Lesson 4 · 17 min
There is what happened, and there is what the client saw happen. Only the second version enters the decision. Your invisible effort is not proof. In this lesson, proof becomes two concrete things: a real case, told without exaggeration, and a one-page report the client can check on their own.
Start the lesson
Goal: turn work you've done into a real case and a one-page report the client can check.
Anything that doesn't cross over to the client's side plays no part in the decision. Tap each step.
No exaggeration and no invention: the job is to communicate what is true.
Four ideas for your next conversation.
An employee stays up all night solving a problem and leaves at 6:59 a.m. The boss arrives at 7:00. In the boss's perception, the employee left at 5 p.m. like everyone else.
It's the same with clients: the weekend you spent on their solution didn't happen if they never got a signal.
Instead of presenting for twenty minutes, say one sentence with three openings and stop. They walk through one door, and it's their real problem.
Talk only about the thread they pulled. Forget the other two.
"We map where customer service loses customers, review what your team already uses AI for, and train the team to use it safely."
At the start, you talk more. In the middle, it's balanced. At the end, they talk much more than you.
Write down the exact words they use for the problem, and use those words in the report and the proposal.
With no client to show, talk about what you're doing right now, with specific detail. Detail is impossible to improvise, which is why it convinces.
Making up a client, number, percentage or testimonial is fraud. One follow-up question is enough to bring the story down, and then you lose your reputation, not just the sale.
Do a free diagnosis and talk about what you found, without naming the company.
The report is the proof that stays. The Friday update keeps the work visible every week.
REPORT · <service: diagnosis / review / advisory / teaching> <company or "company in the X sector" if there is no permission> · <date> 1. THE PROBLEM, in the client's words "<exact phrase they used>" 2. WHAT WAS DONE - <item> - <item> 3. EFFECT before: <number> after: <number> (or: still measuring, until <date>) 4. WHAT WAS LEFT OUT AND WHY - <item> · <reason: out of scope / needs a specialist / needs IT> 5. RISK OR LIMIT THE CLIENT NEEDS TO KNOW - <item> 6. NEXT STEP <what> · <who> · by <date>
Subject: <name of the work> · what moved this week Hi <name>, quick summary: - Done: <what changed, in results language> - Effect: <number before → number after, or "still measuring"> - Next: <the next step>, by <date> - I need you for: <nothing, or the item that depends on them>
You are my commercial editor. Below are my notes on what I did this week: <in bullet points: what I diagnosed, reviewed, advised on or taught; what broke; what I learned> 1) Write 3 "threads": sentences of at most 12 words, each describing ONE result for the client (result, not technology). They must fit in a single spoken line, separated by commas. 2) For each thread, the question a client would ask if that were their problem. Rule: only facts that are in my notes, with no advertising adjectives.
Use a job you've already done, including the one from the 7-day plan in lesson 1.
Pick a diagnosis, review or teaching session you've done (it can be unpaid). Fill in the report with what is true. If the company didn't give permission to use its name, replace it with "company in the X sector".
Done when: the report fits on one page, has a before and after number or "still measuring" with a date, lists at least 1 item that was left out, and has no sentence you can't back up today.
Run the threads prompt with this week's notes. If you have a client or someone following your work, send the Friday update four weeks in a row.
Done when: you have 3 threads that talk about results, none starting with a tool name, and the first Friday update has been sent.
4 questions. The explanation appears after your attempt.
Question 1 of 4
You opened three threads and the client asked about only one. What do you do?
Question 2 of 4
The client asks how much your diagnosis saved. You haven't measured yet. What do you say?
Question 3 of 4
Which item can NOT be missing from the one-page report?
Question 4 of 4
You fixed an error in the client's process on Saturday and didn't tell them. What is the business effect?
Choose an answer. The explanation appears after you try.