Transcription
Hey guys, in today's video, we're going to focus on the number one problem holding back 99% of AI developers and creators: your skills aren't getting the attention they deserve.
This is a problem because if your skills aren't noticed by the right people, they can't hire you, pay you, or send opportunities your way. I know this is a real problem because I faced it myself. I was putting in the work, becoming a better developer, and building real-world projects, but I felt unnoticed. This was super frustrating because I couldn't land new jobs or opportunities to get paid more.
But then I made one single change that completely flipped the script: I started to build an AI personal brand. The rest has been crazy! This single change took me from being unknown to tripling my total income through new jobs, freelancing opportunities, digital products, coaching, and more opportunities than I can honestly keep up with. In today's video, I'm going to share my entire playbook completely for free so you can start building your own AI personal brand that attracts clients, job opportunities, and unlocks new income streams. The best part? Any AI developer or creator can follow this exact playbook.
In fact, I've seen it firsthand working with multiple students. For example, I worked with Tim, who was building a YouTube channel helping developers implement AI into their workflows. Before working with me, Tim created three videos, got a few hundred views, and around nine subscribers. After working with me and understanding how to properly position himself and create viral YouTube content, his next three videos generated over 15,000 views and hundreds of subscribers—months of progress in three videos! This unlocked new freelance work and helped him create his own school community. He's been crushing it ever since.
Additionally, I worked with Alexandra, who was already creating content but struggled to monetize it. After working through strategy, she's on her way to earning over $10,000 a month through freelance and business opportunities. She's been crushing it! We also helped her unlock LinkedIn's potential, generating posts with over 100,000 views and even more paid opportunities. She's absolutely crushing it as well. In the rest of this video, we'll focus on the exact steps you need to take to copy their success and build your own AI personal brand.
Because you guys are awesome and I really want you to crush it, I put together a 5-day email master class on building an AI personal brand—much more detail than I can cover in this video. I've already sent it to a few people, and they've absolutely loved it. I'll have a link in the description below if you want to check it out and get even more support. But enough of that, let's quickly cover what we'll be doing in the rest of the video.
First, we'll talk about what an AI personal brand is and why you should care. Then, we'll dive into the five core pillars of creating your own AI personal brand so you understand how they work together to make you a lot of money. You'll definitely want to stay to the end because pillars four and five are my absolute favorites! By the end, you'll have a clear picture and actionable steps on what you need to do next to create your own AI personal brand and start raking in the money. I hope you're super excited, and let's dive into the first part—what the heck is an AI personal brand?
All right, so now it's time to dive into the fun stuff. What the heck is an AI personal brand? Well, an AI personal brand is just like a regular personal brand, but on steroids. It's all about showcasing your skills, expertise, and projects online. Without an AI personal brand, no one will know who you are or how you can help them. But with one, everyone will know exactly what you do and how you can help them. Instead of just being another developer or creator, you're tying your name to AI—the biggest and most in-demand skill in the world right now.
We're not just talking about AI on your personal brand; we're using it to streamline your content, automate your workflows, and maximize your output to help you stand out even more. It turns your work into a magnet for new opportunities. An AI personal brand will bring the right opportunities to you. Let me tell you why this matters: if you don't build an AI personal brand, you'll be forever stuck chasing opportunities. If you're trying to get a new job, it'll be you sending applications. If you're trying to get new freelance opportunities, it'll be you pitching clients, hoping someone magically notices you. But with an AI personal brand, opportunities chase you.
I've seen this firsthand, and it's the craziest thing. Once you have an AI personal brand, clients will reach out because they already know what you can do and how you can help them. Employers will see your work and invite you to work for them. You'll wake up with DMs in your LinkedIn inbox saying, "Please come work for us!" This is a drastic change from hoping someone magically responds to one of the hundreds of applications you send out. Instead of proving yourself in an interview, your content proves what you're capable of doing. It eliminates all the friction, and opportunities flood your inbox. This is exactly what's happened to me and other AI developers I've worked with.
I will say that building an AI personal brand isn't for everyone. Let me explain: an AI personal brand is for AI developers or creators already building real-world solutions. It's for those who love experimenting with AI, creating projects, and pushing boundaries. It's for those tired of being overlooked and want to start attracting inbound opportunities. This will change everything for you. If you've never built an AI project before, this isn't for you. Your first step is to focus on becoming a builder first. Luckily, I've dedicated my entire channel to helping you do just that. I recommend checking out my CAI videos, L chain videos, and AI would make videos to get started building real-world AI solutions.
Now that we've clarified what an AI personal brand is, why it matters, and who it's for, let's focus on the next step: making sure you stand out. If you don't position yourself correctly, you'll blend in and opportunities won't find you. That's where our first pillar comes in—defining your brand positioning. Let's hop into pillar number one to set you up for success.
Oh, and real quick, before we dive into the five pillars of building your AI personal brand, I want you to know that I am offering one-on-one support to help you build your own AI personal brand and land your first paying opportunity. I'm doing that inside a new group coaching program called the AI Authority Accelerator. The purpose of this 8-week program is to help AI developers and creators like you create an AI personal brand and land your first client. There's a personal guarantee: if you don't get a paid client by the end of 8 weeks, I will keep working with you until you do. I'm so confident it will work for you.
Inside the program, you'll get hands-on support every step of the way, from starting to landing your first paid client. Let me give you some more details. First, there's weekly coaching where we'll dive into a specific topic each week to help you go from starting your AI personal brand to creating awesome content on YouTube, engaging with customers, and landing that first paid client. We'll have multiple one-on-one calls throughout the program. Right at the start, we'll help you pick your niche and orient you. Halfway through, we'll do a checkup to accelerate your growth. At the very end, we'll talk about long-term strategy.
