Exploring Higher Ed’s DEI Marketing Gaps: Why Universities Need to Be More Inclusive of the Disability Community

Full Transcript

Zach Busekrus: [00:00:00] Video, you know you need it. You know, it's all but expected from Gen Z at this point, but you've got no time and little budget, and your Markcom department is two months late on those new program brochures they promised. So asking them to help with a video. Forget it, but what if video could be as simple as sending an email to a prospective student?

Meet Goodkind, a video engagement platform designed to make each one of your prospects feel like they're getting the extra special treatment. As an enrollment manager, you're competing for attention and then in a sea full of static boring HTML emails from other schools. A personal video is how you stand out and drive action with good kind.

You can bring your university faculty and students to life by designing an engaging, hyper personalized and video first communications journey. Increase applications, increase yield, and decrease melt with the power of good kind. Visit we are [00:01:00] goodkin.com/and rolly to book a demo and see just how powerful video marketing can be.

Show your face, show you care. See the difference connection makes at wearegoodkind.com/Enrollify. 

Ryan Wilson: When I was transitioning to college, I went, I started at a community college for, so I stayed at home when I went to the U of i, hour and a half away from home. Uh, parents were, uh, slightly concerned, which is a kind of an understatement.

Um, they were concerned about the accessibility of the campus. What do I do if my wheelchair breaks down? What do I do if I have a me medical emergency? What do I do if I'm Strand? And none of those questions were answered online. It's not enough to the U of I, it's just a fact. And so I think, [00:02:00] I mean, I had to go to campus to ask all those questions in person and realize, you know, what's going on here.

But I, I think, uh, a lot of universities missed the mark on. Marketing and, and promoting essentially how accessible their campus is, all the resources they have for someone with a visible disability and an invisible disability.

Zach Busekrus: All right, Ryan. We are, We're live, man. How 

Ryan Wilson: are you doing? I am good, Zach. Thank you for having me on. How are [00:03:00] you doing? I 

Zach Busekrus: am pumped to have you on the show. Thanks again for, uh, connecting. I've followed you on LinkedIn and Twitter now for the last couple weeks after we connected and love the content that you, uh, you put out.

So, I, I wanna just dive in here and I'd love for you to start by just giving us a little bit of a sense of who you are and what the Shark Tank pitch, so to speak, is for, for team trust product. 

Ryan Wilson: Yeah. Yeah. So who am I? That's a very philosophical question. . Um, you know, Yeah. So my name is, uh, Ryan Wilson. I'm the Director of Team Trust Productions.

So if you, you probably can't tell, but if you don't follow me on any social media platform, you would also probably not get to tell that I have a disability, so I use a power chair. And when I was younger, I was a massive shaquila of Neil fans. So I watched about every basketball game with Shaq [00:04:00] from the Lakers to the Celtics, to the Cavalier Psalm, get injured and almost tried.

Wow. Um, but as I, as I watched his games, uh, naturally we see. All sorts of commercials, those commercials that we just can't fast forward through. Um, but I saw a lot of commercials of people who looked like me. So I am three foot eight and I am 60 pounds, about 59 pounds of pure muscle and one pound of cheese

Um, but I, I saw those commercials with kids who look like me, but they were always. in the hospital bandaged up like mummy's, plugged into a number of devices and just surrounded by family, friends, all sorts of medical professionals, [00:05:00] as if you know the the end is near, huh? As much as I wanted to play alongside check, when I saw those commercials, I was like, you know, Really reasonable for me to play basketball when I don't ever see anybody who looks like me.

Hmm. Play banging the dream that I want to have. Um, and so I kind of set that basketball dream to decide. Um, and then I went to the University of Illinois. That's where I went to school. Okay. And I majored in. Journalism, uh, the U of I is where wheelchair basketball began. So no way. I had no idea. Okay. Yeah.

How about that For a fun fact. That is a fun fact. And, uh, so I immediately was like, Okay, gotta learn who these athletes are. And I saw an athlete [00:06:00] who had my same disability, was practically my size, yet he was benching. 200 less pounds. Geez, okay, well what am I not doing? And then I realized, okay, there are many athletes my size and even my age, I am 27, uh, who had six pack apps.

