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How a Mom of 3 Makes $50K a Month With AI (No Experience)

Learn how Sandy Lee, a mom of 3 with no AI experience, built a $50K/month income using ChatGPT and Upwork in just 9 months.

Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.

Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.

Key Takeaways

  • You don't need prior experience to start earning with AI; tools like ChatGPT can bridge the knowledge gap.
  • Consistency and focused effort, even just 1-2 hours a day, can lead to significant income growth.
  • Mindset is critical: 'fake it till you make it' and learning from action beats inaction.
  • Building a freelance profile without testimonials is possible by creatively showcasing transferable skills.
  • AI freelancing platforms like Upwork offer accessible opportunities for beginners willing to apply strategically.

What the video covers

  • Sandy Lee started with no technical or AI experience and made her first $3,000/month retainer job on Upwork after only seven applications.
  • She balanced her full-time job and raising three young children while dedicating only 1-2 hours daily to client work.
  • Sandy overcame severe financial hardship, including homelessness, motivating her to find sustainable income.
  • She leveraged ChatGPT to learn and deliver AI-related services, effectively 'faking it till she made it' with confidence.
  • Her background in sales and communication helped her pitch and secure jobs despite lacking testimonials or portfolios initially.
  • Sandy experimented with various side hustles before focusing solely on AI and automation services.
  • She emphasizes the mindset of taking action despite insecurity and learning from failures rather than regretting inaction.
  • The video highlights the power of AI tools like ChatGPT to democratize skills and income opportunities.
  • Sandy's story showcases how persistence, strategic focus, and leveraging AI can rapidly grow freelance income.
  • The host encourages viewers to subscribe and learn from real success stories in AI freelancing.

Answers

Questions about this video

How did Sandy Lee start making money with AI despite having no experience?

Sandy used ChatGPT to learn and create AI-related solutions, then applied for jobs on Upwork. She secured her first $3,000/month job after seven applications by leveraging her communication skills and AI tools.

How many hours per day does Sandy work on her AI freelancing business?

Sandy spends only 1 to 2 hours a day on her AI freelancing work, including client projects, while maintaining a full-time job and caring for her three young children.

What mindset does Sandy recommend for people starting out in AI freelancing?

