The Business of College Consulting
The Business of College Consulting
Balancing Solo Success in College Consulting with Sylvia Borgo
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Sylvia Borgo, owner of DJ Educational Consulting, shares her journey from classroom teacher to successful college consultant and explains how she maintains a small, intentional practice that prioritizes deep student connections. She offers practical advice about the power of organization, time management, and professional collaboration in building a sustainable consulting business.
• Named her business after her children's initials (and coincidentally it jived with her love of music)
• Transitioned from 20 years of classroom teaching, including 13 years at a college prep charter school
• Started volunteering with a community-based organization to stay connected with helping teenagers
• Completed her college consulting certificate during 2020 when she had extra time available
• Grew her business through referrals from other consultants who had reached capacity
• Believes in freely sharing information rather than hoarding knowledge
• Maintains an intentional solo practice to preserve deep connections with students
• Works with approximately 20 students per grade level to maintain quality and work-life balance
• Meets students both in-person and virtually, which differentiates her from exclusively online consultants
• Specializes in working with students from specific local high schools
• Uses time blocking, including dedicated social media time once monthly
• Offers two package options: 30 hours (for 9th-11th graders) and 20 hours (for 11th-12th graders)
• Meticulously tracks time using Toggle to manage client expectations and forecast capacity
If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or share it with a friend in the college consulting industry.
Welcome to the Business of College Consulting podcast. I'm your host, brooke Daly, founder and CEO of Advantage College Planning and Advantage College Planning. Franchising, building and growing a business is not for the faint of heart. In this podcast, you'll hear incredible stories from successful college consultants about growing a thriving business. They'll share the secrets behind their remarkable growth and the trials and triumphs shaping their path to success. Welcome to the Business of College Consulting podcast. I'm your host, Brooke Daly, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Sylvia Borgo, owner of DJ Educational Consulting.
Speaker 2:Welcome, sylvia, thank you so much for having me, brooke. I can't wait to have a wonderful conversation about our work together.
Speaker 1:Oh, the pleasure is all mine. Thank you for taking the time. So first, I don't usually do this, but first I just want to know DJ Educational Consulting, your name is Sylvia Borgo and I'm like, okay, so it's not your name. Tell us a little bit about how your name came to be.
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh. Okay, so flashback a few years. I was, so Borgo is not a very common last name, and so I didn't really want to attach my name to my business because I had had another business under that name. It was actually a photography business so I wanted to just go with something completely different. People who know me well know that I absolutely love music, but not necessarily like dance, dj music. However, my kids' names start with D and J, and so my youngest, whose name starts with a J, said you know what I think your business should be JD, educational consultant. He wanted to be first, so when I launched the business, he was like a young kid, but sadly that name was taken, so it had to be DJ, which then kind of blended with this idea of like, well, sylvia loves music and DJs play music, so I went with DJ educational consulting.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that story, sylvia. I'm always so curious about names and how they came to be, so thank you for sharing that. And can you share a little bit about how you got into college consulting? You mentioned photography. That is not college consulting or college related. Can you share a little bit about how you got into the industry?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely so. For 20 years I was a classroom teacher, and the last 13 years of my career I taught at a 6 through 12 charter school and it was a college prep school, so all students were on the college track and would take classes that would support that goal. And the wonderful part about that? I was a history and a language arts teacher, but the wonderful part of that is that I also had a cohort of students and that cohort started with me in sixth grade and it was called an advisory prep class, university prep class, and that cohort would graduate with their university prep teacher. And so I mentioned that because, even though I was teaching history and English language arts, I had the privilege of knowing these students who started off as 11 and 12 years old and then I would see them at the very end as 18-year-olds getting ready for their college process, and that was a fabulous experience.
Speaker 2:I still really, really miss those families that the school would attract. They were all first-gen, all students that would receive a Pell Grant, so their families were making under a certain set of income for the year, and so I miss those families and I absolutely miss my exceptional colleagues. However, we had a really fantastic opportunity as a family to travel for about a year outside of the US, and so I had to leave the classroom in 2016. And so, because of my husband's job, we went ahead and took this opportunity and lived abroad with our two at that age elementary age kids in 2016. And we left, and I never returned to the classroom.
