Mindi Trimble's Experience in The Case Study Training Program
You could learn to write a case study using this or that random resource you find online—OR—you could get The Comprehensive Case Study Training Program! The only online course that shows you how to write case studies with SEO and story.
Just like Mindi did…
There’s nothing quite like hearing about the experience from the actual person. Which is exactly why Mindi & I battled the tech turmoil of Mercury Retrograde to get this interview recorded. If you’ve been thinking about writing your own case studies, but you want to hear from someone who’s actually done the dang thing—press play now! In this episode, Mindi & I discuss her experience in The Case Study Training Program, what she thought of the program format, & how she managed to work through the material during her busy season!
Topics covered in this podcast episode:
How Mindi & Brittany met
Why Mindi wanted to use case studies in her marketing
Why she wanted to learn about case studies from Brittany
What Mindi likes best about The Case Study Training Program
What Mindi thought of the organization & format of the training
How she worked through the training even during her busy season
What surprised Mindi the most in the process of interviewing her clients
Mindi’s suggestions for what I could add to the training
How Mindi is addressing her pet peeves in her industry with case studies
The very unique way Mindi is using her case studies in her marketing
What Mindi has coming up in 2024 & how case studies are helping her
Join the Case Study Training Program & easily build out your content marketing strategy just like Mindi!
Got a question? Submit it here!
Meet: Mindi
Mindi Trimble is the 'bubble wrap' of college prep! She mentors students on how to intentionally POP out from the application crowd without POPPING under pressure on the way to their best-fit college.
Besides increasing acceptance rates, Mindi's Acceptance Academy program has helped students win scholarship and financial aid offers—ranging from five to thirty times their investment in her programs. When not singing her students’ praises, Mindi's flexing her Phi Beta Kappa-from-UC Berkeley knowledge at trivia nights, her muscles on hikes with her husband Scott and German Sheagle Allie Boo, and yes—her actual operatic training with silly versions of soprano arias to her twin boys.
Links & Mentioned Resources:
8th-12th Grade College Planning Timeline
YouScience Aptitude & Career Discovery Assessment
Blogging w/ SEO (email course)
(Coming Soon!) Mindi’s first case study 🎉
Connect w/ Mindi:
Group Cohort & 1:1 Hybrid Class
Connect w/ Brittany:
This episode of The Basic B podcast is brought to you in partnership w/ Leah Bryant Co.! Help me reach more service providers like you by following the show & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!
The unedited podcast transcript for this episode of The Basic B podcast follows
Welcome back to The Basic B podcast. I'm stoked to have you here and I have a really special conversation with a really special person coming up for you. So Mindy Trimble, who actually went through the case study training program and is just a really good friend. And we're always like chit chatting on one platform or another. She's here with me to tell you about her experience as well as a few other things that are going on in her world. But before I bring her on, here is her quick intro. Mindy Trimble is the bubble wrap of college prep.
on how to intentionally pop out from the application crowd without popping under pressure on the way to their best fit college. Besides increasing acceptance rates, Mindy's Acceptance Academy program has helped students win scholarship and financial aid offers, ranging from five to 30 times the investment of, hold on, I'm gonna redo that. I'll tell you, there's been one line. All right, Leah, are you taking that one?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (00:54.693)
It's okay.
Brittany Herzberg (00:59.702)
Besides increasing acceptance rates, Mindy's Acceptance Academy program has helped students win scholarship and financial aid offers, ranging from 5 to 30 times their investment in her programs. When not singing her students' praises, Mindy's flexing her Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley knowledge at trivia nights, her muscles on hikes with her husband Scott and German sheagull Alibu, and yes, her actual operatic training with silly versions of soprano arias to her twin boys.
Hi, my friend. I got through your bio.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (01:33.482)
You know, it's a little wordy. I'm like, hmm, I'm gonna need to revamp that a bit. But you know what? You know what? I think you did a beautiful job. And in fact, you know what? It's great, it's great. And no, I'm really excited to be here. And that was one of the reasons I came to you is because I wanted to sing my students' praises better and in a way that is more efficient.
Brittany Herzberg (01:38.547)
No!
