I’m a Commercial Director and brand strategist with over a decade of experience aligning sales, marketing, and communications to help businesses thrive. Throughout my career, I’ve guided companies through ambitious growth phases, rebrands, and team transformations, always focusing on creating cultures where people feel motivated, valued, and excited about what’s next.

In previous roles, I acted as a fractional marketing and brand consultant, partnering with leadership teams to refine brand identities, recruit high-performing marketing talent, and embed streamlined sales processes. I also co-founded Tiny Wizard Studio and Alchemy Branding Studio, discovering my passion for telling meaningful brand stories and nurturing people-first teams.

Today, I’m fully immersed in leading one organisation’s commercial function, uniting sales and marketing to drive sustainable growth and strengthen brand relevance. I believe real success isn’t just about meeting revenue goals. For me, it’s about building an environment where fresh ideas can flourish, people can grow, and everyone can take pride in the impact they make. If that resonates with you, let’s connect. ✨

Jess Morgan

I spent an incredible week last week in London hot-footing it to as many Wales Week / London events as I could manage, and met some incredible people and businesses doing amazing things. 

Huge thanks to Dan Langford OBE & Mike Jordan for hosting the partners' dinner on Tuesday evening and for the wonderful introductions throughout the week. I should have taken far more photos, but I was too busy chatting!

Really looking forward to getting to know you all better and congratulations to all the organisations who put on such wonderful events. Ligtas Consultancy & Training will certainly be hosting something brilliant for 2027, but for our first year as partners, it was great to be a guest. 

Great to meet all of you, and apologies for the ones I haven't tagged. 

Football Association of Wales Nick Payne Catryn Newton Chelsea Pinches-Burrowes Chris Butt Rebecca Edwards- Symmons Hannah Shackleford Ann Ellis Gruff Dodd, ACA Adrian Coles Professor David Brooksbank Natasha Hale Andrew Howard Belinda Houghton-Jones Rhys Morris FIEP Rhys Pendergast andrew tugwell Sonia Hensley Francesca Carpanini Chart.PR Frankie James Dawn Evans Nicola Parry  Steve Western, Cert CII, DIP CII, CeMAP Lee Gillen Vladimir Jankovski Tenovus Cancer Care / Gofal Canser Tenovus Jayne Brewer Assoc CIPD Charlotte Leyshon Blanche Sainsbury

Commercial Director at Ligtas | Co-founder at Alchemy | Driving brand, marketing & sales alignment for people-first growth | Believer in bold storytelling, behavioural-led leadership & culture that connects ✨

I’m just going to leave this here…

If I had a penny for every time someone (not just women) say ‘I’ve been so lucky’, ‘luck has been on my side’, ‘it’s all down to luck’ I’d be a bloody millionaire. 

We need to start giving ourselves more credit for the work we’ve put in, the risks we’ve taken, the sacrifices, the late nights, early mornings and the downright; screw it, I’m going to give it a go and see what happens moments. 

Own it. You deserve to take credit. 💪

No alternative text description for this image

When someone comes back to you years later, not because you stayed in their inbox, but because they remembered the quality of the work…that means the world.

I had a conversation this week with someone I worked with a few years ago on the branding for his business, Clarified. We hadn’t worked together since. No constant follow-ups. No clever funnel. Just good work, done properly, that stuck.

During the call, he said:

“The branding work you did for me worked so perfectly, and it got me exactly to where I needed to be.”

That gave me all the feel. He went on to talk about the wider impact it had, how that work helped create clarity, confidence and consistency, and how that fed into everything that came next, including the path his career has taken since.

A strategy workshop is never just a workshop.
A brand identity is never just a logo.
Done properly, the work becomes a decision-making tool. A communication tool. A confidence tool. Something people keep using long after the project has finished.

And that’s the domino effect of quality.

When you take the time to get under the skin of a business, build something thoughtful, and make it genuinely usable, it keeps working in the background. It shapes how people speak about what they do. How they show up. What they go on to build next.

