Description

Welcome to Episode 22 where my guest today is Paul Warner. Paul is the Communications Director at the Lawrence School, located in northeast Ohio. The reason I invited him on the show today is because he’s the main force behind their podcast, which is The LionShare Podcast.

In episode 21 we talked about an alumni podcast. In this episode, I wanted to highlight a podcast that is focused on enrollment and retention, and this podcast fits the bill. I’m very excited for you to listen to this show; I think you’ll have a lot of takeaways from it.

• When and why Paul started the podcast
• How focus groups played an inspirational role
• What makes Lawrence School unique and how that played into the development of the podcast
• Why a podcast is a good way to reach parents
• How The LionShare Podcast stands out
• Paul’s favorite podcasts
• The goals for the podcast
• How the podcast dovetails with Lawrence School’s Enrollment Management Team
• How the podcast motivated a donor to engage with the school and increase his annual donation
• The intended audience of the podcast
• How an alumnus participates in the podcast production
• The critical role the school’s Advancement Director plays in the podcast
• How the topics for the show are chosen
• Criteria used to determine if a topic is worth delving into
• An anecdotal story about how the podcast is working
• Production “Behind-the-Scenes”
• How long the process takes from the time a topic is decided on until the episode is published

Paul Warner, Communications Director, Lawrence School

Email: pwarner@lawrenceschool.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-warner-6a3a90b/

Paul Warner is currently the Director of Communications at Lawrence School, a coeducational day school for K-12 students with language-based learning differences and attention deficits near Cleveland, Ohio.

Paul joined the Lawrence community in 2014 after spending the previous eight years at The University of Akron where he was the Associate Director for Athletics Communications. During his time with the Zips, he helped manage the publicity efforts for all 19 of the university’s sports teams with a primary focus on the 2010 NCAA national championship men’s soccer program.

A 1999 graduate from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, Paul began his professional career as a newspaper reporter and won two Ohio Associated Press awards for his work at the Chillicothe Gazette in 2001. Additionally, Paul received Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Sports Administration from Ohio University in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

Paul resides in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, with his wife, Sara, and two daughters, Claire (5) and Audrey (1).

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