Escape Velocity with Tracey Halvorsen

adeo
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Marketing
  • Biweekly

Escape Velocity is an unscripted podcast about what it takes to keep moving when the ground shifts under you. Host Tracey Halvorsen, CEO of adeo, talks with people across higher education, brand strategy, creative leadership, culture, and AI. No scripts or polished talking points. Just candid conversations about making hard decisions, leading through change, and finding the nerve to work differently. Produced by adeo, a woman-owned brand and digital agency in Baltimore. Find episode details, transcripts, guest links, and resources at https://escapevelocitypodcast.com/

  1. 6d ago

    AI, Taste, and the Value of Experience with Joe Rinaldi

    When AI makes the work faster, what happens to the value of experience? Joe Rinaldi joins me on Escape Velocity to talk about taste, pricing, trust, and how people develop judgment when they can skip so much of the process. Joe helps agencies with business development through Clutch and is a Strategy Partner at Pine Works. He shares how his team uses AI agents to organize conversations and propose CRM updates. We talk about the mistakes those tools make and the changes he still reviews himself. We disagree on what faster delivery should mean for fees. We question whether AI could develop something resembling taste. And we worry about how newer practitioners will find their own voice if the tools do the work before they learn it. We also get into the work that comes before choosing a tool: understanding people, defining the problem, and figuring out what would actually help a client. There are useful examples here, along with questions we haven't answered. Find Joe: ClutchJoe at Pine WorksJoe Rinaldi on LinkedInEpisode notes and transcript: https://escapevelocitypodcast.com/episodes/34-ai-taste-and-the-value-of-experience-with-joe-rinaldi/ Chapters: 00:00 Opening and meet Joe Rinaldi 04:27 Community, relationships, and opportunity 12:05 What AI changes about learning and judgment 21:29 Choosing when and how to use AI 24:04 Taste, standards, and whether AI could develop them 26:32 Jobs and who actually uses AI 35:36 Pine Works, Bruce, and the work behind the work 46:04 Guardrails, permissions, and human review 52:05 Learning by building, discovery, and user needs 56:02 Pricing when the work gets faster 1:03:32 Small teams and the limits of these examples 1:07:41 Understanding a client's problem before choosing a tool 1:16:20 Closing thoughts and finding Joe

  2. Oct 20 ·  Bonus

    From the Archives: Keep Tinkering | Dave Look

    Making time for outside interests can change how you approach your work. In this short excerpt from the first Escape Velocity episode, Dave Look and I talk about choosing where to spend our time, taking things apart to understand them, and what a jazz ensemble can teach us about sharing the lead. From the Archives brings you short highlights from past Escape Velocity conversations. This continuous 6-minute, 24-second excerpt comes from episode 1, originally released October 21, 2024. Listen and read the highlight transcript Full conversation and transcript Full conversation on Spotify

  3. Oct 1 ·  Bonus

    From the Archives: Enough Challenge to Grow | Adrienne Cooper

    How do you help someone stretch without pushing them past what they can handle? In this six-and-a-half-minute excerpt, Adrienne Cooper and I talk about flow, the stages of learning, and what managers can do in the small moments of a working day to support both the person and the team. From the Archives brings you short highlights from past Escape Velocity conversations. This excerpt is from episode 28, originally released March 25, 2026. Listen and read the highlight transcript Full conversation and transcript Full conversation on Spotify

  4. Sep 29 ·  Bonus

    From the Archives: Marketing Can't Fix the Product | Carol Keese

    Higher ed keeps asking how to communicate its value. Carol Keese asks whether the product, the price, and the proof need to change too. In this six-minute excerpt, we talk about trust, hidden costs, and why outcomes should shape the message. From the Archives brings you short highlights from past Escape Velocity conversations. This excerpt is from episode 32, originally released July 23, 2026. Listen and read the highlight transcript Listen to the full conversation on Spotify Full conversation and transcript

  5. Sep 24 ·  Bonus

    From the Archives: Who Your Admissions Website Leaves Out | Dayana Kibilds

    Dayana Kibilds was fluent in English and still missed a requirement when she applied to college in the U.S. In this nine-minute exchange, we talk about the assumptions buried in admissions language, who has the help to decode it, and a simple way to see the wall your financial aid pages might be putting up. From the Archives brings you short highlights from past Escape Velocity conversations. This excerpt is from episode 27, originally released March 16, 2026. Listen to the full conversation on Spotify Full episode and transcript Read the highlight transcript

  6. Aug 16

    Why Higher Ed Websites Still Look the Same, with Voltaire Santos Miran

    Why do higher ed websites still struggle with the same problems they faced in the 2000s? And why do so many of them look alike? Tracey Halvorsen talks with Voltaire “Volt” Santos Miran, EVP of Brand and Web Strategy at Carnegie and co-founder of mStoner, about copycat design, shared governance, underfunded web teams, the tension between innovation and proof, and what colleges misunderstand about storytelling. They also get into AI, accessibility, agency-client relationships, and why institutions should stop casting themselves as the hero. The strongest higher ed stories center the people whose lives are changed. Explore the episode, transcript, links and Ask the archive at https://escapevelocitypodcast.com/

