IAM2668 – School Admissions Expert on Mindset and Growth

Dr. Shirag Shemmassian's Journey and Consulting Model

This “I Am CEO” podcast, hosted by Gresham Harkless, features Dr. Shirag Shemmassian, a college and medical school admissions expert and founder of Shemmassian Consulting, a seven-figure business. Shirag's journey to entrepreneurship was organic, starting with self-taught admissions success into Cornell and nearly a decade of informally helping family and friends. Inspired by personal finance and entrepreneurship literature, he recognized his unique skill set and formalized his side hustle into Shemmassian Consulting in 2013. The company’s growth stems from focusing on high-stakes admissions for top schools, providing extensive guidance that encompasses pre-application choices like activities and course selection, application strategy, and crucially, helping students craft compelling essays to communicate their story effectively and stand out from other high-achieving applicants.

Secret Sauce, CEO Hack, and the Power of Mindset

The core of Shirag's success, and his “secret sauce,” is being others-centered—demonstrating genuine support and understanding of the applicant's mental state, dreams, and goals rather than merely listing services. For efficiency, his top CEO Hack is using calendar scheduling software like Calendly to eliminate rote administrative tasks. His most profound piece of wisdom, the CEO Nugget, is tied to the quote, “Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.” He stresses that mindset is paramount; entrepreneurs and applicants alike must reject self-defeating thoughts and limiting beliefs to ensure they put forth maximum effort, challenging anxieties rather than succumbing to them.

The Definition of a CEO and Final Advice

Shirag defines the role of a CEO as establishing clarity and vision for the company and then strategically putting the right people in the right places to execute that vision, thereby avoiding being consumed by day-to-day operations. He advises listeners to be brutally honest about their goals and anxieties and to “legitimately go for it.”

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shemmassianconsulting/?hl=en

Additional links:
Medical school personal statement
Common App Essay

Transcription:

Shirag Shemmassian 00:00

If you have an idea and you're like, no, I don't think that's gonna work out, you're not gonna, A, you might not try at all, or B, if you try, it might be half hearted, right? But if you actually think it's possible, then you'll. You'll make the effort, even if you think the chance is small.

Gresham Harkless 00:45

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today of Shimashian Consulting. Chirag. It's awesome to have you on the show.

Shirag Shemmassian 00:55

Hey, thanks for having me, Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 00:57

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Shirag so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing and. Dr. Shirag is a college and medical school admissions expert who has helped thousands of students get into schools such as Stanford, Yale and Caltech. He launched his business in 2013 as a side hustle after helping friends and family members get into America's best institutions for nearly a decade. Since then, he has grown his company to a seven figure, seven figures in annual revenue and has been featured in the Washington Post and U.S. news and World Report and NBC. Are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Shirag Shemmassian 01:33

Yeah, I'm excited.

Gresham Harkless 01:34

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

Shirag Shemmassian 01:41

Yeah, so I guess it all happened organically. When I was back in high school, we didn't have very good college admissions support, so I was self taught. Um, and you know, I had to learn what I could to, to get into Cornell University, which is where I graduated from. And for many, many years, people were asking me for help. Um, and, and so I was just doing it to be helpful on the side because I didn't have that kind of support. And over time, I believe it was in graduate school, my friend gave me this book, rich dad, Poor dad, which, you know, I'm sure many people either know about or have read. And it sort of like took me down this rabbit hole. I'm like, oh, My gosh, this is really good. And there were other book recommendations in there. So I started reading tons of these, like personal development, personal finance, entrepreneurship types of things. And over time I was like, man, this sounds really, really exciting to, to, to produce something of my own that didn't like exist before and create value for people and to help people. That got really exciting. So then I, I had this bug of like, I'm going to do something someday, I don't know what. And it was really as I was nearing the end of the, my graduate program, my PhD program where I, you know, I was thinking about okay, like what can I start and stuff. And I was starting to read a lot more of Ramit Sethi's materials. And so just, you know, he's like, you know, think about the skills you already have. And I was like, oh well, it's pretty obvious for me I've been doing this work for, for many, many years and the students I've been supporting were incredibly successful. And so I thought, okay, there's a cool business idea and, and know I launched my business, like had a website and then a little bit after, I would say a year and a half or so after I started the business, started thinking more thoughtfully about growth and how to market things and rather than letting it all sort of happen randomly. And the past several years have grown that. And it's been a really exciting journey, just like helping people get into the schools of their dreams because it's, you know, it's not just like getting into a school, but they're, you know, they're allowed to pursue their careers than goals in a way they otherwise might not be able to. So it's such a joy to do what I do.

