In this episode of The brndBrief Podcast, Rose Crichton-White joins us to discuss her work as Director of Marketing, Development and Special Events at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. The 127-year-old nonprofit community music school serves over 80 sites across NYC, offering both paid music classes and free resources to underserved communities. Rose oversees the external affairs that keep this organization connected to its diverse audience, from young children learning violin to seniors returning to piano.

The conversation covers how storytelling drives fundraising success, strategies for authentic engagement across age groups, and the organization's measured approach to adopting AI tools for workflow improvement.

Key points include:

📌 Brooklyn Conservatory uses its 125-year history and community impact stories to show donors they're more than just a music school - they provide free and low-cost resources to schools and community organizations using revenue from paid classes.

📌 Success comes from listening to community keywords, observing local trends, and using data to inform messaging while staying true to core mission and avoiding platforms where your audience isn't active.

📌 Nonprofits are slowly adopting AI tools like ChatGPT for grant writing, brainstorming, and workflow management - but the core focus remains on people over technology to maintain authentic community connections.

📌 Present measurable outcomes alongside compelling stories that demonstrate both current impact and future potential, using tools like mid-year impact reports with focused case studies to show donors the full picture of your organization's effectiveness.

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Guest Information

Bkcm.org

@brooklynconservatory

In this episode of The brndBrief Podcast, newest guest Robert Hanna, Director of National Sales & Marketing at Cohn & Dussi, LLC, a specialized Boston-based litigation firm focusing on creditors' rights, commercial litigation, and financial services law, discuss regulatory changes in the debt collection industry, the practical limitations of AI in legal work, and proven marketing strategies for reaching ideal clients in the B2B space. 

Key points include:

📌 The firm's CLUES (Client Update and Entry System) platform addresses the two biggest client complaints about law firms - poor communication and billing disputes - by providing 24/7 real-time case status updates across all jurisdictions.

📌 Target industry-specific conferences and associations where your ideal clients gather, rather than broad marketing approaches. 

📌 While AI can provide a starting point for articles and white papers, it requires extensive fact-checking and customization. 

📌 Rather than focusing solely on revenue volume, successful business development is measured by profitable business relationships, tracking which conferences and associations produce quality clients, and eliminating non-productive marketing investments after 3-4 years of testing.

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Guest Information

www.cohnanddussi.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjhanna/

In this episode of The brndBrief Podcast, newest guest Monica Jackson, Chief Experience Curator at Prissi Productions, LLC, how the company evolved from social event planning to creating brand activations and corporate social responsibility initiatives. The discussion covers practical strategies for measuring event ROI, balancing technology with human connection, and building sustainable practices into corporate events.

Key points include:

📌 Monica discusses how  Prissi Productions, LLC pivoted from social event planning to brand activations and immersive experiences, driven by changes in the Atlanta film industry and market demand for more engaging corporate events.

📌Audiences now expect more than basic networking or conference formats, seeking meaningful connections and experiences that balance technology with human-centric elements.

📌 Monica explains her approach to programming events that consider introverts, extroverts, and neurodivergent attendees, emphasizing the importance of creating belonging for all personality types within large gatherings.

📌 CSR initiatives are becoming integrated with experiential marketing, including sustainable event practices, community partnerships, and using local talent to support regional economies.

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Guest Information

www.prissi-productions.com 

@prissi_productions

In this episode, Michele Hart, Director of Marketing and Communications at BostonSight, shares how she built a marketing function from the ground up for a unique nonprofit healthcare organization that operates both clinical services and commercial product lines. Michele discusses the strategic challenge of managing brand identity across multiple business verticals while serving diverse audiences including patients, medical practitioners, and donors.

The conversation covers innovative campaign strategies, measurement approaches for specialized industries, and the importance of regularly reassessing organizational mission and vision.

Key points include:

📌 BostonSight provided educational value to doctors during COVID without selling, which paid off when they launched new products and exceeded sales goals in 2021.