I was like, like, Okay, well hold on here. This is a little ridiculous. I need six pack abs. And so I just kind of. Wrapped my life into wheelchair basketball and wheelchair track. So racing at the U of I, the U of I has the only paralympic training center for wheelchair racing. Uh, and it's right on campus.

And so I went there. As much as I possibly could at [00:07:00] 6:00 AM Not to exercise, but to just hang out with them. Huh. And eventually I started working with the International Paralympic Committee, US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and I heard all sorts of fascinating stories around the world of athletes, um, quite frankly, facing.

More challenges and obstacles than I have ever faced. Yet they are winning gold medals, racking in some serious cash and which is nice, and then making a big difference. And they're always sharing their kindness and their huge hearts with me and from those experiences collectively. I realized that, you know, only 1% of TV ads these days showcase individuals with disabilities.

You know, even today, although it is kind of [00:08:00] getting better, uh, we see commercials of kids with disabilities and then all sorts of sad stories we're inspirational and yeah, yada, yada, yada. I think like, yeah. But I mean, I feel like we also play basketball. We also race and media. You don't know this, Zach, but I have a serious six pack A right now.

I'm not gonna show it, but, uh, 

Zach Busekrus: Dude, I believe you, man. I watched some of your videos. I was looking at you online, man. Yeah, I, I, uh, I love you. So, Ryan, do you know, do you know how many of, like you, you're saying there's 1% representation of people that have disabilities in, in, um, in ads, and then what is the percentage, I don't know if you know this, but what is the percentage of, of, of those ads that do showcase folks with disabilities in like hospitals or, you know, you know, dying or, you know, something, something pretty.

Severe in, in, in, you know, uh, intended to kind of pull at your heartstring so you whip out your wallet and make a gift. You know, like, do you, do you have [00:09:00] any sense of what that percentage is? 

Ryan Wilson: Uh, you know, that's a, a really good question, but I do know that hospitals, uh, are, are kind of the, uh, leading the way in that 1%.

Mm. Um, unfortunately higher education. So universities are really lack. And that they were really kind of nonexistent. Um, 

Zach Busekrus: so, which is funny considering how like progressive higher ed like holds itself to being right. Like higher ed's all about dei, right? Like that, that's, they've been championing that for, for years now.

Right? So it's interesting that, you know that as long as that fits into a context that, you know, feels good to them or makes sense to them in a moment, um, yeah. That's, that's interesting. You would, you would think universities would be some of the leaders in this. 

Ryan Wilson: You, you know, you would think Zach, uh, it would really make sense and, and make a huge difference.

Uh, 25% of students with [00:10:00] disabilities drop out of college after the first year and then 35% after the next year. Um, and, uh, a big reason for that is just they don't see anybody who looks like them living in their, their dreams. And when we showcase. Place somebody with a disability in a video, an ad on a billboard, which would be cool.

Yeah. Um, you know, we're, we're not only helping the disability community, we're informing kind of a general population, uh, what it looks like to include people who perhaps are different from us, look different from us, do things differently than. It's just kind of embodying kindness and compassion, and we also learn about what it looks like to accommodate someone.

But you probably know this quite well, Zach, when I went to school, there were many buildings with steps Yeah. To get in the [00:11:00] buildings that it seems rather problematic for someone like me in a power chair. Yeah. So obviously we, we, we, we made some arrangements. I've been carried into buildings with Florida.

I'd rather not, uh, be carried into a, a building. But you know, when we, uh, learn about a perspective that's different from our own, uh, we really kind of expand our awareness of the. The reality of humanity. Mm-hmm. , I brought that for answer. 

Zach Busekrus: Hmm. Wow. Dude, that's, um, All right. There's so much here. I think, I think one thing I wanna ask you right off the bat is you, you seem like this incredibly, like confident, uh, you know, champion of.

