OutRival Presents: The New Normal

Elise Awwad started at DeVry University in 2004 as one of its first 30 online admissions advisors. Today she is President and CEO of a 95-year-old university serving more than 32,000 learners, with a goal of 100,000 by 2030 and the outcomes to match.

Ruben Harris and Timur Meyster sit down with Elise at DeVry's campus outside Chicago to go inside the digital care engine behind the university's student outcomes: automated support when an advisor is offline, proactive outreach when a learner starts to slip, and predictive analytics across an eight-week term. Persistence is at 89% plus, a historical best, while tuition has held flat for six years.

Elise shares the AI pilots that worked and the ones that did not, why DeVry only scales what moves a number, how its innovation council and Shark Tank surface ideas from the front lines, what an AI agent is versus a chatbot, DeVry's commitment to AI literacy in 100% of courses, her path from advisor to CEO, and the one thing she would give every learner by 2030.

Watch the full video episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutRival_Presents_TheNewNormal

Alexandra Schaffrath started on Wall Street at Bear Stearns and KPMG before joining Ultimate Medical Academy in 2012 as Chief Financial and Chief Strategy Officer. Today she is President and CEO of Vocate Education Solutions, the national nonprofit behind UMA, Nasium Training, and other brands, training more than 25,000 working adults a year for healthcare careers in every state.

In this episode of The New Normal, Alexandra joins Ruben Harris and Timur Meyster at OutRival headquarters in Miami to explain how a school that went fully online in 2008, before anyone believed healthcare education could work online, built a 3,000-person organization where nearly 80% of employees are focused on students, including a 450-person career services team.

She breaks down the accreditation benchmarks every graduating cohort has to hit, why data is the lifeblood of a school that never sees its students in person, and how Vocate is bringing in AI agents to support learners who do their coursework late at night. She shares what thousands of healthcare employers are telling her about automation, why AI means clinical workers will get busier rather than replaced, and how AI is now infused into the curriculum as a way of thinking rather than a tool.

Alexandra also explains why the organization was bootstrapped from 32 students, why 100% of earnings go back into the institution, why it converted to a nonprofit by choice, how she runs AI pilots with a thesis and a time box, and why the cost of slow decisions in higher education right now is an institution's future.

The New Normal is a show about leaders using AI in production at scale, hosted by OutRival co-founders Ruben Harris and Timur Meyster.

Learn more about Vocate Education Solutions: https://www.vocate.org/

Learn more about Ultimate Medical Academy: https://www.ultimatemedical.edu/

Learn more about OutRival: https://outrival.com

Follow Ruben Harris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubenharris

Follow Timur Meyster on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timurmeyster/

Watch more episodes: https://thenewnormal.fm/

Learn more about OutRival: https://outrival.com

Bob Becker spent his career filling cruise ships by phone. As the former EVP of Consumer Research, Sales and Customer Care at Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Celebrity Cruises, he pioneered outbound direct sales in the industry, was responsible for more than $50 billion in sales, and created the Dirt to Diamonds methodology that every cruise line in the world now runs. When he left his last cruise line, 1,551 people reported to him. The people he trained off the phones now include a Chief Sales Officer, two SVPs and about 25 VPs.

Today he consults for cruise lines on the next version of that playbook: digital agents that make the calls, send the texts and qualify the leads, so top producers spend their time closing. Ruben Harris and co-host Jeff Herzfeld, OutRival’s Head of Travel, sit down with Bob in Miami. Bob gave Jeff his start in the cruise industry 20 years ago, so this is also a conversation between a mentor and the person he gave a shot to.

Bob walks through how cruise lines filled ships before anyone picked up a phone, the death threats he received, and the ten minute meeting where he told Bob Dickinson that Carnival’s marketing team stinks and got 90 days to prove outbound could work. He whiteboards the math that made outbound inevitable: 43,000 full service travel agencies in 1995, fewer than 10,000 today, zero travel schools left in the country, and ships that now hold 6,500 guests. He explains the 150 dials a day that become 30 real opportunities, the difference between hunters and gatherers, how he built hunters by tying bookings to a car or a paid off debt, and why Carnival and Norwegian moved wave season two weeks earlier after one rep made 25 dials and booked 17 cruises on January 2.

