My high school in Dallas used to start our school year on a Friday.

Sounds obnoxious, right?

Like, why not give us one more summer weekend?

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Even worse, it was only a half-day.

The hell?

You’re gonna get us all dressed up in our shirts/ties (a Jesuit boys’ school) for a first day of school on a Friday, just to let us out at noon?

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The practice caused all the communal gripe and kerfuffle you’ve come to expect around Daylight Saving time.

But by the next day, nobody cared anymore.

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And on Monday, the “real” first day…

You’d already found your new locker.

You had all your books.

You’d been through a run of your class schedule.

Met all your teachers.

Chosen your seat.

That silly half-day was actually…good for something?

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This morning, I had a pre-sprint kickoff with my first IP Builder pilot client.

It felt like that first (Fri)day of school.

We hopped on, set up our tools, got our remaining sessions on the calendar.

I aligned us on the goals for the Sprint and got her acquainted with our Miro sandbox.

We reviewed her pre-work. Talked about how she found the exercise.

What reflections it conjured up about her expertise and services.

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And then, like we couldn’t help ourselves…

We both started pouring out with ideas for her visual assets.

Grabbing digital stickies and posting them all over our shared board.

Starting to imagine part of the visual narrative and what else we could add.

We would’ve kept going but we had run over our time.

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We don’t technically start the Sprint until the Monday after next (we’re both on vacation next week)…

But when we do, we’ll be fully ready to go.

We’ve set the playing field and process.

And planted the mental seeds that can start germinating in the back of our minds during our travels in the meantime.

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Perhaps those Jesuits knew what they were doing after all.

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💡

-Wes

P.S. - As mentioned, I’m headed to the desert next week for some R&R (hey, us spinsters deserve a Spring Break too! 🙃 😎 ) so expect perhaps a few less Lightbulbs than normal.

Also, thanks for the incredible interest in the IP Builder pilot! I’m continuing to enroll people from the waitlist for late April and early May starts.

You’re still welcome to join the list, as I’ll most likely be adding more capacity through May and will fill from the list first.

What’s The IP Builder Sprint? A sibling-service to the NicheFinder sprint, IP Builder is a 3-session, 1:1 sprint (with a Friday pre-sprint kickoff!) focused squarely on converting your expertise into magnetic, lightbulb-inducing visual assets that attract and close high-quality clients within your ICP.

​Join the list to learn more.

Note: This is a paid pilot offered at a reduced rate in exchange for feedback and an optional testimonial.

Let's get visual.