1 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:08,039 Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. 3 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:20,960 Speaker 1: Today's tip is to strengthen your story. As you are 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,800 Speaker 1: figuring out how to talk about yourself and your next moves, 5 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:28,040 Speaker 1: you can choose how to spend your time to create 6 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:33,240 Speaker 1: a coherent narrative. Today's topic came to mind because I've 7 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,360 Speaker 1: been spending a lot of time looking into college admissions. 8 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: I have a handful of teenagers, and as everyone keeps hearing, 9 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,840 Speaker 1: college admissions are more competitive today than ever before. Lots 10 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: of kids have good grades and good SAT scores, So 11 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:52,879 Speaker 1: what makes you stand out? 12 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 2: Enter the narrative. College counselors advise young people to construct 13 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 2: a story about the great things they've been doing that 14 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:04,640 Speaker 2: make them unique. And then, if you are doing this 15 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:08,479 Speaker 2: before your senior year, you can add activities or projects 16 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:13,280 Speaker 2: to the mix that make this narrative more cohesive. So, 17 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:15,640 Speaker 2: for instance, if you've spend a lot of time playing 18 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:18,720 Speaker 2: on your school's soccer team, but you're not getting recruited 19 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:22,000 Speaker 2: for this, you could spend your summer volunteering at a 20 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:25,160 Speaker 2: youth soccer camp and start a podcast devoted to high 21 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 2: school soccer. Now the admissions committee can start referring to 22 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 2: you as the recreational soccer fan, which is a more 23 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:36,039 Speaker 2: interesting hook. If you have been doing a lot of 24 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:38,720 Speaker 2: art in high school, maybe you choose one format to 25 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:43,679 Speaker 2: make yours. Let's say it's mosaics, and stage some project 26 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 2: that makes you stand out. Perhaps you do a mosaic 27 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 2: about each zip code that sends kids to your high school, 28 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 2: and you display this project at the local library. You 29 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 2: get it now. Of course, all this can inspire some 30 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 2: eye rolling. How many seventeen year old kids actually think 31 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:08,520 Speaker 2: this way? They generally don't. It's their parents or the 32 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 2: college counselors they're paying for advice who help come up 33 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:16,520 Speaker 2: with all this. But be that as it may. This 34 00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 2: is a useful life skill because it turns out that 35 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 2: people are going to be seeking stories that make sense 36 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:28,320 Speaker 2: for your entire life. Being able to identify a narrative 37 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 2: and then strengthen it can make it seem like whatever 38 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:34,240 Speaker 2: you'd like to be your next step seems like the 39 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:39,079 Speaker 2: natural next step. So, for instance, if you're changing careers 40 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:42,640 Speaker 2: from accounting to teaching, that is awesome. Your math skills 41 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 2: will be in demand. But as you are applying to 42 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 2: teacher certificate programs. People are going to want to know 43 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,760 Speaker 2: why you are doing this. If you've taught a night 44 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 2: class in financial literacy at your church or at a 45 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,520 Speaker 2: local community center, you can note that you enjoyed that 46 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 2: experience and decided that teaching was what you wanted to 47 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,320 Speaker 2: do from now on. That story makes a lot more sense. 48 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:12,359 Speaker 2: People running for office need to do this too. You 49 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 2: often hear that someone has a great story. Some of 50 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 2: this you can't control, like your family background, but ambitious 51 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,400 Speaker 2: would be politicians think about their early jobs and volunteering 52 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:27,360 Speaker 2: gigs with this in mind. It generally doesn't work to 53 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 2: just say, well, you know, I worked in this congressman's 54 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 2: office and figured I could do it too. You need 55 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 2: a story about growing up in the town and seeing 56 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 2: your family's business struggle to do X because of a 57 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 2: certain policy, and you spent why time working on it, 58 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:44,080 Speaker 2: and now you're running for office to change it. That 59 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 2: story makes sense. Every time I write a book, people 60 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 2: ask me why I wrote the book, and again they 61 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 2: want an origin story. Some of my competition will come 62 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 2: up with a story of their hitting rock bottom and 63 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 2: life craziness, and then into time management or productivity to 64 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 2: pull themselves up from the muck. I will freely report 65 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 2: that my life is not that interesting. But for every 66 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 2: book I do dutifully construct some moment or situation where 67 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:16,680 Speaker 2: the book idea came to me, even if that was 68 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 2: the culmination of a year of thinking about it. In 69 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:23,480 Speaker 2: any case, think about how you'd like to tell your story. 70 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 2: Why are you doing the job you are doing. What 71 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 2: would you like to be doing in the future. What 72 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,599 Speaker 2: could you do to strengthen the story so that this 73 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 2: next step makes sense. You can think about projects you 74 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 2: could do, volunteering, gigs, you could take on, conferences you 75 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 2: could attend, articles you could publish, and so on that 76 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:50,719 Speaker 2: would make this seem like a coherent narrative On some level. 77 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:54,680 Speaker 2: All of this is a little silly. Life doesn't really 78 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:58,400 Speaker 2: work like this in a perfect story, but the human 79 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:04,520 Speaker 2: brain likes stories best to deal with this reality. In 80 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 2: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's 81 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:19,839 Speaker 2: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening 82 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:24,280 Speaker 2: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, 83 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:33,920 Speaker 2: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. 84 00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:38,080 Speaker 2: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts 85 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:42,719 Speaker 2: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 86 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:44,600 Speaker 2: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.