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Every December, while many of Ivy Coach<\/a>\u2018s students celebrate acceptances to their first-choice colleges, our inbox buzzes with emails from families whose children weren\u2019t so fortunate. These students didn\u2019t work with us. They received deferrals or denials and want to know what went wrong. <\/p>\n We call these sessions PostMortems. And, boy, do we find mistakes. Some took AP Statistics instead of a real math class (it\u2019s no substitute for BC Calculus or beyond!). Others pursued scattershot extracurricular activities that impressed nobody. Still others wrote essays about sports, music, community service, grandparents, travel or illness. We call these third-rail topics.<\/p>\n But the biggest mistake is almost always the same. Despite boasting competitive profiles, they failed to tell a singular, compelling story that dared an admissions officer not to admit them. The lesson applies equally to business.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what families misunderstand about elite college admissions. Highly selective universities aren\u2019t seeking well-rounded students. Instead, they\u2019re building a well-rounded class comprised of singularly talented individuals. <\/p>\n They want the extraordinary poet, the groundbreaking science researcher, the recruited soccer player. Together, these students form a well-rounded class. The applicant who dabbles in everything but excels at nothing? That\u2019s a tougher sell. Businesses make the same mistake.<\/p>\n I see competitors making the business equivalent of the well-rounded applicant\u2019s mistake. Some advertise that recent college graduates can guide students through the highly selective college admissions process. But who\u2019s going to fork over substantial sums for advice from a kid fresh out of college, maybe even sleeping on a futon? Others tout parents who navigated admissions for their own children. Congratulations! So did thousands of other parents.<\/p>\n Neither proposition establishes distinguishing excellence. Neither makes a prospective client think, I\u2019d be crazy to take my business anywhere else.<\/em> That\u2019s the reaction every entrepreneur should strive to elicit.<\/p>\n My mom, a high school college counselor, founded Ivy Coach 35 years ago as one of the earliest entrants into private college counseling. She recognized that families needed expertise to help students distinguish themselves.<\/p>\n Today, Ivy Coach\u2019s consultants are former admissions officers from America\u2019s most selective universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth, Penn, Brown, Columbia, UChicago, Duke, WashU, Northwestern and more. They once evaluated the very applications our students now submit. They know what impresses admissions officers because they were admissions officers themselves. And we\u2019ve trained them to help students present singular narratives that make admissions committees take notice. That\u2019s our distinguishing excellence, backed by our track record.<\/p>\n But a compelling story isn\u2019t merely something you declare. Instead, it\u2019s something you demonstrate. If your business\u2019s website looks like it was designed when dial-up internet was cutting-edge, like many of our competitors, what story does that tell? If you\u2019re not publishing thought leadership or offering original perspectives, what distinguishes you? How could we credibly promise to position students extraordinarily well if we didn\u2019t hold our business to the same standard?<\/p>\n My storytelling roots predate running a business in elite college admissions. I worked in Hollywood, including as head of development for Kelsey Grammer\u2019s company at Lionsgate Television, where we acquired and developed the rights to books we believed could be adapted into extraordinary television series and films. At the time, countless producers walked into studios pitching original ideas. The challenge wasn\u2019t having a great story. Rather, it was making executives believe your story was the one they couldn\u2019t afford to pass up.<\/p>\n Whether it was the economic theories in Freakonomics<\/em> as the foundation for a police procedural<\/a>, the rights to an F. Scott Fitzgerald story<\/a> reimagined as a science-fiction mystery or abolitionist John Brown\u2019s failed 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry that helped propel America toward the Civil War, our task was to make executives see what others hadn\u2019t. We brought John Brown\u2019s story to Showtime. We dared them to pass. They didn\u2019t. The resulting production, The Good Lord Bird<\/em>, won a Peabody Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason Anthony Zuiker, the creator of CSI<\/em>, named his production company Dare to Pass after enduring rejection after rejection in Hollywood. He understood that the goal wasn\u2019t merely to pitch a good idea but rather to make saying no feel like a terrible mistake.<\/p>\n The same principle applies whether you\u2019re pitching a television series, building a company or applying to Harvard. Everyone has something to pitch. The magic is telling your story so compellingly that passing on it feels like the bigger risk.<\/p>\n Every December, when disappointed applicants who did not work with us arrive for PostMortems with Ivy Coach, the problem becomes obvious. Their applications overflow with accomplishments and self-congratulation, when the objective is to make admissions officers root for them, not roll their eyes. What they lack is a reason to choose them over everyone else.<\/p>\n Too many businesses suffer from the same problem. They never answer the question that matters most: Why you?<\/em> So ask yourself: What\u2019s the singular story that sets your business apart? Does every prospective client interaction reinforce it? Don\u2019t just tell your audience why you\u2019re good. Show it. Dare them to say no.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nColleges don\u2019t want well-rounded students<\/h2>\n
Stop trying to be everything to everybody<\/h2>\n
Your business needs a narrative through-line<\/h2>\n
Storytelling is in our business\u2019 DNA<\/h2>\n
Give them a reason they can\u2019t say no<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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