If all they can show you is a deck, you are buying a deck.
A consultant who also does the work has to live with their own advice. That one fact changes the advice: it gets smaller, cheaper, and possible with the people and budget you have.
What is the difference between an advisor and a doer?
An advisor tells you what to do. A doer tells you what to do and then does some of it, or all of it, with your team. Both have a place. The trouble starts when you hire the first kind and expect the second.
A strategy deck costs the same whether or not anyone can build it. When the person writing it has to build it next month, the impossible parts come out on their own.
When is advice alone enough?
When you already have the people to do the work and you only need a decision. A second opinion on a quote, a gut check on a plan, or a review of a campaign before it goes out. For those, an hour of advice is the right size. Mine is $150.
How do I tell them apart on the first call?
Ask five things:
- Show me something you built that is still running. Not a case study. The thing.
- Who does the work after I sign? You want a name, not "our team".
- What would you do first, next Monday? A doer answers with a task. An advisor answers with a phase.
- What would you not do? A doer has opinions about what to skip, because they have paid for skipping it wrong.
- What does it cost? A doer knows, because they know how long the work takes.
What does doing look like in practice?
In my case: three fractional seats right now. I built the AI software at Appraisal Dream from nothing, and one client's sales team runs 49 automated workflows I built and still maintain. Before consulting I was the developer at the agency, then the person running design and technology. I still write the code.
Is there a downside to hiring a builder?
Yes. Builders like to build. A good one will tell you when the answer is to buy something off the shelf, or to do nothing. Ask them for an example of when they told a client not to build.
Answered by Jared Lukes, Minneapolis. Twenty-five years in brand, UX, and technology, currently holding fractional AI and technology seats at three companies. About Jared.