and it is the new business that i just launched and the purpose of it is to help high school students with their college application essays and with their interview and the reason i started it is because for one thing i love to solve problems i've been doing all my life and i get great satisfaction out of helping people and we just happen to make some friends recently who just sent their kids off to college and they were complaining about the fact that they really wished they'd had someone help with the essays and with the interview because they weren't really getting enough attention from the counselors and from the teachers and i thought to myself here i am with all of this background that i have as a writer as an editor interviewer and as an actress and these are the perfect skills and i thought this is a great business that i can get into so i just launched its brand new and i did do a but i called beta test with a couple of students so that i could are junior so it's right around the corner for them to start doing this right so i was going to have a lot of personal questions even me too because it's scary for me ok so how exactly when did you come up with the idea to do it well as i said i came up with the idea when i when i heard from parents that this was a need that they had and i kind of brainstorm with myself about you know i i've been a professional editor for about thirty years i've been a professional writer for thirty years i've been a professional actress for the last ten years and i've been interviewing people for a long time i actually interviewed authors on the today show back in the sevent and i tried to train them so that they would come up with her sysfs clear answers and that's what i do you know with with people who are going to have interviews and the thing with the application the essay is the one place on the application where you can really that yourself apart because for example you three ladies even though i know you're all not applying you're very bright i'm sure you have great or will get great teacher recommendations i imagine you have good grades you probably test well what is going to set you apart on medication the essay gives you a chance to released show what kind of an individual individual you are so how do you recommend that we set ourselves apart like a writing style or well stating a person well what is your what is your passion that's what i would focus on what is the thing that you love to do what is the thing that that makes you excited and is that something that you could write about made it was funny there was i've gone to some high school events where they have college planning night and one of the parents came up to me and she said i don't know what to do my son loves you know what am i supposed to do was a dungeons and dragons what's with that right there and i mean i tried to dungeons and dragons that's how with it i am anyway she said he was obsessed with the game and she couldn't imagine getting him to write an essay and i thought i told her why don't you just have him write about dungeons and dragons being imagine there are thousands of essays that are written in every college reads all of the essays so if you're on the admissions staff you're reading hundreds of essays imagine if you come across one talking about dungeons and dragons you know and i'm thinking if i have met with a kid i would say well you know what if the first line was i killed three dragons today that would get  someone's attention so that's what i do to try and make someone think about what they really love to do what they really love to write about and what that would set them apart so what  well as i said the process is trying to find out what they really are passionate about what they care about and see if we can come up with something that they would like to write the wonderful thing about the prompts for the there's a common application which goes to a lot of colleges and they have a list of essays and the great thing this year is that they're basically saying you can write about anything that you want to so i need six hundred fifty word essay which is about two and a half type pages on any subject that excites you so that really gives you a lot of freedom about what you can focus on so it would be a matter of meeting with a kid and finding out they they do have the specific problems so there are essays where you could talk about you know some major turning point in your life or a person who made a difference in your life that kind of thing so you can definitely get some guidance from there i know what you mean when there's too much freedom it's sort of like where do i start but that's where i feel like someone like myself can help you focus on you know what do you love what you like to do what you like to read let's say you love chocolate ok ok you know what about an essay on where i went to get the best chocolate in the world i mean there are different ways of doing things or let's say you love pets you have a favorite dog or a favorite cat what if you wrote the essay from the point of view of your cat i would let you know that you want to do something different that's out of the box you want to show that you know how to write but you want to show some individuality so you also do the int college application right so you tell them any and that just out thank you call you know i don't i don't give them answers i just help a student go through some of the obvious questions that are going to be asked you can be sure that any college will say to you why did you pick this college so that means you need to do some research about the college i mean i assume that everyone who is applying is applying to specific schools for a specific reason and that's why it's so great to have guidance counselors because they can point you in the right direction of where to apply so if a school has a particular let's say you're interested in shakespeare and they have a junior year abroad where you go to anger and when you're in stratford on avon well when you're asked answering the question why did you want to go to school that would be something that you would mention another thing that interviewers often ask is what is your best trait and what is your worst trait so these are things to think about everyone has both no one is perfect and sometimes it's hard to come up with what you what is what is the worst thing about me or what is the best thing about me but that's why it's important to do a practice interview or to think about these questions before you actually do the interview what's good about having someone like me is because as an actor i know what it's like to take stage and i try and help the student with that idea you're the center of attention you need to own it you need to look into the eyes of the person that you're talking to contact and be natural try to be natural tr own you know if you're procrastinator say i'm a procrastinator and talk about how you got through that how you were able to get the exam in on time even though you're a procrastinator get the essay in on time you know there are things that you can i was about to ask you do you get students at have like one school that they