The Signal

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

Artists Deserve the Same Recruiting Infrastructure as Athletes: Common Time is an athletics‑style recruiting platform for creative humans—musicians, and now theater and dance students. Colleges can find 13‑year‑old violists, oboists, and tenors the same way they find soccer players.

Music Faculty Are the Most Underutilized Recruiters on Campus: Music professors already visit high schools, adjudicate festivals, give lessons at summer camps, and build pipelines. Common Time makes them 20 times more effective by connecting them with non‑majors who want to keep playing in college.

Creative Students Are the Center of the AI‑Enabled Economy: The Forbes/LinkedIn versatility data shows that English and performing arts majors are among the most versatile degrees. As AI handles more technical production work, the ability to perform, present, communicate, and curate experiences becomes more valuable, not less.

The Unintended Consequence: Parents Are Talking About Music Like Sports: Students are telling their parents they want to study music earlier—and they're using Common Time to convince them it's viable. Parents are starting to see music as something that might pay for college, not just something that's good for you.

Application Pledges Change the Conversation: Colleges can now offer application fee waivers, audition waivers, and pre‑assigned scholarships tied to a student's profile—sometimes two years before they apply. It's the same model as athletics recruiting, and it signals early interest that changes how families see a school.

The Enrollment Cliff Is Creating Urgency—and Opportunity: With three million fewer college kids expected over the next five years and $75 billion in lost tuition revenue at stake, colleges are grasping for new ways to enroll students. Common Time opens the door to 10 million creative kids in the US alone.

Two‑Sided Marketplaces Are Like Middle School Dances: Everyone's on the wall, no one wants to touch each other. The hardest part is getting people in the door. Common Time created the dance floor, put up the DJ booth, and then ran the snowball dance—one college and one kid at a time until everyone joins in.

Common Time's Vision for 2050: To b...

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction and Guest Background
(00:01:54) - Catching Up: What's Changed at Common Time
(00:03:06) - Expanding Beyond Music to All Creative Fields
(00:04:40) - The Versatility of Creative Degrees
(00:07:41) - How Common Time Pathways Works
(00:09:25) - Building Scouting Infrastructure for Artists
(00:11:20) - Art, AI, and Human Potential
(00:12:42) - Fundraising and Investor Perspectives
(00:15:50) - Taking the Idea to the ISME World Conference
(00:19:37) - Redefining Success and Family Buy-In
(00:21:42) - Application Pledges and Scholarship Mechanics
(00:24:51) - The Enrollment Cliff and Pressure on Colleges
(00:27:53) - Scaling a Two-Sided Marketplace
(00:31:43) - Vision for the Future and Closing Thoughts

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 

Relationships Must Be Built Before the Crisis Hits: You don't want to be meeting your campus communications colleagues for the first time in the middle of a reputational fire. Establish regular check‑ins, track issues together, and know in advance who handles what. 

The Crisis Playbook: What Happened, What Will We Do, What Will We Say: In that order. Don't skip ahead to messaging before you understand the facts and have decided on a course of action grounded in your values. 

The Best Leaders Don't Panic: The leader's behavior sets the tone for the entire team. Calm creates space to understand what really happened and gives staff confidence that they'll be supported. 

The Best Leaders Ask "What Do I Need to Know?" Not "How Do I Make This Go Away?" They're willing to hear tough news, even if it reveals a staff failure or a mistake that could have been avoided. You can't make good decisions without complete information. 

Trust Is the Currency of a Crisis: Getting through tomorrow's news cycle is not the goal. Protecting the institution's reputation for the next five to ten years is. Trust and values are foundational—and they can be lost in the midst of a crisis if you're not careful. 

AI Is Great for Getting Past the Blank Page—Not for Judgment: AI can synthesize information, test ideas, and handle repetitive work. But outsourcing judgment, leadership voice, or relationships to AI is risky. The question isn't "Is AI replacing communicators?" It's "How can AI free up communicators to think more strategically?" 

