Continuing Studies: for Higher Ed Podcasters

[00:00:00] Jennifer-Lee: Welcome to Continuing Studies, a podcast for higher education podcasters. In each episode, we talk to a university podcaster to ask some questions, get answers, and share tips and ideas about higher education podcasting. Hi, I'm Jennifer-Lee. I'm a radio broadcaster and a podcaster.
[00:00:22] Neil McPhedran: And I'm Neil McPhedran. I've come to podcasting after 25 years in the digital agency world. Together we've hosted, executive produced, [00:00:30] and launched seven, and counting, higher education podcasts. Please remember to follow Continuing Studies in your listening app of choice and drop us a rating and or review, we'd love to hear your feedback. While you're at it, also join the University Podcaster Network on LinkedIn.
[00:00:46] Jennifer-Lee: Today we're talking with Laura Guzman from CDI College. CDI is a private college with 20+ schools across the country. Laura oversees their podcast Career Buzz.
[00:00:55] In this episode, we cover off a few key points that I think will be interesting for our audience, including a name change and focus for the podcast, as well as how they strategically bake the podcast into the school's app, which is super smart.
[00:01:09] Neil McPhedran: We should also probably mention that Jen is also the host of Career Buzz.
[00:01:14] Jennifer-Lee: It's all about Jen.
[00:01:15] Neil McPhedran: Anyway, let's jump into our conversation with Laura.
[00:01:22] Jennifer-Lee: Welcome back. Neil and I are very excited to interview another person about a post-secondary podcast. Today we have Laura on and she is the director of community relations for campus support and I work with her on the CDI College Career Buzz podcast. So, I'm very excited to talk with her today, and kind of see like, why did we start something like this because we've been on the journey together now for I think, about two years already. Time goes by really fast. So, Laura, let's just start a little bit with you and how you got involved with the podcast in your role with campus support.
[00:02:01] Laura Guzman: Yes. I'm super excited to be here with you two today, and I first got involved with a podcast, well, it was an idea that my team came up with. It was during Covid, and we wanted to create a space where people could talk about mental health. You know, with the rise of mental, uh, health issues during Covid, we wanted to give that value add to our staff and our [00:02:30] students. And so, I remember reaching out to you, and talking, 'Hey, let's do a podcast, let's create a space, a safe space to talk about mental health. Of course, related to education as well.
[00:02:43] Neil McPhedran: So, the podcast itself that you folks have created, it's targeted at students and staff of CDI College.
[00:02:52] Laura Guzman: The original podcast, it was called ‘Pick Me Up Podcast’, by CDI College, which is one of our brands, and [00:03:00] it was targeted to students and staff during the pandemic because the focus was on mental health, but since then we rebranded it.
[00:03:09] Jennifer-Lee: It was really cool to start with CDI College from scratch because you get the idea of like, what is their goal of the podcast, why they want to do it. Every university and college have their own initiative of why they want to do a podcast, it's very different. At first, I thought it would always be like, oh, everyone's going to do a podcast about their courses. But it's not. [00:03:30] We've talked to people that their purpose is just maybe one department; some is just alumni. And for you guys, I think it's really cool that you guys started with mental health, and it was interesting too, because I really enjoyed a lot of the people that they had on the podcast connected to CDI college and some of them lived in the US and some of them lived here in Canada.
[00:03:50] It was really cool to just see the different tips because I think it's something that was really relatable to anyone. You didn't necessarily have to be a student, didn't have to necessarily be a staff member. [00:04:00] It's something we're all dealing with, and you know, it's evergreen content too. It's stuff that people can always use, little tips and tricks because as we know, mental health is still prevalent.
[00:04:09] Neil McPhedran: So, the podcast has evolved from what was called 'The Pick Me Up', which was focused on mental health, and it was more focused on the existing student base and staff base, and now it's called 'Career Buzz'.
[00:04:23] Laura Guzman: Correct.
[00:04:23] Neil McPhedran: And so, the target audience has changed a bit as well too, sort of along the way.
[00:04:28] Laura Guzman: Yes.
[00:04:28] Neil McPhedran: Is that correct?
[00:04:29] Laura Guzman: Yeah, so the one really good thing about working with Jen, and being able to utilize all the tools that she has an inside scoop on, because she's a professional in the industry, one of the things that we did is we assessed all our data when we were deciding whether to continue with CDI 'Pick Me Up' Podcast or to market it into something brand new.
[00:04:53] We looked at all the data and we realize that some of our best performing podcasts were the [00:05:00] ones that had a component of either an alumni, or a person within those particular industries that we have. They were still talking about mental health, but there was a lot of talk about a being in the industry as well.
