You’re capable at work. Your work just isn’t landing the way leadership rewards. Career Growth Academy is where I teach what I did about that: the scripts, the frameworks and the live coaching to get trusted, get seen and get chosen for your next promotion.
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Does any of this sound familiar?
01“I got another strong review. My manager loves me. So why did someone else get the role I’ve been working toward?”
02“I said the exact same thing in last week’s meeting. Nobody reacted. Then someone else said it today and suddenly it’s a great idea.”
03“I’ve been told to build my executive presence. Nobody has ever explained what that actually means.”
04“I want to be seen as a leader without becoming loud, political or someone I’m not.”
If you nodded at any of those, you’re in the right place. I was there for years. Here’s what I found out, and what I did about it.
My story
A few years into my career, I watched a peer with honestly half my output get the stretch project, the exec exposure, and eventually the promotion.
We were on the same team. We had started around the same time. Our reviews said the same things.
I was the one who stayed put.
It was not talent, and it was not hours. I was working later than anyone on the floor.
The difference was what each of us understood about how decisions get made at work, and what we did with it. Their manager could describe their work in one sentence. Their manager’s manager could repeat that sentence. Mine couldn’t, because I had never given them the words.
Everything you have probably tried. I added more detail to every update so nobody could say I wasn’t thorough. I said less in meetings so I wouldn’t say the wrong thing. I read the books on executive presence.
None of it told me what to write in the update on Thursday.
At a performance review, I walked in with a list of everything I had delivered that half. It was long. I was proud of it.
My manager listened patiently, then asked one question I couldn’t answer:
“Okay, and what changed because of all that?”
I had activity. I didn’t have impact. And in that silence I understood why some people’s work sounds forgettable and other people’s, doing comparable work, sounds indispensable. The work wasn’t different. The sentence was.
So I started studying the people who were getting promoted. Not what they did. How they wrote and spoke about it. Their updates. Their two minutes in a meeting. The way they flagged a risk before it became a problem. The way they asked for the bigger project.
I copied the patterns, wrote them down, and used them every week.
I am still not the loudest person in the room. The people who decided had simply been given the right sentences about me, week after week, in the updates I sent and the two minutes I got.
That system is what is inside Career Growth Academy. And it turns out it works for other people too.
Members, in their words
I’ve been following Simon for two years and applying his communication style and leadership techniques. I recently accepted a promotion where I’m leading one of our national societies.
After applying Simon’s communication system, I’ve already seen a big improvement in both my writing and speaking. My manager has noticed the difference too, especially in how much more confident and leader-like I come across.
The course is outstanding, realistic, tactical, and full of examples you can apply immediately. Every two weeks we have a live session where he answers every question with specific, on-the-spot solutions.
Why this works
Twice a year, at almost every company, a group of leaders sits down to talk about people. Your name comes up for about ninety seconds. Someone speaks on your behalf, and they can only use the sentences you gave them.
If you gave your manager clear, impact-shaped sentences, they advocate. If you gave them a fog of hard work, they improvise: “solid performer, good team player”, and the moment passes. Nobody in that room is lying about you. They are working with what they can see.
Those sentences come from about six moments a week:
Here is the smallest example I have. The same update, sent twice.
Re: vendor migration update
Hi Mark, quick update on the migration. We had a few calls this week with the vendor and with Security, there are still some open questions on the data residency piece which we’re working through, and I’ve attached the notes from Tuesday’s session so you have the full context.
Let me know if you have any questions or want to discuss.
Vendor migration: on track for 15 Oct, one risk flagged
Status: on track for the 15 Oct cutover.
One risk: Security sign-off on data residency, needed by 3 Oct. Their review is booked for 26 Sep. If it slips, the fallback is the EU region, already scoped.
From you: nothing this week. I’ll flag by 3 Oct if that changes.
The second one gets forwarded as it is. The director now has a sentence to repeat in the room: “They saw the risk early and told us what they needed.”
That is a four-minute template inside the Academy, the 4-Bullet Executive Update. There are thirty more like it, one for each moment where the people above your manager form their view of you.
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Inside Career Growth Academy
Four stages, in the order a career actually moves. Every lesson is named after the situation, so you open the one you need and use it the same day.
Win the everyday moments that decide whether your manager trusts your judgment.
Visibility with the people above your manager, without becoming loud or self-promotional.
How promotions are actually decided, and how to be the name with nothing left to debate.
Produce stronger work without longer hours, using the tools your company already allows.
Plus 30+ scripts and templates you copy into a real message, the 30-day Quick Start Plan so you know what to open first, and a live call with me every two weeks where you bring your own situation.
A look inside
Named after the thing you have to do: “Command Emails Like a Senior Leader”, “The 4-Bullet Executive Update”, “The Visibility Ladder”. You open the one that matches this week.
Written to be pasted, then edited. The update, the risk you need to flag, the reply to a VP, the promotion case, the ask for the bigger project.
Bring the situation a lesson doesn’t cover. Every call is recorded and posted with a recap, so missing one costs you nothing.
How to use it
There is no schedule and no order. You use the lesson that matches the situation you’re in, see what changes, and come back when the next one shows up.
A few minutes, on your phone, between meetings. If you don’t know where to start, the 30-day Quick Start Plan tells you.
Send Thursday’s update differently. That is the first win, and members write to me about it inside their first few weeks.
The reply you got. The meeting you’re preparing for. The manager who hired externally. Real situations, specific answers, every two weeks.
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Is this right for you?
Questions
That is the right question, and it is the one the Academy was built around. There is nothing to finish. You open the one lesson for the situation you are in this week, copy the script, and send the message. A few minutes, on your phone. The 30-day Quick Start Plan tells you what to open first. 9 in 10 members stay from one month to the next.
The moments are the same in a 200-person company and a 200,000-person one: the update, the question from a senior leader, the two minutes in the meeting, the one-on-one. Members work in finance, marketing, product, healthcare, legal, government and non-profits, at companies of every size. What changes is the names in the script.
Members range from senior analysts a few years in to VPs with twenty. If your reviews are strong, your next role is decided by people who rarely see you work, and you want to change what they see without becoming someone else, it is for your level.
A few minutes for a lesson, on your phone. The live call is about an hour every two weeks, and it is recorded if you can’t make it. Most members use the Academy the way you would use a colleague who has been through it: when something comes up.
No. Calls are every other Sunday at 9am Pacific, and every one is recorded and posted in the classroom with a recap. Many members watch the recording and post their question in the community, where I answer.
Skool is the platform that hosts the Academy: the lessons, the community and the call recordings, on the web and in an app. You pay Skool directly, which is why the button takes you there, and you manage or cancel the membership from your Skool settings.
Cancel anytime from your Skool settings, and you keep access until the end of the month you paid for. Your rate stays $39 for as long as you stay a member.
No. Everything inside is written for the person who would rather be precise than loud. The scripts change what the people who decide read about you, and they leave your personality where it is.
Many companies reimburse professional development, and communication and leadership training is usually the category that qualifies. You get a receipt for every payment. Ask your manager; the answer is often yes.
Confident, visible, promotable. That is what 80+ members are building inside, one real situation at a time. Your work is already good. This is the part nobody taught you.
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