Then, I'll offer personalized feedback on every video and post you create. You'll get two years of lessons condensed into eight weeks of tips and tricks. We'll help you tweak and adjust to accelerate your growth. Inside the program, we'll focus on creating interesting content, engaging with customers, and landing that first paid client. You'll get done-for-you video and thumbnail editing (it's a pain in the butt!), and we'll create high-quality personal branding for your social media platforms. We'll also share tactics and playbooks to accelerate your growth—8 weeks instead of 8 months.
We'll also work one-on-one to figure out how you want to monetize your AI personal brand and orient your content to help you get there as fast as possible. I'm so excited for this program! The goal of the AI Authority Accelerator is to help you speedrun success. Yes, we will cover the five pillars, and you can do everything we'll cover, but instead of it taking many months to land your first client, I want to help you speedrun success and get that first dollar coming in, turning your AI personal brand into a full-blown business.
If you're interested in this one-on-one support, the AI Authority Accelerator has only 20 spots. Once 20 people are in, the doors close until the next cohort. Because this is the first cohort, I'm doing a special founder's discount. If you're thinking about launching an AI personal brand, this is the best and cheapest time to do it. Every cohort going forward will increase in price. Applications are coming out soon. On March 10th, the doors open on a first-come, first-served basis. The program starts on March 30th. If you're interested, check out the first link in the description below. It'll give you access to the 5-day email masterclass and put you on the waitlist.
All right, let's hop back to the five pillars of building your AI personal brand. Now it's time for pillar number one: your brand positioning. Your brand positioning is how people online instantly recognize you—what you do, who you help, and why viewers should follow you. If you get this right, picking your niche will make everything else ten times easier. If you get it wrong, you'll waste months creating content no one cares about.
It's super important to note that if you're clear about your brand positioning, the right audience will find you, and they'll stick around because they know what you stand for and the value you provide. Let me quickly cover my mistakes and how I fixed them. When I first started, I had zero positioning. I was everywhere! I was making content about AI—showing people how to make a children's book using AI, then using Twitter to make an automation bot using AWS, then back to AI and doing a landing page. I was all over the place.
As a result, I gained some small traction, but it confused my audience. They didn't know what I was about. I wasn't building an audience; I was confusing people. Here's the fix: focus and pick a niche. When creating your channel, dominate a small slice of YouTube. You can't be everywhere. The goal is to position yourself as the go-to authority on a very specific topic, not just another creator creating content all over the place. The more focused you are, the easier it is to attract the right audience and avoid competition.
YouTube is hyper-competitive. It's a winner-take-all platform. Whoever's best in a specific topic is usually the go-to source. It's hard to compete for views, which is why we want to focus on standing out and not fighting for attention. We want to make winning easy. You'll follow the AI plus two topic framework. The AI plus two topic framework combines AI with two other topics. This positions you as an expert in a specific niche instead of competing with every creator talking about AI.
For example, if you want to be "the AI guy," will you create content about the newest models, how AI is used in sales teams, or how AI is used for developers? It's too broad. No one will know why they should follow you. With our AI plus two topic framework, pick AI and two other topics. In my case, I talk about AI, full-stack development, and business. That little area in the middle is my niche. I talk about AI models but relate them to full-stack development and real-world business use cases. I recommend you do the same.
It's hard to be a top 1% creator in a broad niche, but combining three overlapping topics helps you specialize and establish authority. It makes content creation easier because you have a clear focus. It prevents you from chasing shiny objects and helps you attract the right audience—people who care about your expertise. Your audience instantly knows why they should follow you because your content is focused on those three topics, showcasing how you solve problems. That's why people will follow you.
Let me give you some concrete examples. Matthew Burman focuses on AI plus news and use cases. Jack Roberts focuses on AI, no-code, and automations. Mvin focuses on AI for developers and use cases. As you can see, mixing up these three variables produces wildly different content and channels. I hope you're starting to see the power of this framework.
Here are action steps for setting up your brand positioning: first, pick your niche. Research YouTube channels to see what's working. Reflect on what you like to make and talk about. I read business books and love business. I love coding and AI. That's how I picked mine. I focus on what I enjoy and create content about it. You have to do some inward reflection. Next, create a roadmap. Guess what content you'd create if you picked a specific niche. Do you like it? If you like the content, you have a great topic. If not, rearrange your topics and hop back to the reflect stage. Use these three steps together to create your AI niche.
Now that we've talked about picking your personal brand, we need to focus on creating a content engine to produce videos and valuable content that grows your audience on autopilot. This is where most people get stuck. They have a great idea but never get started. They're afraid, unsure if it'll provide value, or they do one or two posts and give up. We'll talk about building your content engine properly so you don't give up. The point is to attract the right audience, grow your authority, get deals, and create opportunities to make money. Let's hop over to pillar number two.
Now that we've picked a topic, it's time for pillar number two: creating your content engine that grows your audience on autopilot. Before diving into the content engine, let's define its goals. First, it should attract leads and opportunities 24/7. Second, it should build authority so people trust you as an expert. Third, it should be highly leveraged so each piece of content works for you long after you post it. If you get your content engine strategy right, it'll work for you around the clock, bringing in new job offers, clients, and more opportunities than you can keep up with. But if you get it wrong, you'll waste time.
Before I launched this YouTube channel, I launched a previous one and it bombed. I was creating a vlog about building an AI startup. I posted three videos, maxed out at 100 views, and the content was completely wrong. It was me-focused, not focused on providing value. It crashed. On the last video, I got two comments: "No one cares" and "I hope you fail." I quit. A year later, I came back, focused on building a real content engine, completely changed my strategy, and everything changed.
