Internship Spotlight: Leigh Bushnell ’24, Goop
Leigh Bushnell ’24 discusses leaning heavily on her behavioral economics coursework during her internship at the beauty and wellness brand.
We asked rising second-year MBA students to check in from their summer internships, where they are applying the lessons of their first year at Yale SOM.
Leigh Bushnell ’24
Internship: Goop, Santa Monica, California
Hometown: Santa Monica, California
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Clubs and Affiliations: Media & Entertainment & Sports Association (leader); Women in Management (co-lead of Yale Young Women’s Leadership Launch conference); Retail Club; and Tech Club
Favorite SOM Class: Competitor and Customer Insights & Applications (Discovery Project through the Yale Center for Customer Insights)
Favorite SOM Professor: Mushfiq Mobarak
Favorite New Haven eatery: Tavern on State
Favorite thing you do in New Haven or at SOM to unwind: Grab a drink at Old Heidelberg or Bar August
Favorite Yale study space: The library at SOM
Bonus facts: Previous professional experience: seven years in cybersecurity marketing, two years spent building a DTC art print brand, and college summers teaching tennis to kids
When I made the decision to go back to school I knew that I needed a professional change; I just didn’t know what. I’d worked for seven years in B2B cybersecurity marketing and learned a lot, but was curious about B2C brands in beauty/wellness and sports. I dove into school headfirst, attending lunchtime talks and club meetings across industries, even attending events in areas I was pretty sure weren’t right for me. I believed then—and still do—that school is a chance to explore. You never know where something will take you.
Unfortunately, the flip side of staying open-minded is having too many options. As I started looking at internship postings, I was swayed by what other classmates were doing. Even though I knew that I wanted to be in Los Angeles (my hometown) over the summer and to gain experience in consumer goods or sports, I found myself applying to product management roles in big tech and considering the logistics of living in upstate New York.
In need of course correction, I set up a meeting with Rachel Ryan, a career coach in the SOM Career Development Office. She had experience in the beauty industry and was an MBA herself. I’d also heard amazing things about her from classmates. As it turns out, booking a meeting with Rachel is one of the best things I did my entire first year of school. Not only did Rachel reassure me that things would work out, but she also helped me create an action plan for finding an internship in LA in one of my areas of interest. She even found the Goop marketing internship posting online and passed it along to me.
Goop was exactly the sort of company I longed to work for. Not only was it in the beauty and wellness space, but I’d been buying their products for years. I knew that if there was anywhere I could get a master class in e-commerce and brand-building, Goop was it.
During the internship, most of my time was spent supporting my boss on strategic projects to optimize Goop’s content strategy. Although Goop is now known for its Goop beauty products and G. Label fashion line, the brand started back in 2008 as an email newsletter with recommendations on beauty, wellness, and food. Goop continues to develop and publish high-quality editorial content across those categories and more. While it’s critical to create exceptional content, it’s also crucial to optimize the content to make sure it’s found by as many people as possible through online search—that’s where content strategists come in.
Aside from learning about search engine optimization and digital content strategy, I became adept in e-commerce and consumer marketing. The mechanics are more or less the same in B2B and B2C marketing but the program goals and KPIs differ. For example, instead of reporting on the sales pipeline generated, I reported on revenue and profit margin.
One of the things I appreciated most about goop was its collaborative environment. When an executive asked the team for creative revenue-driving program ideas, anyone—intern or full-time employee—was welcome to contribute. I pitched an idea that would expand Goop’s wholesale business while driving new customer acquisition and brand awareness through organic social media, and the executive asked me to develop a proposal.
Another highlight was the people. Over the course of my four months at Goop, I got to know people across the marketing, customer experience, editorial, and strategy teams. People were always willing when I asked to grab coffee and happy to explain when I had a question.
As I reflect back, I realize how much SOM and my classes—the Discovery Project in particular—prepared me to be successful in my internship (and beyond).
In the Customer Insights & Applications course, we learned the behavioral economics choice framework that breaks down the psychology behind decision-making: how a consumer’s beliefs and goals influence the choices they make. My team used this framework to conduct research to provide the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) with a data-driven social media content strategy.
This framework was revolutionary for me. In marketing, we love to ask customers why they did something (why did you buy that pair of sneakers or choose that restaurant?). But when asked why, people often cite the wrong motivators. Instead of asking why in this course, we asked questions that gave us the context surrounding a customer’s choice, which allowed us to infer why that choice was made. I took this mindset to my internship, where I made every effort to get to know the Goop customer and their buying process to make my work as customer-first as possible.
SOM’s team-oriented approach to coursework also helped me prepare for my internship. Prior to business school, I had worked with the same people for years. At SOM I’m constantly working in new teams, whether I’m reviewing cases with my learning team or doing research with my Customer Insights team. This was invaluable preparation to help me hit the ground running when joining a new organization.