The Transition from Individual Contributor to Leader Requires a Mindset Shift: Being the best writer or social media person won't prepare you to lead. You need to shift from "What can I produce?" to "What is the strategy behind it?" Learn the business of the institution. Understand what the president, provost, and athletic director are trying to accomplish. Invest in relationships before you need them. 

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

...

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Intro and guest background
(00:01:51) - A career story: chasing down a school bus
(00:03:20) - How communications leadership evolved at Vanderbilt
(00:04:47) - Athletics vs. university communications: scale and pace
(00:07:16) - Where separation between athletics and university works or fails
(00:08:43) - Crisis speed, authority, and shared language
(00:10:32) - NIL, revenue sharing, and deeper integration needs
(00:12:45) - Value of outside strategic counsel and interim leadership
(00:15:10) - Common traits of leaders handling crisis well
(00:16:30) - AI's role in communications work
(00:18:09) - Mentoring communicators into leadership roles
(00:20:37) - Optimism, burnout, and the future of athletics-campus branding
(00:22:50) - Closing and sign-off

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

Culture Before Strategy: Strategy tells people what you're going to do. Culture determines whether they'll actually get there. Enrollment problems rarely stem from enrollment challenges—they're usually cultural, communication, or trust issues.

Buy In Is Too Small a Goal—Build Shared Ownership: Buy in means the decision has already been made and you're trying to get people to agree. Shared ownership means shaping the decision together. People support what they build.

Talent Rarely Overcomes a Bad Culture: Austin has seen great enrollment plans fail because the culture wasn't ready to support them. He's seen talented teams underperform because they weren't aligned. Culture is the foundation.

Don't Skip the Listening Phase: The listening phase often gets compressed when leaders are under pressure to move fast. That's where you find who your arrogant leaders are—they think they've already solved it.

Good Ideas Don't Spread Just Because They're Good: They spread because people trust who's behind them, understand the idea, and see themselves in it. A good idea without adoption is just a recommendation.

Small Colleges Win by Being Human: Don't imitate scale—maximize intimacy. Own your traditions, own your identity, and don't try to be something you're not. The world will try to hate on you if you're inauthentic.

The First Question to Ask When Enrollment Stalls: What's your culture? Who's your biggest leader? Are you embracing who you are? Culture determines whether you'll actually get where you're trying to go.

 

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Find Austin Blair:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-w-b-63a306a6/

OSF HealthCare

http://osfhealthcare.org/

 

And find EdTech Connect here:

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction and Guest Background
(00:02:03) - Coaching Football vs. Enrollment Leadership
(00:04:27) - Culture Before Strategy: Merging Two Colleges
(00:08:17) - Buy-In vs. Shared Ownership
(00:11:39) - The CULTURE Framework Explained
(00:16:47) - Moving Away from Buying Prospect Names
(00:19:59) - Nursing Enrollment Challenges and Workforce Development
(00:23:07) - From Counselor to Director: Getting Ideas Adopted
(00:25:36) - Small Colleges vs. Large Universities
(00:28:48) - Final Advice and Wrap-Up

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.

 

Key Takeaways

 

Psychology Is Better Marketing: Marketing isn't just persuasion—it's understanding people so you can serve them better. The goal isn't to trick people into converting; it's to make it easier for them to make the best decision for themselves.

 

Assume Emotional Decisions, Not Rational Ones: A 17-year-old choosing a university isn't just weighing league tables and employment outcomes. They're asking: "Can I see myself fitting in here? Does this feel like a place for me?" That's hard to track in a CRM, but it's the real question.

 

Three Biases That Matter Most: The curse of knowledge (you know your institution too well to explain it clearly to others), social proof (students need evidence they'll belong), and peak-end rule (people judge an experience by its emotional peak and its final moment). Use these to redesign open days, communications, and touchpoints.

 

Technology Amplifies What's Already There: If the underlying process is broken, technology will make it broken faster. Before buying a new platform, ask: are we fixing a process problem, an ownership problem, or a human understanding problem?

