Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How to Get Promoted by Leading a Lunch and Learn
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a promotion strategy that people often overlook because it doesn't sound that strategic at first. It's the lunch and learn. Luna: Really? The thing where someone brings sandwiches and talks about their niche interest for an hour? Lucas: Exactly that. But I want to look at a specific case. A mid-level marketing manager at a mid-sized SaaS company — let's call her Priya — decided to start a weekly lunch and learn series. No formal mandate. No budget. She just booked a conference room, put out a sign-up sheet, and presented on topics related to her work. Luna: Did people actually show up? Lucas: At first, maybe five or six. But she had a structure. Each session was 25 minutes of presentation, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. She picked topics like 'zero-party data collection' and 'email segmentation for retention' — practical stuff that her colleagues in sales and product could use. Within a month, the room was full enough that people started standing along the wall. Luna: So she built an audience. But does that translate into a promotion? Lucas: In her case, yes. After six months, she was tapped for a senior manager role. And when I talked to her about it, she said the lunch and learn was the single biggest factor. Not because she was showing off, but because it forced her to crystallise her thinking every single week. You can't wing a 25-minute talk on data strategy if you haven't really mastered it. Luna: That makes sense. There's a difference between having knowledge and being able to communicate it under pressure, with people watching. Lucas: Right. And that's exactly what executive presence looks like in practice. It's not about being loud or charismatic. It's about being prepared, handling questions, and connecting dots across departments. Priya's lunch and learn became the place where salespeople would ask about data, product people would ask about customer behaviour, and she'd tie it all together. Luna: But I wonder — does this work if you're an introvert? Because standing in front of a room every week sounds exhausting. Lucas: It does work, actually. I've seen introverts thrive in this format precisely because it's structured. You control the content. You prepare the slides. You set the pace. The Q&A is bounded. One introvert I know used to pre-write answers to likely questions and practice them in the mirror. After a few sessions, she said it actually gave her energy because she felt like an expert. Luna: So the structure is key. What else made Priya's series different from a typical internal presentation? Lucas: She kept a consistent schedule. Same day, same time, same room, every week. That reliability built a habit for her audience. She also invited guests — sometimes a product manager, sometimes someone from customer success — so it wasn't always a monologue. That cross-pollination was visible to leadership. Luna: Did her manager explicitly tell her to do this, or was it self-initiated? Lucas: Self-initiated. She pitched it as a way to share knowledge across teams, and her manager gave a quick 'sure, go for it.' No budget approval, no formal sponsorship. And that's actually the point — you don't need permission to start a lunch and learn. You just need a topic and a room. Luna: But what if your company doesn't have a formal lunch and learn culture? Or if people are too busy to attend? Lucas: Then you start with a smaller scope. Maybe it's a 15-minute brown bag once a month. Or you record the session and post it on the intranet. The key is not the format — it's the act of consistently demonstrating expertise in a public, repeatable way. Luna: I want to push back a little. If everyone did this, wouldn't it just be noise? How do you stand out? Lucas: Good question. The difference is specificity. Most people present on generic topics like 'time management tips.' Priya's topics were concrete and tied to business outcomes. She once did a session titled 'How we reduced churn by 12% using a simple email trigger' — and that got the VP of Product to attend. That's the kind of visibility that moves the needle. Luna: So it's not just about showing up. It's about the content being genuinely useful and relevant. Lucas: Exactly. And there's a compound effect. Each session built on the last. People started coming to her with questions outside the sessions. She became the go-to person for data-driven marketing decisions. When the senior manager position opened, the internal interviewer said, 'I've seen your work — I was at your lunch and learn on retention.' Luna: That's a powerful line. So the promotion almost felt inevitable. Lucas: It did. And that's the core of the strategy. You create a reputation before you ask for the role. By the time the position opens, decision-makers already see you as the person who owns that space. Luna: I'm curious about the logistics. How did Priya find time to prepare? She still had her day job. Lucas: She said she spent about two hours a week preparing — one hour on slides and one hour on practice. She treated it as non-negotiable, like a meeting with the CEO. She also recycled some content. A session on 'email segmentation for retention' later became a blog post and then a sales enablement one-pager. The time investment actually paid compound dividends. Luna: That's smart. Repurpose the same core knowledge across different formats. Lucas: Right. And the live component forces a level of polish that writing doesn't. You get real-time feedback. If people look confused, you adjust. If they ask a sharp question, you either answer it well or you go back and research it for next time. That cycle sharpens your expertise fast. Luna: So if someone listening wants to start their own lunch and learn series next week, what's the first step? Lucas: Pick one topic you know better than anyone else in your immediate team. Not the whole company — just your team. Then book a meeting room for 30 minutes next Thursday at noon. Send an invite with a clear title: 'Lunch and Learn: How we.' If three people show up, that's a start. The next week, invite one person from another team. Luna: And if nobody shows? Lucas: Record it anyway. Post the recording in the company's knowledge base. Ask one colleague to watch and give feedback. The act of preparing and delivering, even to an empty room, still builds your skills. But usually, if you offer food, people come. Priya brought in bagels from her own pocket the first few times. Luna: Honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That helps us keep the show ad-free and focused on practical strategies like this one. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small way to support the work we do. And we genuinely appreciate it. Luna: Alright, back to the lunch and learn. I want to talk about a potential pitfall. Is there a risk of being seen as self-promotional? Lucas: There is, if you frame it as 'look how smart I am.' But Priya framed it as 'here's something useful I learned that might help you.' That's a subtle but important difference. She always thanked the audience by name for specific questions. She shared credit when someone else's idea improved a session. Humility and generosity go a long way. Luna: So the tone matters. It's not a lecture, it's a conversation. Lucas: Exactly. And that tone is what builds executive presence — not dominance, but thoughtfulness. The senior leaders who attended her sessions started inviting her to strategy meetings because she could explain complex ideas simply. Luna: That's the ultimate endorsement. So to sum up: find a niche, structure it, be consistent, and focus on usefulness over self-promotion. Lucas: That's it. And remember, the promotion doesn't come from the lunch and learn itself. It comes from the reputation you build one session at a time. By the time the opportunity arrives, people already see you as the person who should get it. Luna: I think that's a good place to wrap. Next episode, we'll look at another angle — maybe how to get promoted by writing a one-page case study for your own project. Lucas: Looking forward to it. Until then, keep preparing those talks.