Sound like yourself. Get heard where it matters. Frictionless is a twice-monthly newsletter for leaders who get judged by what they write: founders, executives, and anyone whose words get read by boards, investors, reporters, and prospects. Each issue gives you practical ways to clear the Brand Garbage from your writing so you sound like yourself and get heard in the rooms that decide careers, deals, and reputations. I'm an executive ghostwriter and award-winning business journalist who spent decades in boardrooms and newsrooms helping leaders say what they mean. You'll get templates and scripts you can use today, stories I usually save for private clients, and a few curated reads worth your time.
New Post: The 10 fixes that get overlooked executives hired
They're not ghosting you. They just don't see you.A 50-year-old exec posted this on Reddit after months of job searching: “154 resumes sent. 48 rejections. Nothing from the rest.” If you’ve felt that silence, you know how brutal it is. But here’s the truth most career advice won’t tell you: 👉 It’s not your age. It’s your positioning. You’re fishing with 2015 bait in 2025 waters. And that’s why you’re invisible. The good news? Visibility isn’t luck. It’s a skill. And you can fix it. Here are three of the 10 fixes I share in my latest post:
The other seven fixes? They’re what separates executives who keep sending résumés into the void from those who get callbacks and offers. And if you want all 10 fixes in one place, I’ve pulled them into a one-page guide: ⚡️ From Brand Garbage to Communications Windex: The 10 Fixes That Make You Visible. Hit reply and I’ll send it to you. I welcome your comments or suggestions for future issues. Drop me a note here. If you found this on LinkedIn or had it forwarded to you, you can subscribe by clicking the button below.
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Peter Osborne
Sound like yourself. Get heard where it matters. Frictionless is a twice-monthly newsletter for leaders who get judged by what they write: founders, executives, and anyone whose words get read by boards, investors, reporters, and prospects. Each issue gives you practical ways to clear the Brand Garbage from your writing so you sound like yourself and get heard in the rooms that decide careers, deals, and reputations. I'm an executive ghostwriter and award-winning business journalist who spent decades in boardrooms and newsrooms helping leaders say what they mean. You'll get templates and scripts you can use today, stories I usually save for private clients, and a few curated reads worth your time.
A note about where this newsletter is headed, and a clean way out if it's not for you. Frictionless started as a grab bag. Leadership, writing, a few personal essays, some links. Whatever I was chewing on at the time. From here, it gets sharper. The new focus: Brand Garbage, and how to clear it. Most founders and executives write board letters, investor updates, and LinkedIn posts that sound like everybody else's. The words are fine. Nothing is technically wrong. But nothing differentiates...
TIPOFF The San Antonio Spurs led the Knicks by 29 points in Game 4 of the NBA playoffs. They lost. Three nights later, they lost again, and the series with it. Here's what actually happened, because it has very little to do with basketball. The Spurs had a story that only worked when the shots were falling. They hit 17 threes, built the lead, and looked unbeatable. Then the shooting cooled, and there was no second story. No backup plan. The lead was gone, and so were they. The Knicks had...
The bravest thing I'm doing lately: not trying to talk to everyone at once. When Aaron Strout walked away from a 14-year run as chief marketing officer at Real Chemistry in early 2025, he said the first six months on the other side were disorienting. Not depressed. Not regretful. Disoriented. He told me when I interviewed him for a profile that every day could theoretically be a weekend, and that turned out to be its own kind of problem. I’ve been thinking about that since the call. Not...