💡 The Lightbulb

I went to an event last night called Ignite Seattle (there might be a version in your city too). Sort of a mini-TEDx conference, with a party vibe. The format is simple: 5-minute talks 20 slides each Slides auto-advance every 15 seconds Lights. Camera. Action. Just everyday people sharing something they care deeply about… …with a live audience of 900 people. I went because it sounded fun. A good show. Only in retrospect did I realize why I was particularly drawn to it. Remember those Solo...

On a BCG alumni webinar this morning two ex-BCGers (Michelle Wu and Jerry Ting) shared the good, bad and ugly of founding their respective AI startups over the past few years. What hooked me most, aside from the resilience of both of them to keep building during a pretty turbulent period (including one who exited to Workday!)… …was the conversation about building a moat. As one of them put it: “You need something that keeps you from a couple of Stanford engineers putting you out of business.”...

There was a guy in jury duty last week who was…talkative, to put it kindly. In the assembly area. In the recess rooms. Definitely in the courtroom during selection. The eternal conversationalist. Was he nervous? Uncomfortable with silence? Desperate to be seated on the case? Maybe all three. Ultimately, he wasn’t selected. Dismissed, I’d guess, for coming off too eager or overpowering. Maybe even a loose cannon. It made me think of how we show up on those early calls with prospects. Are we...

I saw a post on LinkedIn today declaring: “Content calendars are dead.” The author’s inspiration? Disney+ releasing a Pope Leo XIV documentary within 48 hours of his election last week. Naturally, the takeaway was: People want content about what’s happening right now. And if you have your posts queued up a month in advance, you’ll miss the zeitgeist and lose relevance. The original post was aimed at agencies and creators. But there’s a thread here for solo consultants too. Because content,...

When prospects come to me curious about my sprints, but not quite ready to move forward, I usually offer a follow-up call. To let things marinate a bit. And to keep the momentum going, I often send a short prompt or light “homework.” But in the past few weeks, four would-be clients have cancelled the follow-up. A small but noticeable number. It wasn’t because they weren’t interested. They liked the first call. Asked for the meeting. Even agreed to the prep. But when the time came to do the...