Speaker 2:However, upon coming back after that one year adventure, I really still miss working with teenagers, because they're so fantastic, right. Teenagers are so ready to take on the world and they have all these wonderful ideas of who they are and who they want to be and who they want to develop. So I really miss that energy. So I started volunteering with a local community-based organization called Partners in College Success local community-based organization called Partners in College Success, and I had to do a lot of learning because those kids were sharp and they were peppering me with questions. So in 2019 is when I decided I really needed further training. It was beyond what I had been working with in my university prep setting. So that's when I began to think about moving into the UCI certificates and I took. The one positive thing about COVID of that one that crazy year 2020, was that I had a lot of time on my hands, and so I finished my certificate in one year and then left my business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Wow, that's awesome. So tell me a little bit about your growth. How did you, when you first started, tell me about how did you market yourself? How did you find your people, your prospective clients, maybe your own network of IECs? Can you share a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have to say that that was probably one of the scariest things of launching. I felt like I had all this experience and skills and knowledge based on my work with teenagers, really for about 20 years, 20 plus years but what I didn't have is the business sense, even though the UCI certificate class did have a business class, which was fabulous. I've never gone to business school, I never had gotten any training in that, and so that was really scary. So a big shout out goes to all the other wonderful IECs who local IECs at first, who said you know, hey, I have no more room in my junior class, do you want a pair of twins? And that's what primarily kicked off a portion of my business. So a big shout out to this wonderful and giving generous community of IECs that we know.
Speaker 1:Sylvia, can we just pause right there, Because I tell new IECs all the time, like, get involved in your local group of IECs. And some of them are so fearful, like, oh, they're my competition or oh, like I'm you know, they have imposter syndrome or they feel like they don't belong and I'm like, please, this is the most collaborative community of individuals, professionals Like there are many benefits of getting involved and there is a perfect one. You may get new clients from that group. So thank you for pointing that out.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, and I firmly believe in in. I'm not the IEC for every student out there, so there really is no competition. Not only do people have their niches, whether that be the fine arts or athletics or military academies, which those are not my specialties, but not only that, but my own style and my own philosophy and structure is my own brand, if you will, and so I'm sure that families I really firmly believe that families should get to know the different approaches of different IECs and really go with the one that fits their student best. So there's plenty of room for collaboration for sure.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that. So, above and beyond having prospective clients come your way through that local group of IECs, how else did you get your name out there? What was successful, maybe? What did you try that wasn't so successful?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm a firm believer of giving information out, and this is another thing that sometimes other IECs may not agree with. They want to hold all that information close to their chest. But truly and I may be wrong here what we do is, the power of what we do is not in the information, because that's Google-able. If that's even a word, you can Google that. You can go read every blog posts or attend webinars. That's not what I don't think. That's where the power lies. The power lies in our connections with families, the support we give students.
Speaker 2:As a matter of fact, I was just talking to a senior who I got in touch with to kind of debrief and say you know, have you committed? What are your thoughts? Do you have any questions for me? And we I've known this student since 10th grade and so we have a really great working relationship, and so at the very end of that debrief meeting I asked him so how did you feel about this process? Like, look, you're such a motivated, engaged young man, young student. Did what we do together even matter? And we were kind of joking around, right and he's. And he said you know all of that structure and the curriculum, all of that helped. But he said the most powerful part was the fact that you um believed and encouraged me and coached me along. He said because I'm sure I could have figured that all out, like when to apply. I could have looked at deadlines, I could have looked at the essays and figured something out, but the fact that you were in my corner is what helped the most in the learning.
Speaker 2:And so I guess that goes back to my teaching hat. I teach, I coach, I support. I obviously am handing out a lot of information, that I recent information as I visit professional conferences or speak with admissions leaders, et cetera. So back to the original answer, which is give out information. My kids were at a certain age, so I was unknown in some of the parent boards for the local high school. My kids had been involved in a couple of sports and other extracurricular activities, so I was, you know, the marching band mom or the soccer mom, and I also happened to know a lot about college. So people would ask questions and again, giving out information. Oh, there's this thing called early action and then there's this thing called early decision. So giving out information is really helped solidify my knowledge base and if parents were seeking more robust help, like the guidance of their student and the structuring of this whole process. Then they went ahead and reached out.