On AI, his position is direct. Eighty percent of a salesperson’s time is moving dirt and twenty percent is selling. Digital agents should move the dirt and hand the top producers more opportunities. The marketing dollar is already spent, so every booking pulled from the lead dumpster comes at zero acquisition cost, and digital agents let you go deeper into the dumpster. Most cruise lines say they already have AI agents, but those agents wait for the phone to ring. Bob built his career as a hunter, and he says the industry needs AI on the hunting side. His advice to cruise lines: never build it yourself, pick one thing that produces ROI, get it working, then add to the stack. His one word for the next three years is adopt change.

The New Normal goes inside organizations using AI in production at scale. New episodes every Thursday.

Watch more episodes: https://thenewnormal.fm/

Learn more about OutRival: https://outrival.com

Azamara Cruises runs four ships with a maximum of 700 guests each, nearly two crew members for every guest, and a shoreside team that stays lean on purpose. CEO Dondra Ritzenthaler explains how a small cruise line delivers intimate, personalized travel, and how AI extends the human touch the brand is built on instead of replacing it.

Ruben Harris and co-host Jeff Herzfeld, OutRival's Head of Travel, sit down with Dondra in Miami. She started as a flight attendant, held 11 jobs in 20 years at American Airlines, spent two decades leading global sales at Celebrity Cruises, helped launch Azamara in 2007, and returned as CEO two years ago. This year CLIA honored her with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dondra walks through what destination immersion means in practice: late nights and overnights in port, AzAmazing Evenings for all 700 guests, and a captain and hotel director who sit down with guests one on one. She explains why travel advisors sell more than 80% of Azamara's product, how two people run social for the entire brand, and why future cruise sales have doubled in two years.

On AI, her position is clear. Azamara is not afraid of it and is moving strategically, with data as the foundation. AI handles the pre-work, from final payment questions to learning who a guest is and what they want, so a live person can close. Nothing replaces the human at the close. The humans who learn to leverage AI will be more successful than the humans who do not.

The New Normal goes inside organizations using AI in production at scale. New episodes every Thursday.

Watch more episodes: https://thenewnormal.fm/

Key Takeaways

• Small is the strategy. Azamara welcomes the industry's mega ships because they bring people into cruising. Guests who then want a more intimate, immersive experience come to Azamara.
• Two crew for every guest. About 1,500 crew across four ships. Shoreside stays lean, with roughly 100 in the call centers and roughly 100 on the corporate team, each doing what five people did at larger companies.
• Travel advisors are the channel. More than 80% of sales come through travel partners, a number most cruise lines will not share. Azamara does not have the marketing budget to be a household name and does not need to be.
• AI for the pre-work, humans for the close. Let AI gather who the guest is and what they want, then hand to a live person who can upsell, answer questions and book the second cruise.
• Keep headcount down, never cut the closer. Human to human connection drives the repeat ratio, future cruise bookings and the add-ons: Experience More packages, AzAmazing Journeys, suite upgrades and specialty dining.
• Data before speed. Azamara does not feel the need to be first. The team (Jorge, James, Manny and Angel in the call center) is building on data so each AI step comes from the right foundation.
• ROI means revenue, not just efficiency. Efficiency is table stakes. Investments also have to teach the team something, drive innovation decisions, or generate bookings.
• Lion's mentality. The lesson from 9/11 and 2008: decide not to freeze, wrap your arms around the team and move while everyone else is still waking up.

Marriott Vacations Worldwide serves 700,000 owner families across 120 resorts, and 70% of its annual sales come from people who already own. President and COO Mike Flaskey explains why, and where AI fits in a business built on face-to-face hospitality.

