Generalist Guild

Launch Frame Lesson – Frame Exec Attention in 90s

adidas

Pinwheel Healthy Kids Phone

Skribe

Recharge

Capital Factory

Isaiah McPeak

Serial Tech Founder + High Stakes Communications Coach

Starting a decisionmaking conversation must engage the "I need to decide, now" trigger in VCs/execs.

Launch to Decisionmakers in 90s to Frame Choices

"Walking through" a deck is an expected trope, and why execs/VCs don't pay great attention. Slides are RAM!

How to use slides as dynamic, high-level memory (like RAM)

Your brain doesn't need to deal with "remembering" how to say what you actually really know.

How to use "verbal drafting" instead of memorizing

Bring a proposal, pitch, or decision problem that you have coming up. I'll transform your launch with it, live.

How to implement the Launch Frame today

Update: The August cohort is sold out. The new October cohort will be the last cohort until mid-2026. If you've been thinking about joining, I'd love to see you in class.___ If you're a high performer, you likely got to where you are because of your raw talent and ability to execute. Now that your scope has grown, though, your ability to increase impact depends on how well you influence other people--often without formal authority. In other words, you need people to do what you want them to do--enthusiastically and collaboratively. Unfortunately, no one teaches us how to do this beyond a basic level. So your day-to-day involves avoidable back-and-forth, friction, pushback, apathy, random questions, skepticism, or confusion about areas you believe are important. But it doesn't have to be this way. You and your team can move faster. You can quickly understand each other. You can worry less about cajoling skeptics. You can spend less time figuring out how to say what you want to say. You can accomplish more of what you want--and have more fun in the process. To get to the next level, you can't simply "do" more yourself. You must extend your impact beyond your own work. You must get genuine cooperation and true buy-in from those around you. This is what you will learn to do in this course. WHAT TO EXPECT: This is a highly-interactive course with examples, Q&amp;A, hands-on exercises, and tactics you can apply immediately. There are 9 hours of live instruction, all live on Zoom taught by Wes. We will focus on both the "why" and tactical pieces around the "how." Each day features four hands-on exercises (created by Wes, exclusively available in the course) that include students working silently for 7-8 minutes, reviewing other students' work for a few minutes, then hearing live teardowns/feedback from Wes on a select exercise submissions everyone can learn from. You'll hone your intuition and standards on "what great looks like." The skills you need to become more effective CANNOT be solved through brute force. In these 2 days, you will come away with new tools. Course content• How to be direct and clear, without damaging relationships• How to perform well in high-stakes real-time conversations• How to sharpen your ability to prevent/overcome skepticism• How to anticipate stakeholder concerns and prevent 90% of pushback before it happens• How to articulate your POV when strong rationale can make or break the outcome• How to advocate for your ideas the right way• How to instill a sense of urgency so your ideas are heard and acted on quickly• How to avoid common communication patterns that diminish your impact• How to diagnose the question-behind-the-question so folks are satisfied by your responses The course also includes:• Review and reflection• Verbatim scripts for tricky work scenarios• Real-life examples• Hands-on exercises• Frameworks to help you structure your written and verbal communication• Bonus: 2 Q&amp;A sessions• Plus: Homework to put concepts into practice• Lifetime access to resources: course