M1 — Skill Audit Worksheet

Print this. Pen and paper, or duplicate as a Google Doc. Either way you write the answers — you can’t think your way through this.

Part 1 — What do you actually do for money?

Forget your CV. Forget your last promotion. Write the three things people most often pay you for. Not what your title says you do — what they specifically came to you for and put money behind.

  1. ____________________________________________
  2. ____________________________________________
  3. ____________________________________________

For each: who paid, what did they get, was the result clear, fuzzy, or invisible?

Part 2 — What do strangers ask you for advice on?

People in your network. People you barely know. What’s the question they ask when they’re stuck? Three answers.

  1. ____________________________________________
  2. ____________________________________________
  3. ____________________________________________

This is often closer to your real wedge than your job title is.

Part 3 — Where does the market actually pay?

Find one company in the last 12 months that paid someone — consultant, freelancer, or employee — at least $50K to do roughly what you do. Just one. Write the company, the role, and the rough number.

  • Company: ____________________________
  • Role: ____________________________
  • Rough comp: $____________________

If you can’t find one in 30 minutes of research, that’s a signal. Your skill might be too generic, too specific, or framed wrong.

Part 4 — What does AI compress for you?

Of the work you do, what now takes you 10x less time because of Claude, GPT, Cursor, or whatever stack you run? Three answers.

  1. ____________________________________________
  2. ____________________________________________
  3. ____________________________________________

This is your unfair advantage. The skill that scales because you’ve built the workflow.

Part 5 — Where does your energy actually go?

Look at the last working week. Where did you feel sharp, useful, present? Where did you feel like you were dragging?

  • Sharp on: ____________________________
  • Dragging on: ____________________________

You can’t build a business around what drains you. Even if it pays.

Part 6 — Synthesis

Take the answers above. Distil into three sentences.

  • Who you serve: ____________________________
  • What you sell them: ____________________________
  • Why you, not the next person: ____________________________

That’s your draft positioning. Three sentences. Read it out loud. If you can’t say it without flinching, redo Parts 1 to 5 with sharper answers.

What to do with this

  • Post your three sentences in the community channel
  • Read everyone else’s
  • The cold-eye feedback is the part that makes this work
  • Refine over a week — don’t ship the first draft

Move to M2 when you can defend your positioning to a sceptical friend in under 30 seconds.