weskao.com

I typically work with tech leaders on: managing up to a CEO/VP, strengthening your executive communication and presence, and delegating to a team of ICs while raising the bar. Clients are leaders at Amplitude, 1Password, Amazon/AWS, DoorDash, AngelList, Product Hunt, Google, etc. If you’re interested in how I can support you, learn more about my coaching approach:

-> weskao.com/coaching

Writing for 300,000+ tech operators across LinkedIn, Twitter, and Substack.

-> weskao.com/newsletter

Check out my 2-day intensive course: Executive Communication & Influence for Senior ICs and Managers. Alumni include 1,200+ students from companies like Uber, Amazon, Grammarly, Workday, Google, Pinterest, Meta, Expedia, Twilio, Spotify, Anthropic, GitHub, Zillow, PayPal, Atlassian, Netflix, Square, Figma, Stripe, and more.

-> weskao.com/course

Reach out at wes@weskao.com

Executive coach, advisor, instructor

Maven

Maven is a platform for live, cohort-based courses. Learn more at maven.com

Co-founder

Various courses

Built, launched, and grew courses that have reached 500k+ students. Clients included: Section (Professor Scott Galloway), Outlier (from cofounder of MasterClass), Build a Second Brain, Write of Passage, Poo~Pourri, Morning Brew, and more.

Cohort-based courses

altMBA

Created and built the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin. One of the first mainstream cohort-based courses. Grew from zero to thousands of students in 45 countries and 550+ cities at $3,000 price point (10x higher than avg online course at the time).

Flite

Head of Digital Marketing

Bare Escentuals

Global Brand Management Marketing

Gap Inc.

Business Analyst

L'Oréal

Brand Management Marketing

Wes Kao is an executive coach, advisor, and entrepreneur who writes at newsletter.weskao.com. She is co-founder of Maven, an edtech company that raised $25M from First Round and Andreessen Horowitz. Previously, she co-founded the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin.

Newsletter for 60,000+ high performers on Wednesdays at 8am ET
-> weskao.com/newsletter

Live, 2-day course on Executive Communication & Influence 
-> https://maven.com/wes-kao/executive-communication-influence

1:1 executive coaching for tech leaders 
-> https://www.weskao.com/coaching

Wes Kao

Excited to share my conversation with First Round Capital! I talk about some of my favorite communication frameworks, including a checklist of questions to ask yourself to maximize your chances of getting buy-in.

Would love to hear what you think. Link in the comments.

a16z-backed founder turned executive coach. Helping tech operators improve their executive communication, leadership, and influence

SFG20

Content Manager

Liam Sandford

Amazon #1 Best Seller in Publishing & Books

Amazon #1 Best Seller in Writing Guides

Amazon #1 Best Seller in Authorship

Amazon #1 Best Seller in Bibliographies & Indexes

Amazon #1 New Release in Catalogs & Directories

Become a Best Selling Author in 6 Months introduces the roadmap a first-time author needs to successfully take their idea through to publication, and market their book to best selling status.

Writing a book is a huge task that is often a future goal But you don’t need to wait until you feel ready to write a book. In fact, you will never feel ready. Your perspective and experience adds value right now. That does not mean that writing a book is easy, but it is achievable even if you have a full-time job, a side business, a family, and other commitments.

From the Best Selling Author of Effortless Public Speaking, Become a Best Selling Author in 6 Months provides the framework on how to specifically go from idea to action, then from written to published, and from author to best selling author, all in 6 months.

With a framework of 500 words a day for 100 days, you can write a first draft of your book in just over 3 months, leaving plenty of time for feedback, revisions, marketing and even a buffer for when you take some well-earned rest days.

Learn the systems and techniques that will help you conquer writers block, procrastination, and how to stack the odds in your favor of taking your book to best selling status.

Author - Become a Best Selling Author in 6 Months

Amazon #1 Best Seller in Public Speaking & Speech Writing 

Amazon #1 New Release in Delivering Meetings & Presentations

Amazon #1 New Release in Educational Professional Development

Public speaking is an extraordinary skill that everyday people can leverage to gain a competitive advantage. The problem is most people are deftly afraid of it or lack speaking confidence due to being taught the wrong things.

The all-too-familiar stress, racing heart, and sweaty palms can be significantly reduced or eliminated by learning steps to remove barriers and roadblocks.

Effortless Public Speaking showcases how to calm your mind and maximize your environment to be able to focus on what matters most.

It has never been easier to become a good public speaker. Effortless Public Speaking is your roadmap to learn how to speak stress free, reduce fear, and become a confident speaker without the need to master difficult techniques.

Author - Effortless Public Speaking

Atkins

• Experienced Campaign Manager, developing campaign communications and marketing strategies, including use of internal communications platforms and social media.

• Head of Emerging Professionals, designing the strategy for developing the mid-grade experience at Atkins.