This conversation came about because he’s now in a new role, leading a new opportunity, and came back to me based on the impact of the work we did then.

That’s not about “brand magic”.
It’s about doing work that lasts.

A good reminder for me this week that quality compounds. People remember how you made their business feel clearer.

They remember whether your work actually helped. And they come back when it did.

That’s always the goal.

Walking is where I do my clearest thinking. Not in a dramatic, “found myself on a mountain” sort of way. Just a proper walk, some fresh air, and enough headspace for my brain to stop tab-switching.

I've realised the view is absolutely the motivation. It’s the reason you start.
But when you’re halfway up a hill, you’re not really living in the view yet, are you? You’re thinking about your pace, your breathing, whether you should’ve brought water, and why your knees have suddenly decided to have an opinion. 😂

Work feels a lot like that. We love the summit moments: the launch, the growth, the promotion, the milestone. They look great in a photo and they’re worth celebrating. But the part I’m always most interested in is how people actually got there, because it’s rarely a straight line and it’s almost never as polished as the final result.

That’s why I love doing the podcast. It’s why I love networking events and chatting to people from all walks, industries, and backgrounds. The real gold is usually in the parts people skip over: the tough decisions, the uncertainty, the stuff that didn’t work, and the tiny turning points that changed everything.

And it’s the same reason storytelling matters so much in brand and marketing. People don’t connect with the “ta-da”. They connect with the climb. They trust the effort, the learning, and the humans behind the outcome.

The view is great. But the story is what gets people to walk with you in the first place.

Really pleased that Ligtas Consultancy & Training is an official partner of Wales Week London 2026, and I’m really looking forward to spending some time in London at the end of February!

If you haven’t come across it before, Wales Week / London is a programme of events celebrating Welsh culture, business and talent, bringing people together across sectors for talks, panels, socials and (from past experience) some very good conversations.

I’ll be there for a few of the events, including the partners’ dinner with other sponsors and partners. For me, it’s a great excuse to step out of the day-to-day, meet interesting people, and listen to what others are building and learning.

If you’re going along too, give me a shout,  would be lovely to say hello.

More info and the full programme are on the Wales Week London site: https://walesweek.london/

🎙 Episode 10 is Live  🥳 Jay Ball  on Building, Selling, Retiring… and Starting Again

New episode of Brand To Scale is now live.

We're back after a short break. This Month I sat down with Jay, founder, exit-success story, and now CEO of Flotek Group Limited to talk about what building at scale actually looks like.

No “overnight success” BS, this…

• Getting sacked early in your career
• Building a telecoms business from 21
• Selling it at 34
• Retiring at 35
• Realising six months later you can’t sit still
• Starting again and scaling to £19.5m in three and a half years

Jay talks about:
• Growing through acquisition (14 deals and counting)
• Why debt isn’t always the villain
• The difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur
• Leading when you don’t always get your own way
• Why culture changes as you scale
• AI vs automation and why most businesses are confusing the two

If you’re building something.
If you’re scaling.
If you’re questioning what “success” even looks like once you’ve tasted it.

Hope you enjoy!

🎧 Listen here:
https://lnkd.in/dDweR8tk

Out and about again this week, visiting our valued clients! 🥳 Yesterday I had one of those site visits that reminds you why this work matters so much. 

I can’t share who the client is, and the tour was strictly NDA (fair enough, it was a proper behind-the-scenes operation). But it was genuinely impressive.
What stood out most was how many moving parts manufacturing sites hold at once: people, processes, equipment, contractors, shift patterns, constant change. Safety can’t sit in a folder somewhere. It has to live in the day-to-day.

That’s why Ligtas Consultancy & Training's work with manufacturing clients is usually “joined-up”: assess the risks → support the actions → train people properly → keep it maintained. 

