Leland+ Content Library

Essays: Learn from Past Admits & Elevate Your Writing [10/2/2026] (Recording)

Part 5 of 6 — Build Your Best MBA Application: One Piece at a Time, a free series (5:00–5:45pm ET). The essays are won before you write them. We'll start with the reflection work that saves weeks of revision later — show, don't tell; specifics beat adjectives; go deep, not wide — and why the anchor essay (Stanford's "What matters most to you, and why?") gets written first, with everything else flowing from it. Then we'll look at real essays from my clients admitted to top programs — full essays, not excerpts: what they wrote, why it worked, and the specific, repeatable moves you can bring into your own drafts. Plus how strong applicants differentiate across schools instead of copy-pasting one narrative, and the v1 → v3/v4 revision ladder my clients run. If you're heading into R1 or R2 drafts, this is the fastest way I know to calibrate what "great" actually looks like.

Recommendation Letters: from Selection to Submission [9/25/2026] (Recording)

Part 4 of 6 — Build Your Best MBA Application: One Piece at a Time, a free series (5:00–5:45pm ET). Letters of rec are the one piece of your application you don't fully control — so start them first. This session covers the full arc, selection to submission: picking recommenders in the right priority order (your most recent direct supervisor beats the biggest title who barely knows you), asking early with a gratitude-first outreach that makes it easy to say yes, and prepping your recommenders with talking points and evidence so they write something specific and authentic instead of generic praise. We'll also go inside what recommenders actually fill out — the GMAC Common LOR's competency grid and free-text questions — and the ratings guidance most applicants get wrong: why all 5s can hurt you, and how "lower" ratings tied to real growth areas make a letter read as credible. You'll leave with a recommender plan you can put in motion the same week: who to ask, how to ask, how to follow up, and how to make sure every letter lands before the deadline.

Winning Essays from My Kellogg & Booth Admits [8/7/2026] (Recording)

Many applicants find a way to write at least one strong essay. But those who really maximize the essay-writing process develop clear narrative through-lines that connect the dots of their life, and articulate how they'll contributions to their target brand. Their two-dimensional writing brings out a three-dimensional personality. They have a “brand”. You know what they’re all about. This event will draw from example essays written by successful admits who I've personally coached, and helped land a spot at one or more top MBA programs. These essays were particularly strong in how they spoke to one another—how they created a holistic applicant who admissions committees could envision on campus. Their professional and judiciously placed personal experience offer evidence for why they’re the kind of person who will make a specific, meaningful difference in the world. During this session, we'll analyze these essays alongside you so you have a clear view into how you can apply what you've learned to your own writing, and put your best application forward for Chicago Booth & Northwestern Kellogg

Resume: Build Your Standout Professional One-Pager [9/18/2026] (Recording)

Part 3 of 6 — Build Your Best MBA Application: One Piece at a Time, a free series (5:00–5:45pm ET). One page. Impact-first. Locked early. The MBA resume is a different animal from the one that got you your job, and this session covers how to make the conversion: turning duties into quantified achievements — action verb + what you did + measurable result — so every bullet earns its line. We'll walk through real before-and-after bullets from my admitted clients ("Managed social media" → "Grew owned channels 3× to 40K followers in 9 months"), the iteration ladder I run with clients (v1 structure and content → v2 impact and metrics → v3 polish and consistency), and the one-page format that's worked across my M7 admits. Your resume is foundational — it feeds your essays and gives your recommenders context, which is why it gets locked early. You'll leave knowing exactly what to change on yours this weekend.

Your R2 MBA Application Roadmap [9/16/2026] (Recording)

Part 2 of 6 — Build Your Best MBA Application: One Piece at a Time, a free series (5:00–5:45pm ET). Note: this session meets on a Wednesday. Six workstreams, four months, one submitted application. R2 deadlines land in early January — and the four months before them go faster than anyone expects. This session lays out the full Round 2 plan: six workstreams (Fit, Essays, Letters of Rec, Resume, The Application, Interview), the order to run them, and a month-by-month calendar of exactly what to do and when. You'll leave with a roadmap you can start on the same night. - Pick schools on purpose — a scorecard, not a ranking - Get recommenders moving early (the one piece you don't control) - Lock the resume before the essays, then write in sprints - A worked example: five M7 applications in one R2 cycle

Find Your Fit: Selecting The Right Schools For You [9/11/2026] (Recording)

Part 1 of 6 — Build Your Best MBA Application: One Piece at a Time, a free series (5:00–5:45pm ET). Pick the right schools — on purpose, not by ranking. This session walks through the exact fit framework I use with my 1:1 clients: start with the big three — geography, career pursuits, and community/culture — then layer in pedagogy, selectivity, cost, and network. From there we'll build the weighted scorecard my clients use to rank every program by personal fit, not someone else's list. We'll also pressure-test: balancing reach, target, and likely schools, confirming each program actually places grads into your target post-MBA roles and companies, and what to capture for every school once the list locks — deadlines, decision dates, rec counts, interview formats. Your school list should be locked before the essay sprint begins. You'll leave with the framework to lock yours this month.