materials, one-pagers, recordings, etc• All Zoom workshops are live, taught by Wes The goal isn't simply to learn the concepts--it's to internalize them. If you put effort into the course, you will make a major leap ahead. If you follow my writing, the course builds on concepts I’ve written about--we will discuss important nuances, edge cases, and examples, with the opportunity to put these lessons into practice. I've designed this course specifically so you begin to build your intuition and muscle memory. All the sessions will be recorded so you can refer back to the material. WHO WILL BENEFIT MOST FROM THIS COURSE: Folks who will get the most from this course tend to be the following:- You care about quality, rigor, and setting a high bar for yourself and others- You are ambitious and you want to sharpen your ability to execute- You are on a lean team punching above your weight class- You are self-aware, open-minded, and intellectually honest- You want to become an operator who thinks strategically about communication, not just someone who responds reactively to what's in front of you Students and alumni are from: Uber, Amazon, Grammarly, Netflix, Workday, Meta, Google, Pinterest, Expedia, Sephora, Twilio, Roblox, CVS, Shopify, Airbnb, Vimeo, Waymo, Figma, Maersk, Unilever, Experian, HelloFresh, Cisco, Buffer, Peloton, 1Password, Turo, Intuit, Verizon, OpenTable, Microsoft, Lyft, eBay, Toyota, Intel, Autodesk, Credit Karma, Stitch Fix, DailyPay, Lockheed Martin, Bill, Klaviyo, Hubspot, U.S. Bank, Novo Nordisk, Walmart, Plaid, Intercom, Ford, Visa, Coinbase, Coda, SoundCloud, Workiva, Instacart, The New York Times, General Motors, Dell, Samsung, Qualcomm, Salesforce, Capital One, Adobe, Apple, Spotify, Anthropic, GitHub, Zillow, PayPal, Atlassian, Square, Stripe, and many other startups and large organizations. WHO THIS IS NOT FOR: - This is not for you if you are looking for 1:1 coaching.- This is not for you if you believe there's not much for you to learn about sharpening your communication.- This is not for you if you want step-by-step instructions for every situation you might encounter. My goal is to help sharp operators develop even better judgment, not to cover directions for every potential situation.- This is not for you if you expect to become excellent in communication overnight. Becoming excellent at anything requires time and ongoing practice.- This is not for you if you want a slower-paced course over several weeks. This is a 2-day intensive designed for busy operators who want to reduce context switching between work and the course.- This is not for you if you are primarily looking for a course on public speaking or delivery (removing "ums" and "ahs", making eye contact, projecting your voice, etc). In my experience, public speaking is not the bottleneck for most operators. Instead, the course focuses on improving your underlying ability to think clearly, which enables you to communicate clearly. If you read Wes' newsletter, will you still get a lot out of this course? If you read my newsletter, you might recognize some frameworks, but you've never seen them applied to live scenarios with this level of depth. Reading about managing up vs writing the actual Slack message to convince your manager to let you join a high-priority cross-functional task force that could change your career trajectory... these are completely different skill levels. The frameworks you THINK you know from reading will gain new meaning when you're actually executing them yourself under pressure. After the course, students often say, "I thought I knew this, but now I see how much deeper this goes." --- To recap, during the course, you will be drinking from the firehose. My goal is to help you drastically improve your competence and confidence in a condensed period of time. Then, you will go back to work and build on this foundation with continued practice.

