Episode 1: The Forge Table: Build Your Persona Engine

Welcome to the opening chapter of The Forgeworks Grimoire, a mythic-meets-tactical training series for Slate users and enrollment strategists.

In this first one-hour session, we enter The Strategy Season, that quiet moment before applications arrive and travel begins. Guided by The Mentallurgist, we learn to turn scattered information into living personas that shape every decision of the enrollment cycle.

What You’ll Learn

How to define student personas such as Out-of-State Oliver, High Score Sally, Campus Cruiser Carla, and Funnel Fiona

Using Existence, Comparison, Aggregates, and Distance Calculations to tag and segment prospects

Building Exports and Filters as the foundation for models, Deliver campaigns, and counselor dashboards

Translating these technical builds into actionable strategy for travel planning, personalized outreach, and predictive modeling

Resources

Coming Soon: Grimoire Entry for this episode, complete with:

Runes of Practice – key takeaways and best practices

Guiding Artifacts – query suitcase and example exports

The Forge Trial – a mini-lab challenge to create three persona-driven filters in your own Slate environment

Discussion Sparks

Which prospective student behaviors are the strongest factors in how you will engage prospective students?

How might your current travel strategy shift if we segment by engagement score or persona rather than geography alone?

What gaps in your data collection limit the personas we can build today?

This is the first page of a twelve-part spellbook that blends storytelling and advanced Slate strategy.

May your Work bridge the veil between the realms of data and understanding.

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 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A forge cannot burn without ore. And yet, across the country, smiths are reaching into their bins and finding less. Less material to heat, shape, and transform. The raw inputs of our craft are diminishing. The long-dreaded demographic cliff has lost its sharp drop; it now appears more as a drawn-out slope, but the erosion is real, and it is accelerating. This chapter confronts the foundational stress fracture of the modern enrollment ecosystem: a shrinking pipeline of traditional-age students, compounded by regional imbalance and migration uncertainty. The ore is not only scarcer; it’s shifting, relocating, and reforming. For institutions whose recruitment strategy depends on stable demographics, the mold is no longer viable. Across the articles in this chapter, you’ll see how: National data confirms a steady, unavoidable decline in high school graduates over the next two decades. Regional disparities create a patchwork of opportunity and collapse, with the South holding its heat while the Midwest begins to chill. Institutions with high tuition dependency and rigid recruitment molds are at elevated risk. Not just of missing goals, but of systemic failure. The demographic slide doesn’t stop at the gates. Its impact echoes through labor markets, regional economies, and long-term sustainability models. Strategic resilience now means mastering smaller batches of ore, improving retention welds, and shaping new alloys altogether: adult learners, post-traditional students, and international flows. The furnace isn’t going out. But it must be reconfigured. Welcome to Chapter 1: where we begin not with a spark, but with a slow cooling. The metal is changing. The temperature is falling. And the forge must adjust before it cracks. Let’s keep forging.

Coffee and Coals: High CSS Voyager Reveal & The Music of The Innovation Forge

Grab your favorite coffee and settle in for a fireside chat as we peek behind the curtain of The Innovation Forge. In this episode of Coffee and Coals, I unveil the winner of the Consultant Cadre Naming Competition for the High CSS Voyager—a legendary parrot-turned-portal pioneer who braved the stormy seas of Slate CSS and Liquid syntax.

But that is only part of today’s story. I also share how music became a second forge for my creative work. Here is a tour through the soundscape that has grown alongside the podcast and books:

* Musical Experiments – From the very first Metallurgy! episode to the evolving albums for The Forge Bellows, including Enrollpression and Adaptive Enrollment Management.

* Student Journey Trilogy – A concept series following a student from application through move-in day, soon to expand with albums for current students and alumni.

* Ambient Explorations – Tracks like The Aetherbound, now with over a thousand views, creating immersive soundscapes that listeners keep revisiting.

* Codex Practitioner Sessions – An Evening With the Codex Practitioners albums and On Deck with the Enrollment Aces, each with its own sonic style.

* Guest Songs – Music created for campuses and for podcast guests, bringing personal stories to life.

* Full Musicals – Four large-scale productions, from The Forge Against the Darkness to The Broker’s Bargain and The Golden Admit Letter.