Sandy encourages a 'fake it till you make it' mindset, emphasizing that taking action and learning from experience is more valuable than being held back by insecurity or lack of experience.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00
Speaker A
You don't have to know anything technical because AI is doing it for you. Yeah. So, you're making over $50,000 a month. How many hours per week would you say you're working? I still have my full-time job, 9 to 5. Also, I have three kids under the age of eight right now. So, building all of this had to be easy for me. I could only spend 1 to 2 hours a day. Even the client work, I only spend like an hour a day maximum. That's it. Wow. I was super poor, like too poor to a point. I could only spend $2 a day. One time I couldn't pay the rent, so I got kicked out. I slept on the beach. The police came up to me and I got kicked out from the beach as well. So, I'm like, "Oh my gosh." So, the reason why I'm sharing this is because I wanted to tell you where I was in terms of I need to make money. And that's the first, the very first money that I made online, which is $3,000 a month retainer. Wow. Now, did you have any experience when you applied for this? No. You're just using ChatGPT. Yeah. Oh man, I'm using ChatGPT. Oh, I got ChatGPT, 20 bucks a month. I'm now an expert. That irrational confidence, that fake it till you make it has never been more in everyone's grasp than it is today. Just have one mindset of if Sandy can do it, I can do it just because I just started this 9 months ago. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. I just think that humans are much more likely from a place of insecurity to like, oh, who am I? No, just like do it. Just go try it. Talk to people on their deathbed, like they regret things that they didn't do, not things that they did because we always learn something from things that we did, but we never learn from something we never did. Yeah, exactly. So, you either win or you learn. I started so many businesses that failed and I regret none of them because I at least answered the question for myself. Okay, so here are some secret sauce. What you want to do is... So, I came across this woman, Sandy Lee, 9 months ago. She started applying for random odd jobs on Upwork. She had no experience, no testimonials, no portfolios. And her first job she got after seven applications and it paid her $3,000 a month for SEO and she knew nothing about SEO, but she had ChatGPT because now everyone is a PhD in everything. We just need to remember that and connect the dots. So, I wanted to talk to Sandy. How did you go from zero to $52,000 a month in only 9 months? And it all started with one job in a skill that she knew nothing about. Please enjoy. So I was raised in seven different countries since I was 11 years old. And that was without my parents. That was me alone going to different families and living here and there. So I just had to learn how to survive just because I didn't speak the language. But what happened was while I was studying abroad, my parents' business went really south. So we came from like a fairly rich family to really poor all of a sudden. So meaning every single time when I was talking with my parents, they were always worried about money. So every single conversation was about money, money, money. So in my head, I just had a thought of I need to make money like when I grow up and then just to make sure my parents are all taken care of and stuff like that. And when I was in college, I was super poor, like too poor to a point I could only spend $2 a day. So, you know, like Uncrustable, like one of those peanut butter jelly sandwiches from vending machine. That was all I could eat. So, I'm like, I'm going to save this so I can eat this. Yeah. So, I got two of those a day and then ate that for a couple of months. One time I couldn't pay the rent so I got kicked out. I slept on the beach. The police to me? Yeah, I was in Hawaii. So, I slept on the beach in the tent and the police came up to me and said, "You're not supposed to be here." And I got kicked out from the beach as well. So, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what's my..." So, the reason why I'm sharing this is because I wanted to tell you where I was in terms of I need to make money. So, as soon as I graduated from school, I found this job, which is a startup company that paid me fairly well. And that's back in the day, Chris, which is $7 an hour, right? But they offered me a fairly good amount of money for salary. So I brought my husband with me. So we started working together for this company and I was the best salesperson there just because I was the only salesperson. So [laughter] like the only was the best. Yeah. One of one. And I was working there but in about a couple of months the CEO told me that we're restructuring the company. You and your husband need to go. And we got let go the same day. And I was looking at my husband. And I still remember this day. We couldn't speak for like 2 hours or so because we were really shocked at that. But that's the moment I realized I cannot have somebody hold my income basket. Yeah. Because literally, so that's when I started to work on side hustle, like different side hustle projects, dropshipping, you know, like FBA, Amazon FBA business, all that. I still have some product at my house trying different stuff, but it didn't really work because I was too addicted to shiny object syndrome. So, what is the next? What is the next? I was just hopping around and that's when I actually found your channel too because I was really into Cytools. But that's the moment when I decided I need to really focus on one thing, just one thing. And that was AI because I know AI was hot, but I don't know anything about AI. I'm like I or at least I didn't know anything about AI, I should say, but I knew how to talk to people. So, what I decided to do is going to Upwork literally and then applying for job application in AI business that I don't even know about. But I knew how to talk to the CEO or how to talk to different people what they're looking for. So after having ChatGPT build a couple different models for me, I presented that idea to the client and that's the first, the very first money that I made online which is $3,000 a month retainer. Wow. From Upwork. From Upwork. Yeah. Hey, please subscribe to the channel. Whether you're on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, doesn't matter. It would mean a ton. So, did you do anything to like build your Upwork profile or like establish a presence? Yeah. So, I didn't have any testimonials. That's the thing. I had a huge imposter syndrome when I first started doing this just because I had no