Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How One Employee Got Promoted by Creating an Internal Newsletter
Transcript
- Lucas: One of the most common questions I get from listeners is, 'How do I get noticed by people two or three levels above me without being obnoxious about it?' And I think there's an answer that's been hiding in plain sight, which is basically — become a trusted source of information they can't get anywhere else. Luna: You're talking about newsletters, right? Like an internal newsletter. Lucas: Exactly. And not just any newsletter. I want to talk about a specific case. There was a marketing manager at a large insurance company — let's call her Priya. She was in a mid-level role, managing a small team, but she wanted a VP position. The problem was, nobody in the C-suite really knew what she did. She was competent, but invisible. Luna: That is such a common pain point. So how did she solve it? Lucas: She noticed something. The company was in a highly competitive space — property and casualty insurance — and every week, competitors were launching new products, regulators were issuing new rules, and analysts were publishing reports. But that intelligence was scattered across the organization. Sales had some of it, strategy had some, legal had some. Nobody had a single, digestible summary. So Priya started a weekly internal newsletter called 'Market Pulse' — a five-minute read summarizing the top three competitive moves, one regulatory change, and one internal data point from the week. Luna: I love that she focused on a real gap. She wasn't just repackaging existing stuff. Lucas: Right. The key was curation and brevity. She set a rule: no more than 300 words, two bullet points per section, a single chart if it was powerful. She wrote it every Friday morning, sent it to about 200 people she knew — her team, some peers, a couple of directors. And she tracked everything: open rates, click-through rates, who was forwarding it, who replied with 'thanks' versus 'can you add me?'. Luna: What were the numbers like early on? Lucas: First month, open rate was about 45 percent, which is decent for internal email. But then she did something smart. She added a personal note at the top — one sentence about why she thought that week's item mattered. Something like, 'This ruling from the Texas regulator could impact how we price our homeowner policies next quarter — worth a quick scan.' That pushed the open rate to 62 percent by month three. Luna: So she was editorializing, but in a helpful, not opinionated way. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what got her the first big break. One week, she included a short item about a competitor launching a usage-based auto insurance product in three states. Her subject line was literally, 'Why we should watch Lemon Squeeze's new telematics play.' The CEO happened to open it, replied to her directly — not even cc'ing anyone — and said, 'Great catch. Who else is reading this?' Priya replied with her subscriber count and offered to expand the distribution to the executive team. The CEO said yes. Luna: That's the sponsorship moment. The CEO became her sponsor, not just a reader. Lucas: Within six months, her subscriber list grew from 200 to 4,500 — essentially every manager and above in the company. She started getting invited to meetings she had no business being in. The head of strategy asked her to present a deeper dive on competitive trends. She became the go-to person for 'what's happening out there.' And when the VP of marketing position opened up, the CEO asked her to apply — she got it. Luna: That's the dream scenario. But I want to push back a little. How much time did this take? Because a lot of people hear this and think, 'I don't have an extra five hours a week to write a newsletter.' Lucas: Fair point. Priya committed to about two hours a week — forty-five minutes on Thursday pulling together sources, then an hour on Friday morning writing and formatting. She automated the distribution list and used a simple template. The first few weeks were slower, but it became a habit. And here's the thing — she wasn't writing original analysis. She was curating and adding one layer of context. Most people already have the raw material; they just need to organize it. Luna: So the time investment is real, but the ROI is huge if you do it right. Lucas: And you can start small. You don't need 4,500 readers. You need the right fifty readers. The executives in your division, your skip-level manager, a few key peers. If even two of them start relying on your newsletter, you've already shifted the perception of your value. Luna: That reminds me — there was a study a few years ago that found internal newsletters from individual contributors had a median open rate of 52 percent, which is way higher than most company-wide communications. The reason is simple: people trust a person more than a department. Lucas: Right. There's a personal brand element. When the newsletter comes from Priya's address, not from 'marketing-communications@company,' it feels like a recommendation from a colleague. And that trust compounds over time. Luna: Which brings us to the executive presence piece. How does a newsletter create that? Lucas: Because it demonstrates the three things executives are always looking for: pattern recognition, judgment, and communication. Pattern recognition — she could spot which competitive