Ruben Harris and co-host Jeff Herzfeld, OutRival's Head of Travel, sit down with Mike to walk through the full owner journey. That covers the $199 preview package, the Explorer trial, the points product that works like a currency, and Inner Circle, the experiential series bringing headline music, celebrity chefs, TV personalities and championship athletes to small groups of owners. Mike explains Tour Logistics, the proprietary algorithm that matches each of 1,400 sales associates to the tours where they perform best. He also lays out where he sees digital workers helping next: learning from guests who leave without buying, hearing from owners at scale, collections, loan servicing, contact centers and preparing for each stay before the guest checks in.

His position is clear. AI makes the team smarter. It does not replace the person who welcomes an owner home.

The New Normal goes inside organizations using AI in production at scale. New episodes every Thursday.

Key Takeaways

1. Loyalty is the growth engine. Half of the roughly 500,000 annual tours are existing owners, yet they account for 70% of sales. Mike credits the housekeeping, engineering, front desk and activity teams who "deliver the dream."
2. Experiences keep owners in the system. Inner Circle brings the kids and grandkids of longtime owners back, and it also draws younger families who would once have chosen an Airbnb.
3. The best AI win so far is matching. Tour Logistics ranks every sales associate by tour type and routes tours three times a day. Like a batting order, it gives the best performers the most at-bats.
4. The next opportunity is reach. Surveys only capture part of the picture. Mike sees digital workers learning why 70% of first-time guests leave without buying, hearing from owners at scale, and preparing each stay before arrival.
5. Efficiency does not mean eliminating jobs. Mike sees the value in doing both things at once: lowering costs and improving the metrics that matter. Leadership and the face-to-face moment stay human.
6. Experiences are moving from luxury to necessity. This was Mike's answer on the new normal in travel.

Learn more about OutRival: https://www.outrival.com

Watch every episode: https://thenewnormal.fm

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OutRival CEO Ruben Harris sits down with Justin Lonon, Chancellor of Dallas College, inside the college’s virtual studio in Dallas to talk about what it takes to build a 22nd century college with AI at its core.

Dallas College serves more than 130,000 students across seven campuses in Dallas County, including 30,000 high school students earning college credit at zero cost. Lonon has spent more than 20 years at the institution and led its transformation from seven separately accredited colleges into one Dallas College, built around being organized to serve students the way they need. Credential attainment is now the highest in the college’s history, and its state outcomes-based funding is running about 54 percent ahead of projections.

Lonon calls it the barrier-busting business, because life gets in the way of student success far more often than academics do. Tuition is $99 per credit hour with every textbook included on day one. Students get a free public transit pass, food pantries at every location, free childcare through the Bezos Academy, emergency aid when a broken fan belt threatens a whole semester, and a success coach from the start. Now AI joins that list. Every Dallas College student already gets an email and a transit pass when they enroll. The college is testing a future where they also get their own personalized AI agent, co-developed with the students who will use it.

Lonon also shares the interview question that changed how he thinks about talent, how many AI agents a senior executive brings with them. He explains why Dallas College takes bigger AI risks in back office operations while protecting the relationships students depend on, why the success of higher education will come down to personalization, and what separates outreach that helps from outreach that feels like spam. He walks through a win-back effort aimed at 131,000 students who had stepped away, what he looks for in a partner and how he spots a bologna sandwich, how to structure pilots that grow into real relationships, and the purpose-driven economics behind Dallas College Enterprise Ventures, a foundation that surpassed 50 years of fundraising in two and a half, and new medical and downtown campuses.

The New Normal is brought to you by OutRival. OutRival makes it possible for brands to genuinely care about every single person they serve. The New Normal goes inside organizations using AI in production at scale. No hype. Just leaders who reimagined their organizations with AI at the core.

Learn more about OutRival: https://www.outrival.com

Watch every episode: https://thenewnormal.fm

Follow Ruben Harris:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubenharris

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubenharris

Follow The New Normal for new episodes every week.

"Every job is going to be impacted by AI. It's going to happen faster, and we just have to keep up with it."

Raghu Krishnaiah is the Chief Operating Officer of University of Phoenix, where he oversees the student experience for more than 80,000 working adults, most of them in their mid to late 30s, working full time and raising families while they earn their degrees. The university turns 50 this year, counts more than a million alumni, and was recently ranked the university with the most alumni in Fortune 500 companies.

