6 Figures in One Year with a Book with Gena Lester

Rob Kosberg:

Hey, welcome everybody. It’s Rob Kosberg back with another episode of the Publish, Promote, Profit Podcast, excited to be with you and excited to bring you an incredible business owner and best-selling author Dr. Gena Lester. Let me tell you a little bit about Gena, because she is an impressive person, someone that I consider a friend, and I’m very, very excited about how she’s used her book and what her book can do potentially for you. So, Dr. Gena Lester is a college admissions expert, speaker, of course, international bestselling author and business coach, which we’re going to talk a little bit about that, and I’m excited about that. Gena has been guiding families in education and college admissions for over 25 years. Dr. Gena’s not only a thought leader in the college admission space, but also helps edupreneurs go from conception to a thriving business. Dr. Gena is a professional member of many different credentialed and initialed organizations. Of course, you can find Dr. Gena on Fox ABC the Morning Blend, Flip Your Life Podcast, Boss Moms, and a number of others, and now the Publish, Promote, Profit Podcast as well. So, Gena, thank you for being with us today, it’s really great to have you

Gena Lester:

Thank you. I’m super excited to be here and share with the audience.

Rob Kosberg:

Yeah, there’s a lot to talk about and as always, there’s kind of two things that we focus on. The first is I want to talk about your expertise. So, I want to talk about how you help the people that you help. And then we’re going to shift gears a little bit towards the end, and we’re going to talk about how your book has helped you to grow your business and increase your authority. So 25 years as a college admissions expert, and you may remember the very first time we spoke, or one of the first times we spoke, I told you that I have some familiarity because my middle son who got into the UC school systems, because of someone that did something similar to you was really of tremendous help. So maybe explain a little bit about your expertise, what you do and how you help families with their children getting into college.

Gena Lester:

Yeah, of course. So, I’m what’s considered an independent educational consultant, which basically what that means is that I have an independent business and I walk families through the educational process, specifically college admissions. And so, as families begin to navigate this now very convoluted and crazy and overwhelming and stressful world, things are much different than when parents went through that process. It was much more streamlined. People would say to me all the time, “Oh, I just applied to a couple of schools and got in and it was just very simple and straight forward,” and that’s definitely not the case. And in 2020 we have seen things flip upside down even more, so this is definitely very overwhelming, and I see parents all the time just completely stressed out. So, I work to help-

Rob Kosberg:

I can relate.

Gena Lester:

Yep. So I help families really kind of take a deep breath, step back, evaluate where they’re at, where their kids are going, what they need to do to get from point a to point B, put a plan in place, help them be able to really stand out in the process so that they’re not just another one of those 50,000 applications laying on a college counselor’s desk and really not only allowing them to stand out in getting accepted or in the admissions process, but also in getting those merit scholarships and all of the other pieces. So, I’m that guide through all of those crazy twists and turns along the way.

Rob Kosberg:

Talk to me about some specifics. So, let’s say that I’m the parent of a kid that has a 4.0 and a good ACT or SAT score. It’s not as simple as that any anymore, because there are so many that have great grade point averages and SATs or ACTs. So, what are some of the key factors that really make a difference for a kid getting into the right school?

Gena Lester:

Yeah. For me specifically, what I would say, one of my strengths really surrounds, and my book actually talks about this is having a game plan, but also really helping your child develop what I call their uniquely you. And I want to kind of back up to 2020, because this is something, the uniquely you, standing out, being able to really show a college admissions office all of the really important aspects of a student have always been huge. But now with 2020 and the test optional and all of that kind of thing, we have seen it just become even more competitive than it has ever been. So, what happened in the past and every year we’ve seen it get more and more competitive. I’m going to choose Harvard, because everybody knows Harvard.

So, Harvard with the number of valedictorians in the United States, they could fill their class something like six times over, just with valedictorians. That doesn’t include anybody else, that the really amazing student that’s not a valedictorian. So, these colleges are getting stacks and stacks of students applying who are absolutely qualified, but they just don’t have seats and room in their universities. And with 2020, what happened was that because of all the change, all the uncertainty, all of the switch, we saw the college space become even more crowded and more competitive. So, you could go through and there are hundreds of articles out there right now where colleges are saying we got 40% more applications this year than ever before. Our application pool increased 30%. And so, all of a sudden, now they’re having to go, “Okay, we were already trying to figure this out, and now it’s more competitive.”