Here's what you need to do: first, create high-value, leverageable content (we'll dive deeper). Second, post on platforms with high organic reach and longevity (YouTube and LinkedIn). We won't post on platforms like X because it's a constant rat race. Third, give away everything in every piece of content. People pay for implementation and acceleration. We're here to start a business, not just get popular. People pay for implementation because they see you can do what they want. Beginners pay for coaching and products to accelerate their journey. That's why we give everything away for free. Knowledge isn't the limiting factor; implementation is.
Next, build an email list. We're on rented land on YouTube and LinkedIn, so bring them into your ecosystem with irresistible lead magnets. Not everyone is ready to hire or buy today, but if they join your email list and you provide value, they might be later. Use irresistible lead magnets—free source code, cheat sheets, or mini-courses. In this video, I've created a deeper dive of the five pillars (check the description below).
Next, repurpose and multiply your efforts. Every lead magnet for your YouTube video should be repurposed for LinkedIn. As developers and creators, we have limited time, so we need to maximize the value of everything we do. The more people see your name, the faster your authority grows and the more opportunities come your way. The more value you put out, the more opportunities come. It's a win-win.
Alexandra, one of my students, created a video on mixtures of agents and a lead magnet. She repurposed it to LinkedIn, and it exploded—over 100,000 impressions, leading to five paid opportunities. The power of repurposing content is insane. Now let's dive into actionable steps for creating proven content formats.
The easiest way is a curated list. This format is great because it clearly explains what the viewer will get. People love lists! For example: "Three mind-blowing examples of OpenAI 03 mini-models you should steal." We'll do item one, example two, example three, and then say, "Oh, by the way, I've made an awesome lead magnet with five more examples! Click the link below!" Always give value, then give even more value with your lead magnet.
Another proven format is a simple how-to guide—a step-by-step guide. This provides immediate value and a clear actionable outcome. It showcases your technical skills and problem-solving abilities, building your authority. For example: "How to build an AI agent that scrapes competitor prices in five steps."
Is a very clear outcome. I instantly know what the entire video is about. I know the entire format. I know if I were to click on this video right now that there would probably be some sort of intro and then there'd be steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And by the end of five, I would have a bot or agent that could go off and let me see all my competitor's prices. Very clear! I know what I'm going to get out of this video before even clicking on it.
Then, the video format—once again—shows the five steps. And at the end, we'll say, "Oh, by the way, here's the lead magnet. Here is all the code that you saw inside the AI agent. Just go ahead and download it completely for free. Link in the description below." So hopefully you're starting to get the format and feel for this and the way we should go about creating content in our content engine.
Then finally, the third format that you should steal is the tip/insight list. So with this one, what we're doing is actually just aggregating a bunch of high-impact lessons to our audience. Because you know, we, as the expert, have a ton of expertise in a certain domain, and we're just going to say, "Hey, I've spent hundreds of hours, you know, thousands of dollars working in this field, and here are a few tips and insights on how you should go about doing X." The reason why this works so well—once again—it paints a clear journey for what the viewer should do. Like, "Here's five tips on how to do X," paints a clear journey for what the user is going to experience as they're watching the video or reading the book. And they're also going to—you know—once again—have a clear understanding of what they're going to get out of it. So another example for this one would be, "Hey, in today's video, I'm going to give you seven tips for AI developers to use Cursor like a pro." This video: very clear outcome. I'm curious in Cursor, and I do want to know how to actually use it better, so I'm actually going to go off and create a video on this exact subject later on because I think this is a—between Claude and Cursor—there's a lot of interesting things you can do in this field. Same format: I'm going to show seven tips, and at the very end, I'm going to say, "Oh, by the way, if you would like to see even more tips, check the lead magnet down below. Get it completely for free, and you'll see another eight tips that I've added for you guys completely for free." So hopefully it's starting to all make sense of how it all connects together.
Now we know what type of content we need to be making, where we need to post it; we even know the format of what type of content to create. But now we need to focus on avoiding the most common mistakes I see beginners do as they're going off and starting to crank up and build their content engine. So let's go ahead and dive in.
So the first thing is, as beginners go off and start creating YouTube videos and LinkedIn posts, they don't hook the viewer. And if you don't hook the viewer between your title, thumbnail, and your intro, basically the rest of the work is wasted. Because if someone doesn't click, it doesn't matter how awesome the video is on the inside; if they don't click, they don't watch; and if they don't watch, they don't get value, which means you're not going to get opportunities and leads. So you have to hook the viewer. You should spend the majority of your time in the beginning thinking about clearly how to create a title and thumbnail that brings in people to clearly watch your video and gets them excited to watch.
All right. Another major mistake that I've seen beginners make time and time again is they start filming without a clear three-liner. They're going to go—they get inspired by something they see—and they just start recording. And then they're kind of starting off talking about AI, and then they hop over to, "Oh, I learned some lessons back from when I started my first job that you're going to find helpful too, cuz it's helped me," and then, "Oh yeah," and then, "Here, by the way, here's that quick how-to guide on," as we're, you know, talking about this, "Oh, and here's a deep dive on this random subject," and like they kind of hop around. And what ends up happening is they get done with the video, and then they go, "Shoot, what should the title for this be?" And because they've scattered everything all over the place, the title will never match the viewers' expectations of what they're going to watch. Each video should have a clear single purpose and a clear single title that work together and just make it very easy for the viewer. We want to keep things clear because a confused viewer leaves. So the actual tip out of this is: focus on a clear title first that you would want to click yourself, and then focus on creating the video second.
