whatever, you need to be able to communicate that. You need to be able to get, as they say, out in front of the story and share that. What does that look like? And with back to school right now, that's a big one. There's a lot of school drives, but not a lot of, you know, that stress that comes along with it. And so maybe, you know, how we can relate and even divvy up the story because every news channel, there's a backpack drive, right? But never do you see someone that's, you know, teaching how to be, I don't know, maybe a little bit more mindful during the school year and how you can approach the year with a little less stress. Right, right. And I guess that goes back to our very first topic this morning or this afternoon, wherever you are. And that is, you know, five emotional stories, not just maybe the one that's ever present and obvious. But things like what you just said, you know, how do you reduce the stress at dinner time? How do you get kids to do their homework and feel successful and not have the parents feel like they're badgering their kids? I would tune into that one. I know you'd be like, hmm, that one was written for me, I think. It's true. But you know what I'm saying here is that you have to look around at your community and determine what you think people are needing help with and what are the answers that maybe you can provide. And hopefully you are in tune with your community because of how you serve and how you lead. And so you are asking those questions. So when we're creating this, not just for the fall, I'm thinking this also is a little bit more, you know, seasonally driven. So should we be thinking of, you know, quarterly or monthly pitches to the media? How can we take these best practices for pitching the media right now in the fall, Julia, for it to be, I'm going to use your word evergreen throughout the year. How can we make that? So generally best practice would be a 12 month. And I would say I always like to have a 16 month editorial calendar because things, you know, mentally we're like, oh, things end in December and start in January. And that's not really how it works. We need to be thinking like a little bit outside that 12 month calendar. But nevertheless, you know, there's so many things that you can tag your organization to. So for example, you know, we have basically seven major holidays. We have four or five major seasons. We have regional seasons. What is it that your work does that coordinates with what the population is going through? And so you can do things like if you're in a sector, let's say you are in the medical sector and you have, you know, heart disease awareness is February. And so then how do you tag stories that might wrap your nonprofit because you serve that part of the sector. So you need to be strategic about this. Also, this is where an outside professional might be able to help you to understand, you know, what does that look like? You know, there's Mother's Day. There's Father's Day. There are so many different things that go on. There's safety awareness about certain issues. You should be tagged to that. You should be aligned to that. And so that's super, super important. And again, Jared, we're talking about now digging into the fall, but this truly is a year round, you know, sentiment and mentality, if you will. I was just thinking we just had National Dog Day, right? So for some of you that have, you know, pet shelters, that of course fits right within your mission. Maybe you have a program and it's delivered through the use of animals. Great opportunity there as well. This is so perfect timing. So not only is it pumpkin spice season, it is pitch the fall media season. With a little pumpkin spice. With a little pumpkin spice on top. So that's this, you know, this is one thing we can do right now is we can follow and like our reporters post. Before we wrap up the show, Julia, are we liking them from the from us personally, or from the organization? Wow, what a great comment. What a great question. Absolutely. I'm going to say both. Now, this is a little dicey because you got two things here. You have your personal brand and you have your organization's brand. And so you've got to determine like what the voice is that you're going to respond to and how they're going to, you know, connect. And so, yeah, this is a little dicey because that's one of those things that this, this is actually an asset. So if you're building relationships with reporters and people in the community, those go with you when you leave the organization, which is a little brutal. But so if you can do things that kind of not only tag the organization, but you, I think that's the healthiest thing for the long run. But absolutely, you know, people do business with people they like. And so, you know, the more you can become, as we were talking about Jared, that thought leader and that person, that go to person. That's really where you want to be. And that's the reality of it. Well, you are our go to person in, for sure, in particular when it comes to the media. I always learned so much from you here, you know, my, my undergrad is mass communication but as you said, the media has changed so very much even, even as you said, you know, it was taboo. You do not contact the reporter. Well, now that's usually your foot in the door. Yeah. Yeah. If you called up, I bet you really, if you called up a say a TV station and you ask for the assignment editor, they'd be like, well, which reporter do you want to talk to? I mean, right? You know, I mean, it is, it is completely shifted in my lifetime. You know, the media had not really changed for almost 150 years. Don't get me started. I could talk for hours about this. I'm going to grab my pearls. Yeah. Yeah, grab, clutch your pearls. Clutch your pearls. It hadn't really changed. You know, you think back to the Gutenberg press, we were still doing things very similarly. Man, in the last 20 years, the marketplace has completely in the sector has completely shifted. And you have to understand that and you have to be a part of this wild ride because we're in the middle of it. It is not fully defined. Especially with technology, you know, that's what it is. Yeah, that's that's really the start of it. I mean, the technological changes. So absolutely. And we are in the middle of the ride. It has not been defined. We're still on the wave. We're still on it. Well, thank you, Julia for staying up to date with all of the media changes. Everyone has a homework right now. We need to write five story pitches that are emotional. And then also follow and like your reporters page. I think that those two are really things that we can take away right now as as we move into the week because as you said, August, September, now's the time to really, you know, get our ducks in a row when it comes to our media pitches. And we want five right Julia so that we can say, Okay, what about this one? No, we've already covered that we always have another one to go to. Exactly. Yeah, thank you. Brilliant mind brought to us also with our amazing presenting sponsors. If you have not checked out these companies now's a good time to do it. Please do check out blue meringue American nonprofit Academy fundraising Academy at National University, nonprofit nerd, your part time controller staffing boutique and the nonprofit thought leader. These companies are here day in day out right alongside Julia and myself to help serve you and your community to help grow your mission fund your mission fuel your mission. Thank you so much. And again just just thank you so very much. Hey Julia. Thank you. Learning from you always inspires me and I also feel like I leave with more to do, then I came on the show for you. Well, I'm kind of sorry about that. Yeah, I know. It's good. You don't need more work, but you know, if it's nothing else, a little awareness will help you figure out, you know, things and help you go forward. You know, it's not rocket science. It's, but it is time spent. It's stuff you have to do. And it causes you to invest in your organization in a way that maybe we forget to. I don't want to say it might not be rocket science but it sure is brain surgery. I'm going to totally use that. Right, right. Including Julia. Thank you so very much for joining us today, starting off a brand new week here at the nonprofit show. This week has a robust lineup, and we also turned the calendar into September one this week so stay with us. We always remind you each and every day for over 600 episodes to please stay well so we can all continue to do well. Thanks Julia. I'll see you here tomorrow.