Recently I had a TikTok agency reach out to me to represent my TikTok channel and help me grow.

First thing I checked? Their TikTok channel - 300 followers. They'd never grown a TikTok account themselves. Not even their own. It makes any promises they make hollow.

I took a call with them, already dubious. They knew the theory but don’t have practical experience to draw from. No war stories. No "here's what worked for me." No real-world troubleshooting experience.

This is all too common unfortunately. Expert consultants and advisors who haven’t done “the thing” themselves.

Drives me mad.

I get it. The temptation is strong. You find a hot topic - people are buying. You want to cash in - totally understandable.

But…if you have no experience doing the thing how can you help others? Far too many consultants and advisors are in this position!

This is also (another story) why I chose not to go into consulting whilst I was doing my MBA. I was on the pathway but realised a LOT of them were, ahem, BS artists with fancy slide decks!

Let’s get started:

Real-World Implementation

Your first client should be yourself.

Think about it. If you're planning to offer newsletter services, wouldn't it be helpful to have a successful newsletter of your own? If you're thinking about social media services, shouldn't you be growing your own accounts?

Sounds basic but too many people ignore this truth.

This isn't just about proving you can do it. It's about:

• Learning the real pitfalls

• Finding the shortcuts that actually work

• Building systems you can replicate

• Creating a first case study

• Gaining the confidence to charge good money

Literally making you a better service provider because you have genuine experience rather than just theory.

Your First Project

So, let’s apply this to the Playbook we’re going to convert into a service. Let's say you picked the Newsletter Growth Playbook and want to offer newsletter setup services and helping clients get to their first 100 subscribers.

Your mission is simple: Set up a newsletter in your chosen niche yourself. Get it to at least 100 subscribers.

As you implement, document everything. I mean everything:

• Time taken for each step

• Tools you used

• Problems you hit

• Solutions you found

• Results you achieved

Document this stuff publicly - this is called “build in public”. By talking about what you are working on you will attract people who are interested in what it is you are building. These people will become your first paid clients later.

Twitter is the obvious play to do this because can do quick text and photo/screenshot updates. But my recommendation personally would be to shoot short videos on Tiktok/Instagram discussing what you are working on.

We document publicly not for audience growth (although that’s a lovely bonus!). We’re mainly documenting because it forces us to be conscious about what we are doing. Instead of blindly stumbling through problems you’ll be capturing the specifics and your solutions. This becomes the basis of your service delivery blueprint. It's the difference between "I think this will work" and "I know this works because here's exactly how I did it."

Building Your Case Study

While you're implementing, you're also building your first case study. This is gold for sales conversations later down the line. You’ll basically report on how you did it which is the basis for how you’ll be doing it for others.

Document these key points:

• Starting point

• Steps taken

• Problems solved

• Results achieved

• Time invested

• Lessons learned

Here’s a prompt to extract a case study from you.

You are an expert case study interviewer who helps entrepreneurs document their success stories. Interview me about my implementation of [Project Name]. Focus on extracting specific details, numbers, and learnings that will help sell this as a service to others.

Ask these questions one at a time and wait for my response to each:

1. What specific problem or goal were you addressing with this implementation?

2. What was your starting point? (Include relevant metrics or baseline numbers)

3. Walk me through your implementation timeline. What were the major milestones?

4. What were the 2-3 biggest challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

5. What specific results did you achieve? (Include concrete numbers where possible)

6. What tools or resources were essential to your success?

7. What surprising things did you learn during this process?

8. What would you do differently if starting over?

9. How long did the entire process take, and how much time did each major phase require?

10. What would you say are the critical success factors for someone else trying to achieve similar results?

After receiving all responses craft this into a compelling case study format that emphasises the value that can be provided to clients.

Let's start with the first question: What specific problem or goal were you addressing with this implementation?

Remember, through all this you're not just implementing - you're creating a blueprint for your service delivery. It’s a two-for-one.

This is also why we want to keep our first service small and limited - it should not be “how to get 100,000 subscribers for your newsletter” because that is going to take you a lot longer to do! Instead keep things low level for now - quick wins you can carry out for your clients later rather than gigantic swings. Remember that we can later scale up the service - but don’t run before you can walk.

Don't aim for perfection. Aim for proof of concept. You need enough success to prove your basic service works, not a million-dollar business. The biggest mistake you can make right now is over expanding (before even starting!).

What's Next?

In Part 3, we'll take your implementation experience and turn it into a compelling service offer. We'll use AI to help craft your packages, pricing, and sales materials - all based on what you've actually achieved.

Remember, you can't effectively sell what you haven't done yourself. Start with proof, then move to profit. Don’t just try and blag it - I’m watching you!