Then the third major mistake that I see most developers make—and sorry, creators make—on, you know, LinkedIn, YouTube, is they stop way too soon. They quit. They make a few videos, they don't get the millions of views that they expected they were going to get, and they just give up. And I know I've seen this myself; heck, I did it myself the first time I created YouTube content. I just did not know what I was doing until I invested in coaching courses and everything to figure out how the heck this game works. And the biggest mistake that people do is the comparison game. They see, you know, MrBeast, the huge YouTube channel that gets hundreds of thousands of views, and they say, "Dang, my video only got like 500 views. This is not what I thought it was going to be. It's much harder. I'm not getting job offers. I'm going to give up." And the trick is: do not play the comparison game to other people; play the comparison game against your future self. So, you know, "Is your second video better than your first? Great! Just keep doing that, and don't give up." The only way you lose this game is by quitting. So if you don't quit, you're eventually just ultimately going to win. So hopefully that makes sense as well.
Now, the solution to these major problems, and the way I like to think about it to, like, really help, you know, stay in it for the long game—and this is an infinite game; you can keep playing it forever—is to treat every piece of content that you create as an asset that's going to compound over time and work for you 24/7 around the clock. So every time you make a video, it's another shot at getting your authority out there and to go off and work as a digital asset 24/7 to bring in people into your sphere so that you get more opportunities, and just the rest—it just works. So don't give up, and just think everything that you're doing—it's a little soldier fighting for you 24/7 around the clock—and we just have to, you know, slowly build up our army.
All right. So we've gone through everything that you need to know about creating your content engine, and I want to go ahead and give you immediate steps that you should take. Heck, right now, pause the video and start working on these, or immediately after watching this. So here's what you need to do next when it comes to creating your first pieces of content: first, pick a proven content format, so like I said earlier, let's get that curated list, a how-to guide, or a simple list of insights. Next, we're going to write a strong, clickable title before doing anything else. So the best thing I like to do is think of what's a good video title that I would want to watch myself. So in my head, I would love to watch a quick how-to guide or quick seven tips on how to best use Claude 3.7 with Cursor. I would want to watch that video right now, so I'm going to go off, research, do all the finding around and experimenting, and create that video, cuz I'm—if I have that video that I want to watch—I know there's probably thousands of other people that also want to watch the same thing. And we want to be very clear in the title: "Seven tips for how to best use Claude with a Cursor." Boom! Very, very simple.
Next, after we have clearly defined our title, we want to work on making our engaging hook. So the first 30 seconds are the most important of the whole YouTube video. I have more information on this in the 5-day master class in the email below, but basically the first 30 seconds are the most important part of the whole video. Once someone clicks, and if you confuse them, they're going to just dip, and your views won't explode on the video. Finally, we need to focus on making that irresistible lead magnet for your video that you pick. So think cheat sheets, source code, resource guides, or just more of what you did in the video—that always works. And our ultimate goal is to get people off YouTube and LinkedIn and in our email list. So hopefully that all makes sense.
And now that you understand, like, how to go off and create content that attracts attention, it's not enough. The next step is actually to start turning that attention into real-world opportunities. And like I said, content is not enough on its own. And if you're not actively connecting and engaging with people that message you on your videos and posts, you're just leaving an insane amount of money on the table. And that's what, in pillar three, it's all about. It's all about transforming your audience that's engaged into valuable relationships, some collaborations, and paid opportunities so that everybody can win. So let's go ahead and hop over to pillar number three so you can see this all in action.
All right, guys. So welcome to pillar number three: Strategic Networking, where we're going to focus on turning in all those content that we're generating into actual conversations, so those conversations can turn into high-paying opportunities. So let's go ahead and dive in.
So one of the things that's super important to note is posting content is just the start of building your AI personal brand. Because if you're not actively engaging with the people that are commenting, DMing, or reaching out to you as you post content, you're leaving a massive amount of opportunities on the table that could turn into really high-paying deals. So here's the problem: content alone is not enough. Views and likes don't pay the bills, but conversations with real people who have problems that we can solve—they do. That is what pays the bills. So if you're just posting and waiting for opportunities coming to you, you're missing the point here. If someone watches your video, they find it valuable, and they drop a comment like, "Hey, this is super helpful," well, if you don't go off and start a conversation with them, how can they ever hire you, refer you, or even know you offer help? So that's exactly what we're focusing on in this strategic networking pillar, and this is where most creators fail. They just don't fully complete the loop. They get it started, but they just don't go 100%. So they create the content that brings in the views, which brings people directly to them, but they never engage, which never allows the cycle to complete and get them paid.
So here's exactly how we're going to fix it with the strategic networking. Instead of waiting for opportunities to start the conversations, here's exactly what we're going to do: first, we're going to engage. So every time someone reaches out with a comment, a DM, or interacts with us in any way possible, we're going to engage. And once we engage, we—most—our whole goal is to help. We're trying—we're here to provide help and provide value to the world, to showcase our expertise and that we're an authority in the space. So if they mention that they're having a problem, we're going to offer free value. That's all we're trying to do here: free value. Because as long as we put enough goodwill into the universe, I promise you it's going to come back tenfold. We'll talk more about that later on, but if someone does reach out with a problem, we're going to say, "Hey, I actually helped a lot of developers in this space with that exact same issue. Can we hop on a quick call for an hour, 30 minutes so I can help you out?" And that opportunity and that conversation can lead to a real opportunity for you. We'll talk way more about how to monetize in pillar number four, but for right now, just know this could be a really great opportunity for us.
