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00:00:01
Beyond Enrollment
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Episode Overview
In this episode, Rustam Irani sits down with Will McDonald, Executive Vice President of Admissions at Academy of Art University, to explore what effective admissions leadership looks like in today's higher education landscape. Drawing on more than two decades of enrollment experience, Will shares why the strongest institutions treat marketing and admissions as one unified student recruitment team, how leaders can build high-performing admissions organizations, and why staying connected to the student experience is more important than any dashboard or technology. They also discuss where AI can genuinely improve admissions operations—and where the human element remains irreplaceable.
Resources Mentioned
- LinkedIn — William McDonald (mentioned as the best place to connect with Will)
Timestamps
- 00:00 – Introduction to Will McDonald and the importance of admissions and marketing alignment
- 01:58 – Will's leadership journey, football background, and lessons from Howard Schnellenberger
- 05:05 – How admissions has changed over the past 20 years and the growing complexity of student decision-making
- 08:45 – Building effective admissions processes while keeping the student—not the transaction—at the center
- 12:48 – Why marketing and admissions should function as one unified department with shared KPIs
- 17:02 – Building admissions teams, hiring for coachability, and staying connected to frontline staff
- 21:58 – The promise and limitations of AI in admissions, including automation and re-engagement strategies
- 27:24 – Leadership advice for new admissions directors and the importance of focusing on people, process, and performance
- 31:16 – Final takeaway: Stay plugged into the student experience by listening to students and frontline teams
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Will McDonald
00:00:01
Rustam Irani
Today, here with Will McDonald, Executive Vice President of Admissions at Academy of Art University. Will spent most of his career on the front lines in enrollment, 20 plus years, I think, Will, which is pretty amazing.
00:00:17
Rustam Irani
You've led teams. You've done a lot. We've actually known each other for almost 10 years. So I've seen kind of firsthand Will's leadership, Will's experience at play,
00:00:31
Rustam Irani
And I think one of the things early on when we started working together, Will, that just kind of hit me right away was your partnership being in admissions with marketing.
Marketing and Admissions Collaboration
00:00:44
Rustam Irani
And I always like right away, the conversations were always kind of collaborative, knowing that like marketing and admissions should always work together, not separately. So I always thought that was that was pretty amazing. So welcome back everybody to ROI University, podcast for higher ed marketers and leaders who want to change the game and themselves.
00:01:04
Rustam Irani
I'm Rostavirati, your host, recovering engineer, former higher ed CMO. And today I'm excited to talk with Will, again, that I've known for quite some time and just amazing leader. So, Will, welcome. Welcome to the pod. Thanks for joining us.
Will's Sports Background and Leadership
00:01:22
Rustam Irani
You know, one thing that I've learned over the years about you, which I didn't know, which I thought was very interesting and not surprising is, you know, I think sports plays people who have had experience in sports plays pretty well into leadership. And, you
00:01:39
Rustam Irani
I think you've got an interesting story there of your background, which honestly was a little surprising to me. Not not because I didn't believe it. But yeah, if you don't mind giving us a little bit about your background, your personal career story, how you got into admissions, we'd appreciate that.
00:01:56
William McDonald
No, absolutely. No, thank you for having me. i would say, you know, for me, my my career, from an athletic standpoint, i had the opportunity to play football at Florida Atlantic University.
00:02:10
William McDonald
What was interesting about that opportunity is it was an inaugural program. I had the opportunity to learn under a legendary coach, Howard Stellenberger, and During that time, you know obviously you show up 18 years old you know thinking you're ready to tackle the world.
00:02:21
Rustam Irani
Yeah.
00:02:28
William McDonald
and And we had a very old school coach. And you know what I loved about the experience is that it really molded me into who I am. It's molded me in understanding like personal accountability.
00:02:41
William McDonald
But also like when it comes to not letting those around me down, I think nothing That's probably of the most important piece,
Teamwork Across the University
00:02:48
William McDonald
right? So when you talk about the marketing admissions relationship, I think that relationship throughout the university matters, right? We are one team, we have one goal, and it's ultimately to, you know, ensure our students success. And I think that is something when I think about sports and having that, you know, single goal, that's the thing that matters the most.