Of folks who, who have disabilities. And you seem like, again, following you online and whatnot, you seem optimistic and encouraging and you produce like a lot of like life giving stuff. And, and I'm just, I just have to ask, like, did you, have you, have you always sort of just been like this [00:12:00] super optimistic, like, Yep, I was born a little bit differently.

I have challenges that are different maybe from like the average person, that's just me. Um, Or like, or, or like has it taken you a while to get to a place where, You're not just accepting of yourself, but also like you, you feel like there's a, there's a important role that you have to play in, in advocating for people with, you know, with all sorts of disabilities, not just, not just the disabilities that you have, 

Ryan Wilson: right?

Oh boy, Zach, really throwing out the tough questions here. 

Zach Busekrus: You're making me think, hey, we talked about being transparent, right? We're all, 

Ryan Wilson: Yeah. You know, I, I will say for the listeners, Zach was kind enough to share a few questions with me beforehand. I didn't see this one on the list, . 

Zach Busekrus: That is, that's right.

That is fair. 

Ryan Wilson: I'll make up on the fly. . Uh, You know, uh, I, I think I've always been, or at least I perceive myself as one who has always been very grateful. [00:13:00] You know, my parents have always gone above and beyond to make sure I'm included in all sorts of things. Um, my mom, when I was in elementary school, Would carry me on field trips, um, that were just full of steps and inaccessible trails through, uh, uh, monuments that I really didn't want to go through.

Um, so they, they always made a significant effort to include me and it's been the case for my friends, uh, whether they had a disability or not. And so I also know kind of the other side of that. There are a lot of individuals with disabilities, uh, who are excluded. That means excluded from, you know, a good social life, employment, uh, school.

Um, you know, I just, all sorts of things. And so I try to [00:14:00] use my experiences of being included and, and recognizing that, and appreciating that as kind of an avenue to. Include others as best as I can. Yeah. When I was with the I P C, the International Paralympic Committee, I think that's, and that was really not all that long ago.

Um, I just, uh, heard some extreme stories of, I suppose you'd call it pain and stuff ringing from that. I'm like, my. Hmm. What, what am I, what am I doing? Yeah. Yeah. And uh, and then last year, uh, you might know this sac if you have done some, uh, digging on me, but. Fell out of my wheelchair and, uh, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I broke three bones, which, geez, it's probably not end of the world. I've, I've broken around 60 in my life. 60. So just another day. Yeah. Yeah. Zero. Geez. [00:15:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I kind of lost track, uh, but uh, last year fell out on my chair. Had a surgery, um, and I almost didn't make it out. Wow. So, uh, yeah, about that man.

God, little anecdotes. Um, but I, I know, uh, when I woke up for my surgery, I was out for two, three days under some pretty strong drugs. They wouldn't recommend that , um, like fentanyl and all that good stuff. Uh, so when. Woke up, I was in a children's icu, and, uh, just being around other kids, at least for you, when I was grabbing food, I, I kind of saw like, I really need to step up my game in terms of including other people.

Huh. Um, and that's why I, I work so hard anymore. It's. A lot of [00:16:00] people are not in good spots out there. And so if I can kind of set a good example of, you know, grinding away, making things happen and, and really validating the stories of the disability community, then hopefully at the end of the day, um, that, 

Zach Busekrus: yeah, everybody, Zach, from Roll Fi here, you know that feeling you get when your boss tells you to go find a new cr.

Or when you're tasked with finding a handful of digital agencies to respond to your rfp, it's exciting, but it's also a little overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you know what software or service provider is the best fit for your school's unique context. Well, that's why the enroll I Team built Chatter, a feedback platform built to help higher ed marketing and admissions teams find the software services and resources that they need for.

Chatter is your one stop shop for reviews on CRMs, student information systems, application software, marketing agencies, online program managers, branding agencies, [00:17:00] higher education associations, professional development resources, and much, much more. Our goal is to equip you with the information that you need to make the right purchasing decision for your team.

Get started by reading reviews and writing one of your own, and then invite your colleagues to do. Click the link in the show notes below, or head on over to enroll fi.org/chatter chatter. It's where great decisions start.