Strong communication is a force multiplier

Course syllabus

9:00 - 12:30pm Pacific Time12:00 - 3:30pm Eastern Time5:00 - 8:30pm British Standard Time The workshop includes hands-on exercises and opportunities to put lessons into practice throughout. Afterward, there will be an optional 1 hour Q&amp;A. Recording will be available.

Thursday, October 9

9:00 - 12:30pm Pacific Time12:00 - 3:30pm Eastern Time5:00 - 8:30pm British Standard Time Get ready for an action-packed second day. Afterward, there will be an optional 1 hour Q&amp;A. Recording will be available.

Friday, October 10

This course will be interactive, so get ready to chime into Zoom chat, unmute to share, etc. Live workshop sessions will be video recorded and made available to watch/rewatch at your own pace. If you can't attend the full time or need to hop off, you can catch up later.

Live workshops, Q&A, exercises, real-life examples

Do you want feedback on a piece of communication? You'll have the opportunity to submit your homework for a live teardown. (You can redact before submitting.) I'll pick to share the most useful ones with the class.

Submit your homework for live review in class

Course schedule

Senior individual contributors (ICs). Marketing leads, PMs, engineers, program managers, UX designers, etc. Minimum 3+ years of experience.

People managers and leaders (heads of, team leads, directors). You run a team and have to get buy-in upwards and x-functionally.

Teams who want shared language so you can move faster, give feedback faster, have shared expectations, and persuade folks outside your team.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

You might only have a few minutes of your leadership team's attention. We will review tactics for how to move fast, frame the conversation upfront, handle unexpected questions, prevent "insecure vibes," etc. Get senior leaders to seek (and truly listen to) your input.

Present to your CEO to maximize highly-visible moments

The more senior you become, the more you'll need to manage up. Hint: It's not about sending a weekly recap of your contributions. We will review real examples and practice how to reduce cognitive load for your manager, share your rationale, focus on the punchline, and more.

Managing up in day-to-day interactions

How do you get buy-in with less back and forth? How do you know the right level of detail (and which details) to share? How can you be more concise w/o sacrificing context? We will dissect these nuances and you will have a chance to rewrite examples to put lessons into practice.

Frame your ideas and give the right amount of context in any situation

While writing well takes years to master, we'll focus on simple ways to improve and edit your work. You'll practice during in-class exercises &amp; edit your own writing as homework. You'll see other students' writing, which gives rare visibility into different approaches and styles.

Identify ways to improve your own writing

Some principles (like reducing cognitive load) apply regardless of your audience--while other situations require you to understand power dynamics, leverage, etc. We will practice "reading" situations and subtext with more accuracy so you can make better decisions.

Influence up and sideways to get things done

You may have trust with your team, but how do you advocate for ideas with other teams? We will discuss frameworks to tackle this, so you can get inside the heads of individuals/teams you want to appeal to more quickly.

Get enthusiastic buy-in and collaboration from colleagues outside your team

The goal of the course is to help you see, think, and act differently. We often have default behavior with how we communicate, without questioning what's effective &amp; what to do better. Alumni often say, "I thought I did this well, but had no idea how much I could improve."

See your own communication more accurately and spotting ways to improve

Sell your ideas, manage up, gain buy-in, and increase your impact. Sharpen your skills via hands-on exercises, deep dives, scripts, and more

Wes Kao

Cohort 8 (August)

Cohort 9 (October)

