ABOUT

My Journey

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Eclectic Backgrounds

I grew up painting and did my undergraduate degree in art history. I was drawn to strategy consulting because I like unraveling complex problems and solving puzzles. The Boston Consulting Group saw fit to hire an artist, so I started there. While I enjoyed many things about management consulting, something was missing. I felt unable to express my artistic side. I left and took a job at a non-profit theater, where I tried to figure out what to do next. I was wavered back and forth about going to business school, but everyone around me said I’d be crazy not to go.

So there I was, the artist who’d landed at Harvard Business School.

At convocation, the dean gave a speech about how interesting and diverse our class was, mentioning me personally among a handful of students with “eclectic backgrounds.” On day one, I was a misfit. A few weeks later, our entire class took the Meyers Briggs test. When the results came back, we convened in the auditorium to view our scores on an overhead projector. Each of us was represented with a dot in a matrix of boxes.
About 80% of our 1,500 dots sat in one box.
**My dot was lonely.**

In the coming months, we took several career assessments.

The results suggested I consider being a social worker, a minister, a writer, or an artist.
I realized I would need to figure this career thing out on my own.

At BCG, I had discovered the discipline of branding, and found a fascination for what creates the intimate relationship between people and brands. Branding appealed to me because it involves so much creativity—visual design, storytelling, and innovation. In this world, I could flex my imagination as an artist and a strategist—which I continue to enjoy today.

A few years ago, I asked my clients to write testimonials for my website.

Much to my surprise and delight, it turned out what my clients valued most about me was my artistic side.
For them, it’s what set me apart from all the other potential strategists.

“Susan is an artisanal brand builder, helping clients to shed standard product-based, features marketing to reveal intrinsic, compelling value.”

—Kim Levy, VP Strategic Solutions, Epocrates

“I relied on Susan to be a thought partner. She was able to quickly turn our research into actionable strategic direction that helped us develop powerful communications.”

—Joseph Perello, Co-founder, Catch New York

“Susan helped me articulate the 'why' for my company, to bring forth in words and pictures our true essence. We finally had a brand and narratives that told our story.”

— Dawn, Entrepreneur