Category: How to Get & Keep Attention

#160 Experience Does Not Equal Performance

How to demonstrate you’re a great fit for your target MBA programs – or your next employer – even if you’re short on experience.
#152 Kishōtenketsu

Do you feel like your MBA story is a bit bland? Or uninspiring compared to the applicant profiles you see online? What if you haven’t overcome insurmountable odds or accomplished something amazing? Darren explores the possibilities of kishōtenketsu – a four act story structure used by Japanese and Chinese writers for centuries. What makes this story structure…
#146 The Three Ps of Performance

Darren shares “three P’s” you can use to clarify the value of your accomplishments in your resume and MBA application. Doing so will paint a clear picture of your performance for MBA admissions officers and employers.
#116 Interacting with MBA Admissions Officers at Events

How can you make a memorable impression on MBA Admissions Officers at MBA recruiting events? Drawing on his experience recruiting at MBA Tours and information sessions, Darren shares his best tips for how you can stand out.
#113 Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t

Inspired by Steven Pressfield’s book, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, Darren offers 3 pillars to present a memorable MBA story: concept, theme, and structure (hook, build, payoff).
#112 LinkedIn Tips for MBA Applicants

Your LinkedIn profile could be the first thing business schools see. Darren draws on his admissions experience and shares 7 tips to make a good first impression, reinforce your MBA story, and highlight additional qualities not in your application. MBA programs are looking at your social media, especially your LinkedIn profile. Take 15 minutes to…
#109 Crafting Your Best Story & Applying Through the Consortium with Sabaina Kamara, Michigan Ross ’19

Sabaina Kamara, a Touch MBA listener and Admissions Edge Member, details what she did each step of the way to craft her best story – one that got her admitted to 4 top 20 US b-schools, including Michigan Ross, where she will head to this Fall. Sabaina also shares the benefits of applying through the…
#100 Our Most Popular Guests Answer: “What 1 Action Can Candidates Take to Dramatically Improve Their MBA Application?”

To celebrate the 100th episode of the Touch MBA Podcast, we invited our 9 most popular guests to answer 1 question: “What 1 Action Can Candidates Take to Dramatically Improve Their Application?”
#83 MBA Essays that Work – Candid Thoughts on Essays, Authenticity and Being Yourself

With MBA programs shortening their applications and asking for less essays, how can applicants still tell their story? How should applicants approach these MBA essays and what should they write? Darren speaks with Yale SOM MBA Admissions Director Bruce DelMonico and MBA Admissions Consultant and Author Paul Bodine to get 2 different perspectives on this…
#74 How to Overcome a Low GPA

Darren shares 7 concrete ways you can overcome a low GPA and show top-ranked MBA programs that you will perform well in an intense Master’s level program.
#71 How to Apply for Top MBAs with Tyler Cormney of MBA Prep School

Over the past decade, Tyler Cormney and MBA Prep School have achieved a 90% success rate with clients at the world’s top schools. What are the key steps to preparing an application that puts you in the top 10%? Hint: it’s not your essay(s). Don’t miss this value-packed episode and feel free to ask Tyler…
#69 How One Listener Got Into Kellogg, Insead, Ross, Fuqua, Johnson and CEIBS

Many of our podcast listeners come to Touch MBA to get free school selection help. One of them, Li Daming, recently got into Northwestern Kellogg, Insead, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua and Cornell Johnson with scholarship funding. How did he do it?
Fifty Shades of Grey: MBA Edition

The MBA application process can be as mysterious as Christian Grey. Here are 50 reasons b-schools will put you in the grey zone i.e. “maybe” or “no” piles. Avoid these grey zone signals to score with your target MBA.
#51 Stalking the Story for Your MBA Essays

Who better to learn storytelling from than a two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner for dramatic nonfiction? This week Darren uses Jon Franklin’s Writing for Story as guidance for “stalking the story” and writing MBA essays that grip and reveal. Franklin pioneered the narrative nonfiction genre, and his book is full of gems for applicants struggling with…
#47 Great Applications for Business School with Paul Bodine

How would you like to grab coffee with one of the world’s most experienced MBA admissions consultants and pick his brain on what makes a successful application? This week I asked Paul Bodine, author of Great Applications for Business School, and owner of Paul Bodine Admissions Consulting, about his best advice to clients and admissions…