Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How an Employee Got Promoted by Owning a Monthly Career Newsletter
Transcript
- Lucas: So Priya was a marketing manager at a company called NexusStream — midsize, about 800 employees, mostly engineers and product people. She had been in the role for about two years, consistently hitting her targets, but she kept getting passed over for senior-level projects. Luna: Classic 'you do good work but nobody knows who you are' problem. Lucas: Exactly. So she decided to start a monthly internal newsletter called 'Career Growth Spotlight.' Not a product update, not a team announcement — a career-focused newsletter for the whole company. Luna: Wait — an internal newsletter about careers? Who was the audience? Lucas: Anyone in the company who wanted to develop. She pitched it to her manager as a way to increase cross-functional engagement. She said it would take about four hours per month, and she'd use Mailchimp's free tier. No budget needed. Lucas: And honestly, this is a really low-friction way to get visibility. You're not asking for a promotion — you're providing a service. And the people who read it start associating your name with helpful, career-related content. Luna: Yeah, it's almost like a mini thought leadership platform inside the company. What did she put in the first edition? Lucas: She started with three sections: one, a featured career resource — like a summary of a popular book or podcast about negotiation skills. Two, a 'leader spotlight' where she interviewed a senior director about their career path. And three, a 'question of the month' that she'd answer from anonymous submissions. Luna: The leader spotlight is smart — that directly builds relationships with senior people. Lucas: That was the key move. She'd send a short interview request to the leader, spend 15 minutes on a Zoom call, and then write up a 300-word profile. The leader would then share the newsletter with their own team. Priya's name started appearing in the inboxes of VPs and SVPs. Luna: And she's not asking them for anything — she's giving them free positive exposure. That builds sponsorship currency. Lucas: Right. After six months, the newsletter had 87% organic sign-ups across four departments. She had 650 subscribers out of 800 employees. Her open rate was steady around 72%. Luna: That's incredible. Most internal newsletters struggle to get 40%. Lucas: She also tracked replies — personal messages where people would thank her or ask follow-ups. And here's the thing: the VP of Marketing, who had never interacted with Priya directly, started replying to every edition. Then the VP invited her to a skip-level meeting. Luna: That's the moment. The skip-level meeting is where promotions start getting discussed. Lucas: And that's exactly what happened. Three months later, Priya was promoted to senior marketing manager, and within a year she became director of marketing communications. The newsletter was cited in her promotion packet as evidence of cross-functional leadership. Luna: I love that. But I also wonder — if someone is in a non-marketing role, say an engineer or an accountant, would this still work? Lucas: The format adapts. An engineer could do a 'Tech Career Spotlight' — same structure, but focused on skills like system design, certifications, or technical leadership. The core is curating useful content and featuring senior people. That works in any function. Lucas: I actually know a finance manager who did something similar — she called it 'The Finance Pulse.' She'd highlight one financial metric each month and break it down for non-finance colleagues. That got her noticed by the CFO. Luna: So the common thread is: find a knowledge gap in your organization and fill it with a regular, high-quality communication. It's not about self-promotion — it's about being useful. Lucas: Exactly. And the beauty is, you control the narrative. You're not waiting for someone to notice your work — you're creating a touchpoint that lands in their inbox every month. Lucas: Now, Priya did make one mistake early on. In her third edition, she included a list of external articles that were too general — like '10 Ways to Be More Productive.' Her engagement dropped that month because the content felt generic. Luna: So she course-corrected. Lucas: She replaced the external links with more internal examples — case studies from within NexusStream, tips from actual teams, and more leader spotlights. The 'question of the month' section became the most popular because it was specific to the company culture. Luna: That's a good lesson: keep it local. People want to know what works in their own context, not generic advice. Lucas: And here's a practical tip: she set a fixed schedule — the first Tuesday of every month, 9 AM. Consistency built anticipation. People started telling her, 'I look forward to your newsletter.' That kind of reputation is gold. Luna: It also shows you're organized and reliable — two traits that promotion committees love. Lucas: By the way, if you've been thinking about a move like this, or if you've already started something similar, we'd love to hear about it. And if these episodes have helped you think through a career decision or just given you a useful framework, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep the episodes ad-free and focused on practical stories like Priya's. No pressure, but it helps. Lucas: Alright, back to the newsletter. Another thing Priya did was include a 'spotlight archive' — a link to all past editions. So if a new subscriber joined, they could catch up. That made the newsletter feel like a resource library, not a one-off. Luna: That's smart for sustainability. People can reference it later, which increases its long-term value. Lucas: And she used the archive in her promotion packet. She literally said, 'Here are 12 months of cross-functional content I've created and curated.' That's hard evidence of impact. Luna: So if someone wants to start their own career newsletter, what's the first step? Lucas: Pick a narrow focus. Don't try to cover everything. Maybe it's 'Career Tips for Early-Career Engineers' or 'Leadership Lessons from Product Managers.' The tighter the focus, the more loyal the audience. Lucas: Then commit to one edition. Write the first one, send it to five trusted colleagues, ask for feedback. Iterate. Then send it to a wider group. Don't overthink the name or the design — just start. Luna: And the leader spotlight — would you recommend that for the very first edition? Lucas: If you can get someone senior to agree, yes. It gives instant credibility. But if not, start with a resource and a question. Build momentum, then approach leaders once you have a few editions to show. Luna: That's a good way to avoid the cold-ask awkwardness. Lucas: Exactly. And remember, newsletters are just one channel. The same principle works for a podcast, a video series, or a Slack channel. The key is to be the person who curates and shares useful career content consistently. Luna: So the question for our listeners: what's one underused communication channel in your organization, and what would your first edition say? Lucas: That's the homework. I'm curious to hear what people come up with. For now, thanks for listening — and if you want to support the show, you know where to find us.