Episode 25
Strategy is the Key to Business Growth & Success with Michelle Clark
Welcome Michelle Clark, APR, MBA, to Saturday Soundbites with Veronica V. Sopher! Michelle is currently the Associate Vice Chancellor, of Advancement Strategy and Administration at Texas Christian University. As a former communications professional, Michelle brings to her role some of the key skills and strategies that all professionals can use in their business to maximize their visibility strategy.
In this episode, Michelle will share her process for digital transformation in the world of fundraising and communications; the relationship between communications and fundraising; the relationship between communications and team-building, creating culture, etc.; and the importance of data and analytics in effective communication and building relationships with stakeholders. This episode will provide you with so many nuggets to help you grow your reach, network and visibility strategy.
Transcript
Veronica: [00:00:00] Hello. Hello and welcome to Saturday soundbites. I'm Veronica. So for your host, so excited to be with you on this beautiful Saturday morning. If you are listening on the podcast, then it may be a new day of the week, but you are listening to Saturday soundbite. So make sure you hit subscribe down below.
[00:00:19] We want to make sure that you don't. Any episode of Saturday sound bites. And here we talk, all things, visibility, strategy, public relations, and marketing, advertising, branding, and networking. So those are all the things that you need to know about to run your business and make sure you're being super successful.
[00:00:35] And that you have a strong visibility strategy because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. So here on Saturday soundbites, I bring you guests that are truly phenomenal that has done the work they've been frontline. They know exactly what it is they're doing, and they're here to share tips with you.
[00:00:50] If you are watching on Facebook, make sure you let us know that you're watching in the comments. And if you have any questions, drop them in there too. We'll be able to get right back to you. And if you're watching on the replay hashtag replay, so we can circle back with you. So we'll go ahead and get started.
[00:01:05] I have a great guest. Her name is Michelle Clark. She is truly, truly one of the most strategic thinkers I have ever met and had the opportunity to work with. We go back. Probably about 17, 18 years. Not that I'm dating us or anything, but I just want to let you know that this lady has, has really, uh, put in the time and effort into her expertise.
[00:01:26] And so she's going to join us here on Saturday soundbites and give us some knowledge. So with that, I will bring her up. Welcome, Michelle.
[00:01:34] Michelle: [00:01:34] Thank you so much, Veronica. I'm so excited to be
[00:01:36] Veronica: [00:01:36] here. Yes, this is awesome. I'm so, so excited. So Michelle, tell us a little about, um, who you are and, um, go ahead and share our, our, our origin story, how you and I connected.
[00:01:48] Michelle: [00:01:48] Yeah, absolutely. So, um, I am Michelle Clark is Veronica mentioned, and I'm currently the associate vice chancellor for advancement strategy and administration at Texas Christian university. And so if you look back at my career and what got me here, The place. Um, my background is very heavy and government public relations and communications work, and then agency public relations, marketing communications work.
[00:02:12] So Veronica and I met as she mentioned many, many moons ago. I can't believe at 17, 18 years when, obviously we're only 24. But it is true, uh, when we both worked for the Arlington independent school district. So, um, we made up basically the communications office for Arlington ISD and, um, and I tell so many people that was just one of the most satisfying and thrilling and fun, uh, roles I've ever played.
[00:02:40] We were such a great team. Had so many great people to work with really great leadership. I mean, just such a wonderful place to be and team to work with at that time. And I've also been in house communications council for a large public utility, and then I've worked in three different marketing and communications agencies.
[00:03:00] So I actually joined TCU in 2015 as the assistant vice chancellor for communications. And my major charge in that role was taking three teams who had. Worked very independently and pull them together under a common vision and a common content strategy. So those three groups were our editorial services team.
[00:03:22] So the group that puts together our nominal TCU magazine, our strategic communications group, which included our internal communications, our crisis communications, our media relations. So Veronica, all the things that you and I worked. You're so long ago, and then also our advancement communications team.
[00:03:42] And so that team entailed, um, a couple of communications professionals who, even though they were part of our central marketing and communications group, they're actually embedded within our advancement team. Team. So team includes everyone from our frontline fundraisers on behalf of the university to our alumni relations, our donor relations and stewardship and our athletic giving as well.
[00:04:08] So then over the course of that work with advancement communications. Getting to know the leadership of university advancement, working to prepare for the public launch of our largest fundraising campaign ever, which we are right in the middle of right now, we're working to raise $1 billion. That's what they'll be billion, which will scare you.
