00:00:00
[Music] Hello Blue Jays and welcome to the nest stories about life after Manor College. I'm your host Kelly Peiffer, vice president of marketing communications and this is the best part of my day. My hope is that this podcast will encourage, inform, and inspire you, making you feel like at Manor College, you belong here always. Before we get to today's guest, it is time for a segment of the show I like to call did you know? Did you know that for the for the past 20 years, Mayor College had a Civil War

00:00:32
institute which offered individuals the chance to explore the complexities of the American Civil War through a series of engaging courses often taught by experts from the Delaware Valley Civil War Roundtable. It delved beyond basic facts, aiming to provide a new perspective on the error's pivotal events, key figures, societal impacts with topics ranging from specific campaigns, prominent generals to lesser known incidents and aspects like Civil War medicine or the horses of the Civil War. The institute has since expanded to

00:01:07
the broader the history institute at Manor College and classes are taught all year long. You can see what is being offered right now by going to manor.edu/coned. Today's episode is sponsored by Manor College's certificate program in religious studies. The world is changing fast. Want to truly understand cultures and bring a fresh perspective to your career? Dive into Manor College's certificate in religious studies for less than $250 per credit for 12 credits. You too can explore world

00:01:40
religions, bridge gap of neuroscience and religion, and unlock new insights. This is your moment. Register today with just a 10% deposit. Learn more at manorcol.edu/certificates. We have a truly special guest today. We are chatting with someone who's inspiring and proves that the path to success isn't always in a straight line. Our guest started their academic journey right here studying liberal arts, not only excelling but graduating as the valedictorian in 2005 with a unique connection to the

00:02:12
institution. Her own mom was a beloved professor. That foundational experience helped her build a robust set of skills providing the clarity and confidence to transfer to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. Now today they are applying that diverse expertise in a really fascinating role managing the brand advertising program at a Fortune 500 company Troric. Please join me in welcoming a Manor College alumni EJ McNiff. Hi EJ. Hi Kelly. Thanks for being with us today. Thanks so much for having me. This is

00:02:49
really exciting. It is. So, can you start us off by sharing obviously I usually ask people like why did you choose Manor and how did you learn about it but for you um your mom worked at the institution so I'm assuming you heard about it maybe even too much at the dinner table at home every night. Yeah. Every night. So why then did you choose Manor? Because you could have gone somewhere else I assume. Um, and what made it for you like, okay, I'm gonna go to the school even though my mom works

00:03:19
there. Kind of. What was that like for you? Yeah. Um, well, definitely I knew about Manor and I heard a lot about the offerings. I got I kind of got an inside scoop to see the teachers. I knew the teachers. I knew the programs. I knew what they were offering. So, I saw how much work went into the program and I knew the school had a lot of good offerings. But to be honest, when I was in high school, I did not have a clue what to do with my life after high school. Um, I knew I liked art, but I know that that's a challenging one to

00:03:54
figure out how to pay the bills on. Um, and I didn't really know what to do with that. Uh, I had a few dabblings in I worked at a real estate company and I worked at a restaurant. um but didn't really have a clear direction on what do I want to do for my entire rest of my life. Um and I did apply to several different schools, but really at the end of the day knowing that Manor was somewhere that I was familiar with. I knew that they had the broad offerings of liberal art. So I could dabble. I

00:04:29
could explore a lot of different things and try to make sense of that and make connections through the two years I was there. Um, it became a pretty clear decision that that would allow me to one live at home and save a lot of money um and also the benefits of uh the tuition and my mom working there. Um, but that gave me two years to be able to save up some money um before transitioning to a a four-year school with really stellar grades that allowed me to get in um once I had that time to make a more solid decision of where I

00:05:09
wanted to go. I love that. I love um that you were like, "Yeah, I don't know what I want." And I that is so true. So many college students still they come in and they don't know um I think the the average college student changes their major two or three times in a in a normal like four to five years of their experience. So like it's hard it's hard to know what to do but I mean major kudos to you for being like I don't know what I want to do but this is a good opportunity I have

00:05:40
to like be okay with that and like try to figure it out. Obviously, it's a good economic decision. Save some money, live at home, and and try to kind of get those steps into transferring, and then also like use that time to like get really good grades, go into that transfer opportunity as a top candidate. Um, I think that's awesome. We see so many students coming to Manor to either get their grades up because they didn't do too well in high school or because they want to come here. I see pre- N nursing

00:06:10
a lot. students will come here for pre- n nursing because they're not ready to go right into a nursing program whether it's financial or grades or something else and then they they do really well in our pre- N nursing program and then they get they finally get to go to like Roxborough or Jefferson or wherever they wanted to go. So I think that's a really smart strategy for um students coming right from high school. It kind of gives them a bit of a you know like a lead way to like take time. It's okay. kind of also takes

