š” The Lightbulb
A daily email about monetizing and visualizing your corporate expertise. Give me ~1 minute a day, and I'll help you turn what you know into your most differentiated and lucrative asset.
š” Your annual 'genius zone' tune-up
If you were around this time last year, I was writing a lot about triangulating your āgenius zoneā. Itās not a term I came up with, itās from Gay Hendricksā book The Big Leap. (Visualization above by Nancy Choi) The idea is there are four zones: Zone of incompetence Zone of competence Zone of excellence Zone of genius Hendricksā view is to spend as much time as possible in your zone of genius ā doing activities that leverage your natural gifts and strengths. In corporate roles, maximizing...
š” Elusive pop tarts
Thereās a bakery in my neighborhood that Iāve been a quiet fan of ever since I stumbled upon it once during a Covid walk back in 2020. Itās a one-woman shop, and at the time, she operated in a converted old house in a residential area. I wondered how she kept up demand with the unassuming storefront, but continued on with my day. (Her cookies were delicious, by the way.) A couple years later, I felt excited (and parasocially proud?) when I read that she was moving her bakery to a prime...
šø Docked
š” -Wes
š” Teardown: "The Boredom Trap"
On Thursdays, I showcase an interesting visual or āIntellectual Headshotā that caught my eye throughout the week, and offer some comments on why it works (or sometimes, why it doesnāt). c/o Nick Broekema via LinkedIn This week's visual teardown comes from Nick Broekema ā this one is a little meta, since by trade Nick is a freelance LinkedIn content designer. But who better to learn from? I think this visual works quite well on several levels. Let's jump in: Visual objective: Primary: to share...
š” I stopped blaming the system
One of my former employers had a big round of layoffs on Monday. 20% of their product team. That couldāve been me or my friends if we all hadnāt been laid off years before. Then this morning, my neighbor down the street, Amazon, cut 14,000. 10% of their corporate force. The friends Iāve checked in on are fine, but some of the impacted are starting to identify themselves. Layoffs are nothing new. I mean, I myself used to help companies execute the 'delayering playbook' as a management...
š” Using a digital crutch
You know that moment when youāre listening to someone give a moving speech. Then you notice theyāre reading from a teleprompter and it breaks the weight of the moment. Or youāre listening to a podcaster tell a personal story. Then you realize itās a script for an ad and tune it out. These are buzzkill moments. They had you, then they lost you. This happens in our world too, when you see a post or pretty infographic in your feed. And then get that āwhiffā that it was auto-genād out of ChatGPT,...
š” The map through the fog
When I started working with my book midwife, Fen, they sent me a copy of their book all about the process of writing a book. (Yes, very meta indeed.) In Fenās book was this simple POV about the creative process: It wasnāt included as a scare tactic. Just a peek down the path from someone whoās been through the book-writing process many times. A warning that, with near certainty, there will be a part of this process where you question it all. But, that the path does curve back. Now, when I see...
š” Davos recap, for solos, from afar
Iāve gotta admit, Iām a bit of a Davos nerd, from the sidelines of course. The easy joke from the outside used to be to write the week off as a flashy ski-week boondoggle for the global 0.01%. But I feel like the tone has shifted more respectful recently, perhaps in the spirit of, āthe worldās crazy right now, itās not a terrible idea to bring the worldās economic power players together and talk about solutions.ā I woke up early yesterday Seattle-time to catch a live briefing BCG put on to...
š” Life jacket
Our prospects are often in distress. You can talk about your experience while they tread water. Or you can show them what you know in an instant and give them the stability to chart their next moves. Do you have that kind of life jacket to offer? š” -Wes P.S. February Headshots sprints are open for booking! Whether you're new to the solo game, or been at it for years, the 1:1 process of building visual assets helps clarify and communicate exactly how you see your client's problem, and your...
š” Monologues welcome
I sit on the receiving end of a lot of consultant monologues. One simple question can elicit a 3-, 5-, sometimes 10-minute response. I donāt mind it. Itās actually by design. Because Iād rather a consultant dump all that on me, than on the prospect theyāve been angling to get a call with for months. Unrefined insights can confuse an already distressed prospect. Unorganized insights can overwhelm them just the same. Walk into a conversation with both, and letās face it - youāve probably lost...
A daily email about monetizing and visualizing your corporate expertise. Give me ~1 minute a day, and I'll help you turn what you know into your most differentiated and lucrative asset.