💡 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.
💡 [Writing a book] Self-publishing + writing schedule
This week I'm reporting LIVE from the dizzying tail-end of the book-writing process. Check out the "Why" and the "How" in the archive. A pretty tracker of a bumpy process Today, a few of the questions that have come in from your fellow Lightbulbers... Why did you decide to self-publish vs. use a traditional publisher? At first, it seemed like the simpler and faster option. And the option more in line with the scope of my ”Why?”. As I learned more, I realized the decision had actually been...
💡 [Writing a book] A theoretically linear process [Infographic]
This week I'm reporting LIVE from the dizzying tail-end of the book-writing process. Yesterday I covered the "Why" - today is about the "How": There’s no shortage of online resources for authors, but interestingly, I never found a utilitarian infographic that mapped out the discrete activities that get you to the finish line. So Claude and I put one together based on my own experience: The former project manager in me desperately wanted this to be a linear process, and generally, it is up to...
💡 [Writing a book] Answering the 'Why?'
If you missed yesterday, I’m using this week to report LIVE from the dizzying tail-end of writing and self-publishing my first book. Send in your questions, and I’ll work them in anonymously as we go. Let’s tackle the big question: Why? Let me start with what I’m not trying to do with this book: ❌ Make money: It might sound weird to hear it this way, but book revenue is not the primary goal here. In fact, I’m not sure the book will ever break-even on its own. Even the most basic napkin math...
💡 On writing a book...
When I was considering buying my first home a few years ago, a stressed homeowner told me: If you want to buy a house, you should buy a house. But if you don’t want to buy a house, DEFINITELY DON’T buy a house. He was underscoring the point that while home-ownership can be a wonderful experience and wise investment, it’s also an immersive, take-over-your-life type of project, so if you’re at all on the fence about it, perhaps it’s best to leave it alone. (I left it alone.) I’m finding myself...
📸 Front-load
^^from my upcoming book The Expert's Privilege, coming Q2. Stay tuned. :) Enjoy your weekend. 💡 -Wes
💡[Teardown] "House of cards"
For this week’s Teardown. I thought it was only fair to share an example where my own visuals have come in below the bar. (Oh yes, there are many.) So I put my “House of Cards” Headshot through the IRIS app. This visual metaphor literally came to me in my sleep a few weeks ago. The general idea is that experts/consultants can often get caught up in pretty deliverables, but really, especially now, clients are looking for relief. In my view, an Intellectual Headshot (framework, time-series,...
💡 IRIS: Early app feedback and 'How-to'
Huge thanks to those who’ve tested out IRIS! — my new tool for solo consultants to elevate your LinkedIn visuals and attract your best clients. I’ve heard positive comments on: the directness of IRIS’s feedback the detail in her justifications the approachable suggestions she makes for improving both the concept and the execution of your visuals And thanks to those who reported a couple error messages — I think I’ve debugged those. If you hit an error, refresh/resubmit typically works....
💡 Meet IRIS: An app to elevate your visuals
You can complain about LinkedIn slop, or you can elevate above it. I’ve long believed solo consultants undersell their expertise. And getting caught up in fleeting LinkedIn fads or “hacks” only deepens the problem. It seems like most people have gotten the memo to include some sort of visual when posting… But I suspect most do so to claim extra real estate in the scroll and/or please the algorithm. As someone who’s centered my business around distilling and telegraphing expertise visually,...
💡The I-R-I-S Test [Tool preview]
A friend and I were lamenting over the weekend (publicly) about the sheer amount of forgettable content you see all around, despite all the tools at our disposal. Some of it is ‘AI slop’, yes, certainly. But I believe most of what people create and share is well-meaning. I refuse to believe everyone is out here just generating trash to try to trick an algorithm. My proof (and hope) lies in the countless 1:1 conversations I have with independent consultants every month who truly have a...
📸 Wrong venue
There's fun and games in chasing a crowd. But only one of you to go around. Enjoy your weekend. 💡 -Wes
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.