I’ve decided to start writing weeknotes, in addition to my normal articles. It was inspired by a chat this week with Gillian Davis, also a solo consultant. I’ve followed lots of people’s weeknotes with interest over the years (Tom Stuart, Alice Bartlett, Matt Webb, Russell Davies), but never thought to do them myself. This week is the 13th since Orso got started, which is where I’m going to begin my numbering; unlucky for some, but hopefully not for me.

Weeknotes for me are a way of casting out breadcrumbs that might be useful when finding my way in the future, and of demarcating the passage of time that could otherwise easily become a blur. As their originator Matt Webb evocatively puts it: “In practice, in the middle of events, when you’ve left the near shore and the far shore is not yet visible, progress can be hard to discern and energy harder to find. So the passing mile markers of weeknotes give me some kind of reassurance.”

Related to doing weeknotes, this week I’ve been thinking about the distinction between sales and marketing. I’ve written before about how this split can be insidious within larger organisations, but it’s interesting how it can affect even small ones. If you mentally frame something to yourself as “marketing”, it takes on a different form to if you think about it as “sales”; marketing seems to require a greater push, a greater polish; it feels like it requires a broadcast approach rather than a one-to-one approach. If you’re a solo entrepreneur struggling to do some marketing or sales activity, maybe you’re incorrectly framing it as one rather than the other?

I’ve had two occasions this week to mention David Hieatt’s great book on email marketing, Do Open. It’s still great; it’s as much the definition of a thoughtful and considerate approach to communicating with an interesting tribe of people as it is a how-to guide on email marketing.

I’m in the foothills of starting a food and drink startup with a friend, which I’ll call Project M in these weeknotes. The product relies on a shift in consumer behaviour that feels like it’s coming, but the key will be anticipating when and how it will unfold, and creating a brand that’s poised to ride the subsequent wave – rather than wiping out in the surf. That’s easier said than done, in the absence of a crystal ball, but what I’ve found useful is mapping out scenarios and doing mini-positioning exercises for each. So effectively saying “if this product entered popular culture this way, a brand positioned this way would be able to take best advantage.”