Why thank you. The second time.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (02:00.433)
and productive and lives forever on the internet. Yes.
Brittany Herzberg (02:03.318)
forever on the good old internet. And I totally forgot that you are a trained opera singer.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (02:10.337)
Indeed! Yeah, there we go. That's about the only thing that's gonna happen on this podcast.
Brittany Herzberg (02:12.282)
I love that. You're like, and that's gonna... All right, let me hit you with the first question and then we'll get into the meat of all this stuff. Which do you believe is the most important for sales? SEO, storytelling, or social proof?
Brittany Herzberg (02:31.199)
I love the deep breath.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (02:32.645)
this is a trick question because I believe that not a single one is the most important. I think you need all three but and I think that storytelling is probably first because I need to be able to storytell in order to create great social proof and I can't maximize my SEO without keywords.
Brittany Herzberg (02:35.85)
little bit.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (03:00.773)
from the stories and social proof I create.
Brittany Herzberg (03:04.886)
You just gave a better answer than I thought was even possible.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (03:08.833)
Well, Brittany, I know, I know, I'm just, you know, I'm just here to, I'm just here to wow.
Brittany Herzberg (03:13.645)
That's the 5-8 of kappa I'm probably screwing it up thing, right?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (03:18.793)
You know, this is the sidebar. So Brittany and I met through Marisa Corcoran's copy confidence society and it's a joke because when I Was redoing my brilliant bio in one of her copy chat interviews. We've had a whole thing about Phi Beta Kappa She's like nobody knows what it is. I said, yeah, but do you feel she said but I'm she's in Phi Beta Kappa also And she said that her coach also
Brittany Herzberg (03:44.767)
of funny.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (03:48.173)
would always mention it whenever she was introducing Larisa, so it was a joke moment. So I said, okay, we're putting it in there. Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg (03:54.254)
That's cute. It's going in there. No, I love that it's in there because it is memorable, even though I have no freaking clue what Phi Beta Kappa is. Like I, I mean, I know that it's a Greek house, right? Like a sorority. Ah.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (04:01.413)
Yeah. Yes, it's an honor society. So it was not, it's not, technically it's an academic honor society, so it's not like an actual sorority, but it's, yeah, it's for everybody who gets a certain GPA in college. You know what? I'm gonna make you an honorary member here. I'm dubbing you. You are an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa. Yes.
Brittany Herzberg (04:14.046)
I wanna be in there.
Brittany Herzberg (04:19.562)
Give me the scissor dog. I knew it was going to be. I'm honored. No, seriously, I didn't go to a four-year college. So probably if that had happened, I probably would have been. So now it really makes me want to go back to college. This means I probably need your assistance.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (04:30.733)
There you go. Yes.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (04:35.649)
Well, I'm here for you when you need it. I work with transfer students, I work with professional students, but my primary jam is, yeah, is undergrads.
Brittany Herzberg (04:37.243)
I appreciate it.
Brittany Herzberg (04:43.562)
Yeah, and we've even talked about possibly maybe, maybe possibly, you working with twins because that seems to be like a thing that keeps falling in your lap, which I personally as the friend of like several families with twins really hope that you do.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (04:56.937)
Oh yeah, that is absolutely happening. I am definitely going to be slowly rebranding this year, kind of making stuff behind the scenes, and it's gonna be a formal launch in 2025. I want to work exclusively with twins, yeah.
Brittany Herzberg (05:10.302)
I am so excited. I can't believe you're actually gonna do this. I'm stoked. I have so many people for you in about like 15 years. So just like sit tight. Don't go anywhere.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (05:15.394)
Oh yeah, yeah.
know what? That's right, it's all good. I'm not going anywhere, so yes.
Brittany Herzberg (05:23.934)
Oh, that's amazing. And how old are your twins? I don't think I've asked you that in a while or ever.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (05:27.173)
They are, they are five and a half. And they are juicy human nuggets. They are so fun. They are super fun. They say really silly things and we have a good time. So, yeah.
