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Solo Field Notes, a newsletter to help solopreneurs stand out

Terri Lonier

Solo Field Notes is your weekly design and visibility lab — part of the Solo Business School, and dedicated to helping solopreneurs stand out with smart systems, sharp visuals, and AI that unlocks your edge. Each week, you get fresh ideas to help you stay small and play big.

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Image of empty tub of Ithaca Hummus, showing message at bottom of tub.
Featured Post

A hummus surprise worth stealing

Hey, Reader — Welcome to the second issue of SOLO Field Notes. Each week I’m sharing a quick story and examples that spark ideas for standing out as a solopreneur.Today, it’s a story from my fridge. Humor and delight go a long way in standing out. Here’s a recent favorite find: the bottom of a tub of Ithaca Hummus. Just as you’re finishing the last bite, you see this line: “If you’re licking this clean, another tub must be in your future.” Now, to be fair, I wasn’t exactly licking the...

about 7 hours ago • 2 min read

Hey, Reader — One of my favorite parts of this summer was wandering through Muir Woods in Northern California, among those ancient redwoods. Have you been? Here’s a photo I snapped. Yes, that tiny figure in the lower R corner is a grown woman — these trees are enormous. The park map had two kinds of trails: solid lines and dotted lines. The solid ones were official and well-marked. (I made it to Bridge #4.) The dotted ones? Unpaved paths you could follow, but at your own risk. It struck me...

7 days ago • 2 min read
White text on a blue background of five icons of visual framework shapes with single word about what they communicate under each icon. Headline: Shapes speak.

What Comes After the Shapes? Over the past 12 weeks, we’ve explored the power of visual frameworks together. From circles, triangles, and squares to paths and networks, we’ve seen how simple shapes can explain, clarify, and inspire. This series was never about design tricks. A well-drawn framework can do more for your product or service than a dozen paragraphs of text. It helps your audience understand quickly, remember clearly, and see themselves inside your story. That’s persuasion at its...

14 days ago • 2 min read
White 2x2 icon on blue background with gold seal superimposed on it. Bright green dollar signs spill from it. Text: Turn frameworks into assets.

SOLO is your weekly design and visibility lab — part of the Solo Business School, and dedicated to helping solopreneurs stay small and play big. Welcome to issue #077 and to all the new readers who have joined us this week. From Visual to Valuable: Turn Visual Frameworks Into Assets Hey, Reader — Today I want to share an important distinction that many solopreneurs overlook: Some visuals are nice to look at. Others are business assets. They become reusable tools that build your authority and...

21 days ago • 3 min read
White image of sign post on blue background indicating two different ways to go. Text: Mixed signals erode trust.

SOLO is your weekly design and visibility lab — part of the Solo Business School, and dedicated to helping solopreneurs stay small and play big. Welcome to issue #076, and the many new readers who joined us this week! Are Mixed Signals Undermining Your Credibility and Authority? Have you ever looked at a visual and felt something before you understood it? That’s no accident. Shapes, lines, arrows, and colors speak their own language, instantly and subconsciously. Before your audience reads a...

28 days ago • 2 min read
Blue background with image of icon of page of text turning into a stacked tiered triangle diagram. Text: "'Turn wait, what?' Into 'Oh, I get it!'"

SOLO is your weekly design and visibility lab — part of the Solo Business School, and dedicated to helping solopreneurs stand out with smart systems, sharp visuals, and AI that unlocks your edge. Each week, you get fresh ideas to help you stay small and play big. Welcome to issue #075, and to all the folks who joined us this week! What Can You Do With a Visual Framework? Have you ever tried to explain something and watched your audience’s eyes glaze over? Then you quickly sketch it out, and...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Blue background with image of magic wand superimposed over 5 core framework shapes. Text: Stretch your framework thinking.

SOLO is your weekly design and visibility lab — part of the Solo Business School, and dedicated to helping solopreneurs stand out with smart systems, sharp visuals, and AI that unlocks your edge. Each week, you get fresh ideas to help you stay small and play big. Welcome to issue #074, and to our many new readers this week. Let’s Push Past Basic Frameworks Over the past five weeks, we’ve explored the five essential shapes behind visual frameworks (circles, squares, triangles, paths, and...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read
White icon of mind map of blue background. Text: Uncover your idea web.

SOLO is your weekly design and visibility lab — part of the Solo Business School, and dedicated to helping solopreneurs stand out with smart systems, sharp visuals, and AI that unlocks your edge. Each week, you get fresh ideas to help you stay small and play big. Welcome to issue #073. How to Show Everything All at Once Hey, Reader — With 47 new readers joining us this week and many more in recent months, it seems a good time to quickly reintroduce myself. I’m Terri Lonier, and I’ve been...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read
White icon of S-shaped path on blue background. Text: Show your process as a journey.

SOLO is your weekly design and visibility lab — part of the Solo Business School, and dedicated to helping solopreneurs stand out with smart systems, sharp visuals, and AI that unlocks your edge. Each week, you get fresh ideas to help you stay small and play big. Welcome to issue #072, and the many new readers who have joined us for the first time this week Is Your Message Lost Without a Map? Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring how visual frameworks can help you stand out. Through a...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Three triangles on blue background: upright, tiered, and inverted. Text: Triangles help you focus, filter, and funnel.

SOLO is your weekly design and visibility lab — part of the Solo Business School, and dedicated to helping solopreneurs stand out with smart systems, sharp visuals, and AI that unlocks your edge. Each week, you get fresh ideas to help you stay small and play big. Welcome to issue #071, and all the new readers who joined us this week. Discover the Shape That Sorts, Shrinks, and Sharpens So much of running a solo business is about distilling the many into the few: ideas into offers, leads into...

2 months ago • 2 min read