Welcome back to Beyond the Tour where twice a month you'll receive practical tips and resources to help you get better at what you do. 

 

Let's get started. 

If You Do One Thing This Week:

1. 🚀 Launch your families. 

 

Send a message to all of your new families who started this Fall with an official handoff from the admission office to school professionals. It's helpful for them and for you to establish clarity around the relationship. 

 

The email can look something like this: 

 

 

 

 

 

You may still be an important resource to these families, but you need to make room for the new families you will meet for the 2026-27 recruitment season.

 

Let's go. 

2 Tips to DO MORE:

2. 📋 Create a checklist for student visits.

 

Student visits are going to start to come in fast and furious. 

 

Create a standard checklist for planning these visits and use it to make the planning easier and create a standard experience for your visitors. 

 

Include things like: 

✔️ Identify host buddy 

✔️ Contact and confirm with host buddy 

✔️ Identify class schedule 

✔️ Contact teachers to confirm visits 

✔️ Inform school leadership 

✔️ Contact student and parents the day before the visit with parking instructions. 

 

Bonus points: Get faculty input on what they wish would be a part of the process. Incorporate their needs into your visit planning checklist.  

3. 💬 Create a smooth system for your newsletter. 

 

If you send out an admission newsletter to families in the funnel, establish a workflow that everyone agrees on: 

 

✔️Who is responsible to collect content? 

✔️ Who does the fact check? 

✔️ Content check? 

✔️ Visuals? 

 

Clarity is your friend. When people know what to expect, they feel better, and you will all know how to fix issues when they come up.

📣 Attention vendors! Reach 400+ schools and institutions through Beyond the Tour—a newsletter professionals "obsess over and comb through weekly." Don't miss your opportunity to connect with schools passionate about excellence.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

 

I'll be teaching with my power partner, Laurie Ehrlich, on Thursday at 3:00 PM.  We will tackle the topic "How Advancement Teams Drive Success" with our pal, Liz Parfit, Director of Admissions & Institutional Advancement, Belmont Day School. You can find us in Lone Star Salon F on the third floor.

There's more! 

 

Join us for a round of drinks, celebration, and friendship at the Lobby Bar at the JW Marriott at 4:30 PM.

 

Last year at EMA in Boston, I met one of our readers for the first time in person. What a highlight for me! Please find me and say hello. I can't wait to see you there. 

If this newsletter resonates with you, here are three more ways I can help:

I’m a teacher at heart, and love helping people get better at what they do.

 

Let's get started,

 

Check out previous issues of Beyond the Tour here.