• Delivered personal brand coaching to emerging professionals, focused on producing thought leadership for social media to showcase company expertise through personal branding.

• Designed and created content for a variety of internal communications platforms, including articles on the company intranet pages, the company email newsletter, Yammer posts, and building SharePoint sites.

• Copywriter for marketing papers that showcase the expertise and experience that Atkins has as a global business to enhance and showcase the credentials to key external market stakeholders.

• Developed the LinkedIn strategy for campaigns, including paid advertorials, producing content for the corporate LinkedIn account, and developing personal brands using individual accounts.

• Programme & Project Manager with defence and transportation clients, including international partners.

• Project Manager for 20 projects, managing project teams and stakeholders to ensure smooth delivery against timescales to meet regulatory requirements

• Head of Thought Leadership for Emerging Professionals, building the thought leadership framework on how to produce effective thought leadership linked to company global campaigns.

• Led innovation management portfolio to improve internal innovation capability and develop a client offering for innovation (including pursuit of ISO56002 for innovation management).

• Bid Manager for potential contracts, managing teams, writing bid response and producing cost models for work delivery.

• As Project Manager for Network Rail, I led the rationalisation of deliverables to incorporate learnings from the programme discovery phase, reducing project overhead by 50%.

Management Consultant

Thames Valley Police

• Project Manager on the Effectiveness and Efficiency Programme aimed at finding millions of pounds in cashable savings.

• Communications lead for the Policing Strategy Unit, including producing internal communications campaigns to ensure police officers understood consistently changing guidance relating to the COVID-19 policing response.

• Produced business strategy and operational guidance for frontline police officers, including hate crime & extremism, cybercrime, modern slavery and radicalisation.

• Managed budget saving and service improvement changes in the force through the Effectiveness and Efficiency programme.

• Project managed department reviews.

• Led consultations with senior police officers and local partners to improve service delivery and outcomes at court for victims..

• Research liaison for the ‘using virtual reality to address hate and extremism’ project run by the Open University.

• Identifying demand reduction opportunities.

• Conducting fieldwork and subsequent analysis to ascertain problems and identify solutions.

• Peer reviewer for the Thames Valley Police academic journal.

Policing Strategy Officer

University of Gloucestershire

• Delivered and developed university compliance with the Prevent duty.

• Informed university Prevent practice through my MSc research project ‘Exploring the capabilities of Prevent in addressing radicalisation in cyberspace within Higher Education’.

• Member of the university Prevent compliance board.

• Delivered staff and student consultations, WRAP training, and events relating to Prevent.

• Assisted writing the Prevent risk assessment and compliance annual report for submission to HEFCE.

• Designing and implementing a student engagement plan for Prevent.

• Speaker at Prevent conferences.

• Conducted academic research on Prevent and engagement with other academics studying Prevent in education.

Student Engagement Officer (Prevent)

University of Gloucestershire Students' Union

• Director, trustee and senior manager of a million pound turnover company.

• Built a team, designed a strategy, and ran a successful campaign to become the elected President of the Students’ Union.

• Management of company social media profiles and content across Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

• Delivered large scale events including a Welcome Ball and Summer Ball at Cheltenham Racecourse with 3,000 attendees at events.

• Liaison for external partners including the media, police, and the National Union of Students.

• Elected representative for 10,000 students.

• Responsibility for budget management of student activities.

• Chair of Students’ Union Executive committee, Vice-Chair of Board of Trustees.

• Member of university Prevent compliance board and university governing council.

• Management of company social media profiles and content across Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

• Delivered large scale events including a Welcome Ball and Summer Ball at Cheltenham Racecourse with 3,000 attendees at events.

• Liaison for external partners including the media, police, and the National Union of Students.

• Led recruitment process for Students’ Union Chief Executive.

President

If you have ever felt awkward introducing yourself, stressed when put on the spot, or overwhelmed in a presentation, it’s not your fault. I will help you go from afraid to a confident speaker without the need to master difficult techniques.

You were taught the wrong things about public speaking. Being taught the wrong things led to painfully negative experiences – it’s the reason you hate public speaking today. With the right coaching tailored to your specific needs you can go from afraid to confident in no time. Becoming a confident speaker will have a massive impact on how you come across to and interact with others – the benefits help you win in both life and business.

I once had a fear of public speaking. The shaking hands, racing heart and sweaty palms can be a thing of the past if you do the right things. I understand every step of the journey from fear of public speaking to keynote speaker. Having worked with TEDx speakers, CEOs, and keynote speakers, I have coached 30+ introverts to become confident communicators. With a defined 5 levels of public speaking, I will help you learn to speak in public effortlessly and become a confident speaker in front of any audience.

taplio

The Battle

Wes Kao

Liam Sandford

Followers

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taplio

The Battle

Wes Kao

Liam Sandford

Followers

Posts

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);}Wes Kao's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreWes Kao's LinkedIn Performance