Winning Essays from My Stanford GSB Admits [7/24/2026] (Recording)

Many applicants find a way to write at least one strong essay. But those who really maximize the essay-writing process develop clear narrative through-lines that connect the dots of their life, and articulate how they'll contributions to their target brand. Their two-dimensional writing brings out a three-dimensional personality. They have a “brand”. You know what they’re all about. This event will draw from example essays written by successful admits who I've personally coached, and helped land a spot at one or more top MBA programs. These essays were particularly strong in how they spoke to one another—how they created a holistic applicant who admissions committees could envision on campus. Their professional and judiciously placed personal experience offer evidence for why they’re the kind of person who will make a specific, meaningful difference in the world. During this session, we'll analyze these essays alongside you so you have a clear view into how you can apply what you've learned to your own writing, and put your best application forward for Stanford's top MBA program.

Live Case Coach Throwdown: Bain vs. McKinsey

Two of Leland's top case coaches. One case. Zero mercy. Watch a Bain alum and a McKinsey alum go head to head through a live mock case, judged in real time by former consultant interviewers who know exactly what it takes to crack a case at the highest level. Who structures better? Who drives insight faster? Who would actually get the offer?

MBA Application Week Kickoff [6/1/2026] (Recording)

GIVEAWAY DURING EVENT: Join for the chance to win $300 of coaching credit! Starting your MBA applications can feel overwhelming when you’re not sure how to prioritize test prep, school selection, and your overall story. This kickoff session is designed for prospective applicants who want a clear roadmap for the week ahead and a sharper understanding of what top programs are actually looking for. You’ll walk away with a structured plan for tackling your application components, a framework for evaluating your candidacy, and guidance on how to get the most value out of each upcoming session. Attending live gives you the chance to ask questions about your goals and get real-time direction on where to focus first. The speaker works closely with applicants and will share the patterns they see across successful candidates, along with what they look for when evaluating readiness. If you want to start the week with clarity and momentum, it’s worth showing up live.

Your MBA Application Roadmap

This is the companion deck for Leland's flagship MBA week, for the session I ran on mapping your MBA application roadmap. Given the high demand for these slides, I tried to make these available as soon as possible -- and completely free. Reach out if you're hoping to work on a roadmap for yourself, and are looking for 1:1 coaching. This is a gameplan, but working with a coach to execute on this is where we offer by far the most leverage. I hope this resource is a great kickstarter for you and gives you much better line of sight into what this process holds..

MBA Application Week Kickoff [6/1/2026] (Recording)

GIVEAWAY DURING EVENT: Join for the chance to win $300 of coaching credit! Starting your MBA applications can feel overwhelming when you’re not sure how to prioritize test prep, school selection, and your overall story. This kickoff session is designed for prospective applicants who want a clear roadmap for the week ahead and a sharper understanding of what top programs are actually looking for. You’ll walk away with a structured plan for tackling your application components, a framework for evaluating your candidacy, and guidance on how to get the most value out of each upcoming session. Attending live gives you the chance to ask questions about your goals and get real-time direction on where to focus first. The speaker works closely with applicants and will share the patterns they see across successful candidates, along with what they look for when evaluating readiness. If you want to start the week with clarity and momentum, it’s worth showing up live.

Build Your Personal Budget with Claude

​SESSION GUIDE: https://www.lelandcourses.com/ai-builder/personal-budget-build/ Most personal budgets die by February. You build a beautiful spreadsheet in January, miss a week of updates, and never open it again. The numbers stop matching reality, and the plan stops working. ​In this exclusive AI Builder session, Ben Lazaroff will walk you step by step through building a personal budget powered by Claude. By the end of the hour you'll have a working AI that tracks where your money goes, flags when you're drifting, and tells you in plain English whether you can swing that flight home this summer. ​But the budget is just the on-ramp. The real takeaway is the playbook: how to hand any messy, recurring part of your life over to AI. First a budget. Next a meal planner, a job search tracker, a CFO for your side hustle. Same skill, different shape. ​Ben has spent his career thinking about how money moves: private equity at Bain, economic development policy at the Chicago Mayor's Office. Same rigor, much smaller balance sheet. ​You'll be building alongside him in real time. No demo, no notes for later. You'll leave with a finished budget and a clearer sense of what else you could build next.