And then with 2020, we had test optional come in because everybody couldn’t take tests. So now they’re having to look at these students and say, “Okay, academically, they are great. They make it across the line, but how do we decide between this pool of thousands of students, which ones are going to get into our school?” And so that’s really where they begin looking at the holistic student. And even with tests coming back, even though I really recommend kids take tests, that’s a whole other conversation, but even with that happening there still are so many students that the holistic review is not going to go away. And so, they’re really wanting to know what makes a student who they are? What are their values, what are they passionate about? What did they bring? What makes them diverse and what diversity are they going to bring onto the campus?

Why are they choosing the major they’re going to major in? And all of those things are coming into play in that process. And that’s what makes your student uniquely you, what makes them really stand out. And the days of saying, “Oh, I’m just going to major in business and hope it works out,” is just not a reality because colleges know that if students come in and they don’t know what they’re really going to do, then their likelihood of dropping out is greater. And you have to remember that college is a business. Ultimately, they have a budget, they’re trying to hit those things, they get rankings and all of those things and what your student does on their campus affects all of that. So yeah, so that’s kind of in a nutshell, I don’t want to unpack-

Rob Kosberg:

That’s a big nutshell. There’s a lot obviously. Any parent that’s gotten their kid into college knows what a difficult nightmare it is. And I’ve gotten three kids into college. One in particular Jake, my middle son, wanted to go to a specific school because of math. He graduated with a degree in math and physics, and now works at NASA, which is cool, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL. And that has been incredibly meaningful, going to that school, making the connections, and then getting an amazing job right where he wanted to be right out of school was because of the groundwork that was laid to get him into school. Maybe I know your book talks about this, so maybe you can kind of break this down. What are the five key things, six or whatever the keys are that a parent needs to be looking at when they think about this making an impact on that admissions person to get them into the right school?

Gena Lester:

Yeah. So, first of all, I would say that it’s really important to start early. Students that are waiting till their senior year, there is so much stress that it causes the families not to enjoy the year, the kids aren’t as successful. It really does take a plan. And so, you need to have a plan and you need to start early. And that doesn’t mean you’re spending every moment doing college admissions, but you definitely need to begin to learn, put a plan in place. So that’s absolutely I think-

Rob Kosberg:

Is that junior year, sophomore year?

Gena Lester:

Freshman.

Rob Kosberg:

Freshman year? Wow. Okay. That’s early.

Gena Lester:

Yeah. We have eighth graders now taking high school credits. And so as soon as you’re taking high school credits, all of that now is looked at by the high school. And so, by your junior year, it’s more difficult and you can’t really affect your grades. You can’t affect your resume as much if you haven’t put things in place. And so really knowing that you have a four-year plan, that’s going to help you be successful is a very huge piece of it and really thinking through what your student’s going to do. I know that, like you said, your son was passionate about science and going down that path. And so, he needed to have some of that and I’m sure he did. He needed to have some things that showed that interest and if you wait until their junior year and then they’re like, “Oh, I have two things on my resume.”

Even colleges, if you’re not going to Harvard, even if you’re going to the local state university or a school that’s not as competitive, still all of this impacts it. So absolutely starting early is the number one thing. The second is obviously your academics. If your student can’t meet the criteria for that college academically, then they’re not going to move on. So we do want to make sure that you’re thinking about if you’re going to go to a particular school, whatever that school is, that your student’s taking the right courses, taking AP, dual credit, whatever that looks like, having a strong GPA test score, because that’s always the gatekeeper.

And so that’s the second thing is don’t let those grades go. Then the third really comes in to, I would say three, four and five are all kind of together. Because that really is that uniquely you piece. That’s really understanding yourself and what you want to major in and how you’re going to develop that out. How are you going to bring in activities that are going to show your interest in a space program or an engineer or medical or a teacher or the arts or whatever that looks like? So how are you going to bring in things, whether it’s activities, volunteerism, leadership, all of those things that build out that resume is what makes you unique. Understanding your core values, what’s important to you and really putting that in place.