moves actually mattered. Judgment — she highlighted what deserved attention, not everything. Communication — she made it skimmable and actionable. Those are the same skills you need in a VP role. Luna: So the newsletter functions as a resume, but a living one. Lucas: Exactly. It's like a portfolio of your thinking. And you don't have to wait for permission. That's the beauty of it. You can start this on Monday. Luna: What about the risk of it being seen as self-promotional? Some managers might frown on that. Lucas: That's a real concern. The way to handle it is to make it purely value-add. Don't talk about yourself. Don't list your achievements. The spotlight should be on the information and why it matters to the business. If someone says, 'Why are you sending this?' You say, 'I noticed a gap in how we share competitive intel, and I thought this would help the team.' Frame it as service, not self-promotion. Luna: That's solid. And if you do it right, your boss becomes your advocate because the newsletter makes them look good too. They can forward it saying, 'My team member put this together.' Lucas: Exactly. That's how you get sponsorship without asking for it. Priya's boss started forwarding her newsletter to his peers in other divisions. That's a signal his boss sees — and it builds Priya's reputation. Luna: If this episode is clicking with you, you might be thinking about something you could start in your own company. And that's exactly the kind of proactive move we love to hear about. One way to keep this ad-free and focused on practical advice is listener support — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that lets us keep putting out episodes like this without any sponsor interruptions. Lucas: And we genuinely read every message people leave there. It helps us decide what topics to cover next. So if a newsletter episode was useful, that's the kind of signal we pay attention to. Luna: Alright, back to Priya. Did she ever hit a wall or have a setback? Lucas: She did. Around month five, she had a week where she couldn't finish the newsletter because of a project deadline. She skipped a Friday, and she got ten emails Monday morning asking if she was okay or if the newsletter was discontinued. That's when she knew she had built something people relied on. But it also taught her to batch content or have a backup plan. She started writing two weeks' worth of newsletters on good weeks. Luna: That's a good lesson. Consistency is the currency of trust. Lucas: Exactly. And the other thing she did was add a small 'feedback' section — a one-question poll at the bottom: 'What topic should we cover next week?' That increased engagement and gave her a direct line to what executives were thinking about. Luna: So she turned it into a two-way conversation. That's smart. Lucas: Yes. And the poll responses often became the subject of the next newsletter. She was literally building the agenda around what leadership cared about. That's a power move. Luna: I think the biggest takeaway for me is that you don't need a fancy title to start building executive presence. You just need to find a gap and fill it with consistency and quality. Lucas: And data helps. Priya tracked everything: subscribers, open rate, click rate, replies, mentions in meetings. When she went for the VP role, she had a slide in her interview showing the growth and the CEO's endorsement email. That's concrete evidence of impact. Luna: That slide probably weighed more than any performance review. Lucas: Absolutely. Performance reviews are backward-looking. A newsletter is forward-looking — it shows you're thinking about the business, not just your job. That's the difference between a manager and a VP. Luna: So what's the first step for someone listening right now who wants to try this? Lucas: First, identify a knowledge gap. Ask yourself: what information do people in my company need but don't have easy access to? It could be competitor news, regulatory updates, internal metrics, industry trends. Second, pick a format — email is still the most effective because it lands in their inbox. Third, start with a small list — ten to twenty people you trust — and iterate based on their feedback. Fourth, commit to a schedule — weekly is ideal, bi-weekly minimum. Fifth, track one metric: open rate. If it's below 40 percent, your subject line or content needs work. Luna: And what about the subject line? That seems critical. Lucas: Huge. Priya tested different styles. What worked best was a specific, curiosity-driven subject line with a number. For example: 'Three competitor moves you missed this week' or 'Why the Texas ruling matters for our Q3.' Avoid vague things like 'Market Update' or 'Weekly Roundup.' You want the reader to think, 'I need to open this.' Luna: I think one of the reasons this strategy works so well is that it's scalable. You can start with one team and grow it to the whole company over time. It's not a one-time project. Lucas: Exactly. And if you ever leave the company, that newsletter is part of your legacy. You can even turn it into a LinkedIn newsletter later. The skill of curating and communicating insights is transferable anywhere. Luna: Alright, so to wrap up: find a gap, start small, be consistent, track your data, and let the results speak for themselves. That's the recipe. Lucas: That's it. And if you do it well, you might just find yourself in a VP seat sooner than you think.