With Lonn Shulkin (President, BAM Strategy)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Lonn Shulkin, founder of BAM Advertising, for a candid conversation about leadership, trust, and what it actually takes to build an agency that lasts.

From Lonn’s early career lessons to BAM’s growth and eventual partnership with Level Agency, this episode explores how people-first leadership, emotional intelligence, and long-term thinking outperform short-term tactics. Lonn shares hard-earned insights on managing ego, earning trust with clients and teams, and why retention, not acquisition, is the true indicator of success.

Rather than chasing hacks or hype, this conversation focuses on building organizations grounded in values, accountability, and genuine care for people.

If you care about leadership, sustainable growth, or creating work environments people don’t want to leave, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• From ego to empathy: How self-awareness and humility shape better leaders and healthier teams.
• Trust as a growth strategy: Why trust, not tactics, is the foundation of long-term client and employee retention.
• Retention over acquisition: Why keeping clients and people matters more than chasing constant new wins.
• Values-driven growth: How aligning principles made the BAM × Level partnership possible.
• Leadership under pressure: Navigating insecurity, decision-making, and responsibility at scale.
• Marketing that feels like value: Why the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing at all.
• Culture as a competitive advantage: How strong internal culture translates directly to client outcomes.

Featured Guest

Lonn Shulkin — Founder, BAM Advertising
Entrepreneur and agency leader focused on trust-based relationships, long-term growth, and people-first leadership.

Learn More

• Lonn Shulkin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonnshulkin/
• Level Agency – https://www.level.agency

Takeaways for Operators & Leaders

• Start with trust, not tactics, internally and externally.
• Retention is a lagging indicator of leadership quality.
• Growth without values creates fragility, not scale.
• Ego is often the hidden constraint in leadership decisions.
• The best marketing creates value before asking for anything in return.
• Partnerships work when cultures align, not just balance sheets.

Connect With the Show

• Level Agency – https://www.level.agency
• Patrick Patterson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
• Myles Biggs – www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjbiggs/

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Rate & review if this conversation brought you value.
• Share the episode with leaders building people-first organizations.

Higher education is operating in a more competitive and consumer-driven environment than ever before, and new data reveals what actually drives enrollment growth.

In this episode of the Career Education Report, Patrick Patterson, CEO of Level Agency, and Prithwi Dasgupta, President of LeadSquared North America, join host Dr. Jason Altmire to unpack findings from a national benchmarking study analyzing more than 500,000 student inquiries and $100 million in higher education advertising spend.

Together, they discuss how student behavior, marketing channels, and operational execution intersect, and where institutions are falling behind.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

• Why responding to student inquiries within the first five minutes can increase enrollment conversion rates by nearly 30%
• How AI and automation enable faster, more personalized student engagement
• Why brand building is a critical (and often underestimated) driver of enrollment performance
• How channel mix decisions impact cost per enrollment, not just cost per lead
• Where institutions are misallocating marketing dollars—and how to course-correct
• What “great execution” looks like from first inquiry to enrollment

Practical insights for enrollment leaders, marketers, and executives looking to move beyond surface-level metrics and design student-first experiences that convert.

Resources & Links

• Learn more about Level Agency: https://www.level.agency
• Learn more about LeadSquared: https://www.leadsquared.com
• Check out the Career Education Report Podcast: Linked here
• See the full benchmarking report: Click here

To learn more about Career Education Colleges & Universities (CECU), visit:
https://www.career.org

with Stephen Arthur (Director of AI & Analytics, ECPI University)

Episode Summary

This week, Myles Biggs and Patrick Patterson sit down with Stephen Arthur, Director of AI and Analytics at ECPI University, one of the first institutions boldly pushing toward an AI-first university model. While most universities are still debating whether students should be “allowed” to use ChatGPT, Stephen and his team have already built a proprietary AI learning platform, integrated it into curriculum design, student support, faculty workflows, and the operational backbone of the university.

Stephen shares how his unusual journey, from aerospace engineering to marketing analytics, to AI product leadership, shaped the mindset needed to drive change in one of the most tradition-bound industries in America. You’ll hear how ECPI is breaking higher-ed inertia, converting AI skeptics into evangelists, and redefining what it means to prepare students for the workforce of the future.

If you’ve wondered whether AI will replace universities, or remake them, this episode is your front-row seat.

• AI’s existential question for higher ed
• How ECPI became an early AI-first university
• Change management: flipping skeptical faculty into AI champions
• Marketing, analytics, and the engineer’s mindset
• The Three C’s that ensure universities survive AI
• The future of work and which careers AI won’t replace soon
• Operational AI across the institution

Stephen Arthur — Director of AI & Analytics, ECPI University
Engineer turned marketer turned AI builder, leading ECPI’s transformation into one of the first AI-first universities.

Stephen on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-arthur/

ECPI University Newsroom – https://www.ecpi.edu/newsroom

• AI won’t replace universities, but universities that ignore AI may become irrelevant.
• Experience beats access: AI enables one-to-one tutoring at scale, something higher ed has dreamed of for centuries.
• Adoption requires solving faculty pain first, not just student pain.
• Curriculum must evolve constantly: AI isn’t a topic to teach, but a medium through which all learning happens.
• Operational AI matters: IT support, financial aid, and student services can all be reimagined with LLMs.
• Statistical literacy is a superpower in marketing, analytics, and now AI deployment.
• The human element still wins: Community and accountability remain irreplaceable advantages of real institutions.

Level Agency – https://www.level.agency/

Patrick Patterson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattersonwork/
Myles Biggs – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesjb/

• Subscribe so you never miss an episode.
• Rate & review if this conversation brought you value.
• Share the episode with colleagues exploring AI, higher ed innovation, or organizational transformation.