testimonial. I'm like, who am I to pitch an idea that I can do this because I don't know anything about AI, right? But what I realized is every single person including myself, we have some sort of history what we've done in the past. It doesn't matter if you work for, I don't know, like Chick-fil-A or McDonald's and is serving people. That's still a thing that you did and you can somehow relate that into automation. And that's what I did. I went to ChatGPT and told them exactly what I did in the past and then got some numbers out there and how can I relate this into automation and then put that into the work and also got a couple different portfolios so that it looks better. Portfolio doesn't necessarily mean it's your testimonial. It's what you've been building. Right. Sure. So, how many jobs did you have to apply to before you got the one that you got? I applied seven applications. I specifically remember that. That's not many. No, it's not too many. That's not bad at all. It's more competitive now, I would say, but before when I did it, which was November last year. Okay. November last year. So, I've been an Upwork client since they were called oDesk, which was like 2010. They were called oDesk and it was like the place. It was oDesk and freelancer.com. That was like where you went to find a virtual assistant. So, I was looking for virtual assistants there forever. It probably seems more competitive to you because like...
00:14
Speaker A
building all of this had to be easy for me. I could only spend 1 to two hours a day. Even the client work, I only spend like an hour a day maximum. [music] That's it. Wow. I was super poor.
00:26
Speaker A
like too poor to a point. I could [music] only spend $2 a day. One time I couldn't pay the rent, so I got kicked out. I slept on the beach. The police came up to [music] me and I got kicked
00:36
Speaker A
out from the beach as well. So, I'm like, "Oh my gosh." So, the reason [music] why I'm sharing this is because I wanted to tell you where I was in terms of I need to make money. And that's [music] the first the very first money that I made online, which is $3,000 a month
00:50
Speaker A
retainer. Wow. Now, did you have any experience when you applied for this? No. You're just using Chad GBT. Yeah. Oh man, I'm using Chad GBT. Oh, I got Chad GBT. 20 bucks a month. I'm now an expert. That irrational confidence, that fake it till you make it has never been more like
01:06
Speaker A
in everyone's [music] grasp than it is today. Just have a one mindset of if Sandy can do it, I can do it just because I [music] just started this 9 months ago. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah.
01:15
Speaker A
I just think that humans are much more likely from a place of insecurity to like, oh, who am I? No, just like do it. [music] Just go try it. talk to people on their deathbed like they regret things
01:24
Speaker A
that they didn't do, not things that they did because we always learn something from things that we did, but we never learn from something we never did. Yeah, exactly. So, you either win or you learn. I started so many businesses that failed and I regret none of them because I at
01:37
Speaker A
least answered the question for myself. Okay, so here are some secret sauce. What you want to do is So, I came across this woman, Sandy Lee, 9 months ago. She started applying for random odd jobs on Upwork. She had no experience, no testimonials, no portfolios. And her first job she got after seven
01:57
Speaker A
applications and it paid her $3,000 a month for SEO and she knew nothing about SEO, but she had PT because now everyone is a PhD in everything. We just need to remember that and connect the dots.
02:09
Speaker A
So, I wanted to talk to Sandy. How did you go from zero to $52,000 a month in only 9 months? And it all started with one job in a skill that she knew nothing about. Please enjoy. So I was raised in
02:21
Speaker A
seven different countries since I was 11 years old. And that was without my parents. That was me alone going to different families and living here and there. So I just learn had to learn how to survive just because I didn't speak the language. But what happened was while I was studying abroad,
02:37
Speaker A
my parents' business went really south. So we came from like fairly rich family to really poor all of a sudden. So meaning every single time when I was talking with my parents, they were always worried about money. So every single conversation was about money, money, money. So in my head,
02:54
Speaker A
I just had a thought of I need to make money like when I grow up and then just to make sure my parents are all taken care of and stuff like that. And when I was in college, I was super poor, like
03:06
Speaker A
too poor to a point. I could only spend $2 a day. So, you know, like uncrustable, like one of those peanut butter jelly sandwich from vending machine. That was all I could eat. So, I'm like, I'm going to save this so I can eat this. Yeah. So, I got two of those a day and then ate that for a couple
03:22
Speaker A
of months. One time I couldn't pay the rent so I got kicked out. I slept on the beach. The police to me? Yeah, I was in Hawaii. So, I slept on the beach in the tent and the police came up to me
03:34
Speaker A
and said, "You're not supposed to be here." And I got kicked out of the from the beach as well. So, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what's my So, the reason why I'm sharing this is because I wanted to
03:45
Speaker A
tell you where I was in terms of I need to make money." So, as soon as I graduate from school, I found this job, which is a startup company that pay me fairly well. And that's back in the day,
03:56
Speaker A
Chris, which is $7 an hour, right? But they offer me fairly good amount of money for salary.
04:02
Speaker A
So I brought my husband with me. So we started working together for this company and I was the best salesperson there just because I was the only salesperson. So [laughter] like the only was the best. Yeah. One of one. And I was working there but in about a couple of months the CEO told me
04:19
Speaker A
that we're restructuring the company. You and your husband need to go. And we got let go the same day. And I was like looking at my husband. And I still remember this day. We couldn't speak for like 2 hours or so because we were really shocked at that. But that's the moment I realized I cannot
04:37
Speaker A
have somebody hold my income basket. Yeah. Cuz literally, so that's when I started to work on side hustle, like different side hustle projects, drop shipping, you know, like FBA, Amazon FBA business, all that. I still have some product at my house trying different stuff, but it didn't
04:55
Speaker A
