The Six-Figure Playbook Challenge | The Ambitious Advisor

The Reality

80% of Solo Consulting Businesses Fail
Within Two Years. Here Is Why.

Not because the consultants are not talented. They fail because brilliant subject matter experts try to run a business on the same model that works for large firms. Long engagements. Revenue based on a labour model. Custom proposals for every prospect. That model works if you have support teams, overhead, and institutional brand power. When a solo consultant adopts it, the result is predictable: feast or famine revenue, the acquisition-delivery paradox, isolation, and a gnawing suspicion that going independent was perhaps a big mistake.

What you are living right now

✕
The feast or famine cycle. Good months followed by silence. When you are delivering, marketing stops. When the engagement ends, the pipeline is empty.
✕
Custom-building every engagement from scratch. No repeatable offer. Every new client means a new proposal, a new scope, a new price negotiation. You are selling your time, not a system.
✕
Competing on price, not authority. Responding to RFPs, defending your rates, hoping to be selected. Positioned as a vendor when you know you should be positioned as an advisor.
✕
Isolation and decision fatigue. No colleagues to test ideas. No feedback loop. Every strategic decision, from pricing to positioning, rests entirely on you.
✕
Undercharging because you are unsure of your positioning. You know you deliver exceptional work. You just have not figured out how to articulate and price it in a way that reflects that value.

What your Signature Playbook can do for you

✓
Premier Positioning. Stop competing and start being chosen. Clients seek you out because the way you frame the problem and deliver the solution is uniquely yours.
✓
A codified, proprietary methodology. Your expertise turned into a structured, repeatable engagement that clients understand, value, and respect.
✓
Premium fees that clients pay willingly. Because you are pricing on the value of the transformation, not anchoring on the number of hours it takes to deliver it.
✓
Elevated impact for you and your clients. The results you deliver are visible, communicable, and repeatable. Your work speaks for you. Referrals follow naturally.
✓
A business that is simple, elegant, and emotionally sustainable. Fewer moving parts. More time in your zone of genius. A practice you can run consistently, without burning out.

The Concept

What Is a Signature Playbook?

It is the antidote to the broken consulting model. Your proprietary methodology, codified into a structured, premium engagement that clients can understand, buy, and refer to others.

You have worked hard to earn your experience. Now run the business that delivers the impact you deserve.

Most consultants never turn their expertise into a structured, repeatable system. They sell “me and my brain” project by project, constantly reinventing proposals and scopes. Your Signature Playbook changes that. It is your codified method, your proprietary framework, your premium offering. It commands five-figure fees while remaining principled and true to high-integrity values.

This is what breaks the cycle of selling bespoke one-offs and creates a business with a spine.

Premier Positioning

From unknown to sought after. Your differentiation is visible, your confidence is systematic, and your reputation precedes you. Clients choose you because there is no comparison to make.

Scalable Solution

A repeatable methodology that generates premium engagements consistently. Your close rate increases because you are selling a system, not a proposal. Repeat engagements and referrals flow naturally.

Elevated Impact

Your work speaks for you. Clients do not just appreciate the engagement; they talk about it. The results you deliver are visible, communicable, and repeatable. This is what compounds over time.

The Six-Figure Playbook Challenge

Five Days to Outline the Playbook
That Transforms Your Business.

After years of stumbling around consulting business models that did not work, I found the one that delivered massive results for me. Let me share it with you.

Each day, we work live together. I open up exactly how I built my thriving consulting practice, one that commands $75K per engagement, and then guide you to start building yours. You will leave with the outline of your own Signature Playbook: your differentiation, your methodology, your pricing, and your path to clients.

Day 1

Credibility and Foundation

My story and yours. We diagnose why the traditional consulting model is failing you and lay the foundation for what comes next.

Day 2

Your Differentiation

Explore your expertise and build your contrarian point of view. Flip the script on convention and find what makes you incomparable.

Day 3

Your Methodology

Codify your approach into a repeatable system. Build the structured engagement that delivers results clients can see and measure.

Day 4

Pricing and Prospects

Price your Signature Playbook with confidence. Identify your first outreach and conversion path to get in front of the right clients.

Day 5

Results and Next Steps

Everything comes together. Your Signature Playbook is outlined. For those who want to go further, I share the path to work together.

Your Guide

I built my Signature Playbook. It is called The Ambition Playbook.

This week, we start building yours.

Before I started my own consulting business, I was President of Kotter International, the consulting business founded by the legendary, world-renowned Harvard Business School leadership professor Dr John Kotter. Prior to that, I spent time on the client side of the relationship, working at Bank of America, and before that I spent over a decade with Deloitte Consulting in New York. I have worked across six continents with leaders inside some of the most complex organizations in the world.

And then I went out on my own. With all my experience, I thought running my own business would be easy. But I experienced every single challenge you are facing right now. The feast and famine cycle. Custom-building every engagement. Competing for work instead of being sought out for it. And doing work that I had no right to be doing. The isolation. The self-doubt about pricing.