And then finally, what we're going to do after that quick conversation—the whole goal is to go—"Hey, I've had a great talk with you for the past 45 minutes. I've given you everything that I know about solving this problem"—and then we're going to go with the "Oh, by the way" method where we're going to say, "Oh, by the way, I've actually helped coach a lot of developers who want to do exactly what you're trying to do in the past, and I'd be happy to help." Then we can drop an hourly rate. We can drop a bundle of, like, "Hey, I think it'll take four coaching calls to get you where you want to go. Is that something you'd be interested in?" And the reason why this works so well is because over the past 45 minutes of the conversation, we've just dropped knowledge bomb, knowledge bomb, knowledge bomb. So we've eliminated all friction because they see we clearly understand the problem; we've already told them how to do it. Like, the "how" is not the magic sauce—if you remember back from earlier—people pay for implementation and speed, and we can offer help on either, cuz we could build it if they want us to, or we could coach them along the way. So that's our whole goal: value, value, value. And at the end, "Hey, I can help." And it's also important to mention: if we can't help, totally fine; that happens all the time. But what we're trying to do here is basically play out the role of just providing massive value to everyone that interacts with us and put as much goodwill and karma into the universe, cuz like I said, it will come back tenfold. And just to give you a quick caveat: if you can't help, totally fine, because you could always play matchmaker where you say, "Hey, I personally cannot help solve this issue. I obviously told you everything that I think you should be doing, but I also know this guy who you would really like to connect with." So you can always play matchmaker as well, and that's something else that I think you would find interesting. It's crazy how many cool people you're going to meet as you go off and engage in this strategic networking.
Now let me explain why this matters: first off, it builds trust, and people buy from people they trust. And that's clearly at the beginning of the whole call when we're doing a strategic call with someone; we're just offering value and clearly establishing we know what we're doing and building trust. It also helps create opportunities. So what I mean by that is even if the person we help doesn't—you know—want more help right now, they might later. And that's so important because we're just trying to—we're playing the long game here—and—and we just know deals might not always come in, but we just want to be known as the person who can solve problems. So whenever someone does need help, they reach out to us or they tell their friend who's probably in the same space of, like, "Hey, I know a guy that could help you with the exact problem they're doing." So we're just trying to create a network of people that know exactly what we do and how we can help people. So anytime on that person's radar an opportunity or issue comes up, they're going to be directing them to us. So this is a really cool way of how we can exponentially grow our network to just attract opportunities—left and right. It's wild how many things are going to come your way. And then finally, I do want to go ahead and say: if you ignore this, it's going to feel like YouTube and this whole AI personal brand isn't working. And the reason why is cuz you're going to start getting the views, you're going to get the thousands of views, maybe even tens of thousands of views, but then you're not going to get any results, meaning you're not going to get any paid clients, and it's because of that gap right in the middle where we're not having conversations. So the second you start having conversations with real people, the pipeline is complete, and you're going to start getting real opportunities just fall in your lap. And if you don't do these conversations, it's going to feel like you're just posting in the void, and you're getting views, but nothing's happening. So do not ignore this advice about doing strategic networking.
So let me go ahead and share some of my personal stories that I had as I've gone off and started to actually engage in this exact strategy that I've been sharing with you guys. So I do—just quick bit of background—is when I started, I was so hesitant about, you know, going on these strategy calls, helping people out. "What if I don't know what they need help with? What if—what if—what if they think I'm dumb?" You know, I had so many, like, faulty beliefs of, you know, instead of just going out providing value to the world, I was just kind of like, "I'm just going to hold it all in because, you know, that's how people are going to come and find me cuz I'm an expert. I know what I'm talking about, and it's just up to them to understand it." And that's not the case. What you have to do is you have to provide all the value on the call because we are the expert, and we're confident in our abilities. So what I did to start—cuz I was unsure what to do—is I started offering free strategy calls on all of my YouTube videos: "Hey, you want help? I have an account; the link in the description below; let's hop on a call; I will help you with whatever issue you're running into cuz I just want to start bringing people into my ecosystem so I can start helping out." And the part that is very interesting about doing it is everything started to change after I was doing this strategic networking. So let me show you: the second I started opening up my doors for people to come in and start engaging with me, my calendar instantly became booked. It was wild! Overnight, I was like, "Well, I have no more free time at nights cuz I'm just going to be on calls with people left and right offering value." And here's all the awesome things that came from it: first off, I would get on a call with someone who was thinking about building some sort of AI tool. Over the course of an hour, I would spend the majority of it saying, "Here's exactly how I would go about building and solving the problem that you're having," and then at the end of the call, you know, the guy would just look at me and go, "Can I hire you like right now? Are you looking for a new job?" So that just blew my mind of just like—by helping someone out for 45 minutes—an instant job offer would just fall on your lap. Also, consulting gigs will pop up all the time of, like, "Hey, we clearly see what you're doing; you now understand where our problems are; would you be interested in, like, you know, teaching our CEO or teaching our team about how to use AI for our specific niche?" So those come into your lap as well, and those pay very well. And then finally, you also get to meet a lot of awesome developers who—you know—a few steps behind you but want to get where you're at. So, for example, you might get a developer to say, like, "Hey, I watched your latest video; it was awesome; here's what I'm trying to build." Over the course of the 4–5 minutes, we break down, "Hey, man, here's the three steps you need to do to build the project if I was in your shoes," and at the very end of it, you always get one of two options: "Hey, would you actually be interested in building this for me? I can pay you," or—or the developer would go—"Oh, I really want to understand how to do this myself. Do you offer coaching?" So either way, you can always help in any of these situations, and it just completely blew my mind that I would just—you know—I wasn't seeing results until I started doing this, and the second I started doing this, I was—it's a game changer, and I never want to stop having conversations with real-world people cuz it closed the loop, and all the opportunities started to flood in.