 

Don't Confuse Efficiency with Experience: AI and automation can streamline operations, but they can also strip the warmth out of a relationship. If an airline's automated messages leave a stranded passenger with no human contact for 72 hours, the technology is working against the brand.

 

The Value of Toil: Learning happens when you work through a problem yourself. AI shortcuts can rob students of the struggle that leads to true understanding. The future of education isn't competing with AI on processing—it's competing on context, nuance, creativity, and the human touch.

 

Map the Journey, Find the Friction: A customer experience audit starts with mapping the full journey—exploration, open days, offers, registration, student life—and identifying moments of high emotion or high friction. That's where you focus your attention.

 

Change Your Shoes: If you're a president, CIO, or marketing leader, put on a pair of trainers, jeans, and a hoodie. Walk around campus anonymously. Attend an open day. Buy a student a coffee and just listen. Observe body...

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Introduction to Cy Elliott
(00:01:57) - A frustrating airline experience
(00:04:47) - Why psychology, not just marketing
(00:07:39) - Comparing higher ed and corporate customer experience
(00:10:50) - How students actually make decisions
(00:13:40) - Key behavioral biases for enrollment teams
(00:16:06) - Technology as amplifier, not solution
(00:19:39) - Auditing the student experience for friction
(00:22:00) - Rethinking the application process
(00:23:15) - AI's impact on what students expect from lecturers
(00:25:39) - Comparing UK and Chinese student experiences
(00:27:47) - Practical steps for resource-limited teams
(00:28:42) - Final advice: walk in the student's shoes
(00:30:24) - Closing and sign-off

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 

Partnership Is the Engine of Success: The Georgia Film Academy succeeded because it brought together labor unions, state leadership, production studios, and 30 higher education institutions—including universities, technical colleges, and private schools—all aligned around a shared goal. 

Credit Portability Is a Political Problem, Not a Technical One: The mechanics of transferring credits are doable. The challenge is institutional anxiety about losing students and resources. The solution is a consortium model with an R1 institution (like Clemson) serving as the accrediting body—similar to a semester-at-sea model. 

Own Less, Access More: Institutions shouldn't be building their own soundstages or buying equipment that will be obsolete in 18 months. The future is about buying access to industry infrastructure, not owning it. Trilith partners with a 34-soundstage complex so students train on professional equipment in a professional environment. 

In an Age of Abundance, Taste and Curation Are the Valuable Skills: AI can generate endless content. The scarce skill is knowing what deserves to be made—developing taste, critical thinking, and the ability to discern what stories matter and why. 

What Do You Have to Say? Craft can be taught in a weekend. The deeper question is: who are you as a person? What stories are only you equipped to tell? That's what educators should be spending their time on. 

The Goal Is to Build a New Creative Hub, Not Just a Factory: Georgia grew its production infrastructure to serve Hollywood. But the real opportunity is to build a self-sustaining industry based on original intellectual property—where writers, directors, and creators live, work, and tell stories that originate in the region. 

Economic Impact Requires Measurable Metrics: To convince legislators and policymakers, programs must track outcomes—credit hours, job placements, industry spend. Accountability builds credibility and long-term investment. 

The Future of Higher Ed Is About Partnership, Not Replacement...

Chapters

(00:00:00) - What is content?
(00:00:44) - Jeffrey Stepakov on the Georgia Film Academy
(00:02:07) - The Hardest Place In The World
(00:02:51) - In the Elevator With Georgia Film Academy's Founder
(00:06:23) - Getting the institutions to join the film and television consortium
(00:08:42) - Clemson on Campus and Credit Portability
(00:14:38) - Film Programs and the Equipment Problem
(00:16:28) - Higher Ed: The Need for AI Skills
(00:18:07) - What is content in a world of abundance?
(00:20:17) - The role of the university
(00:21:24) - What should we be teaching students?
(00:25:04) - Georgia's film and television industry
(00:29:56) - The Signal: Where Learning happens