* Personal Notes – Songs written for my family, including a tribute to my father, and new one-off tracks that never stop appearing.

* The Ten-Album Journey – An ambitious series chronicling the rise of a professional through the admissions world, complete with detours and character arcs that may inspire future prequels and spin-offs.

Sir HTMLinton’s motto still echoes across the high CSS seas: “Voyaging where Configurable Joins cannot reach.”

Pour another cup, stoke the coals, and join me for a conversation where design meets melody and every pixel and every note tells a story. Let’s forge something extraordinary together.

Cold Sober” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

“Wholesome” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

“Goblin_Tinker_Soldier_Spy” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

“Village Consort” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

“Club Seamus” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

“Magic Escape Room” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

And the Eldraliths pop up yet again...

🎙️ Culture Craft | Tommy Kroll

What do Star Wars relays, Bake-Off-style competitions, and Slate CRM have in common?

In this episode of The Innovation Forge, we sit down with Tommy Kroll, Senior Business Systems Analyst at Columbia College Chicago, who’s spent nearly 20 years transforming data-heavy work into playful, theatrical, and wildly effective training experiences.

Tommy’s approach isn’t just about having fun, it’s about designing culture on purpose. From over-the-top retreats to themed learning competitions, he shares how creativity in the workplace fuels retention, builds strong teams, and prevents burnout.

If you’ve ever thought training couldn’t be engaging or that culture only happens on someone else’s team, this conversation will shift your mindset.

🧠 What We Cover:

• The power of themes in team training • Why Slate is secretly the perfect canvas for creativity • The “Great Query Clash-Off” and other legendary trainings • Staying energized and inspired in a long-term role • Building office culture into everyday work

📌 Subscribe for more interviews on innovation, design, and edtech.

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 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Also featured was Build it Like a Game, an original song based on this interview, created with the help of AI.

👇 Tell us: What's the wildest (or most fun) training you’ve ever been part of? Or want to try?

#CultureCraft #InnovationForge #TommyKroll #SlateCRM #HigherEdTech #CreativeTraining #OfficeCulture #TeamDevelopment #GamifiedLearning #EdTech #WorkplaceInnovation

🎙️ Culture Craft | Tommy Kroll

What do Star Wars relays, Bake-Off-style competitions, and Slate CRM have in common?

In this episode of The Innovation Forge, we sit down with Tommy Kroll, Senior Business Systems Analyst at Columbia College Chicago, who’s spent nearly 20 years transforming data-heavy work into playful, theatrical, and wildly effective training experiences.

Tommy’s approach isn’t just about having fun, it’s about designing culture on purpose. From over-the-top retreats to themed learning competitions, he shares how creativity in the workplace fuels retention, builds strong teams, and prevents burnout.

If you’ve ever thought training couldn’t be engaging or that culture only happens on someone else’s team, this conversation will shift your mindset.

🧠 What We Cover:

• The power of themes in team training • Why Slate is secretly the perfect canvas for creativity • The “Great Query Clash-Off” and other legendary trainings • Staying energized and inspired in a long-term role • Building office culture into everyday work

📌 Subscribe for more interviews on innovation, design, and edtech.

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 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Also featured was Build it Like a Game, an original song based on this interview, created with the help of AI.

👇 Tell us: What’s the wildest (or most fun) training you’ve ever been part of? Or want to try?

#CultureCraft #InnovationForge #TommyKroll #SlateCRM #HigherEdTech #CreativeTraining #OfficeCulture #TeamDevelopment #GamifiedLearning #EdTech #WorkplaceInnovation

🕯️ The Fieldsmith’s Register to the Eternal Stack’s Eldraliths | Audio Log Compilation 🕯️

I began this as a podcast side project. A quiet segment. A service, maybe. A gentle stroll through the software platforms that shape higher education: Slate, Workday, Canvas, Element451, PowerFAIDS, Salesforce, and more.

I bought a notebook. I called it The Fieldsmith’s Register of Systems.

But something shifted when I started writing.Systems became patterns.Patterns became signs.And signs began to speak.

What you’re about to hear is a chronological collection of my field recordings, stitched together from long nights, strange data trails, and places that shouldn’t have doors. Each segment is a vignette, a report documenting my descent through what I now understand to be… the Eldralith of the Eternal Stack.