One of the pain points they’ve had is probably familiar to a lot of manufacturers: training spread across different suppliers and portals, fragmented reporting, and no simple way to answer basic questions like who’s done what, where the certificates are, and when refreshers are due.

So alongside our risk assessment and consultancy support, we’re now building them an induction LMS portal to bring training into one place across all sites, with clear visibility, consistent standards, and reporting that doesn’t rely on chasing spreadsheets.

The bit I’m most excited about? We’re also transforming key policies and procedures into short, role-relevant induction courses, so there’s real data on who’s completed what and evidence that people have actually engaged and understood it. Less “it’s in the folder”, more confidence that there aren’t gaps.

If you’re managing safety across multiple sites and training feels fragmented (or impossible to track properly), I’m always happy to compare notes, because you’re definitely not the only one dealing with that.

I love this quote from George Bernard Shaw:
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”

Clear communication isn’t about saying more things, or saying them louder, or adding another meeting to the diary.

You can send the updates. You can hold the meetings. You can repeat yourself politely (and still somehow feel like you’re the one being difficult).

And yet… people still walk away with different versions of what was “agreed”.
That’s usually because clarity isn’t volume. It’s intent.

People don’t just need information. They need context. They need to know what actually matters, what good looks like, where they fit, and what the point is in the first place.

Nine times out of ten, the fix isn’t another meeting. It’s a clearer message.

When I visit sites or sit in team meetings, I’m reminded that what makes Ligtas Consultancy & Training strong isn’t just technical knowledge, it’s the people. We get this feedback from clients all the time, they love who they work with. And when you join the team here, you'll be supported by a passionate, curious, willing to challenge and always willing to support. 

This blog captures that better than I could in a short post. We gathered feedback from across the business to showcase what life is really like here. 

I'm super thrilled to say that we’re growing, and we’ve got some exciting vacancies open at the moment. 

But the fit matters just as much as the CV.

If you’re someone who wants to work in an environment that blends consultancy, training, and real-world impact and you like being around people who genuinely care about doing things properly, it’s worth a read.

👉  https://lnkd.in/ewm2hfvh

We see this a lot, highly capable people being asked to complete training that’s technically correct, but disconnected from the hazards they actually deal with day to day. When training reflects real processes, real materials, and real risks, something changes.

👉 People engage.
👉 They recognise themselves in it.
👉 And competence becomes practical, not theoretical.

We saw this clearly when working with a biotechnology manufacturer, where training was built around their specific objectives and hazards not generic scenarios lifted from a slide deck.

The feedback that stuck with me was this:
“Providing bespoke content relevant for our objectives and hazards which staff can better relate to.”

That’s the bar, in my view.
Not more training.
Better training.

If you’re in manufacturing, what’s the biggest challenge right now? Making training relevant, keeping it up to date, or ensuring people can actually apply it on the floor?

The case study is here if it’s useful:
https://lnkd.in/exQSyxhH

I used to think growth was about doing more and moving faster. More leads, more meetings, more content, more outreach…more of everything.

If that was the magic formula, we’d all be unstoppable. What I’ve learned is that growth is far more sensitive to the conditions people are working in than the effort they’re putting in. You can have a great team and plenty of activity, and still stall if direction, priorities and expectations aren’t clear enough to guide day to day decisions.

I’ve written a longer piece on this, based on lived experience and patterns I’ve seen across businesses. There’s a simple test at the end you can try with your team this week.

Enjoy!

I used to think growth was mostly about pace. If I’m honest, being a busy fool, managing more busy fools. You can guess what that leads to, right? If 

Open article: Everyone Wants Growth. Hardly Anyone Builds the Conditions for It by Jess Morgan • 15 min read

Everyone Wants Growth. Hardly Anyone Builds the Conditions for It

Small marketing teams often have a big job.

They are expected to support campaigns, create content, enable sales teams and keep brand messaging consistent across multiple channels. When you are working at that pace, having tools that simplify content creation can make a real difference.

