Blog Posts

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Mentor: @Susannah Winslow Austin PBS Vice President, Communications & Development Mentee: @Rachelle Anderson WUCF Director of Development I had the honor and privilege to #mentor Rachelle Anderson, Director of Development at #WUCF at the time. Upon meeting Rachelle, hearing her goals and understanding her desire to be a leader for her new team, I immediately began reflecting on my own path to leadership at my station. My personal journey would not have been possible without the strong leadership and support I found above me every step in my career. Good leaders enable and encourage others to be good leaders, and my manager ...
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MENTOR: @Susan Tran Director of Corporate Support | Marketing Manager | Special Projects Producer Maine Public (Portland, ME) MENTEE: @Kate Jones Corporate Sponsorship Manager PBS Utah (Salt Lake City, UT) ​​ Our PBS CSPI Mentor Program Experience Kate: When I joined the Mentor Program, PBS Utah had just become the only PBS station for the whole state and I was the only underwriting representative. Although this opened up new opportunities, it was overwhelming and I felt that I needed the tools to efficiently prospect new industries and make the initial contact with businesses in a dynamic way that would get some response. I worked ...
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MENTOR: @Barbara Shipley Chief Development Officer East Tennessee PBS (Knoxville, TN) MENTEE: @Mandy Hinson Director of Development West TN PBS (Martin, TN) My CSPI and mentorship experience has been a game changer! I’m blessed to have Barbara Shipley of East Tennessee PBS as my mentor. It’s the perfect partnership because we’re both from small PBS stations in Tennessee. and we both wear a lot of hats, including all levels of membership, pledge, events and now underwriting. As the Manager of Individual Giving, I was encouraged by a peer at PBS to apply to be part of CSPI with the goal of understanding the value of PBS in order to ...
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MENTOR: @Julie Wallen Director of Corporate Relations Kansas City PBS (Kansas City, MO) MENTEE: @Alex Wilson Senior Account Executive PBS SoCal (Orange County, CA) ALEX In September of 2019 I had the privilege of being selected to participate in the #CSPI mentorship program. Going back to PBS headquarters after having previously finished the CSPI training program was an exciting opportunity for me to continue to hone in on my corporate sponsorship sales knowledge and add more tools to my belt. There I met my mentor, Julie Wallen and we immediately hit it off -- due in no small part to PBS Corporate Development’s use of the Myers-Briggs ...
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MENTOR: @Stephen Danowski Director, Business Development & Corporate Underwriting Detroit Public Television (Wixom, MI) MENTEE: @John Leavell Corporate Development PBS Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne, IN) ​​ Casting for Lunkers: Five Fishing Tips for Landing Higher Capacity Funders lun-ker noun An exceptionally large specimen of a fish. Fishing and sales have a lot of similarities. You know there is a lunker out there and your goal is to land it, but you’re just not always sure how. There are a multitude of approaches, strategies, baits, and tackle you can try. THE START: JOHN: The ...
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Learning in the Land of Lincoln: How Two Reps – One City, One Downstate - From Opposite Ends of Illinois Successfully Bridged the “Prairie State Divide” and Learned From Each Other. MENTEE: @Brian Flath Associate Director of Corporate Support WSIU Public Broadcasting (Carbondale, IL) MENTOR: @Dan Whitford Account Executive WTTW (Chicago, IL) Before the program… Brian: As the calendar flipped to 2015, I was entering my 17 year in newspaper sales. Having been in the same sales industry that long was almost unheard of but I truly loved what I did and was what I considered pretty successful ...
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MENTOR: @Tracy Roe Business Development Director NET (Lincoln, NE) MENTEE: @Teri Tate McColly Business Development Director Idaho Public Television (Boise, ID) TRACY ROE WOW… where did this year go? I think back to my first meeting with my mentor, Teri Tate McColly from IPTV, in D.C. in September 2019. We immediately hit it off, with plenty of things to discuss, and I felt like I’d known her forever. We laughed after completing the Myers Briggs that we couldn’t have been more opposite and maybe they planned it that way, but quickly found out that each of our unique styles would play key complimentary roles over ...
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MENTOR: @Megan Miley Senior AE Corporate Support Maryland Public Television (Owings Mills, MD) MENTEE: @Kevin Albrecht Business Development Coordinator WGVU Public Media (Grand Rapids, MI) Megan’s side of the story…. Why did I want to mentor? Let’s be honest, the thought about a paid vacation (okay, a work trip) to Seattle during the spring might have been the number one reason why I signed up. Halibut Cheeks, Alaskan Crab Legs, Oysters, Mussels oh my, I could just taste it! I’m landlocked right now in Vermont, what do you expect? I’m a Baltimorean and have survived on crabs and oysters for decades. One can only eat ...
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MENTOR: @Kim Shefferly Assistant Business Development Manager WGVU Public Media (Grand Rapids, MI) MENTEE: @Sara Lucci Corporate Support Account Executive WQED Multimedia (Pittsburgh, PA) ​​ From Sara: Throughout my professional career, I’ve always hoped to find a mentor-- someone in my industry to bounce ideas off of, get advice from and calm any anxieties. Over the past year, Kim has been that person for me and then some. When I needed a second set of eyes on a proposal, Kim was there to provide feedback. If I wasn’t sure that a spot was FCC-compliant, she would check the script. I always looked forward to our bi-weekly Facetimes ...
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MENTOR: @Alison Zero Jones Director, Corporate Sponsorship WXXI Public Broadcasting (Rochester, NY) MENTEE: @Melissa O'Connor Corporate Underwriting Marketing and Advancement UNC-TV Public Media North Carolina (Research Triangle, NC) Corporate Support Performance Initiative Mentorship Program Blog Post FROM MELISSA I’ve never written a blog, so this is a fun assignment for me. My name is Melissa O’Connor and I work for UNC-TV Public Media North Carolina. I am just entering my 3rd year in this role. This past year has been a huge learning and development year and I owe it all to the PBS Mentor Program!! My first ...
