Steve Martin said it best on the Charlie Rose show:
“When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them–and nobody ever takes note of it ‘cuz it’s not the answer they wanted to hear–what they want to hear is, ‘Here’s how you get an agent. Here’s how you write a script. Here’s how you do this… But I always say, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’ If somebody’s thinking, ‘How can I be really good?’, people are going to come to you. It’s much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.”
That’s good advice for anyone trying to make it as an independent (private) college counselor, too.
I mention this because some independent counselors I meet at conferences lament that admissions officers won’t talk to them. They complain that high school counselors don’t want to work in tandem with them. They want to know how we market ourselves, where we find potential clients, and how we get speaking engagements. A lot of those particular counselors are looking for shortcuts where they’re aren’t any.
The independent counselors who are full every year, who love what they’re doing and have raving fans, who are liked and trusted and admired in the profession, they got that way by being undeniably good. That’s the starting point. Do a great job for your families. Inhale college admissions information and share it with other counselors. Attend conferences. Do sessions at conferences. Tour colleges. Read all the books about admissions. Read all the press about admissions. Make families happy and keep your promises. That’s how the best counselors–and there are lots of them–do it.
Stop looking for ways to get people to pay attention to you. Instead, start being so good that they don’t have any choice but to notice.