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.
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I'm shamelessly stealing from Chris Orzechowski for this quick post (with a tip of the hat to Josh Spector for sharing this idea). I'll have a meatier post on conducting a quick review of your website and/or LinkedIn profile in the next few days, but I'd love to get feedback from each of you today. Imagine you could hire me to help you with your individual or corporate brand messaging for $0.
I'm trying to do some market research here and create some terrific YouTube videos or Playbooks/Workbooks like the ones you can find here on my website. Among the things you can download (no email required) are Proofreading Tips, 10 Ways to Stop Being Overlooked, a Case Study Builder Worksheet, and a workbook for Communication Project Postmortems. Just hit Reply and answer one or more of these questions if you've got a few minutes. And if you're in a hurry to address some of these issues, let's talk. THE BEST THING I READ THIS WEEKEthan Mollick writes what he calls "An Opinionated Guide to Using AI Right Now" and updates it every few months. The newest version is well worth the time if you're struggling to figure out which AI to use in the last few months of 2025, given all the updates and new releases we're seeing. 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...