[00:04:30] And also pretty fantastic in the course of all that work. We were really making an intentional effort to tie together. Where the university was trying to go from a strategic standpoint. So the university strategic plan, tying that to campaign goals and how fundraising for the university really provides to a large extent, the fuel that makes it possible to achieve those strategies.
[00:04:55] And then undergirding, all of that is our brand promise who we are as an institution, how that comes through and our conversations with donors, how that comes through and what we're trying to achieve. So knowing that, and also beginning to learn, I was at a point in my career where really I was finding so much joy in that team building piece and.
[00:05:18] Helping people really develop their unique talents, working to help people contribute to the team and a larger way in a different way, helping people just develop their own career paths individually. So at the time university advancement was also being very intentional, intentional about how they wanted to approach talent development and really starting to put some rigor and structure around.
[00:05:44] What are we looking for when we're recruiting new team members? What does that process look like? How do we interview, how do we recruit? How do we bring new people in and give them that sense of belonging and create, uh, an environment where people really can be their best and bring their best work to the team and to the process.
[00:06:04] So when that opportunity came to join the university advancement team and do more of that work on a full-time basis, it was just really thrilling. So that was about two and a half years ago. So we've been really engaged in everything around our fundraising campaign, from metrics and messaging, to really looking at our most valuable resource that we bring to bear in this campaign, which is our team, it's our people and how we develop them to their highest potential.
[00:06:33] and I love
[00:06:33] Veronica: [00:06:33] you. You use so many key words. Um, one was that caught me right off is your brand promise. Right? Cause we talk about that all the time, the strategy alignment, and you mentioned metrics, and those are all things that people don't often put a lot of attention to and you've made a career out of it.
[00:06:54] Share with us, why those concepts put together can really grow a project and initiative a business, whatever it may be. Yeah,
[00:07:04] Michelle: [00:07:04] absolutely. I love this question and I know, you know this from our time together that I've always been a little bit of a research and data nerd. That hasn't always been the most popular viewpoint or the most typical viewpoint I'll say in the world of communications.
[00:07:21] I think a lot of times you find people who say, no, wait a minute, I'm really good with words. I don't want to do metrics. You know, that's, that's not part of what we do, but it really is so important. And I think, especially when you are a small organization, you are a small team. You have to, you know, I've used the word ruthless in the past.
[00:07:40] You have to be ruthless about how you spend your time. You are spending your time on things that are not advancing the strategy of your organization or your business, then that's time. That is, that could be wasted and it's really not helping you move the needs. So, um, one of the things that I'm most proud of that we did with our communications team at TCU is we really started putting some metrics in place to figure out how is the work we're doing, helping the university achieve what it wants to achieve.
[00:08:09] When I first came into the position, we had a pretty robust marketing plan that had been written and was in place. And when I started asking questions about how, you know, how are we actually doing against this plan? We've got some very specific goals that the work we're doing is expected to help us achieve where are we?
[00:08:27] Um, no one could really answer that question because there was no mechanism in place. So we went through a pretty lengthy and robust process to pay in place. We were really doing content analysis. So, um, I at the, before joining TCU full-time, as you know, Veronica taught as an adjunct professor in the Schieffer college, um, at TCU and I have learned as well, a lot of content analysis during my master's in journalism from Baylor.
[00:08:58] Um,
[00:09:02] um, I earned that degree, but, um, we really looked at what are we writing? What are we producing? What are we sharing on behalf of the university? And how does that content align with the goals that we're trying to achieve? And we started measuring that. We started actually. Coding and keeping up with, okay.
[00:09:20] This story, um, because of, uh, because it's about faculty research, it's going to help, um, elevate the academic profile. So we coded in that category and we started putting together a scorecard that we would share every semester with our leadership at TCU, with the leaderships leadership of our individual schools and colleges.
[00:09:40] So it gave a very clear representation. What we're doing is in pursuit of these goals. And this is why. And it also, again, because we were such a small team, it gave the team a framework to be able to say to someone we really can't take on this project that you're asking us for, because it doesn't fit our strategy.
[00:10:02] Veronica: [00:10:02] Wow. That's powerful.
[00:10:05] Michelle: [00:10:05] Yes. Yes, because it's about strategic. Trade-offs right. Again, if you're doing work that isn't supportive strategy, it means that you are willing to say we are not going to do work, that doesn't align with strategy. So it was really empowering for the team. And it's something that people understand.
[00:10:23] I mean, it's, it's logical. It's not, oh, you know, Veronica is being mean and she's not going to do my project. It is okay. Maybe I need to rework this project. Maybe we need to have further conversation about how, what I'm working on or the projects that I'm interested in that office taking on can really help the university and that bigger picture.
