💡 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.
💡 Traditional publishing is no cake-walk
via USA Today If you’ll indulge me with one more book post, there was a timely feature yesterday from USA Today. If you followed my mini-series last week on self-publishing a book, you might have thought, “Man, that’s a lot of steps.” Well, it’s no cakewalk when you go with a traditional publisher either. USA Today followed author Lucy Score for the year she spent writing her most recent novel, ‘Mistakes Were Made’. The article and 6-minute short follow everything from plot concept to...
💡 Do you look ignorant or elegant?
Over the weekend, I checked out the premiere episode of Brené Brown and Adam Grant’s new podcast, The Curiosity Shop. (I reference these two often, as they’re the ones we think we’re supposed to emulate as thought leaders, when, spoiler, our thought leadership objective is actually much more approachable.) Much of the episode was clearing the air about a high-profile tiff between them a decade ago. But then it led to a discussion [min. 45:30 on audio, 49:00ish on YouTube] about their role as...
💡 That's part of the game
Late last fall, I had a super-motivated prospect come in the door. Fresh off watching one of my recorded talks, he booked time, told me all about his business, his positioning, his challenges. What he was struggling to communicate in the market. What he was struggling to articulate for himself. All things considered, a pretty perfect match for my Headshots sprint. He said he was too busy in December (as was I), so he asked if we could talk in January. When I followed up in January, he wrote...
💡 [Writing a book] Series close-out
Thanks for following along this week on my ‘Writing a Book’ mini-series. I hope this proves useful to anyone considering a book project to support your solo business. For convenience, here are the links to each post: 1/ On writing a book… If you don’t really want to, don’t do it 2/ Answering the ‘Why?’ My reasons included authority, exposure and personal challenge - what would be yours? 3/ Understanding the ‘How’ My infographic on self-publishing with steps, external partners and rough timing...
💡 [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,...
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.