July 2026Leadership
Great Players Want the Truth
The coaches who built women's basketball didn't protect their best players from hard coaching. They gave them more of it. Most organizations do the opposite, and it's costing them.
Read more →Research & Thoughts
Musings on marketing strategy, leadership, higher education, and what it means to do purpose-driven.
July 2026Higher Education
The Real ROO
ROI tells you the money came back. ROO asks whether you did what you set out to do. In higher education, the gap between those two questions is where most strategy breaks down.
Read more →June 2026Leadership
One Year In
One year at the University of Denver. On making hard decisions on purpose, why brand marketing is an investment the sector keeps getting wrong, and what commencement makes undeniably clear.
Read more →June 2026Higher Education
The Higher Ed Website Is Dead. We Just Haven't Buried It Yet.
Higher education websites are still built like org charts with a search bar. What comes next looks nothing like that.
Read more →June 2026Higher Education
Responsible for the Sale, Not the Product
Higher education marketers are held accountable for enrollment outcomes they don't control. That's a structural problem. In some states, it has gotten much worse.
Read more →May 2026Higher Education
Data-Driven Differentiation in Higher Education
Most institutions know they need to stand out. Few have a repeatable system for figuring out what they actually stand out for.
Read more →April 2026Leadership
What Purpose-Driven Leadership Actually Looks Like
Purpose isn't a mission statement on a wall. It's the filter through which every decision gets made, from hiring to campaign strategy.
Read more →March 2026Higher Education
Marketing Maturity in Higher Education
Most universities are still treating marketing as a production function. The ones winning the future are building it as a strategic capability.
Read more →A note on AI
The writing and ideas on this site are my own. I use AI tools to support the process: brainstorming concepts, surfacing relevant literature to substantiate my points, and proofreading for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and suggesting ways to improve clarity and flow. All suggestions are reviewed before publishing.