So, So Ryan, is that, is that, like, I, I just realized I was, I became so fascinated about what you were saying that we kind of skipped over the whole like Shark Tank pitch for team trust productions thing. Yeah. Yeah. Ok. So what, what in a nutshell is team trust product. 

Ryan Wilson: Yeah, so Team Trust Productions is a production company.

We produce videos and films. A big part of that is helping clients, particularly in a higher education and in the nonprofit sector, better [00:18:00] understand and serve the disability community through authentically telling the stories of individuals with disabilities. And, uh, that's super important nowadays because, More kids are acquiring disabilities, more adults are acquiring disabilities.

And Covid just kind of accelerated that. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, 70% of Gen Z consumers are more trusting of brands with diversity in their ads, and diversity includes disability and the market potential of the disability community is pretty significant, about $21 billion. Wow. So, When we authentically put in place disability in our ads and marketing, um, it not only helps the disability community, but it helps us all learn more about a community, any of us to join at any day.

[00:19:00] Yeah, 

Zach Busekrus: Yeah. Which is, which is honestly like such a, such a humbling thing to think about, right? Like, At any point in time there's an accident, right? And all of a sudden you're ushered into a community that maybe you weren't a part of before. Maybe, maybe you weren't born with, with a disability, right? That doesn't mean you won't die without one, right?

Um, which is, which is such an interesting thought experiment. But Brian, I think, well, like, one of the things I'll just be like super candid. One of the things I feel like I've always struggled with is when it, when it comes to being inclusive of the community, Trying to toe the line between being inclusive without being exploitive.

And I'm curious, like, how do, how do you think about that? Like, you don't wanna just throw, you know, a young adult in a wheelchair, into a Facebook ad photo, just just to, you know, check that sort of like inclusivity, like box. Right? And yet at the same time it's like, [00:20:00] You're saying there needs to be more representation, which there absolutely does need to be.

So like how do you, how do you wrestle with this? 

Ryan Wilson: Yeah, I think that's, uh, a common question a lot of people, uh, ponder these days. Yeah. And it, it is quite evident when you see pictures and they just so happen to include a person, a wheelchair, and Wow. The focus of the picture is on the wheelchair. Well, Um, but I think it's just kind of a matter of like, what are your intentions?

Mm. Are your intentions to check that box of inclusivity or are your intentions to be embodying the, the active being? Inclusive? Yeah. And so I think. At the end of the day, it, it would really make a difference if you start to tap into, you know, [00:21:00] all these groups around disability. So like that could mean in a Facebook group or a local meetup.

Yeah, whatever. Just so you kind of establish a relationship and a presence and the disability community. And so your awareness of what it means to have a disability is transformed for the better. And you realize that maybe you shouldn't take a picture of specifically the chair, but perhaps include the person.

Yeah. Um, and so you don't have to make a effort to find it, you know? Somebody on your campus just to throw 'em in a picture. Yeah. What if you went to them? Yeah. What if you, you know, like when I was in college at the U of I, I started up a radio show. Yeah, I wanna hear about this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Roll on line.

It was the only Paralympic specific radio program in the country, and so we included people with [00:22:00] disabilities by going to them, learning their stories, and we had all sorts. People almost remarkable. Stories, and then I think that's something that could translate well to others, is going to where the disability community is, instead of forcing them to come to you just to check a box.

Zach Busekrus: Yeah. Yeah. I, I wonder too, if like, . It's so, a, a smart marketer once told me, pe you, you shouldn't include anything in your creative, uh, in your ad creative that doesn't effectively speak to the value of the product that you offer. Meaning, like, you shouldn't have people, like if you are not effectively delivering a product that meets the needs of, um, you know, uh, women of color, right, or, or the disabled community, then they actually shouldn't be in your creative, right?

Like, things should be in your creative because you. You offer something that's really good for that kind of individual, right? Or that, that kind of persona, that [00:23:00] customer persona, so to speak. And so I, I wonder if like, one, one of the things to consider here is like, hey, before you, before you include a, someone in a wheelchair, uh, in your photo shoot, right, where you again emphasize the chair, First, ask yourself the question, how are you creating a product and an experience that is helpful and valuable to that individual?