00:03:10
Rustam Irani
Yeah. You know, it's interesting, even over the years. So one of the jobs I had, one of the many jobs I had when I was in college was working at Enterprise and I was a car prep. So I would wash the cars. And I did that for about two months in the summer. And and it was it was grueling in Gainesville, 95 degrees, 100 degrees. but enterprises always had a thing where they hire athletes, right? They just know in these management leadership positions, they just work out so well because they have that discipline. They have all those traits that you had mentioned. So I think, and there's other companies that do that as well, where they recognize kind of,
00:03:48
Rustam Irani
And I think there's other disciplines and other areas that do that too. But I thought that was kind of cool because I'm also, not only am I gator, but I'm also an owl. So I did my master's at FAU. And i remember Schnellenberger because I saw him at the dock side. There's a like a little dock ice cream shop in Delray Beach.
00:04:08
Rustam Irani
I don't know if you know where that is, Will.
00:04:08
William McDonald
yeah. Absolutely.
00:04:10
Rustam Irani
But yeah I was there one day, we were eating, and this was his inaugural year, and you were on the team, and I didn't know that. But... We were eating ice cream outside and he pulls up and is like, he had an old Cadillac convertible or something with his wife.
00:04:24
Rustam Irani
It's like a, I just remember it has like a red old convertible Cadillac with white leather or something. And he walked up, he was having ice cream next to us.
00:04:30
William McDonald
Absolutely.
00:04:32
Rustam Irani
And we said, Hey, welcome, you know, welcome to Boca and all that. So, Anyways, I don't know if you knew that, but yeah, it was pretty, pretty neat. So yeah, I think, look, that's awesome.
00:04:44
Rustam Irani
I think that background plays so well in the kind of what you do and and, you know, kind of what
Evolving Landscape of Admissions
00:04:49
Rustam Irani
you're doing today. And I'd like to maybe talk a little bit about that. So you're currently the executive vice president of admissions at Academy of Art University.
00:04:59
Rustam Irani
i know you've got a pretty extensive background working in higher ed across many different school sets, boot camps, you know you name it, undergrad, and grad and so on. So yeah i'm I'm curious kind of on your end, like You've been in it for 20 years. you know what do you What do you feel is like the current state of admissions today? What's changed the most over the years and and where do you think it's kind of headed?
00:05:28
William McDonald
Yeah, that's a great question. you know When I think about, wow, the last 20 years, what has changed? Sometimes I start with like what hasn't changed. And i think ultimately,
00:05:39
William McDonald
you knows prospective students, learners you you know throughout the world, they're looking for an opportunity. right They're looking for like what's next. And I think that remains true. I think when it comes to what's changed,
00:05:53
William McDonald
there's so much noise in the space. There's so many options.
00:05:56
Rustam Irani
Mm-hmm.
00:05:57
William McDonald
There's, and then when you think about that, there's even the growing skepticism, you know, from, you know, prospective students, parents alike. And so because things are not as straightforward as they were, i would say, even when I started, you know, the paths to opportunity was pretty straightforward.
00:06:17
William McDonald
And i think today, you know, it's not as linear as as individuals would like. And I think that's something that universities and all of us you know in this space are are are trying to navigate. So I think those are some of the the biggest challenges and changes that I've seen throughout the years.
00:06:36
William McDonald
But the thing that remains consistent for me is People still want change. They still they have that hope. They have that desire. And I think that's the thing that has always kind of kept me grounded, and I want to be a part of that journey and a part of that experience for students.
00:06:54
Rustam Irani
Yeah. And look, I obviously I feel the same way, you know, being in higher ed for, almost, uh, you know, well, it's similar almost 20 years on my end as well. it's interesting because I had a, I tell this to everybody, you know, i had a friend and who worked at Pepsi and, you know, it was in, because I've been in higher ed when he was at Pepsi, I was in higher ed, a good friend of mine. And, you know, we always joke around because, you
00:07:24
Rustam Irani
one of the former CEOs of Pepsi was recruited by his Steve Jobs. And he said, hey, you know, when he was trying to recruit me, he's like, do you want to sell sugar water the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world? Right. It's like.