And then the best part about this is I had a lot of faulty beliefs of, like, "Man, I have to have 30,000, 50,000, 100,000 subscribers for this to actually start working," and that's not true. I was probably in the low thousands of subscribers when I started doing this, and as I've worked with, like, Alexander Tim and others, people are starting to get conversations like when they have hundreds of subscribers. It's wild! And the reason why it worked is because we're planting our flag on a specific niche, and we are showing that we are the best at what we do. So you don't have to have thousands of subscribers; it works really well even at—you know—as you're starting out. And also just quick pro tip on a side note: when you're starting out with this strategy, I know a lot of developers and creators are going to have imposter syndrome of, like, "What the heck do I charge? Like, do I—am I worth $25 an hour, $100 an hour, $500 an hour?" Like, no one knows how to charge. So here is my step-by-step strategy of how I would figure out your hourly rate if you're starting out. So to start, go completely free. Just say, "Hey, I'm here to provide value." Your calendar is going to book up like this, and then what's going to happen next is you're going to go, "Oh my gosh, I have no more time in the day to do anything. I have to bump my hourly rate." And we're applying friction, so we're going to go free, then we're going to book a calendar completely booked, booked, add friction, $25 an hour, $50 an hour, and then once again our calendar is going to get booked, and then we're going to go up again, $100 an hour, and then our calendar will slowly start booking up, and then whenever your calendar levels at it—whatever you're comfortable with—maybe two, three calls a week, whatever works for you—that's how you have, through the market, figured out your hourly rate. And it's just crazy as time goes on and more people know about you, your hourly rate is just going to keep climbing up and up and up to where you're charging hundreds of dollars an hour, and this blew my mind when I started to be like, "Are you cool for a $200, $300 coaching call?" And people like, "Yeah, please! Let's go!" So I just want you to know: limiting beliefs and a lot of imposter syndrome—just know everyone has it—and that's how I would—my step-by-step strategy on figuring out your hourly rate.
So all right, now back to strategic networking and actually specifically what action items you need to be taking inside of pillar number three. So first off, we need to make it insanely easy for people to reach out to. So what I mean is you need to add a clear call to action on all of your social media platforms, LinkedIn, YouTube, everywhere else, to say, "Hey, I offer help. If you want to talk to me at all, click the link down description below." So you can add in, like, a Calendly link, or you can say, "Hey, here's my email; shoot me anything; I am so happy to help." And the reason why is we just want to let people know that we're available for help, cuz if you—you know—don't tell people, they can't just assume that you're here to help. So we have to be very explicit and say, "I am here to help you."
Next, what we need to do is—like we talked about earlier—we need to engage with everyone. And the way I like to think about it is every time someone interacts with me, it's another potential opportunity to help, but more importantly, it's another chance for me to provide value to the world because I know the more I put out there, the more that the universe will give back. So it is up to us to just give, give, give, give, and until—you know—until we can't give anymore. And just to be professional, try and respond quickly and really just to go ahead and start the conversation as fast as you can while they're interested—while the lead is hot—is kind of the way I like to think about it. And then most importantly, I see a lot of developers get this wrong and AI creators get this wrong when they start out: whenever someone does engage, they just respond with a, "Oh, cool, thanks." And that's not how we actually should be engaging with people that we're trying to help. We always want to keep things open-ended, so you need to ask better questions. So instead of just saying, "Thanks, cool, I appreciate you liking the video," no, no, no. We're going to say, "Hey, just out of curiosity, what are you working on? Glad you liked the video. Oh, by the way, you know, what's your biggest challenge with AI," or just whatever you were talking about in the video, just provide an open-ended question back to whoever's engaging with your content, just so we can keep the ball rolling, make a new friend, help out, new opportunity—it's just—we have to ask better questions.
And then another thing I've kind of harped on this a lot, but we want to deliver massive value on every single call or really every single interaction we have with people. The reason why is because the more insight, the more strategy, and actionable advice you give, the more you're going to be seen as an expert, and then also it's just going to make you easier to get hired. And I used to have a lot of faulty beliefs of just like—like I said earlier—I'm going to hold in all the good knowledge and like not share it, and that's completely wrong. Give it all away because we're not going to be a gatekeeper of knowledge; our whole goal is to be an implementation expert or an educator expert that's going to help people get to where we're at. And then just final thing that I've kind of mentioned a few times now is after we do one of these strategy calls or engagements, we always want to say, "Oh, by the way, I hope you understand everything that we've talked about today, and I do believe I could actually help you out with achieving your goal. If you're interested, here's how I can help." And this is where we kind of start to hop over to pillar number four, which is starting to figure out how we actually turn all these conversations that we're having at the very end—how do we actually turn this into deals so we can start making money and basically getting compensated for all the value we're putting out into the world? So this is exactly what we're going to cover in pillar four; we're going to break down how you turn the content, the connections, and all the conversations that you're about to have into high-paying opportunities so the money just starts flowing in, and it feels so right. So let's go ahead and hop over to pillar number four so we can start learning how to put some money in your pockets.
All right, guys. Welcome to pillar number four, which is all about monetization, and this is my favorite pillar in the whole course, just because this is where everything completely changes. And inside of this pillar, we're going to be talking about how we're going to—you know—turn your AI personal brand into a money-making machine. I'm going to show you all the different ways you can make money, all the different levels. Like I said, I'm so excited for you guys to see everything that's about to come—come this way.