The solution was not working harder. But I did not know that when I started. It was building a proprietary system and turning it into a Playbook for clients. Today, organizations pay $75K for a single engagement. That is my Signature Playbook in action.

The methodology I used to build my practice is the same methodology that will work for yours. Not so you can copy mine. So you can build your own.

7-Figure

Consulting Business

Countless

Failures and Lessons Along the Way

6 Years

Business Growth, Starting During COVID

30+

Years in Consulting

What Others Say

Working With Russell

“Lots of energy, lots of good facilitating and insightful pokes at the right time.”

Robert

“I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Russell over the past 3 years. He is an incredible thought partner, listener, constructive provocateur and uniquely, a student of the human condition.”

Avik

“Definitely walked out of this feeling more ambitious than I did going in.”

Mike

“Russell is packed with quality and I’m so glad that he and the Ambition Team are part of our network now.”

Emily

Is This for You?

This Challenge Is Built for The Ambitious Advisor.

Not everyone. Not beginners. Not people looking for a quick hack. This is for experienced consultants and corporate professionals ready to build something that matches the calibre of what they know.

This is for you if:

✓ You have deep subject matter expertise, typically 10 or more years
✓ You left, or want to leave, a consulting firm or corporate role to build your own practice
✓ You are earning revenue but know you should be earning significantly more
✓ You are tired of custom-building every engagement from scratch
✓ You want to be known as the authority, not just another consultant on a shortlist

This is not for you if:

✕ You are brand new to consulting with no client experience
✕ You prefer long, embedded retainers and hourly billing
✕ You are looking for a passive income scheme or side project
✕ You are not willing to invest mental effort to build your business
✕ You want someone else's playbook instead of building your own

Register Now

Five Days That Will Change How You
Think About Your Business.

General Admission

$200

One-time investment

✓ Five live sessions (12pm to 1pm ET daily)
✓ Daily guides and worksheets
✓ Community access during the challenge
✓ Your Signature Playbook outline by Day 5

Join General Admission →

Recommended

Creator Circle

$350

One-time investment

✓ Everything in General Admission
✓ VIP hour daily (11am to 12pm ET) with Russell
✓ Direct feedback on your Signature Playbook as you build it
✓ Private community access with session recordings available for up to three days after the challenge ends
✓ Extended Q&A and hot-seat coaching

Join Creator Circle →

Creator Circle: 11am to 1pm ET daily (VIP hour + main session)
General Admission: 12pm to 1pm ET daily

Next challenge begins June 22, 2026. Spots are limited.

Questions

Before You Decide

Each day we meet live for 60 minutes (Creator Circle members join an additional VIP hour before the main session). I teach a specific component of building your Signature Playbook, drawing directly from how I built mine. You will have action items each day that build on each other. By Day 5, you will have an outlined Signature Playbook, including your differentiation, your methodology, your pricing, and your path to clients.

This challenge is specifically designed for consultants who are already earning but know they are capable of significantly more. If you are custom-building every engagement, stuck in the acquisition-delivery paradox, or competing on price instead of authority, this will help you break through to the next level. The model is built for experienced professionals, not beginners who are just starting out in their professional careers.

No. I will teach you the methodology I used to build The Ambition Playbook™ so you can build your own Signature Playbook. You will see my framework as a case study and proof of concept, but the entire purpose is for you to develop your own intellectual property, your own approach, and your own premium offering. I built my playbook. We are building yours.

Creator Circle participants will have access to a private community that will include the recording of each session. This will be available for three days after the end of the challenge. You will get the most from attending live because you can ask questions and participate in real-time exercises. But the recordings and workbook guides ensure you can complete the work on your own schedule.

Yes. If you are interested in accelerating your progress, I will share options for how I work with a small group of consultants who want to continue beyond this Challenge. This will not be presented to everyone, there is no pressure and no hard sell. You will need to submit an application to see the offer details.

General Admission gives you access to all five live sessions (12pm to 1pm ET), workbooks, and our community during the Challenge. Creator Circle adds a daily VIP hour (11am to 12pm ET) where you work directly with me in a smaller group, as well as access to recordings of the Challenge for three days after the end of the Challenge. You may opt to receive personal feedback on your Signature Playbook as you design it, extended Q&A time, and hot-seat coaching. If you want more access to input on what you are building, Creator Circle is the right choice.

You Are Not the Problem. Your Business Model Is.

You have worked hard to earn your experience. Now run the business that delivers the impact you deserve.

I built my Signature Playbook. It is called The Ambition Playbook.

I Built My Signature Playbook.
It Is Called The Ambition Playbook.
This Week, We Start Building Yours.

You Are Not the Problem. Your Business Model Is.

You have worked hard to earn your experience. Now run the business that delivers the impact you deserve.

I built my Signature Playbook. It is called The Ambition Playbook.

I Built My Signature Playbook.It Is Called The Ambition Playbook.This Week, We Start Building Yours.

I Built My Signature Playbook.
It Is Called The Ambition Playbook.
This Week, We Start Building Yours.