really work because I was too addicted to shiny object syndrome. So, what is the next? What is the next? I was just hopping around and that's when I actually found your channel too because I was really into cytools. But that's the moment when I decided I need to really focus on one thing, just
05:12
Speaker A
one thing. And that was AI because I know AI was hot, but I don't know anything about AI. I'm like I or at least I didn't know anything about AI. I should say, but I knew how to talk to people. So,
05:24
Speaker A
what I decided to do is going to Upwork literally and then applying for job application in AI business that I don't even know about. But I knew how to talk to the CEO or how to talk to different
05:37
Speaker A
people what they're looking for. So after having Chachi PD build couple different models for me, I presented that idea to the client and that's the first the very first money that I made online which is $3,000 a month retainer. Wow. From Upwork. From Upwork. Yeah. Hey, please subscribe
05:54
Speaker A
to the channel. Whether you're on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, doesn't matter. It would mean a ton. So, did you do anything to like build your Upwork profile or like establish a presence? Yeah. So, I didn't have any testimonials. That's the thing. I had a huge imposter syndrome when I first started
06:09
Speaker A
doing this just because I had no testimonial. I'm like, who am I to pitch an idea that I can do this because I don't know anything about AI, right? But what I realiz is every single person including myself, we have some sort of history what we've done in the past. It doesn't matter if you work
06:26
Speaker A
for, I don't know, like Chick-fil-A or McDonald's and is serving people. That's still a thing that you did and you can somehow relate that into automation. And that's what I did. I went to Shach PT and told them exactly what I did in the past and then got some numbers out there and how can I
06:42
Speaker A
relate this into automation and then put that into the work and also get couple different portfolio so that it looks better. Portfolio doesn't necessarily mean it's your testimonial. It's what you've been building. Right. Sure. So, how many jobs did you have to apply to before you got
06:58
Speaker A
the one that you got? I apply seven applications. I specifically remember that. That's not many. No, it's not too many. That's not bad at all. It's more competitive now, I would say, but before when I did it, which was November last year. Okay. November last year. So, I've been an Upwork client
07:13
Speaker A
since they were called odesk, which was like 2010. They were called odesk and it was like the place.
07:19
Speaker A
It was odesk and freelancer.com. That was like where you went to find a virtual assistant. So, I was looking for virtual assistants there forever. It probably seems more competitive to you because like it's more competitive than it used to be, but it's been around almost 20 years,
07:32
Speaker A
you know, and I I feel like we don't really know how much supply and demand there are for any given job. It's always kind of imbalanced. And so maybe for your niche, it's it's gotten more competitive.
07:43
Speaker A
Maybe for other niches, it's not competitive enough. But I just find that like an interesting concept is in any marketplace, sometimes things seem more competitive than they are because you're like in it. And sometimes like if you were to compare your niche with an Upwork to a different
07:57
Speaker A
niche that you've never even been in, you're much less competitive. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. That's the reason why some of the strategy that I've used personally. So to be very transparent, the first client was SEO business. So they wanted to
08:11
Speaker A
automate the SEO stuff, right? Okay. But I didn't type AI automation. I didn't type AI SEO. I only typed SEO. Meaning I know AI in Upwork is really competitive but then if you just like you said if you just tilt it just a little bit slight just very slightly and then go with a slightly
08:29
Speaker A
different niche kind of similar but different there's a lot less competition there and that's how I got the first gig. Now did you have any SEO experience when you applied for this? No. You're just using Chad GBT. Yeah. Using Chad GBT. I know. It's like no experience whatsoever. I'm like,
08:47
Speaker A
"What the freak does this mean?" You know, like back links, internal links. I had no idea. So, I had to educate myself before I jump on a call. Yeah. I just I just wish that I could like buy
08:58
Speaker A
a billboard on every highway in every city in the world that just said like you are now an expert in everything like period. Like we we remodeled our upstairs with Chad GBT. We've never done anything like that. Go. We're building a house with Chad GBT. I fixed my lawn mower with Chad GBT. Like
09:16
Speaker A
so many people use chat GPT but we're still so early that they don't yet know that they're now a PhD in everything. They're just not thinking to connect the dots. So you're like I don't need to know about SEO. I got Chad GPT 20 bucks a month. I'm now an expert in SEO. Like that irrational
09:30
Speaker A
confidence that fake it till you make it has never been more like in everyone's grasp than it is today. So I applaud you for that. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. It is real for sure. And then my thought behind this is if Chacha PT can be my agent underneath me, if he's the expert,
09:48
Speaker A
she's the expert, whatever, if it's the expert, then I have my confidence. And that was where my confidence came from even though I'm not the expert. It's okay. Yeah. And at the end of the day, the company that decided to pay you 3,000 bucks a month, they're probably using Chad GPD.
10:04
Speaker A
It's not like they don't know it exists. Even if they're using it for SEO, they still need a human to push the buttons, to follow up, to check in, to be to like they need someone, not something to be
10:16
Speaker A
accountable, right? So like they still need you to do the job even if they already have the tool that's doing most of the job, you know? So yes, I just think that humans are much more likely from a
10:26
Speaker A
place of insecurity or scarcity to like, oh, who am I? I don't know anything about SEO. Like, no, just like do it. Just go try it. Mhm. Worst case scenario, after a month, they're like, "Man, that's not imposter syndrome. That guy is an imposter. I want my money back. Who cares?
10:41
Speaker A
Give him your money back and keep trying." You know, like that's the worst that could happen.
10:45
Speaker A