The Claude Code Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet

A one-page visual reference for every Claude Code keyboard shortcut — modes, input, navigation, prompts, IDE integration, and desktop hotkeys. Built for anyone using Claude daily who wants to stop reaching for their mouse and start commanding at the speed of thought. Pro tip: pair this with WISPR Flow to work like 5x faster: https://wisprflow.ai/r?BEN101358 -- my philosophy is that your work and your output shouldn't be restricted by the physical.

Build a Job Search Operating System (JSOS) [5/13/2026] (Recording)

Build Anything Series · Event 01 · Free · Live The job search is the most expensive workflow most people will ever run — and the one they're least equipped for. Spreadsheets, sticky notes, half-tracked outreach, lost interview notes. By the end of this hour, you'll learn how to create a complete Job Search Operating System to help you land your next offer. What we'll walk through live: - A real applicant tracker | every role, company, and contact in one view. Status, last action, next step, follow-up date. - Automated outreach + research | pull company context, drafts personalized outreach, surfaces the right people to message. - Synced notes, prep, offer comparison | interview notes that auto-link to the role, prep doc generation per company, structured offer comparison when it's time to choose. Who it's for: - People actively job searching or about to start - Career switchers, returning-to-work folks, recent grads - Anyone who's run a search before and remembers losing track of half of it Not a fit if: - You enjoy manual data entry and Excel-tab chaos - You'd rather pay $300 for a static prompt template that fails instead of learning the principles yourself - You want a one-click magic button I'll be honest about where AI helps and where it doesn't, and how to keep the system running without me. Bring your laptop and follow along, or lean in, watch, and replicate after.

What Top MBA Candidates Do Differently [5/4/2026] (Recording)

Top MBA candidates don’t just have strong profiles—they make intentional decisions about how they position their experiences, goals, and story. This session is for applicants who want to understand what actually differentiates successful candidates across top programs. You’ll learn how to frame your impact, articulate clear and credible goals, and avoid the common mistakes that weaken otherwise competitive applications. Join live to hear perspectives from a panel of experienced MBA coaches who work closely with applicants and evaluate what stands out. The discussion will follow a curated set of high-impact questions, offering structured insights and examples typically shared in 1:1 coaching sessions.

Deep-Dive Case Study: Use AI to Plan Your Wedding & See Its Full Potential

Planning a wedding—or any complex project—can feel overwhelming, but AI has the potential to streamline every step and unlock new efficiencies. This session is for anyone curious about how AI can be applied to real-world planning and project management. You’ll see how to design workflows, automate tasks, and explore the full potential of AI to save time and reduce manual effort.

Start Write Now: MBA Essay Panel

MBA essays are where you move beyond stats and show who you are, what you want, and why a program should bet on you. In this panel, experienced coaches will break down what actually differentiates strong essays, common mistakes they see every cycle, and how to get started without overthinking. Whether you’re staring at a blank page or revising drafts, you’ll leave with practical insights to write with more clarity and direction.

Mock McKinsey Interview - March 2026

A McKinsey interview isn’t just about getting the right answer—it’s about how you think. This mock interview session gives you a front-row seat to what a real McKinsey-style case looks and feels like under pressure. Watch a live case unfold in real time, see how structure and communication can elevate (or derail) performance, and hear direct feedback on what separates solid responses from truly exceptional ones. If you want to understand what excellence actually looks like in the room—and how to replicate it—this is a session you won’t want to miss.

Start Now: Creating a Strong MBA Application Early

Starting your MBA application early gives you a major advantage. In this session, we’ll break down what strong applicants do months ahead of deadlines, from shaping a clear career narrative and school strategy to building relationships, test plans, and experience gaps. You’ll leave with a practical roadmap for how to use the early months intentionally, avoid last-minute stress, and position yourself as a compelling, well-prepared candidate when applications open.

What Deferred MBA Essays Need to Accomplish, and How to Get There

Deferred MBA essays are less about polished resumes and more about potential, clarity of goals, and long-term impact, and getting them right requires a very specific approach. In this session, you’ll learn what top programs actually expect deferred candidates to demonstrate, how admissions committees read these essays differently from traditional MBA applications, and how to structure your responses to show maturity, self-awareness, and trajectory. We’ll break down common pitfalls, winning themes, and practical steps to move from a blank page to a compelling final draft with confidence.