And we do that all different ways, through essays, we do it through resumes, through letters of recommendation. We’re creating portfolios now, even if you’re a student going into science or something to that effect, they’re having to dig deep. And when you talk about that holistic review, they’re looking at all of those pieces and I think they’re all equal. But they’re all very important because just because you make it past the academic hurdle, doesn’t mean you’re going to make it past the rest of it. And you want to be memorable. The average admissions counselor spends something like six or seven minutes on an application. And if they’re looking at you and your application reads like any other student, then they’re going to just move on. But if your application grabs me, I’m going to spend more than six- or seven-minutes diving in getting to know you, and you want to be on that end of the spectrum.

Rob Kosberg:

In marketing or even book terms, you need a great hook. Before we shift gears, give me an example of what this looks like because I know what it looks like sometimes even a kid with inferior grades and maybe test scores will get in, if they have the right hook, the right involvement. Can you give me a real-life example of what that looked like? Maybe not with a real name, but a real story.

Gena Lester:

Yeah. And so, I have a young lady that I worked with and this particular young lady really was strong academically. So, we knew she kind of hit the gate for most of the schools she was looking at. But at the time, she really had started out thinking, Oh, she really was going to go into the medical field and throughout her high school, she was kind of focused on those type of things and she loved volunteering. And so, she was doing some volunteer work at a local homeless shelter. And somebody had brought in and dropped off some first aid kit and they only had a handful. So, everybody didn’t get one. And so, she felt like, she kept it, “Oh, I’m just so sad. All of these people are homeless, and they don’t have a first aid kit.”

So, she went out and actually started her own nonprofit and started collecting all of the things and put together. And this is a 16-year-old. Yeah. She started it at 16. So, she began building out the first aid kits and gave them to the homeless. By the time she graduated, those were going overseas. But the interesting thing for her is that as we kept diving in and we started looking at all of her talents, her strengths, what really made her unique, she decided to join the robotics club and in that she took on the piece of marketing. And I really thought as she started the nonprofit issue with walking through this, I could see there’s this business aspect to her. I know she loves the medical. She keeps talking about that, but there’s this other piece. And so, as she joined the robotics club, I thought it was interesting there, she went to competition and their robotic didn’t work, but they made it to the next level because her presentation for marketing was so strong that it gave them enough points to advance.

Rob Kosberg:

Even though the robotics didn’t work.

Gena Lester:

The robotics didn’t work. So, as we began developing that out, she realized, “Okay, I can do business and I can still do it in a medical field. I don’t have to be a doctor.” And so, when she shifted that, she ended up getting to enter a top university. She got the top scholarship, a full ride for four years, plus a summer international experience in business. She got the works because-

And not that she couldn’t have done that in the medical field, but I don’t know that it would have been quite the same because when she really tied into who she was and where her passions really were, that’s what opened it up. And I think a lot of kids think, “Oh, I like science, or I like business, or I like this or that,” but they don’t realize you can do that in a multitude of industry. That doesn’t mean you have to be a doctor or a teacher or a warrior, you can take that a lot of directions. So that’s one of my fun stories about-

Rob Kosberg:

Great story. Let’s shift gears. Obviously if someone wants to learn about the steps needed to get their son or daughter into college, then they need to get a copy of your book and we’ll get them links and all that college admission secrets. Because you obviously have made a big impact on people with your book, but your book has made a big impact for your business and for you as well. So, let’s talk a little bit about that. How have you been using your book starting right back when you first published it and what has transpired and how has that grown into more authority, more credibility, more money, more impact for Dr. Gena?

Gena Lester:

Yeah. So, it’s something I wanted to do, and I knew it would impact my business, but I don’t think I really grasped how much until now. And so obviously I became an international bestseller, people were reaching out to me, that type of thing. And I find it interesting because literally I get messages pretty regularly about people who found it just even on Amazon. But for me, one of the shifts that I really did in my business was that I wanted to go from just one-on-one coaching, which was a big part of my business, but it was very time consuming for me. And I still do that piece. I still have those one-on-one clients, but I wanted to do more group coaching, more membership type, and be able to reach more people. And so, with my book, one of the first things I did was I decided to move into the online space.

