Wes teaches one hard skill instead of broadcasting a company
Most operators post takes. Wes posts lessons, each one a self-contained framework you can run on Monday morning.
Wes Kao is the co-founder of Maven, the co-creator of the altMBA with Seth Godin, and now an executive coach who works with leaders at Anthropic, Meta, Amazon, and Google. Her LinkedIn is not a stream of company updates or hot takes. It is a running syllabus on one narrow, valuable subject: how to communicate, manage up, and carry yourself as a high performer. Each post reads like a page torn out of a course, a specific problem, a reframe, and a script you can copy.
That focus is the whole engine. Authority-led growth is when your distribution comes from teaching one hard-won skill so specifically that every post doubles as a free lesson, and the free lessons pre-sell everything you charge for. Wes runs it with discipline: pick a real workplace friction, name the reframe, and hand the reader the exact words to use.
'Communication is important.' True, obvious, and forgotten in a second. No one disagrees and no one remembers.
'There's nothing just about just hopping on a call.' A named reframe with a script attached. You screenshot it and use it that day.
“I do not want to hop on a call because you are too lazy to write a cogent message.”
— From her most-reacted post, on 'just hopping on a call' (3,467 reactions, 940 comments)
Five findings that repeated across 100 posts
- Depth beats reach. She averages 506 reactions a post, modest for her following, but her comment-to-reaction ratio is 14.5%, more than double the ~6% LinkedIn norm. People argue in her comments, they do not just tap like.
- The company is not the content, the craft is. Every post teaches one skill: being concise, managing up, giving feedback, sharing a point of view.
- Text does the work. 82% of her posts are plain text. Images are usually a screenshot of a real Slack message used as a teaching artifact, and video is almost absent.
- The reframe is the format. Her biggest posts flip a belief you already hold: 'It's not your manager's responsibility to teach you' (1,808 reactions).
- Midweek discipline. Wednesday is her heaviest day, Tuesday through Friday carry the account, and weekends are near-silent.
The numbers behind the account
Her reach is mid-sized, but her engagement is unusually deep, and depth is the whole point for a coach.
Start with the metric that matters most for a high-trust B2B account: the comment-to-reaction ratio. Across the 100 posts we analyzed, Wes drew one comment for roughly every seven reactions, a ratio of 14.5%, versus the ~6% that is typical on LinkedIn. Her single biggest post earned 3,467 reactions and 940 comments, a 27% ratio. She is not farming likes, she is starting arguments about how work should be done, and comment volume is what the algorithm rewards most. We unpack that mechanic in our guide to how the LinkedIn algorithm works.
When she posts
The content-type mix
Where the engagement comes from
The top posts
| # | Post | Reactions | Comments | Reposts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'There's nothing just about just hopping on a call.' | 3,467 | 940 | 99 |
| 2 | 'In my twenties: I'll get this to you by EOD.' | 3,216 | 208 | 47 |
| 3 | Don't romanticize being coached and mentored | 2,768 | 179 | 67 |
| 4 | 'It's not your manager's responsibility to teach you.' | 1,808 | 106 | 57 |
| 5 | Managing up 101: make it easy to give you feedback | 1,579 | 126 | 48 |
| 6 | 'The default is no one tells you your work sucks.' | 1,468 | 137 | 51 |
Want to see how your own account stacks up on cadence and engagement depth? Run it through our free LinkedIn analyzer.
The six content pillars
Every post falls into one of six buckets, all circling the same promise: get better at communicating and you get further at work.
Being concise, cutting filler, and choosing the right medium. Her core subject and biggest reach.
First-person 'I used to think X, then I realized Y' essays that reset how you see work.
Stop waiting for your manager to teach you. Take the lead on your own development.
Tactical scripts for making it easy for your boss to give you what you need.
Giving and receiving direct feedback, and why high standards times high feedback is the goal.
Share a point of view and think like a senior operator, not a task executor.
Pillar 1: Executive communication and clarity (the core)
Why it works: Her clarity posts do not stop at surface tips, they diagnose the root cause. Here she reframes 'be concise' as a thinking problem, not a wording problem. That deeper cut is why operators screenshot her posts: she names the thing they felt but could not articulate.
