S04 E01 Belonging with Ashley Kern

S04 E01 Belonging with Ashley Kern

In this episode of Belonging, David Dysart sits down with Ashley Kern, Chief Strategy Officer at Meet Your Class, to explore why community and connection are becoming some of the most powerful forces in enrollment.Ashley shares how her journey from data science consulting to student engagement strategy changed the way she thinks about enrollment—not just as a funnel, but as a deeply human process shaped by belonging, social behavior, and real student decision-making. Together, they unpack what institutions can learn from pre-deposit student communities, how “social intent” can reveal more than traditional CRM metrics, and why the quiet stretch between deposit and orientation may be one of the most important moments in the student journey.They also discuss double deposits, student melt, Gen Alpha decision-making, responsible use of behavioral data, and how colleges can create more relevant, human-centered outreach without losing the personal touch. Along the way, the conversation expands into collaboration across higher education, shared learning, and what it looks like to build stronger systems for both students and professionals.If you work in enrollment, admissions, student engagement, or higher ed strategy, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at where the field is heading—and why students are more likely to choose the places where they can already picture themselves belonging.Message Ashley atashley@meetyourclassinc.comAnd get the Playbook and tutorial mentioned in the interview1. The 2026 College Decision Playbook: https://colleges.meetyourclass.com/re... [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3JFTHJYQWswN2xlemFjZmhVNXRLLXZCaTQ4d3xBQ3Jtc0ttZzV4Qng3WG5hUEFMc0pYSFFLdUVHWk5kSHR2VzBPVXF4cWZ1Wm1iY0JfZVJpMENlUXV3bGMtRzB5YU5pSXFrWEdYUVpoSnFSNVR5bW0zYWcteEJuaEdJWm13Ri03T2lldWt2SDFFU2JxYU9SRk9Waw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fcolleges.meetyourclass.com%2Fresources%2F2026-college-decision-playbook&v=QalrmQfPVsk] 2. How to Create a Class of 2030 Instagram Community: https://colleges.meetyourclass.com/bl... [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbkVacy13b2ljQWJoQjBLVXgyT1NFclU5UkZwQXxBQ3Jtc0trenRvME5GYjBIWjBLS3c0OXVkTGdTOHpsYXhSdlhveU9TZjVyMjVxaUxNMHRFV3dHellLdW9kaldnUjVaY3Fsc1NtVWxTNEpQcEQ0N2E2MmtpSk1xY3d0aUlSLVI1TUtsaXVDVnFudFMzbHVGSVlwYw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fcolleges.meetyourclass.com%2Fblog%2Fcreate-class-of-2030-instagram-community&v=QalrmQfPVsk] Music“Cold Sober” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Wholesome” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Teller of the Tales” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Midnight Tale” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Galway” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Goblin_Tinker_Soldier_Spy” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Southern Gothic” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Village Consort” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)“Club Seamus” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbENMLU02c0pvdTNoemY4MU8tZ1ZOd2xzMmdZZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsdUk5dFVzbC1zcUgxeUgyMUtwTDVCNWtTNDBkVlBnLXJVSFBzOV9XMUZUaVFBQ3hJUlVVMDRKbWhNQ2dsMmdvSXVJTWZxbVFiZ0dCcFNNSzdpbDRQWWpuSkpoYVYwUWJCY0dKSF9CNXRxRzdQTi1Nbw&q=http%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Flicenses%2Fby%2F4.0%2F&v=QalrmQfPVsk]Also featured was Belonging Before the Banner, an original song based on this interview, created with the help of AI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmFewY9ABxc • Belonging Before the Banner - Ashley Kern [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmFewY9ABxc] Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe [https://dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Leave the Forge Lit - The Ember Walk 01.06.17 (101)