Speaker 1:I love that. Yes, content really is a. You know it's one of the best, I think, marketing strategies Did you try anything that didn't work?
Speaker 2:I can't think of anything right now. I think I wanted to be really intentional and really pragmatic with my business growth. I'm in a very fortunate position to not necessarily so. This doesn't pay my mortgage, right. I come from a dual income family and so we made some smart decisions about not having this absolutely be what breaks or makes our family's economic structure, and so I think I was able to grow this business pretty slowly and pragmatically, so I don't think I tried anything that hasn't worked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that that's perfectly acceptable. So I'm curious to know I think a lot of IECs in our industry love you and know you for your technology skills and know-how. If you were to give one piece of advice to a new IEC related to technology, what would it be?
Speaker 2:Okay. So there are so many fancy tools out there and I'm not a I believe that you have to adopt what you have to adopt whatever feels comfortable for you. So the number one piece of advice I would say is identify your pain point first and then look for the tool that will help you. So if your pain point is scheduling oh, I get peppered in the emails back and forth adopt a tool that addresses that pain point. That could be Calendly Many of us are big fans of Calendly or Acuity.
Speaker 2:If your pain point is managing clients when to send contracts, how to send them, how to collect payments, how to onboard them then adopt the tool that will address that pain point. So, organizing, organizing information adopt the tool or tools that will help with that. So that and I'm very, very organized. I think if people were to say, like what, when you think of Sylvia, what's the one thing you can say? I would say organized is what most people who know me well would say that and I'm also a very light packer when I travel. So those are my two claims to fame.
Speaker 2:We'll talk about that later, Sylvia, because I have a lot of problems so you can coach me on that. But yeah, so just that organization, the adoption of tools that help you will, I think, free up the hours to then really focus on the students and families and for the creativity, the creativity that this job requires.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's a great answer, sylvia. How about for experienced IECs? What do you see as the most common or maybe common, I guess challenges that experienced IECs have? I'm thinking of the IEC who maybe reaches max capacity with their client base and they're like okay, what do I do now and what would be your advice to them?
Speaker 2:Oof goodness, I guess. Identify what it is. That. What's your goal? So, if they reach max capacity, do they want to send that family off to someone else, like that one IEC did back when I got started? Do they want to consider hiring other members, whether that be administrative members, to help them with some of those tasks that may not be in there that they don't love as much? So I guess I identify what their goals are. Do they want to grow the business? Do they want to bring on two or three people, or just the SA people? Because we all work so differently right, and so I feel like we have to honor what feels right to us.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love that answer. Thank you, Sylvia. So can you talk about your business growth? I would love to hear you know do you work with any contractors? Do you have a team? Have you stayed solo? Is that an intentional decision? Like, talk a little bit about your growth story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've stayed solo and I will remain solo, I believe, for a very long time. I'm a one woman show. I'd like to say I do do it all. So I started off in with my first set of actually essay kids. I started just with essays back in 2019 at the same time that I was doing the CBO work. Then I also I worked with college essay guide for a couple of years under different capacities and that was fabulous. But I considered that all part of my learning and part of my own personal growth in this industry.
Speaker 2:But for my business growth, I do feel that I like all the parts of the process. I like the work that I do with students at the beginning, helping them develop their interests through either co-curriculars or advanced courses, whatever that might be. I like talking to the families about college affordability at the beginning and getting them started on all that research and then really fast forwarding to like the tail end of this work that we do together the college list, the balanced college list and the essays, of course, which take up such a huge chunk of that. I like all of it because I really value these deep connections that I form with families of it, because I really value these deep connections that I form with families through the years.
Speaker 2:Most of my students start in the end of ninth or the beginning of 10th, so I really get to know these kids for two, three years, and that's the one reason I plan to remain solo. I don't really want to say goodbye to them at the essay process and hand them off to somebody else, and so, with that being said, I do remain a small practice. I take about 20 students per grade level. That also gives me a little bit of room to continue to work with the community or volunteer for the community-based organization, because those kids are amazing. So I definitely will stay as a one-woman show.
