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.
What Frictionless Is Becoming
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 them.That's exactly the problem. When your writing sounds like the other three vendors, the prospect can't tell you apart. Your champion stops fighting for you. The deal doesn't die. It just never closes. The same thing happens when a reporter quotes you, or when you have to level with your own employees.So Frictionless is now about one thing: brand positioning and executive ghostwriting for people who get judged by what they write. You'll get my take on what makes writing land in high-stakes rooms, plus sharp thinking from people I read that isn't reaching your feed. Before-and-afters you can steal for your own writing.I'll be honest about why. There are a lot of newsletters out there, and most of them blur together. I'd rather write something a few of the right people look forward to than something a big list half-reads and isn't moved by.One of my most responsive readers wrote back about the way I use questions: "Questions are your duct tape and baling wire," he said. "They hold everything together." That reply meant more to me than any open rate. If something I've written has ever landed for you like that, I hope you'll stay.If all that sounds useful, you're in the right place. I've changed the banner. The next issue drops soon. And if you'll humor me, hit Reply and tell me the one room where your writing has to land and doesn't yet: the investor update, the board, the reporter, the prospect, or the all-hands. I read every reply, and your answer will shape what I write next.Soon I'll open up something I've been building: a free five-day course on the five rooms where your writing gets read by people who can hurt you. Watch for it.If it doesn't, no problem at all. Your inbox is crowded enough. The Unsubscribe link is right below, and I won't take it personally.Glad you've been here either way.PeterSound like yourself. Get heard where it matters.
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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.
STARTING LINE One of our credit letters opened with “Dear Valued Customer.” The news in the second paragraph was that we were cutting her credit line. Nobody at MBNA wrote that letter to be cruel. Somebody wrote it years earlier, ran it past Legal, dropped it into the system, and moved on. Then the company built a brand promise on top of it and never revisited it. One of our “computer-generated” letters ended up in front of our CEO after one of his close friends called to complain. It’s an...
THE LINE THAT MOVED MY STORY TO PAGE 1 March 2022. I was a business reporter at the local daily, and the head of HR at DuPont handed me a front-page story in one sentence. We were talking about an upcoming downsizing. He was calm and matter-of-fact, walking me through the business logic the way you would with a trade reporter who covers this company every day. Then he said it: “DuPont can no longer afford to be paternalistic.” I had my lead. What was shaping up as a business page item ran the...
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...