In a new article, I share the ways I use Adobe Express when supporting sales and marketing teams, including how Brand Kits help maintain consistency and how Resize can quickly adapt content across channels.

If you are working in a small marketing team or supporting sales enablement, this might be helpful.

Try Adobe Express here:
https://adobe.com/express

Sponsored by Adobe Express.
#AdobeExpressAmbassadors #Ad #HowToAdobeExpress

Sponsored by Adobe Express #AdobeExpressAmbassadors #Ad Creating content is not usually the hardest part for marketing teams. The challenge is produci

Open article: How I Use Adobe Express to Help Sales and Marketing Teams Create Consistent Content Faster by Jess Morgan • 4 min read

How I Use Adobe Express to Help Sales and Marketing Teams Create Consistent Content Faster

Helping entrepreneurs use public speaking to build their brand | Public Speaking Coach | Author of Make It Count | Former COO and TEDxClapham Founder

Why is it, that some people get away with breaking every public speaking rule in the book, yet we still want to listen to what they’ve got to say? 

If there’s one thing I've learned working with some of the most successful leaders of our generation, it’s that there is a big difference between having an idea and being able to communicate it.

That is what turns big thinkers into thought leaders.

As a leader, speaking is an important part of your life. You’ve got to cast a vision, inspire your team, and influence stakeholders. Yet, so many have never paid any attention to the one tool that has the power to unlock even more. 

Your voice.

---

I've spent the last 10 years helping people like you unlock the true potential of your ideas so they get the credibility and respect they deserve.

Public speaking isn't something that's come naturally to me. I've had to hard work at it and have seen first-hand the power of being able to communicate ideas well. 

I've used public speaking to build a business from 4-250 people. Then I founded TEDxClapham and the talks I've worked on since have turned those who delivered them into the go-to people for their subject matter.

⚡️ 15 million views and counting 
⚡️ £310m+ raised  
⚡️ Government legislation changed

I'm brought in by organisations like Adobe, Bloomberg, WeTransfer, Mastercard and Amazon to do the same for them.

Your work is only as good as your ability to communicate it. The earlier you can start, the more impact you'll have.

---

Ways to work with me:   
🚀 Scale-up Founders (£20m+ valuation): Work with me 121
🎤 Solopreneurs, thought leaders and keynote speakers: Apply to join MicDrop
🧠 Organisations: Book me to deliver a workshop or keynote for your team

Enquire here: https://calendly.com/d/cp53-tkn-tm3

Alex Merry

Dex Hunter-Torricke said something that stopped me in my tracks this morning...👇

💬 'There's this terrible term, thought leadership. I hate it because it literally commoditises the idea about ideas.'

Coming from someone that write speeches and managed comms for Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk - it struck a nerve (mainly because he's probably going to hate my tagline 🤭).

But he's bang on 🎯.

It's being 'delegitimised and 'cheapened' by 'garbage content.' 
[Permission to pause and admire the language he used 👏]

---

There is a fundamental disconnect between what most people think thought leadership is and what it actually is.

Thought leadership is not:
❌ Sharing your story/private life  
❌ Telling people what we’ve done or achieved
❌ Seeking validation (from people or algorithms)

[There's a time and place for all of these things, but let's not mistake them for thought leadership]

---

In Dex's words, Thought leadership is about:
💬 "Advancing powerful ideas and getting them to resonate with people."

It requires you to:
✅ Have a clear point of view
✅ Challenge conventional wisdom
✅ Actively seek answers to important questions

It's the pursuit of furthering your field of expertise. Subject-first comms. And we have never needed it more.

Yesterday, he launched The Centre for Tomorrow, a non-profit aiming to create flourishing for societies in the age of AI.

I suspect he's going to be well worth a follow -> Dex Hunter-Torricke

--- 

Every variation of MicDrop's tagline (and there have been a few) has contained the term 'thought leader.'

