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” Scouting the location
Thereās a scene in One Battle After Another that takes place in a stretch of desert highway near the California/Arizona border. **Mild spoiler: the movie is essentially a 2.5 hour chase, and the climax happens in this very distinct location ā a āriver of hillsā in the desert of southern California. The roving hills are so unique and integral to the conclusion of the film that theyāre likely the iconic image that will stick in your mind weeks/months after you see it. So it was a surprise to...
š” Super Bowl ad review: Leading with pain
If youāve been through one of my Headshots sprints, you know we work closely together to articulate your positioning in 5 crisp visual assets. And the first visual is always a depiction of: your buyerās pain. Not āWhat problem do they have?ā But rather, the step before that: āWhat pain are they experiencing?ā Those are two different things A problem could be declining sales... But the pain for your client, your actual human buyer, could be: Embarrassment that their numbers arenāt healthy...
šø House of cards
Your clients are feeling the squeeze. Does your expertise draw admiration? Or relief? š” -Wes
š” Teardown: "The Double Squeeze"
You see a lot of visuals on LinkedIn. Most are forgettable. Some are cheap scroll-stoppers. And a rare few are actually great. On Thursdays, I share a visual, or āIntellectual Headshotā as I call them, that caught my eye in the wild, and break down why it works. Letās dig in. View full post on LinkedIn Luk Smeyers is an advisor to consulting firms -- not a client of mine, never met him -- and this is his visual depiction of āThe AI Double Squeezeā. As we all know, the rapid acceleration of AI...
š” The walls of your ability
Ethan Hawke in 'Blue Moon' So yesterday was about triangulating your genius zone to inform your offering (and if you havenāt already, I really suggest you try the prompt ā itās like a practical palm reading.) But then what? If crafting your business and core offering around your genius zone is an effort to keep you in flow state, are we just looking for the path to Easy Street? Not quite. There are two levels at play hereā¦ Identifying your genius zone and applying it to a proven, painful...
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...
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.