Line-art portrait of Curtis Guild

Partner & Head of Client Success

Curtis Guild

“Be a lighthouse, not a megaphone.”

Curtis owns client success at HolyOps — making sure the work lands, the voice stays yours, and the results show up where you can see them. He stays in the trenches so the growth engine actually runs: weekly check-ins, the details nobody else chases, and a straight answer whenever you ask what is working.

He reviews every guide in the Learn library before it publishes, against the same question he asks in client calls: would this survive contact with a real school, a real cohort deadline and a real board meeting?

Background

Partner and Head of Client Success at HolyOps
Runs weekly delivery for schools, institutes and practitioner programs
Reviews every guide published in the Learn library

Writes about

Client success and delivery
Admissions and inquiry follow-up
Content and voice
Reporting that a board can read

Guides reviewed by Curtis

Marketing Your School Without Betraying What It Stands For

If marketing feels like it contradicts your school's values, you're not being precious. You're noticing something real. Here's a version of it that doesn't.

What Should a School Actually Spend on Marketing?

Benchmarks, formulas and ranges for school and program marketing budgets — sized for a 60-student school, not a university.

Cost Per Enrolled Student: The Only Marketing Number That Matters

How to calculate what it costs your school to enroll one child, what a good number looks like, and how to use it to end budget arguments.

The Only Enrollment Funnel a Small School Needs

Inquiry, tour, application, enrollment — the four numbers to track, realistic conversion rates for each, and where small schools lose families.

$10,000 a Month in Free Google Ads, and Almost No School Is Using It

If your school is a 501(c)(3), Google gives you $10,000 a month of free search ads. How to qualify, set it up, and avoid suspension.

How to Fill Open Seats in 90 Days

A week-by-week plan for a school with empty places and no marketing department. Free and low-cost moves first, in the order that actually works.

Your School Website Is Losing You Families. Here's Where.

The six things parents look for on a school website, the five mistakes almost every school makes, and what to fix first.

The Five Emails Every School Should Be Sending

A simple email system for schools: what to send after an inquiry, after a tour, to families who went quiet, and to the parents you already have.

Word of Mouth Isn't a Strategy. It Can Be a System.

Most alternative schools fill by word of mouth and have no idea how it works. Here's how to make it deliberate without turning parents into salespeople.

Can Grants Pay for Marketing? Sometimes — If You Ask for the Right Thing

Funders rarely fund "marketing." They regularly fund outreach, access, and capacity building. Here's how to write the ask so it gets through.

How to Sell Without Selling Your Soul

Selling isn't convincing anyone. It's removing the obstacles between someone who already wants it and the decision. A better enrollment conversation.

Would Rudolf Steiner Have Advertised a Waldorf School?

The founders of alternative education were not shy about publicity. What Steiner and Montessori actually did to spread their work — and what it means for your school.

Marketing a Program the Participants Don't Pay For

Free programs are harder to fill than paid ones, not easier. Here's how recruitment works when the funder pays, and how to keep the funder happy while you do it.

How to Fill a Course That Isn't Filling

Cohorts don't fill evenly. Most sign-ups arrive in the last three weeks, which is why the panic discount feels necessary and why it quietly destroys your next intake.

$10,000 a Month in Free Google Ads for Nonprofits

Any registered 501(c)(3) can get $10,000 a month of free Google search advertising. Most don't use it, and most who do get suspended. Here's the whole thing.

What Funders Want to See in Your Outreach Plan

"Strategic marketing plan" appears in more grant conditions every year. Here's what a reviewer is actually looking for, and the one-page version that satisfies them.

When Your Nonprofit and Your Program Compete With Each Other

A parent organization and a program with separate websites, separate names and one small audience. It's the most common self-inflicted marketing problem in this field.

Marketing a Healing Practice Without Sounding Like an Ad

Bodyworkers, acupuncturists, somatic and energy practitioners: what actually brings people in, what you're not allowed to claim, and why your referral network is the whole strategy.

Filling a Herbalism, Naturopathy or Holistic Medicine Program

Health training programs face a marketing problem no one else has: you're recruiting adults into a career the mainstream questions, under advertising rules that limit what you can promise.

Filling Permaculture and Biodynamic Courses

Land-based education has a marketing rhythm of its own: seasonal, place-bound, and sold to people who need to arrange a fortnight away from their life.

Filling a Retreat Center Without Turning It Into a Resort

For centers, ashrams, sanghas and churches: how attendance actually grows, why hospitality beats conversion language, and what to do when the founding generation ages out.

Filling a Teacher Training or Certification Program

Teacher trainings sell a transformation and a credential at the same time. Most programs market the transformation and lose to programs that answer the practical questions.

How to Be Findable Without Promoting Yourself

When the work is attached to your name, every promotional act feels like talking about yourself. There's a version that doesn't, and it happens to work better.

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