Trying to do it from a "cookbook" would certainly be complicated. Lots of things are easier to do than to describe, though, walking and breathing among them.

What I saw Mead and MacNeil doing was bringing a lot of experience to what they were telling us: such-and-such approach may sound like a good idea at first but here's what usually happens when you try it... If that's not the result you want, better take a different route or at least be prepared to change course partway through.

I'd say the most important part of learning to do anything is to notice what happens as you do it. Without that, you may get pretty good at going through the right motions but you haven't really learned much.