IAM635- Consultant Facilitates Storytelling for Graduate Admissions

Linda Abraham founded Accepted in 1994, launched the accepted.com website in 1996, and has grown Accepted ever since from a part-time editing service to one of the most well-known graduate admissions consultancies in the country. In 2007 she co-founded the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants and served as its first president. She also co-authored the book, MBA Admissions for Smarties, and hosts the Admissions Straight Talk podcast, which she started in 2012.

Linda earned her bachelor's and MBA from UCLA.

• CEO Hack: A calendar program to save time
• CEO Nugget: Never stop experimenting
• CEO Defined: Establishing a vision for my company and empowering my staff to realize the vision

Website: https://www.accepted.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/MBA-Admission-Smarties-No-Nonsense-Acceptance/dp/1466294981

Facebook: https://facebook.com/Accepted
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Accepted
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/accepted.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/AcceptedVideo

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Linda Abraham of accepted.com Linda, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Linda Abraham 0:39

A pleasure to meet you. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Linda so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Linda founded Accepted in 1994 launched the accepted.com website in 1996, and has grown accepted ever since from a part-time editing service to one of the most well-known graduate admissions consultancies in the country. In 2007, she co-founded the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants and served as its first president. She is also co-author of the book MBA Admissions for Smarties and hosts the Admissions Straight Talk podcast, which she started in 2012. Linda earned her Bachelor's in MBA from UCLA. Linda, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Linda Abraham 1:25

Sure. Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 1:27

You're very, very welcome. Yeah, super excited to have you on the show. So I wanted to, I guess, hear more from the beginning and how everything got started. Could you take us through your CEO story and what led you to start your business?

Linda Abraham 1:38

Well, it started quite a while ago and very unintentionally, I was a writing tutor at UCLA as an undergrad, this goes, I'm going to date myself, way back to the mid-70s. And I love the work of one on one tutoring and editing essays and student's work. But I didn't see any way to make a career out of it. You know, at the time, my parents were very much you became an accountant or a lawyer or a doctor. And I fainted at the sight of blood. So the doctor was definitely out. I had decided I didn't want to be a lawyer. And that kind of left me at a crossroads. Eventually, I earned an MBA, and my husband and I started our family. And later on, I even got a real estate broker's license. But after, when our sixth child was about three years old,

we decided I needed to make some more money than I had been doing as a part-time real estate agent. At the time, the real estate market in Los Angeles, which is where I live was in a downturn. And to really make some serious income from it, it would have killed family time. And my children were still young. So, my husband encouraged me to go back to some kind of part-time work that I could do at home. This was the early 90s. And working at home was much less common than it is today And he encouraged me to do that. And I had always liked this editing stuff. And I thought and I have friends who are writers and I thought maybe I could do something with that. So I started advertising at UCLA and USC.

And just, I thought I'd edit research papers. I kept being asked to edit the application essays and personal statements that are part of the graduate school admission application process. And again, I love the work and I decided to focus on that niche. And it was also about the time when the internet was becoming a little bit more of a popular medium for us through things like CompuServe and AOL. And then actually the internet itself. And I put up our first website in 1996. And ever since then, we've been experimenting and moving on and growing it into a full-service admissions consultancy.

Gresham Harkless 3:52

Nice. I absolutely love that and that you haven't looked back since and, you know, just the evolutionary kind of process of you going back to what lit you up. It sounds like in the very beginning. I love that. And I think so many times we look at people at whatever path they're at, or whatever step they're at in the process. And we never see that kind of behind the scenes. We never see what took them to get there. And we never seen kind of all the work and everything you put in we just see you have a phenomenal business and phenomenal site, and all the awesome things you're doing but we don't necessarily see like you did so much work years and years ago before you got there. And that has all built up into the excellence that you have now.

Linda Abraham 4:29

You know, there's one of the things I remember, as a child if you're gonna talk about looking back, was I always love biographies, people's stories. And I mean to this day, I like to read biographies, but as a child, I remember going to my school library and there was like one stack that was all biographies. And all I wanted to do was go to that stack and my mom, my teachers, Linda, go read something else And of course and I love to read, I could read for hours. And what I'm doing now is basically the story of people's lives. I'm helping them tell their story. So anyway, it does go back away. That's the long short of it.

Gresham Harkless 5:13

Yeah, that's the beauty of it too, is I think sometimes we never know if we're fully in alignment, even though it has manifests itself in a different way, obviously, you know, doing and helping people, get into whatever school or our education they might be or school, but it still is the same kind of concept, and we lose sight of what exactly we're supposed to do in our purpose, I like to say, so, truly appreciate you for doing that. So if somebody's listening to this, can you take us through exactly what you're doing and accept? How exactly do you work with your clients and how that process goes?

Linda Abraham 5:49

Okay, well, except that it's first of all two things. One, it's a free resource for applicants, okay, there's tons of information, on how to apply how to write essays, how to interview, there's the podcast that you already mentioned, there's a very active blog, webinars, free guides, it's all there. However, the the business part of it, the revenue-making part of it, which is important for CEOs is our one-on-one consultancy, so excepted has experts in MBA admissions, either, consultants who have worked for decades, or former admissions directors, people who have served on admissions committees, who actually work with the clients and help them compellingly tell their story. that's the point.

You get accepted to the right schools, for them. That's part of it. It's not only how you tell your story, it's what you bring to the table and choosing the schools that will help you achieve your goals. So, especially graduate school is not a means it's not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. So choosing the most effective means is part of the process.