00:07:38
Rustam Irani
that mindset of like having a big purpose, there bigger purpose than just you know enrolling students or anything. I think it's really, really impactful. Going to some of these graduations, I can tell you, I've never felt so much like pride and joy and and seeing kind of our work come to fruition, which has just been so, so powerful and and impactful.
00:08:02
Rustam Irani
So yeah, I think i think you're you've kind of nailed it on on that end. I guess the other question I have is like, a lot of times we have conversations with schools and, you know, they're struggling with contact rates or struggling with trying to figure out, you know, if their admissions team is doing what they should be doing, whether it's like response time follow up. And, you know, what do you see some of the things that maybe some schools just struggle with or just are getting wrong and that, you know, on the admission side and in how things might be set up and what can they kind of do about it.
00:08:36
William McDonald
Yeah, that's a great question. you know when I think about admissions, when things aren't working, and that's the first question everyone asks,
Consistent Processes in Admissions
00:08:42
William McDonald
right? Like, is the team working hard enough? Are they doing they're supposed to be doing? Are we getting everything? And you know for me, this is why like process matters, you know how what the team is doing, so when things are going well.
00:08:55
William McDonald
I'm constantly inspecting the same things and that I would expect, uh, if things are going poorly. Uh, and I think it's, it's that from a leadership standpoint, it's so important to when things are going well, also really digging in understanding like what's leading to your success, uh,
00:09:11
Rustam Irani
Mm-hmm.
00:09:11
William McDonald
And then ensuring that the team is constantly is remaining consistent because like they say, a broken clock is is right twice a day. You don't want that in your process. Right. So you do want to ensure that the things that you are doing on a day over day basis, the team is doing on day on a daily basis.
00:09:27
William McDonald
It's consistent. like So that's where I start from an admission standpoint when it comes to all the other moving pieces. And when it comes to like optimization efforts, my goal for my team is always how do I make their their lives a little easier, right?
00:09:43
William McDonald
Because i I have a unique background. I started in sports, but my journey in admissions started on the front lines. Like I was an admissions advisor. I spent years talking to students.
00:09:53
Rustam Irani
Yeah.
00:09:56
William McDonald
That's why when I think about like what's kept me here is I was so close to it. You know, when I think about my my leadership journey, I don't know if I actually had a desire to go in into leadership. I feel like I had a calling to come into leadership.
00:10:11
William McDonald
And because of that, and when I thought about that, it was because I've always thought about the student, I always thought about their experience. I always wanted that to be very personal and I wanted to be a part of that. And so how do I help teach people that? And I think that's when I think about the admissions framework and and leadership, it's not just teaching people process, it's it's teaching people those success like behaviors, the approach to like creating an experience when when students come into our funnel.
00:10:38
William McDonald
Because I think so often we get bogged down with like transactions, right?
00:10:38
Rustam Irani
Yeah.
00:10:42
William McDonald
We know we need, you have to the application. you need to get If you're doing financial aid, here's your FAFSA. We need your transcripts. We get so process driven. We forget there's a person there's an underlying fear that potentially they're dealing with or concern. And so for me, it's really not forgetting the person as they go through this experience.
00:11:03
Rustam Irani
Yeah, I think, you know, that's so easy to, it sounds pretty simple. But in actuality, it is a little tough because, you know, I think one thing I've realized over the years, like we try to bucket things to try to understand what's happening, right? Like, even in admissions, you guys, typically your teams would do dispositions, like not interested, it's financial, life challenges, like there's buckets of those, but like every single prospective student is an individual, right? They have their own desires, their own goals, their own circumstances. And, you know, we try to understand those as much as possible, but
00:11:48
Rustam Irani
Like it's even incredibly complicated conversation and discussion for every single unique individual student. And I think, again, that's where it becomes, you know, a little a little difficult sometimes when you're trying to just say, OK,
00:12:05
Rustam Irani
We have X amount of inquiries we know we're getting every single month. We were expecting X amount of applications, X amount of enrollments, because obviously we're we're baking into class start sizes and all of that. But like every single one of those conversations gives your team insights. And you know from a marketing perspective, you know those insights are critical because that helps the marketing teams do their jobs much better right when we can have more of that understanding. This is where I'd like to pivot a little bit.