Gresham Harkless 03:50

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I definitely appreciate you sharing that with us and I think a lot of times you forget how it's not everything, but it can definitely be very impactful what college you get into because like you said it could determine like your friends for the next whatever years and the families and it opens so many opportunities. So to be able to kind of get that quote unquote leg up, I guess can be really impactful for somebody's life.

Shirag Shemmassian 04:12

Yeah, absolutely. There are, you know, there I was recently reading some studies, so I came from a very, very solidly middle class family. My parents immigrated from another country that was going through a civil war and stuff like that. And, and so like, you know, we weren't necessarily like encouraged to like dream big. It was all about like stability and like get a good job, get a good Education, all this kinds of stuff. And there are some studies showing now, like, you know, for folks who come from, you know, more upper class backgrounds and things like that, they already have like their, you know, really strong networks and it's all about like maintaining things. But then there are other people who are maybe come from, you know, upper middle, middle or even like lower class backgrounds from a, you know, financial standpoint, that it just really helps you elevate your opportunities, you get access to more resources, you get access to, you know, more career opportunities and different networks than you otherwise would. And it's, it's certainly a great door to open for yourself.

Gresham Harkless 05:07

Yeah, absolutely. And get an idea of exactly what that process looks like is sometimes things that aren't aware, people aren't aware of. So it's great that you're helping to help so many families be able to do that. And I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. Can you tell us a little bit more about your consulting and how exactly it works and everything?

Shirag Shemmassian 05:24

Yeah, so we create a lot of resources for people. Um, so we create a lot of content for, for the world. And a lot of people come to the site just looking for good information. A subset of those people, you know, want our support to guide them every single step of the way because admissions is very high stakes. So in other words, it's very, very hard to get in. And to like, the top schools and colleges and certainly any medical school is really, really hard to get in. So people don't want to leave this kind of stuff to chance. And so they'll reach out to us and they say, hey, like, I probably figure some of this out, but I don't want to leave it to chance. I want to maximize my odds. And so they'll, they'll sign up to work with us. And what we essentially do is depending on what stage they're in, we'll help them with everything from like, choosing what activities to participate in, choosing what classes to sign up for, who to build relationships with so that they can eventually get a letter of recommendation. And then when it comes to the application side, just based on their grades and their background, like what schools should they be applying to, and also like how to write those college essays and medical school essays that will help them stand out. Because if you're an admissions committee member, you get a lot of applications from students with really high grades and test scores and things like that. But the thing that really separates the top applicants from everything else is sort of how you share that story so you can do a Lot of stuff. But how you communicate it is everything. And that's true for an interview or an application or any sort of evaluation thing.

Gresham Harkless 06:58

Yeah, absolutely. That's kind of like a case for life is, you know, you can be like a really great person or you can even have a really great product or service, but if you're not able to communicate that, showcase that and let people know that, then, you know, sometimes that doesn't go the way it should go all the time.

Gresham Harkless 07:11

So. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 07:12

And I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you or your organization, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Shirag Shemmassian 07:20

Yeah, I mean, I really think it's one thing. I think it's like people from the beginning feel like very supported by us, and I think that's the way we write content and the way that we speak with people when they talk to us on sales calls and things like that. When you visit our site, we don't just want to just give you information. We want to demonstrate that we understand what you're going through. Like, what your mental state is at when you're searching for a certain piece of content. That's really key when you get on the phone with us. It's all about, like, understanding you and what it is that you want. Like, what are your dreams and then how can we help you get there? So I think that the secret sauce is the way I would distill it is like. Like being others centered. Right. Like being focused on others rather than like, this is what we do. Because no one really cares about what we do. They care about their goals and how we can help them achieve it.