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MENTOR: @Kim Shefferly Assistant Business Development Manager WGVU Public Media (Grand Rapids, MI) MENTEE: @April Pendergraft KNPB (Reno, NV) FROM APRIL My experience in the CSPI Mentorship program was informative, inspiring, and encouraging. I was paired very well with my mentor, Kim Shefferly, who guided me through rough patches, advised me on making the most out of renewals, and celebrated my successes with me. Having come from fundraising rather than a strong sales history, I needed Kim’s help frequently to polish my approach to clients. Kim helped me think of creative ways to package opportunities and approach specific clients. ...
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MENTOR: @Melanie Boyer Manager | Corporate Sponsorship South Carolina ETV & South Carolina Public Radio MENTEE: @Charlie Deville Underwriting Account Executive WDSE • WRPT (Duluth, MN) Introduction & History: Melanie : The saying goes, “no man is an island,” but that is exactly how I felt when I first moved to public media a little over 10 years ago. Prior to that, I’d divided my time between advertising sales and market research, working for a newspaper (remember those?) and Internet sales, plus commercial TV and radio, and now here I was starting anew in the unknown arena of “underwriting”. It’s a little ...
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MENTOR: @Susan Tran Director of Corporate Support; Marketing Manager; Special Projects Producer Maine Public | Portland, ME MENTEE: @Amy Zellers Director of Corporate Development WVIA | Scranton, Pennsylvania Before the program… Amy: In the summer of 2017, my minimal PBS knowledge had been obtained by watching many hours of family programming with my two children and working PBS character meet-and-greet events with my local PBS member station, WVIA public media, in my role as marketing director at an area shopping mall. As you might imagine, there was quite a learning curve to navigate through when I began my career as a Corporate ...
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MENTOR: @Necole Goodman Account Executive, Underwriting and Corporate Sponsorship Houston Public Media | Houston, TX MENTEE: @Kayla Boal Manager, Corporate Relations KCPT | Kansas City, MO Q: What was your overarching impression of the program? Being the inaugural class, I am sure there were some growing pains to figure out? Necole: “I believe both Kayla and I had a good experience in the PBS Mentor/Mentee program and found it be very positive, challenging, and fulfilling. For me personally, having never served as a mentor before, or manager, this program, geared me towards my goal of becoming a strong leader should I ever ...
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MENTOR: @Stephen Danowski Director, Business Development & Corporate Underwriting DPTV | Detroit, MI MENTEE: @Brooke Schleter Director of Corporate Development WNIN | Evansville, IN At PBS CSPI Mentor/Mentee Match Day, September 2018, we recognized both of us loved the “Game of Sales’ and often nerd-out on research in the sales process. A year’s worth of Mentor/Mentee conversations unfolded, and we focused as much on renewal of support as new business. Here are the Top-Ten highlights we learned along the way. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Brooke: First and foremost, my goal was to secure at least 1 sales ...
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MENTOR: @Cathy Edwards Director of Corporate Development WFWA PBS39, Fort Wayne MENTEE: @Theresa Soares Corporate Development Account Executive, ValleyPBS, Fresno, CA SEASONED – on Mentoring I have been fortunate in my 35+ year sales career to have had many mentors. Some of them were fleeting - some of them never knew I considered them a mentor. Several were long term mentors and gladly took me under their wing to dispense advise and direction – even when it wasn’t requested. I had developed friendships with each one and valued them as an individual. All of them left an impression in one way or another. I still have mentors for personal ...
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Beginning: I first completed the CSPI training as a salesperson in 2017. Having spent many years on the public radio side, I was very familiar with the value proposition of public media, but PBS and television was new to me. I found using the IVS process very helpful in focusing the scope of “why I’m calling” a particular industry. Plus, it was easily transferable from one industry/business type to the next. So, when I heard that the CSPI program was creating a mentor/mentee program I was thrilled to be able to offer myself as a mentor. I was matched with Crissy Nettles, from WSRE in Pensacola FL. WRSE had been without a FT corporate support person since ...
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This summer, I was looking for an opportunity to immerse myself in a media production space in the heart of my hometown and was blessed with the opportunity to be chosen for a PBS internship! After so many years of consuming PBS content as a kid and seeing the practical impact shows like Arthur , Cyberchase , Dragon Tales , and the Magic School Bus had on my socio-emotional and academic growth at a young age, I was so honored to now have the opportunity to interact with the very creatives, leaders, and innovators who helped shape so many of my early childhood memories! Throughout the summer, I have worked with members from digital, marketing, ...
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In late 2017, Congress passed a tax bill that represented the most sweeping changes to the tax code in three decades. Like many nonprofit organizations, WXXI began hearing from donors with questions about how the changes might impact charitable giving and related deductions. Danielle Abramson Swartz, WXXI’s associate director of major giving, saw an opportunity. “We wanted to inform our donors about how they could continue supporting the station while also getting valuable information that would be relevant, regardless of how they do their charitable giving,” she says. What if WXXI could position itself as a resource for its community—especially related ...
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A recent opening in our Corporate Sponsorship Department created a challenge as well as an opportunity for us: how to recruit and hire someone given (a) the competitive employment environment (b) our salary limitations as a state agency and (c)the fact that we do not pay commissions? We focused on seeking candidates who possessed an aptitude for learning new things, an adaptive personality and desire to further our mission. We were not as concerned with sales and marketing experience, per se, as we were with interpersonal skills and an interest in the mission of public media. We also placed high value on our built-in career path with merit increases, State ...
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