How I Turn an Unknown Delivery Task Into Something I Can Learn

I want to know what a service actually requires before treating uncertainty as a reason not to learn it. In this lesson, I used a creative-production example to ask how quickly somebody would figure out the work if a specific job were in front of them.

The useful part is the gap between not knowing and learning what needs to be done. My advice was to turn that gap into questions and tasks, then work through them instead of leaving the whole subject as one intimidating unknown.

Be specific about the service you are selling

I had spoken with people who wanted an advertising agency but did not want to make the creatives. They wanted the client to supply those while they operated Ads Manager. I distinguished media buying from producing the advertisements and suggested looking at creative production as a service.

The examples included UGC videos, unboxing material and image ads. I was pointing toward the work a brand or another agency needed made, rather than assuming the only offer was managing every part of its advertising.

Use the hypothetical job to identify the learning task

I asked how quickly they would figure out making UGC creatives if I put $10,000 in front of them for the job. They said they would work it out the next day. That was a hypothetical question about the incentive to learn, not a client payment they had received or a promise of earning that amount in a day.

The learning could involve tutorials, a course or consulting, depending on what they needed. I used the example to challenge why they would let another day pass without starting to acquire the skill they said they could learn.

Client Ascension related reading: the operating systems lesson discusses deciding whether a task needs a person or automation.

Look at the task before adding a manual role

Another person described moving application information from Jotform into a sheet and approving applications. He was thinking about hiring a VA for the work. I told him to look at Zapier instead of assuming a new manual role was the next step.

He later came back and said he felt foolish for not learning it earlier. That was the lesson in the conversation: investigate whether the task can be automated before committing to finding and training somebody to do it manually.

Write down the questions that interrupt learning

If I watch a tutorial and immediately have more questions, I write them down and keep going. Later material may answer some; others become questions to look up. That gives the uncertainty a visible form instead of leaving it as a reason to stop.

In college, I wrote tasks on note cards and put them on the wall. When I finished one, I took it down, crumpled it and threw it away. I liked being able to see and feel that something had been completed.

Build capabilities that connect to one another

The areas I named were websites, sales calls, outreach, content, copy and advertisements. Learning one can expose questions about another: a page needs an offer and copy, outreach needs a service to explain, and a sale creates delivery work.

I would make the next step a specific piece of learning and implementation, rather than wait to feel certain about the whole business. The practical habit is writing the question down, finding an answer and doing the task that answer makes possible.

Client Ascension related reading: Johnny’s ads agency account describes learning delivery while building a more specific service.

Adapted by Client Ascension with AI assistance from Daniel Fazio's lesson. The first-person narrative follows the source speaker’s account. Watch the original video