Show Notes:

The SchoolCEO Podcast equips K-12 leaders and communications professionals with school marketing strategies and insights, drawing from original research, inspiring stories, and expert perspectives. The SchoolCEO Podcast is written by Eileen Beard and produced by Tanner Cox.

Read Look Again by Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein.

Learn more about us and subscribe to our newsletter at schoolceo.com. If you have a story you’d like to share with us, email me at eileen@schoolceo.com or schedule a call with me! 

Follow SchoolCEO on LinkedIn or X/Twitter @school_ceo. 

SchoolCEO is powered by Apptegy, the maker of the leading K-12 communications and brand management platform.

Episode Transcript

Eileen Beard: Hey, everyone. I'm Eileen Beard. I'm a SchoolCEO magazine writer, presenter, and your host for season four of the SchoolCEO podcast. This season, we're going to do things a little bit differently. Actually, we try to change things up every season. If you haven't been with us since the beginning, in season one, we started by doing interviews with thought leaders in education. In season two, we expanded those in-depth interviews to include leaders and communicators in the private sector as well. In season three, we gave you a comprehensive guide to school marketing, covering really big topics you need to know, such as literally what is school marketing, to brand, to social media, to a bunch more. By the way, it's a really great place to start if you're new to the field, and I think it's a really great refresher for long time pros too. 

In season four, though, drum roll, please, we're giving you bite sized episodes of the same great content we always have, sharing real success stories from districts that are just like yours, excerpts of conversations with K12 leaders and communicators, and we're giving you insights from our original research. And we're doing it all in just a few minutes per episode because we know how busy you guys are, and we wanna give you a little bit of your time back. 

Why do we keep changing things, though? There's a behavior called habituation that, in really simple terms, just means getting used to something like a job or a relationship or a podcast. It's getting so used to something, though, that you get stuck in a rut. Authors Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein write about it in their book, Look Again. Evolutionarily, habituation made sense. It was a survival mechanism. When we did something over and over and over again enough times without it killing us, we could start paying attention to other things, newer things, potentially more dangerous things, and stop thinking about it. 

Now, though, our brains still work in much the same way. Getting too used to a routine can zap the excitement out of it because we've started to turn our attention to newer, potentially more exciting things. So how do we avoid getting stuck in a rut? Well, at work, for starters, we make small changes, starting with a change in perspective. You've probably heard the term beginner's mindset. It's exactly what it sounds like, approaching a situation like you're a beginner by being humble, seeking feedback, and challenging your own assumptions. And it's all to gain that small change in perspective that might help you get unstuck. 

But let's talk about why me? I'm actually the newest member of the SchoolCEO team. When this episode comes out, I will have been with Apptegy almost exactly one year. And in the lead up to my one year anniversary here in the past couple of months, I keep joking with coworkers, that I guess I can no longer use the excuse I'm new here anytime I don't understand something. But, honestly, I really struggle with my own pride around this. I'm worried how asking too many questions might make me look. So I have to remind myself that I wouldn't be a very good writer if I didn't stay curious. And the truth is I still have so much to learn. So my proposal to you is that we embrace our beginners' minds together. 

This season, we hope to give you a fresh perspective as I comb through SchoolCEO's incredible network and body of work. First up, this season, we'll give you a SWOT analysis of school communications teams. The truth is that communications teams across the country share a lot in common, their strengths, their weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So keep listening as we get a little more in-depth about each category. Starting with your strengths, which are really just your amazing stories, because K12 school districts are doing so many things right. 

By the way, if you have a strength that you'd like to share with us, an amazing story or a successful initiative you're really proud of, SchoolCEO would love to hear from you. Please email us, or you can even schedule a call with me directly. I've linked both our email address and my Calendly link in the show notes. So that's it for now, but thank you for joining me, and talk soon.