Speaker 1:I love that and there's. I think there's nothing wrong with that. I think a lot of IECs get to this point and they say, oh well, I don't want to turn people away or I don't, but if that's what you love and I love hearing that you love every step of the process like you don't want to give any of that up. It's unusual to have an IEC, though, that loves every part of the business process, like usually it's like, oh, I want to offload bookkeeping or some of the backend things that I don't love doing. I'm curious to know. You have a very beautiful social media presence. Is that something that you do yourself? Are you committed to that? Because you do a great job? It's so on brand, you have your colors. Everyone should check out Sylvia's social media. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. So, yes, I do all of that myself. So I think I'm a frustrated graphic design artist. If I ever come back and can't get to live another life, I think maybe I'll do that. Actually, back to the photography touching base to that I wanted to be. So here's a funny thing. Last night I was talking to a parent. I gave a talk to a bunch of marching band parents and students I co-presented, with a few people. Anyway, the parent of an eighth grader said oh my goodness, I am so worried my child hasn't decided what they want to be. And I was like they're 13. They're 13. And so really, all of this is to say that I wanted to be a photographer for National Geographic when I was 13,.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be a photographer for National Geographic when I was 13, I wanted to either be a backup singer for Duran Duran those of you that are old enough know who that is or a photographer for National Geographic or a civil rights lawyer. Okay, none of those happen. None of those happen, but the core of those interests really are still present. I still love photography. I actually do still take photos at concerts sometimes. I love music and I'm really very passionate about, you know, civil rights and social issues and so forth. So my graphic design, canva tech tools, social media presence that's really kind of a really fun creative outlet. I love trying to be creative with those tools and it's kind of like a fun Friday morning project that I take on like once a month.
Speaker 1:I love that. Oh, once a month. So that's key. So I'm going to double click on that. But first I just want to say what it or, I guess, ask what advice do you have for newer consultants who are trying to do all of the things and they want to have a professional social media presence? What would you recommend they do?
Speaker 2:I think, going back to my middle name, organization and again, it's not for everybody, right, but if they really want to be a one-person show, I think organization is key. So I did say once a month, once a month, on a Friday morning, I chunk I time, chunk two hours into my schedule to play around with Canva. I absolutely love that tool Super easy to work with, I think. And one of my organizational hacks is to not only block out that intentional time to do social media but to batch process. So if I have, for example, announcements of where my students are going, where they decided to enroll, I batch process all that. So I upload all the photos of the students or all their names, whatever it is. Then I create a template or use one of the templates and modify it and then chunk out those announcements. Those could be 15, 20 announcements.
Speaker 2:I also batch process, for example, my Tuesday tips. So I upload all of those and schedule them. And that chunk of time which I allot for social media and use Canva for fantastic tool allows me to be like, really super productive. Now, the following Friday, I might use that time to do list building. I won't do social media, I'll do list building or I'll do, catching up on all the emails, or sending out emails, or creating the newsletter, whatever it might be. So I feel like for IECs who are looking for ways to make all parts of the business a little bit more manageable, is to be intentional with those chunks of time.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are speaking my language, sonia. I am all about time blocking, like find the day of the week that you intend on, set it aside, put it in your calendar, just like any other meeting, or? Yes, I love that, thank you. Can you share a little bit about maybe your biggest challenges over the last year? Maybe it's related to college consulting, working with students or parents, or maybe it's the business side, but what challenges have you had and maybe share a little bit about how that's going?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like I need to get out there and visit more schools. I think that that's one of the things that has really made me feel a little bit like an imposter, and there are two sides of that. So I started actively. Like I said, I completed my certificate in 2020 and that was during COVID, so I couldn't really visit any schools that year and at that time most of my students were really just looking at the California schools, primarily the UCs and the Cal States, so there was a little room and maybe a lack of motivation that year 2021, now we're talking about 2021, when the world opened up just a little bit more to get out there and visit a lot of schools. So I think one of the things that has really been a challenge is to find the pockets of opportunity to tour all these wonderful colleges that are out there. I did just get back from a trip in Texas. I visited three schools, so that was fantastic with a good friend from Orange County.