Without it… That critical budget you need?&nbsp;Out of reach. The headcount you’re pushing for?&nbsp;Denied. The dependency you need prioritized?&nbsp;Not happening. The promotion you deserve?&nbsp;Maybe next year. Without the power to persuade, you’re stuck on the sidelines. Others who can rally teams, secure resources, and inspire action move forward. Their products get funded. They’re given a seat at the table. And when the time comes – they get promoted. Meanwhile, you stay in place, struggling to gain traction. I get it. Convincing people to take action&nbsp;can be frustrating. You have a vision. You have a strategy. You have a plan. You have&nbsp;all&nbsp;the things. Yet, despite your strong – maybe even groundbreaking – ideas, they get lost in endless rounds of approval. Stakeholders are indecisive. Leadership hesitates, and asks “for more data”. You find yourself trapped in an endless cycle of planning, proposals, and presentations.&nbsp; I’ve been in your shoes. For a long time, I felt stuck while others seemed to move forward effortlessly. But I found a system that helped me break through the noise – one that took me from leading a team of 5 to leading a 300+ org at Google, and helped me secure 9-digit budgets and close Fortune 50 partnerships. And now, I’m going to teach you my system. - - - - - HOW THIS COURSE WILL TRANSFORM YOU:You'll become known as the PM who can rally a room, persuade senior leaders, and shape strategy through influence – not just ideas. You'll be able to frame your message to be persuasive, engaging, and memorable – in every meeting, presentation, or written update. You’ll walk away with a repeatable system to craft your message for impact. Whether you're pitching a roadmap, defending a strategy, or asking for resources, you’ll know exactly how to make your message land with power and clarity. YOU SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE IF:- You want execs to stop seeing you as a solid PM and start seeing you as a leader.- You want to turn your ideas into outcomes – not just discussions.- You want your vision to ignite excitement, not indifference.- You want people to take action immediately – not just nod their heads politely.- You want to confidently control the room, even when you're not the most senior person in it.- You want to build a reputation that travels ahead of you into every new role. The most important reason:👉🏼 If you want to be a Product Leader, learning how to influence at scale is an absolute must. WHAT'S INSIDE:Here are just some of the topics we'll cover: → 4-Step Story Framework→ 3 Core Principles of Great Storytelling→ Create Your Story Map→ Design Your Narrative Flow→ Captivate Your Audience's Attention→ Design Amazing Decks,&nbsp;Fast→ Control the Room with Ease→ Close the Loop the Right Way→ Amplify Your New Superpower Plus: Projects, Instructor/Peer Feedback, and Live Coaching BONUS:For this upcoming cohort, I am including a 30-minute private "Ask Me Anything" session you can use within 6 months of the course. We can work on one of your pitches together. We can talk about your career. Or we can cover something else. It's your choice! - - - - - WHY LEARN FROM ME?I wasn’t born a natural storyteller. It’s a skill I built over 25 years by studying the world's best copywriters, deconstructing compelling arguments, and relentlessly practicing my craft. It became my edge. In fact, my ability to "frame and persuade" was specifically cited when I was asked to lead a 300+ org at Google. Now, I teach this system to the next generation of Product Leaders – through courses, corporate workshops, and product conferences. HEAR WHAT PAST STUDENTS HAVE TO SAY: "I love that this course is so concise, direct, and filled with practical frameworks, advice, and tips."- Director of PM @ Google "I find myself using Roshan’s framework every day, both at work and at home."- Chief Product Officer @ Provi "The signal to noise ratio is off the charts!"- Product Leader @ Electronic Arts "What stood out was how practical it was – I could apply everything right away."- Founder @ Startup "I gained so much in such a short amount of time from this incredibly effective workshop."- PM @ Google

Influence is THE #1 skill for Product Managers.

12–2pm Eastern • 5–7pm London • 9:30–11:30pm India Topics include:<ul><li>4-Step Story Framework</li><li>3 Core Principles of Great Storytelling</li><li>Story Maps</li><li>Design Your Narrative</li><li>Captivate Your Audience</li><li>Design Amazing Decks, Fast</li><li>Control the Room</li><li>Close the Loop</li><li>Amplify Your New Superpower</li></ul>

Day 1 | Day 3 | Day 4 – Core Sessions

12–1:30pm Eastern • 5–6:30pm London • 9:30–11pm India Volunteer students get live coaching on their real pitches using the Story Map. Seeing pitches sharpen in real-time is often the most eye-opening part of the workshop. Ends with an open Q&amp;A/AMA.

Day 2 – Live Coaching + AMA (Optional)

After Days 1 &amp; 3, you’ll get an optional exercise to apply what you’ve learned. Submit for my feedback, and share with the cohort for peer input. Quick, actionable, and highly recommended to sharpen your skills.

At-Home Practice & Feedback (Optional)

For this upcoming cohort, I am including a private 30-minute "Ask Me Anything" session you can use within 6 months of the course. We can work on one of your pitches together. We can talk about your career. Or we can cover something else. It's your choice!

Private AMA Session with Roshan (BONUS)

Mid-level to Senior-level Product Managers looking to ascend to leadership roles.

Product Leaders looking to hone their skill and coach their teams to be more influential.

Ambitious early-career PMs aiming for rapid career growth.

Who this course is for

Most people lack a systematic way to create stories. Every time they have to create one, they start from scratch – which is so much harder.

Craft persuasive stories with a clear, repeatable system

Most people assume the audience will pay attention. That’s not how it works. You must learn to make people&nbsp;want&nbsp;to hear you.

Make your message irresistible to your audience

Your audience won’t take action just because you told them to. You must learn to make your arguments&nbsp;convincing.