00:12:36
Rustam Irani
you know on my end, I'm very grateful because you know early in my career in in marketing, I worked with admissions leaders that were very much like you and believed in a key partnership between marketing and admissions, and and they need to be completely aligned.
00:12:55
Rustam Irani
So like if you can maybe talk a little bit about that and in your career, how that's been impactful for you and how you typically kind of work with marketing teams and and how you see that being successful, that'd be great.
Integration of Marketing and Admissions
00:13:09
William McDonald
Yeah, you know, regardless of whether it's my time with Kaplan, Trilogy Education, to you and and even now the Academy, it's, you know, when I think about when I've seen it work the best, right? it's if We don't look at marketing admissions as two separate entities or functions.
00:13:27
William McDonald
It is a single department. uh like everyone has a role to play right in in that right and i think this is where uh but they're not separate it's where we have the shared kpis uh it's this isn't a marketing kpi this is just this is the business kpi and i feel like us aligning on that right and understanding like each of those like outcome each of those those metrics throughout the journey it's a shared experience i think one of the things for me that's always been helpful is
00:13:59
William McDonald
we support each other, right? I think admissions is an extension of marketing, marketing is extension of admissions, and it doesn't start, and and too often I've seen conversations start where, well, we have, you you you received the you know prospects, the inquiries, what did you do with them?
00:14:17
William McDonald
It's not that simple. And so it's it's almost a matter of like, what are we doing to support each other's efforts throughout that student journey? And so, when I always think about like the North Star, right? Again, my North Star is always like, what are we doing that's in the best interest of the student experience?
00:14:35
William McDonald
And so, and that's not something where marketing doesn't get to like, oh, we got you an inquiry. We can kind of like sit on the sideline and wait, like, what are you doing to continue to support that experience? Admissions, what are you doing to kind of compliment the marketing efforts? And so for me, uh,
00:14:53
William McDonald
it's not they're not separate departments, they are one. I think everyone just has a role to play in that experience.
00:15:01
Rustam Irani
Yeah, I mean, we're in you can bucket it in many different ways, right? For me, it's student recruitment. like That's the bottom line. like That includes marketing and admissions.
00:15:12
Rustam Irani
It could be enrollment operations, whatever you want to bucket it, but like they absolutely have to be aligned. And then the other experience I had personally was when we worked on the budgets, marketing and admissions worked together on those budgets.
00:15:27
Rustam Irani
There were conversion rates across you know the board that we all agreed to based on what we were seeing historically based on where we felt we could make some optimizations, where we felt like there were some opportunities for improvement.
00:15:42
Rustam Irani
so Again, it was in conjunction.
00:15:44
William McDonald
Thank you.
00:15:45
Rustam Irani
it was it was It was a team effort. Have you ever been a part of anywhere where that was a frustrating situation for you between your team and marketing where there just wasn't that collaboration, there were silos or or any that?
00:16:01
Rustam Irani
I can tell you, I've seen that, but I don't know if you've had that experience.
00:16:05
William McDonald
I've been very fortunate and I i know this, I think I've i've done enough research, you know i've I've seen the the horror stories per se, but I've been very fortunate.
00:16:07
Rustam Irani
Okay, awesome.
00:16:12
Rustam Irani
Yeah.
00:16:16
William McDonald
I've had great marketing partners throughout the years, you know and I feel like it's it's allowed me to become a greater It's allowed me to a greater admissions leader, fully understanding the entire experience.
00:16:32
William McDonald
It's helped me kind of evolve my leadership style and and how I work with my team, how I work with other departments. So I've been very fortunate not to have like any, I would say horror stories on that front, but it's been a great partnership to date.
00:16:47
Rustam Irani
and Got it. No, that's awesome. You know, and I think the other side of that is, you know, on the team side, when you look at kind of your team and building an admissions team, and I know you've done this.
00:17:00
Rustam Irani
I remember even, I believe it was that trilogy where you had gone out to Arizona, you had built an entire team out there. Like, what are some tips you have maybe for like,
00:17:14
Rustam Irani
building an admissions team, you know, and keeping everybody kind of on the same page on the bus and, you know, keeping them without burning out because like, it's it's not an easy job if you first take it on. It's it's quite a bit there.
