Most students who
leave could stay.
Very few walk away because the work was beyond them. They leave because somewhere in the first year they quietly decided they did not belong here, or that this was not for people like them, and no one ever gave them language for that moment or a reason to doubt it.
These are free formats for running the ten concepts with students, student leaders, or staff. No cost, no license, nothing to purchase, and they are written so a peer mentor can facilitate as easily as a faculty member.
Written by someone who did not finish college. Chris Sund says so plainly in the book, and it is part of why students hear him differently. He went on to lead national healthcare companies, and the book is honest about the years in between when he assumed the surface was all he had.
It does not talk
down to them.
Students can tell within about a minute whether something was written for them or at them.
Whatever comes after the words I am becomes the boundary a person lives inside. First-year students are full of sentences like that and almost never say them out loud. The book gives them the words and then argues with them.
The core argument is that people who fall short are usually not short on talent, they are short on belief. That is the actual retention problem on most campuses, and it is a more useful conversation than time management.
Every guide is written so the facilitator is a participant too. An RA, a peer mentor, or a student org president can lead a session without training, which is what makes it scale across a campus.
Ownership, self-talk, follow-through, feedback, and leaving people better are the things employers say graduates lack. This is career readiness without the phrase career readiness.
The four that
matter most here.
There are ten in the book. These four carry the most weight with students.
Train Your Inner Voice
The student who is certain everyone else understood the lecture. The first-generation student waiting to be found out. The one who stopped raising their hand in week three and never started again.
Not every thought you have is true. Run this one early in the first semester, before the quiet decisions get made.
Read the concept →Own It. Every Day.
A reason can be true and still not help you. Students arrive with real constraints, and the work is separating the accurate explanation from the useful one without ever pretending the constraints are fake.
This is the session that changes how a student talks about a bad grade, which changes what they do about the next one.
Read the concept →Time Is Your Edge
Your life is built out of how you spend your days rather than what you intend to do next semester. Most students do not have a time problem, they have a decisions problem, and nobody has ever framed it that way for them.
Pairs well with the first advising conversation of a term.
Read the concept →Finish What You Start
Starting is common and finishing is rare. Most people do not fail, they leave early, and usually at the same point every time.
Run this in the middle of a term, in the week where attendance always dips. It is the persistence conversation without the word persistence.
Read the concept →Four formats,
four calendars.
Same material at different depths. Start with whatever fits the term you are actually in.
The Lunch and Learn
All ten concepts at about five minutes each, with a full run of show and the exact question to ask for every one. Nothing to prepare beyond printing a page, and nobody needs to have read the book.
Works for: welcome week, an orientation session, a student org meeting, a residence hall program, or a staff in-service.
Open the Guide →The Book Club Guide
One session per concept, written so anyone in the group can run it. Honest questions, one that asks more of the room, and a challenge to carry into the week.
Works for: a living learning community, a student leadership org, a peer mentor cohort, or a fraternity or sorority chapter. Everyone needs a copy of the book.
Download the Guide →The Boot Camp
All ten condensed into a day. Short teach, silent reflection, table discussion, decision, ten times over. The group leaves with a written plan rather than a folder.
Works for: RA and peer mentor training week, a student leadership retreat, or a staff professional development day.
Open the Guide →The 10-Week Program
The deep version, and the one that fits an academic term almost exactly. One concept a week with real life in between, so students try something and report back to the room.
Works for: a first-year seminar, a student success or bridge course, a TRIO or first-generation program, or a leadership certificate.
Open the Guide →Not just
first-year students.
Common Read
The book works as a campus wide or first-year read, with discussion questions already written and an author who will show up. There is a full common read page.
Student Leadership
Student government, orientation leaders, RAs, peer mentors, and club presidents. Lead Before You Are Asked is written for exactly this group.
Athletics
Campus athletics has its own page with the season mapped out, from preseason through the postseason. See the athletics formats.
Faculty and Staff
Professional development days, advising teams, and department retreats. The material is not written for students specifically, which is why it holds up with adults.
High Schools
Advisory periods, senior seminars, athletics, and student leadership. The language is direct enough for teenagers without being written down to them.
Career Services
Ownership, feedback, and follow-through are what employers say graduates are missing. This is that conversation in language students will actually sit through.
Running it
with students.
Things Worth Knowing Before You Start
Do not grade the reflection. The moment a student thinks an honest answer will be read and scored, you get the answer they think you want. Credit attendance and participation if you need to, and leave the written work private.
Let students facilitate. A peer running the session changes what the room says. The guides are built for it, and student leaders take the material far more seriously once they have had to teach it.
Go first. Whoever leads should answer the first question honestly about themselves. Students mirror the level of honesty in the room, and a facilitator who stays safe will get a safe room.
Watch the disclosure. Sessions about self-doubt and pressure sometimes surface things bigger than a session. Know your campus referral path before you start, and be ready to follow up with a student one to one afterward.
You are bigger than what you can currently see.
Bring these
into the room.
The Comfort Ceiling Assessment
Twenty five questions, scored, done on a phone in ten minutes. Answers stay on the student’s own device, which is why they answer honestly.
Take It →The Promise
One thing you have been putting off, with a date on it. A strong closing exercise for an orientation or seminar session.
Make One →The Printables
Worksheets for all ten concepts, ready to print for every seat in the classroom.
Print Them →Common Read Program
Everything a campus needs to adopt the book as a first-year or campus wide read, including bulk copies and an author visit.
See the Program →
When I’ve got something worth sending.
Just a story or an idea I picked up that I think will help you.
Sometimes that’s twice in a month. Sometimes it’s not for a while.