📌 Nonprofits should reassess their mission and vision every five years using frameworks like Harvard's corporate brand identity matrix to ensure multiple business areas support rather than compete with each other.

📌 A simple drawing by their Chief Medical Officer to explain scleral lenses to his children became a plush mascot, children's book, and highly successful donor campaign that highlighted their work with pediatric patients as young as 18 months.

📌 Using Harvard's corporate brand identity matrix, they distinguished their nonprofit PROSE treatment for severe cases from their commercial scleral lens products while ensuring both sides support the overall mission.

📌 Healthcare marketers should learn to say no and concentrate on fewer channels where their audience actually engages, such as Facebook groups and Reddit for patient education, rather than spreading thin across every social platform

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Guest Information

https://www.bostonsight.org 

https://www.instagram.com/bostonsight 

https://www.facebook.com/bostonsight 

https://www.youtube.com/@bostonsight

https://www.linkedin.com/company/bostonsight/ 

In this episode of The brndBrief Podcast, guest Amberly Dressler, VP of Corporate Marketing at isolved, shares how isolved developed their "People Heroes" brand positioning to elevate HR, payroll, and benefits professionals who were often seen as compliance-focused rather than strategic contributors. 

Amberly provides key insights on their customer storytelling approach, which analysts have called ‘the kings of customer storytelling’ and how they've evolved their events strategy based on direct customer feedback. 

Key points include:

📌 isolved created the "People Heroes" positioning during the pandemic to address the loneliness and negative perception HR professionals faced, elevating their role as strategic contributors rather than just compliance enforcers.

📌 The company produces customer documentaries, fictional/nonfictional books, and on-site storytelling that showcases smaller companies with compelling stories, differentiating iSolved through authentic customer narratives.

📌 isolved adapts their event strategy based on direct customer feedback, splitting customer and partner conferences when attendees said content wasn't relevant to both audiences, and continuously adjusting between regional conferences and smaller city roadshows based on what customers request.

📌 Using ABM tools and dashboards, the marketing team tracks how specific content pieces influence deals, monitoring buyer journeys to see which reports or content assets serve as catalysts for demo requests, with some enterprise accounts showing 20-30 people engaging with content before requesting demos.

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Guest Information

https://www.isolvedhcm.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/isolved/

In this episode of The brndBrief Podcast, newest guest Gabrielle Richards, Brand Director at Trafilea/Shapermint, a tech e-commerce group that has built an ecosystem of empowering brands including Shapermint, Truekind, and The Spa Dr., discuss how Shapermint transformed the shapewear industry by shifting the conversation from shame to body confidence while growing to 12 million customers. The conversation covers Trafilea's proprietary AI tools for creative development and the challenge of maintaining authentic storytelling at scale. 

Key points include:

📌 Brand guidelines become critical when teams are distributed globally - they reduce review time and ensure consistency across all customer touchpoints when properly implemented and shared across departments.

📌 Proprietary AI tools can scale creative production while maintaining brand voice by training systems on established guidelines and continuously auditing output against brand standards rather than using generic solutions.

📌 Shapermint changed shapewear perception by positioning products as comfortable daily essentials rather than special occasion items, using real women as models without photo retouching to show authentic results.

📌 Track quarterly brand sentiment surveys, aided/unaided awareness, and weekly revenue metrics from non-paid channels including influencer partnerships, affiliate programs, and branded keyword performance to prove brand investment value.

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Guest Information

www.trafilea.com

@shapermint 

In this episode of The brndBrief Podcast, Melinda Joseph, VP of Marketing & Communications at InVitro Capital, shares insights on how InVitro Capital functions as a venture studio, operating in the space between venture capital and private equity - with a focus on building startups in a capital-efficient way. Melinda discusses her role in marketing and brand positioning for both the venture studio and its portfolio companies. 

Key points include:

📌 The venture studio model creates a "de-risked" approach to building startups with central resources, focusing on product validation before development.

📌 Marketing priorities include educating investors about the venture studio model and showcasing proof of concept through their first cohort of portfolio companies.