00:17:34
William McDonald
Yeah, the the building, it's, and call me crazy, but I thoroughly enjoy the building. It is, you know, and, and that you know, one of those things where when things are too quiet, I go looking for problems. But, you know, when I think about the building and, you know, even my time when I was in Arizona and I was i was building my admissions team out, you know, one of the things for me was I understood everyone's role, know,
00:18:02
William McDonald
I understood what everyone needed to do, but also when it came to like hiring. Right. It wasn't i wasn't trying to hire perfect. I wanted to hire, you know, coachable. I wanted to hire those who were willing to learn.
00:18:18
William McDonald
And those who have like a shared like mission, right, I think there's it's so important to under like for people that has to be clear for me, right, had to be very clear in the mission of what we were looking to accomplish in order to share that and making sure as I was, you know, bringing people on that we were all in alignment. not agreement, but alignment as to like what we needed to do. And ultimately, as I continue to build, I listened. One of the things you know I think senior leaders at times, because we're so far removed, we're so busy, we get caught in our dashboards, our reports,
00:18:54
William McDonald
we forget there's people on the front who have the best insight that you can could ask for, right? And I think for me, I've never lost that connective kind of tissue with my frontline team, regardless of roles that I've held. I think it's important to hear what they're hearing, hear their perspective.
00:19:14
William McDonald
Even to this day, i listen, i make it a point to listen to a number of conversations that were having prospective students, so I understand the pain points, the challenges, what's happening. So I think as a part of building, it's understanding, like always having an ear to the ground that that matters.
00:19:32
Rustam Irani
Yeah, that's I think that's huge. And I've seen that you know if you're not considering those things, if you're not you know having those conversations with the team, and and especially with the team that are on the front lines, that are on the calls all day, I've seen that fail. I've seen some, you know, in my consulting days of the last number of years, I've i've kind of had conversations about with schools looking for admissions leaders, bringing on admissions leaders and them being gone within the first few months. And
00:20:05
Rustam Irani
Honestly, when I look back at kind of why they may not have been successful, like they've had the experience. they They clearly had the resume. They clearly had a lot of those things, but they would come in and just try to change everything based on what they know without having those conversations internally to understand what's currently happening.
00:20:26
Rustam Irani
Who are the team members on the team? What are their strengths and weaknesses? They're just coming in and saying, this is how it needs to be done.
00:20:33
Rustam Irani
And I think to me, I've seen that fail. To your point, it's like having those conversations with the people that are on those calls, understanding the struggles, challenges and the opportunities. I think that's just so huge because I can tell you personally, I've seen it fail if you if you don't do that. So I think that's that's interesting that you mentioned that.
00:20:33
William McDonald
Thank you.
00:20:54
Rustam Irani
And then even again, going back to early on my in my career, when I was in marketing, the head of admissions would say, hey, come down, sit down with a couple of our reps and just listen to calls.
00:21:04
William McDonald
Amen.
00:21:08
Rustam Irani
so I did that and in you know over time I had any new team member on our team that join, I'd have them go over admissions and spend the day. I wanted them to listen those calls. I didn't care if they were a creative, just doing creatives all day long. I want you to go over to admissions and spend the day on the calls. So I think that's just so, so important, you know especially when you're kind of building that team.
00:21:32
Rustam Irani
I want to kind of pivot a little bit because this is a conversation that's coming up a lot. I know you're you're hearing it.
00:21:38
William McDonald
Thank
00:21:56
Rustam Irani
You know, like how do you see AI kind of being involved in the admissions, where are you seeing some successes? Where are you seeing some things are just not there yet? What what are your thoughts on that?
Role of AI in Admissions
00:22:09
William McDonald
Oh, wow. That is I'm not going to call it controversial question. It is a it's a challenging question because like to your point, there are so many products and services out there right now.
00:22:17
Rustam Irani
Yeah.