It serves as a standard bearer for our members, all of whom are creating change in their respective fields.

We've got 4 places left for our March intake, head to my bio for more info.

P.s. Bravo Jimmy McLoughlin OBE on another great episode!

This is a 46-second masterclass in how to open a podcast...👇

Especially if you're an author.

I've been a big fan of Helen Tupper's work for a long time and when I was listening to to her episode on Jimmy's Jobs of the Future she did something right at the beginning that I thought was extremely smart 🧠.

I call it problem-first positioning.

And it's the complete opposite of how most people communicate.

---

When Helen was asked: 'Tell me about the premise of the book?'

She so easily could have said:

❌ "I wrote this book to help people build confidence/control of their careers/learn faster etc."
❌ "This is the book I wish I'd had when I was starting out"
❌ "I wanted to write something that would change peoples lives"

This is passion first-positioning ❤️‍🔥.
Fluffy, isn't it?

---
 
Instead she: 

𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘀𝗸 💪:
↳ "Maybe before the premise, the problem."

𝟮. 𝗥𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 ⚡️:
↳ "It's never been more important to learn at work because of the pace of change..."

𝟯. 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲 ⚖️:
↳ "There's this big tension with what we need to learn so we stay relevant and our careers are resilient, but people are finding it too hard to do."

𝟰. 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 (𝘀𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁?!) ‼️:
↳ "If we do not solve the problem of learning at work, then a lot of people are going to get left behind."

And in doing so, she's taken positioned her book as a need to have, rather than a nice to have. 

This is a 1% communication trait that anyone can master.

And if you're an author that actually wants to sell books, it's critical that you do.

---

One of the reasons I started MicDrop was because there was nowhere for good communicators to become great.

Unfortunately, 'Good' doesn't get you invited back.

Our members are already experienced speakers - way beyond Toastmasters. It's why we run monthly 'Idea Labs' so they hone their craft.

We're welcoming a very small intake in March - we have 8 spaces left. Head to my bio or drop me a DM.

P.s. Great episode Jimmy McLoughlin OBE 👏👏👏

If you're giving a talk this week, remember... 👇


1. Less is more 🤐
2. Showing > telling 🪄
3. Embrace your quirks 🤪
4. It's not a memory test 🧠
5. Your time slot isn't a target ⏳
6. Be selective with your numbers 📈
7. Your personal story is not a requirement 💔
8. Lead with your words, not with your slides 🛝
9. Analogies will help you to simplify the complex 🤷
10. A title slide is a terrible first impression - remove it 🥱
11. Distil your presentation down to one single sentence ☝️
12. Start with a question that challenges your audience's beliefs 🤔
13. Allow for moments of spontaneity; they'll make it more memorable 😀
14. When you 'mess up,' you give your audience a glimpse into the real you 🫶
15. Your message is only as good as the examples and stories you use to drive them home ⚡️

You've got this 💪.

---

♻️ Repost if you found this useful and follow Alex Merry for tips on how to communicate big ideas.

Let's talk about how you actually land talks at global events like Davos, SXSW and Cannes Lions...👇

Most people think there are three ways in: 

1. You're Invited 🧲
↳ Because you have the right connections and/or a name that can sell tickets.

2. You Pay 💰
↳ By becoming a sponsor - great if you've got £xx,xxx's to spare.

3. You Apply ✌️
↳ Competing against thousands of submissions, it's always going to be a low odds route.

This is how you get on the official programme.

---

But what a lot of people don't realise is that these mega events also have a fringe programme.

✅ Pop-ups | ✅ Side events | ✅ Brand activations |  ✅ Parties

Full scale events run by companies like LinkedIn, Spotify, Adobe, Meta, Google, Netflix etc.

And smaller, intimate events run by smaller brands happening in hotels, bars and rented spaces.

---

Which is why I'm so excited to announce that MicDrop will hosting our own event at SXSW London 2026. 