I did a five-day challenge and I gave away my book and I was going to actually give away my book and some Amazon cards. Nobody wanted the Amazon card. Everybody wanted my book. So, I think I gave away about 15 books during that challenge. And then my book sales just started blowing up because everybody wanted the book. And so, I moved into using it for a free plus shipping book funnel. And so currently I have that going so people can buy the book it’s automatically shipped to them. And then I added in some upsells where they could get some toolkits and resources that actually help strengthen the book and gives them some actual tangible things to use alongside the book. And we definitely are not only breaking even, but we have moved into the positive on the book funnel now, because book funnels are hard. You’re really happy if you’re breaking even, but-

Rob Kosberg:

Hang on one second. You’re giving so much gold, I want to unpack some of it if possible. So, let’s go back to the challenge for a minute. So, you did a challenge, which is basically a number of five or seven days where you teach every single day. You used your book as the model for that challenge. You offered the book as a giveaway to entice people which is brilliant. It’s something that I’ve done with Publish Promote Profit as very well. And so how many people have gone through the challenge? It’s been less than a year I believe that you’ve been doing this. How many people have gone through? I don’t know that answer. And what does it mean in revenue and new clients for your company?

Gena Lester:

Yeah, so I started out in the fall doing it and I did three, I did one in the end of July, one in the end of August and one in the end of September. And each of those brought in about 250 to 300 people into the challenge. And I had about $13,000, $15,000 in sales for each one of those. Now I just came off because I closed it down, obviously working with kids and I just did my first one again for the spring and I ended up making close to 40K in this. So, I over doubled the challenge and so many people came through and I call it a challenge, but really for me, it’s really kind of a masterclass bootcamp and the parents are in there and I’m just pouring into them and again, giving away the book. But so many people in there said, “I found you, I got your book. I’ve already read your book. My kids have read your book.”  It was amazing the amount of information that was coming back to me, just from the fact that people loved the book. And then other people said, “Please, I want a book. How do I get a book?” So-

Rob Kosberg:

so, if I did my quick math right, well over 1,000 people have gone through it with this last one and somewhere in the range of about $90,000 to $100,000 in revenue from that, which is amazing. But one of the cool things that I love about a challenge is obviously if 1,000 people go through, there are far few people that are actually going to be purchasing your higher-level services, which are thousands of dollars. And those are the people that you’re able to help in a one-on-one or in a group fashion. But the cool thing about a challenge is that you’ve helped 1,000 people now with the content, from your book for free. And the people that ended up buying the higher-level services from you in essence, subsidized you serving the other people that didn’t. And I just love that part of using your book and forget the word challenge, using your book in conjunction with a workshop or using your book in conjunction with some type of bootcamp online. So, I love that and that’s really good news. Your next challenge you need to shoot for six figures.

Gena Lester:

Yeah, exactly. That’s definitely my goal.

Rob Kosberg:

Of course, it is.

Gena Lester:

Yeah. And I agree with you. I keep the same group so people can come in and I have people who said, “I was in the last one,” they come in this one and they maybe didn’t purchase the first time, but then they’re ready the second or third time to join and well, those numbers dollar wise are great. They’re what helps my business, but it’s like you said, for me, it’s how many people I’ve actually been able to help even if they never join me in my programs, I have touched their lives and impacted them.

Rob Kosberg:

That’s the impact and income part, right? Of having a best-selling book. The impact is your book is impacting people, even when you don’t know it. And of course, the income part is your book is being the foot soldier that goes before you, that that brings back the opportunities and shows people that you’re the authority and the expert in the space. So, I love that. So, what other things have been going on with the book? And you mentioned about coaching, which I didn’t know anything about. I’d love to hear the details of that.

Gena Lester:

Yeah. And so, in my space, it’s been a very changing industry, especially because most everybody does one-on-one. And so, I kind of stepped out into a new space and taking the industry into an online, doing this, giving, pouring in that type of thing to all of these people. So, a lot of people in my industry, they’re watching, they’re seeing, they’re wondering, “Okay, how is this happening?” And I just spoke at one and I’ve been asked to speak at a few other industry specific webinars and other things to other industry leaders and other IECs and things to that effect on how to grow your business online and how to make a bigger impact. And so, as I kind of mentioned this to you early on that I went out and I thought, “Okay, they asked me,” so I thought, “Okay, this is easy. I can do this.”

