The Signal

Ep. 110 - Eytan Wurman: Scouting Infrastructure for Artistic Intelligence

 Jeff Dillon welcomes back Eytan Wurman, founder and CEO of CommonTime Pathways—the recruiting platform built on a simple, disruptive idea: creatives deserve the same rec

Ep. 109 - Melanie Moran: AI Can Learn Your Voice, It Can't Manufacture It

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon welcomes Melanie Moran, Vice President and Senior Strategist at Mackey Strategies, who spent nearly two decades at Vanderbilt University

Ep. 108 - Austin Blair: Buy-In Is Too Small of a Goal

What if the reason your enrollment strategy keeps stalling has nothing to do with the plan—and everything to do with the culture? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits

Ep. 107 - Si Elliott: Change Your Shoes, Not Your Software

What if the biggest problem in higher ed marketing isn't technology, budget, or even strategy—but the fact that we assume students make rational decisions when they're ac

Ep. 106 - Jeffrey Stepakoff: Content Is What You Put in a Sofa

What happens when a veteran TV writer—whose credits include The Wonder Years, Dawson's Creek, and Disney's Tarzan—decides to build a film school inside North America's la

Ep. 105 -Michael Leggs: The Essay Was Never Evidence of Thinking

What if the real crisis AI has exposed in higher education isn't student dishonesty, but the fact that we've been treating final papers as evidence of thinking—when AI ca

Ep. 104 - Raffi DerSimonian: Ikigai and purpose driven paths

Jeff talks to Raffi DerSimonian, VP and Chief Strategy Officer at ERI, a digital agency that has been building for colleges and universities since 2005. Raffi came up on

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