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” Flatten the curve
When I say āflatten the curveā what comes to mind? Itās most likely some Q2 2020 quarantine flashbacks, right? We were collectively confused, frightened, exasperated and largely uneducated about the once-in-a-generation global crisis at hand. But despite the chaos, governments, health agencies and news organizations around the world coalesced behind a single visual framework to try to minimize the casualties. The premise was straightforward: If everyone gets sick at the same time, it will...
š” Very niche: Allegiant Air
As millions get set to travel for the US Thanksgiving holiday this week, I thought it be a timely edition of Very Niche! to feature a niche airline. Yes, they exist! While much of the growth news in US aviation tends to be around continued consolidation and optimization among the Big 4 airlines (American, United, Delta, Southwest), there are smaller players jockeying for their own piece of the pie by taking aā¦you guessed itā¦niche strategy. Particularly interesting is budget airline Allegiant...
šø Dinner party
š” -Wes
š” In-the-wild: A bubble chart with no pop
File this visual under: āThey Canāt All Be Bangersā McKinsey published a report last month on the expected impact of AI on the global banking sector, and this particular bubble chart has been getting raked over the coals.(^^ see: a brutal roast by the Financial Times) Now, McKinsey has become a pretty easy punching bag these days, so I wonāt pile on too hard, but this is a good learning moment on why a visual might fail. Or, in this case, crash and burn. TLDR: Have a compelling point to...
š” Liam Curley on what moves the needle
Friend, peer (and Lightbulber!) Liam Curley put out a thought-provoking email this morning about focusing on what actually moves the needle in your business. And ignoring everything else. I wonāt steal his thunder - itās a short 3-min read - but itās a great reminder as we go into end-of-year to take stock of where your energy went, and a call to invest deeply in substance over superficiality. If you havenāt been introduced to Liamās work, heās a fellow letās-make-sense-of-your-expertise...
š” Why the subtitle trend matters for consultants
A lotās been written about the subtitles vs. no-subtitles debate while watching TV. I, for one, find them highly distracting, and particularly inexcusable while watching comedies (they blow every punchline and obliterate comic timing). And while some reasonable use cases for subtitles exist, like assisting those hard of hearing, following dense plots, or deciphering difficult accents/dialects, I hadnāt recognized the predominant use case for captions among the younger generations is:...
š” Very niche: Can a GOAT be niche?
Last night, I started watching the new Ken Burns series on The American Revolution. My guess is a) youāve heard of him. And if so, b) you have some idea what a Ken Burns series is like: Multi-year effort. Multi-part deep dive. On some pivotal period or personality within American history. A slow, deliberate re-telling using voice overs, simple melodies and slow pans over still images. Typically some watercooler buzz and critical acclaim. And ultimately required viewing in your kidās high...
š” The buyer's view on brain vs. hands work
Yesterdayās niche evolution map prompted a lot more replies than usual! ICYMI, one of the takeaways from plotting my own service evolution visually was that despite the typical desire/advice to shift toward more scalable 'brain' work, I found that a shift toward more 'hands' work has brought me closer into my genius zone, and revenue has followed. Brand strategist and interim CMO Claire Elvers wrote in specifically about what sheās seeing regarding the ābrain vs. hands workā spectrum from the...
š” TOOL: Map your service evolution
My final layoff was exactly three years ago. That milestone coinciding with writing the 'Finding Your Nicheā section of my book this week has prompted a lot of reflection of my solo path so far. Yesterday, I mentioned a series of pivots in my audience and services, some more extreme than others, so I decided to map them out. My services/niche evolved in the following steps: First gig: Hourly BizOps work for an edtech startup Ghostwriter | courses for SaaS execs āSignature Service Intensiveā...
š” LISTEN: Making a sharp pivot
My first year as a soloist was pretty fortunate, in retrospect. I had enough inbounds (and a severance check) to keep me rolling as I tried to find my footing, build a pipeline, and cobble together a brand on the fly. But about a year in, I recognized that nearly everything had been reactive. An inbound would come to me. Iād write a proposal. The urgent ones would convert. Some would even renew. Nice life. Until I realized that without putting a stake in the ground about who I served and what...
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.