Stop your MBA scrolling right here.
If you want a team that will believe in your greatness, challenge you to bring out your best, and never give up on your potential, then you’ve found the team for your MBA journey.
We’re here to help you transform your future.
We started MBA Protocol because we wanted to help caring people get ahead faster. We believe in the infinite potential of the human spirit, the status-quo-altering power of kindness, and the magic you create when you do what you love.
And so MBA Protocol was born of Angela’s experience coaching – primarily post-MBA top performers at top firms and business schools – to deliver elite soft skill development training to the next generation of aspiring leaders.
MBA Protocol leverages the wisdom of our parent company, Career Protocol, the expertise and experience of our team of rockstar coaches, and everything we know about career advancement to help you achieve your MBA dreams.
You already care. Let’s get you to a position where you can make the greatest impact possible.
The MBA Protocol Difference
Finding Your Voice
There are no shortcuts to self-expression. No robot, consultant, or friend should be allowed to put words in your mouth. Your story is part of your legacy. We help you do the hard work to uncover yours and tell it in your most authentic and inspiring voice. Your confidence will be permanently upleveled after this.
Brutally Honest Loving Kindness
We genuinely believe you’re awesome, so we talk to you like a mature adult who knows that the fastest way to results is through the honest truth. We’ll be brutally frank if your work doesn’t live up to your potential, and we always treat you with the loving kindness you deserve.
Personal and Professional Development
We’re invested in your long-term success. We know what’s coming for you post-MBA, and we want you not only to get in, but also to be ready to crush it on the other side. That’s why we coach instead of consult. Working with us, you’ll expand your self-awareness, communication, and relationship skills (the ones that differentiate top-performers post-MBA).
Emphasis on Joy
It’s a lot harder to have a happy ending to an unhappy journey. We want every step of the way to be rewarding and fun. We’ll keep things light even when they’re tough; we’ll cheer you on when confidence dips; and we’ll help you take it all just a little less seriously, even while you’re kicking and taking names.
Say Hello
to Your Career’s BFF
In all of our projects and programs, we teach The MBA Protocol: an immediately applicable set of macro- and microskills that help you fulfill your potential and be happy at work.
We’ve cracked the code. The skills you develop working with us will help you get into business school, move into a better job, and be a top performer in your field. Once you learn the Protocol, it’s yours forever.
Self-Awareness
Helps you understand how to be true to yourself in a world that has other prioritie
Choosing Up
Empowers you to pick the uplifting perspective, the inspiring story, and the course of action that gives joy.
Communication
Gets things done because nothing great in this world happens without collaboration.
Relationship Skills
Make you happier and drive the vast majority of new opportunities available to you.
Growing
Those who know how to do it bravely enjoy the most fun and the greatest rewards.
Meet Our
Leadership Team
Angela, Our Founder
Angela started this whole thing. She’s much more than a Booth MBA and former Boston Consulting Group Consultant and Recruiter; she’s a veteran coach with two decades of experience helping thousands of MBAs achieve their dreams.
As a student of human nature and a servant of human potential, Angela’s mission is to help you find your voice and sing the song you’re here to sing in life.
Her practical tools and transformational coaching offer you the chance to build a career you love on your own terms. She believes happiness at work is a right, not a privilege.
Work with any member of our team and you’re going to engage with Angela. She makes frequent appearances in our Community Huddles (regular group coaching calls & workshops), Q&As, and hot seats. She also works 1:1 with select clients for a supplemental big boss fee.
Angela’s thought leadership is featured at Poets&Quants, Forte Foundation, YouTube, and in her two bestselling books on interviewing like a superhero and networking without feeling like an a-hole.
Heather, Head of Student Success, Growth, and Business Development
Heather is an advocate for human potential and a champion for creating opportunities. She envisions a world where business, joy, love, and meaning collide—and her belief in this, and your, potential is unwavering.
Heather is a steward of business education. She sees it as a catalyst for profound personal and global transformation. As the former Chief Operating Officer of Poets&Quants, for years she’s brought together schools, applicants, industry leaders, and governments fostering innovation, collaboration, and responsible management initiatives. Her leadership culminated in the launch of a groundbreaking event with Times Higher Education and the United Nations, proving that impact, profit, joy, and well-being all have a place in industry and can be more than sustainable, but thrive together.
You’ll see Heather most during meetings and huddles in the community and you can always, always email her. She MIGHT be your Biggest. Cheerleader. Ever.
Daniel, Head of Operations and Project Management
Daniel Plata has a Masters in Systems Engineering from SMU. Over his 20-year career in Engineering, Management and Consulting, working with engineering companies such as Bell Helicopter, Amazon and Capgemini, Daniel has focused on design, integration and management of complex systems and their life cycles.
Throughout his career, he’s held pivotal roles in people management, project and risk management, and financial oversight of large scale programs. Building on that experience, he has helped people from various backgrounds and strengths to elevate their soft skills and achieve, or even exceed, their career goals.
Transitioning from the engineering domain, Daniel now contributes expertise to Happy At Work, focusing on guiding clients to a happy work experience through proven leadership and strategic insights.
Meet Our Coaches
Our GMAT genius, Brian worked previously as a top instructor at Manhattan Prep. It was his job to think about how to make achieving dream scores easier, more efficient, and faster for students.
Brian is a curious listener, a compassionate shoulder to lean on, and a great storyteller. But what makes him a rockstar at this job is his reflective, calming presence and his tireless commitment to your excellence.
Meet your MBA admissions coach, Daniela Bahamon — Stanford GSB alum, former brand strategist at L’Oréal and Dior, Y Combinator–backed founder, and lecturer at Stanford’s d.school, where she taught Design for Play. With 13+ years of experience spanning luxury fashion, tech startups, and FemTech ventures that impacted 20,000+ pregnancies, Daniela knows how to shape stories that are both strategic and inspiring.