Date: 3rd June
The Venue: The Shoreditch Treehouse 🌲

The Theme: 'Shaping the Future 🔮.'
In keeping with the official programme.

A few members are already on the official lineup. But there are so many conversations happening inside the community that deserve a platform.

So we're creating our own.
After all, that's what the big brands do.

And we'll be doing it properly:

1. With our own call for speakers (exclusively for MicDrop members)
2. A live audience (obviously)
3. All the talks will be professionally filmed and photographed

Small and mighty 👍.

---

When you're in the right rooms, you get access to opportunities that others don't.

MicDrop is my community for thought leaders who speak. 

We've got 5 membership spots left for our March intake. The next time our doors open, this opportunity will have passed (our call for speakers will take place in April).

P.s. Worth saying, we're curating this line-up properly - joining doesn't guarantee you a slot :-).

I used to think that product launch success = selling out in minutes...👇

Rarely does a day goes by without someone announcing a product launch success story on LinkedIn.

My problem with these posts is that they make it look deceptively easy and that can lure others into thinking that they're failing when they're not.

I can't help but think that a more interesting post would be to share the brutal reality.

---

We've opened MicDrop's doors to new members 5 times in the last 3 years and 'sold out' 4/5 times. 

Most recently with our March intake. 
We hit our goal with 3 days to spare. 

Not once has a launch been easy.

Every single one has required months of work, most of which you never see. 

---

I've personally spoken with 68 prospective members to fill our 20 spaces - that's 17 hours of conversations.

Demand that's come from:

✅ Member recommendations
↳ Word of mouth is always our most powerful lever. 

✅ 15 x newsletters 
↳ Each taking a couple of hours to write (with a subscriber base I've been building for 3 years)
 
✅ ~40 LinkedIn posts
↳ Each taking 1-2 hours to write (with a following I've been building for 5 years)

The North Star? Quality over quantity - we've never turned so many away.

---

Oh and then there's product development. 

The culmination of hours and hours of member interviews, reading feedback survey individually to understand what will make MicDrop their most valuable investment. 

It's why this year we're:

🎤 Running our first event at SXSW London
🎯 Curating a two day Stage at Ideas Fest
🤝 Launching hand-matched mastermind groups
📚 Rolling out a Speaker Foundations course
🤖 Investing £££££ in AI

Make no mistake about it, at times, it's been BRUTAL.

But we've hit our goal - and we've evolved more in the last 8 weeks than we have in the last 18 months.

---

So this morning, I'm trying to take a moment to appreciate how far we've come while signing books for our final three members - beautiful morning for it!

Tomorrow, we welcome our new members and our attention turns to giving them the best start to their member journey's possible.

Whenever I'm suffering from a lack of confidence before a talk, I watch this video...👇

Why? Because confidence is fickle. 

Some days we have it, 
Other days we don't. 

We don't get to choose when it shows up. 
Nor do we get to keep it when it does.

---

It would be easy to watch this video and think: 
"Look how confident he is."

But what I see is someone choosing courage. 
And there is a big difference.

---

Confidence is belief in your ability.
Courage is action despite doubt.

One is built through repetition and success.
[And is still extremely unreliable.]

The other shows up in uncertainty and risk.
And can unlock new levels of potential.

Put another way:
Confidence is a state.
Courage is a decision.

---

We can't manufacture confidence before high-stakes moments, but we can choose courage in them.

That's what Michael Pollack did.*
And this video is a little reminder that we can too. 

Footnote: 
He's since gone on to write music for Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Lizzo, Selena Gomez, Maroon 5, Kelly Clarkson.

---

♻️ Repost if you found this useful and follow Alex Merry for more content like this.

If you're a thought leader, what's the best way to get noticed by an event planner?

That was one of the questions I posed Lisa James in yesterday's MicDrop Masterclass. 

And she shared an extraordinary story...

---

Lisa was working on an event for a corporate client who thought they needed a motivational speaker.