[00:10:45] And then I'll tell you one of the most gratifying things that I've heard lately. I actually. Connected with a former colleague in, um, our communications office at TCU who is now working outside the university in a different position. And she has actually taken that same approach with her team that she's working with.
[00:11:03] They've started reporting in the same kind of way. I got a wonderful compliment from the CEO of her organization, that what she had presented was the most valuable information about marketing and communications and its contribution to ROI that he'd ever seen. So, wow. Really incredible to learn. Yeah. And I,
[00:11:23] Veronica: [00:11:23] and I'll piggyback on that and I'll have to admit it.
[00:11:26] And anyone who's served on any of my teams since, well, I would say in the last probably 17 or 18 years knows that I work off of. A planning guide that I may or may not have borrowed from Michelle Clark. That starts with the very first question. What problem are we trying to solve? And literally we go through that matrix and we go through these exercises and it's been worked for whatever organization I've been working with.
[00:11:51] Or if I'm working, maybe with the girl Scouts as, as a volunteer and we're working on a big initiative or project, I use that same. Tool that, that we used, uh, all those years ago. And it's because it aligns, it aligns the messaging in such a way that we can see how effective it is or is it. Right. And, and that's, and that's golden.
[00:12:13] And I use it in, in my professional life. I use it with my clients. Um, I even have used it in familial conversations or decision-making. So to, to your credit, Michelle, and you have done a
[00:12:25] Michelle: [00:12:25] lot. Well, you are very kind. And I think too, it's just so when you're a storyteller, it's so tempting. I mean, there are so many good stories that can be told.
[00:12:37] There are stories that are interesting. There are stories that are compelling. There are stories that are passionate. And so again, when you don't have a large enough team to tell every possible story from every possible angle and when you are charged with. Helping your institution achieve its goals.
[00:12:55] Just having that in place helps you determine which stories are the most valuable. Not that all stories don't have value because I believe they do, but which ones are most likely to help move the needle on behalf of your organization?
[00:13:11] Veronica: [00:13:11] Yeah. And then you mentioned the ROI, the return of investment, and for people who have a small team, or maybe who are in the entrepreneur space and their team is virtual and they may be contract them for just a couple of hours, knowing that ROI is just so invaluable so that you can move your business forward.
[00:13:29] If you have a large organization, it may look a little bit different, but the structure is still the same.
[00:13:34] Michelle: [00:13:34] No. Absolutely. Absolutely. This is something that can scale as large or as small as you need it to be. I think it's more about the intention and the con it's just asking those questions, just like you just said, it's asking the right questions along the way.
[00:13:47] So that can be as formal or as informal as fits any particular business streams.
[00:13:54] Veronica: [00:13:54] Yeah, no, I agree. And, and tell me in your experience, what has been, um, the, the most often objection to using metrics, to analyze the work that's being done, whether it's communications, whether it's development, um, and, and maybe even networking.
[00:14:10] Cause I know in this role you're doing some development to what are the major objections that, uh, people bring forward. And then how do you as a professional, help them see through them?
[00:14:20] Michelle: [00:14:20] Yeah. Okay. So I love that you brought up, uh, objections and I would go back to, I think, both from a communication standpoint and from a traditional development standpoint, I think a lot of people, um, are attracted to those fields because a they're good at communication.
[00:14:37] I mean, they're very good at understanding what needs to be communicated many times. They're very good at listening as well. There. Listeners, they're empathetic listeners and they're good at relationships. And so they, they Excel and they're passionate about, and they enjoy those what traditionally would be referred to as soft skills.
[00:14:57] And they view analytics, data, research information as more hard skills and things that either they don't like, or they don't feel like they're good at, or they feel is not the right. The best use of their time. So I think that's been the biggest objection in any kind of measurement situation is just getting people to the point where they see the value of putting their time into something that then helps them communicate the value of the work that they're doing.
[00:15:32] My point has often been, unless we're doing that, unless we're putting the time and effort into measuring what we're doing, then we're just constantly guessing. Yeah, we're doing work that is meaningful to us without knowing necessarily whether it's meaningful to our constituents, or we are assuming Veronica is going to love this when we've never asked Veronica whether she loves it, we've documented that in any way, we've not looked at her history with the information that we've shared with her in the past.