Speaker 2:Another way that we collaborate right Like find your travel buddies and get out there and hit the road I love that. Collaborate right Like find your travel buddies and get out there and hit the road I love that, but I feel like I need to find out more about those small liberal arts colleges. Those are not usually on the radar of my students, but at the same time I'm also trying to honor becoming more of an expert on the colleges that they are very interested in. I think most of my students tend to skew towards the large publics, whether in-state or out-of-state, but I think when I do get a student that's like oh, I want small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast. That's where my lack of knowledge could definitely be expanded.
Speaker 1:I love that and I think we all feel that from time to time like, oh, I need to find time, yeah, to get on more campuses, and the same thing goes for I think you know we talk about working on your business and in your business, like finding the time to work on your business and not just working with students, and it sounds like you do a really great job of balancing that.
Speaker 1:Right, you talked about time chunking and setting aside time, which I think is great advice. So, yes, I get that. And you know, I think tacking on tours to conferences is so fantastic. So, like the IECA conference, I know a lot of people will be touring schools in Detroit, and I think what's awesome about that is not only seeing the schools, but then you get to spend time on the bus with your colleagues and have fun conversations and you meet people, people from different parts of the country and then, when you get back to your home state, you have a student who wants to go to school in another state and you're like I just talked to someone who lives in this state, so there's value there.
Speaker 2:Those bus tours. So I did also visit some schools through IECA in Scotland in February and that was so much fun and I got to meet so many wonderful other IECs that I hadn't met before on those wonderful bus tours. But, if I may, I wanted to bring up something that I, just as you were speaking, I thought about. I think one of the biggest things that helped me grow as a business person, specifically with the knowledge of applications and admissions and also colleges and programs, is again going back to that collaboration piece. So I think that if a new IEC was looking for ways to continue their professional development of course we know of wonderful programs like STI, of course a certificate program Then I know that there are several roundtables for the associates and the students and then different roundtables for business and the professional members.
Speaker 2:So my co-workers because I work at a co-working space and we see me it's like maybe three times, four times a week, like, let's say, tuesdays and Thursdays, I have my meetings with students. But then they always ask me like what do you do? What do you do the rest of the time? Like we see you in here all the time, but we don't see you with students. What I'm doing is meeting with other professionals in these different roundtables and, additionally, I think the most powerful piece of my growth has also been these smaller groups that have been formed or that we formed during that COVID time. So I meet with other colleagues on Wednesday mornings and Thursday afternoons, and every other month I think, also on Thursday mornings, and it's these wonderful group of people from across the United States that have we're all growing together across the United States that have um, we're all growing together. So I think that that has been such like the number one factor for my professional growth.
Speaker 1:Do you have any specific examples of maybe something you learned or someone you met that really made a difference in you or your business?
Speaker 2:Yes, oh gosh. So many people, so many people to call out, oh my gosh. We should have like in the movies. You know how they have the like rolling.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like we should just have like a name like all my favorite people, right? So all of the people we get that.
Speaker 2:All of the people I'll give you the names and we can pop them in the show notes. No, there are people out there that have really wonderful deep experience with the UCs, the programs and so forth. So one of my really great friends and co-colleague is Cindy McCormick. She's in Orange County and we are. The reason she came to mind first, aside from the fact that she's absolutely fabulous, is because she and I are conference roommates, so we've been going to conferences and we always share the room to keep costs down a little bit. She's fabulous at having these summer workshops in for rising seniors and she is another super duper organized person. So she's fantastic. She's also great with her knowledge of hiring an administrative assistant. That's very, very central to her work with students. Lauren Joyce is another California kiddo that I really highly admire. Mark Bechtol, julie McNair, veena Rao, amber Thompson. Jeff Levy was fantastic at the very beginning. He was so supportive of you know, my growth and my learning. So many, so many growth.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that, sylvia, I love it. You know, can you talk a little bit about being in an area where there are a lot of IECs, which I think is a benefit from a marketing perspective, because I think families in California have known for a long time about college consultants and what they do and the value. But there's also the side where a lot of newer IECs are intimidated because there are so many and they feel again that imposter syndrome. Can you just talk a little bit about what? Maybe because you touched upon having a focus area, like maybe athletics or you know the military academies, and so how have you developed, like, your niche in the industry? Or what makes you different from a marketing perspective? Like how have you been able to say I, you want to hire me because dot, dot, dot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's fantastic. So I think right now I'm a little bit unique, at least in the local area, because I do meet students. Many of them meet with me in person. Like I mentioned, I have a co-working space and so we have office space here and I meet with them, and they also have the option to meet with me via Zoom if that's what their schedule calls for, and I think that that has helped some of my business.
