The Signal

Ep. 103 - Jenny Petty: The Alignment Gap That's Bankrupting Higher Ed Marketing

Jeff Dillon talks to Jenny Petty, Vice President of Industry Relations and Advisory Services at Simpson Scarborough, who has spent over a decade inside higher ed—most rec

Ep. 102 - John Fees: The Insurance Founder Who Says His Own Company Shouldn't Have to Exist

What if the best measure of an insurance company's success isn't how many claims it denies, but how many it pays—and how many of those students re-enroll? In this episod

Ep. 101 - Jeff Wilser: How One Chatbot Cut Summer Melt in Half

In a world drowning in AI hype, how do you separate what's actually useful from what's just shiny? And what happens when the people building AI can't even agree on where

Ep. 100 - Wendy Wong: Stop Asking What Users Want - Show Them Instead

In this episode—the 100th recording of The Signal—host Jeff Dillon sits down with Wendy Wong, Director of Enterprise Support and Client Engagement at Florida Atlantic Uni

Ep. 99 - Brian Hartnack: Higher Ed Just Lost 25% of Its Search Traffic

What happens when an enrollment marketing agency that's been at it for 20 years looks back and realizes their biggest lesson wasn't about campaigns—it was about finding t

Ep. 98 - Andy Crestodina: There's No Appeals Process when AI Picks Your School

What happens when a prospective student asks ChatGPT for the best computer science program in the Midwest—and gets a complete answer without ever clicking on your website

Ep. 97 - Russell Long: Stop Blaming AI. Your Data is the Problem

Every CIO I talk to wants to know how to get AI ready. But according to Russell Long, co-founder and CEO of Authentica Solutions, most institutions are asking the wrong q

Ep. 96 - Troy Holaday: 52,000 Degrees Were Already Earned. They Just Hadn't Been Found.

Transfer credit is one of higher ed's most persistent headaches. Students lose credits, take longer to graduate, and navigate a labyrinth of institutional policies that o

Ep. 95 - Jeff Meade: Why Paul Quinn College Made Entrepreneurship a Graduation Requirement

What if a college degree required not just passing classes—but launching a real business? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Jeff Meade, Founding Director

Ep. 94 - Elysia Labita: Marketing Can't Out-Optimize Misalignment

What if the biggest barrier to enrollment growth isn't your marketing budget—but your program portfolio itself? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Elysia L

Ep. 93 - Dave Tucker: The Note Taker's Dilemma — Why Lectures Are Mostly Wasted

What if the biggest barrier to student success isn't ability—but the belief that effort is even worth it? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Dave Tucker, f

Ep. 92 - Paula French: From Clicks to Conversions—A Practical Playbook for AI Search

Your traffic is down. Your inquiries are flattening. But your applications haven't dropped. What's happening? The front door just moved—and most higher ed marketers haven

Ep. 91 - Mallory Willsea: Activity vs. Strategy—Why Higher Ed Marketing Measures the Wrong Things

After nearly 20 years watching colleges pour millions into sameness—the same viewbooks, the same home page videos, the same taglines—Mallory Willsea has a message for hig

Ep. 90 - Haley Platt: Breaking the Information Barrier: How First-Gen Students Navigate College

What happens when a recent college graduate who grew up with smartphones, social media, and the chaos of modern college applications becomes a chief marketing officer? Yo

Ep. 89 - Leslie Weller: How AI Site Search Turns Student Discovery Into a Competitive Advantage

Every month, nearly half a million people type questions into your university's search bar. They're telling you exactly what they want to know—about deadlines, transfer c

Ep. 88 - Brian Clark: Building RISD's Digital Future at Scale

What happens when a prestigious art and design school has over a hundred siloed websites, each with its own content management system, hosting arrangement, and visual ide

Ep. 87 - Grant Greenwood: How to Automate What Actually Matters in Enrollment

What happens when a sitting vice president of enrollment management—who evaluates and buys ed tech every day—decides to build his own solution to a problem he's lived for

Ep. 86 - Arjun Arora: From Enterprise AI to Education—Why the Best Tech Solves Human Problems

What happens when a data scientist who built over 100 enterprise AI solutions for Fortune 500 companies decides to walk away from the money and prestige to tackle student

Ep. 85 - Jay Gonzalez: Guaranteeing ROI — How Curry College Is Reinventing the College Business Model

What happens when a former gubernatorial candidate, healthcare CEO, and state budget director steps into the college president's office? You get a leader who doesn't acce

Ep. 84 - Betheny Gross: The Real Opportunity for AI in Higher Education

Is higher education using AI to simply do the same things faster, or are we on the cusp of a genuine transformation in how students learn, access support, and build oppor