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.
💡 The buyer's view on brain vs. hands work
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Yesterday’s niche evolution map prompted a lot more replies than usual! ICYMI, one of the takeaways from plotting my own service evolution visually was that despite the typical desire/advice to shift toward more scalable 'brain' work, I found that a shift toward more 'hands' work has brought me closer into my genius zone, and revenue has followed. Brand strategist and interim CMO Claire Elvers wrote in specifically about what she’s seeing regarding the ‘brain vs. hands work’ spectrum from the buyer’s POV -- shared with permission: It’s funny - I think we do a disservice in glamorizing “head work” esp in the context of pure coaching or advisory. Yes this is the dream but in today’s market buyers are increasingly critical of only brain work eg advisory-only/sounding board type engagements. Also if people are senior they already have their “phone-a-friend” for advice or a sounding board. I don’t think any independent can ever avoid having some sort of hands-on creation as part of their day to day. I guess you could outsource it entirely but then I’d argue you’re not really independent :) - or by you are running a boutique consultancy (a different line of work altogether!). This aligns with what I’m hearing from other clients, too. I think if you’ve built up unique authority around a very specific, timely problem, you’ll have solid footing and circumstance to set up arms-length advisory arrangements to your liking. Think: supply chain resilience under tariff uncertainty, pricing strategy for agentic AI solutions, etc. But more commonly, clients are looking for a tangible deliverable or A-to-B transformation to help justify your fee in their highly scrutinized budget. Of course, once you’ve delivered on that, you can then leverage the trust you’ve built to shift into advisory, so long as you're demonstrating value. 💡 -Wes P.S. I have one final Intellectual Headshots sprint slot open for 2025 We'd start Tues. Dec 9th and you'll have your Headshots portfolio by Dec 19th. If December's looking a bit light, it could be a good time to invest in getting your positioning, POV and value prop codified into visual assets ahead of the New Year. Sound like you? Drop me a quick line and we'll set up a quick fit check. The only pre-requisite is having a niche. |
💡 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.