Brittany Herzberg (05:40.882)
I love that. It's so fun. I really could talk to you like forever and ever. And I know we have a couple things that we want to chat through. So tell all of our new friends what was going on before you joined the case study training program.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (05:48.697)
Yes.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (05:57.913)
Ah, yes, so before I joined the case study training program, actually when I joined the case study training program, it was in the middle of my busy season, and I was hesitant because I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep up, even though the work is honestly going through it after the fact, I was like, oh, this is so beautiful and it's not overwhelming. At the time, my work was so demanding, I knew I was not gonna get it done in the actual sequencing of the.
you know, the six week flow. But where I was at that point was I was so busy and I hadn't properly kind of set up my social media plan so I wasn't consistent. And I hadn't pre-scheduled things to roll out and you know, I was working with my students. So I said, okay, well, I'll just, you know, I'll put this towards the end of the year, beginning of next year, and then I'll start doing my case study interviews so that I can.
Brittany Herzberg (06:40.246)
Mm-hmm.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (06:54.849)
create them and schedule them and have them ready to roll out over the next six, seven weeks. So I feel like, you know, this might even be your next question, but I feel so much more confident about, I don't feel like I have to come up really with anything, you know, because each student has a different story and that I can, I can, you know, connect that story arc to
you know, my content pillars. I can find a different content pillar for each student. And that, you know, that whole story arc aspect of your, you know, your pet structure has, it helps me with the different client stories, because, you know, they are client success stories, but it helps me decide, all right, I have these five case studies that I'm developing right now, so which point do I wanna, you know, draw out?
to connect it to my content pillar so that I don't have to think like what am I going to post today. Anything I post on top of those baselines is icing. Because right now it's pretty quiet on the social media right now. So that will be changing very soon. But yeah.
Brittany Herzberg (07:56.896)
Mm-hmm.
Brittany Herzberg (08:06.198)
That's great to hear. So, and I remember getting the DM from you because you had a couple things that were going on in addition to all of this client work that you had going on and you were like.
we had some kind of conversation about it and I remember just how busy you were and I was like, it's good, like you can take what you need from it and then we can go through it later, which you did actually do. You joined for basically another round to go through that more in a live capacity where you were able to actually work through things and digest it. And even still, I know you were on the last call and you're like, everything's not done, it's not done, but like I've gone through enough of it.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (08:27.755)
Okay.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (08:41.513)
Yeah, yeah. And you know, I think I really like the live aspect of it. I loved the way that you dripped the content into the email. So I felt like it was very clear with the checklists. And I appreciate just I just appreciate how thorough and organized you are. And also just self-deprecating. Like you were so organized and you're so generous with what you give. But you're always like
Brittany Herzberg (09:02.926)
..
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (09:07.853)
This is incomplete. There is always more and I'm just like, oh I love you Brittany. I know there's more, but you're giving us so much. Thank you so much.
Brittany Herzberg (09:15.458)
Thank you for saying that. Yeah, that's one thing where I call myself a recovering perfectionist because I really am. And one of those things is like, is there enough? Do you have enough? But I've really had to balance firehosing people with just like, here's a few things if you need more, come find me. So thank you for saying that. I really, truly appreciate that. And I'm glad to know that it was manageable enough for you to go through on your own, but that the live component was really nice because that's not how I structured it at first.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (09:42.581)
Yeah, no, I think the live component, you know, even though I was busy again for the live coursework.
I felt that the way that it was presented and how I got the reminder emails every week, I felt like, okay, I know, this is what I wanna look at now. And I could make notes, even if I knew I couldn't get into it until later, I could make notes for myself a lot more easily about where I wanted to go and develop and spend more time and when I was gonna do what. So that's been really helpful.
Brittany Herzberg (10:13.47)
Yeah, amazing. I love hearing that. Thank you. What was it about this training or me? Like why, why me? Why this training? Which is always such a weird question to ask, but like genuinely I would love to hear.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (10:27.365)
All right, well, I mean, as I said, because I knew you from the Coffee Confidence Society, I loved your energy. I love how you are so one of those people online. What you see is what you get. In terms of, I know exactly what kind of personality you're gonna be in the training, but also...
