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”[Teardown] "House of cards"
For this weekās 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 āHouse of Cardsā 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,...
š” IRIS: Early app feedback and 'How-to'
Huge thanks to those whoāve tested out IRIS! ā my new tool for solo consultants to elevate your LinkedIn visuals and attract your best clients. Iāve heard positive comments on: the directness of IRISās 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 ā I think Iāve debugged those. If you hit an error, refresh/resubmit typically works....
š” Meet IRIS: An app to elevate your visuals
You can complain about LinkedIn slop, or you can elevate above it. Iāve long believed solo consultants undersell their expertise. And getting caught up in fleeting LinkedIn fads or āhacksā only deepens the problem. It seems like most people have gotten the memo to include some sort of visual when postingā¦ But I suspect most do so to claim extra real estate in the scroll and/or please the algorithm. As someone whoās centered my business around distilling and telegraphing expertise visually,...
š”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 āAI slopā, 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...
šø Wrong venue
There's fun and games in chasing a crowd. But only one of you to go around. Enjoy your weekend. š” -Wes
š” [Teardown] 'Growth at any cost'
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 examine a visual, or āIntellectual Headshotā as I call them, that caught my eye, and break down why it works. Today, itās a visual metaphor from leadership coach Peter Weiss. via Peter Weiss Speaking of absurdist visual metaphors, this one stopped my scroll this week. Itās a quick-hit commentary on growing too fast, getting too good, become too...
š” Leveraging robo-critics
Iām not going to be outsourcing visual creativity to an AI tool anytime soon. But, I really wouldnāt mind a virtual critique by a few ārobo-criticsā before things go out the door. Over the weekend, I was inspired by Charlie Hillās newsletter issue titled āStop asking AI āWhat do you think?āā where he offers a bunch of ways to avoid chatbots from leading you astray. Admittedly, Iāve asked Chat/Claude āwhat do you thinkā frequently on a lot of things, including early visual drafts, and...
š” Sentient spaghetti
Do you remember this ad? A woman at a nice dinner with friends is about to take a bite of yummy spaghetti whenā¦ ā¦the spaghetti on her fork starts whipping her in the face before it gets to her mouth. Itās a TV commercial for TUMS released in 2010. I was in my invincible twenties at the time, so I didnāt really understand the premise. I probably didnāt even have Tums in my apartment. But now, 15 years and a few too many heartburn-induced sleepless nights later, every time I take a bite of...
š” Hired help? Or human helper?
I helped a friend pack up his apartment last weekend. After 33 years in the same cozy space, Steve made a snap decision to jump on a vacancy at a coveted senior living center across town. So now came the dreaded part. Three decades of belongings ā books, clothes, furniture, drawers, closets, and cabinets ā all needed to be combed through and packed, tossed or donated. I reported for duty, and when he suggested I focus on getting his clothes packed into suitcases, I got right to work. As heās...
šø The only fit
Find your match and speak directly to them. Everything else is force-fitting. š” -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.