know about where students at really just have no idea where they want to go well i'm not really focused on that part of the process that's why it's really important to have a relationship with your guidance counselor i mean it could be that you know like you mentioned earlier before we started the interview that you're interested in modeling in film and so you were thinking about going to l a or new york where they have schools that focus on that if you have a particular interest it makes it easier for the guy as counselor to help you decide what schools to apply to i mean and also some high school students aren't ready for college they need a year to maybe get a job make some money take some time to think about what they want to do i would encourage anyone who isn't sure about college to get a job so that they're busy and to maybe take a course or two at a community college so that they keep going with the academic feeling you know having deadlines reading where they need to read taking tests so that when you jump back into college it's not culture shock about what you know about what's expected of you in the academic world year yeah i know a lot of people do take app years but many students actually apply for college and get in and then they take their gap year so they don't have it hanging over their head what am i going to do  back so i know that that's something that a lot of a lot of kids do you know the other thing that i wanted to talk about was some people will say well why do we need you because their guidance counselors and because they're english teachers and i have to say anyone who works in education i really my hat goes off to them because they're working on the future of our country they're working with students and it's a hard job but a guidance counselor is really focusing on your academic skills your behavior skills or social skills and they're helping you decide what path to take host graduation helping you with the college helping you with a vocation similarly an english teacher is helping you with writing skills with language communication with an appreciation of literature but they're busy they're not going to have the one on one time that i have with  student and i'm a professional writer i'm a professional editor i'm a professional interviewer but having the acting skills i'm bring a lot to the table for the process of the application essay and the process of the interview that counsellors and teachers just don't have time for so you mention that you were professional actress for ten years and then how has that shaped what you mentioned that it kind of help you like decide how to sets like students apart can you go in depth a little bit more about how being an actress have these actors helps me with those and if you learn how to act and i understand the three of you met in an acting class as you know if you're comfortable on stage and you're comfortable in front of people you can use that skill where ever you go a lot of kids aren't used to being on stage or to perform and when you're being interviewed that's a performance so you know i know some improv games i might help loosen up a person to do that just that notion of what it's like to be center stage i think is something that helps me even to be on this show to be an actor helps me because i feel very comfortable on the ease being in front of people and that's a skill that i think you can in all aspects of your life so he answer your question yes ok because good i think the three of us have really seen well at least i've seen i used to be pretty shy and then i started going to acting classes and i think it also changes your mindset about things because you also learn to like step into other situations and sometimes it's also easy to fade into the background but like you said being cent stage the attention is on you and for some people that's uncomfortable and that's kind of like what you're doing in your program they say it's time to focus on you like right do you want right have any students ever had trouble like coming with what they were interested in well as i say this is a new business for me so i haven't worked with a lot of students i just work with a couple and the few that i work with it kind of knew what they wanted to do or they were hoping that they would figure things out in college because they know there is such a wide range of subjects that they can study you know no one would expect you at this age to know exactly what you want to do when you graduate you know that's a lot some people know some people know from early on like you want to be a model you want to be that there's in film t v some people know they want to go to medical school or they want to be a vet they have something in them that drives them so they have a direction but for students that don't that's the wonderful thing about a liberal arts college there are so many possibilities there i don't there's also the military there are military colleges and there are some people who feel they want to serve their country and  they want to take that route and what's interesting about military schools is they have very different criteria of what they're looking for you may not have the best grades but if you're a leader and you show leadership skills that's something that that they're looking for that's very important that you know the other thing about college entrance edge is that it's important to remember the interview part and i know that not every school requires an interview but i think it's important to go to the campus make your presence known have a contact with someone in the admissions department and i think it's better to have an interview than not if there's a choice so  company well what's unique about it yeah what's unique about my company because that's a good question there are people who offer the same services i insist on working in person i'm not going to do skype i'm not going to talk to someone over the own i'm not going to do it online i want to meet with the person in person and that is what makes me different because i want to have that one on one connection but i can really connect with the person and find out what it is about them that makes them a special individual and that's going to help them with their essay and that's going to help them with their interview about it's that's know wow you're very sweet oh you know the other thing is parents parents sometimes wonder you know what kind of role should they play in the whole process and a lot of high schools really recommend that the parents don't get you involved yeah because when you think about it you should be preparing your child to go out into the world and to be independent that's kind of what i believe parenthood is all about it's hard because it's hard to let our babies go it's hard to think oh my gosh they're all grown up they're going to be on their own but that's something that you need to do and the college application is actually a good place for you to say to your child look this is something you need to do i know you want to do but i'm going to put that in your hands and it's not i know you feel like it's overwhelming like a huge wall but at least for the