What Lisa helped them realise was that they actually needed an expert on finding your flow state. 

So she set out to find someone 🕵️‍♀️.

And struggled until she remembered she had a book on flow sitting on her self!

She then reached out to the author on LinkedIn who: 
a) Wasn't a speaker 
b) Lived in Asia 

They got on a chemistry call and ultimately convinced them to change their plans and fly over to the UK and deliver this talk.

---

There are so many gems in this story (and from the session in general):

𝟭. 𝗔𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 🧩
↳ Speakers are often just one small piece of a very large puzzle.  

𝟮. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 + 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰 𝗳𝗶𝘁 > 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘂𝘀 🧠
↳ Thought leaders would do well to spend more time showcasing their expertise than constantly reminding everyone that they're a speaker and hoping enquiries come their way.

𝟯. 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 ✨
↳ When an event planner puts a speaker forward for a talk, they're putting their reputation on the line (so make it easy for them - see point 4)

𝟰. 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗮 '𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘄 𝗠𝗮𝗻' 🧑‍🌾
↳ That's insider lingo for session outline - bonus points for including energy state and transition moments. (If you'd like to see one of mine, comment 'Straw man' below).

𝟱. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 😮
↳ Event planners love it when speakers say: "You know what could make this even better..."

𝟲. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗱, 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 🧲
↳ In this example, it was a book. She also mentioned finding speakers through LinkedIn, newsletter articles, meeting people at events and of course, recommendation.

But perhaps most important of all was the through line from our conversation. 

---

Everything we talked about was about creating magical experiences. She spoke about this at The DO Lectures last year. 

And like all good speakers, she pinned it down to a single idea: 
Collective Effervescence 🪄

Well worth a watch: https://lnkd.in/epjEx7TQ

Thanks Lisa :-)

---

P.s. MicDrop members the replay is officially live... 🍿 (as are your Speaker One Pager and Straw Man templates)!

We're down to our final 3 places, so Livvy and I have started placing bets...👇

At the time of writing, we have:

5 offers on the table,
4 prospective member calls this afternoon,
5 more next week,

So the big question is... 
Who are those final spots going to?! 🥁

---

What stops most people is a niggling question in the back of their mind:
What if I don't make the most of it?

Our happiest members (the ones getting outsized results): 

1. Get the foundations in place 🧱
↳ A few hours work

2. Drop in and out 💧
↳ When they need to.

Prioritising the one or two things that have an outsized impact on their goals: 

✅ Getting direct support from me
✅ Joining a Mastermind for accountability
✅ Attending one of our live sessions to (contribute/learn) 
✅ Applying to speak at MicDrop shorts or our SXSW event

You can do that in a community. 
You can't on a course. 

---

There's a weight to unmade decisions. 

You always feel lighter when you've made one,
Whether it's a yes or a no. 

But wait too long, 
And someone else will have made it for you.

Our next wave is shaping up to be rather special.

To those who've already made the decision, only 11 days to go!

Chasing paid speaking engagements can be extremely shortsighted...👇

Don't get me wrong, being paid to speak is great, but there's a time and place.

I see a lot of people become so seduced by the idea of a big fee, that they become blinded and massively limit their potential.

---

If you're building a portfolio career, some of the most valuable, lucrative talks you'll ever do will be for free.

The skill is in:
1. Attracting the right opportunities 🧲
↳ Ones that will compound for years to come. 

2. Knowing how to make them compound 🚀
↳ Without the cringe hard sell energy (🤮_

One of the reasons so many people are against speaking for free because they've never managed to make it work for them. 

Solve for this and everything changes ✨.

---
The calibre of the opportunities you attract shifts.

You start getting messages from people you thought were completely out of your league.

✅ Clients | ✅ Publishing deals |  ✅ Advisory roles | ✅ Speaking ops | ✅ Travel

People you've looked up to for years the start treating you as a peer 😍. 

