0:02 Hi, I'm Liza Wheel, founder of Gate
0:04 House Admissions. And I'm Jeremy
0:06 Jeanwald, founder of MBA Admission. And
0:08 we're back with our series of HBS
0:10 application essay reviews. We've already
0:12 looked at Suzanne's businessminded and
0:14 leadership focused essays, and we love
0:17 them. And now we'll turn to her
0:20 growthoriented essay. If you want to
0:21 follow along, use the link below to
0:23 download a free copy of our book of
0:25 sample essays from successful HBS
0:29 admins. Let's go ahead and get started.
0:31 I've been drawing ever since I was
0:34 young. When I moved to the US at age 11,
0:35 I made my first friends through drawing
0:37 because it transcended language and
0:39 cultural barriers. As I got older, I
0:40 wanted to learn about other aspects of
0:42 art. So, I joined the design team at
0:44 BEu's Daily Free Press. Designing
0:46 special layouts was particularly
0:47 challenging because writers were often
0:49 more focused on content than design. To
0:51 facilitate collaboration, I created a
0:53 request form with questions on the
0:55 stories featured, design ideas, and key
0:57 deadlines. This gave designers a
0:58 starting point and encouraged writers to
0:59 be more involved in the creative
1:02 process. During co I started sharing my
1:03 art on Instagram. The conventional
1:05 wisdom is to post frequently and
1:07 consistently which my consulting job
1:08 didn't allow. Resigned to lower
1:10 engagements, I was surprised when a
1:12 comic I posted went viral. I realized
1:14 that it was because the comic was funny.
1:16 An art that elicited an emotional
1:18 reaction did better than something that
1:19 was just nice to look at. By being
1:22 strategic, I've managed to gain 20,000
1:24 plus followers despite only posting one
1:26 to two times a month. While I've been an
1:28 artist my entire life, I know there's
1:29 still more to learn. Whether it's
1:31 working in a new medium, improving the
1:33 creative process, or finding the most
1:35 effective way to engage with a digital
1:36 audience. I look forward to bringing
1:38 that same curiosity to the HBS classroom
1:40 and community. Jeremy, what do you
1:42 think? Well, I think first and foremost,
1:45 we're again learning about a new side of
1:47 this person and and not just a new side
1:50 like a new activity. Um, but really
1:53 there's depth depth to this interest in
1:57 in art and and um and you know a true
2:00 commitment to it and it's it's a it's a
2:02 creative intellectual pursuit as much.
2:06 It it really wasn't for an audience
2:08 until until she tried. It was just more
2:10 like um this you know her own passion
2:14 project. and and so, you know, it it
2:15 sort of again sort of keeps us with
2:17 these nice little surprises, right? Um,
2:20 you know, we have someone who it makes a
2:21 lot of sense that this person loves
2:24 animated films because this person is is
2:26 an artist. And so it it sort of links
2:29 all these pieces together. Um, we're
2:31 kind of moving this uniquely powerful
2:34 business story into this story about
2:36 identity and mentoring others and and
2:38 having an impact in a in a smaller
2:40 community and then finally into sort of
2:42 this like very personal world like we're
2:44 we're learning about her uh you know as
2:48 an artist and and uh and so I'm I'm
2:49 intrigued and I'm engaged in her story.
2:51 I'm like god this is this is really
2:54 someone who is there's a lot of layers.
2:55 There's a lot of depth here and that's
2:57 very appealing. Yeah. I also, you know,
2:59 going back to that, we learned in her
3:01 last essay, in her leadership focused
3:04 essay, she's an introvert and yet here
3:07 she is posting on Instagram her art. I
3:10 mean, just the the vulnerability in
3:13 doing that. And and watching the
3:15 followers, you know, not, you know,
3:17 probably recognizing or saying she
3:19 recognized that she should be posting
3:21 more often. And then imagine I I don't
3:22 know, as a reader, I'm like, "Oh my
3:25 gosh, imagine when her comic went viral.
3:28 She put herself out there and and just,
3:30 you know, just saw it sort of light up
3:32 with followers. You can't put the genie
3:33 back in the bottle at that point. It's
3:34 like, you're out there, you know,
3:36 introvert, extrovert, you're out there.
3:38 Yeah. And I it just again, it gives us
3:40 there's just so many layers to who she
3:44 is. And um we might have preconceived
3:46 notions of what it means to be an
3:48 introvert. And that's what I think
3:50 throughout these three essays, she's
3:52 done a very effective job of challenging
3:55 that by revealing that she's a leader.
3:57 She can stand up for what she believes
3:58 in. She can explain what she believes
4:01 in. And she's willing to put herself out
4:04 there in in ways that uh you know
4:06 perhaps uh people might have a
4:09 stereotype of that that runs counter to
4:12 it, right? I think she's just some
4:14 someone also she's she's getting the
4:15 point across that she has very high
4:16 expectations for herself. committed to
4:18 excellence. The things she does, she
4:20 does extremely well. And again, whether
4:23 that's insights that change a major
4:26 media company or being a really good
4:28 mentor to one person or being committed
4:31 to art, this person is someone who is
4:32 and that's who do you want in your in
4:34 your in your seauite or whatever her
4:37 ultimate goals are. Um, you want someone
4:38 who's got the highest expectations for
4:40 themselves to be like motivated
4:43 internally to do things to make others
4:45 and organizations and themselves
4:48 successful. And um, and so she's she's
4:49 played on all those levels here so far,
4:51 right? She's played on this on the on
4:54 the individual uh, you know, the team,
4:57 the company, and then internally she's
4:59 played on that level as well. Um, so
5:02 we're just getting a a very full,
5:04 thoughtful, um, self-aware picture of of
5:06 this individual and it's it's driven by
5:08 unique experience. Again, you can't you
5:09 can't fudge that. You can't be like,
5:10 "Okay, well, I'm Jeremy. I'll write
5:12 about my art, my passion for art." Hey,
5:14 spoiler alert. I'm not an artist. Okay.
5:16 It's not happening, you know. Um, but
5:18 you but you know, everyone has their own
5:20 their own interests and and as long as
5:21 you can prove that you've done it
5:23 inordinately, which she's done, then she
5:25 owns it. Yeah. I also like at the end
5:28 again she um she recognizes there's lots
5:31 more growth to be had right and she
5:33 doesn't just say that she calls out
5:35 different areas of art and creativity
5:38 that she could continue to learn so you
5:40 know the easy the platitude is oh and I
5:43 still have ways to grow but it's much
5:45 harder to actually articulate what are
5:47 those areas and and how is she pushing
5:49 herself and we have no doubt that
5:50 Suzanne will indeed continue to push
5:54 herself to grow as an artist as a leader
5:57 as a uh analytical leader within Netflix
5:59 or wherever she ends up. It's really
6:01 exciting to see. So, no wonder that uh
6:03 HBS was impressed with her. I certainly
6:05 was. Yeah. Fantastic. Suite of essay.
6:09 Suzanne did a great job. Good. Well,
6:10 thank you everyone. Follow the series
6:13 for more reviews of real essays from HBS
6:15 admits and be sure to download our book
6:17 which is linked below for dozens more