I knew it was going to be very, very high quality. And I've watched your own business evolve, and I've watched you niche. And in fact, I will say that your niching as a copywriter from just as a general copywriter focused on the health and wellness space to focusing on SEO and just the amount of like.
You know, just your first podcast, now you're with the second podcast. It is so inspiring. And so I want to learn from someone who is doing such inspirational work as I'm growing my business. And so I knew, I just knew you were the right fit. I mean, there's lots of SEO people out there, but that way it wasn't, it wasn't a matter of shopping around. It was a matter of when can I include Britney's?
amazing advice into my life. Even if I don't get to it right away, I'm going to get it now and it's gonna live in a folder and I will get to it when I get to it.
Brittany Herzberg (11:44.542)
and I hope it's called the Brittany folder, like I really do.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (11:48.297)
I mean, I can rename it. Right now it's Brittany Hertzberg trainings, but you know.
Brittany Herzberg (11:52.638)
Oh, that's great. No, we can leave that. I approve. This is lovely. I like it. Herzberg. You're fine. Everyone does. The family we're told are getting off track. But the family lore story is that when they came over from Germany, that they decided to do away with it. But I have no idea. I'm still tracking that ancestry. I'm still pulling on that thread. I know I'm like, but really, did this really happen?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (11:55.829)
Is it Herzberg or Hertzberg? Herzberg. Oh, I threw a T in there. Okay.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (12:19.701)
Well, as a recovering perfectionist, it's a T you don't have to cross, which is lovely.
Brittany Herzberg (12:24.426)
This is so true. I've got just about every letter of the alphabet in my name. Anyway, so I love hearing that. I love knowing that it really was a matter of shopping around. And frankly, that happens a lot where people come into my world, they get to know me, and then they want to do something and they're like, you. And so I don't really have sales calls. It's not that I can't have sales calls or that I'm opposed to them, but my sales calls are in air quotes and they're typically on Voxer or Instagram where it's like a couple questions being
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (12:42.102)
Yeah.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (12:52.057)
Mm-hmm.
Brittany Herzberg (12:54.24)
and forth and then people are like okay I'm ready like so that's pretty cool so thank you for being another one of those people. What were you really hoping to get from the case study training like at the end what did you want to have or know or be able to do at the end of things?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (12:57.849)
Right, right.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (13:17.477)
I mean, it lived up to my expectations. I was kind of hoping, like, okay, maybe I can use these case studies to create a whole social media planning system that allows me to not have to recreate the wheel every week. And yes, I mean, well, actually, with every student, I get new students every year. My business is seasonal, so.
you know, I'll do case studies every year, hopefully. You know, I sure hope to be. And, right, and also I, you know, I do have students that I'm still in contact with, with whom I haven't done case studies, and they're years down the road, so some of them are finishing college. So that's, you know, there's this huge pool of case studies I haven't tapped. So, you know, I don't have to worry about having a slim year or even.
Brittany Herzberg (13:49.33)
You have to be around for 15 years.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (14:11.233)
not taking on as many clients one year because it's just kind of a resource that keeps on giving. And I can, I loved, I was surprised by the amount of repurposing ideas and the amount of direction with blogging and SEO and making that work. So I was really excited to see all of that content in the course.
Brittany Herzberg (14:32.638)
Oh yay, I'm so happy to hear that. I also just recently, I've been working with a marketing agency to consult with them and basically all I've done is take the case study training program materials and repurpose that as the phases that we're working through with the agency. And where was I going with this? There was a point. What did you say before?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (14:39.308)
Thank you.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (14:58.669)
Oh, I just thought I was surprised by all of those elements and it was something that I was secretly hoping for and then it kind of delivered and then some.