application process is very specific about what they need  you know that you have to take certain tests your guidance counselor can tell you whether the s a t s or the cities are the way to go depending upon what your skills are what your colleges are looking for each piece  something you sort of take each piece at a time and if you're worried about the wall i would say you know take one brick at a time it's just a brick you can handle that but you know try not to be overwhelmed by the whole process is just little pieces that you need to take care of and as parents it never hurts for a parent to remind someone don't forget this is a deadline are you know i would lead a student i wouldn't stay so out of it that the and i think i do want to i'm going to take it again i think he's again but i'm still figuring out what i want to do and then if not i have start looking but i'm going to start looking also one school right yeah you know as as i said guidance counselors are really important to help you kind of focus on on where you want to go and what's what schools match your skills the best and i know there are a lot of classes that help with the essay and all of that i mean one thing to take the anxiety out of out of the whole process to is to you know if you go through the summer before your senior year that's the time to write the essay so that it's not hanging over your head while you're in school that's the time to visit certain college campuses and that's such an important thing to do to get a sense of what the college is like because each college if you started doing that each college has a different atmosphere a different feel so it's important to do that you know and i have found some people like to you know set up a tour and go on an actual tour that they have or sometimes people just like to show up and go to the cafeteria and see what it's like because sometimes if you don't like your college tour guide that may influence how you feel about the audience i want to hoping that doesn't happen not so much experience if when i was even going to high school i looked into high school my the one that the person that took me around they just gave me a bad view of the high school and i went there but then i switched high school for but i just didn't but my part of that took me what i didn't like the  yes yeah it doesn't have to be overwhelming even the interview you can just google online you know what are college interview questions and there's lots of websites that list all the questions that are asked and practice them you know come up with the answers so that you're comfortable and when you look at the different lists you can see as i said there are certain questions that they're always going to ask you and always be prepared with those sometimes someone can throw you for a loop which happened to me i went to i would have been in the first woman's class at colgate university i was looking for acting programs at the time and i know i'm ancient and the dean was young and handsome and high with the now so i was seventeen when i when i graduated from high school and he asked what is your definition of a good wife i did not expect to be part of my college interview i don't even know if that was really an appropriate complex but i just thought on my feet and you know and gave an answer you know so you never know what you're going to hit the hit with but know the other thing is to really owen who you are you know if you're nervous say you know i really feel nervous but i'm really excited to be here you know just own what you're feeling and people are sympathetic they really want to get a chance to know who you are and being yourself is is what i would encourage you know answer is that they're supposed to give and the most important thing is you know think about it thousands of students are pointing to colleges and they want someone who part of their campus who they who they like who they think can bring something to the table to the college and the best thing is to just really be yourself because no one has your perspective no one has your point of view no one has your voice and i don't mean physical voice i mean that voice inside of you who says who you are you are totally an individual and they want to know who that person is so i don't think you know like the three of you for example have have similar what are you know similar extra curricular activity having this television program but you three are each very different people and someone might see that list of of you know as i said earlier grades could be the same testing could be the same extra curricular activities could be the same but what is it about you that is different and each of you are are very different about something to focus this is an interesting question i ask a lot of our guests because your program is very unique and kind of like or it's like you like on the edge of in the b that's i don't know what i'm trying to say but i always wonder if there's like a time when you're starting your new company when you think to yourself what can i do this or if there is like a hard part in creating your company that made you think like maybe warry perhaps well it's interesting i launched this company earlier this year because i wanted to focus on the students that would be applying to college this right good well it's yeah it's also giving you an edge you know and that's the idea so i really love the name and then i came up with a website and then i started networking and  i've sent in is have to say newspapers i've gone to some college events at various high schools to be frank i haven't gotten any business yet because it's still early people aren't writing their essays as soon as currently a writer and reviewer for publishers weekly and i read a book and write a review every two weeks there's an annual book convention every year and publishers weekly puts out a newspaper for the convention so i interview authors and publishing executives who are going to be appearing in ok so that's something else that i do i'm part of without a q productions which is a murder mystery company in fact this fall i'll be channeling the actress agnes morehead on it now if happen soon and through word of mouth i just feel like i just need one student to work with and that'll get things rolling so i'm not i'm not too concerned i'm kind of this is a chill about and then i really appreciate the three of you having me today yeah well it was wonderful having one and it's great because we always get really interesting stories and you like put a spin on it that some like like she said that we really hadn't process so it's college entrance edge i think yeah and of course we'll have your information somewhere here on the screen ok and is there anything else you'd like to say to our viewers well i would just say don't worry you have this you have a unique perspective and parents chill let your students let your kids take ownership of the process they're going to get it they're going to be young adults out in the world get ready for that well i think that's the best ending that we could have so thanks for coming thank you i really enjoyed having you thank you and we'll see you guys next type