Gresham Harkless 08:16

Yeah, I love that, and I love that perspective and the ability to be able to tap into that. I usually say everybody's listening to wiifm, which is the radio station. What's in it for me? And everybody's kind of looking like, what can you do for me? How can you help me? So it's important to kind of understand that to be successful, you have to tap into what people want. If you help enough people get what they want, then it helps you get what you want, as the quote goes. Nice. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Shirag Shemmassian 08:51

Yeah. A big one for me is like our calendar scheduling software. It seems so basic, but I really, really don't like rote administrative tasks. And I remember I used to like, people used to contact me and I was always looking at my calendar and booking people and I was like, this has to stop. So signed up for a calendar. I think I use calendarly and it's wonderful. I don't get paid by them to say this. Thank you calendly people just made my.

Gresham Harkless 09:21

Life so much easier. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I use my scheduler as well too and I don't know what I would do without it, especially with time zones and everything. I know we talked a little bit offline about that. I am not good at that. That is not my secret sauce at all. So it's great that they have created something that we can all leverage to.

Shirag Shemmassian 09:37

Be more effective and efficient. Yeah. Nice.

Gresham Harkless 09:40

And now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice or if you can hop into a time mach. What would you tell your younger business self?

Shirag Shemmassian 09:49

I love the one quote. Whether you think you can or you think you can't. You're right. I forget who said it might have been like Henry Ford or something.

Gresham Harkless 09:58

I can't remember either.

Shirag Shemmassian 09:59

But just like the mindset, right? Like I, I think this is true with admissions. It's true with business. Like if you like, if you have an idea and you're like, no, I don't think that's going to work out. You're not going to. A, you might not try at all. Or B, if you try, it might be half hearted. Right? But if you actually think it's possible, then you'll, you'll make the effort, even if you think the chance is small. The reason that's been super important for me too is Garsham. Like my, in my high school I said we didn't have great support. I'm the only person in my high school 60 year history to ever go to an Ivy League school. So like it was never like brought up when I, when I was going to apply, I had like teachers saying like, do you think you can get in there? Those kids are really smart. When I got in there, like you think you can make it there? So it's all this stuff like if you listen to all that, all of that, then you won't try, you won't do it, right? And so you have to, you have to sort of like, like sort of let that roll off of you and say no, I actually think it's possible. Let me go for it. Because I hate wondering what if so, I want to think I can do it and let's see what happens.

Gresham Harkless 11:04

Yes, I love that and I love that perspective. And I think a lot of times, and I don't know if you do end up doing. Do you do have those conversations with clients as well, too, where, you know, like you mentioned for the admissions process, if you think you're not going to get into, you know, so and so college, you have that mentality then a lot of times I think that permeates probably through all the application process.

Shirag Shemmassian 11:24

Yeah. 10,000% true. Like, there is you. You want to obviously, like, have some risk management built in. You don't want to have someone apply to only places where they're going to have a really difficult chance of getting into. But sometimes people say, like, I really want to get into this school, but, like, no one gets in there or so. And so a year ahead of me applied and they had this test score and they didn't. And so it's just like you're sort of defeating yourself before you even try. And I'm huge on not just saying, no, no, I think you can get in, but like, actually challenging that, like putting it on the table and saying, like, why do you think that? Is that helping you in any, you know, like, basically, let's talk through this because I don't want you to, like, subconsciously put in lesser effort for that kind of thing.