[00:05:15] And those was, those were the best performing ones. And so, we realized, and we decided, okay, this will be a good area for us to focus in. Of course, we're coming out of a pandemic, but one of the good things is that there are a lot of resources for [00:05:30] mental health. And so, we thought, okay, how can we spin this around and give a value added to our students.
[00:05:38] And that's how the idea about 'Career Buzz' came up, to target our students and to give them an insight scoop of what it's like for an alumni, or for a person that has been in the industry for an X amount of time to work in that industry. What is it like day to day and all sorts of things like that.
[00:05:57] Neil McPhedran: That's great. I love how you're saying that [00:06:00] you had an initial mandate, and sort of felt like, was sort of nearing the end of that mandate as the pandemic cleared up and it was like, and then you've used the data based on like, what really did you see from a listenership perspective, gain the traction to then drive your decision forward of, okay, now what is this podcast? Now what are we focus on? And it feels like you're really well positioned moving forward, and you know, it's grounded in that observation of what was gaining traction from a listener perspective. I think that's a really great insight. So, you've opened up the aperture from audience perspective to be prospective students as well then.
[00:06:41] Jennifer-Lee: I think it's just a real realistic way of looking at it, because I think a lot of the times when people think about podcasting, no matter if you're doing it for an organization or an institution, a lot of people think, this is my idea and this is what I'm going to do and I'm going to roll with it. And sometimes it's not necessarily the right direction, but [00:07:00] it's the launching pad that gets you to where you go. Like, Laura, you said if you didn't do the 'Pick Me Up' podcast, you wouldn't learn like I think it was the LPN one that got a lot of traction and that was learning about what a licensed practical nurse, and I even learned a lot about that. And it was a really cool interview with her because we were talking about the pandemic and it was still in the height of when, uh, you know, hospitals, were still seeing a lot of people, uh, very sick in it, and it really gave you a taste of what you were jumping into.
[00:07:30] So, you know, you took that information, and you were able to craft kind of like a tree branch out. And so, I think a lot of people don't listen to their podcasts, or look at their podcast either. They just look like, oh, why aren't I getting all these results? You guys were very smart of like, let's take this information now that we're getting and we're going to just slightly pivot it towards something else that makes more sense for our brand.
[00:07:54] And you really have to do that no matter what type of podcast you have, you're always having [00:08:00] to think about it. And maybe it's not as big of a change as rebranding, but it's a way that you're either structuring your scripts or what guests you're reaching out to, and a lot of people just, it's a great podcasting tip that you guys thought of. Sometimes you really need to just pivot, or just change a few things to make it more successful.
[00:08:17] Laura Guzman: Mm-hmm. Yeah, you need to start, see what works, like in any business or any sort of initiative venture, and then you learn from it. Learn from what works from your mistakes and create something that is more valuable.
[00:08:30] Jennifer-Lee: Do you want to tell us a little bit about CDI college because it's a little bit different than some of the other institutions out there.
[00:08:37] Laura Guzman: Yes. So, we are one of the largest providers of post-secondary private education in Canada. We've been around for about 50 years. We have programs all from business, technology, legal studies, and also healthcare, and we create market driven curriculums. Uh, so [00:09:00] we really research and find out what the market needs at the moment, and we work with our experts in creating and responding to the market with programs that are really high quality for our students. We, uh, have colleges across BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba, we have about 25 colleges.
[00:09:23] Jennifer-Lee: The programs are very interesting too, because they're a little bit shorter, less than four years, and so someone could sort of, try [00:09:30] out a field and then use it as a steppingstone to go further into it. When we interviewed a professor for the veterinarian assistant program, she mentioned that once someone is doing that, if they like it, they can really get into it and dig their teeth into the subject and use it as training and then continue on in a full veterinarian program at another institution. So, can you tell us a little bit more about how people use this program to build their careers?
[00:09:54] Laura Guzman: Yeah, some people use our programs to get their feet wet in the industry. [00:10:00] For some people, these are careers that are long-term. For example, for Certified Dental Assistant, it's a really good career, the program is less than two years, and when people finish, it gets a really good salary. Like you are able to get a job placement quite quickly just because the market demand is quite high. Like people that choose this type of careers, they do it for a very long term, if not for the rest of their lives.
[00:10:27] I'm also thinking about the Licensed Practical [00:10:30] Nurse Program. That is a really good program as well, that it gives you a chance to have a career for the rest of your life if you choose to. And then we have some other programs that are more so diplomas, uh, they tend to be a little bit shorter in time, and that they're able to get your feet wet, uh, in the industry that you may want to be a part of.