[00:16:04] To me, it feels like you're kind of spinning your wheels or, or you're kind of like that hamster running in a wheel when you're doing a lot of work. But if you don't know it's the right work, if you don't know if it's effective, then it's just constantly trying to guess at what's coming next. So, and I think sometimes, um, Sometimes it's an up-skilling question too.
[00:16:28] Um, we put a lot of work in our communications team and to making sure that people knew how to use all the right tools, um, you know, again, amazing communications team, really great at telling stories. Um, didn't love Excel were not super excited about working in Excel and putting data in and using pivot tables and doing that.
[00:16:48] Some of those kinds of things, but we invested in bringing in a really amazing trainer who could spend a day with this team, answer their questions, help them get into the program, let them play a little bit, you know, get in there and try to break things we say, get more and more comfortable and understand again.
[00:17:11] Providing that level of analysis simply helps elevate the work that they're doing, communicate the importance of the work that they're doing. And it's just such a wonderful benefit to them in the long run.
[00:17:23] Veronica: [00:17:23] No, that makes complete sense. And I am one of those people who struggles a little bit with the data, but the more experienced I've gotten over the years, the more I have seen the benefit.
[00:17:33] And so I've to have had to learn and dig deep and down. Yeah. The other thing that I would say that might be challenging for some folks is justifying the time. You know, we say things like, oh, well, it's, it's a crisis situation. It's a, it's a fluid situation. It's something we need to manage right now that we don't have time to survey.
[00:17:53] We don't have time to collect that data. And I don't know if you've seen this, but I've seen people start off with really good intentions, collect the data and then do nothing with it. Yes. It's like, well, I didn't like you've got all this data ready to tell you some stories. Like, how do you, how do you get people across the finish line with that?
[00:18:16] Michelle: [00:18:16] Yeah, no, I think that's so, um, timely that you bring up. I mean, that bring that up. That's something that we're really having a lot of conversation about right now in university advancement. We, um, you know, during over the last year, 16 months or so. Everything we did had to change very suddenly. People had to all of a sudden use different skillsets, learn new skillsets, engage with people in new ways.
[00:18:42] We, um, you know, once we got past the first few weeks, I think of the pandemic when the conversation really was around. When we get back to normal, we're going to do this. Or when everything goes back to normal, when we got to that point where we were like, Hmm, we've done this long enough. Now that normal is going to be something different.
[00:18:59] We're not going to necessarily go back to the way we we've always done things. We really need to look at what are the positives. Around what we could do during nine. What will people expect from us in a new way coming out of this pandemic and the way that we have been able to pivot and do things differently during this time?
[00:19:19] So we started what we're calling our digital advancement initiative to really look at, okay, what have we done over this time that needs to carry forward into a new kind of normal, because we've been able to engage our alumni base. We've been able to engage our donors. In ways that have not been limited by geography as they would have been when we were really, really leaning on.
[00:19:45] Events that were on campus events that were, you know, in physical locations where people could gather. Now there's an element of engagement that needs to also be a little bit more virtual and digitally driven. We approach that by looking at four different pillars. So first is that brand pillar, it's that?
[00:20:07] You know, how do you make sure that you're translating? What at one point would have been a physical experience to a digital experience in a way that is consistent with what people expect from your brand and what they expect from, for us, a TCU experience across the board, no matter what it looks like.
[00:20:24] The second pillar is our intelligence piece. And that speaks to what you're talking about because we specifically call that intelligence and not data because I have a tendency to collect a ton of data and then go, okay, well, we got it. Or collect a ton of data and then maybe run a report and give it to people and say, here's the report done?
[00:20:47] Yep. We're really working on building confidence and fluency with the data that we have. How do we pull that forward? How do we make those data? Tell a story? How do we pull something from those data that help us make a better decision in the future? So we actually have a working group. Around, you know, who's really good at this today.
[00:21:11] How can we leverage the strengths that are already inherent in our team so that we can have people mentor others, we can have people do training. Um, and, and really the more people you have who are fluent and confident, I think that gets to your issue of time. You know, when you have one or two people who are kind of the data people, and that can very easily become a bottleneck.
[00:21:35] And you can run out of that time. Um, but having more and more people who are comfortable and can run those reports, pull those stories and be able to make meaningful sense out of what on, in the data and how that moves you forward, I think is going to be a huge help for us. And then the last two pillars, one of course it has to be a technology pillar because I think that's where people go first, when you.
[00:22:00] Well transformation. They're like, okay, we need to get all the things. And then we will have digitally transformed because we have all of these new tools and that's really just one piece of it. But we really worked toward establishing a rubric because Veronica, you know, how much for you, if we are interested in a new piece of technology, maybe that someone has seen at a conference or that someone has recommended from another institution, let's look at again, what is the problem we're trying to solve?