Drive decisions and action with the strength of your message

Learn how to walk into any meeting or exec review with a clear story, total confidence, and full control.

Own the room and present with calm authority

Become known as the PM who can rally a room, persuade senior leaders, and shape strategy through influence – not just ideas.

Build a career-defining reputation as an influential storyteller

Get direct feedback and tactical advice from Roshan through exercises, Q&amp;A, and a private coaching session – so you can apply the course to your real-world work right away.

Personalized 1:1 guidance

Turn ideas into outcomes. Master the persuasive storytelling system I used to secure 9-digit budgets & close Fortune 50 deals at Google.

Google

Yahoo

Oracle

Bazaarvoice

Roshan Gupta

Cohort 1

Cohort 2

Early in your career:-- You are rewarded for working harder and independently solving problems.-- You earn more credibility by knowing more and demonstrating domain expertise.-- You get more scope (and promoted!) by taking on more with a “can-do” attitude. But your career will stall unless you learn to:-- Build and lead teams and systems to solve problems rather than do the work yourself.-- Collaborate with other experts to manage trade offs across different domains.-- Deliver results through others by mobilizing and coordinating people across different functions and perspectives. What’s particularly difficult about this transition is that nobody prepares you for it; you are expected to just figure it out. I have coached many clients who come to me in frustration that they are no longer exceeding expectations as they once were, and I’m the first person to tell them that their job has changed. I’ve also had clients who feel stuck and can’t figure out what is keeping them from reaching their next level of leadership. This class is designed to share the secrets of this transition with a wider audience. This course is for you if you feel stuck in your job or career. Perhaps you are a senior individual contributor or a front-line manager who keeps getting passed over for the next promotion with feedback about being more strategic, or having more presence or influence. Or perhaps you have earned more scope but are drowning under the work, seeing no way to get it all done. In this course, you will learn how to:-- Effectively influence a broader range of stakeholders by speaking to their interests.&nbsp;-- Design structures and processes to scale your leadership in alignment with your values.-- Articulate an inspirational vision so you can ask for the help you need to create it.-- Develop the presence to drive action with other executives and leaders.-- Increase your trust in your resilient capacity to handle difficult situations and conversations.-- Create a roadmap towards your ideal job rather than just climbing a ladder that others define.-- Focus on what really matters and say no to everything else. The material in this class is based on my personal experience working with the top leaders of Google as the Search Ads Chief of Staff, as well as coaching over a hundred clients to greater scope and promotions. Scroll down for testimonials. How you will get the most value:This is not a sit back and listen course. We will have active discussions in class, and I will expect you to experiment with putting what we discuss into practice between sessions. The more you engage, the more benefit you will get. This course is not for you if you expect me to hand you the answers. The real value of the course will be in your reflection and engagement between our live sessions. As I say to all of my coaching clients, "Nothing changes because we talk. Your life will change when _you_ change your life." Bonus material:-- A free copy of my book, You Have A Choice: Beyond Hard Work to Meaningful Impact-- Video recording of all live sessions via the Maven platform-- A private Slack group to connect with your cohort and share insights between sessions and after the workshop completes.&nbsp;-- Discounted 1:1 coaching sessions with Eric

The next level of your career requires embracing new mindsets and skills.

This course is for those who have grown through their early career, and want to grow their impact beyond what they can do as an individual.

8-10 years of career experience

The classes will be structured as 1 hour of content and live coaching from Eric and Q&amp;A, and an optional 30 minutes of group coaching where you can get advice on your particular situation. Sept. 4, 11, 18, 25, Oct. 2

Live class sessions on Thursdays

Between sessions, I expect students to practice the skills we discuss, applying them in their day-to-day professional interactions. I will also challenge them to experiment with changing their default behaviors and responses to certain situations, to help them develop new skills.

Weekly practices and experiments

You're a senior IC or front-line manager wondering what you have to do differently to get to the executive level.