[00:10:53] Jennifer-Lee: I love it because a lot of them too, like you said, they're shorter and they can start working too, and earning money. And I know you, a lot of students [00:11:00] get jobs, so I think that's great. And that's why I like your podcast, now you're really highlighting what it's like to work in those positions, from the professors, because I think a lot of times, we don't necessarily know all the programs that are out there. Just because maybe, you want to be a veterinarian, you don't know that there's other jobs that maybe are not necessarily that position, but they're still in that realm.
[00:11:21] Neil McPhedran: Can you maybe sort of talk about the existing sort of app that's used across, uh, all the student body base, and I'm sure the faculty and whatnot use it, and then how has the podcast played into that?
[00:11:34] Laura Guzman: Basically, the app is a space where our whole community can come and get information like about, our programs, about events going on in their campuses, about, for example, different initiatives or add-ons, like the podcast, just to sum it up, be plugged into our community. And so, for the podcast, uh, we just created a tab [00:12:00] within the app that is very accessible for students to come and open it up, and watch one of the talks. I mean, and you have to keep in mind that also these are current students, a place where they can get information and an inside scoop about those different, uh, careers.
[00:12:18] Neil McPhedran: The app is a place for discovery of the podcast, but also, I can as a student, because I'll have access to the app and the app will be on my phone, that could also be where I listen to the podcast.
[00:12:30] Laura Guzman: Yes, absolutely, you can listen to the podcast. It's a hybrid link in one of the areas within the app, so people can go and listen to it. I even think it because the app is also available across different platforms, one of them, YouTube, so people can also watch the video.
[00:12:46] Neil McPhedran: The podcast then is available on the app but then, just so we're clear, it's also available like any other podcast is, on Apple and Spotify.
[00:12:54] Laura Guzman: Yeah, of course it's not only available on the app, because we want the general [00:13:00] public to also have access to it. And for the app, you have to be part of our community, uh, in order to log in and so the podcast is available on different platforms.
[00:13:11] Neil McPhedran: That's great. I just think most universities, colleges would have some sort of app or some sort of, you know, password protected environment, web environment that would be available for students and faculty and staff. So, I think this is really interesting consideration and for other podcasts to like, think about [00:13:30] that platform as a place to get the podcast out in front of the audience, but also, as just another place for, to listen, or in your case, because there's the video component of it as well, as watch it. So I think that's a really neat, uh, insight for the audience to sort of think about additional places to put your podcast and additional places for your audience to discover the podcast.
[00:13:52] Jennifer-Lee: I like that too because, like as we've talked to other people in this space, there’s no right or wrong way to promote your [00:14:00] podcast and it's very subjective, so you gotta do everything that's right for you. Would you have any tips? Obviously don't give all your secrets away, but in the higher education space after, you know, we've been doing it for about two years, any tips for anyone wanting to start a podcast either in a college or university?
[00:14:16] Laura Guzman: I think that you don't start with a perfect product. I think that you have to take a risk, mitigate the risk, and then see what's working, what's not, and continue on working to better [00:14:30] your product for your target demographic, whether it's your students, or your staff, or both. Another one would be, I know that different companies or different institutions do the podcasts themselves. But for us, it has worked really well to hire people that are professionals in the field, that are knowledgeable about, you know, where to market the podcast or where to host the podcast or you know, how to properly edit it. Like all these things that it may be [00:15:00] difficult for someone that is just starting to know how to do. And also, I always think about, of just making your product, you know, sound really good and really professional, and that's something that a person knowledgeable in the industry would be able to do.
[00:15:15] Jennifer-Lee: And, and you hit on something, one of the universities that we talked to does have a former broadcaster that now does their podcast, and we're starting to see more and more of, that that person is in-house. But you guys obviously hire hired me and so, I think that's an interesting thing we're [00:15:30] starting to see too, is like some college and universities have amazing speakers, don't get me wrong, and some of them do stellar work, but then some people, if they don't want to, or maybe don't want to take on all that work too, hired somebody too.
[00:15:43] Laura Guzman: Yes, I guess I just, uh, always want to think about the quality of the product. And so of course there are, I'm sure there are a lot of universities, colleges that have people, uh, they're very well versed in doing podcasts and, you know, doing interviews and all of this, but, If [00:16:00] within your team you don't have the equipment and all of it, is sometimes is more beneficial to go ahead, and hire a third party to handle all of it. It just depends. Like, it depends on your return on investment and all of those things. I think with that, since the beginning, without compromising the product that you're going to put out and give your students and staff.
[00:16:19] Jennifer-Lee: And it lessens some workload, they are a lot of work. So, you gotta be in for the ride.
[00:16:25] Laura Guzman: Yes. I do realize, you know, like we, because we collaborate a lot, and we collaborate on you know, the topic, questions, and all of this. So, I also like that part a lot, that we have, we just have all the input.
