My first year as a soloist was pretty fortunate, in retrospect.

I had enough inbounds (and a severance check) to keep me rolling as I tried to find my footing, build a pipeline, and cobble together a brand on the fly.

But about a year in, I recognized that nearly everything had been reactive.

An inbound would come to me.

I’d write a proposal.

The urgent ones would convert.

Some would even renew.

Nice life.

Until I realized that without putting a stake in the ground about who I served and what I did for them, I would have little control over how clients saw me and what they asked of me.

Matt and Alper invited me back on The White Rabbit to share about that first pivot:

• The mismatch I sensed early on while ghostwriting for SaaS companies
• The decision to actively walk away from that type of work
• And how to choose a new lane intentionally centered around my genius zone and catered to a client base with a bit more personal resonance

It wouldn’t be my last pivot (I continue to evolve my services), but it was certainly my most extreme one, so far.

Hope you enjoy the listen — and if you’re feeling a bit stuck with the type of work you’re getting (or not getting), I’m here to chat.

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💡

-Wes

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P.S. From a Headshot sprint "graduation" today:

"We had all these random ideas, but it was difficult to convey what we do in a concise way.

These visuals help to crystallize our own thinking in terms of where our value add is, and how we differentiate ourselves and our thinking and our logic around this whole space. I don't know how else we would have done that."

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I have just two December Headshot sprints open.

If you think that kind of clarity could help you going into 2026, let's talk. :)