And if the question, and if you, if you aren't, maybe, maybe you start there before, before you, maybe, maybe that's the line, like maybe the line between sort of inclusivity and, and exploit exploitation comes from. Can you genuinely say that everyone that's included in your creative, you, you deliver a, a equitable sort of product experience as, as you do everyone else in that?

I don't know. 

Ryan Wilson: I think it's also unfortunate that many individuals with disabilities are not in leadership positions. Mm. Like I honestly cannot think of one university president who has a disability, or at least has disclosed [00:24:00] one. 

Zach Busekrus: Huh, 

Ryan Wilson: interesting. Yeah. And on the marketing side of things, when you think.

You know, I don't know what they're called. Vice transfers of 

Zach Busekrus: marketing. Yeah. Or vp Yeah. VPs of marketing or, Yeah, yeah, 

Ryan Wilson: yeah, yeah. They're, they're just marketing people. Yeah. Um, but the, the heads, I mean, how many individuals with disabilities, sorry, they. Yeah, not, not too many. And so better disclosing. 

Zach Busekrus: Yeah.

Yeah. 

Ryan Wilson: Anyway, yeah. I I don't have that sta I, I, I've looked, but I will say I haven't found one person with a disability leading the marketing for a university. And I think if you were to place or hire, uh, consistently and retain and train, uh, someone with a disability and put them on your marketing team, It could really, you know, transform what you're doing and add a unique perspective and, and I do think there's also a lot of resistance to learning about disability.

Like, you know, if you don't have an experience with disability, [00:25:00] you don't have a relative or a friend with a disability, it can be kind of challenging to realize like, Oh wow, maybe this is important. It is indeed, as you were saying, very important to back. , any communications you create with actions, because if you don't have any actions, it's gonna look kind of fake and inauthentic.

Yeah. 

Zach Busekrus: Yeah. Whoop. Yeah. No, and like, like I think about, again, I think about um, just how much conversation there has been in, in recent years about helping, you know, listen to and craft messaging for, and be, be inclusive of, of people from, from all walks of life, right? People from people who are a part of under.

Uh, underrepresented communities. What's really interesting is that at least the conversations that I have been privy to or, and or have seen online, right? Um, I, I, I don't know that I could recall specific conversation around [00:26:00] the disability community, right? And I, I, and I do wonder if it's because it's, It takes, I don't know, like, I don't know why.

Like why, why, why do you think that that is Ryan? Like, why isn't that more readily like available in conversation? Why doesn't that, why? Why doesn't that come to mind for as many people? 

Ryan Wilson: I think, again, I think it just kind of goes back to do you have any lived experience with a disability or with the disability community?

Prior to when I was born, my parents way hadn't had much interaction with disability. You know, maybe they knew someone who was in the chair or whatever, but then I come along, it's like, wow, this is all of a sudden very personal. Yeah. And now I'm an advocate for the disability community. And so I, I think it's just kind of trying to realize that not everybody sees the world.

In the same way as you. Yeah. [00:27:00] Um, and I, yeah, no, I think it just kind of, kind of begins with acknowledging that maybe there's something out there you don't know. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a lot I don't know. And so that's why when I was, no, And I still give this to bear. I, I tap into webinars and courses and groups that I know nothing about.

Because I want to challenge my perspective of the world. Yeah. And learn how to be more inclusive. . 

Zach Busekrus: Yeah. Which is, I mean, just unbelievably admirable. Right. Um, and I think that there's, there's a lot that I've already learned and, and look forward to continuing to learn from you. I, I want, I wanna shift a little bit and talk about like, what, what are some ideas that you have of specifically, like most of the people tuning into this podcast, right?

They're VPs of marketing or directors of admission, or they work in marketing. Or admissions in some capacity within the context of a college or university. We've also got a fair [00:28:00] amount of people that tune into this conversation who work in ed tech. And so some ideas or, or thoughts you have on how brands can do a better job, how colleges and universities are just brands and education can do a better job at supporting and including the disability community.

Like are there, are there things that you've learned through Team Trust? Are there things that you've learned from, from your talking with your own clients that have been especially helpful that you could, that you could share with? 