[00:22:30] What do we need this to do? Do we have a platform in place already that will do that and we're just not using it. And if so, can we work with what we already have, but just some way of evaluating instead of. Seeing a new shiny object and saying, Ooh, we need that because it's digital. And so we need to do it.
[00:22:52] So that's been a really important piece. And then the last piece is that talent piece. I'm sure you know, that people have the skills, they need to move more into a digital first kind of engagement with our constituents. Do we give them the right kind of training, the right kind of professional development, the right kind of mentoring and again, pulling from the strengths that we already have within our team.
[00:23:15] And then just the confidence and the autonomy and the purpose for using new digital tools. Just keeping that kind of top of mind with our team and making sure they have what they
[00:23:25] Veronica: [00:23:25] need. Wow. That's so fantastic. And I. Thought that a university would have to, um, go through that type of transition the way so many other corporations and organizations did, but it makes complete sense.
[00:23:39] You're still in the business of meeting your goals. You still have brand promise. You still have objectives and you had to pivot just like everyone else did.
[00:23:47] Michelle: [00:23:47] Absolutely.
[00:23:48] Veronica: [00:23:48] Absolutely. Yeah, no, that's, I applaud that work and I, and I think you guys did it in a very strategic way, and I'm not surprised that you were at the helm during that, that, because I, during that transition, because I know that you definitely have the skills to do that.
[00:24:03] And I would say too, for the anyone listening, regardless of the size of your organization, being able to pivot yeah. Whether you're a one person shop or a 40 person shop requires you to be strategic. Um, and I love that you broke it down into four pillars because as I was thinking about it, that seems to be exactly what many organizations did successfully and what some organizations did not do successfully.
[00:24:26] They didn't have those structures in place. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:24:32] Michelle: [00:24:32] I would say to just, no matter the size of your shop when you are in that leadership role, I think it's really important to remember that you don't have to solve all of this yourself. So as an advancement leadership team, we didn't say, okay, we need to take our learnings from this pandemic time.
[00:24:50] And pull those forward into a new normal and resetting the bar for how we work moving forward. We didn't do that on our own. We knew it was very important. We pulled in cross-functional groups from across division who are tremendous. Subject matter experts who are specialists in their field, who are the very best at what they do.
[00:25:13] And we actually had them come together and working groups and bring forward ideas. And then it was so important for us on the leadership team to then create a path to make those ideas operational. So I think it's very common in various size organizations to have a lot of good ideas. And you have people who want to bring ideas forward and then the hard part.
[00:25:36] Creating that structure and that path to make them real and then more into your operational space. So we knew we needed to lean on people who were closer to the work who were experts, who just had amazing ideas. And then we needed to be in the role of creating a way forward for those.
[00:25:58] Veronica: [00:25:58] Yeah, no, that makes complete sense.
[00:26:00] And, and I think you guys did a phenomenal job and I can't wait. And, um, I think, uh, you know, the work that you're doing at TCU is advancing so many projects and it's helping so many programs and students, and I just, I'm so proud to see how well you've done over the years and grown into this just amazing, um, ex experts and professional.
[00:26:20] And I just, I just think the world.
[00:26:22] Michelle: [00:26:22] Well right back at you. And I can't think of a better way to spend my Saturday morning than visiting with you. Awesome.
[00:26:28] Veronica: [00:26:28] Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Michelle. I am going to wrap up the show, but, um, I, um, I appreciate the time and the expertise that you've shared with our
[00:26:37] Michelle: [00:26:37] guests.
[00:26:38] It was my pleasure. Thank you so much.
[00:26:42] Veronica: [00:26:42] All right, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I took some notes. I'm going to watch it on the replay and I'm not kidding. When I tell you that. Literally the tools that I use today are ones that I borrowed from Michelle about 18 years ago and have shared with other organizations, um, both in my professional life and my philanthropic life.
[00:27:01] And I just am so proud that people are wanting to learn and grow. Space because visibility strategy. Isn't just about having good copy. It's not just about having good graphics. It's really about strategy and having a plan to put it all together. So you can accomplish the goals that you have for yourself, your business and your organization.
[00:27:20] So. I'm going to wrap up this episode of Saturday soundbites. And if you're watching on the replay hashtag replay, so we can circle back with you. If you're listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe so you can download all the episodes. And with that, I'm going to wish you lots of positive energy and light.