absolutely. that's the exact gap most people never bridge - the jump from managing tactics (like running ads or optimising landing pages) to building a go-to-market strategy.
Without being inside an organisation, you need to simulate the friction that forces that level of thinking. Start by reverse-engineering case studies where a local business scaled from a single location to a regional chain. map out every decision point: ad spend allocation, channel mix, offline attribution, even how the store layout affected foot traffic. don't just list what they did - write the "why" behind each move as if you're the one accountable for revenue.
Then, find a small business (a friend's shop, a local café, a plumber) and offer to build a GTM plan for free, but only if they let you run one real experiment. Even a £200 Facebook campaign with a proper landing page and a tracking pixel can teach you more about positioning, audience definition, and conversion paths than any course will. document the whole process - not for a portfolio, but to force yourself to articulate the logic.
The resource you lack isn't money or a job title - it's the pressure of consequences. that's the real teacher. So go create some low-stakes consequences for yourself