00:22:24
William McDonald
I also, one of the key questions I'm always trying to understand is like, how does this show up in the business? Like how do we actually measure the impact? You know, so when I,
00:22:36
William McDonald
My goal, right, when I think about how I'm looking to leverage AI within our admissions team, it's it is not to replace my team. It's not to replace people. For me, it is one of the things when i think about admissions, capacity planning has always been something that's like a priority of mine.
00:22:56
William McDonald
Right. Like, how do I ensure that, like, the team has the bandwidth to to handle the the number of inquiries that come in while handling the follow ups, random inbound phone calls, getting students prepared for the start.
00:23:09
William McDonald
So like how they balance all of their responsibilities. And so when I think about where does AI show up and how I want it to kind of influence by, you know, the admissions team I'm leading is.
00:23:17
Rustam Irani
Yeah.
00:23:20
William McDonald
How do I make their jobs easier? How do I take away the thing that I know no one really enjoys doing? you know And so when you think about automation, when it comes to the outreach, one of the things, right again, understanding my journey started in the front lines, even just knowing who to call, when to call.
00:23:40
William McDonald
you know who I have not reached out to and a lot of that time being wasted, trying to go through your list, going through your CRM, just understanding that. So how do I help them with like you know resource management? I think there's an opportunity to you know kind of create nurtures that are very personalized to the student and and as opposed to just general canned message. I think right now that's something that's really important to respective students, right? They're and they're spending a lot of their time doing their search using AI.
00:24:13
William McDonald
So it's already a very, they're already doing their own due diligence elsewhere. you know So how do I make sure that like the process the journey that we are providing them is leveraging the information that they provided.
00:24:27
William McDonald
We know what program you're interested in, we understand your background. like And so I think those are some of the opportunities you know with within AI. And I think there's some operational opportunities we want to test, but I don't know if we're there yet.
00:24:38
Rustam Irani
Sure.
00:24:42
Rustam Irani
Yeah, I think you and I both have seen some pretty bold promises, i would say, with some tools that promise to automate pretty much everything.
00:24:56
Rustam Irani
But again, i think I would just leave it at that, is that there are bold promises that, you know, honestly, maybe if there are
00:25:06
William McDonald
Thank you.
00:25:07
Rustam Irani
some schools that don't have processes in place, that don't have some of these things in place, maybe that type of stuff can work for them. Maybe if they're smaller school, maybe they just, they have nothing and they need something.
00:25:23
Rustam Irani
I can see some of that stuff work, but yeah, I agree with you. I think enhancing kind of what the team is already doing, what we already are doing And then even i think, you know, we've talked about and there's a couple of products we've tested as well. and And some of our school clients, like just with folks who have engaged with us over a year ago, two years ago, like getting them back onto the getting back in touch with them using some automated tools versus manual outreach. I think there's some opportunities there. And then even some stuff on the automation side with maybe live chat. I've seen some of that also kind of be fruitful there as well.
00:26:07
Rustam Irani
So I think, again, the assist will be there.
00:26:08
William McDonald
Thank you.
00:26:11
Rustam Irani
I think we'll continue to see how that all evolve. But some of this stuff is still promising a lot.
00:26:19
William McDonald
Yeah, I think what you just touched on in regards to re-engagement efforts, reach back, those who stopped out, like there there's there's opportunity there, right? Because your team that you have today has to support today's inquiries, today's, like they have to be responsible for those, but there's still an opportunity. And I think of responsibility as an institution for those who started their journey with us who didn't finish. So how are we servicing them? How are we supporting them? So I do think those are really,
00:26:49
William McDonald
you know, key opportunities for us and potentially be thinking about how AI shows up in that experience.
00:26:55
Rustam Irani
Yeah, no absolutely. 100%. So again, you've been in admissions for quite some time. You've been there, done that. You've seen a lot. You've built teams. You've opened offices.
00:27:10
Rustam Irani
you know For somebody who's maybe kind of newer in an admissions role or newer into a director role, you know what what's something, kind of a bit of advice that you might give somebody who's kind of jumping in today at this time, you know just kind of keeping in mind all the stuff that you've learned and giving them a little bit of advice as they kind of move into this newer kind of director role and and leadership type role?
