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 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