00:06:41
the pressure off a little bit. So, um I love that. I love that that's part of part of your story. And so, when you were a student, what was what was Manor like for you? Were you involved with different activities? Um any classes that you can recall or any professors that you can recall that kind of stood out to you? Yeah. So, um I at at the top of our call, we were talking about Mike Landis, um and Mattie Seltzer, and um that was my very first class coming into the school as a nerdy freshman, not knowing

00:07:16
what to do or where to really really go, no friends. Um, but that that was a an English class, English literature, and I just remember, you know, we watched movies and then we dissected the heck out of them. And I had never thought about something as simple as just a movie that I was watching every day in those different ways. And it pushed me to write and learn how to write about things, you know, in a way that I hadn't done in high school. But just the challenge, like the fun of being in a class of people that had

00:07:56
totally different backgrounds for me and pushing these different ways of thinking that I had never explored. That was definitely a theme while I was at Manor that I I loved so much. like being in a room of people and challenging each other and you know just being okay to say the wrong thing and and not knowing really what you're talking about but you know we had uh Mattie Seltzer and Mike Landis to kind of guide us and say hey did you think about this and I think that was that process through that class

00:08:32
and also um Frank Frell my religion classes I I didn't really have a desire to go into the religion space, but it was a requirement for the course and that those classes were some of the ones I enjoyed the most just because of the you know the thought process of thinking through things different ways and you know world religions and um connecting dots I had never thought about before. The whole experience of a lot of the classes was kind of opening up this new curiosity of if there's something that

00:09:10
is interesting, I don't have to memorize everything and just go through the motions. I can just be curious about it and go about learning it in my own way. And that's what I think the the real benefit of not knowing what I wanted to do coming out of high school and just being open to, you know, explore and try my best and realizing that as a fresh start. I think having those good teachers when I started was the right footing to get me motivated. But that in combination of realizing this is a clean slate. this is my

00:09:49
opportunity. No one knows me. You know, the schools that I may want to go to in the future don't know me. The career opportunities, you know, don't know anything about me. Like, this is my clean slate. And when I got like those first A's, it suddenly became this like self-competition that I I wanted to know as much as I possibly could and keep it going, you know? Yeah, that's so cool. I love I love that clean slate perspective. And that's what college is for. You know,

00:10:18
you can leave your baggage behind. We're going to going to be here to support you and help you um create, you know, what you want it to make out of. You know, you want it to be that that top tier student who kind of like takes it all in and like does all those things. And that's really I think that's really cool to hear. And I think a lot of students come in with that perspective that they're like, "Yeah, you know, I don't want to bring the high school baggage with me or the transfer baggage.

00:10:43
I want this to be my new home. And I think that kind of is a testament to our tagline, you belong here, is kind of like that that is kind of what we try to do and make our students feel that way. So that's awesome to hear. What was it like um being a student and seeing your mom kind of around and what was that like? Uh we've had a few students whose parents work here. I one right now I can think of. Um, so it's it's fairly common year to year, but kind of what was that

00:11:16
like for you? Yeah, it's funny thinking back. Um, I definitely did run into my mom. Um, sure. It's a small campus. No, I knew where the offices were, so I would go up and see my mom and I knew a lot of the other teachers because she was very close with them. Um, but I think that was the nice thing about that time in my life is she very much kind of let me go and figure it out on my own. And I had the benefit of if I was looking at something or I didn't understand how to to pick something or

00:11:55
how the credits worked or, you know, that definitely was a huge perk that she knew it in and out and she could say, "You're really going to like this. you may struggle with this. Um, so that was a huge perk that I definitely owe her a debt of gratitude for helping me to navigate. But, um, she really let me let me explore on my own and participate in things like, um, Rotoak. She was very very involved in Roak and kind of showed me, um, the opportunities with that. We got to do a lot of uh community activity

00:12:29
and um we even ended up going to my boss's house and painting his basement. He was a quadriplegic uh designer and we got all these activities that one looked good on our college resume, but also like we were meeting people, we were doing things as college students with these other students in our class and it really brought us together. There there's two students in particular, Marshall and Brian. You know who you are. They haven't been on the podcast. They've got incredible stories as well.

