Intervention Strategies for Student Success | Larry Ricca from Intervene

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Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Larry from Intervene, Head of Sales and Marketing. How are you doing today, Larry?

Larry Ricca: Good. How are you doing? Nice to meet you. Nice to be—

Ernesto: Nice to be with you. Great to have you on today’s show. And our listeners are always curious—what Intervene is all about. So let’s kick it off with that. Larry, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Larry Ricca: Yeah, absolutely. So Intervene—we’re an intervention company. We really focus on tier two and tier three students in math and ELA reading.

We work above and beyond school districts’ and schools’ existing programs or content. We come in and work in more collaborative learning groups—small groups—in a virtual environment.

Mostly, when you think about it, it’s working with those students that need intervention, but more or less in a tutoring environment. So we provide tutoring support.

What separates us from other tutoring companies is we don’t do 24/7 homework helpline. We really work within the school day, in a pull-out situation, and work with those students in those small groups.

Ernesto: Okay. Awesome. Great to hear that—education is huge. And so that everyone listening can get a good understanding of your company: what would you say is a key problem you solve for students?

Larry Ricca: Right now, a big area we’re solving is bilingual support—bilingual tutors.

We have a pretty sizable influx of migrant students coming in, and students that are part of bilingual programs. So we support those situations. Spanish is our primary focus for that type of support.

That separates us from other companies, but it also fulfills a need in the marketplace.

Also, there’s a teacher shortage out there. Some skilled instruction in special ed, tier two and tier three—we’re able to support districts that way. It helps alleviate the challenge of a talent pool in urban areas or more outlying areas where they may not have the talent pool they need.

So there are several areas where we support the marketplace.

Ernesto: Awesome. And to segment down a little bit—are there certain types of clients or a niche you guys like to go for?

Larry Ricca: Yeah. The niche we really look at is urban areas, Title I areas, Title III for bilingual support.

Some of the content we provide in tutoring sessions includes Black student achievement plans and Latino student achievement plans. So we’re looking at underserved areas, supporting them, and helping students see themselves in the instruction.

We also look at career readiness and bringing that up. So underserved areas—that’s really our niche and target.

Ernesto: Okay, awesome. And you being Head of Sales and Marketing—what would you say is a top client acquisition channel for you guys?

Larry Ricca: We focus on key conferences. Of course, you’ve got your normal outreach—phone calls, emails, booking meetings.

But we really try to key in on warm leads as opposed to cold leads all the time. So a lot of referral-based networking situations. We use LinkedIn as much as we can to connect and build a network.

And for conferences, it’s more than just showing up with a booth. We put effort into planning how we attend, how we network, bringing home key contacts, and working them from there.

Overall, the key strategy is leaning on referrals, references, and networking.

Ernesto: Perfect. Now I’m here on your website—intervenek12.com. What role does the website play for client acquisition?

Larry Ricca: We utilize that a lot. We’ve been working on upgrades recently, but we use it to direct traffic to the website.

I think we have a pretty good site—straight to the point—explains what we do, how we do it, and the content and the way we work.

If we can drive traffic to it, it has a pretty good conversion rate—people reach out to book a meeting and show interest. So as much as we can, we like to utilize it and drive traffic to it.

Ernesto: Awesome. This year there have been a lot of trends in marketing—any tools or methods you look for to get clients in the door?

Larry Ricca: Everybody’s got different ways of reaching out—all-of-the-above.

But at the end of the day, good old-fashioned phone calls tend to work. Email inboxes get bombarded daily, but cell phones are relatively quiet.

Buyers can step away for an hour and come back to a lot of emails and no phone calls. So sometimes, to actually reach people and get ahold of them, phone calls are a strategy we use.

Ernesto: Great to hear that. Let’s switch gears a bit—Larry, you as a leader. What are some key tasks you focus on day to day?

Larry Ricca: Most of it is working with the sales team—how we can better position ourselves in the marketplace.

As a leader, I spend a lot of time removing obstacles in front of the sales team so they can do their job more efficiently and better. Always looking for ways to streamline—work smart, not hard.

Second, since we’re in sales, it’s always looking for the next opportunity—both as a team and individually.

And third, mapping out strategy—where we want to go next, what districts to focus on, district profiles, key market areas. Since we focus on the bilingual community, it’s looking at key counties, cities, districts with a high need for bilingual support.

So not exactly territory mapping, but really identifying strategic areas where we want to spend our time.

Ernesto: Awesome. That’s very important. At the end, it depends on you, and you’ve got to hit it at the button.

Larry Ricca: Absolutely. Yep.

Ernesto: Let’s jump into our rapid fire round. You ready, Larry?

Larry Ricca: Sure. Absolutely. Fire away.

Ernesto: First off—what is the last book that you read?

Larry Ricca: The last book I read is Let’s Get Real, or Let’s Not Play by Mahan Khalsa. It has a lot of similarities to a sales technique—really providing a solution to somebody else’s problems.

Ernesto: Perfect. Great read. Now—what is one single thing your company is focused on at the moment the most?

Larry Ricca: Focusing in on those students that are struggling—math, reading, ELA.

We’re coming into the second half of the school year, and schools and districts are focusing on end-of-year scores and assessments. So now is our time where we really come in and start working with students to help prepare them for the end of the year.

Ernesto: Awesome. Now, if there were no boundaries in technology, what would be the one thing you’d want fixed for your role as a marketer today?

Larry Ricca: There’s so much noise out there. Cutting through the noise and really connecting with people.

LinkedIn and social media help, but a lot of it is one-to-one connections. I’d love a platform that brings groups together—good thought leadership and conversation in a place where people can collaborate.

There’s a need for good conversation. Social media gives posts and podcasts, but a space for true collaboration in groups would be valuable.

Ernesto: Perfect. Now—if there’s one repetitive task you could automate, what would that be?

Larry Ricca: Email. Reading emails, spending time in email.

There are so many channels—Slack, email, texts—it’s cutting through all that and eliminating time spent messaging.

Ernesto: Totally. Email is everyone’s struggle at one point.

Lastly—what is one piece of advice you’d give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Larry Ricca: Connecting with people and building relationships early on.

In my early days in K-12, there are so many good people I met and connected with—and I don’t communicate with them today. Former colleagues and such.

Early on, we didn’t have LinkedIn like we do now, but I think building relationships early and maintaining them is so important. It’s a small world, and you’re bound to run into people again.

So building those relationships early matters.

Ernesto: Definitely agree. Great advice, Larry.

Larry, thanks a lot for being on the show with us today. Last word—if someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is that one thing they should remember about your company?

Larry Ricca: A lot of companies say they’re mission-driven, and Intervene is, but I think we truly are—starting from the core of our founder, Aaron McLeod.

Aaron has a passion to help and support students in hard-to-reach and urban areas. He came from a rough upbringing and now wants to give back.

That mission is embedded throughout the company. When we say we’re mission-driven, we truly are. Our goal is to help as many students as we can realize their dreams and their potential.

Ernesto: Awesome. Thank you so much for that.

To our listeners—thank you so much for tuning in. If you want to check them out, you can visit intervenek12.com, a data-driven intervention program with high-dosage online tutoring.

Larry, thank you so much for being on with us. And to our listeners—thank you so much for tuning in and looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents.

Larry Ricca: Thank you. Appreciate it.