Pillar 2: Career and mindset reframes (the widest reach)
Why it works: The then-versus-now structure is her highest-converting move. It costs her nothing but a memory, yet it lands because the reader recognizes their own younger self in it. She turns a personal lesson into a mirror, and mirrors get comments.
Pillar 3: Own your growth (the tough-love pillar)
Why it works: She takes a comfortable belief (my manager owes me mentorship) and calmly dismantles it. The tough-love reframe works because it hands responsibility back to the reader, which is empowering rather than scolding. That is the tightrope every good coach walks.
Pillar 4: Managing up (the signature series)
Why it works: The '101' label turns a one-off tip into a recognizable, ownable series. Pairing it with a real screenshot proves the framework in the wild, not in theory. Naming a series is how a creator gets people to remember, and search for, their work by name.
Pillar 5: Feedback culture (the credibility)
Why it works: She says the blunt thing most leaders soften, then models the vulnerability she is preaching. Taking a hard stance ('this is delusional') is what makes a feedback post travel, because the reader has to decide whether they agree, and deciding means commenting.
Pillar 6: Spiky POV and rigorous thinking (the differentiator)
Why it works: The two-line dialogue compresses an entire seniority lesson into a single contrast. It teaches judgment (not everything is worth solving) faster than any paragraph could. When you can dramatize the insight, you do not have to explain it.
The hooks that earned the comment
Nearly every opener is a reframe. She states a belief you hold, then flips it, so you have to keep reading to see if she is right.
Contrast your past and present self. 'In my twenties: I'll get this to you by EOD.'
State a belief, then flip it. 'It's not your manager's responsibility to teach you.'
Promise a checklist up front. 'Managing up 101:' or 'To improve your writing, delete these 9 words.'
Stage a contrast in dialogue. 'Junior marketer: ... Senior marketer: ...'
One bold line, no windup. 'Everything takes longer than you think.'
Show the bad version, then the fix. '🚫 Hey, can you take a look? ✅ ...I'm looking for high-level directional feedback.'
For the mechanics of writing openers like these, our guide to writing LinkedIn hooks goes deeper, and you can pressure-test your own first line in the free hook generator.
Her top hooks, by the numbers
| Hook type | Opening line | Reactions |
|---|---|---|
| Myth-bust | 'There's nothing just about just hopping on a call.' | 3,467 |
| Then-vs-now reframe | 'In my twenties: I'll get this to you by EOD.' | 3,216 |
| Myth-bust | 'It's not your manager's responsibility to teach you.' | 1,808 |
| Two-character dialogue | 'Junior marketer: This is a problem. We should solve it.' | 1,373 |
A voice that sounds like a sharp mentor, not a memo
Short lines, real scripts, and the confidence to say the blunt thing, delivered in the first person from lived experience.
- Writes in the first person from experience. 'I used to believe...', 'In my twenties...', 'I've realized...'
- Makes advice concrete with 🚫 and ✅ scripts. She rarely says 'be clearer' without showing the exact words.
- Short paragraphs, one idea per line. Generous white space that is easy to skim on a phone.
- Names the reframe. She flips a common belief and gives the flip a memorable handle ('spiky point of view', 'insecure vibes').
- Numbered frameworks and '101' labels turn tips into ownable, searchable series.
- Closes with the newsletter. Most posts end by inviting you to her weekly list, the top of her funnel.
The voice is recognizable partly because of recurring devices: the two-character workplace dialogue, the 'Then I realized...' pivot, and coined terms she reuses until they become hers. She is a writer first, which is why 82% of her posts are plain text and her images are screenshots, not graphics.
What she does, and doesn't, do
- Open with a reframe or a myth-bust
- Hand over the exact script to use
- Write from her own lived experience
- Take a blunt, arguable position
- Teach one narrow skill at a time
- Tease with a vague cliffhanger
- Say 'be clearer' with no example
- Broadcast company or product news
- Hedge into safe, obvious advice
- Lean on her title to make a point
Holding that voice, a distinct reframe, a real script, a blunt position, several times a week for years is the part almost nobody sustains, and it is exactly the gap CaptureFlow closes. CaptureFlow is an AI content agent that turns your expertise into weeks of on-brand content for every platform. You capture one idea in 5 minutes (a voice note, a screenshot of a great Slack exchange, a lesson from a coaching call), and CaptureFlow, trained on your voice and your past posts, drafts native content for each channel, a LinkedIn post, an X thread, a carousel, a quote image, a short video, so teaching at Wes's cadence never costs you your evenings. See how the AI content agent works, and study the mechanics in our guide to writing a LinkedIn post.