Gresham Harkless 12:05

Right. And that can, you know, like you said, it permeates itself through so many different aspects of the application. And whether you're running a business or filling out an application, it's a big thing. And I love the fact too, that you kind of touched on you going through that process and how it helped you out. Because I think a lot of times when building a business, like Malcolm Gladwell has this, this, the book, and I forgot exactly what book. Outliers. And it talks about the 10,000 hours. And a lot of times you see somebody that's successful, like, you've been able to successfully build your business, but you forget of all the hours that you put in, you yourself going through that process, the decade that you spoke to, of all the work that you put in. So that when you started your business and put out the flag, it wasn't like you were just getting started.

Shirag Shemmassian 12:44

Yeah, absolutely. I'm like a total admissions nerd. I ever before I started a business, like, people usually, like, get into college, they're like, oh, my gosh, I never have to think about that again. I, like, I read every article published. I've Read every book. I work with like thousands of students, spoken with thousands of family.

Gresham Harkless 13:04

Right.

Shirag Shemmassian 13:04

Like, so I, I live in this every single day. And, and so when, when people are like, oh, like how'd you know I was thinking that? Or whatever, it's like, I don't know, like I just do because I spend so much time in this world, you know. So true.

Gresham Harkless 13:17

Yeah, it's the true definition of mastery. Being able to kind of just take in so much information and content that you kind of know what's going to happen before it happens because you just are so prepared in that situation. So I appreciate that. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So what does being a CEO means? You.

Shirag Shemmassian 13:39

This is, this comes at an interesting time because I'm literally reflecting on what should I be doing right now. And so some of my notes and I was talking to a good friend of mine who has a very successful business. It's essentially just like having a vision for what the company should look like and then putting people, putting the right people in the right places to make that happen. That's my current understanding of it. Ask me in six months, I may have a different answer. But essentially like you have to have clarity. Otherwise you don't know what to create, you don't know who to hire or delegate what tasks and things like that. So just getting clarity around what you want to achieve with it rather than getting sucked into the day to day because it's very easy to feel like productive by answering, you know, a hundred emails that day. But, but did you really, like, did you really feed the vision? Perhaps not. So that's very top of mind for me right now.

Gresham Harkless 14:34

Yeah, absolutely. I think that makes perfect sense. And like we kind of touched on a little bit too. Did you, were you really productive if you were scheduling a bunch of meetings? Unless I guess you're for calendly, maybe that helps out if that's part of your job. But in actuality, you know, was that feeding your vision and understanding too? Like you talked about, you know, six months from now, maybe that vision changes, maybe it changes a year from now. And understanding that it could be something that's fluid as well too.

Shirag Shemmassian 14:57

Yep, total. Nice.

Gresham Harkless 14:59

Well, I definitely appreciate you, appreciate your time, appreciate all the awesome things you're doing to kind of help out families and of course the insights you gave to us today. I wanted to pass you the mic 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 a hold of you and find out about all awesome things things you're doing.

Shirag Shemmassian 15:14

Yeah, sure. So anything people want to know. I I think it just goes back to what we talked about earlier about like having developing the right mindset. Like be super honest with yourself about what your anxieties are and what your strengths are and sort of challenge those anxieties and see is what I'm worried about actually the case. What are my goals? Am I actually working to to serve those Be brutally honest and legitimately go for it. In terms of how people can find me. They can come to the site. I'm sure you'll link to it@shamasangconsulting.com it's not the easiest thing to spell. I clearly have no business education so I was not thinking about my website back in the day. But it's memorable so you can visit the site. Very easy to contact me there. My phone number's there. My email address is there. Yeah come say hi. It would be a pleasure to connect with people. Definitely.

Gresham Harkless 16:07

I definitely appreciate your time as I and thank you for letting me struggle through the pronunciation. I know I probably didn't nail it at all but I we will definitely have all those links in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up with you. But I appreciate you appreciate all you're doing, appreciate the challenge you put out to your clients but also to us to go to that next level. Especially because a lot of times we think whatever is around us is what is going to be and all there can be. But we definitely can go more if we challenge ourselves to do that. So I definitely appreciate that.

Shirag Shemmassian 16:34

Yeah. Awesome. Thanks for your time Gresham and thanks everyone for listening.