Bob is a waiter. On a waiter’s wage. But exploring his true skills – what he loved doing, what people really paid for – showed him what his true talents were. He turned himself into a freelance consultant with an income above £100,000.

Providing restaurant service isn’t an easy or mundane job, at all. Knowing how to serve food properly, make it look great on the table, deal with people in a way that makes their evenings memorable. These are saleable skills. The point here is that Bob isn’t someone who waits on tables. He’s a professional people person, in the business of selling pleasurable experiences. And that’s worth more than minimum wage plus tips.

Every great waiter has a deep understanding of what makes people tick. How to press (and unpress) their hot buttons. How to juggle tasks and To-Dos in real time, surrounded by groups of HALT people. (Hungry, Angry, Late or Tired. The most difficult sort to deal with.) So how can waiter Bob kickstart his six-figure revenue stream? He needs to connect with the right audience.

Who’s affluent enough to afford £100-an-hour fees? Time-poor bankers. Bob decided to offer himself as a host of their working lunches, making sure the catering team provided a perfect experience, every time. With some happy customers, he approached catering businesses in his hometown that’d benefit from having their wait staff trained. With the staff turnover of most restaurants, a roster of 20 or 30 local businesses turned out to be all Bob needed to hit six figures, guaranteeing each one a four-hour session each month for £400.

See what Bob did? He scaled out his skillset to a broader market. He’s using the same expertise built up over a decade waiting on tables, but providing it to a different and more profitable audience. He’s a six-figure freelancer.