The AI Consulting Playbook
Build a Successful AI Consulting Practice
A comprehensive, free guide to growing your consulting business—from positioning your expertise to scaling beyond your own time.
Who This Is For
This guide is for technical professionals who want to build or grow an AI consulting practice:
- ML/AI engineers transitioning from employment to consulting
- Data scientists looking to monetize expertise independently
- Technical consultants moving from hourly to value-based pricing
- Experienced consultants seeking to scale their practice
Whether you're just starting out or looking to double your rates, these frameworks come from real experience building a consulting business from scratch.
The Core Idea
The central concept is the flywheel:
Content leads to calls. Calls generate proof. Proof creates more content.
You write about problems you're solving. People read it and reach out. You help them. Their success becomes testimonials and case studies. Those generate more content and more inbound leads.
The goal is to build a system where you're never answering the same question twice.
What You'll Learn
Part 1: Foundations
The mindset shift from employee to consultant, the value equation, and positioning your expertise.
Part 2: Content & Lead Generation
Building the content flywheel, writing content that converts, and owning your distribution.
Part 3: Pricing
Transitioning from hourly to value-based, the multi-option framework, and mastering pricing conversations.
Part 4: Sales & Discovery
Qualifying buyers, structuring discovery calls, and understanding what's at stake.
Part 5: Proposals
The situational assessment structure, writing winning proposals, and handling objections.
Part 6: Engagement & Scaling
Engagement models, client retention, and scaling beyond yourself.
Part 7: Business Operations
Legal foundations, financial infrastructure, and getting started.
Quick Start
New to consulting? Start with the Quick Start Guide for the essential frameworks in one page.
Ready to dive deep? Begin with Chapter 1: The Consulting Mindset.
Looking for templates? Jump to the Templates Library.
The Bottom Line
"The easiest thing to do is just do good work. Everything follows from there."
But good work alone isn't enough. You need systems to make the work visible, turn conversations into opportunities, price based on value, and scale beyond trading time for money.
This guide gives you those systems.
Your expertise is worth more than you think.
Connect
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