Executive Communication & Influence for Senior ICs and Managers

4.6 (220)

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2 Days

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Cohort-based Course

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

This course is popular

21 people enrolled last week.

2x founder backed by:

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First Round

Course overview

Strong communication is a force multiplier

Update: The July cohort is full, but the *new August cohort* is now open for enrollment. If you've been thinking about joining, I'd love to see you in class.

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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&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 (without seeming like a jerk)

• How to perform well in high-stakes real-time conversations

• How to sharpen your ability to prevent/overcome skepticism

• How to frame 90% around your recipient and maximize buy-in

• 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&A sessions

• Plus: Homework to put concepts into practice

• Lifetime access to resources: access to all 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


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 expect to become excellent in communication overnight. You will likely change your behavior for the better within 2 days, which is huge achievement. But 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 an immersive experience. Yes, it will feel fast--this is by design to make the best use of your limited time. If you want something that feels slower or more spread out, do not take this course.

- This is not for you if you are primarily looking for a course on public speaking or speaking delivery (removing "ums" and "ahs", making eye contact, projecting your voice, etc). There are many existing programs on public speaking, such as Toastmasters. In my experience, public speaking and delivery are not the bottleneck for most operators. Instead, the course focuses on improving your underlying ability to think clearly, so you can become more compelling, persuasive, and influential.


One more thing:


This is not for you if you want content that's 100% new concepts I've never written about elsewhere. There are many concepts I only talk about in my course, but if you are an avid reader of my newsletter, you may recognize a few of my frameworks.


Let me be clear: My goal is not to give you new frameworks for the sake of it. We are not trying to gather all the frameworks like we're collecting Pokemon cards. (And just because you read about a framework once, does NOT mean you know it. It means you read about it once.)


My goal is to give you a chance to put the most important principles into PRACTICE, so you learn by doing. After the course, students say learning by doing & hearing me talk about the concepts live helped them internalize the lessons much more vividly than only reading my newsletter.


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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.

Who is this course for

01

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

02

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

03

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

What you’ll get out of this course

Present to your CEO to maximize highly-visible moments

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.

Managing up in day-to-day interactions

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.

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

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.

Identify ways to improve your own writing

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 & edit your own writing as homework. You'll see other students' writing, which gives rare visibility into different approaches and styles.

Influence up and sideways to get things done

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.

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

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.

See your own communication more accurately and spotting ways to improve

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 & what to do better. Alumni often say, "I thought I did this well, but had no idea how much I could improve."

What’s included

Wes Kao

Live sessions

Learn directly from Wes Kao in a real-time, interactive format.

Lifetime access

Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.

Like-minded peers

Learn alongside and share insights with like-minded professionals.

Certificate of completion

Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.

Course syllabus

4 live sessions • 6 lessons

Week 1

Aug 14—Aug 15

    Course Day 1 [Click to expand]

    • Aug

      14

      Day 1: Executive Communication and Influence with Wes Kao

      Thu 8/144:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)
    • Aug

      14

      Day 1: Bonus Q&A with Wes Kao (optional)

      Thu 8/147:30 PM—8:30 PM (UTC)
      Optional
    3 more items

    Course Day 2 [Click to expand]

    • Aug

      15

      Day 2: Executive Communication and Influence with Wes Kao

      Fri 8/154:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)
    • Aug

      15

      Day 2: Bonus Q&A with Wes Kao (optional)

      Fri 8/157:30 PM—8:30 PM (UTC)
      Optional
    2 more items

Post-course

4.6 (220 ratings)

What students are saying

        "Wes dissects the you-know-it-when-you-see-it finesse and framing that separates good communication from great communication. Highly recommend learning from her--one of my favorites for insightful, practical advice with lots of concrete examples to learn from and apply."
Caitlin Hudon

Caitlin Hudon

Data Scientist @ Figma
        “I've learned so much from Wes: how to influence, write better, communicate with my manager, and more. She shows real, practical examples which lead to "aha" moments of how I could have been doing things 10x better—things I wish I knew years earlier. I highly recommend learning from Wes if you get the chance."
Jordan Cutler

Jordan Cutler

Senior Software Engineer @ Pinterest
        "Finally - someone who beautifully articulates the ‘holy shit’ moments I get when working with high performers. Every article l've read from Wes Kao seems to perfectly articulate some of the golden nuggets of advice l've had passed down to me throughout my career - and none of it is the generic stuff you usually see online."
Kevin Ha