Your performance feedback no longer celebrates your expertise and effort, and instead focuses more on strategy, influence, and presence.

You are working harder and longer but falling further behind. Doing more isn't sustainable so you need to find a new way to get things done.

This course is for you if: 

Changing your mindset will allow you to generate results from your organization without you being directly involved. By learning how to align those around you behind your vision and values, you will understand how to lead ever more people with a unified purpose.

How to scale your leadership to create greater team and company impact

Develop the presence to command respect from executives and other leaders by getting clarity on what you have to offer.

Increased confidence and executive presence.

Success as an executive depends on working cross-functionally with other leaders to deliver company results. I will help you build the skills to effectively influence a broader range of stakeholders by speaking to their interests.&nbsp;

Greater influence across the leadership team. 

Learn to co-create a collaborative vision of what needs to happen, secure commitments to that vision from relevant stakeholders, then hold them accountable to help you create it.

How to deliver on complex projects through influence and persuasion rather than control.

By understanding your own triggers and limiting beliefs, you will increase your resilient capacity to handle difficult situations. I will help you develop the key skill of accepting people and circumstances as they are, rather than as you wish they were.

How to better handle difficult conversations, including political conflict, while remaining calm. 

Instead of climbing a career ladder defined by others and anchoring on external metrics like title and compensation, you will look inward to understand what motivates and energizes you. Then, you will create a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/creating-work-you-want-eric-nehrlich-hv2ue/?trackingId=8FGSN37KQ6uJu4EG5HEB7A%3D%3D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">roadmap towards a more meaningful and satisfying job</a>.

A path for continued career growth without working unsustainable hours.

Your continued career growth depends on changing how you work from what brought you success early in your career. 

Eric Nehrlich 

January 2025 Cohort

September 2025 Cohort

In this course, you will gain a powerful toolkit of decision-making frameworks used by top performers—from mental models and probabilistic thinking to prioritization techniques and scenario planning. They'll learn to cut through complexity, reduce bias, and make thoughtful, timely decisions with greater clarity and less regret. Through hands-on exercises, real-world examples, and peer discussions, students will internalize a repeatable process they can apply to high-stakes choices in work, life, and leadership. At work: Evaluate which product ideas to prioritize, make smarter hiring decisions, or decide whether to pivot a project—using tools like the Eisenhower Matrix or Expected Value calculations. In your career: Navigate tough choices like switching jobs, asking for a promotion, or starting a business by applying frameworks like regret minimization or inversion. In personal life: Use structured thinking to decide where to live, how to invest your time, or manage trade-offs like saving vs. spending—reducing decision fatigue and second-guessing. In leadership: Make high-leverage calls with confidence, communicate decisions with clarity, and coach your team through ambiguity using the same frameworks.

Transform into a more confident, structured, and strategic decision maker

A 3 hour session to introduce you to the tools, framework and techniques to take your decision making muscle to next level

Saturday

A monthly office hour where we will host live Q&amp;A and guest sessions

3x Monthly Office Hours

Professionals, Entrepreneurs, and ambitious individuals

Someone who often thinks, "I wish I had a better way to decide"

A career switcher or life planner seeking clarity and structure in major decisions

Learn and apply battle-tested models like second-order thinking, OODA loop, and mental models to approach decisions with clarity and structure

Master proven decision-making frameworks

Spot the hidden mental traps—like confirmation bias or sunk cost fallacy—that cloud your judgment, and replace them with rational, reflective thinking

Identify and overcome cognitive biases

Design a repeatable, flexible process that helps you make high-stakes decisions confidently, consistently, and with less regret

Build a personal decision-making system

Use practical tools for evaluating trade-offs, reducing overthinking, and navigating ambiguity in both personal and professional contexts.

Make faster, smarter choices under uncertainty

Master the most powerful decision making protocols through proven tools, practical frameworks, and real-world applications

Lightning Lessons

Launch Frame Lesson – Frame Exec Attention in 90s