On today’s episode, Dr. Legatt interviews Julie Kim, founder of Julie Kim Consulting, and they discuss mindsets, growth, and working with their students.
Transcripts
VO: Welcome to College Admissions Real Talk with Dr. Aviva Legatt, a podcast for students seeking to get admitted to top-tier colleges. Each episode will feature an important tip for your college admission success, delivered with candor and love. If you’ve ever wanted to take a peek inside the mind of a college admissions officer, this is your chance. Have a question? Text Dr. Legatt at 610-222-5762. So, what’s your dream school?
AL: How do people move from sort of, like, dissecting what’s stopping them to actually creating goals and moving forward on those goals?
JK: Yeah. So once you identify your limiting beliefs, one of the exercises that I have my students do is to envision and map out your future self. So a lot of the time students don’t know, like, “Where do I want to be in two years? Or who do I really want to be as a person?” And so I have them write down, can you list out your future self that you would love to be? And so they’ll say, “I attend USC right now. I’m majoring in business. I have a good relationship with my parents. I feel confident most of my days. I’m excited to get up and do my work.” And so once you have a version of you that you want to be, I then ask the students, “Well, what if you are that person right now? How would you show up for today?” They’re like,”Uh…differently.” And so, for example, they’ll say, like, ” Yeah, I’ll stop procrastinating or I’ll study days in advance, or I will read a few chapters of helpful books every day. I’ll meditate every day.” So we most like to work backwards from who you want to be and how can you be that person today? And gradually, you’re gonna be there.
AL: That’s great. That sounds really powerful as well. So I’m curious, do you have a favorite book or a favorite piece of advice that you give to people when they’re starting out working on this kind of issue?
JK: So the first stuff that I started reading that was, like a great entryway in self-help was by Louise Hay. The Power is Within You. Louise, she is like a frontier in mental health and self-help. And she has her own publishing company. She’s passed now. But that book was a great and true way for me. And I recommended to students because I know what teenagers are like, “Uh, I don’t know if I want to read that book.” So I’m like, let me just share something with you that’s a little bit more easier to read. You are definitely in the mindset world. I recommend Untamed by Glennon Doyle. That book is more poetic and creative, but it is so good. I sometimes I like to open it and just read one page and I’m like, “Oh, gosh, I feel so much better.” And that book mostly focuses on how we can get rid of societal standards and norms and how you can be a more truer, messy version of yourself. I think sometimes we tell younger generations, or maybe they pick it up from social media these days that everyone has to be perfect, that you have to be successful. You have to go to this school, you have to have the best relationship. But it’s really not like that. Right? So just allowing teenagers to know that it can be messy, it can be an ugly process, because that’s life. I have Joe Dispenza’s book. He talks all about meditation, and he talks about quantum physics. I know that kind of goes a little far, but he basically uses science to prove that what you think is what you become. And so, yeah, those are some of the books and I also recommend, like I said, meditating. Still, I use an app to meditate. Have you used Calm before?
AL: I have, yes.
JK: Yeah. It’s amazing. So that one is good. And then journaling is also very therapeutic as well.
AL: That’s great. Well, thank you. This has been really helpful and enlightening. Is there anything else you think would be important to emphasize or add on this topic?
JK: Yeah. As a teenager going through the college admission process, I think it’s really important to be honest with yourself, especially because when we’re younger, we make a lot of decisions from ego. Right? But if you can start to learn to make decisions from who you are, what your values are, and what’s truly important to you, you will have better chances of getting accepted into your dream college because, I always share this with my community, like college admissions officers who review your application, they have family members, they’re humans. They connect to essays and applications that seem authentic and real. So I would encourage that to practice honesty and check in with your values here and there.
AL: Absolutely. And you know that I agree with that, Julie. That’s what my book “Get Real and Get In” is all about. I’m glad to meet a like-minded person in this space and to chat with you. And to check out more about Julie, go to her website, juliekimconsulting.com. She’s got a free masterclass, juliekimconsulting.com/masterclass. She also has a podcast called Demystifying College Admissions at juliekimconsulting.com/podcast. Anything else, Julie, that you want to share in closing?
JK: No, that’s it. Thank you so much for having me.
AL: Oh, my pleasure, great chatting with you. Thank you so much.
VO: College Admissions Real Talk is hosted by Aviva Legatt, edited by Stephanie Carlin, and produced by Incontrera Consulting. I’m Caroline Stokes and this has been your daily boost of college admissions insight. Have a question? Text Dr. Legatt at 610-222-5762. For more information on Dr. Legatt and Ivy Insight visit www.ivyinsight.com. And you can pick up Dr. Legatt’s book, “Get Real and Get In”, at major retail outlets across the world. Insight out.