Speaker 2:I think if all things were equal, if pricing was equal with another local ice, if approach was equal, if expertise was equal, if even the vibe was equal, but parents were looking for someone to meet with their student in person because that was their favorite way of learning or interacting, then they might choose me over the other person who's exclusively Zoom, and I personally love it. I don't know if I'm an introverted extrovert or an extroverted introvert. I'm kind of I'm not sure which one that is, but I do love meeting with students in person. It is so energizing and really fantastic to see them face to face, to like just yeah, it's human, it's that human interaction.
Speaker 2:So that could be one way that I've differentiated myself, another way that I think I've differentiated myself, even though it seems a little silly to say is that I really am kind of a local expert. I know four or five high school really really well and I think when parents talk and they refer word of mouth they definitely say I've heard them say she is an expert at this high school. She knows the teachers, the program, the schedule, the breaks. She is an expert for these high schools, the options, the choices that students can make, and I feel like that is my niche the local high schools, the options, the choices that students can make, and I feel like that is my niche the local high schools.
Speaker 1:I love it, that's great and you know, kudos to you. We did not give up our office space even after COVID, and our team loves meeting with students in person. We do meet on Zoom as well, but I feel like the connections that you can make with a teenager in person it just it doesn't compare to what you can do on Zoom, and so we've been very committed to that and, yes, we meet with students on Zoom. Obviously it's very convenient, especially in the application season when you just need to get a student unstuck with their essay or applications or whatever they're working on. You know we can quickly do that.
Speaker 1:But I think having the opportunity to meet these young folks in person and just getting to know them and seeing them, and I think you just get a different vibe even of how they're doing and how they're feeling and with all of the mental health challenges, I just love that. We can make that strong connection and have them feel like you know we are there for them and we're that neutral third party that is coaching them and guiding them. As your student told you, you know, in the meeting you were referring to, it's like they know that we're there in their corner and I just think that that connection is so strong. Meeting in person.
Speaker 2:You know, you just reminded me, if I may, back in 2021, I was working with a student, and so this is still COVID, right, we're still wearing masks. Fall of 2021, at least here in California we were, and we had been meeting through Zoom. All year. We'd been meeting in Zoom and she just couldn't get unstuck with her essays. She just there was something blocking her and really, truly, if you think back on it, it was like the whole like drama of like COVID, zoom online school, the whole thing.
Speaker 2:So I said look, why don't we meet on the campus of UC San Diego?
Speaker 2:I'm about eight miles away from UC San Diego, so I said why don't you meet me there on this weekend in September? And we'll just walk and talk and we'll record it on our phones and I'll just ask you some questions. In this specific case, it was for the UCP IQs. So we just walked around the campus probably two, three miles and I held up the phone and I said tell me about time that you were a leader or you impacted your community, and we just had this wonderful conversation and the essays wrote themselves that night. Now, of course, she went back to polish them, but all she needed was to walk and talk and all she needed was just to be human with another human and fortuitously we actually scheduled that, without me knowing our walk and talk meeting during move-in weekend for the UC San Diego, so that campus was alive and she not only got her essays written, but she could see herself at a college and she saw people moving in and saying hello to new friends or neighbors. It was so powerful.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is genius, sylvia. I love that idea. Wow, that is fantastic.
Speaker 2:I'm a big believer of the walker and talker. As a matter of fact, I walk my dog every morning and people in my neighborhood must think I'm like talking to myself. But no, I'm actually like talking into my phone thinking out ideas.
Speaker 1:Right, I love that. I love that. That's so cool. Can we talk a little bit about curriculum? So this is something, I think that comes up a lot with new IECs. They feel overwhelmed with how do I possibly begin to develop? And I know you're a graphic artist at heart, so maybe this part was a little bit easier for you, but I would love for you to share, like when you first started with students, what did your curriculum look like and how did it develop over time and how did you put it together?