Exactly. That's literally where my mindset is right now, just because I have a full-time job, Chris, right now. I still have my full-time job. And my full-time job is working for the funeral homes. Isn't that weird? That's crazy. What do you do for them? Um, so I work for funeral marketing,
11:02
Speaker A
sales and marketing company. So, I'm a regional manager helping other people kind of like wedding planners but for funerals. That's what it is. I'm helping them how to do that. Anyways, the reason why I'm sharing that where I'm coming from is I think about death a lot because yeah,
11:18
Speaker A
I mean hang out with the people who's about to die like [laughter] you know like there were really old grandma who was 102 years old. I don't think she's legally able to drive but she drove to the funeral home pre-planning her funeral services and then we just we're just talking. Yeah. And not to
11:33
Speaker A
be morbid at all or negative, but this is just on top of my head a lot. If I die tomorrow or if I die in a month, what would I regret the most? And then that was me not starting my business and me
11:46
Speaker A
not believing myself of doing that. So right now it totally changed my mindset. It's like I can do this. If that kind if that person can do it, I can do it. Yeah, that's another billboard message that I want is like to put on a billboard that like you are much more likely to regret things that you
12:01
Speaker A
didn't do than things that you did. Like I started so many businesses that failed and I regret none of them because I at least answered the question for myself like did I like that business or could that business have worked? Yes. Aside from like outlier things where we make like terrible
12:15
Speaker A
terrible decisions, we usually sit around and talk to people on their deathbed like they regret things that they didn't do, not things that they did cuz we always learn something from things that we did, but we never learn from something we never did. Yeah, exactly. So, you either win or you
12:29
Speaker A
learn. I love that. Okay. Okay. So, I want people to know if they don't have a grasp of upwork, like for you to apply to an SEO job on Upwork is like the most generic. Like, that's like the
12:40
Speaker A
highest competitive category in the world. You had no background. How did you get that $3,000 a month job over someone else with a ton of experience? Okay, so here's some secret sauce.
12:51
Speaker A
What you want to do is you want to record a video. Okay, so that is your practice. you are going to record a video loom video explaining how you can help them and that's exactly what I did. So
13:04
Speaker A
even though I don't know anything about SEO I had Chachi PT build Naden system for me. So basically NA looks complicated. So what businesses owner when they look at it they're like oh it's too complicated she's got this I need to pay you to do this. Yeah. [laughter] But in reality I didn't
13:21
Speaker A
even understand what any was. So I'm like I'm learning this. But I didn't say that obviously.
13:26
Speaker A
I'm like, you know what? This is what the workflow is based on what Chachi PT has given me is the script. This is how the workflow works and this is where I'm going to come in and help you out. So,
13:36
Speaker A
I pitch the idea before I build a product. Okay? So, that's really important you do that because if you build a product first and then pitch the idea next, you're too late. You want to see what's out there first. And that's exactly what I did. And one of the strategy like I mentioned is recording
13:53
Speaker A
a video so that people can gauge who you are and feel your vibe. Now if your English is not native, this is a perfect way to practice as well. So that's what I did. Okay. I just have this thought
14:05
Speaker A
like the great men and women that have built this world were probably the same people that said the phrase, "How hard could it be?" over and over and over. And like they always were proven wrong. Like it always ends up being harder than you think. But that that naive like that optimism,
14:21
Speaker A
whatever you want to call it, like that attitude just walks you into amazing circumstances. So you're like, "How hard could it be, SEO? How hard could it be?" It's like, "Ah, it's kind of hard. There's a lot going on here, but I'm an expert now. I have Chad GPT." Like just
14:32
Speaker A
as a framework. Like if you find yourself saying that a lot, you'll probably be successful. Yeah, a little ignorance could be helpful. Yeah, that's true. I love that. That's I'm like walking in between being humble and also being ignorant, but not really ignoring. It's more confident.
14:47
Speaker A
I would say, let's just say confidence. Being confident and then not feeling imposter syndrome.
14:51
Speaker A
Those are three feelings just I'm going back and forth a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Where am I? Yeah.
14:56
Speaker A
I also want to say imposter syndrome is just a it's like insecurity with like a prettier name, right? We're all insecure. Every single one of us are insecure. So like if you feel imposter syndrome, that's a signal that you're on the right track, that you're like you're like batting above
15:11
Speaker A
your pay grade. You're stretching yourself. Like it's I think it's good to feel imposter syndrome.
15:15
Speaker A
Oh, that's a really positive thought. I never thought about that way. That's super cool. So, you're out of your comfort zone pretty much. That's why you're feeling that way. Yeah. Quick word about today's sponsor, Beehive. They just launched something called Community,
15:27
Speaker A
and it does something that I've never seen on any other platform. Every newsletter and podcast you publish gets added to your feed automatically, sitting right in front of the people who already love your stuff. So, your biggest fans get a whole new way to find out what you love with
15:40
Speaker A
no algorithm getting in the way of what it wants them to see. and the conversation keeps going. The replies that your readers send come out of your inbox and into a live town hall where everyone can jump in. You can add community access to any subscription you already sell in about 5 minutes.
15:56
Speaker A
Whether it's free, premium, fully paywalled, or paywalled with upsells inside. And yes, of course, Beehive doesn't even take a cut of those earnings. A quick community post is easy to write, and the feed is easy to scroll. So now you can keep your short form and your long form in the
16:12
Speaker A
same place instead of renting that space on social media. Get more juice from everything you produce.
16:17
Speaker A