The streetlight at the end of the block blinks off just as I step into the first pale stretch of morning. My hands stay in my pockets for the first few steps, then come out once the air stops biting. A sprinkler clicks somewhere out of sight. A crow lifts from a power line and heads across the street without sound. My pace is slower than usual, steady enough that I can hear my own breathing settle before the day really starts. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. This is the end of Book 1. Not the end of the work. The end of this first arc. We started with the basics, with first files, first mistakes, first moments of reverence. With the reminder that craft starts in attention, not motion. That speed can hide weak thinking. That dashboards can flatten truth when you stop asking what sits underneath them. That a person can look productive and still be drifting away from the reason they entered the work. Then the pressure got more real. We moved into friction, shared work, conflict, timing, the discipline of letting other people stand close to the fire with you. We moved into precision, learning to control the whole arc of a decision instead of only the hit. We moved into perception, reading the metal before trying to shape it. Signal, silence, delay, behavior that speaks before outcomes do. We moved into response, learning that care is not volume and support is not pressure. Then we came here, to continuity, to what remains when your hands are no longer at the center of the process. That is the spine of this first book. And through all of it, the question stayed about craft. What kind of builder are you becoming under pressure? What kind of work are you leaving for the next person? What kind of team are you helping create by the way you explain, decide, correct, and step back? I need to say the less polished part out loud too. A lot of my own drive comes from fear. Fear of missing something. Fear of being responsible for a preventable mistake. Fear that if I stop moving, the weakness underneath the system will become visible. Craft has helped me deal with that. Building stronger processes, naming logic clearly, making better decisions, slowing the swing, all of that matters. It also gave me somewhere to hide if I was not careful. There were times when being useful became a way of staying in control. That is not the same thing as leadership. This season has been a correction for me too. A reminder that the work is not only to build smarter systems. The work is to become steadier inside them. To let go where control is feeding fragility. To teach what I know instead of proving that I know it. To make room for other people’s hands on the work. To let the forge stay lit without treating my own presence like the flame itself. That may be the hardest lesson in the whole thing. Because a lot of us were trained, formally or informally, to confuse exhaustion with importance. To think the person carrying the most must matter the most. To think the one who rescues the process is the one holding the place together. Sometimes the opposite is true. Sometimes the strongest builder is the one whose influence shows up in decisions other people now know how to make. That is what I want more of. More work that holds. More clarity that transfers. More design that lowers panic. More teams that can think with each other instead of waiting for a single answer to arrive. More craft that survives season, turnover, pressure, and mood. Less heroics. Less noise. Less dependence disguised as excellence. So as Book 1 closes, I am not interested in a grand summary. I am interested in one clean action. What can you do this week that makes the forge stronger without making you the hero of the story? Maybe it is documenting the process that still lives in your head. Maybe it is teaching the judgment behind a report instead of only the sequence. Maybe it is fixing the guardrail you have ignored because you know how to avoid the edge yourself. Maybe it is letting someone else carry a piece of the work without stepping in at the first sign of strain. Maybe it is cutting one rescue out of your routine and replacing it with repair. Pick one thing that lowers dependence and increases durability. Let your spark speak, and let us know in the comments or DM me. What was that one thing? And how does it feel to tend to that flame? Keep that streetlight in mind as you head into the day. It shut off because the light no longer needed it. Strong work knows when to hold, and when to let the morning take over. And that’s The Ember Walk. The forge is yours now. Go make something worth the heat. Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe [https://dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

S03 E26 On Deck with the Slate Wizard

Step into the grove. Lanterns sway in the evening breeze. The Slate Wizard is at work, bending data and rules into elegant, enchanted solutions.On Deck with the Slate Wizard is a twelve-track bardcore woodsy folk journey through the arcane arts of CRM craft. From the first welcome at the Grove Gate to the final quiet of twilight, each song is a spell, ritual, or charm told through lute, fiddle, hand drum, harp, and forest ambience.🎵 Tracklist:Prologue at the Grove GateThe Joinbinding RitualSpell of Conditional FlowThe Formsmith’s CharmConfigurable ConjurationCurse of the Missing ValueArcana of the Audit LogRunes in the ReaderThe Enchantment of DeliverBanishing the BottleneckSummoning the SlatewrightsTwilight at the Grove Gate📜 About the Album:Part of The Innovation Forge’s “On Deck” series, On Deck with the Slate Wizard celebrates the arcane archetype: playful, mysterious, and masterful in technical expertise. Perfect for deep work, worldbuilding, or simply wandering through a mythical forest of ideas.🔗 Explore more music and lore from The Innovation ForgeMade with the assistance of AI Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe [https://dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

What Remains - The Ember Walk 01.06.16 (100)