Brittany Herzberg (15:06.586)
There we go. So the marketing agency, they, we were working through something and there was a question about optimizing images.
and I went back into the materials and I was like, oh, that's an opportunity. I can add, because I have that. It's just over in a different training for blogging with SEO. So I'm going to pull that in. But I do feel like I'm really happy with the amount of material that's there. And I get a lot of feedback, like what you're saying, that there's a good amount there and a lot of resources and a lot of meat to it. But I'm still always trying to find, OK, what's that opportunity? What's that gap? What's that thing that I forgot to include or could include or something like that? So on that note, is there anything
Now that you've gone through the training and created some case studies, is there anything that you can think of where it's like, oh, I wish this had been in there?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (15:53.357)
You know, no, because I think you already, because you have this other product, in fact, I think it's pretty genius. It's like, I've gotten a taste of the blogging with SEO, but you're not gonna give all of that to me inside of a case study training. So the thing that I want is a product you also have. Perfect, right? That's the way it's supposed to work. So I think what I want is more Brittany, and I'm gonna get it in blogging and SEO. So there you go.
Brittany Herzberg (16:11.534)
That's true.
Brittany Herzberg (16:18.892)
Hehehehe
and the podcast and the things.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (16:24.053)
Yeah, all the things. That's great. So I yeah, I think I yeah, it's all there. And I still I mean, I'm still working through it, right? I I'm obviously not to the repurpose stage yet. I've, you know, looked through and read it about it. I know what's coming. But it's exciting.
Brittany Herzberg (16:39.834)
Yeah, and you'll get there. And that's the idea too, is not that you have to, you know, run through this material at lightning speed. It's like, it'll be there whenever you're ready for it. So one thing that I should probably clarify, but you've definitely talked about, is that I don't have this training house in like Kajabi or Teachable or anything like that. I send you emails and I believe the way that I do it is it's sent out, the materials go out on Monday. And then if we have a live call on that Friday, there's a reminder sent Thursday, there's reminders sent Friday.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (17:03.822)
Mm-hmm.
Brittany Herzberg (17:09.748)
the live call. If it's a non-call week you still get the Monday materials email and then you get something Thursday or Friday more of like a check-in kind of thing. How was that part of the experience where it was email versus like logging into something? Was that ideal?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (17:29.301)
I, yes, I like that because I relied on those emails because I knew since the live round went in the fall and I was busy with my students because all of their deadlines are October, November, I would kind of orient myself with what was going on. I would make sure to open up all the Google Docs, depending on how much time I have, I would kind of like dig around and then make a plan and be like, all right.
when I'm ready to, these are the first steps I'm gonna do. I would just kind of try to orient myself. And if I did have more time that day, or if I just got, if I went down a rabbit hole with it, then I just would, but I was able to kind of put it all in a folder and not get overwhelmed, I guess, with all of the modules all at once on a page.
Brittany Herzberg (18:20.144)
Mm.
Yeah, that's good to hear because that is one thing that I am hoping to avoid is like, here's everything because I did that the first time I ran this program and some people loved it and some people really didn't love it because it is a lot if you're looking at it all at once. I mean, granted, yes, it's organized and it's pretty and it's all of that, but if you're staring at a huge document, it's like, I have to do all of this. I have to go through all these things. So I'm glad to hear that you're coming back to it and making use of it like in phases
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (18:28.909)
Hmm
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (18:32.846)
Mmm.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (18:44.477)
Right, right.
Brittany Herzberg (18:51.437)
I think that's really smart.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (18:54.467)
Yeah, yeah, and I just kind of tagged all the emails and put them in their own little folder so that I'm like, okay, that's where I go back and look. So yeah.
Brittany Herzberg (19:01.99)
You know that makes me happy. With, I mean you're working with college, you're working with high school students going into college and then eventually college students. Have you interviewed anyone? Are you, how are you gathering the information to actually create your case studies? Is it video interviews or?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (19:19.525)
I'm doing video interviews. I don't have a video platform. I might, I'm on Instagram, so I might grab some clips for repurposing, but I'm not, I don't have a YouTube account where I do that. But I have, the way that I work up until this point has been one-on-one with students. So I'm spending, over the course of four to six months or more, 20 to 30 hours one-on-one with these students.
them very, very well. And some of them I've known for years now because they've gone on into college. So I'm doing these Zoom interviews and it's so surprising. So some of them are fresh out of the relationship and some have a little bit more time. And I thought, you know, I thought for sure I would be surprised by the students who are a couple years out. But even the students that just finished working with me.