The systems underneath the posts
Two quiet machines turn 100 free lessons into a newsletter list, a course, and a coaching practice.
The authority-to-enrollment funnel
Every post is the top of the funnel. The free frameworks prove she can teach, the newsletter deepens the relationship, and by the time someone considers the course they have already learned from her a dozen times for free.
The evergreen-reframe loop
- 1Pick a durable insightManaging up, being concise, owning your growth. Truths that never expire.
- 2Post one framing of itA dialogue, a 101 list, a then-vs-now story.
- 3Watch what landsWhich reframe drew the most comments and saves.
- 4Sharpen and re-postMonths later, the same insight returns in a tighter frame.
- 5Alumni amplify itStudents and podcasters publish their takeaways, which market the course for her.
This authority-led model is the mirror image of the outbound-led one we mapped in the Adam Robinson playbook, and it is the template most B2B executives should study: pick one skill you can teach better than anyone, and teach it in public until the market treats you as the source.
Your 30-day challenge
Run the playbook for a month. Turn what you already know how to do into a syllabus of free lessons.
- Days 1-2: Name the single skill you can teach better than most people you work with
- Days 3-4: Post a then-vs-now reframe about how your view of that skill changed
- Days 5-7: Write a '101' checklist post with a wrong-way, right-way example for each item
- Days 8-9: Screenshot a real message or artifact and dissect why it works
- Days 10-11: Bust one myth your peers believe about your field
- Days 12-14: Stage a two-character dialogue that dramatizes a seniority lesson
- Days 15-17: State one blunt, arguable opinion as a flat declarative line
- Days 18-19: Share a framework you use and give it a memorable name
- Days 20-21: Answer the most common question you get, in public, with a script
- Days 22-24: Add one soft call to your list or resource at the end of each post
- Days 25-27: Re-frame your best-performing insight from Week 1 in a tighter way
- Days 28-30: Review which reframe drew the most comments and double down on it
Want the cadence without writing every lesson from scratch? That is exactly what CaptureFlow's content agent automates, and you can see the plans on our pricing page.
The metrics to track weekly
| Metric | Benchmark to aim for |
|---|---|
| Comment-to-reaction ratio | 10%+ (Wes runs ~14.5%) |
| Comments per post | 40+ |
| Reactions per post | 300+ |
| Weekday posting cadence | 2-4 per week, midweek |
| Saves and reposts | Trending up |
| Named frameworks in circulation | 1+ per month |
The takeaways
- 01Teach one hard skill. Wes owns executive communication so specifically that every post is a free lesson.
- 02Chase comments, not likes. Her 14.5% comment-to-reaction ratio is more than double the LinkedIn norm.
- 03Open with a reframe. Her biggest posts flip a belief the reader already holds, then prove the flip.
- 04Make advice concrete. She hands over the exact 🚫 and ✅ scripts, never just 'be clearer'.
- 05Recycle durable insights. A few true ideas, reframed many ways, never run dry.
- 06Post midweek and batch-capture so a two-to-four-a-week cadence survives a heavy work week.
Frequently asked questions
- How did Wes Kao build her LinkedIn following?
- By teaching one narrow, valuable skill, executive communication and managing up, as a stream of free, copy-paste frameworks. Across 100 recent posts she averaged 506 reactions each with an unusually deep 14.5% comment-to-reaction ratio, and grew past 121K followers.
- What kind of post performs best for Wes Kao?
- The reframe: a post that flips a belief the reader already holds. Her top post, 'There's nothing just about just hopping on a call,' earned 3,467 reactions and 940 comments, and 'It's not your manager's responsibility to teach you' earned 1,808.
- How often does Wes Kao post, and when?
- Several times a week, weighted to the middle of the week. Wednesday is her heaviest day, Tuesday through Friday carry the account, and she barely posts on weekends.
- How do you apply this playbook without spending hours a week?
- Batch-capture your real lessons, then let a content agent draft in your voice. CaptureFlow turns one 5-minute capture into a week of native posts across platforms, so you can teach at Wes's cadence without writing every lesson from scratch.