00:27:39
William McDonald
Yeah, so i think i will say this. When i first stepped into a broader leadership role, and I go back to you know when I was building out my admissions team, I had to simplify it. I looked at, I feel like there was three key tenants that I wanted to focus on.
00:27:55
William McDonald
i Obviously people, right? There's nothing more important. Nothing happens without our people. We're in a people-driven business. Then I focused on like the process,
00:28:02
Rustam Irani
out
00:28:05
William McDonald
You know, kind of like just the overall operation, like what tools, system, what do we need, what don't we have? And then I looked at a bucket of when I think it's just performance, right? Clearly identifying like what success actually means, like, does this actually impact the bottom line or is this just noise and a distraction? So.
00:28:25
William McDonald
Because when you first step into leadership, it's a lot of noise, it's a lot of distraction. So, you know, one clearly outlining like what matters, right? Like what is it actually that truly matters that we fundamentally believe and and focusing solely on that.
00:28:41
William McDonald
But I think the most important thing is always understanding like your people and the people we support. You know, I think when you, from an operation standpoint, if that's your focus, everything you start to implement, everything you start to think about your solutions will naturally impact the student journey, right? Because your Northstar hasn't changed. And so I think that's something to just simplify the approach, you know, don't overcomplicate it.
00:29:09
Rustam Irani
Yeah, i I think you nailed it, especially, i mean, in general, but especially in and kind of the admission side again. you know, it's it's not an easy job. it is It is a bit tough. And I think it goes back to where like every individual is unique, right? You can't just go like...
00:29:32
Rustam Irani
can't just go off a script and and just go T to T. Like you've got to be able to think about where that student is in their in their life, like why they're inquiring, why they're reaching out and like kind of almost tailor and craft your conversation around that. So there's a lot there. And I think the people that are there that are strong, that that understand that, that have that empathy, that have that understanding, I think that's where, you know,
00:30:02
Rustam Irani
again, some of it are skills, some of it can be taught and some of it, you know, is just naturally kind of a part of who they are. So yeah, I think that's, that's huge. So we'll just kind of wrapping this up.
00:30:17
Rustam Irani
You know, if you were to, kind of give a bit of advice for anybody listening today, like for admissions, marketing, for anything that, you know, that they could kind of utilize either this week or in the next month or or moving into the future.
Understanding the Student Experience
00:30:36
Rustam Irani
What's something that you would kind of, little bit of advice that you would give to anybody in in marketing admissions today?
00:30:43
William McDonald
it's it's interesting because it's it's going to be you know i'd say somewhat redundant or repetitive but it is you have to stay plugged in to the student experience and so my advice to anyone if you aren't if you're not doing this today talk to students listen to students listen to the phone call listen to your frontline teams that part When you understand the student, you understand their journey, what they're going through, their thought process, their emotions, you everything you teach, everything you implement will be solely focused on supporting that.
00:31:15
Rustam Irani
Hmm.
00:31:23
William McDonald
Because it's not just about a transaction, it's truly supporting them throughout their decision making process. And so for me, there's nothing more important to that. That's the first thing i do when I step into a new role, step into a new department, new organization.
00:31:41
William McDonald
it's i just keep it very simple. And I think that's my greatest piece of advice to anyone who's overseeing, I would say, the admissions or marketing student experience in general.
00:31:53
Rustam Irani
Yeah. And being somebody who's worked with Will, I can tell you he's not just saying that he he he backs it up. I remember, you know, when we started working together at at one school, Will had built out the full student journey himself and said, OK, here it is from start to finish.
00:32:11
William McDonald
good
00:32:13
Rustam Irani
Here are all the different components. Here's the messaging. And as an executive coming in and mapping that out, I thought that was pretty impressive to to see you kind of get into the weeds at that level. But again, that's what makes you you. So I appreciate that, Will. Well, Will, thanks for joining me. Really grateful for anybody who wants to follow you or your work or connect with you. How can they do that?
00:32:42
William McDonald
You can find me on LinkedIn, William McDonald. look forward to Thank you for having me This has been a great been great working with you throughout the years as well. so
00:32:53
Rustam Irani
Yeah. Thanks so much, Will. Well, everybody, that's all for this episode of ROI University, where the biggest ROI is personal.