NEWSFLASH 🚨 Today we launched @OutRivalAI ’s new Agency Partnership Program starting with @SethOdell and Kanahoma AI Admissions, powered by OutRival. For years, agencies managed paid and organic marketing for schools but couldn’t deliver enrollment outcomes. Now they can. If you remember my original Breaking Into Startups post, one of the most important things to master as a founder is not just relationships, but distribution. That’s exactly what this partnership represents. 📘 Read the full announcement from Seth here: linkedin.com/posts/sethodell… #AI #DigitalWorkers #AIAgents #HigherEd #OutRival cc @timurmeyster @KanahomaAgency Breaking Into Startups Post here: medium.com/breaking-into-sta…

Business-to-business (B2B) partnerships are becoming a lifeline for colleges and universities to drive enrollment and build lasting relationships with employers.  But success in B2B depends on understanding a key distinction: Workforce Retention vs. Workforce Development. Workforce Retention focuses on helping employers retain their talent by offering educational benefits—typically through discounted access to existing degrees or courses. This is a strategy we see with large, national employers like Starbucks and Chipotle, who offer educational perks to keep their workforce engaged. Workforce Development, however, is more about upskilling employees to meet the evolving needs of a business. It often requires tailored solutions, such as custom courses, certificates, or degree programs designed specifically for an employer. For instance, CityU’s custom program for Boeing employees exemplifies this approach. So the next time you’re going out to engage employers about a potential partnership, make sure to understand if they’re looking to retain their base, or develop them. While both are important, one is almost always more critical than the other.

Marketing B2B with a B2C brand is one of the most common (and costly) mistakes colleges and universities make. Effective employer partnerships demand a unique approach, not repurposed student-facing materials. It’s crucial to recognize that *marketing to businesses* is fundamentally different from *marketing to students*. Many colleges and universities attempt to repurpose their B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing materials for B2B efforts.  However, communicating with prospective employer partners requires a tailored approach, one that often isn’t served by traditional student-facing marketing materials.  Unfortunately, B2B teams are frequently left under-resourced, forced to rely on generic flyers and outdated presentations. At Kanahoma, we've worked with several organizations to develop B2B-specific branding strategies.  This includes crafting updated messaging, developing employer and employee testimonials, and creating customized toolkits that include all the creative assets needed to win partnerships *and* engage employees once agreements are in place.  Winning in the B2B space requires building a clear and distinct B2B brand that resonates with employers, not just relying on the B2C brand to carry the message.

How can you make sure your company’s SWAG makes an impression and sticks around? Thanks @sethodell, @chris3edwards, and @adamhilton. @KanahomaAgency Day is my favorite day of the holiday season.

Building B2B partnerships is just the first step—activating them to generate meaningful enrollment is where the challenge begins. It all comes down to the distinction between *partnership acquisition* and *partnership activation*. Many institutions make the mistake of focusing solely on signing new agreements, without emphasizing the importance of activating those partnerships to generate net new enrollment. While acquiring new partnerships is challenging—employers are often inundated with pitches—activating those partnerships to yield real results can be even more difficult. Institutions need to align their internal incentive structures to reward both the establishment of new partnerships as well as the enrollment these partnerships drive. By prioritizing both aspects, universities can engage employers more meaningfully, ensuring that they’re entering partnerships that have a higher probability of being utilized. This alignment also sparks productive internal conversations about how to activate employer partnerships once a formal relationship is established, whether through targeted digital marketing campaigns, onsite employee engagement, or by providing employers with robust “toolkits” to help them promote educational opportunities to their staff. So if your institution is rightfully focused on expanding your B2B activities I’d encourage you to not just spend your time pursuing new partnerships, but meaningfully engage internally around the strategies you intend to deploy once those partnerships are actually established.  Because as hard as acquiring new B2B partnerships is, activating them can be even harder.

Building a business starts as a quest to prove yourself—but the real growth happens when you shift your focus inward. The past four years have taught me the difference between chasing validation and playing the infinite game of self-improvement. My life has been full of late nights, early mornings, weekend-long working sessions, lost sleep, poor health, and a myriad of stresses and anxieties that could fill a book. But it’s also been the most incredible four years of my life. While I set out to grow a business, I’ve ultimately realized the real opportunity is in growing myself. Simon Sinek says it best when he says… “Finite players play to beat the people around them. Infinite players play to be better than themselves.” And that has been a lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way. After a career of trying to prove myself, I’ve learned to love and accept myself. And while I’ll no doubt still have a few more sleepless nights ahead, the truth is that I wouldn’t change a thing. Life is fleeting and building a business is hard. But four years ago I chose the hard. And it’s been both the hardest, but also the most rewarding, experience of my career.