That's where some of the most interesting, random, wonderful, fulfilling opportunities begin.

---

Everything we do inside MicDrop is about turning speaking into a growth lever.

Our members speak across a variety of formats: workshops, panels, keynotes,  podcasts, masterclasses, leadership briefings. 

Our job? To support them in making them count. 

We're welcoming a very small intake in March. Another place went yesterday, so we're down to our final 7 spaces. Head to my bio or drop me a DM.
 
---

P.s. MicDroppers - see you at 12pm for our Roundtable on landing advisory roles.

Behind every sought-after thought leader, is a gloriously messy, imperfect system...👇

You don't become a sought-after thought leader by following a step-by-step process - that's not how this works.

And of course it doesn't. 

Our subjects, their place in the world and our priorities are ever changing.

And I can't help but think that rather than beating ourselves up about:

😬 Never being 100% happy with our messaging
😬 Delivering 3 completely different talks in a month
😬 Falling out of love for the topic you're known for

...we could be embracing the messiness of it all a little more.

If we wanted predictable, we'd have chosen a very different path.

---

Everything we do inside MicDrop is built around an operating system that we call the Speaker Snapshot (see comments for a detailed breakdown).

And it's whole point is that it's not linear.
We want to meet you exactly where you're at.

When our members join, the very first thing we do is help them get their Speaker Foundations in place:

1. Clarity on your messaging 💬
2. Sharper positioning 🧩 
3. Enquiry systems to attract opportunities 🧲

That way, every action they take can compound.

From there, they'll score themselves on each of the 12 sections to help them identify their next high leverage move.
 
The result? A roadmap that's designed for you.

All our events, resources and support are centered around the Snapshot, so it helps you to curate your member experience.

---

MicDrop is my community for thought leaders who speak. We're down to our final 5 spaces. 2 verbally confirmed. If you'd like to join us in March, head to my bio to book a call.

P.s. The extremely talented Hannah Wilson created this image.

The Overton Window is what separates 1% communicators from everyone else...👇 

It's used by politicians to gauge how well an idea might land with the public.

Ideas that fall inside the window are considered normal and expected 🥱.
Ideas that fall outside it range from radical to unthinkable 🤯.

Simple enough.

---

Imagine a family that's never owned a pet.

Inside the window: A safe, forgettable goldfish 🐠 
Outside the window (at either end): A cat 🐈‍⬛ and a dog 🐕 

What end of the spectrum they sit on is down to personal taste 🤭.

The point is, it's all relative.

---
Any time we want to land an idea, our job is to take our audience:

1. From Expected: "I already know this."
2. To Radical/Unthinkable: "I've never thought about it that way before." 

The greater the gap between these two points, the more chance you have of breaking through the Window. 

The problem is most people play it safe. 
And it's forgettable.

Audiences want to be challenged - we'd do well to remember this.

---

When your ideas aren't landing, you have two options: 

1. Make the idea more extreme 😱
2. Find better examples to land them 🎯

One leads to outrage.
The other leads to breakthroughs. 

Unfortunately, most people resort to the former when they're fed up of being ignored. Polarisation has a lot to answer for.

---

1% communicators realise that the right example can change everything.

When they've pinned down an idea they believe in, they don't just stop at the first way of landing it (usually your personal story).

They look further: 
History 📜 | Science 🧪 | Culture 🌎 | Nature 🐅 | Technology 💾 | Data 📊 | Art 🖼️ | People 👥

Testing the same idea multiple ways 🧪.
Until they find one that gains traction 🚀.

That's how idea outliers are created.

---

This is the everyday work inside MicDrop, my community for thought leaders who speak.  

We've got 4 places left before we close our doors, head to my bio for more info.

taplio

The Battle

Jess Morgan

Alex Merry

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taplio

The Battle

Jess Morgan

Alex Merry

Followers

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jess Morgan's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreJess Morgan's LinkedIn Performance