Speaker 2:Oh, fantastic. So I'm a as a former teacher and I have to say that I taught sixth grade for a good chunk of time and if you know anything about 13, 12, 13 year olds, if you don't have a plan for the classroom for those 90 minutes you're with them, you will lose them. They will start dancing on the tables in a very spirited way. So I'm a big believer of curriculum because it keeps your work and communication consistent with the students and families. It allows them to understand what the structure is. Now, of course, there will be flexibility if a student is only applying to the UCs or is thinking about only one major, et cetera, but there has to be a structure there. I don't mean to sound like super mean, but if you don't have a plan of what you want to accomplish with a family and a student, then why would they hire you, why would they trust you with that investment? So I developed my curriculum during my practicum with Caitlin Glasser, and that was the summer of 2020. And it actually was pretty easy for me to develop because, again, my teaching background, I saw it as like a unit right. So when I used to teach history, I taught, let's say, ancient Rome or ancient Egypt. There was a unit. There was the beginning, the middle, the end, what you needed the students to understand, the skills that you needed them to develop, the work that they needed to produce, to practice those skills and show their knowledge. So building out a curriculum was pretty easy.
Speaker 2:Now I have made my curriculum a bit more robust.
Speaker 2:I want to say that a couple of years ago I saw students really struggling with understanding majors, and so, even though my initial curriculum definitely focused on college affordability, the balanced college list and certainly the essays and application elements like activities lists and so forth, I think my early years I definitely was not serving my students with researching majors, and not only that, but like deeply researching colleges, I just expected them to be super excited about learning about colleges, like I was, and they weren't doing that.
Speaker 2:They were showing up to my meetings in September saying, well, what major should I choose? So far, and I was like no, we cannot go into this not understanding what you're going to be spending four more years of your life doing so. Recently and by recently I mean in the last couple of years I have been much more intentional with my curriculum to incorporate researching majors and really deeply researching colleges so that these last minute colleges additions are intentional and not because they're going with the flow of what their cousin said or what their neighbor said or what their friends are telling them. I'm perfectly okay with the college list not being, you know, adding one or two last minute colleges to the list as long as it's essential, as long as you understand why those colleges really make sense for you.
Speaker 1:So how do you handle the families that do come to you at the 11th hour with five more schools that they want to apply to?
Speaker 2:Okay. So this is where I find that setting boundaries and limits is really important. So, as I mentioned, my youngest son is a senior in high school this year and in the fall because he participates in marching band, which is their busy season I really wanted to make time to enjoy basically this last year of him being at home. I remember doing this with my oldest as well, really protecting that senior year so that I wouldn't miss all the senior year things the banquets, the award ceremonies, the senior nights. So at the 11th hour I have two options for families, three options, really One. Sometimes families just need a little bit of clarity. So I have a strategy session and in that strategy session I provide them with very key, valuable resources and, most importantly, I answer their most pressing questions. Now that strategy session is priced at a rate that is important to the family. It is an investment.
Speaker 2:But if you're one of those last minute families, that one power hour is really meaningful and I think it should be priced accordingly. They're getting a lot of bang for their buck in that one hour and, hopefully, a lot of clarity and a path to move forward. So strategy session, a paid strategy session, is one item that I present to last minute families. Secondly, they can also if they were already on their way and they have just essays to review they can certainly have a one hour meeting with me or a five hour block of time and in that five hour we can focus on essays and certainly we can make space for answering questions about what do you think about this school or that school, or how much you know. So it's really again that five hour engagement is really powerful, and if my time is up and I can't afford to spend more time in front of the screen or with families or and so forth, then I will happily send those families to other wonderful IECs that I know. Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Sylvia. So can you share how you work with families? Are you an hourly consultant? Do you do packages?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I am a package primarily person. I have two packages. It's either the 30 hour or the 20 hour. The 30-hour plan actually 35 hours for the ninth graders that come in, but let's just say 30 hours. 30 hours are really for the 10th, available to 10th and 11th graders, really not available for rising seniors because 30 hours is a lot. I can only commit to about 20 hours with them. And then the 20-hour plan is really only available to 11th graders if I have space, or those rising seniors the summer, the summer rising up for that.
