My Untold Truth About Making Money With AI

Hey there, my friend!

Writing to you from a snow-dusted apartment in the Austrian Alps, where family time over Christmas has given me space to think about something wild.

Remember when I told you about my AI influencer experiment? (Yeah, that happened - I actually made money selling AI-generated "photos" before realizing it wasn't my path.)

But here's what's fascinating:

While everyone's panicking about AI taking their jobs, I've discovered something that changed everything for me - and might just be your ticket to freedom too.

Let's dive in.

The Reality Check We All Need

By 2030, up to 30% of all jobs will be automated. Not just entry-level positions - we're talking law, medicine, finance. Everything.

And there are only two types of people in this story:

• Those getting replaced

• Those doing the replacing

After quitting my finance job in Singapore, I tried everything:

• Faceless YouTube channels (failed)

• That AI influencer thing (worked, but felt wrong)

• AI marketing videos (crickets...)

Then it clicked.

The real money isn't in chasing AI gimmicks. It's in solving real business problems using AI.

My first real win? Building a chatbot for a family friend’s dental practice. One simple solution, €3,000 upfront plus €220 monthly recurring revenue.

Why did this work when the other stuff failed?

Because I stopped trying to be an "AI expert" and started being a problem solver.

Here's the blueprint I wish I had when starting:

Step 1: Pick Your Lane

The 5 ways to make money with AI right now:

• AI Influencing (teaching others)

• AI Consulting (advising businesses)

• AI Automation Agency (building solutions)

• AI Education (creating courses)

• AI Software (building tools)

Don't start with what's sexy. Start with what works.

Let me break this down into real numbers:

AI Influencing:

• Takes: 6-12 months

• Investment: Zero (just your time)

• Potential: $2k-5k/month

• Reality check: Tough to stand out

AI Consulting:

• Takes: 3-6 months

• Investment: Your brain

• Potential: $300-1000 per call

• Reality check: Trading time for money

AI Automation Agency:

• Takes: 2-4 months

• Investment: Some subscriptions to no-code tools

• Potential: $10k-100k/month

• Reality check: This is where I landed

Want to know why I eventually focused on AI automation?

Because it's the perfect bridge between your corporate skills and future freedom.

Think about it:

You already know how businesses work (thanks, corporate life). You understand workflows (those endless Excel sheets weren't useless). You speak "business" (unlike most tech people).

All you need to add is the AI piece.

And here's the kicker - you don't need to code.

When I built that first dental chatbot, I used drag-and-drop tools (mainly Voiceflow and Vectorshift).

The client didn't care how it was built. They only cared that it worked.

Here's your 90-day blueprint to get started (while keeping your day job):

Month 1: Foundation

• Pick ONE type of AI solution to master first (My recommendation? Start with chatbots - lowest hanging fruit, or voicebots - they are also getting extremely easy to implement)

• Spend 1 hour each morning learning no-code AI tools

• Join AI communities (Check out Liam Ottley on Youtube for example)

Month 2: Test Drive

• Build something simple for free (I started with my dad's practice)

• Document everything (your failures become your playbook)

• Get real feedback (not from friends who want to be nice)

Month 3: First Dollars

• Find ONE business type to focus on (dentists were my first niche)

• Charge a small fee ($500-1000) for your first paying project

• Use that case study to land bigger fish

Real talk?

Most people will read this, get excited, and do nothing.

They'll keep grinding away at their corporate jobs, hoping AI won't make them irrelevant.

But you're not most people.

You're reading this newsletter because something inside you knows there's more to life than performance reviews and golden handcuffs.

I'm writing this from a snowy cabin in Austria, spending quality time with family, hitting the slopes with my snowboard, and running my business on my terms.

Two years ago, I was still in Singapore's financial district, doing the same soul-crushing routine you might be doing right now.

The difference? I started.

Not perfectly. Not even well (remember the AI influencer? Yeah, not my proudest moment).

But I started.

The world doesn't need another burned-out person. It needs people who can bridge the gap between AI and business.

It needs you.

To your freedom,

Stephan

P.S. So for now, just do one thing: Decide. Are you going to be replaced by AI, or use AI to replace your job?