Leland+ Content Library

How to Run an Efficient Small Business Search

Buying a small business sounds simple until you actually start searching. Suddenly you are juggling deal flow, broker calls, industry research, financial review, diligence, and legal concepts. All while trying to keep your life and job moving. This session is for the person who is ramping into acquisition entrepreneurship and wants real guidance, not a generic accelerator curriculum and not “just ask ChatGPT.” If you are smart, motivated, and serious about buying a business but feel overwhelmed by the volume of decisions and the lack of a clear path, this will click. We will walk through what an efficient search actually looks like in the real world: the phases of search, where people waste time, what progress looks like, and what it realistically takes to get competent. Spoiler: 5 hours a week is usually not enough. Most people underestimate the reps required (think hundreds of hours, not a weekend), and the main goal is to compress the learning curve by focusing on the highest-leverage work. What you will leave with: - A clear picture of the search process end-to-end and what “good” looks like at each stage - The real time commitment and why most searches stall - Practical ways to run search faster and cleaner (systems, workflows, decision filters) - A map of the core skill areas you need to build: deal sourcing, industry analysis, financial fluency, diligence, and negotiation A simple decision framework for your next step: learn it, hire it out, or partner Who this is for: - You want to buy a small business, but you do not want to wander for 12 months figuring it out the hard way - You want more hands-on support than an accelerator, and more signal than generic online content - You are ready to put in the work, but you want a more efficient path and fewer dead ends We will also share a bit of our own search context - what we have tried, what has worked, what has not - and why we believe 1:1 support can meaningfully cut down ramp time when you apply it correctly. If you have been circling ETA and keep thinking “this is a lot,” you are not wrong. Come get a sharper path.

How to Craft a Standout Resume for Investment Banking

After this session, you will know how to structure an investment banking resume that clears the initial screen and holds the attention of a recruiter who reviews hundreds in a single cycle. The coach will cover how to quantify deal exposure and financial skills without overstating your experience, how to tailor your bullets for bulge bracket versus boutique targets, and how to position non-traditional backgrounds so they read as assets rather than gaps.

AI Tools You Need to Know for Product Management

This session takes a practical, hands-on approach to AI tools for Product Managers. Rather than a generic tool roundup, attendees will see how AI fits into the actual PM workflow: from discovery and research to documentation, stakeholder communication, and process automation. Every example comes from real client projects and production workflows.

Nail the McKinsey Personal Experience Interview

The McKinsey Personal Experience Interview is one of the most distinctive and challenging parts of the consulting process, and many candidates underestimate how different it is from standard behavioral interviews. This session is for candidates preparing for McKinsey who want to approach the PEI with more structure and confidence. You’ll learn how to select and refine your stories, demonstrate leadership and impact with specificity, and communicate your experiences in a way that aligns with what McKinsey evaluates.

MBA Essays That Get You Admitted: Do’s and Don’ts from an M7 Expert

MBA essays are where strong candidates separate themselves, but many applicants struggle to turn their experiences into a clear and compelling story. This session is for MBA applicants who want to approach their essays with more strategy and confidence. You’ll learn what makes an essay memorable to admissions readers, common mistakes that weaken otherwise strong profiles, and how to structure your story so it aligns with what top programs are looking for.

How to Stand Out in the Schwarzman Scholars Application

After this session, you will know how to position your leadership narrative for the Schwarzman Scholars rubric, structure your essays to reflect the program's focus on global impact and cross-cultural collaboration, and avoid the framing mistakes that consistently weaken otherwise strong applications. These are patterns that surface repeatedly when reviewing what separates admitted candidates from those who fall short.

The Ideal Dental School Application Timeline

Applying to dental school requires careful planning, but many applicants aren’t sure when each piece of the process should actually happen. This session is for prospective dental students who want a clear, realistic timeline for building and submitting a competitive application. You’ll learn when to prepare for the DAT, how to sequence shadowing and extracurriculars, and how to plan essays, recommendations, and submissions so nothing important gets rushed.

How to Strengthen Your Deferred MBA Story Before the Deadline

Deferred MBA programs look for candidates with clear potential, thoughtful career vision, and evidence of leadership early in their careers. If you’re planning to apply this cycle, the months before the deadline are when strong applicants refine their goals, sharpen their narrative, and ensure their experiences clearly support why an MBA makes sense for them. In this session, you’ll learn how to clarify your long-term story, highlight leadership and impact effectively, and strengthen the core themes that run through your essays and application materials.

Frameworking Mindset Shifts: How to Solve Any Case Prompt

After this session, you will have a repeatable mental framework for approaching any case prompt, regardless of industry or format. We will cover how to identify the core question beneath a prompt, how to structure your thinking before you speak, and how to shift your mindset from solving to synthesizing the way strong candidates consistently do.