00:13:04
Um but having that experience through Rotto but then also through school um you know really really helped us bond and I think I I was able to have the full college experience um without feeling you know too too sheltered or too overshadowed with my mom over my shoulder. She was really good about letting me figure out fall move forward however I I could. Yeah. What what good what good like boundaries because that's I think that'd be hard as I um and I'm thinking about like I'm a parent and I'm I'm far from

00:13:45
the college years thankfully. like that would be hard to, you know, not want to kind of like keep your kids protected and but it sounds like she found a really good balance of like being there when you needed her for like advising and like the kind of advice part, but then also like let EJ do her thing and um I'll be a mom and not, you know, a college professor, but I'll be I'll be her mom. So really good for her doing that. That's that's really cool. Um, so EJ, kind of tell us about your career

00:14:15
path and kind of what you um have have been working in and working on. Um, kind of obviously it's been a while since graduating from Manor, so you don't have to go go that whole journey, but kind of tell us about what are what are you doing today in your career? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, uh, today I'm working as an advertising manager for Tever Price. Um, and so what that means is Tier Price is an asset manager. People invest money and Tier Price manages that money to hopefully make you money. Um, and they they do a really

00:14:54
good job at that. So, it's good working for a company that has a solid brand. Um, and I have the opportunity focusing on advertising and promoting to people to make people aware of that, but also managing our creative partners. We work with partners outside of Torric um to build the stories that will convince people um that what we have to offer is interesting and relevant to their lives. So, right now we have some spots on TV that uh we created. Uh I think it's the beginning of 2024. Can't believe it's been that long. Um

00:15:38
got to go out to LA and shoot these ads at Universal. And um it's a whole story about how uh the power of curiosity can help deliver better outcomes and better insights. And through asking questions, you're able to uh get a better understanding of the right decisions to make in life instead of just freezing out of fear, you know, or jumping to conclusions. So it's a really fun job. I really love my job because we get to make these cool creative stories. Um, and then we get to bring forward the visuals that

00:16:21
represent that and study audiences and understand what they um are interested in, what uh gets them motivated, what is likely to make them engage with our brand. Um, so it's a really fun job. Uh it has been a long process getting here. I started um uh in graphic design. I after Manor I went to graphic design school uh Rodan School of Design and you know that fully blew up my mind on the creative process and thinking outside of the box. Mhm. Um then spent three years as a designer in Baltimore and then when 2008 hit and

00:17:05
the markets did terrible and we saw a lot of layoffs in our company, that's when I realized there's all these other sides of the business that I'm curious about. I'm really interested in like social media was suddenly becoming a big thing. Um business development and how do we get new people to want to use our services as a design firm? Um, there were all these other sides of the being a designer that I didn't formally have a degree for, but I did have this liberal arts experience for Manor

00:17:38
that I was seeing being tapped for that. Um, basic business communications that was one of the courses that had a huge impact. Mhm. Um, so I realized there was sort of this niche of being a creative problem solver um that other people didn't have. So I had the creative context from going to Rhode Island School Design, but also being able to think about business and strategy and how we could engage with different audiences. And it's definitely been a unique angle that I've been able to craft through my experience

00:18:21
moving on from being a designer to then becoming um a brand strategist for a university and then moving on to Tro Price to do brand advertising. Um like you said in the beginning, not a clear path. Um, but all these different experiences have been things that, you know, as I've been working, I've been seeing these things. I think I'm good at this. I think there's something there. I don't know what it is. I'm going to check it out. I'm going to explore it. And some of those explorations have been

00:18:56
giant leaps that are terrifying. Um, but I've definitely embraced the feeling that you don't ever have to be decisive that this is the only path and you can explore those things. It's going to take a lot of work and you have to commit that you're going to put in the work to explore those things. But I remember when I applied for tier, I applied for like over 40 companies. I had a spreadsheet and it's a hard process figuring out where's the right place to apply your skills. But

00:19:35
through that process, you know, I was really able to to refine what my story was and understand what I was really good at and where it could apply or not. And I think that's really paid off hugely because I absolutely love my job at Tro now. Oh, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for kind of sharing that with us. And I think it's so cool how like a liberal arts degree can go so many different ways. No, like no two people who went and got a liberal arts degree are the same like ever. It's always

00:20:10
unique. It's never this like cookie cutter career or cookie cutter journey. It's just not it's not the way it is. But it's so cool that you were able to like start piece mailing together almost like all cart like I have these skills. I have these skills, I have this passion, I have this interest. And then it's like you're building um kind of your own, you know, journey, your own career. Um as someone who studied design and and is a creative person, I'm just curious

00:20:40
what's like what's like a brand that you really love their their design and their their brand right now? I'm just curious because I'm someone who also finds these things fascinating and um works in marketing and just looks at this kind of stuff a lot. Um design wise, I'm trying to think um I mean there there's a lot of different design brands. I've been more um interested in their like marketing tactics and um like the Barbie movie. That's the the big one that was just