So, I just talked about that. “Oh, I should offer something.” So, I kind of said, “Okay, no self-way thinking.” I said, “I’m going to offer five people who want to come and do kind of a founding kind of thing with me. I’m going to walk you through, teach you how to take your business and create a course that you can put out there. And especially because people in the education field, they speak a different language. You say the word module and they don’t always know what a module is. They think of it in a different term. So, I speak that language. And so anyway, by the time I hung up, I already had all five spots filled.

Yeah. So, I’m building that piece out with them in the next upcoming things that I’m speaking at I’m going to definitely be opening that back up. And my program is going to be called Edupreneurs Accelerator. And it’s really geared to anybody who is working with test prep or college consulting, or not just test prep, but tutors and things like that because the industry has really been hurt because so many of them are brick and mortar. And all of a sudden everything’s turned upside down and now kids want to be online, they want to be doing these things. And how do you reach all these people? And it’s just not something they’ve done or know to do. And they listen to other people online, but the language is so different, and you really have to approach it very differently in a lot of ways because of our industry. So yeah-

Rob Kosberg:

There’s no telling where this will lead you. I think this part of my story. But my first book was written for my financial services company and that in 2009, that company blew up, it became a multi-million-dollar company. And we worked with a lot of business owners and those business owners were saying, “Thanks for all your financial help, but how are you growing your business? We want to grow our business.” And I said, “Well, my book.” And they ask, “Well, can you help me with a book?” And I said, “I don’t know. Maybe, let’s see.” And of course, the rest as they say is history. I ended up helping a few falling in love with it. I sold my financial services company a few years later and Best Seller Publishing started now 10 years ago. So, you never know what business you may be in because of all the success of your first book.

Gena Lester:

And it is really amazing because I think for me with the book you write a book and maybe this is just me. I don’t know how other people feel about this, but you write a book and then you kind of wonder, “What if they read it… Is it good?”

Rob Kosberg:

Everyone wonders.

Gena Lester:

Is there good content in this, or are people going to read this and think, “Well, she didn’t know what she was talking about.” And it’s been so amazing to me because I’ve actually had other professionals in my industry read it and reach out to me and say and make comments in my social sites and everything else that, “This is a great book. It’s great content. You need to get this book.” And I said, “Wow, that’s encouraging.” So, it’s exciting to see that happening and I love doing it for free shipping because that does allow more people to be impacted by it-

Rob Kosberg:

To consume it. Yeah. Well, thanks for your vulnerability on that. You know what I mean? I think every author, especially writing their first book is maybe a perfectionist or at the very least just self-conscious about their content. Stephen King threw away his first book, The Stand, and his wife made him take it to the publisher. And of course, again, as the rest they say is history. He is who he is, but everyone I think is self-conscious. So, thank you for sharing that. Maybe this is just so much gold. I know there are lots of people that are going to want to get in touch with you. What are the best ways? So, for those that are interested in your book, maybe a link if there are other things, we’ll put it all in the show notes, but how best to reach Gena?

Gena Lester:

Yeah. So, on the college admission space, definitely my business is called Education Prep Centers. You can reach out there, even if you’re an edupreneur, you can go there. There’s a form that you can fill out to just connect with me, just fill that out and then in the area where it says, “What do I need to know about you?” Just tell me that you’re reaching out on the edupreneur side of it. I’m just in the process of really getting all those things up and going you can definitely email me, but I’m also, I’m on social media, Facebook, all of those things. And so, if you search Dr. Gena, if you search, Education Prep Centers, you’re definitely going to find me there. So those are all great ways to reach out to me.

Rob Kosberg:

Love it. Gena, thank you. Thanks for your time. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and great to have you on the podcast. I’m sure we’ll have to do it again as this thing continues to grow and explode.

Gena Lester:

Yeah, absolutely. And I will say I am doing another challenge, just so you know in April. So, this is a good time for me to open it. So, I’ll make sure to give you all a free link because that’s a free five-day thing if you’re on the parent side and just needing some help.

Rob Kosberg:

Love it. We’ll make sure that you get the link to me for that, and that we’ll post in the show notes. So again, thanks.

Gena Lester:

Yeah. You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.