These are not platforms.They are not tools.They are sentient architectures.Each one ancient, recursive, and ravenous. In need of servers

This episode contains all 15 entries. From Slate, the Formweaver of Endless Branches to Salesforce, the Architect of the Everchanging Spire. Each more disorienting than the last.

The notebook’s title has changed now.The pages flicker when I touch them.And I can’t remember how many times I’ve listened to this tape.

🔻 Listen with caution. Logins are irreversible.

"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) “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 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

🔥 The Forge Bellows: Adaptive Enrollment Management 🔥

Issue 1 is here.

You don’t enter a forge by accident.

It’s loud, hot, and full of intention. At first glance, it’s chaos. But stay a moment, and you’ll notice the rhythm. Every spark, every strike, every pause They all serve a purpose.

That’s the mindset we need in enrollment strategy.

The Forge Bellows isn’t a manual or a whitepaper. It’s a working record from inside the heat. A field journal for those guiding applicants, balancing aid, configuring CRMs, and trying to shape outcomes amid volatility.

This first edition introduces the principles of Adaptive Enrollment Management, a strategic posture that prizes responsiveness, visibility, and teamwork across the admissions ecosystem.

It’s not just new tactics. It’s a new way of working. What you’ll find inside:

✔️ 12 chapters grounded in real pressures and patterns

✔️ 60 article breakdowns from top practitioners and thinkers

✔️ Blueprint takeaways for immediate application

✔️ A guiding metaphor: the forge, the fire, and the craft

If you're a Slatewright, a financial strategist, a yield analyst, a communications lead, or a VP trying to guide a team through uncertainty, this project was built for you. ⚒️ Because enrollment work is craft.

📘 And the forge doesn’t run on good intentions. It runs on shared rhythm, sharp insight, and steady hands.

It begins before the hammer drops.

Before the heat, before the fire roars, before iron meets anvil, there is the quiet ritual of preparation. The forge is cold, its tools in place. The bellows hang slack. Dust floats in the still air. But every blacksmith knows that this stillness is not peace. It is potential. Tension waiting to be shaped.

So too with enrollment.

For decades, the field of enrollment management operated under the illusion of equilibrium. The furnace seemed well-fueled. The molds, tested. Student behavior followed familiar timelines. Applications surged with inquiry buys. FAFSA deadlines held steady. Predictive models hummed along, tuned to past data and regular cycles. The work was never easy, but it was knowable. Shape the class, balance the aid, hit the targets, and reset.

But then the draft shifted.

In this Coffee & Coals episode of #TheInnovationForgePodcast, host David Dysart pulls back the curtain on the Slate Codex and the Codex Practitioner, breaking down the #EverydayArtisans that fuels Adaptive Enrollment Management.

🎧 Plus, a challenge for you:

What should we name the next Cadre member, the High CSS Voyager?

Submit your ideas to [email protected] and be part of the lore.

From avatars to analytics, this one’s packed with story, strategy, and a whole lot of Slate.

Cold Sober" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

"Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

“Goblin_Tinker_Soldier_Spy” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

"Village Consort" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

"Club Seamus" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

"Magic Escape Room" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

And the Eldraliths pop up yet again...

What does it take to turn a complex, overloaded CRM system into a clean, sustainable, and scalable operation? In this episode, Jon Thornton, CRM Manager at Oregon State University, shares his journey from overengineered solutions to streamlined systems that empower users, and why he ultimately returned to higher ed after a foray into the private sector.

💡 Whether you're working in Slate, Salesforce, or any enterprise system, this conversation is packed with actionable insights on documentation, accessibility, technical debt, and cross-functional collaboration.

🛠️ Topics Covered:

* CRM Strategy

* Slate Best Practices

* Higher Ed Tech

* Sustainable Systems

* Accessibility & UX

* Cross-Functional Teams

* Technical Documentation

* AI in Operations

* Career Growth in EdTech

Find Jon at

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanmthornton/

[email protected]

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 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Also featured was Moldbreaker, created with the help of AI.

🔗 Follow the podcast for more conversations at the intersection of innovation and education. #SlateCRM #HigherEd #EdTech #ProcessImprovement #Innovation #CRMStrategy #TechnicalLeadership #DigitalTransformation #AIInEducation