I run a small product company called Midas Tools. Two weeks ago we productized a service we'd been doing informally for six months: a 7-day AI Clarity Assessment for solo coaches and consultants. $997, fully refundable until the discovery call starts.
Most of our prospects had already paid for ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, Notion AI, and at least one "AI for coaches" course. None of them could answer this question: what changed in your week?
That's the gap an audit closes. Not "what AI tools exist" — that's a Google search. The audit answers: given your specific workflow, your specific clients, and your specific Tuesday afternoon, where does AI save you 5+ hours per week and where does it just burn $20/month?
Here are 4 of the 14 questions we run on every engagement, plus the one that disqualifies about half the audience.
The audit question shape
Every question we ask fills the same five slots:
[ROLE]: who you are when you do the task (writer? researcher? CFO? therapist?)
[TASK]: the smallest unit that recurs — "draft Tuesday's nurture email", not "marketing"
[FREQUENCY]: per day, per week, per client, per launch
[TIME COST]: minutes of focused work, not calendar hours
[JUDGMENT %]: what fraction is "decisions only you can make" vs "typing it out"
A task with 80%+ judgment is not an AI candidate, even if AI can technically do it. Your discovery calls aren't a bottleneck — your follow-up notes are.
Question 3 — Which tasks need my judgment vs my typing?
For each of your top 3 weekly-recurring tasks, label each step:
J = judgment (only I can decide)
T = typing (a competent assistant could type this)
R = research (gathering known information)
Most "I'll do it myself" workflows are 20% J + 60% T + 20% R.
The 80% (T + R) is your AI surface area. Don't try to automate the J.
This is the question that kills the most "AI replaces coaches" panic. Coaches who bill for judgment ($300/hr) and try to "automate coaching" lose. Coaches who automate the typing around their judgment win.
Question 6 — Which client deliverable do I dread the most?
For each recurring deliverable (proposals, reports, follow-ups, content):
Deliverable: [name]
Dread level: 1 (love) → 5 (procrastinate for 3 days)
Hours/instance: [X]
Per month: [N instances]
The dread-5, hours-2+, multiple-per-month deliverable is your
highest-leverage audit target. Not the easiest one. The dreadful one.
Easy tasks aren't bottlenecks. Dreaded tasks are. Solving the dread is what unlocks the other 4 hours.
Question 8 — What's my privacy floor?
Categorize the data you touch weekly:
Tier A (never leaves device): client SSNs, medical, attorney-client privileged,
custody disputes, signed NDAs, board-confidential
Tier B (only encrypted SaaS): client revenue figures, child names, addresses,
unsigned contracts
Tier C (any tool is fine): your own marketing copy, public testimonials,
industry research, anonymized examples
Tier A means local-only models (Ollama, LM Studio, Apple Intelligence on-device).
Tier B means the paid tier of a major provider with DPA + zero-retention.
Tier C is open season.
This question disqualifies 60% of "AI for therapists" or "AI for lawyers" courses on the market — they recommend tools that violate the practitioner's licensing-board data-handling rules.
Question 10 — The disqualifier
What 5 hours/week saved would I actually do something with?
Examples:
Yes: "I'd onboard 2 more clients at $1,500/mo each = $3,000 MRR"
Yes: "I'd finish the cohort course I've been drafting for 14 months"
Yes: "I'd recover from burnout and not blow up my marriage"
No: "I'd... I dunno, watch more shows?"
No: "I'd start scrolling X again"
If the answer is no, save the $997 and don't run the audit.
The constraint isn't time — it's something else.
This is the most honest question on the list. About half of the audit-curious people we talk to discover at this question that they don't have a time problem. They have an energy problem, a focus problem, or a confidence problem. None of those are fixed by Notion AI.
We tell those prospects, on the discovery call, not to buy. That's the version of "qualified lead" that actually works at $997.
DIY vs $997 audit vs $10K consultant
| Slot | DIY checklist | $997 productized | $10K bespoke |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to deliverable | 6-10 hours of your week | 7 days | 4-8 weeks |
| Discovery call | None | 60 min | 3-4 sessions |
| Custom analysis | You do it | We do it | They do it deeper |
| Tool recommendations | Self-research | 3-5, tested for you | 5-15, with vendor relationships |
| Hours-saved math | Your gut | Calculated per workflow | Calculated + measured |
| Refund if wrong | N/A | Yes — full refund unless 5+ hrs/wk saved | Usually not |
| Best for | Anyone with 6 free hours | Solo experts $5K-$25K MRR | Teams of 3+, $50K+ MRR |
You are not the audience for the $10K consultant if you're a solo expert. You probably are the audience for one of the first two columns.
Common mistakes (from 50+ informal audits before we productized)
Treating "AI for coaches" courses as substitutes for an audit. Courses teach you tools. An audit tells you which tools, in what order, for your week.
Auditing the easiest workflow first. Easy workflows aren't bottlenecks — they're just easy. Audit the dreaded one (question #6). The unlock is in the dread.
Confusing "AI saved me time on this email" with "AI saved me 5 hrs/week". One email is a vibe; 5 hrs/week is a measurable change in your calendar.
Run it yourself
I packaged the full 14 questions as a free fillable template. It includes a 1-page summary at the end you can hand to a contractor or VA — or to us if you want the productized version:
→ Free template (all 14 questions + summary): midastools.co/audit-template
→ Done-for-you ($997, 7 days, fully refundable): midastools.co/ai-audit
→ Free fix for "AI gives me generic output" (question #7): midastools.co/prompt-enhancer
The full 14-question version with comparison tables, common-mistakes deep-dive, and the universal audit-question formula lives as a GitHub gist here.
If you've productized a similar discovery process — coaching, consulting, advisory — I'd genuinely love to hear what disqualifier you use in question 10's slot. We sell clarity, not automation, and the disqualifier is what makes it work.
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