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” Rethinking your pricing next year
A super-sized sprint in a fraction of the time. How to charge? Still pricing based on inputs and deliverables? Hereās a āfresh out of the ovenā example to consider moving away from that. I just wrapped my final 2025 IP Builder (aka āIntellectual Headshotsā) sprint earlier today. If I havenāt banged it over your head enough, itās a 2-week sprint, split into 3 one-on-one working sessions, and we build 5 āheadshotsā of your expertise ā a cohesive visual narrative that articulates your clientās...
š” 4 C's to building trust
Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts How did you make friends during your first year at college? Or start to build a reputation at your first corporate job? Or corral a new social circle when moving to a new city or country? My guess is you didnāt have a plan, you just subconsciously A/B tested a lot of things, and eventually it sort of just fell into place. As solo consultants, we find ourselves wandering that foggy path again - whether just starting out or pivoting to a new audience or ICP....
š” Very Niche: Naughty or niche?
The sea of red and white above may look like the opposite of a niche strategy but ho-ho-hold on. There are niche professions. And then thereās going niche within a niche profession. Serious Santa Clauses are a jolly example of both. As a profession, being a Santa Claus will find you in rare company and high demand. Itās a highly specific, time-sensitive job, after all, and not everyone can do it. But before you think Santas are just a commodity ā seen one Santa, seen āem all ā or āany Santa...
š” Don't worry, stay human
Interesting article in the Times this week about AI travel influencers, and how theyāre starting to cramp the style of human influencers. (^Free gift article š) Turns out, travel brands are happily investing thousands of dollars for lifelike avatars who essentially do the same job their human counterparts, without the cost of flying them around the world and putting them up in the lap of luxury. And it seems the followers are into it as well, fully aware that the personalities theyāre getting...
š” Die With Zero
Hereās another one of those signature frameworks that just shocks you with its simplicity. Itās from Bill Perkins, author of āDie with Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life. Yup, quite a title, but you immediately start to get his drift. The overarching premise of his work (and book) is that there are two counteracting forces at play in life: Your wealth, which grows over time And your health, which declines over time. Separately, we can all grasp each concept. Even taken...
šø Stuck vs. serve
You can argue with yourself about your niche positioning forever. Or you can serve the ball into the market and see what comes back. š” -Wes
š” We're trained to go generalist
My old consulting firm has an alumni jobs board matching ex-consultants to corporate roles. I still get the digest emails daily. Even though Iām not looking for a corporate role anymore, I open it every once in a while just to see whoās hiring. And every time I do, I find myself falling into the same pattern. I scan the JDs for vague titles like ācorporate strategyā or āstrategic projectsā, i.e. roles general enough that I wouldnāt be dinged for not having experience in their specific...
š” Weekend listen: Two hopeful takes on AI + consulting
Iāve largely steered clear of engaging in the āAI is going to kill consultingā narrative. I think most of it is fear-baiting vs. a productive conversation about how we can continue to add value at the client-level. That said, I do my best to keep abreast of the developments, and caught two interesting podcast episodes this week that you might find helpful as you decide how optimistic or fatalistic to be in this moment. Or perhaps more productively, how you can best position your solo...
š” "Sales for Nice People"
Iām not sure I can definitively say everyone hates sales but I think itās fair to say that āsalesā does evoke an icky feeling on both sides of a consulting transaction: Clients donāt want to feel pressured into buying something Consultants donāt want to come off as pushy or cash-hungry But if we tiptoe around monetization, we also circumvent true value exchange and value creation. In one of my peer communities, I recently met Martin Stellar - a ācoach and consultant for ethical salesā - who...
š” We're gonna need a smaller pond
LinkedIn put out an interesting report on global small business trends this morning, which essentially tells the story of the structural shift happening toward solo and small businesses. Their recommendations weren't all that surprising: Embrace AI Invest in your brand Lean on your network But the many insights behind the recommendations were eye-opening. One of the more striking stats is that a solid 40% of of US professionals say they want to work for themselves in the near future. You...
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.