The links in the description below. Okay. So you make this Loom video. How long was it, give or take? Did you edited it? I didn't edit it. No, I didn't know how to edit Loom videos, so I only just sent it. But I practice, meaning if I don't like it, I re-record it a couple of times
16:32
Speaker A
just to see if it sounds better. It was about two to three minutes. I found that that's the sweet spot because a lot of people don't really want to watch a long video. Okay, so two to three minutes
16:43
Speaker A
and eventually though eventually I deliver the work for this client and I I was really successful for their SEO by the way cloud code. So which we can talk about I did everything with cloud code really successful and then I told them hey let's increase the price. So after that I increased the
17:01
Speaker A
price to 5.5k monthly retainer same client. What gave you the confidence to do that? Like what did you see or what made you think to do that? I just thought to myself I have nothing to lose at that point. What type of a client was this? What type of a business? Like was it a million-doll
17:17
Speaker A
business $und00 million business? Home services? E-commerce? What are we talking? It was education. education business like they were having education app business and then it was about a million dollar business. So I knew that they had money just because of you know like how much money
17:33
Speaker A
they generated from SEO in general. So basically what I did is I did automation for blog automation for one language right English Japanese and then I extend that to Spanish and Korean. So that's I said, "Hey, I'm gonna expand this to Korean and Spanish, and that way you can you're going to pay
17:51
Speaker A
me more." And in on their end, it makes sense because this is how much money it cost, which is $3,000. If I were to duplicate what I did, you know, in business perspective, it's $6,000.
18:02
Speaker A
But I'm giving you a cut to 5.5K. So they got a good deal. But for me on my on my side of it, I just do copy and paste. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, did you That's what I did. Did you increase the
18:14
Speaker A
price after you saw that their SEO was working? Yes, of course. Smart. Do you still have them as a client? I don't anymore. U last month was the last month that I had them. Mhm. Now, how did you get
18:26
Speaker A
your second and third and fourth clients? Yeah. So, it was coming from inbound lead. The second, third, fourth client, they were all different. That's when when I was working for this client, I just had this thought of AI is enhancing too fast. I'm not saying this to create FOMO by the
18:42
Speaker A
way just because I am a believer of using AI as a tool not to replace us right however people who's using AI could replace people who's not using AI if that makes sense it's not AI replacing it's the people so I thought to myself you know what I need to actually teach people how to do that
19:01
Speaker A
that's when I started the content creation journey and everything happened from there which is insane meaning Before I mentioned that I was applying for jobs on Upwork and email marketing, right? But ever since I started my personal branding content, people were reaching out to me. I've been getting
19:20
Speaker A
emails asking if I can become their senior marketing officer or can I teach this people um this group of people for this business as a consultant, which that's one of the side gig that I did. And then last month I was working for this company as a AI strategist. They got me for
19:38
Speaker A
they wanted me to work full-time, but I just told them no because I wanted to build my business. So, what I'm trying to say is inbound opportunities started coming after creating content. Now, a lot of people think, you know, my content needs to get tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of
19:53
Speaker A
views. Like, I need to be an influencer. I need to go viral. Obviously, this is like a softball question, but I'm I'm hoping I'm right here and that you started getting valuable inbound leads when seemingly no one was really watching you. Is that the case or no? That's exactly the case
20:07
Speaker A
because Okay, so here are two different things. When I was sending outbound before inbound came, I was still referencing my YouTube video and that was when I had 200 subscribers, very little, but still is giving that authority because people can check me out before and see what I know, what
20:24
Speaker A
I don't know. And here's another tip that I have for people, which is if you don't know anything what you're going to film, you learn right before. That's literally literally what I did. I asked cloud code how can I teach this steps and then I learned read. Yeah. And then it got into my head
20:41
Speaker A
and then I record you know hit press the button. That's what I did. So you your YouTube channel is Sandy Lee AI and I'm going to go to your oldest video. Your oldest video is only nine months ago
20:52
Speaker A
then, right? It is only nine months ago. But here's another thing that I want to mention is I've been a content creator since 2018, Chris. So, I speak Spanish and Korean. My content was teaching Korean to Spanish speakers. And that was me. That's pretty niche. Uhhuh. Very niche. And
21:10
Speaker A
I hate my my videos because I'm all about like doing this. It's just so like cheesy. But the reason why I'm saying this is because I gave up on that because I quickly realized there's no money behind that. Because if you think about it, people who are learn who are wanting to learn Korean,
21:27
Speaker A
you know, Spanish speakers wanting to learn Korean, they were all students. They were kids, 14y old, 13 year old. What am I going to do with them? I don't want to charge anything, right? So, there is a concept that I want to talk about. Is that okay if I go over that with you? So,
21:41
Speaker A
eky guy is a Japanese concept and I've heard of this when I was a teenager as well, like when I was younger. But it pretty much means a reason for being, right? So, the reason why I'm I'm covering this is because I want you to see the difference between my old channel, which is this,
21:56
Speaker A
which I grew my channel across three platforms to 550K followers. But what I really focused on was what I love to do, which was language, and what am I good at, which was language. Those two things, passion. That's it. But I didn't necessarily focus on what can you get paid for this one right here.
22:16
Speaker A
And also, what does the world need? So because I didn't pay I didn't focus on that. I didn't really think about that. There was no way for me to make some income stream of this channel specifically when I was building personal brand and I thought you know what never mind content
