And Carrie On

What a great 2024! Thanks for joining me on this journey of posting for another year.

This year I’ve posted:

• 43 posts
• 35,000 words

You’ve viewed the content nearly 23,000 times, making this the best year for andcarrieon.com.

As I reflect on the year, I want to begin with thank you. Thank you for listening, for encouraging me, and for being a valued part of the higher education community. This place gives me energy, and I’m grateful there are so many amazing people part of this space.

I also am blown away by these numbers. My very first post in April of 2022 had four views, and I’m pretty sure I was three of them. Now. I’m averaging several hundred views per post. That would not be possible without you liking, sharing, and spreading the word about the content.

For my final post of 2024, it only seemed appropriate to take a look back on the year. Here are the top ten viewed posts that were written in 2024. In addition to each post, I’ve added a bit of commentary about what’s in the post and how it helps our profession.

I hope you enjoy this brief walk down memory lane.

Top Posts of 2024

1. Let’s Talk: Crucial Conversations – This post is one of my favorite because it’s so practical. I give users a step-by-step guide to have tough, but crucial conversations. Having these conversations still isn’t comfortable but is a key skill for rising leaders to develop. Glad to see so many of you found it valuable.
2. Essential Free MarComm Tools and Communities for Budget-Conscious Professionals – Coming in second is this annual tradition. At the beginning of each budget cycle, I put together a post about ways to stretch your budget as a MarComm professional. This post is packed with free tools and communities, to join. Be sure to check it out, and don’t forget to look for next year’s post in July.
3. Five Smart Tips for Attending Conferences Alone – With resources being stretched, many of us may find ourselves attending conferences alone more than ever before. If that’s you, this is a post to check out. I share a few tips I’ve put together to help me get the most out of conferences as a solo participant.
4. How to Reduce Workload When Adding New Tasks – As the new year will be a season of planning, this is a great post to help you plan. Too often, we approach planning as an additive task and don’t think about what tasks we can drop. In this post, I talk through a few strategies to cull some of that tasks that have been on our lists for years, giving us bandwidth to focus on new tasks and priorities. This is a key read to help prevent burnout.
5. Other Duties as Assigned: Insights from CMOs on Other Office Priorities – One of the things that surprised me the most when I first became a CMO is how much time I spent on tasks that were not directly related to marketing. I wasn’t fully prepared for those parts of the role. As such, this post is designed to help rising leaders know about many of the other tasks that may be asked of them in a CMO role. If you’re thinking about advancing, this is a great post to review to fully understand what all the role entails.
6. Four Strategies for Marketing Teams – This post directly ties to my dissertation and looks at some of the strategies that marketing teams should be considering ahead of the enrollment cliff. While some of the strategies are aimed specifically at the enrollment cliff, I think a few of the strategies could be general best practices for the industry. I like this post because it serves as a guide to help ensure our teams are focused on work that matters.
7. Maximize Your Conference Experience: 4 Essential Tips – I’m a firm believer in continuous learning, so it’s no surprise that another conference post is among the top. In this post, I talk through four tips to help you get the most out of your conference experience. These tips are great if you’re with a group, alone, a first conference, or a seasoned pro. As the spring conference season gets underway, this would be a great refresher.
8. Reflecting on the CMO Study – I feel a strong connection to the SimpsonScarborough CMO longitudinal study. I cited it in my literature review several times throughout dissertation. It is great research about the CMO seat, and it’s helpful to see changes over the last few years. The 2024 version (based on 2023) interviews came out this year, and in this post, I reflect on some of the findings and what they may mean for our industry.
9. A Strategy for Effective Change Management – Change is hard, and in this post, I talk through a change management principle that I’ve used in many situations. It helps people make small incremental changes that lead to big changes over time. If you’re struggling with how to navigate change either as a leader or a team member, I strongly encourage you to give this one a look.
10. Talking about Thought Leadership – This year, I’ve accepted that I’m a thought leader in the higher education marketing space (a little imposter syndrome in saying that). However, in this blog, I talk about some of the personal and professional benefits that I’ve experienced because of my thought leadership. If you’re thinking about thought leadership, this posts provides details of how it can be a win for all involved.

What’s Next?

It’s been a great 2025, and I’ve had the chance to cover so many great topics. If there’s something you’d like me to talk about more frequently, please let me know!

I want to make sure this blog is valuable to you, and the best way to ensure that is hearing from you what would be helpful.

Cheers to the new year!