you know, back in December, January, I'm so surprised by what they're saying. So I've done five interviews, I'm working at, I know, I'm not technically supposed to be doing them all at once, but I'm working, you know, I've staggered them, but I'm kind of shaping them and working on them in different ways because I wanted to tie them to the pillars of my messaging. And so, but they're just such, they're just such gifts. Talk about like,
Brittany Herzberg (20:27.698)
No, that's great, I'm smiling. Oh, you're good.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (20:48.525)
an injection of positivity into your workday. I mean, I'm so surprised by what they're saying about what they learned, what surprised them, what they're still using in college, things that we covered together that they got to a class or were in another coaching, and they're like, oh, I already knew all that because of what we did together. And I was just like, oh, well.
That wasn't even one of my intentions. So that's amazing. So it's just, yeah, it's a gift. And that has been by far the most surprising part of the case study training is how, you know, just how affirming it can be. And, you know, I feel like I'm building more community with.
my with my students and you know I'm prolonging that relationship which is what I want I mean that's why I do what I do I love the intimacy of what I do.
Brittany Herzberg (21:45.738)
Mm. Yeah, I love hearing that so, so much because that's, I think...
something that people really don't consider when they join the case study training program or hire me for Done For You case studies, they don't realize how much of, I mean, it's really an ego boost. It's a great thing to have, I even wrote about that in the email that I sent out today. It's wonderful to be able to flip over to your website and on a really crappy day, look at something and be like, no, I do know what I'm doing. Look, I impacted this person's life. Look, I did this thing, I did that thing. Look at the wonderful things they had to say about me.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (22:03.563)
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (22:16.978)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg (22:21.904)
Because we all go through that and we all have crappy days and it's really nice to just go oh yeah no this is just like a flash in the pan it's just a moment it's just a certain situation just a hard day.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (22:31.005)
Yeah, just it's just a hard day. Go look at what this person said and what's happening for them. Yeah.
Brittany Herzberg (22:37.118)
Right, yeah, so I love hearing that again. Like, that's so nice and probably something that I need to talk about a little bit more. And you reminded me when you were chatting about tying the different case studies to your content pillars. That's so smart and it's so cool for me to hear you talk about that because that's not one of the ways that I even intentionally... That's not something I share in the training. I talk about featuring different case studies for different things, but that's not
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (22:50.646)
Mm-hmm.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (23:00.053)
Hmm.
Brittany Herzberg (23:07.512)
how students have taken this material and really made it their own. You know, I talk about featuring a case study for each different offer. I talk about featuring a client for different values that you have or supporting your mission or talking through your fine or talking through different parts of your framework and things like that. So it's really... I love your idea and I love how you've tied that together and how it's really going to serve you for a very long time and even in a different format.
in a different capacity than you might have even necessarily set out to do.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (23:43.805)
Oh yeah, I didn't even, I didn't really think about it until, you know, I started, probably my second or third interview, I thought, okay, well, I can, you know, I can arc this one this way, and I can arc the student, you know, I can go this angle, and I realized that those angles were actually tied to the messages that I want, you know, that I wanted to keep talking about over and over. And so then, you know.
Brittany Herzberg (24:38.242)
Exactly. I love that. I totally will. Yep. See, that'll be one of those like, hey, I found another way. Here you go.
Because I do, I like leaving space because I do want you to feel like you can come into this program and have your own thoughts and have your own ideas and do your own thing. And I learned so much from my students and my clients. And so it allows me to like just have, leave a gap where I can go in and be like, oh yeah, there was this thing too, or so and so said this, or here's another example. It's really fun. I'm trying to think. I think we covered.
I'm trying to think of like my own framework. So I think we covered like the problem, the experience, the transformation. I know you're working through the material right now. I will say if you ever have any case studies that you want me to link to, just let me know and I'm happy to add them to the show notes here because we can show off your work.
Brittany Herzberg (25:34.818)
Wait, oh yeah, I can play. I know, oh yeah. You're probably, she's gonna have to edit on this one. That's fine though. Um, okay, so I think we covered everything. Is there anything else that you wanna share about the program before I'm gonna like, kinda switch gears after this?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (26:41.844)
of showcasing the work I do.