00:21:20
so blown out of the water with they hit the world with every possible thing you could think of. And it was just so smart how they, you know, were in every conversation. They were in every experience. Like anywhere that you were, Barbie was. And yeah, and their branding was so good. I mean, every red carpet appearance was a different version of Barbie through the years in Margot Robbie's outfits. Like that was like that's branding actually continuing the brand just in a different form. Like how that that's a great

00:21:54
example. I love that. Yeah, we saw that in like Wicked. Wicked did the same formula where they took that pink and green and they've just blown it up and put it everywhere. Yep. And um not so much a brand example, but Yeah. No, but still. Yeah. But just like the smart approach of the strategy behind it. I think I've loved kind of learning about the different way of thinking about how to how to engage with people. And it's not always just about the design. I think when I started, I felt all this

00:22:28
pressure that the design had to be the perfect thing and that's such a subjective thing. So I was so worried. Mhm. But as I've kind of moved beyond just design and added on this layer of business strategy and audience profiling, it's understanding, you know, different things resonate with different people. Y and you know, it's funny. I had a boss who worked for AOL and he would say he if you remember like those CDs you would get in the mail Mhm. all the time. Yep. He was the one sending those out.

00:23:08
And he said what they learned is they could put any picture on that CD and it didn't matter. It was the message that they had to get the message right and the message had to go to the right houses. And I do think that the design does matter because if you put some ridiculous thing with a really good message, it might make people a little confused. But the power of a message is so important. It is. It's so important. I agree. you know, in 2016, I was part of the Manor team that redid our our branding, our

00:23:41
logo, and and I was I was lucky enough to lead that. Um, and we spent so much time on the design of our logo, on the design of our shield, and on the design of our athletic uh blue J bird. And I stand by it, and it's I think it's great. almost 10 years later, it's still holding up well. Yeah. But the thing that people talk to me about and constantly tell me is the you belong here is what they take away from it. Like the logo, they're like, "Oh, I didn't even notice

00:24:12
like all that symbolism and there's like all these little buildings like, oh, that looks cute." Like they that doesn't But it's so funny even doesn't matter if they're an 18-year-old or a 60-year-old or it doesn't matter what where they come from. It's like you belong here makes me feel something. Yeah. So that so it's like okay messaging and stories. Stories are what we find. Stories just every stories is everything. People want to connect with something or someone that makes

00:24:42
them feel something. So stories are the thing. Yeah. I get hit by your social media ads a lot or your organic posts and I love it. Yeah. You're doing that so well at Banner. We are we are trying um to do it really well and we have a really great team here who kind of we all understand that like the stu our our our motto in the marketing team is that like the students are the hero of our story. We are not. We are just like the vessel that gets the students to where they need to go.

00:25:11
But like we want to make sure the students are truly the ones that are being the hero being painted in the picture. And that's kind of our method. Um but EJ kind of one final question here for you. Like what advice would you give to current Manor College students um to kind of inspire them and encourage them to keep on their studies. Yeah. Uh you don't have to settle. This isn't the end all be all. Be curious. Um and you know be open to anything. Take in what you can. Not every class is

00:25:49
going to be the most interesting. Um, but there are little nuggets of excitement and inspiration that you can take out of that that could have relevance in something else in your life. And I think looking for those things is really what kept me motivated and making those connections. Um, I have gone full hog on all things AI and I just love how, you know, I'm I'm using that as basically a consultant to say like, how should I think about this? You you guys have so much access to AI now and using AI as a tool to think

00:26:29
through when you see something, how could I think about this? How could I do this differently? It's a great opportunity to just brainstorm all your possibilities and you know there's so much access today. Um so you know the options are limitless. Don't be afraid to feel locked into one thing. You can explore. Your path can change and you're fully in control of that if you're willing to put in the work. Oh, thank you so much. which I love. I love anytime people encourage others to

00:27:02
like stay curious and to stay um kind of open to possibilities. I think that's really really important. Something that I like to end out our episodes with is just referring back to our mission. You know, our mission at the college here is to really prepare students to graduate to serve so society effectively and compassionately. And in that we want students to always be lifelong learners. We say that in our mission and I think um whether it's AI, whether it's other technology that we don't even know

00:27:30
about, but like staying hungry to learn more is really important um to have like a human experience. So, I'm really glad that you said that because I think that's really true to what we're trying to do here with our students and I'm really I'm so proud of you as an alumni. You are certainly living out our mission. Um and I wish you nothing but the best, EJ. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. Thank you so much. Thanks for doing this podcast. Thank you for tuning in today. If you

00:27:57
like what you heard, listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. And stay up to date with all new episodes by following Manor College on Instagram at Manor College. And that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest Stories about life after Manor College. Remember Blue Jays, you belong here always. [Music]