It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Let me tell you a tale of two launches.

(TBF with my 365,000 written words this year I’m coming for you Dickens!)

For the first launch of the AI Workshop Kit - we were out there telling people they could make $1000-4000/hour delivering AI workshops. Just like I had been doing. Just like a handful of other early beta users had done.

But here's the thing - people had to take a lot on faith. Sure, I could prove I was doing it. A few others too. But was it repeatable? Would it work for everyone?

And why should they believe me? It’s a precarious position!

Those early first cohort students were brave souls. They trusted me, and thankfully, they succeeded.

Then came the second launch.

This time we came packing. We came ready.

We had stories like Joshua’s. Joshua gave his first workshop and landed a $2,000 client within 3 days of getting the AI Workshop kit.

Here’s an example of social proof used being in a Webinar:

We had dozens more success stories just like it. Real people, real results, real proof.

The difference? External validation. Social proof. Instead of me saying "trust me bro this works" we had a chorus of successful real users saying "look what we did with this."

Do you think we deployed these stories? To their fullest extent?? You bet we did.

And you’ll be doing this too. Let’s build steam with a grain of salt.

Let’s get started:

The Power of External Validation

Here's the secret about momentum: it's not about what you say - it's about what others say about you.

Remember our launch phases from Part 1? We're at that critical transition point between Whisper and Momentum. And social proof is our bridge.

Here's what most people get wrong about social proof: they only think about formal testimonials and case studies. Those are great sure. But there’s way more out there.

Some of the most powerful proof comes from casual, real-world feedback. The excited DM from a user who just got their first result. The screenshot of someone sharing their win in Discord. The quick "holy crap this actually works!" email response.

I keep everything. You should too:

• Screenshots of DMs

• Email response

• Text messages

• Discord/Slack messages

• Social media mentions

• Support ticket thank yous

• Random feedback in comments

• Video messages

• Voice notes

You need to train yourself to be on the lookout for any and all social proof. And to immediately grab it.

That message you got last week where someone said "wow this saved me so much time"? That's proof. Screenshot it.

The person who posted about your tool in their Instagram story? Save it.

That excited voice note in your WhatsApp? Keep it.

These informal bits of proof often feel more authentic than polished case studies. They're raw. They're real. They show genuine excitement.

Of course, still collect the formal stuff:

• Structured reviews

• Video testimonials

• Written case studies

• Customer interviews

This is all still gold. It requires more effort and a strategy to collect them. Do both!

Basically don't wait for the perfect testimonial. Save everything. Each piece of proof, no matter how small, is ammunition for your launch. Be a hoarder, squirrelling away everything.

You want this sort of mess eventually:

Organising Your Proof

First up, let's talk about collecting testimonials. Forget complex systems. Forget fancy databases. In the age of AI, we just need everything in one accessible place.

Create a simple document or webpage. Copy in every testimonial, every review, every piece of feedback you get.

I personally chuck the informal social proof in a Notion page. Nothing fancy. Just a document. And we use Senja for the more formal collection.

Don't worry too much about organising it - AI can parse through it all in seconds.

The key is making it easy to upload to ChatGPT, Claude, or whatever AI you're using. If you're fancy, connect it to an agent. But honestly? Copy/paste works just fine.

Remember all those customer problems we identified back in Playbook 1? The ones that drove us to build our tool in the first place? Pull those out.

We're going to match every piece of social proof to the specific problems it solves. Here's the prompt that does the heavy lifting:

You are helping match customer testimonials to specific problems and create social content.

First input:
1. Your list of identified customer problems
[Paste problems from earlier playbooks]

2. Your collected testimonials/reviews
[Attached]

For each customer problem, I will:
1. Find relevant testimonials that address this problem
2. Identify strongest proof points
3. Generate social content for your chosen platform:
   - Platform: [user specifies]
   - Format: [user specifies]
   - Style: [user specifies]

Remember to maintain authentic voice and real customer stories.

This prompt will go through your customer problems and match up killer social proof to address the problem. And then from here spit out social posts based on your requirements.

This is powerful because it connects real user success stories directly to the pain points your potential customers are feeling. It's not just proof - it's targeted proof. It let’s us get very purposeful with our social proof content.

Creating Targeted Content

Now for the fun part. Once you've matched testimonials to problems, you can generate targeted content for any platform. Want a Twitter thread about how your tool solves problem X? Feed the relevant testimonials into the prompt. Need a TikTok script about problem Y? Same process.

The key is that we're not making stuff up. We're taking real success stories and adapting them to the format that works best for each platform.

Building Your Proof Pipeline

As you get more testimonials, keep adding them to your collection. The AI will have more and more success stories to draw from. Your content gets stronger. Your proof gets more targeted.

Each piece of content leads to more users, who provide more testimonials, which feed more content. It's a beautiful cycle. You just need to get the flywheel up and running and it’ll build its own momentum.

P.S. (!!!) If you’ve got this far we’re exploring launching a 30 Day AI Agent Accelerator where we:

1. Hone a business idea

2. Build a focused AI tool

3. Test and refine the tool

4. Market and launch

Course, community and live sessions.

Waitlist here: https://heyform.net/f/ZCCsfMqx