Ep. 111 - Matt Russell: Stop Ranking for Traffic, Rank for Sign-UP Intent

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 recruiting pipelines athletes get. When Eytan and Jeff first talked about a year ago, CommonTime was just getting off the ground. Since then, the company raised $1 million from Yamaha and Reach Capital, expanded beyond music into theater and dance, and took the platform to the international stage at the ISME World Conference. Eytan shares the big realization that reshaped CommonTime's mission: they weren't just helping music kids connect with scholarships—they were repositioning the artist as the center of an AI‑enabled future. He explains why music faculty are the most underutilized recruiters on campus, why they're already visiting high schools and adjudicating festivals, and why Common Time simply makes them 20 times more effective. He also offers a brilliant analogy for two‑sided marketplaces: they're like middle school dances. Everyone's on the wall, no one wants to touch each other. CommonTime created the dance floor, set up the DJ booth, and then had to figure out how to get people to dance. The answer? The snowball dance. Get one college and one kid to talk, then another, then another—until everyone sees it's safe to join in. For anyone thinking about enrollment innovation, creative talent, or what higher ed looks like in 2050, this episode is a must‑listen. Key Takeaways

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—rising to Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations—and recently completed an 18‑month stint as interim head of athletic communications. She's seen campus and athletics communications from every angle: as a writer, a strategist, a leader, and an outsider brought in to bridge two worlds. Melanie shares what surprised her most about athletics communications: the sheer volume, the round‑the‑clock pace, the 17 sports, the live broadcasts, and the massive, always‑on audience. She explains why operational separation makes sense—athletics needs to move fast—but why brand and strategy can never be siloed. The university's name is on the jerseys, and the best operations work hand in glove. She also offers advice for crisis leadership. The best leaders don't panic. They create space to understand what really happened. They're willing to hear information they don't like. And they understand that trust is the currency of a crisis—the goal isn't to survive tomorrow's news cycle, it's to protect the institution's reputation for the next decade. For anyone in communications, athletics, or institutional leadership trying to navigate an increasingly complex media landscape, this episode is essential listening. Key Takeaways

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 down with Austin Blair, Dean of Admissions and Marketing for both St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing and St. Anthony College of Nursing, part of OSF Healthcare. Austin also coaches high school football, and that experience shapes everything about how he leads. He draws a direct line between coaching a team and building an enrollment operation: both are about creating belief, creating the experience before results, and understanding that talent rarely overcomes a bad culture. Austin shares the story of uniting two distinct nursing college cultures—one in Rockford, one in Peoria, two and a half hours apart—with different histories, different demographics, and different ways of doing things. He explains why "buy‑in" is too small of a goal and why shared ownership is the real objective. He walks through his CULTURE framework: clarify the why, understand the terrain, listen before launching, turn committees into coalitions, use data as a mirror, reinforce through relationships, and empower shared ownership. He also makes a provocative case against buying prospect names—a strategy he abandoned not out of philosophy, but out of necessity when his marketing budget was only $40,000. What he discovered was that relevance beats volume, and relationships beat lists. For any enrollment leader, president, or marketing team trying to move a stalled strategy forward, this episode offers a practical, football‑tested framework for putting culture first. Key Takeaways

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 actually driven by emotion, bias, and the simple need to feel like they belong? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon welcomes Si Elliott, founder of Fabrics, a customer experience consultancy that applies behavioral science to how organizations design experiences and relationships. Si also runs Diversity, a creative agency in Nottingham, England, and guest lectures at three universities—including the Communication University of China. He brings a rare outside perspective to higher ed, challenging institutions to stop designing around the needs of the organization and start designing around the experience of the person. He explains why the technology amplifies whatever process is already there—good or bad—and why "marketing is better with psychology." He also breaks down three behavioral biases that could change how enrollment teams communicate: the curse of knowledge, social proof, and peak-end rule. And he offers a simple but powerful challenge to any president or CIO: put on a pair of trainers and a hoodie, walk around campus anonymously, and just observe. Change your shoes.

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 largest soundstage complex? You get a model that challenges nearly every assumption higher ed has about where learning happens, who should teach it, and what students actually need to succeed. In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Jeffrey Stepakoff, founder of the Georgia Film Academy and now President and co-founder of the Trilith Institute. Jeffrey has spent 40 years in entertainment, has over 1 million books in print, and has built two groundbreaking programs that bridge the gap between academia and industry. The Georgia Film Academy grew to serve 2,500 students a year across 30 institutions, helping grow Georgia's film production spending from $2 billion to $4.4 billion during his tenure. Now at Trilith, Jeffrey is taking the model further—launching "Semester at Trilith," a 15-week, 15-credit immersive program that drops students into a working studio environment. He argues that in an era of AI abundance, the most valuable thing we can teach isn't craft—it's taste, critical thinking, and the ability to discern what stories actually deserve to be told. For anyone in higher ed wrestling with questions of workforce relevance, industry partnerships, or the future of experiential learning, this episode offers a bold, practical, and deeply human vision. Key Takeaways