Speaker 2:And I like to be. I'm meticulous with tracking my time. I don't usually like if you send me a quick email and say, hey, is there a campus I should visit? We're going on spring break, sure, visit this campus, okay, five minutes, or you know, two minutes. Going on spring break, sure, visit this campus, and okay, five minutes or two minutes to answer that email. I won't track that.
Speaker 2:But I am meticulous of tracking all my other time. So I track obviously one-on-one time, face-to-face, or Zoom meetings. I track time that it takes for me to build a college list and put together the reports. I use College Kickstart as well as Canva to develop a more narrative report Usually takes me a couple of hours and that gets chunked off of the either the 20-hour or the 30-hour plan, and I also update families as we're getting close to the end of that hour chunk to make sure that they understand where we're moving and how much the student can do without me and then certainly, some of the work that we will still do together.
Speaker 2:That's very important and I know that sometimes IECs say well, I don't really track my time On average. I average as many hours and some students will take up more of my time but some will take less and it will all balance out and I'm a firm believer of like my time is my time and my time with Brooke was my time with Brooke, which is independent of my time with Johnny or my time with Sally. So I love tracking time and it also allows me to say so. For example, right now I'm working with my rising seniors. I've already worked with them 36% of the hours I promised that class, so that allows me to forecast. Do I have room to add one more? If they were to come my way, should I offer them only a five-hour chunk? That really allows me to say these are how many more weeks for 2025 that I'm going to be working with this class, and these are how many hours I literally have to still deliver to them, and so it lets me be in control Exactly.
Speaker 1:It really does help with planning. I love that, sylvia. I love it. Thank you for sharing that, so can you share? Also share what technology tool do you use for time tracking?
Speaker 2:So, super easy, super free. I use two, but one of them is called Toggle T-O-G-G-L-E. It's free. As soon as I'm with Brooke at 8 am I hit start and stop. Actually, if a Brooke's meeting is actually just mark it out on my calendar, you can also sync it. I haven't done that yet, but you can also sync it with Google. Haven't done that yet, but you can also sync it with Google calendar so that it'll just track and it'll just know. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Oh, thank you for sharing, sylvia. So, as our time is coming to an end, are there any questions that I haven't asked you yet that you wish that I had, or do you have any other words of wisdom, advice for newer or experienced IECs that you'd love to share?
Speaker 2:So I gave you my top tip, which is develop your network right, Develop your group of people that will support you and motivate you and challenge you.
Speaker 1:So that's number one or another question I'll pose is have you read anything recently that has given you pause, either related to our work or maybe not?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. So the last book that I read that I thought was really important for families actually. So maybe this isn't a good answer, but for families is Ballad of Friends at the Gate, and I know that that wasn't a recent book, but I really loved the perspective of balance between, like you can, you can have. You have a lot of things that you can control, but there are certainly elements of this process that you can control, so that maybe that's maybe more for the families.
Speaker 2:Another one, the Never Enough book, which came out, I think, maybe a couple of years ago, and I think, oh my gosh I'm blanking out on the author's name but I thought that was fantastic and that was also really fantastic for families, but I think, also really important for IECs, because I feel like teenagers, some of them, many of them, really feel the intense pressure, and I know that many of our colleagues are so supportive in honoring all the students' strengths and presenting all the opportunities.
Speaker 2:So we definitely try to remove that pressure. But I think for IECs it's really vital to understand, especially for older IECs and I consider myself an older IEC too, since I don't have the younger kids. I mean, my kids are finally, you know, heading on their way or, you know, are out of a nest. Pretty much, I'll be an empty nester in a matter of months, but I think it's really important for IECs to remember what it's like for these kids, especially if we are older and haven't gone through the process with either family members or our own children or people that we know that are in that age.
Speaker 1:So I really appreciated that book for sure. Likewise, sylvia, I love it, and we as a team we just read the Disengaged Teen as well Very similar, you know, talking about the different types of learners and it was eye-opening and one that I wish that all of our client families would read so well. Sylvia, I have so enjoyed our time together. Thank you so much for being on today. Thank you, thank you for listening to this episode of the Business of College Consulting. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. If you did enjoy it, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or share it with a friend in the college consulting industry. I'll see you next week on our new episode and in the meantime, take care.