In this episode, Raghu breaks down how a 50 year old institution runs AI like a product company: a decade of predictive models identifying at-risk students before they fall behind, guardrails built with legal and academic teams before anything ships, and support staff who now see a complete snapshot of every student in seconds instead of searching across multiple screens. He explains why the line between proactive and reactive support is blurrier than people think, why students will still answer a phone call when it's purposeful, and the small-bets culture that turned months of prototyping into weeks. And for the leaders whose organizations haven't started, he's direct: awareness comes first, because without it, this becomes a do or die moment.

The New Normal goes inside organizations using AI in production at scale. Hosted by Ruben Harris and Timur Meyster of OutRival.

Learn more about OutRival: https://www.outrival.com 

Watch every episode: https://thenewnormal.fm

Follow Ruben Harris: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubenharris 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubenharris

Follow The New Normal for new episodes every week.

OutRival CEO Ruben Harris sits down with Taylor Stockton, Chief Innovation Officer for the U.S. Department of Labor, to break down America's plan to win the AI race by putting workers at the center of it.

Stockton came to Washington from the startup world. He was Chief Operating Officer of workforce technology company FutureFit AI and co-founder of the venture firm Pathway Ventures, and he took the role because the concept of labor itself is changing faster than at any time in American history. He walks through the White House AI Action Plan and how America dominates AI on three fronts: innovation, infrastructure, and diplomacy. And he draws the line the whole episode comes back to. It is not just if America wins the AI race, it is how. Winning means fundamentally improving the livelihood of American workers.

Then he goes deep on the programs turning strategy into action. The AI Workforce Hub, an R&D lab partnering with about 40 organizations, from AI research labs to job boards to staffing firms, to ground the national AI conversation in data instead of headlines. Make America AI Ready, a free AI 101 course delivered entirely over text message: text READY to 20202 and ten minutes a day for seven days covers the foundational skills of the AI era. More than 100,000 Americans have already been upskilled by it. And a streamlined registered apprenticeship model that strips out the red tape that kept the best programs from engaging with government at all.

Stockton also explains the lump of labor fallacy and why the pie expands with every technology wave, why human skills like critical thinking and empathy grow more valuable as AI takes on tasks, and how any operator can partner with the Department of Labor starting at dol.gov.

The New Normal is brought to you by OutRival. OutRival builds Digital Workers for organizations determined to dominate their markets and win in the age of AI. The New Normal goes inside organizations using AI in production at scale. No hype. Just leaders who reimagined their organizations with AI at the core.

OutRival CEO Ruben Harris and Co-Founder/President Timur Meyster sit down with Dr. Gregory Fowler, President of University of Maryland Global Campus, to break down how one of America's largest public online universities serves more than 100,000 students across all seven continents with AI agents working alongside human advisors.

UMGC was born in 1947 teaching American service members in postwar Europe, and the sun has never set on it since: 20+ countries, 185 locations, roughly 9,000 employees, and practitioner faculty who work full time in the fields they teach. President Fowler walks through the systems behind that reach. Project Sherpa, a personal assistant that climbs the mountain with every student. Project Doppler, which forecasts student success the way meteorologists forecast weather. Agent 360, which greets every faculty member and success coach each morning with the five students who need outreach first. And Military Rank for Credit, which uses AI to translate demonstrated military experience into academic credit, because a sergeant major should not have to sit through Organizational Leadership 101.

President Fowler also breaks down the difference between a chatbot, a copilot, and an agent, why understanding your workflows comes before buying any tool, the discipline of doing three things instead of twenty, and why the fastest growing population in American education is the adult learner that policy still ignores.

The New Normal goes inside organizations using AI in production at scale. No hype. Just leaders who reimagined their organizations with AI at the core.

Learn more about OutRival: https://www.outrival.com Watch every episode: https://thenewnormal.fm

Follow Ruben Harris: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubenharris Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubenharris

Follow The New Normal for new episodes every week.