💡 The Lightbulb

I hadn’t planned on using today's Lightbulb deconstructing a silly April Fool’s email, but you might find it interesting that I got two completely different reactions to yesterday’s faux “Lights Out” announcement. From folks on this list, I got a bunch of replies like: “I panicked!” “You scared me for a second.” “Thank god it’s April 1!” All in all, you got the joke. Later in the day, I cross-posted it to LinkedIn, where 10x as many people saw it, easily my best performing post this year....

In sports, you hear a lot about ‘home-field advantage’. This is used to describe the general trend that teams are more likely to win games or matches when played on their home turf. Some studies show aggregate home-team win rates of ~60% or higher, compared to the 50/50 split you might expect. You could attribute this to familiarity with the field itself, weather conditions, lack of travel fatigue, an engaged fan base… At least one study concludes it’s most attributable to referee bias. I’d...

Cold feet about niching? You’re not alone. I work with solo consultants every day, most of whom have found that after a year or two in, they’ve hit a plateau. Their warm network produced a good amount of early work, but now inbounds are either drying up, or fanning out in multiple directions. When this happens, you have two choices: Accept what comes your way, prioritizing short-term conversion at the expense of focus and client quality Or define a strategic niche and become known for it,...

I don’t typically gush over a stranger’s positioning and LinkedIn approach, but I’ve been getting served one consultant’s videos recently, and honestly, I think she’s knocking it out of the park. Her name is Kerry Barrett, a former news anchor turned on-camera coach. Do yourself a favor and watch just one of her many 1-minute vids and I’ll break it down. Note: I don’t know Kerry, and she doesn’t know I’m writing this, but I did reach out to congratulate her on a job well done. First, I’ll...

Who comes to mind when you think of the big ‘branding gods’? Perhaps Nike, McDonalds, Coca-Cola? These surface quickly because they’re in our faces constantly. Billions of dollars in marketing budgets. And honestly? It’s easy to see it’s money well-spent. Trouble is, we see this kind of grand, brand marketing and, almost by default, we take it as something to emulate or aspire to. Perhaps we don't seek global ubiquity, but maybe some fame, virality, or blanket name recognition. One fatal flaw...