Leland+ Content Library

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

Interviewer-Trained ex-McKinsey & Bain Consultants | Ask Us Anything [8/6/2026] (Recording)

Have questions about consulting recruiting that you can't find clear answers to? This open Q&A session is your opportunity to get candid advice from former MBB interviewers who have evaluated candidates and know what it takes to earn an offer. Whether you're preparing for networking, case interviews, behavioral interviews, or recruiting strategy, you'll leave with practical guidance tailored to your biggest questions. Join live to hear from interviewer-trained former consultants from McKinsey and Bain who have firsthand experience on both sides of the interview table. Bring your questions and get honest, actionable advice on recruiting, interview preparation, and the strategies that consistently help candidates stand out in today's competitive consulting hiring process.

Winning Essays from My HBS Admits [7/17/2026] (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 HBS.

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

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.

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..

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.

MBA Essay Self-Discovery Workbook: Unlock Your Narrative & Write

This is a reflection-focused, 13-section workbook for MBA applicants to uncover and build your story before embarking on the complex, layered process of writing your essays. This resource is informed from my time in Stanford GSB's Interpersonal Dynamics (Touchy Feely), my time helping dozens of other GSB classmates find their voice as the Managing Editor for Stanford GSB's Paper (Nondisclosure), and in helping over 500 MBA applicants self-reflect in a way that feels genuine, personal and clarifying. I wrote this resource with just enough structure (but not too much), and with a practical eye towards covering the ground you'll need for your MBA apps. You'll go deep, but every question has a purpose. I also use this with everyone I work with, and it's something we'll cover at the very beginning of our process. My hope is that this resource, in addition to being a big help, feels like we're in conversation. The goal is just to get to know you a little better, one step at a time, in a way that feels natural, even enjoyable. Even if you're the only one who ever sees it, I've tried to write this in a way that I'd speak about this kind of thing with you. Because I think humans are the best way to help other humans see themselves a little deeper. And trust me, plenty of "coaches" could use more of that too ;) This workbook will cover your background, motivations, short and long-term goals, values, behavioral stories, and more. A PDF is attached here, but there's also a downloadable Word file I recommend using to make things much easier for you to fill out as you go. This took me about 20-30 hours of time to put together, and I suggest putting at least 5-10 into filling this out. Some go at it all at once, but most do it in a few sittings. Long walks are good to interperse between writing sessions, and I actually recommend you reflect and go back to this to update your answers several times throughout your MBA process. Save new versions as you go and you'll be able to see your application pixellate over this monthslong process. If you're reapplying, I'd push you to compare what you end up with here with what you submitted last time. The differences may be revealing. I hope ends up a real tool for you, and that it helps you find answers you might not have found otherwise. It also will give you a glimpse into what coaching together feels like. Don't hesitate to reach out if you feel like sharing this. Working on your writing and applications together is a natural byproduct of the kind of reflection you'll be doing here, and it's my favorite thing to help someone with. Happy writing :) -Ben

MBA Scorecard: Rank Every Program to Find Your Fit

A personalized Excel scorecard for ranking every top MBA program that autopopulates based on key criteria you should evaluate in narrowing down your list to your top-choice programs. Weight only the factors that matter to you (e.g., specific career funnels, geography, cost, culture, academics), and score each program out of 100, and see your rankings update live. This includes a filled-out example as well so you can see what a final product looks like. Delete anything that isn't useful, and keep the rest so this search is custom-tailored to you.

HBS Post-Interview Reflection Letter | 2027 Admit Example

Attached is an example of somebody I worked with who got in last cycle and I think did a great job with their HBS interview reflection letter. My core guidance: - Right after your interview, take a few minutes and write everything down. It's going to be helpful for later so that you don't have to rely exclusively on your memory. Then take an hour or two, decompress and get writing. - Short and sweet — grateful-professional is your tone - Directly reference your convo. Nothing generic whatsoever. If it sounds impersonal, delete it. - Don't brag or flex, but do mention a highlight/detail/nuance or two you would've gotten to with 5 more minutes of time. - About two-thirds of a page is right length-wise.  - Make sure if they don't offer, that you get your interviewer's names anyway. That's important. They probably will but just in case. You'll feel silly writing a letter to someone whose name you don't know.

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.