Kevin Ha

Director, Sales Analysis & Insights @ Sephora
        “Wes’ frameworks generate great discussions with my team. I really enjoyed the pieces about managing up and about how work requests aren't favors. Thanks for consistently sharing such valuable insights--I've learned a lot.”
Amanda Butler

Amanda Butler

Senior Manager, Documentation @ Unity
        "Wes’ content is the most helpful, practical, concise advice I've ever seen on so many topics and norms that are often unspoken. Recently in a situation at work, leaning on her frameworks helped me compartmentalize, do the right thing, and come out better for it."
Katey Basye

Katey Basye

Staff Product Designer @ ServiceNow

Meet your instructor

Wes Kao

Wes Kao

Wes Kao is an executive coach, entrepreneur, and advisor 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 Seth Godin.


Now, she teaches a bestselling course on executive communication and influence, and coaches tech leaders at companies like Amazon, 1Password, Amplitude, Microsoft, DoorDash, Product Hunt, Google, etc. Her writing via newsletter, Twitter, and LinkedIn reaches 300,000+ readers each week.

A pattern of wavy dots

Join an upcoming cohort

Executive Communication & Influence for Senior ICs and Managers

Cohort 8 (August)

$850

Dates

Aug 14—15, 2025

Payment Deadline

Aug 13, 2025

Course schedule

9 hours of live class + live feedback

  • Thursday, August 14

    12:00 - 3:30pm Eastern Time

    9:00 - 12:30pm Pacific Time

    12:00 - 3:30pm Eastern Time

    5:00 - 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&A. Recording will be available.

  • Friday, August 15

    12:00 - 3:30pm Eastern Time

    9:00 - 12:30pm Pacific Time

    12:00 - 3:30pm Eastern Time

    5:00 - 8:30pm British Standard Time


    Get ready for an action-packed second day. Afterward, there will be an optional 1 hour Q&A. Recording will be available.

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

    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.

  • Submit your homework for live review in class

    OPTIONAL

    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.

Learning is better with cohorts

Learning is better with cohorts

Active hands-on learning

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Interactive and project-based

You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams

Learn with a cohort of peers

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

A pattern of wavy dots

Join an upcoming cohort

Executive Communication & Influence for Senior ICs and Managers

Cohort 8 (August)

$850

Dates

Aug 14—15, 2025

Payment Deadline

Aug 13, 2025

If you're a fan of Wes Kao's Newsletter, we will go even deeper to practice these concepts in the course

If you're a fan of Wes Kao's Newsletter, we will go even deeper to practice these concepts in the course

Frequently Asked Questions

Student comments from Zoom chat

Student comments from Zoom chat

Students from December 2024 cohort:

Students from December 2024 cohort:

Students from the February 2025 cohort:

Students from the February 2025 cohort:

$850

4.6 (220)

·

2 Days

If you are a fan of Wes' newsletter, is the course worth taking?

        As a loyal reader of Wes' newsletter, I loved the opportunity to learn even more from her firsthand, practice her strategies alongside other like-minded folks, and get feedback in real-time. And it was all packed into a brief time commitment that felt well worth it. I've already started using tactics from the course & seeing great results."
Ben Hannani

Ben Hannani

Content Writer, Apple
        Structured course content distilled from Wes' newsletters. A good opportunity to take the time and work through those quick exercises to put those communication principles in practice!"
Jorene Chai

Jorene Chai

Staff Product Manager, Walmart
        I joined Wes' course as a fan of her newsletter, and I left with a sharper, more intentional approach to communication. I'm now more focused on reducing cognitive load for my receipts, and leading with clear, succinct messaging. Highly recommend this course for anyone who needs to align stakeholders or influence execs with clarity."
Sam Propis

Sam Propis

Staff Product Manager, WHOOP
        If you enjoy reading Wes' newsletter, sign up for the course now. It's one thing to read her blogs week after week, but watching Wes share her thought process live is invaluable. I've never seen anyone as eloquent, clear, and strategic--what a gifted and fun instructor. I've never been one for virtual courses but this knocked it out of the park."
Kathryn White

Kathryn White

Marketing Manager, Proton.ai