22:31
Speaker A
is not my way. But when I started this channel specifically not not even that long ago the oldest channel was nine months ago right? So pretty recent. I focus on all different four things of what do I love to do and what are you good at? What can you get paid for? What does the world
22:48
Speaker A
need? And I suggest every single person who's listening to this right now to go through this process wherever they are at whether they have a business for themselves or not or wanting to start a business. I think this is very important when it comes to building personal brand in my
23:05
Speaker A
opinion. Agreed. And I would even change one of these. Instead of like what you can get paid for, it's like what can you more easily get paid for because I think everything is monetizable but not all at the same difficulty level, right? So like what can you get paid for that you're most
23:19
Speaker A
easily able to access or have the skills towards um etc. And same with like what the world needs like what does your corner of the world need cuz I could sell the dumbest product in the world and if I could find the right distribution for that product I could be successful but it's
23:36
Speaker A
really hard to find that if there's a thousands of distribution channels and thousands of different niches that's over a million combinations of ways to sell a certain thing. So you got to go towards the things that have like the least amount of friction and difficulty. But absolutely. Yeah,
23:50
Speaker A
that's so true. I agree with you on that. That's that's the reason why what I'm trying to figure out for myself right now, which I can share my revenue um all of this in here. So I have a couple different revenues when it comes to my client work, right? So I had a client that I
24:07
Speaker A
started. This is the first thing just to be full transparent with you guys. Um, I even have like Stripe accounts that I pulled up over here, like how much money I made from YouTube, so you guys can see the whole thing. Beautiful. But what I'm Yeah. What I'm trying to say is I I still have my
24:22
Speaker A
full-time job just because I love the work that I do. And sponsorships is something that I I think is another side gig which doesn't take a long time for me to do cuz just keep that in mind. I still
24:34
Speaker A
have my full-time job 9 to5. Also, I have three kids under the age of eight right now. So building all of this had to be easy for me. It had it had to work. I could only spend one to two hours a day
24:46
Speaker A
per platform, right? So that's how I was able to make it. Uh even the client work it only I only spend like an hour a day maximum. That's it. Yeah. I I'm trying to look at this but my Is that
24:59
Speaker A
too small? Could you could you zoom in a little bit? Yeah. Okay. So client retainer. That's like the first client you had, right? Or like being the first client. Okay. Full-time. That's your job. Sponsors, there's people like advertising in your videos. You have a school community, an app,
25:14
Speaker A
and YouTube revenue, like YouTube AdSense. Yes. Tell me about your app. Yeah. So, my app, it's pretty funny because my whole thing when it comes to YouTube is Okay, let me show you an example. When I first started YouTube, this video got really viral for my channel, like 100K view,
25:33
Speaker A
which is selling AI website on clock code. I had no idea how to build website. And then I just made this video because it went viral. So I'm like, might as well just me building a website.
25:44
Speaker A
So I did. Yeah. And then I quickly realized a lot of people said, I don't really know how you can connect to real app. So in this specific video right here, I recorded this video for like six hours because I had to build an app while recording this video. Might as well hit record.
26:01
Speaker A
I'm going to do this anyway. Might as well record it, right? Yeah. Seriously. So this was built in six hours while I was recording and this was the very first app which is the GEO audit app and how
26:13
Speaker A
do I know GEO AI come on I asked GEO how to do it and also I have a lot of friends who knows about GEO which is generative engine optimization which means AI SEO same thing yeah AI SEO so this was
26:27
Speaker A
the first app but then I also made another video Chris so I want people to realize this the The reason why I'm sharing this is because I'm keep finding opportunity to monetize. That's what it is. And again, I didn't build it and then sell it. Do you see the difference? I sold the idea
26:46
Speaker A
first and then saw what is needed and then build a product after. So, another video that got viral was how I automate my content journey because I've been a content creator forever. And then, ever since I did that, a lot of people said, "Oh, Sandy, it doesn't look good as what you're
27:01
Speaker A
building." So, I just thought to myself, hm, what can I make an app out of this? Let's do it. By the way, I have a new private YouTube community where I post exclusive interviews and videos that no one
27:12
Speaker A
else in the world will see. All you got to do is pay five bucks a month. And you know what?
27:15
Speaker A
YouTube takes 30% of that. So, I'm hardly getting anything from that. In addition, you're going to get every single 25 plus page business plan that we make from every episode we publish. And we sell these for 19 bucks and we do 15 episodes a month. So, this is about $300 a month worth of value,
27:33
Speaker A
plus extra interviews and videos that you'll never see anywhere else for five bucks a month, and you can cancel anytime. You'll also get my previous backlog of every business plan I've ever published. So, you can get the link right down below. It's all done right here on YouTube,
27:46
Speaker A
and you'll even get little custom emojis or stars next to your name when you comment on videos, so you can get priority replies from yours truly. Thanks a lot. And that's the app that I made. So it's pretty much what it is is not to promote my my app by the way, not at all. But what this does
28:01
Speaker A
is you're trying to copy the strategy that other people use from YouTube videos. So for newbies, it is so crucial that you do that because if you're original all the time, it's hard for you to get visible. Yeah, it's I mean it's better to copy formats that are already working than to try
28:19
Speaker A
and reinvent the wheel. Yeah, that's literally what Mr. Beast does, too. You know, Mr. be his people. He like literally go out and see what is the outlier video and that's the app that I have is I just pretty much generate the script it does it it gives the script it gives thumbnails
28:33
Speaker A
