November MBA Mama of the Month

We are honored to feature Stacy Sukov Blackman, an entrepreneur and powerhouse businesswoman, as our November MBA Mama of the Month. Blackman launched her MBA admissions consulting company in 2001 and has since helped thousands of clients gain admission to the most selective business schools in the world, many with merit scholarships. Blackman is the author of The MBA Application Roadmap: The Essential Guide to Getting Into a Business School, and has published a series of online guides which contain in depth guidance on how to develop essays for top business schools. Blackman is a mother of three and has degrees from both the Wharton School and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

In part 1 of her exclusive interview with MBA Mama, Blackman talks about her beautiful family, her advice for entrepreneurs and moms considering an MBA, and the challenges of being a post-MBA mom.

Can you tell us about your family?

Stacy Blackman: I met my husband just days after graduating from Kellogg! He grew up all over the world, from Australia to London to Israel and landed in the Bay Area to go to Stanford’s b-school. He has a great business brain but is also a tech geek. We have three kids. Our oldest is a boy in junior high and our two girls are in elementary school. The five of us live in LA and our life is a crazy chaotic mess of gym meets, Hebrew School, soccer practice, dance class…and also fun days and nights exploring LA. We all enjoy travel so try to squeeze that in as much as we can. Oh yeah, my husband and I also run a few businesses in our free time!

What advice would you give MBA moms considering an entrepreneurial path?

For me, the entrepreneurial path has been the key to achieving the balance that I desire, between family, career and “me” time. That balance has shifted throughout the years, as I have leaned in more to family or more to work…or more in to just having fun. I have been in control of that balance which has allowed me to be the kind of mom I want to be (doing school pick-ups, going to athletic events, etc…) but has also given me the space to build a career. I don’t think there is any one “right” way to be an entrepreneur.

Before I launched Stacy Blackman Consulting, I started and sold a dot-com that we approached in a completely different way. With SBC, I took it slowly, grew it organically, did not take outside money, etc. Along the way, I may have learned a few things.

1. As an entrepreneur you are forced to wear many hats, but ultimately, especially as the business grows and your family grows, you cannot do it all. Bring in great people to take on various roles, so that things get done but you are freed up to lead the business or pick up carpool — your choice.
2. Test and learn. Not every endeavor has to be a huge undertaking with a 50 page business plan and a big launch. I am a big fan of just trying things out. Throw it out there and see if it sticks. You can always build upon that, test, invest and improve later. Always doing things in a big and methodical way, with tons of market research etc…can really slow you down.
3. Be OK with uncertainty but believe in yourself. I find it amusing when people think that it is “safer” to work for a big company with a guaranteed paycheck. That tells me that you believe in whoever is running that big company more than you believe in yourself! There is no reason why you can’t produce that paycheck for yourself, and do it on your own terms. However, especially in the beginning, it’s a jungle, and the path is not always clear. You have to be OK with facing that uncertainty just as the founders of that “big company” did.

What challenges have you faced, post-MBA, while managing your family and your career?

Trying to do it all on my own and putting too much on my plate has been a consistent challenge for me. There were times when I realized that certain initiatives just weren’t getting done. That’s when I realized I needed to bring someone in to focus on that. Make it their job and it will get done.

What advice can you offer current MBA women who want kids and are thinking about the right time to become a mother?

Ha! There is never a right time. You are never ready. You just have to take the plunge and trust that you can work out the details. Not everything in life can be controlled.