[00:16:40] Neil McPhedran: I like that you went into this podcast thing with your eyes wide open, that it was a journey. It was like, it was something that you're committed to, and as we talked about, there's been a pivot throughout. But it is something I think that, uh, we talk about with our clients, uh this is a journey, you need [00:17:00] to commit to this. This isn't just some marketing tactic that you're going to try for a little bit and it's not working or whatever. You really need to commit to it, and it's a slower moving, uh, platform that you're creating.
[00:17:11] Jennifer-Lee: But I always remind people too, that it might be slower, but you're building all this evergreen content that you can use down the road, and you can cut up into social media posts and you can cut up into blog posts. So, it's like, It's nothing wasted and content's the hardest thing to do and keep consistent.
[00:17:27] Neil McPhedran: What other channels have you found [00:17:30] that work to promote the podcast? Email or social media or anything like that? Anything that sort of, you found your, that has gotten traction.
[00:17:38] Jennifer-Lee: You guys are like using youTube?
[00:17:40] Laura Guzman: Yeah. I think that you know, as many avenues as you can get information to the students, whether our emails or your social media. Like I said, you know, we have our YouTube page as well. But yeah, all of these are super helpful to get the information to them.
[00:17:59] Jennifer-Lee: I know you guys, the reason you wanted to do video was because you said you did get more traction on your YouTube page because obviously you guys have built up a following there. So, YouTube has been a helpful tool for you guys to bring awareness?
[00:18:11] Laura Guzman: It has been, yes. We have the following already. We have a lot of people that use our YouTube and we just thought it would be an organic way to get the information to our students or prospective students.
[00:18:24] Jennifer-Lee: I noticed when I was reading the comments on YouTube, some of the professors will actually share the podcast in the class too, which I thought was cool. This is great. I've learned so much. Like I, every time we do this, I learn something different. Like I said, you think podcasting is going to be the same, among the same industry, like higher education, but it's not. Everybody we talk to has a different take on it. And this is what I love and it's so fascinating to me.
[00:18:46] Neil McPhedran: Yeah, me too. And I think what's interesting about the higher education podcast world is that it's not about monetizing, which sort of, there's a huge chunk of the podcast space, which is really [00:19:00] about creating a podcast, getting an audience, and how to monetize it. That's not what, you know, most, uh, higher education podcasts are trying to achieve.
[00:19:07] So that's where I find it really fascinating, sort of digging into you with about like why the podcast was and created, and who it's for, and then how you're using it for your focus moving forward.
[00:19:20] Jennifer-Lee: That's why Neil and I want to do this because we want to connect you with other universities and colleges that do it, because I think there's a lot of things that everyone at these institutions can learn from each other.
[00:19:31] Laura Guzman: Yes. No, it's, uh, it's super interesting. At the end of the day, it's another communication tool, so it's interesting to know how different institutions, uh, you said, in order to bridge that gap with their students, with their staff. So yes, I'm thankful for the interview.
[00:19:49] Jennifer-Lee: We're thankful for you coming on it.
[00:19:52] Neil McPhedran: Yeah. Thank you so much.
[00:20:00] Jennifer-Lee: What I find interesting, Neil, is like the fact that, same thing that you find interesting, is the fact that they had a podcast, and it served its purpose to an extent, but then they took a look at the data and changed it. And I think that's something that a lot of people don't talk about in podcasts is like, and there's a lot out there. Sometimes you run with one idea, and you do have to change it up to capture a larger audience, and I think that's something super influential for any podcaster out there.
[00:20:27] Neil McPhedran: Yeah, that's a really good point. You build [00:20:30] up an audience for the feed, and so people are following that feed. And so why throw the feed out? Because there's some good value in what you've built there, but you can pivot and really use that feed.
[00:20:41] Jennifer-Lee: Yeah, always using an existing audience is always a good thing. I always recommend that, especially if it's audience that is following you because of you, and the information that you're putting out there. It's always a good way to pivot something that you already have. Yeah, you might lose a few people along the way, [00:21:00] but you might gain more people and the people that you already have, you're already strengthening that listening relationship.
[00:21:08] Neil McPhedran: Well, I think that's a wrap. Thank you for tuning into the Continuing Studies podcast, a podcast for higher education podcasters.
[00:21:15] We hope you found this episode informative and inspiring. If you enjoyed the show, we encourage you to follow and subscribe to our podcast on your preferred platform. So, you'll never miss an episode. And if you've found this episode particularly valuable, [00:21:30] please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues who also might be interested in higher education podcasts.
[00:21:36] We also invite you to join the University Podcasters Network Group on LinkedIn. Just search for University Podcasters Network, where you can connect with other podcasters in higher education and can learn from others in the field. Thank you for being part. [00:22:00]