  7. Jul 23

    Carol Keese - A CMO Says Marketing Isn't the Fix

    Carol Keese has spent her career marketing trust in places where trust is the whole game: Johns Hopkins Medicine, Children's National, the University of Virginia, and now the University of Oregon. So when a CMO stands up and says marketing isn't the fix, it's worth listening. That's the argument at the center of this conversation. Carol wrote a piece in Inside Higher Ed called "Higher Education Was Built on Scarcity. That Model Is Breaking," and it cuts against her own profession. Her point: higher ed has spent two decades answering a value problem with better messaging, and the market stopped believing the message a long time ago. The work sits upstream, in the cost, the design, and the outcomes of the product. Not in the words on the homepage. Tracey and Carol get into where that leaves marketers, why medicine can't prestige-signal the way higher ed does, and what breaks when a thousand-year-old model built for the elite tries to serve everyone. Then the shift that's already here: a 17-year-old asks an AI about your school long before they ever reach your homepage, and whatever the AI says back is the new first impression. Carol calls it the first campus visit. The website is the second. Her team is rebuilding Oregon's site around that, writing for the machine that reads it first, which means short answers and FAQs instead of the long narrative pages the sector spent a decade building. She also argues that higher ed should stop walling itself off and act more like a consumer brand. Her proof point: Oregon's Grateful Ducks collaboration with Nike and the Grateful Dead, built on the band's real history in Eugene and Nike's roots at the university. It sold out fast and earned national coverage from Rolling Stone, GQ, Complex, USA Today, and Sports Business Journal. Authentic cultural relevance, not prestige signaling. It's a candid, specific, occasionally funny conversation about a sector under real pressure, from someone who loves it enough to tell it the truth. In this episode: Why "fix it with marketing" became higher ed's default, and why it stopped workingThe scarcity model: built for permanence, built for the elite, never built for scaleWhat medicine gets right that higher ed doesn't, and why outcomes are the differenceUVA vs. Oregon: professionalizing a legacy brand vs. defining a value proposition from scratchAI as the first campus visit, and how that reshapes web content, FAQs, and earned mediaWhy rankings are a lagging indicator and what to measure instead (real-time sentiment)The CMO seat: getting it is not the point, what you do with it isGetting lighter: delight as a marketing strategy for institutions that take themselves too seriouslyActing like a consumer brand: the Grateful Ducks collab, and why authentic cultural relevance beats prestige signalingAbout the guest Carol Keese is VP of University Communications and CMO at the University of Oregon. Before Oregon, she led brand and marketing at the University of Virginia through a bicentennial, a new president, and a capital campaign. Earlier in her career she held marketing leadership roles at Johns Hopkins Medicine and Children's National. She has presented on higher ed marketing at the AMA, the AAU, and SXSWEdu. Links Carol Keese on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolpkeeseCarol's Inside Higher Ed article, "Higher Education Was Built on Scarcity. That Model Is Breaking": https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/columns/call-action/2026/05/04/higher-ed-was-built-scarcity-model-breakingBlanding: https://blandingaudit.netlify.app

  8. Jun 1

    Empathy Is Not a Soft Skill: Jaime Hunt on Higher Ed Marketing, AI, and Solving What Matters

    Jaime Hunt has spent more than two decades inside higher education marketing, including nine years as a chief marketing officer at three very different institutions. Now she is the founder of Solve Higher Ed Marketing, author of Heart Over Hype: Transforming Higher Ed Marketing with Empathy, instructor at West Virginia University, and host of Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO.   In this episode of Escape Velocity, Tracey Halvorsen, CEO of adeo, talks with Jaime about what higher ed marketing looks like from the inside, why empathy is not the opposite of accountability, and how colleges and universities can stop reaching for tactics and start solving the real problems. They get into Jaime’s shift from journalism to higher ed, what changed when she launched her own firm, and why entrepreneurship made her feel “ungovernable” in the best possible way. They also talk about the evolution of brand and marketing inside higher ed, why internal audiences matter as much as external polish, how agencies can better collaborate with campus teams, and why marketing work has to connect to measurable institutional goals. The conversation also moves into the pressure higher ed is under right now: the enrollment cliff, shrinking budgets, AI panic, risk aversion, institutional sameness, and the danger of mistaking shiny objects for innovation. Jaime makes the case for curiosity, empathy, and problem-solving as essential leadership disciplines, especially in a moment when campuses need sharper strategy, stronger alignment, and more human-centered marketing. This is a conversation for higher ed marketers, enrollment leaders, agency partners, presidents, CMOs, and anyone trying to build work that is more useful, more honest, and less driven by hype. Guest links:Solve Higher Ed MarketingHeart Over Hype: Transforming Higher Ed Marketing with EmpathyConfessions of a Higher Ed CMOJaime Hunt on LinkedIn Escape Velocity is hosted by Tracey Halvorsen, CEO of adeo, a brand, digital, and communications agency based in Baltimore working with higher education, cultural institutions, nonprofits, and complex growth brands. Learn more at helloadeo.com. Topics: higher ed marketing, enrollment marketing, higher education branding, empathy-driven marketing, higher ed CMO, brand strategy, AI in higher education, higher ed enrollment cliff, campus communications, student journey mapping, marketing leadership, internal change management, Solve Higher Ed Marketing, Heart Over Hype, Jaime Hunt.

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5
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About

Escape Velocity is an unscripted podcast about what it takes to keep moving when the ground shifts under you. Host Tracey Halvorsen, CEO of adeo, talks with people across higher education, brand strategy, creative leadership, culture, and AI. No scripts or polished talking points. Just candid conversations about making hard decisions, leading through change, and finding the nerve to work differently. Produced by adeo, a woman-owned brand and digital agency in Baltimore. Find episode details, transcripts, guest links, and resources at https://escapevelocitypodcast.com/

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