Born in Colombia and raised across continents, she coaches fluently in English, Spanish, and French, bringing a multicultural lens and a human-centered design approach to every client. Her superpower? Helping you turn a messy, non-linear journey into a clear, authentic, and courageous MBA narrative that opens doors at Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, INSEAD, and beyond. Off-duty, Daniela’s a tennis enthusiast, an adventurer who’s called a dozen cities home, and a dreamer who met her husband in a Cancun pool at 18 and followed him across three continents before marrying him. With her blend of empathy, creativity, and strategic insight, Daniela makes the MBA process not just achievable, but joyful.
Meet your MBA admissions coach, Heather Soderquist — your fiercest advocate in your boldest endeavors. As the former COO of Poets&Quants, she’s spent over a decade with a front-row seat to the MBA world, seeing exactly what top schools look for, how adcoms think, and the kind of leaders they’re shaping for the future. Heather believes that “living the life you imagined” isn’t optional — it’s necessary — and she’s here to help you find your story, push past doubt, and step into the version of yourself that admissions committees (and the world) need to see.
Born on an Air Force base to two parents in service, she brings discipline and resilience to her coaching — but also big-hearted creativity: think Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and boxing by day, poetry and love letters by night. An ENFP with the spirit of both a lion and a Care Bear, Heather is equal parts tough and tender, practical and poetic. If you’re ready to aim high, show up as your best self, and make a big life change, Heather’s the partner who’ll fight for you, cheer for you, and help you turn ambition into impact.
Meet your MBA admissions coach, Paul Chang – former management consultant, UCLA Anderson MBA (with a merit fellowship), and professional television writer for Disney, Warner Brothers, DC, and Adult Swim. Paul’s story zigzags from case-cracking at Kearney to ghost tours, mechanical bull victories, and improv comedy nights in New York, all fueled by his true passion: storytelling. After pivoting through business school to the entertainment industry (and yes, partying at Sundance), his screenplays landed him a seat in Hollywood writers’ rooms where he’s scripted over 100 episodes of TV – including shows about Superman.
Now at MBA Protocol, Paul helps top applicants like you unleash your own superpowers by clarifying your goals, connecting the dots of your past, present, and future, and crafting applications that make admissions committees sit up and take notice. A global citizen (raised across Australia, Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong) and unabashed horror/sci-fi nerd, Paul brings humor, hype, and hard-earned wisdom to the MBA journey. Whether you’re eyeing HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, or beyond, he’ll make the application process less stressful, more empowering, and maybe even fun.
Meet your MBA admissions coach, Tiffany Shieh — calm, patient, and laser-focused on helping you turn the messy middle of applications into a clear, compelling story. With dual degrees in Business and Psychology from UC Berkeley, an MBA from Berkeley-Haas, and a career spanning Deloitte consulting and Microsoft strategy, Tiffany knows exactly how to cut through ambiguity and guide executives (and now MBA applicants) toward confident decisions. She’s helped clients land offers at BCG, Bain, Google, Amazon, and beyond, and she herself was admitted to Haas, Wharton, and UCLA.
But Tiffany’s real superpower isn’t just strategy — it’s heart: whether she’s writing recs that get her team into HBS, coaching applicants to connect the dots of their careers, or chasing her two daughters and two corgis on a family adventure, she brings thoughtfulness, clarity, and humor to everything she does. Fluent in English and Mandarin, equally at home in the US and Taiwan, and always up for a new culinary experiment, Tiffany will help you navigate the MBA journey with structure, confidence, and joy.
Meet your MBA admissions coach, Tina Rahmani — Booth MBA, Forte Fellow, former startup operator turned investor, and one of the few coaches who’s been in your exact seat as an MBA Protocol client herself. Admitted to multiple M7 schools (plus top UK and European programs), she now helps ambitious applicants unlock the same clarity and momentum that transformed her own journey.
Tina’s career spans leading teams through a multi-billion-dollar exit, advising startups at critical moments, and investing in women-led innovations — giving her a sharp eye for spotting potential and turning it into action. A global citizen, efficiency enthusiast, and natural community builder, she’s equal parts strategist and hype woman. With Tina, you won’t just craft standout MBA applications — you’ll step into your next chapter with purpose, confidence, and energy.
We’ve trained caring and ambitious leaders at…
3 Steps to MBA
Admissions Success
Ready to kickstart your MBA application journey?
Here’s your 3-step path to an inspiring new future.
1. Start with inspiration
2. Master MBA soft skills
3. Own your future
3 Steps to MBA
Admissions Success
Ready to kickstart your MBA application journey?
1. Start with inspiration
Kick off your MBA journey with one of our free MBA application courses. Learn to tune out the noise, focus your vision, leverage your strengths, and show your best, most authentic self to school decision makers.
2. Master MBA soft skills
Enroll in one of our transformational coaching programs. Choose from our intensive 1:1 Guided Quest or our crowd favorite MBA Catalyst group coaching program. With a team of coaches and a supportive community of peers by your side, your MBA journey won’t just be successful, it’ll be fun!
3. Own your future
Find your voice, submit applications you love, choose from among multiple offers, prepare for MBA recruiting, and begin your bright new future with a top-notch MBA in your back pocket.
Our Support Team
Tina
Graphic and Web Designer. Tina makes everything around here look pretty.
Ariana
Community Engagement and Student Success Manager. Chief Fun Officer.
Shannon
Content whiz, editor, and librarian apprentice.
Alyssa
Curriculum designer; student success strategist.