Home for Ambition #3 — Weekly Live Show [4/1/2026] (Recording)

Home for Ambition is a weekly live show, by Leland, for people trying to stay ahead as work, learning, and opportunity keep changing. Each episode tackles a handful of timely, high-signal topics across AI, careers, education, and the future of work. We expect thoughtful debate, unique perspectives, and practical takeaways you can actually use. It is not a typical interview show or a generic news recap. It is a live roundtable built to help ambitious people make sense of what is changing, understand what matters, and leave with a sharper point of view on how to navigate what comes next.

Understanding the Med School Application Timeline and Strategy

After this session, you'll know how to structure your medical school application timeline from AMCAS submission through secondary essays, and understand how to avoid the pacing mistakes that cost competitive applicants interview invitations. You'll also leave with a clearer framework for deciding which schools to prioritize given your specific academic and clinical profile.

Consulting Recruiting Is Earlier Than Ever: How to Crush Your Interviews

Consulting recruiting timelines keep moving earlier—and candidates who wait until interview invites arrive are often already behind. In Consulting Recruiting Is Earlier Than Ever: How to Crush Your Interviews, you’ll hear directly from experienced consultants who regularly work 1:1 with candidates preparing for MBB and other top firms. This panel offers rare access to the interview preparation frameworks, evaluation patterns, and common mistakes coaches see when helping candidates get consulting-ready.

Why Getting Started Now Matters for College Applications

The strongest college applications are built over time, not rushed together senior year. In this panel, admissions experts will break down why starting early gives you a meaningful edge and what students should actually be doing now to stay ahead. You’ll learn how to think strategically about academics, extracurriculars, leadership, and narrative development long before applications open. Whether you’re a freshman, sophomore, or junior, this session will help you understand how small decisions today can shape stronger outcomes later.

How to Lead the Room with Executive Presence

Executive presence is one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot in leadership conversations. You've probably heard it. You may have even been told you need more of it. But here's the problem: most people can't tell you what it actually means. It's not charisma. It's not being the loudest person in the room. It's not even being the most polished. Executive presence is the ability to make people feel — in your presence — that things are under control, that someone capable is leading, and that their time and attention is being respected. It's a signal. And like any signal, it can be developed, sharpened, and directed. This guide is built around three pillars that I've seen transform how executives show up: Clarity, Credibility, and Confidence. They're related — and yes, they overlap. But they each do distinct work, and understanding the difference matters.

How Top GMAT Scorers Decode Quant Word Problems

Quant word problems trip up even strong test-takers, not because the math is too hard, but because the translation from words to equations isn't always obvious. This session is for GMAT studiers who feel confident with formulas but keep losing points when problems are wrapped in real-world scenarios. You'll leave with a clearer process for identifying what a problem is actually asking, recognizing the structural patterns that appear most frequently across high-difficulty questions, and avoiding the misreads that consistently cost test-takers valuable points.

Ship It: AI-Powered Side Projects You Can Build Now

AI is reshaping product management in real time—and the fastest way to stand out is to actually ship something. This session is for PMs and aspiring PMs who want to leverage AI in practical, portfolio-ready ways that demonstrate initiative and technical fluency. You’ll walk away with concrete side project ideas you can build now, frameworks for identifying high-leverage automation opportunities, and a clearer sense of how to showcase AI-driven work in interviews and applications.

The AI Career Edge: Positioning Yourself for the Future of Work

AI is reshaping how companies hire, what skills matter, and how careers evolve. The candidates who stand out aren’t just using AI tools—they know how to position themselves strategically for a rapidly changing job market. In The AI Career Edge: Positioning Yourself for the Future of Work, you’ll hear from experienced coaches who regularly work 1:1 with candidates navigating career transitions in an AI-driven landscape. This panel offers rare access to the same frameworks used in coaching sessions to help professionals adapt, stay competitive, and communicate their value effectively.

Product Management Week Kickoff March 2026

Product management is one of the most competitive and opaque career paths in tech—and breaking in requires more than just saying you’re “passionate about product.” This kickoff session is for aspiring PMs who want clarity on how to position themselves for competitive roles and stand out in interviews. You’ll learn how to craft a compelling PM narrative, what hiring managers actually look for in resumes and case interviews, and the common patterns panelists see across candidates who successfully land sought-after PM roles.

How to Ace Product Management Technical Interviews

Product management interviews often include technical questions that catch candidates off guard—from system design to product architecture and data thinking. Many strong applicants struggle not because they lack the knowledge, but because they don’t know how interviewers expect them to think through these problems. In How to Ace Product Management Technical Interviews, you’ll hear from experienced PM coaches who regularly work 1:1 with candidates preparing for competitive product roles. This panel gives you access to the frameworks, evaluation criteria, and preparation strategies they use when helping clients get ready for technical PM interviews.

Start Now: Build Your PM Network

Breaking into product management is competitive, and one of the most overlooked advantages is building the right network before you need it. This session is for aspiring and early-career PMs who want a practical approach to networking that actually moves the needle. You'll leave with a clear framework for identifying and reaching out to the right people, language that gets responses from busy PMs and hiring managers, and a repeatable system for staying visible in the communities that matter most.