📌 Measuring marketing success involves tracking network growth, inquiry volume, portfolio traction metrics, and relationship development rather than traditional transactional metrics.

📌 AI integration is making startup development more efficient, enabling companies to build "faster, smarter, and cheaper" with a hybrid approach of AI tools and human expertise.

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Guest Information

https://invitrocapital.com/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/invitrocapital 

https://x.com/invitrocapital 

https://www.youtube.com/@InVitro_Capital 

In this episode of The brndBrief Podcast, newest guest Salwa Petersen, CEO and Founder of Chéribé Beauty, a clean salon-grade haircare brand focused on textured hair. Salwa shares her journey from Chad to Harvard, where traditional beauty wisdom from her homeland inspired her to create an innovative haircare line featuring the proprietary Chébé Complex™. Their conversation explores Target's recent DEI initiative changes and the importance of maintaining authentic connections with core customers during retail expansion.

Key points include:

📌 Chéribé Beauty prioritizes scientific rigor by being the first textured haircare brand in mass retail to systematically conduct clinical testing on tightly textured hair types, addressing a significant gap in the industry where these textures were historically excluded from testing.

📌 The brand successfully transitioned from prestige to mass retail through Target, chosen for its premium positioning and ability to reach their core African American customer base, with Peterson noting they earned their placement through standard evaluation rather than DEI programs.

📌 During recent shifts in Target's DEI initiatives, the retailer's team demonstrated strong support by proactively reaching out to maintain communication and gather feedback from brand partners like Chéribé Beauty.

📌Salwa emphasizes maintaining authenticity while scaling by staying true to the brand's African roots and primary focus on textured hair, while also acknowledging their products' effectiveness has naturally attracted customers with other hair types.

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Guest Information

https://cheribe.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/salwapetersen/ 

In this episode of The brndBrief Podcast, Kelli Kelley sits down with Nikkia Adolphe, Co-Founder and Head of Strategy of BrandSavor Media + Marketing, a strategic marketing and communications consultancy focused on brand storytelling. This conversation explores successful brand reinvention strategies, the role of cultural relevance in storytelling, and the importance of maintaining consistent brand values.

Key points include:

📌 Effective brand storytelling requires moving from transactional marketing to narrative-driven branding.

📌 Successful brand reinvention requires building consistent narratives over time rather than waiting for major moments or crises.

📌 PR and brand awareness require a long-term, "crockpot not microwave" approach, with earned media serving as the top of the funnel that must be supported by integrated marketing efforts and proper amplification across channels.

📌 Brand success relies on the "trifecta" of sales, marketing, and communications working together cohesively.

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Guest Information

https://brandsavor.co/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/brandsavorcomms 

In the second season of The brndBrief Podcast, host Kelli Kelley discusses LinkedIn marketing strategies for B2B companies in 2025. The discussion challenges outdated approaches to thought leadership, revealing that 82% of companies are still using playbooks from 2022 — providing actionable insights on evidence-based storytelling, hyper-personalized content creation, and employee influencer engagement.

Key points include:

📌 Modern thought leadership requires evidence-based storytelling backed by real case studies and data, with one featured SaaS company seeing a 37% jump in engagement after shifting from generic tips to detailed migration stories and challenges.

📌 Successful B2B brands are creating "insight ecosystems" through collaborative thought leadership, bringing together multiple industry voices for digital roundtables and community-driven content rather than relying on singular expert perspectives.

📌 Companies should monitor "digital breadcrumbs" on LinkedIn - including detailed comment patterns, content clustering, and resharing behaviors - to identify buying signals and create hyper-personalized micro content based on prospect behavior.

📌 Employee influencer programs are evolving from structured advocacy to "organic expertise amplification," where organizations focus on empowering team members to share authentic experiences and problem-solving journeys rather than enforcing mandatory participation.

🚨 Be sure to grab your LinkedIn Content Ideas Swipe File here  >> DOWNLOAD <<

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Guest Information

www.brndmethod.com

@brndMethod