Ryan Wilson: Well start with a story. When I was transitioning to college and I went, I started a community college first.

So I stayed at home when I went to the U of i, hour and a half away from home. Okay. Uh, parents were, oh, slightly concerned, which is a kind of an understatement. Yeah. Um, they were concerned about the accessibility of the campus. What do I do if my wheelchair breaks down? , What do I do if I have a medical emergency?

What do I do if I'm stranded? [00:29:00] Hmm. And none of those questions were answered online. Hmm. It's not enough to the U of I. It's just a fact. It's a fact. And so I think, I mean, I had to go to campus to ask all those questions in person and realize, you know, what's going on here? But I, I think, uh, a lot of universities missed the mark on.

Marketing and, and promoting essentially how accessible their campus is. Huh? All the resources they have for someone with a visible disability and an invisible disability. Sure. I mean, they might have, uh, uh, some sort of, uh, center group department that focuses on disability, but are they buried on your websites?

Know, uh, that that's kind of a problem, kind of a big problem. Um, I can't even pronounce problem. It's so big . Um, and so, yeah, I think it really [00:30:00] just comes down to exploring what your offerings are. Do you have wheelchair athletics? If so, are they featured on your website somewhere or are. Buried under a thousand webpages that doesn't rank on Google or anywhere.

Yeah. So if you fix that, you begin to attract a couple more qualified students with disabilities. Yeah. And, uh, and also, you know, what kind of accommodations do you have, uh, on campus are your professors. Known for being super understanding when it comes to accommodations. Uh, what sort of resources do you, does your disability department offer?

Do they have testing accommodations? Mm. Labs, Do you have quiet areas on campus, [00:31:00] Sensory rooms, all these different things that many people don't think about. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, oh, where are your accessible bathrooms? Pretty important. I had no idea. Yeah. I had to figure that one out on campus. 

Zach Busekrus: Which is which, which is just a lot, I mean, like, you know, it's, it's a lot to have.

Worry, like campus tours like aren't the same, right? You're, you're talking to an admissions counselor isn't the same, like figuring out, Oh wow. Like how far is the admissions office from the car? Like it's, it's, you know, or from the parking lot, not the same. Like at it, there are all these additional sort of like, I don't know if you would call them barriers, but there are all these, you know, additional things to be, to be considered right.

And to be thought about that again, you're, um, you know, somebody, somebody without a disability coming on a campus tour just, just doesn't give a second thought to. Right. Um, yeah. You know what was interesting as you, as you were sharing, Ryan? Um, like I think about like, you know, DEI trainings and I [00:32:00] think about like, um, I, we, I never did this at my high school, but I had friends who they, they'd go to their high, like at their high school as part of like, I think it was, I don't know if it was like part of sex ed or whatever, but they basically had to like, carry around like, um, like a, a bag of like flour.

It was like a, a a pound or a couple pounds of flour. And like, I think the, the. Point of, I don't know if they still do this in schools, but , But the idea was like, uh, the flower was representing like a baby, right? And like how you had to like, like if you were gonna have a kid, right? Like as a, as a teenager in high school, you're gonna have to bring this, this baby with you everywhere that you go, right?

Like, you can't just like leave the, you know, pound of flower. In your desk while you go out for lunch. Like somebody's gotta take care of it. Right. So it was this kind of like, weird way of like, I think, I don't know, de incentivizing like, you know, unprotected sex or unplanned par. I don't know. It was, it was kind of a weird, 

Ryan Wilson: We didn't use flour.

Zach Busekrus: Yeah. . Yeah. I, I don't know if, I don't know if they still do that in schools or not. Um, but, but anyways, one of the things I was thinking about, like, okay, how can you. [00:33:00] Very practically and very tangibly at, at a mass scale, help a community better understand, you know, a, a challenge, right. Uh, that some members in the community might, might face.

And I, I was even thinking like, it'd be interesting to have some programming, um, at, I don't know if this would happen within the context of a DEI training or what, but where people have to, and again, I don't know if this is offensive, you can tell me, but like where people have to actually sit in a wheelchair and they have to try to get too in from their classes all.

