What College Admissions and Comedy Can Teach Entrepreneurs About Personal Branding

In selective college admissions, the strongest applicants are rarely the ones with the longest list of accomplishments. They are the ones who understand what makes them distinctive and can communicate a clear, cohesive story or personal brand across every part of their application. In this Lunch & Learn, Daniel will share personal branding and positioning principles from admissions and comedy content creation that entrepreneurs can use to sharpen their own personal and professional brands. Attendees will learn how to identify their strongest differentiators, clarify the story they want others to remember, and present their work in a way that is memorable, credible, and compelling. 

Daniel Strom is a proud graduate of Northwestern University, where he studied musical theatre and voice performance. Eager to become a versatile artist and entrepreneur, Daniel later returned to Northwestern for business school at the Kellogg School of Management. After graduating from Kellogg in 2018, Daniel moved to Shanghai, China, where he founded Elite Scholar Advising (ESA). Through ESA, Daniel draws on his previous admissions roles at Northwestern and UC San Diego to help students develop clear application strategies, compelling personal narratives, and distinctive personal brands. In addition to his admissions work, Daniel is a social media content creator whose storytelling-driven videos have reached millions of viewers, giving him a firsthand understanding of how clarity, specificity, and audience connection help people stand out.