The air feels softer this morning. A row of porch lights is still on against the gray, warm circles that have not caught up to the daylight yet. My feet land evenly. I can hear a sprinkler ticking two houses over and the thin buzz of insects near the hedge at the corner. There is no hurry in the street yet. It feels like the hour before a place fully remembers itself. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. This chapter has been about what remains. Not the moment of effort. Not the rush of being needed. Not the clean save that gets you through the day. What remains after your attention moves on. We started with a simple truth. If the work only lives in your head, it is fragile. From there we kept pulling at the same thread. Documentation as respect. Defaults that protect. Judgment taught, not hoarded. Absence as a test. Single points of failure exposed before they fail loudly. Building for the next person. Templates that still teach. Handoffs with context. Maintenance treated like real work. Making yourself replaceable. Standards that outlast the cycle. Legacy that stays quiet. Rescue that stops pretending to be design. All of it points at the same thing. Continuity is built on purpose. It does not appear because good people care. Caring helps. It does not replace structure. Continuity comes from choices, repeated plainly. Naming things well. Writing down the reason. Sharing the judgment. Leaving context. Accepting that your future team, or your future self, should not have to excavate the logic from your memory after the fact. I had to learn that the hard way. I used to think the work was strongest when I could still catch every loose edge myself. What I know now is simpler and less flattering. If I am still the main thing holding it together, then I have more building left to do. That has been the correction this month. Less control. More durability. Less hidden knowledge. More shared craft. And that leads to the real closing question for this chapter. What are you leaving behind right now? Not what you intend to leave. Not what you hope the team absorbs by watching you. What is actually visible, teachable, and strong enough to hold once your attention shifts elsewhere. Because that is the real measure. So take one final inventory on this month. What is one piece of your work that you now need to make clearer, safer, more teachable, or less dependent on your rescue. What is one thing that still needs to be rebuilt so it can survive beyond your hands. Let your spark speak, and let us know in the comments or DM me. What was that one thing? And how does it feel to tend to that flame? Keep those porch lights in mind. They were still doing their job even as morning came up around them. Good work does that. It keeps holding until the next hour is ready. And that’s The Ember Walk. The forge is yours now. Go make something worth the heat. Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe [https://dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Stop Rescuing the Work - The Ember Walk 01.06.15 (99)

A siren starts somewhere behind me, rises fast, then fades as it moves across another street. I do not turn to look. A recycling bin is tipped over at the curb halfway down the block, cardboard pressed dark from the damp. My left shoulder is carrying more tension than the right. I drop it once, then again. The sidewalk is dry except for one narrow strip of shade that still holds last night’s cool. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Stop rescuing the work. Rescue feels good in the moment. Something is off, you step in fast, solve it, calm the room, and move on. It looks like leadership. It can also be the thing that keeps the weakness alive. Every time you rescue without repairing, you train the system to wait for rescue again. That is the part people do not like to admit. The hero moment often protects the exact fragility that created the emergency. Then we call the person indispensable when what they really became was the unofficial workaround for a design problem nobody fixed. I have played that role more times than I should have. A report would drift, a workflow would snag, a handoff would wobble, and I would jump in because I knew I could clean it up quickly. That felt responsible. It also kept me from asking the harder question, why did this still need me to save it. In some cases the answer was training. In some cases it was documentation. In some cases it was me. I had made myself the fastest path, then acted frustrated that everyone kept taking it. That is not a clean complaint. Rescue is sometimes necessary. Real emergencies exist. The problem is when rescue becomes a habit, because habits build culture. Soon the team stops solving early because they know someone will catch it late. Soon maintenance gets skipped because the fixer is nearby. Soon the work depends less on structure and more on whoever has the strongest grip. That is a bad culture, even if it looks competent from the outside. So the real move is not refusing to help. The real move is helping in a way that makes the next rescue less likely. Fix the process, not only the moment. Slow down long enough to see what failed. Make the guardrail. Teach the judgment. Write the missing context. Transfer the logic. Repair the weak point. Otherwise you are just running a better ambulance service for the same old injuries. So here is the direct question today. Where are you still jumping in because it feels faster than fixing the structure. What part of the work keeps pulling you into rescue mode because you have postponed the more boring repair that would make your intervention less necessary. Let your spark speak, and let us know in the comments or DM me. What was that one thing? And how does it feel to tend to that flame? Let that siren stay behind you today. Emergencies make noise. Good design gets quieter over time. Aim for the kind of work that lowers the volume. And that’s The Ember Walk. The forge is yours now. Go make something worth the heat. Get full access to DysArtisanal Innovations at dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe [https://dysartisanalinnovations.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]