In a wheelchair, Like what is that? Like, what is that experience like? And then overnight it's like, oh my gosh, here are 1022 things on our campus that aren't accessible, Right? Like mm-hmm. , It would just be an interesting thing for, And schools, some schools probably do this, but, um, I, I guess, I guess this is a long way of asking a question, are things like that, like offensive do, do you, are, are you as, as somebody with a disability, do you, do you appreciate when schools run programming like that?

Like, is it helpful? Is it hurtful? Like, what do you think? [00:34:00] 

Ryan Wilson: I will say, I think there is some resistance to hopping in a chair and taking it for a span. Yeah, I know people have done that in the past, and I know, uh, that, that they've kind of changed their mind on that one. Not that, I mean, I don't have a problem with it, but, uh, Uh, I, I think at the end of the day, it, it is appreciated when a university, any organization makes a commitment to the disability community.

Maybe that's not a, a $10 million investment. Sure. Maybe that's just an acknowledgement that there's a lot we don't know. Yeah. So we're, we're going to go to this. DEI seminar, conference on disability. Um, we're bringing most of our staff members, um, and they'll be studying this material, working on it, uh, frequently.[00:35:00] 

Um, and so, yeah, I, I think it's, it makes a big difference. Invest, uh, in some capacity. Yeah. In the disability 

Zach Busekrus: community. When you think, when you think Ryan, about like recruiting students with disabilities, right? How can, how can people in positions of power at colleges and universities who are responsible for, like designing these marketing and recruitment campaigns, what, what can they do a better job of doing in order to, in order to attract more, more students with disabilities to their community?

Ryan Wilson: Well, um, there are many things, but, uh, for one, uh, is your website accessible? Mm. Does it comply with the law? Does it go above and beyond? Does your, uh, uh, uh, you know, recruitment materials, do your, your pamphlets, newsletters, magazines, do they address disability? Do they talk about your. [00:36:00] Disability resource center, whatever you wanna call it.

Um, most of the materials I received when I was looking at colleges, they never addressed wheelchair basketball. They never addressed any of the accommodations I needed. Um, and so if you're looking to. Resonate and speak truth authentically to the qualified students with disabilities you're looking to attract, Maybe start to speak their language, you know, what are they looking for?

Yeah. They're, at the end of the day, looking for safety. Yeah. You know, they don't wanna go to a college in which they feel threatened by the inaccessibility of your campus or, The Unaccommodating professors you might have. Yeah. Um, and so, you know, when we, when we do that, I think, uh, you'll start to see an increase in applicants of students [00:37:00] like myself and, and the.

Just to clarify that a little bit. I'm not going back to school. I am done . I'm never going back to school . But, uh, you, you really do want to just speak to the concerns, financial concerns, the accessibility concerns. Yeah. You know, there might be some concerns about discrimination. Hmm. I, I never faced that in college, but, uh, you know that that's not always the case.

Zach Busekrus: A couple final questions here, Ryan. One. One is just around, take us back to, to what you started with, right? Which is that you, you had this dream, right? Like you loved Shaquille and Neil, you wanted, you wanted to be a basketball player, right? I know that you actually got to meet him. Uh, there's a photo of you on mine really?

Twice. Okay? Twice, which is amazing. Um, is one way of thinking about why. Inclusion of the disability community and marketing messages in communications, right. More publicly, uh, throughout a cu throughout a university or college's website. Simply so that like other [00:38:00] prospective students can understand, like, hey, like, you know, I, I have a dream.

I, I I want to be a biologist. I, you know, I have a dream. I want to be, I wanna go into politics, right? Like, I, I wanna be actually that first college profess or, uh, college president that does have a disability, right? Like, that's outward facing. Um, Is, is it fair to say that like, until the communications and the messaging changes to be more inclusive of this community, that it's going to be harder?

We're just kind of like delaying. Um, we're, we're, we're delaying the chance. And really sort of the, the ability for people of the disability community to, to kind of realize their dreams simply because they don't have a visual representation of it. So maybe it's not Shaq, but like, you know, by not seeing examples of leaders, right, who look like them and who have, who have challenges like them, we're actually delaying the, you know, uh, chance.

