Nathan Baugh

World Builders

Founder / Writer

Senior Consultant

Clemson University

Tutor

Teach For America

Accelerate Fellow

Consultant → writer. I study the best storytellers ever and share with you what I learn. Writing fiction and writing to 77K storytellers every Saturday. Join us 👇

Founder

Roast my potential book covers. 

What do you like? What don't you like? Which would get you to pick it up off the shelf?

Ghostwriter. Exploring the art and science of storytelling. Debut fantasy novel this fall. Building something new.

A few years ago, I went to a $15 open mic in Austin. First comedy show I’d seen.

Dude gets on stage. The crowd goes nuts. It’s Shane Gillis, one of the most popular comedians in the world.

He pulls out a notebook and a pen, grabs the mic, and starts telling jokes.

When the crowd gives one of those loud, genuine laughs, he jots down a note. When the crowd looks at each other, confused, he jots down a note. When the crowd stares at him, expecting more, he jots down a note.

You get the idea. He’s testing jokes. Making a note of what’s connecting and, even more importantly, what’s not.

Then, I imagine, he cuts or changes the parts that don’t connect. Tests them again another night. And repeats the process until the joke, his story, is tight and compelling throughout.

He made me realize:

This is how you can treat Storytelling, too.

Your story is flexible. You can constantly test, get feedback, improve, repeat. Like Shane, what you’re looking for is moments of connection:

- Your boss starts nodding along.
- Someone leans forward in their chair.
- Your beta reader leaves a great comment.
- There’s a spark of interest in your partner’s eye.

You get the idea. You’re searching for that visceral reaction in your audience. When you see it, you double down.

Stories are iterative.

I've created 2 new landing pages over the last 6 months. One converts horribly while the other converts incredibly well. Some weird stats:

- The horrible converting one is priced at $99.
- The incredibly well converting one is priced at $499.

The obvious answer is an audience mismatch -- people expect story related stuff from me, not 'grow your writing business.'

Sure that matters but let's be real not a <1% to 18%+ jump.

So what's the difference?

Very simply -- I ran the second LP through 🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner's entire Transformational Landing Pages training... and haven't put that effort into the first.

One idea that -- in my opinion -- made the biggest difference:

Fascinations

Eddie says a fascination is "any sentence designed to conjure intense curiosity and compel action, in that order."

Capture the attention, then direct it.

I loved the idea. Loved the entire course.

Eddie's running a crazy BFCM sale. From $999 to $249.

This is my affiliate code, which I'm proud to share: https://lnkd.in/gbKDPAqr

Hands down the most effective course I've taken all year. If you'd like your landing pages to convert more people, it is a no brainer.

PS. Here's the LP that actually converts: https://lnkd.in/gZwScNBr

LinkedIn constantly shocks me how helpful people are. So many people took time to share great feedback on the covers for my novel.

Thank you thank you thank you.

To keep up w the project - just monthly notes - plop your email here for the waitlist: https://lnkd.in/gTeaFfwE

weskao.com

I typically work with tech leaders on: managing up to a CEO/VP, strengthening your executive communication and presence, and delegating to a team of ICs while raising the bar. Clients are leaders at Amplitude, 1Password, Amazon/AWS, DoorDash, AngelList, Product Hunt, Google, etc. If you’re interested in how I can support you, learn more about my coaching approach:

-> weskao.com/coaching

Writing for 300,000+ tech operators across LinkedIn, Twitter, and Substack.

-> weskao.com/newsletter

Check out my 2-day intensive course: Executive Communication & Influence for Senior ICs and Managers. Alumni include 1,200+ students from companies like Uber, Amazon, Grammarly, Workday, Google, Pinterest, Meta, Expedia, Twilio, Spotify, Anthropic, GitHub, Zillow, PayPal, Atlassian, Netflix, Square, Figma, Stripe, and more.

-> weskao.com/course

Reach out at wes@weskao.com

Executive coach, advisor, instructor

Maven

Maven is a platform for live, cohort-based courses. Learn more at maven.com

Co-founder

Various courses

Built, launched, and grew courses that have reached 500k+ students. Clients included: Section (Professor Scott Galloway), Outlier (from cofounder of MasterClass), Build a Second Brain, Write of Passage, Poo~Pourri, Morning Brew, and more.

Cohort-based courses

altMBA

Created and built the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin. One of the first mainstream cohort-based courses. Grew from zero to thousands of students in 45 countries and 550+ cities at $3,000 price point (10x higher than avg online course at the time).

Flite

Head of Digital Marketing

Bare Escentuals

Global Brand Management Marketing

Gap Inc.

Business Analyst

L'Oréal

Brand Management Marketing

Wes Kao is an executive coach, advisor, and entrepreneur who writes at newsletter.weskao.com. She is co-founder of Maven, an edtech company that raised $25M from First Round and Andreessen Horowitz. Previously, she co-founded the altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin.

Newsletter for 60,000+ high performers on Wednesdays at 8am ET
-> weskao.com/newsletter

Live, 2-day course on Executive Communication & Influence 
-> https://maven.com/wes-kao/executive-communication-influence

1:1 executive coaching for tech leaders 
-> https://www.weskao.com/coaching

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The Battle

Nathan Baugh

Wes Kao

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taplio

The Battle

Nathan Baugh

Wes Kao

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Nathan Baugh's LinkedIn Performance

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