Brittany Herzberg (26:44.478)
Yeah, I love that. All right. So what are your, I know, I know you have some pet peeves about your industry and I would love to hear how you maybe intend to use these case studies to help address the pet peeves. Do you have ideas already on that?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (26:59.108)
Yeah, yeah, and my pet peeves, you know, they're tied to my content pillar. So one of my pet peeves is that, you know, the college timeline has really transitioned a lot, especially within the last 20 to 30 years, and gosh, even the last 10 to 15. So, you know, parents and students think college is not really something I need to start thinking about until...
junior or senior year and nothing could be further from the truth. I think that if students are college-bound, usually parents know that well before they get to high school. So and students may not be 100% on board, but you know parents probably have a certain expectation or desire. And if the students also do, then there are baby steps that aren't really about college research that should be happening in the summer before ninth grade.
in ninth grade and tenth grade. And it really is in tenth grade, I would argue, that you can start doing active college research. So, you know, setting yourself up well to be using, using your summers in a way that's gonna help you enhance your own narrative. I mean, ultimately, what I also do is about storytelling. I'm helping students tell their own personal story and give context to admission officers. The admission officers wanna see who they were.
who they are and who they hope to be and how college is gonna help them do that. And so, you know, high school students don't have a lot, if any, experience with creative nonfiction or storytelling in that way, they write other kinds of essays, but not those kinds of essays. And so...
it really, really truly needs to start earlier. The research needs to start earlier because the story craft coaching also takes a lot of time and it's hard for students to write about themselves. It's hard for anybody to write about themselves period. So, cause you have a bio product also, right? A how to write your bio. So, you know, I mean, you created it because everybody struggles with that kind of stuff. And this is 650 words and it feels really heavy and scary because it can be, but yeah.
Brittany Herzberg (28:59.879)
Yeah.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (29:10.36)
Ultimately, my pet peeve is that people start too late. And I have quite a few students with whom I've been lucky enough to work with over many years leading up to their college application process. And unsurprisingly, those students did really well and got hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend college. So, I mean, it's not, yeah, it comes as no surprise to me. And they were not, the students were not...
you know, in financial need. It was all merit-based. So it's pretty impressive. And yeah, it just makes me really excited because I know that it works.
Brittany Herzberg (29:49.366)
Yeah, it really does. And it's fun to even hear you talk about it because I love how just you know so much about the process and it does really light you up. One thing I'm curious about, and this is like so not part of any other thing, but I'm wondering, do parents reach out to you exclusively or do you sometimes have students that reach out to you?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (30:08.044)
very rarely get students reaching out to me. It's mostly parents. If students reach out to me, it's usually because a friend of theirs recommended me. So I don't, I occasionally have like, I maybe can count on one hand, the number of cold DMs from students. Yeah, it's mostly parents, parents who are subscribing also to my list. But yeah.
I typically hear mainly from students during the application season. So like, my friend is using you and I need help. Okay, so.
Brittany Herzberg (30:37.376)
Right?
Brittany Herzberg (30:41.883)
Alright, here you go. Yeah, I'm mostly asking because like I was that weirdo child where I would have been like, oh, Mindy could help me. Hi Mindy!
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (30:49.492)
Yeah, no, and I mean, I definitely have students like that. And honestly, the students that are self-starting, self-directed and reach out to me, I usually know right off the bat that that's going to be a good fit because they're getting in touch with me themselves. So that says a lot about the student.
Brittany Herzberg (31:03.337)
Mm-hmm.
Right and they're already... yeah, yeah. And they're already like, I want this help. Help me. I love that. What are some of the things you mentioned your rebrand, but what are some of the things that you have going on this year?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (31:11.556)
You got it.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (31:19.916)
Yes, so May 19th I am launching my group cohort in one-on-one hybrid class. So it's a very, gonna be a very small group, six students max and I in each group and I am only going to run two if I get there. And if I run two and I don't have six students in each, I'm still gonna run no matter what. So it's...