[00:39:00] Folks with disabilities will, will ever rise to these positions of power. Is is that, is that fair? 

Ryan Wilson: Yeah. You're very articulate. Zach. I should write that 

Zach Busekrus: one down. Oh, I don't know about that. I don't know. That was very, that was very cumbersome. . 

Ryan Wilson: Oh, okay. I, I think it's a, it's a significant opportunity that is missed Hmm.

By universe's to not embrace disability. You know, we, we need to see people who look like, Excelling, um, in any profession, whether we want to be a professor or, uh, you know, college presidents, even the president of the United States, which I don't wanna be. Yeah, I, I think we're missing a big opportunity.

And, you know, Gen Z consumers are just screaming for brands to be more diverse in their ads. And as we see that, a small fraction of those. Ads that aren't embracing [00:40:00] diversity, you know, showcase disability. But in the future, disability will become more and more common on HO campuses. And so, you know, we might once start embracing it now before we get to a point where we're scrambling.

Hmm. To catch up to the diversity of the world and our own student bodies. Yeah. 

Zach Busekrus: Absolutely. So well said. Um, well, this has been, this has been a privilege, man. I, I wanna get you back on to continue to talk and teach me. I think that you have a lot of opportunity to teach our listeners more about how they do that.

I mean, a lot of people, again, tuning into this conversation are in positions of power where they can enact some of this change. So hopefully the folks who who are listening to this conversation are inspired by your story, um, and, and wanna work towards, towards making meaningful change. Ryan, if, if people want to get in touch with you and if they wanna, uh, learn a little bit more about team trust, Have you and your team come and help them, not just, uh, talk the talk, but walk the walk.

Right. What [00:41:00] is, uh, what is the best way for them to get in touch and, and how might folks hire you all to, to help produce video content for them? 

Ryan Wilson: So there are a couple different ways to get, get in touch with this, but I will say you might be familiar with the marketing agency out there, psn l uh, they're one of our big partners.

Yes. And so if you go to PSN l. They'll find us. But if you want to see my face on a website a couple different times, uh, you can go to team trust. productions.com. Let's just our entire name.com. You'll learn more about what we do. You'll see our free, uh, disability marketing guide. You can have bats and you use it wherever you want.

Talks about everything we discussed today and, uh, from the website and from the guy. You see all sorts of examples of what we've done in the past, including with Team usa. University Illinois and Lincoln Man Community [00:42:00] College. And so that's, that's the way to go and I really appreciate your time, 

Zach Busekrus: Zach.

Yeah, likewise man. And, uh, to make it easy too, I'll just go ahead and drop all those links that you mentioned, uh, in this show and it's below. So if you're listening to this conversation and you wanna get in touch with Ryan and his team and explore, uh, his, his company's offerings, just scroll onto the show notes and go and visit his, his website.

But, um, Ryan, thank you so much for your time, man. It. It's been a real pleasure. 

Ryan Wilson: Yeah. Thank you. And thank you guys for listening.

Zach Busekrus: Hey all. Zach here from Enrollify. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Enrollify podcast. If you like this episode, do us a huge favor and hit that follow and subscribe button blow. Furthermore, if you've got just two minutes to spare, we would greatly appreciate you leading a rating and a review of this show on Apple.

Our podcast network is growing by the month and we've got a plethora of marketing admissions and [00:43:00] higher ed technology shows that are jam packed with stories, ideas, and frameworks that are all designed to empower you to become a better higher ed professional. But Enrollify is far more than just a podcast network.

Enrollify is where higher ed comes to learn new marketing skills, discover new products and services, and find their next job. We're a growing learning community of 4,000 members and we love to welcome you into. You can access our free blog, articles, newsletters, e-courses, and more, or purchase our master course on how to market a university with Terry Flannery at enrollify.org.

We look forward to meeting you soon and welcoming you into the community. Again, you can subscribe for free at enrollify.org.[00:44:00]