July 21, 2026 · 7 min read
Fractional executive is a sales problem, not a title
How to become a fractional CMO, CFO, or COO, honestly. What the role actually is, what you can charge, and the real math to replace a full-time salary.
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Field notes
Field notes on being known for what you know: positioning, staying current, and getting found by clients and the machines that brief them.
By Jamie Lee
July 21, 2026 · 8 min read
The feed is a bad way to keep up with your field.
How to keep up with your field without living on LinkedIn and X all day: curate a few high-signal sources and read them weekly instead of grazing the feed.
Read the noteJuly 20, 2026 · 8 min read
Nobody knows you because you are too broad.
How to build authority in your field when nobody knows you yet. The problem is not reach, it is aim. Get narrow enough to be the one obvious answer.
Read the noteJuly 20, 2026 · 8 min read
Specialize when you need strangers to find you.
Should you specialize or stay a generalist? While your network feeds you, it barely matters. The moment you need strangers to find you, focus is the lever.
Read the noteJuly 17, 2026 · 8 min read
Your first consulting client already knows you.
How to get your first consulting client, honestly: about 90 percent come from people who already know you, so the first move is a list, not a funnel.
Read the noteJuly 17, 2026 · 8 min read
You cannot appoint yourself a thought leader.
How you actually become a thought leader in your industry: one narrow point of view, shown in public, long enough that your name and the subject fuse.
Read the noteJuly 16, 2026 · 7 min read
You don't need social media to grow a newsletter.
The feed is optional. Search, recommendations, and reader referrals grow a newsletter without social media, and they compound while social posts decay.
Read the noteJuly 6, 2026 · 7 min read
Nobody reads your blog. ChatGPT might.
What actually gets a newsletter recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants. A skeptical data scientist's guide to GEO, minus the snake oil.
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