The first time I've done it in this capacity. So it's going to be a group course over six weeks and I'm gonna have one flex week in there for students to integrate and write and do all of that. And there's also gonna be four one-on-one sessions for each student over the course of those seven weeks. So I have one class from May 19th to June 30th that's focused exclusively on the common application software. That's kind of...
the main clearinghouse that most schools use where you can, you know, put one personal statement that gets sent out to many, many colleges and it's got some other elements as well and so it really helps to have some guidance about how to maximize its features. And then the second part of that course is this next seven week course which is focused on the supplemental essays. So those are the, you know, campus specific essays that colleges ask for.
Brittany Herzberg (32:42.122)
That's amazing. I really could have used that.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (32:43.672)
So yeah, and students get another four one-on-ones. So it could be up to eight one-on-one sessions with me. And they're getting everything done and dusted. They could get everything done and dusted by September 22nd. And the early decision deadlines are on October 1st. So my whole goal is all about if you really don't want to have a stressful senior year, if you really want to enjoy your Halloween, then it's important to start.
early and you know most I would say that most juniors in high school are like oh May 19th like I'm not even done with junior year you know I'm going to be doing this right when I finish school it's like yes you are because future goo is going to thank you I promise.
Brittany Herzberg (33:23.63)
Yes, he will be.
Brittany Herzberg (33:27.33)
Yes. Oh my gosh, I love that so much. I really could have used that. I'm glad you're around, Mindy. Yeah. Okay. Where can, because I know there are going to be people who want to connect with you, where can they connect with you?
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (33:32.86)
Thanks, I appreciate it.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (33:40.9)
Yes, so you can connect with me on Instagram at Mindy Trimble Mentoring, all one word. That's M-I- Mentoring. And you can also find me at mindytrimble.com forward slash mentoring. And I also have a special gift for the Basic Bee listeners. So if you go to mindytrimble.com forward slash podcast, you are going to get
access to a U Science aptitude test. So I use U Science as a way to kind of help students identify their superpowers and their character strengths and even identify best fit careers. It's not a normal aptitude test like I know tell me if I'm wrong.
Maybe in high school you did an aptitude test where you were checking a bunch of boxes about like, oh, I like this, or I sort of like to do this, or I'm strong. It's not like that. It's all brain games. It's super fun. And in fact, I think you would love it. So I think I will send one to you. You're like, oh, I want this. It's 90 minutes. It's an investment, but it's actual aptitudes. So you're actually doing like puzzles. It kind of feels like an IQ test, some people have said.
Brittany Herzberg (34:34.431)
Mm-hmm.
Brittany Herzberg (34:42.058)
I'm just now thinking, I'm like, I gotta go.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (34:56.292)
Some people say it's a little scary, but there's no way to fail this. It's just revealing your learned and natural abilities and skills. And then I'll go through that with you. And if you want to talk about some of my other programs, like winning college or my other programs for younger students, then we can talk about that as well.
Brittany Herzberg (34:58.838)
Oh gosh.
Brittany Herzberg (35:16.978)
I love that. That does sound so fun and I totally want to go take that test.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (35:20.644)
Yeah, I'm sending to you, so you're welcome.
Brittany Herzberg (35:23.142)
Sweet. Thank you. And thank you for joining me and sharing your experience and being willing to do this. I know it took us like a few times to get a schedule and I'm so glad that it worked out and then tech tried to kill us this morning but we got it this afternoon wherever we are. I don't even remember anymore but it was such a blast having you go through the program. I mean of course like we were already friends and so I knew you and I knew your personality and your vibe and I was so stoked but it's just really fun watching people go through that whole transformation of
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (35:33.928)
Oh, me too. Yes, we did it.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (35:44.677)
Yes.
Brittany Herzberg (35:53.516)
Yeah, I have some things, but wow, like I'm kind of incredible and my programs are pretty amazing and my skills are really great and look at these people that I've been able to help. So, thank you.
Mindi Trimble—College Prep Mentor (she/her) (36:01.796)
Yeah, no, that's great. Thank you, thank you, because I wouldn't have leaned into this as like the main prong of how I'm going to approach marketing and social media. So I really appreciate it.
Brittany Herzberg (36:17.906)
Yeah, and your idea is so brilliant. I'm totally sharing that. Awesome! All right, thanks for joining me!