All right. So the most important thing to note is: everything changes once the first dollar starts rolling in because you go from a hobby to—this is a business. Like, it fully makes sense. You see how you go end-to-end of attracting eyeballs to actually making money, and this is the section where it all happens. And here's the hard truth about it though: if you don't have a clear monetization strategy, you're just leaving a ton of money on the table, and you actually just might not make money if you don't understand what we're going to be talking about in this section. So before diving into the exact ways to make money, I think it's important for us to take a step back and understand the three levels of monetization with your AI personal brand and how we're going to start building in leverage to make more and more money as we grow. So let's go ahead and dive into the first one.
So the first strategy and first level of monetization inside an AI personal brand is one-on-one. This usually means coaching or freelancing. You can do this right out the gate, and we'll talk about this much deeper in just a second, but just know you can start doing this level—level one—right out the gate as soon as you launch your AI personal brand. Next, we're going to start going up the leverage chain, and we're going to start working on one-to-many. This is where you're not going to help an individual person; you're going to start working with groups of people, and we're going to talk about why this is the next step in just a second. And then finally, there's the Holy Grail, which is the one-to-infinity monetization level. This is level three, and this is basically where you're going to start creating digital products or SaaS services where every time someone buys it from you, there's no additional work. The important part though—because we're going to dive deep into each one of these and talk about exactly how you can make money with each one of these options—is just to know these are levels because it takes time to get to the infinite money level, whereas the one-on-one coaching you can do immediately when you start your channel. So let's go ahead and dive in and actually make some concrete examples.
So let's start talking one-on-one monetization, which is coaching and freelancing. This is 99% most likely where your first dollar is going to come from. So this is you going off and coaching and helping other people who are a few steps behind you, or this is you freelancing and solving problems for other businesses. And this is exactly what I'm helping people do inside of the AI Authority Accelerator, like I said, eight-week coaching program. By the end of eight weeks, my goal and personal guarantee is you will have one of these opportunities coming in so you're starting to make one of those monies, or I'll keep working with you until you get one of these. So like I said, so confident this is where your first dollars will come from. I know I've harped on this a bunch inside of this masterclass, but it really comes down to understanding a core concept is that every time you are creating content on the internet, you're always attracting two audiences. So one action gives two results at all times: learners who want your coaching and buyers who want your implementation. This is why level one is all about one-on-one help because this is exactly what our content is—basically a lead magnet for—it's bringing in these types of people.
Now, here's how I recommend getting started with this one-on-one monetization, level one: go ahead, pick an hourly rate. So like I said, I would start at $50 an hour minimum if you're new, and then, like we talked about in the previous section with our strategic networking, we're going to let friction be our guide on what we should charge on an hourly rate. So we'll start out $50 an hour, and then our calendar will fill up with strategy calls and freelancing opportunities where we're doing work, and eventually we're going to say, "Oh my gosh, I have no more time. Hey, man, I know we have been working at this rate, but I have so much work to do, and there's so many opportunities coming my way, I have to bump up to $100 an hour or $200 an hour," whatever—you know—whatever the market demands, you're just going to keep bumping up your rates because this is—I cannot express this enough—we are in the perfect opportunity for AI developers and creators. The reason why is the demand is here; every business, every—every client, every—you know—student, they all want to learn how to use AI. So the supply—sorry, the demand is here, and the supply—AKA you as an AI creator or developer—you are in demand. So the demand is small; the supply is huge, so people are just going to be throwing opportunities your way. So you will be amazed how quickly your hourly rate is just going to double and double and just keep going from there because you're a wanted person, and people really, really need your help. So so excited for you guys to actually see this in action cuz it's unreal when you have to start telling people no, and my rate doubled; it's just the most mind-blowing thing that'll ever happen.
All right. So now going in the tradition of leveling up, eventually what's going to happen is we're going to just run out of time because we're basically going to start charging so much money per hour that no one can afford us. Totally fine; that's just how the market works. You know, $300 an hour—a lot of people can't do that—so, and in order for us to still provide value to people, we are going to have to move to the one-to-many monetization level where we're going to share our time with multiple people. So let me actually go ahead and dive into this so I can explain, and like I said, this is strictly a forcing function of so many people wanting you—you're going to have to transition from a one-on-one to a one-to-many just where you're sharing your time and splitting it up so people are splitting the cost for your time so it's affordable for them, but you're still getting the big dollars. So let's go ahead and dive into this.
When you shift to a one-to-many, there's really two options. So there's high-ticket group coaching. So think a premium course anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000. This is where—you know—you're taking—you're handholding a few select people on a desired journey till they get a clear outcome. That's option one. Option two is a low-ticket group subscription. So think school; this is the best way I like to think about it to where, hey, you know, you guys get to hop on premium calls, get premium courses that I make, just small ticket items, and you're just constantly providing value to a large group of people that are inside of your community. So the reason why this is so important is because we're starting to see how money works and how time works together in the one-to-many model; you're trading time—you're trading the same amount of time—but for a lot
Going to pay 200 bucks to build a course, spend dozens of hours, and then make 200 bucks? Not worth it. This is strictly a scale problem.
Now, let's look at what happens if we sell the same course, but we've been building our AI personal brand and reach 10,000 email subscribers—totally doable in your first year. With the same conversion rate, and only the subscriber number changing from 100 to 10,000, we'll have 100 buyers. The same course, same value, now generates $20,000. These numbers just scale. Hit 30,000, 50,000 subscribers? At 50,000, that same course generates a six-figure launch. Mind-blowing! Beginners shouldn't rush into digital products; the math doesn't work. Keep this in your back pocket—it's insanely profitable, just a little down the line. Get excited to see what's possible!
Outside those core monetization streams, there are other ways to make money building your AI personal brand. Let's dive in. One overlooked way is high-paying job offers. For AI developers, $150,000+ salaries plus stock options aren't uncommon. Building an AI personal brand leading to such a job is wild! Don't sleep on this.