Gresham Harkless 7:01

Yeah, absolutely. And definitely let me know if you know, you feel this the same way. But I sometimes kind of here's like, it's kind of like a, I don't want to call it a foreign language. But when you're learning a language, sometimes, you have things to translate. so, that it gets to the goal that you want to be able to communicate with somebody. And I kind of feel like it might be something along the lines, of what you guys do sometimes people are doing really phenomenal things. But if you aren't able to kind of put the I guess, old school pen to pad and be able to sell yourself and sell all the awesome things that you're doing to the admissions department and to those people and understand what exactly they're looking for, then it's pretty much not going to be as beneficial if you're not able to do that.

Linda Abraham 7:44

Absolutely. It's a completely different genre of writing. I mean, most people have people applying to graduate school, let's say, have written research papers, that's part of going to college. If they're coming from work and have worked for a while, they might know how to write business memos, especially if they're applying to MBA programs. They might know how to write consulting papers. If you're applying to medical school, again, you might know how to write a scientific research paper, but writing about yourself. That's a whole different thing. How do you write about yourself in a way that highlights your strengths and your achievements, but doesn't come across as bragging? How do you perhaps provide context for a mid-step without coming across as whining, So those are all things that have to do with the presentation of what you've done what you've achieved, or what you've overcome. And that's where we come in.

Gresham Harkless 8:42

Nice, well, I love that. And you've been able to kind of lean on that expertise and in the experience that you and your team have to be able to get accepted, which is ultimately the goal. So you might have already touched on this, but I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and it can be for yourself personally or your business. What do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Linda Abraham 9:02

All right, I think there are a few things that as a business make us unique. And then I as the CEO, decided we're gonna be really critical to to our business. And we've been in business now for 25 years. So I have and you know, there have been a few ups and downs but mostly growing. So I think that the secret sauce that has made us one of the oldest admissions consultancies around certainly one of the oldest under the same management is three things. It's the experience of our staff. We have consultants who have been on missions for decades.

Yes, we do have younger consultants also maybe one decade, five years, one decade, but some of them have been doing this for 20-30 years. So the experience and expertise that they bring to the table the perspective I think is really distinctive and is part of the company's secret sauce. The other element that I think is part of our secret sauce is our dedication to our clients. So that dedication manifests itself in the acceptance rate of our clients, which is much higher than overall acceptance rates. But it also manifests itself in the fact that I will instruct every single consultant that if they are advising clients on what service to buy, they don't just recommend the most expensive service. Yes, we'd like it when they buy them, I'm not going to say we don't have to recommend the service that's most appropriate for the client.

Gresham Harkless 10:38

No, you're absolutely right. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Linda Abraham 10:50

One thing that I've started using recently, and I think it's a tremendous saver, and I know you use it too because we were corresponding. And that is a calendar program, allowing people to select their time without the back and forth, I can do it Monday to or Wednesday, three or Thursday at 10. A calendar program is such a time saver,

Gresham Harkless 11:10

I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or something. If you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your younger self.

Linda Abraham 11:19

Never stop experimenting. Okay, you have to keep trying new things. This is a very, very dynamic business environment. And it's definitely not enough to just do a good job. Doing a good job. That is a ticket of entry. That's your starting point.

Gresham Harkless 11:37

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quick co-CEOs on the show. So Linda, what has being a CEO meant to you?

Linda Abraham 11:49

Being a CEO means to me establishing a vision for my company, and empowering my staff to realize that vision.

Gresham Harkless 11:59

Awesome. I love that. And I think that when you have that vision, and you have exactly where you want to take the company. And I love the word empowering, because I think so many times in leadership, you're kind of telling people that you could tie try to tell people to do X, Y, and Z or A, B, and C, but when you empower them, they become leaders within themselves. And then they start to propel things forward, they start to bring things that maybe other options and things like that. And that's when you still truly start to innovate, you truly start to hit goals and aspirations and reach that goal and that vision that we have,

Linda Abraham 12:29

Absolutely. I think I read somewhere that a definition of a leader is somebody who empowers others to lead. I don't remember who said it, but I really liked it.

Gresham Harkless 12:40

Yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna take credit for it if you don't remember. So, you know, everybody else pops in. So I truly appreciate that. And I think is a great reminder, because you know, true leadership, I always define it as somebody who empowers others and sees other people with different strengths and weaknesses and understands how best they can collaborate so that you can, as a group and organization reach that goal. And it depicts that mission.

Linda Abraham 13:10

I think I did once here, a quote that was attributed to Eisenhower, leadership is motivating others to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

Gresham Harkless 13:21

Oh, that's powerful. And that's getting deep into the psychology of you knowing who is on your team and you know what they want to do. And you motivate them to do it. Not because you want them to do it, but because they truly deep down really want to do it and make the goal.

Linda Abraham 13:37

They get inspired by the goal which shares the goal.

Gresham Harkless 13:39

Exactly. Exactly. Well, awesome. Linda, I truly appreciate that. And I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome. Thanks to the teams working on it.

Linda Abraham 13:58

I think I don't think it really has anything to add, you've asked wonderful questions, and they have great, great interviewers. So thank you very much. In terms of the best way to get in touch with me. The website is www.accepted.com. Just that simple. And there any listener can choose to focus on MBA, med, law, grad, or college admissions, and take advantage of the free resources by all means, if you want that one-on-one assistance, we're more than happy to help you to reach out to me personally to accepted.com/linda and that will connect you with a page where you can get in touch with me.

Gresham Harkless 14:34

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Linda. I truly appreciate that. And appreciate all the awesome things you're doing. We will have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you as well. But thank you again and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 14:47

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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