it gives teleprompters so pretty much all in one platform and when I first got first clients through this app I'm like holy crap people are actually paying for this like you [laughter] know that was my first thought um but then right now I hire an engineer to make it better just
28:49
Speaker A
because I'm a little bit more invested in this and this is also one of the lead magnet that I have for my community that I build for my school, too. Okay. So, just like a couple different ideas. I'm
29:01
Speaker A
testing multiple different things to see what's working. Yeah. For my lifestyle, you know. So, you're making over 50,000 a month. It's somewhat recent. You're you still have a full-time job.
29:13
Speaker A
And how many And you have three kids under 10. How many hours per week would you say you're working for my business? Yeah. for all of your income streams? For all of my income streams. Okay, let's do go back here. Right now, the most time consuming thing is actually YouTube just because
29:29
Speaker A
I want to grow my personal brand and I'm finding different ideas app. I used to take you know some time but cloud code did the most of the work. So I would say maybe three to four hours a week but
29:41
Speaker A
even that I wanted to gain that time for my YouTube. So I hired an engineer very recently couple weeks ago, two weeks ago. So he does it. So I don't even spend anything on the app. School community once a week we do like a weekly calls and then every single day I just comment people.
29:57
Speaker A
So 10 minutes a day. So you do the math. Maybe three hours a week. That's it. Sponsors those are videos, right? So I would say maybe two hours per sponsor a week. Is that outbound or inbound?
30:11
Speaker A
This is all inbound. Sponsorships is everything is inbound. Okay. Now, I'm going to try to like pull away some some highle takeaways from what I've learned so far and fill in the gaps. So, if we were to make like a Sandy's playbook for success. It's like fake it till you make it. Sell
30:26
Speaker A
it before you build it. Sell it before you have it. Be emboldened by AI Chad GBT. Like know that you're an expert in everything. Procrastinators win. Like learn the thing right before you have to do the thing because then you'll you'll feel this artificial pre or not even artificial, you you'll
30:41
Speaker A
feel this pressure just kind of like cramming for a test. Like there's a lot of there's a lot of negative things to say about cramming for a test. Like we grew up and our teachers like don't just cram. It's like actually I will because it works. Thank you very much. Like that pressure works.
30:54
Speaker A
Yes. So it's like all right cra for the test. What am I missing? Like oh like build cool stuff and hit publish and then like hit record and then hit publish. Like don't care what other people think of you. What am I missing? Yes, that's exactly what it is. Something that I do want to say if
31:09
Speaker A
you're starting if you're curious what AI tool should I be using? I do recommend clot code to be honest. I've used every other platform before. I use manis. I use chajbt and codex is pretty good too. But clot code is so good. It's like really really good. Yeah. Even especially like fable but
31:27
Speaker A
don't use fable too much. Um but what I'm trying to say is you can build things even though you're not engineer. I'm not an engineer guys. I'm not at all. My husband is an engineer. So he look at me
31:38
Speaker A
he's like you built this. [laughter] Yeah. And he's like in a judgment tone. Yeah. He's like, "Wait, do you know do you even know what SSL is?" I'm like, "I don't care what the crap that means." You know, I don't know. I only care. I know. That's exactly what it is. And yeah,
31:53
Speaker A
he's obviously really proud of my success and really supportive. Yeah. Like amazing dad and husband. But what I'm trying to say is you don't have to know anything technical because AI is doing it for you. Yeah. You should flip the script on him and say, "Wait, you know what SSL means?
32:11
Speaker A
What a nerd. [laughter] What a nerd. I know. That's not I shouldn't say it's like you actually know teachers. That's funny. Yes. Oh, it's funny. That's amazing. Like where where can we find you, your products, your apps? Like where can we find Sandy if we want to learn more? Yeah. The
32:30
Speaker A
best place to find me is my YouTube just because I share everything my journey, what are my thoughts, um, and what am I working on? I'm really transparent. So if some person's asking me how much money you make, I can show you everything some of the strategy behind it. So yeah, YouTube
32:47
Speaker A
go there and learn different things and just have a one mindset of Sandy. If Sandy can do it, I can do it. Just because I just started this nine months ago. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah.
32:58
Speaker A
50K a month in nine months. Um and none of this would be possible if you never hit publish on what you're doing. Like show the world 100%. I I'm a huge believer in content creation.
33:09
Speaker A
huge. It doesn't It doesn't matter what you look like. Honestly, it doesn't matter how you sound like either. No, you learn those skills. I mean, think about it. 20 years ago, we all had to choose between like a hundred TV channels. It's like, don't like golf, okay, now you got
33:23
Speaker A
99 to choose from. Don't like But now, it's like there's 8 billion people and like there's someone out there for everyone. There's thousands of people out there for everyone. So, like there's nothing too niche. Like if you're a boring dude in the Midwest, monotone, there's another boring
33:37
Speaker A
dude that would really feel like he connects with you. Like there's someone out there for everyone.
33:42
Speaker A
There's nothing too niche. Like even if a hundred people are watching you, if it's the right hundred people, then it could be more valuable than a million people watching you that don't feel any affinity towards you. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. But my my huge belief is you only need 1,000
33:56
Speaker A
people to follow you. That's what it is. The true 10,000 people who support you and that's it. Amen.
34:02
Speaker A
And you're going to be successful. Yeah. Thank you, Sandy. You're awesome. This was great. No, thank you. Thanks, Chris. Thanks for having me. If you like this content, please share with a friend, hit a like or a comment below, and we'll see you next time on the Kerner
Topics:AI freelancingChatGPTUpwork successside hustlemaking money onlineautomation servicesno experience neededfreelance incomemompreneurwork-life balance

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