Next are sponsorships. Brands will reach out: "We like what you're doing. How much for a brand deal?" You'll be amazed how many companies ask. You might get close to 30 a week as your brand grows. Another way to make money. Then there's YouTube ad revenue. Once you meet the requirements, YouTube pays you to market yourself—a cheat code! No other platform pays you to promote yourself. Making a few thousand bucks monthly posting content is awesome. Finally, freelancing. Eventually, you'll run out of time, so consider agencies or matchmaking. In the agency route, you manage developers, charge clients $100/hour, pay developers $60, keeping $40. Or, be a matchmaker: refer projects you can't handle, taking a 10-20% cut for zero work. Wild!
So many ways to make money with an AI personal brand—it seems unfair, like cheating! It's an awesome opportunity. That's why I created this masterclass. Unlimited opportunities!
I want to talk about a huge benefit of building an AI personal brand regarding monetization. People don't fully understand this. You're not locked into a single business idea. Building a SaaS app takes months, pitching it takes time, and if it fails, you start over. No carrying over results, no leverage. You're always at Ground Zero. But with an AI personal brand, every piece of content stacks, bringing more leads. You have unlimited opportunities to try different monetization vehicles: coaching, digital courses, a SaaS app—whatever. You are the cornerstone, and as long as you get new leads, you have unlimited shots on goal. I don't think enough people understand why building an AI personal brand is the best business opportunity for AI developers and creators—for this reason. The world changes fast, but we're flexible and agile.
We've covered monetization strategy, but now let's talk about scaling it. We've picked your brand positioning, talked about content, networking, and making money. How do we connect these systems to grow exponentially? That's pillar number five: the growth flywheel.
All right guys, welcome to the fifth and final pillar: the growth flywheel. This is where we turn your systems into exponential growth, scaling your audience, authority, and income. Let's dive in. At first, it feels slow, but once you understand how systems compound, the momentum never stops. Under the hood, there's a three-part feedback loop: your content engine attracts attention, fueling networking; networking builds relationships, turning into monetization opportunities; and monetization lets you create more content (tips, tricks, how-to guides from real-world experience). This new content has authority, hitting harder. More subscribers, more networking, more content—it keeps going. It's a three-part feedback loop: content, networking, monetization—repeat. Every system grows together.
Let me give a more detailed example. A YouTube video showing how to build an AI tool attracts subscribers and DMs. Strategy calls (from networking) provide value. Offer coaching. Learn lessons from coaching calls—people struggled with X, so create a video on X. This completes the feedback loop: awesome content, more networking, more monetization. They all work together. It's a three-part feedback loop: content, networking, monetization—repeat. As these engines grow, your AI personal brand grows. Amazing!
At first, it feels slow. You post content, but platforms like YouTube and LinkedIn have an exponential tendency: you grow faster as you grow. Your first video gets 100 views, your fifth gets thousands, then tens of thousands. It shoots off like a rocket ship, but it can feel slow at first. Most creators never reach exponential growth because they quit too soon. They post five videos, get 10 views, and quit. Or they have three conversations, hear "not interested," and quit. Or they offer coaching, get a "no," and quit. It's discouraging if you don't see the bigger picture. If they kept going, their content would rank, they'd become an authority, their network would explode, and opportunities would come out of the woodwork. Consistency is the price of admission for your growth flywheel. Stick to it!
Let me cover some things that happened to me. I started with no idea, bought courses, and promised myself to provide value and not give up. At the start, it's flat; YouTube's figuring you out. But eventually, things click. You understand content creation, your niche, and YouTube knows who to serve your content to. It takes off like a rocket ship. My email list shows this: a full year of not knowing what to do, but I didn't quit. The goal of this masterclass is to shrink that "beginner hell" year to weeks. Things shoot off like a rocket ship once they take off.
On YouTube, it's a flatline at first. Videos from last year feed into your content system. The longer you stay, the more exponential the growth. Einstein said compounding is the eighth wonder of the world. Time is your friend.
Let's talk about real results. New jobs: as soon as I started my AI personal brand and showed my skills, job opportunities exploded. Within months, I landed a new job. The founder didn't even formally interview me; he saw my YouTube channel and said, "You know what you're doing!" More jobs, more money, more fun. All the companies were awesome. There were coaching and freelancing opportunities. My first year on YouTube, I didn't know what I was doing. That's why I'm making this video—to save you time and headaches. Freelancing opportunities came in four months. People saw my YouTube work and asked for help. I started coaching in June. Over the next six months, I helped people, making money along the way. I sold coaching bundles, making enough in a weekend for a trip to Mexico! My brain broke. There's so much money to be made! This was my first major digital product; I learned so much. Next time, it'll be twice or three times as much. My audience grows, so the same product sells to more people = more money. Don't give up!
In the AI Authority Accelerator, I'll show you how to launch a digital product. This is a snapshot of the last two years. None of this happens overnight, but it can happen much faster for you. Once the flywheel spins, it never stops as long as you keep providing value. You'll grow exponentially.
If you want your flywheel to spin faster, check out the AI Authority Accelerator 8-week program. It helps AI developers and creators build their personal brand and land their first paid client in eight weeks. We're trying to speedrun success. Take what I've said and crush it. But for those who want to maximize the current AI wave, join the AI Authority Accelerator. Only 20 spots in the first cohort, and a founder's discount! Doors open March 10th. The waitlist gets you access to a five-day masterclass (deeper than this video). The program goes live March 30th. People's lives will be changed.
If you have questions, comment below or email me at Brandonhan (link in description). I can't wait to see your success! Keep me posted! You guys are awesome. Have a great day! See you in the next video.