​Read online​

Hey friend – Rob here.

Two lessons i learned this week:

1. When you worry more about character counts than your own character, the real problems creep in
2. Content by itself is a commodity, but community spaces are where the premiums lie

Thank you to Rachel for helping calm down an over-existential elder millennial on a Monday evening.

Back to basics.

Here's a short but sharp email, hand rolled just for you.

Plus a bunch of links that deserve to be set free.

But first, let's talk about growth.

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This is the problem of growing too quickly

This feels prescient advice for the post-growth-at-all-costs narrative of late stage capitalism.

(Except of course if you work in AI models, semiconductors or chip production.)

It's also tremendous advice for your own career, whether you work solo or not.

You see, some 15 years ago i went through the ranks of a startup agency fairly quickly.

And while this taught me a lot, it also gave me more than one burnout episode along the way.

You could say this is because i was weak, but what was weak was how my stepping up was managed.

No support as you grow means you can grow into something you can't truly handle.

The same thing is true for when you run your own business.

There are lessons that emerge only after a certain amount of time.

And only after you've made a substantial amount of mistakes that, in hindsight, were naive.

Except they were not naive, they were necessary to help you slowly establish wiser roots.

It is increasingly clear to me now:

• How to package my value proposition
• How to reach out to potential new clients
• How to know when they're not going to be clients (yet)
• How to instead treat them as thoughtful advisors
• How to handle a new scope negotiation
• How to know when i'm over-doing it
• How to know when to shut up

And perhaps as a result, the last few weeks have been healthy in terms of potential new projects.

However, i don't wish i had known all these things 10 months ago when i started.

I had to learn the hard way, in order to then let the heartfelt lessons crystalise.

In a way, you can't build experience, you can only let it emerge over time.

So consider this as you do your job, regardless of your position.

If you're a CEO, CMO, solopreneur or strategist starting out.

A growth mindset is always commendable.

But are you looking to grow too quickly?

And if so, what's the cost of that?

Keep swimming,

Rob

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Sushi-sized links

I recently un-paywalled every single one of my articles.

Why?

Because writing for money changes the dynamics of writing.

And i was noticing the end product was not as good as i wanted it to be.

Too much focus on "what will people pay for", not enough on "what is not discussed enough".

I realise now the real value of upgrading to Salmon Theory+ is to access our private community.

A place where you can feel safe, get feedback, and grow in more compassionate ways.

But enough about that, here are some links you probably missed last few months.

Each of them is about a 1-minute read.

Sharp AF content FTW:

• ​Why strategy is a team sport​
• ​The underrated benefit of writing a brief​
• ​Five short ideas for introspective strategists​

Share widely with your work friends.

Or even better, your enemies.

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Rob Estreitinho Strategist, writer, maker Whenever you're ready, here's 2 ways i can help you: ​Join the Salmon Crew. Access our private WhatsApp group, where you'll find a safe space to help you stop overthinking strategy. You'll get memes, questions, quotes and links, help from other smart folks, you can be a guest on future panels, and get to shape the future of Salmon Theory. Join smart minds from Leo Burnett, Genius Steals, System1, Flight Studio, VML, Miami Ad School, and more. ​Hire Salmon Labs. We help savvy brands swim upstream. From brand, comms and content strategy, to training on creativity and how to use AI, we like to do things in a fast and bespoke way. No fixed methodologies, moments of grand reveal or complicated language. Just pure shared problem solving.

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