The Koerner Office - Business Ideas and Deep Dives with Chris Koerner - How a Mom of 3 Makes $50K a Month With AI (No Experience) - Ep. #322

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

beehiiv is the newsletter platform I’ve used for over a year and a half because their data shows you exactly what’s working. Get 30% off three months at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠���⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠beehiiv.com/chris⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠━Check out my newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://TKOPOD.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and join my community at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://TKOwners.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠━I sat down with Sandy Lee to talk about how she went from having no technical or SEO experience to building multiple income streams that now generate over $50,000 a month. She shared how she landed her first $3,000 monthly client on Upwork using ChatGPT, a short Loom video, and a simple strategy of selling the idea before building the product. We also talked about using AI to create apps, automate client work, grow a personal brand, and attract inbound opportunities, all while Sandy works a full time job and raises three young kids. You can follow her journey and learn from her tutorials on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@sandyleeaiEnjoy!---Watch this on YouTube instead here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tkopod.co/p-yt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ask me a question on or off the show here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://tkopod.co/p-ask⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more about me: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://tkopod.co/p-cjk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn about my company: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://tkopod.co/p-cof⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow me on Twitter here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://tkopod.co/p-x⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Free weekly business ideas newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://tkopod.co/p-nl⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Share this podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://tkopod.co/p-all⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Scrape small business data: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://tkopod.co/p-os⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---

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 nine to five. Also, I have three kids under the age of eight right now. So building all of this have to be easy for me. I could only spend one to two 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 very first money that I made online, which is $3,000 a month retainer. Wow. Now, did you have any experience when you applied to this? No. You're just using Chajibati. I love this.

I got Chad GPT, 20 bucks a month. I'm now an expert. That irrational confidence, that fake-it-tell-you-make-it has never been more like in everyone's grasp than it is today. Just have a one mindset of if Skinty can do it, I can do it just because I just started this nine months ago. Yeah, that's beautiful. 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 them.

Talk to people on their deathbed. Like, they regret things that they didn't do, not things that they did. Because we always learned something from things that we did, but we never learned from something we never did. Yeah. 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's some secret sauce.

What you want to do is... 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 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 grew 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 on Christopal, like one of those peanut butter jelly sandwich from Vending Machine, that was all I could eat. So 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 came up to me. 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 of them 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 graduate 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 offer me 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 like the only one is 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 like looking at my husband. I still remember this day. We couldn't speak for like two 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. Literally. So that's when I started to work on side hustle, like different side hustle projects, draft shipping, you know, like, what is 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? What is the next? I was just hopping around.

And that's when I actually found your channel too, because I was really into sidestals. 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, 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. an 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 chat GPD build a couple different models for me, I presented that idea to the client. And that's the very first money that I made online, which is $3,000 a month retainer. Wow. From Upwork? From Upwork. Yeah. So did you do anything to like build your Upwork profile or like establish a presence? Yeah. So I didn't have any testimonial. 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 realize 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 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 chat GPT 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 get a 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, yeah.

How many jobs did you have to apply to before you got the one that you got? I apply seven applications. I I specifically remember that. No, it's not too many. 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, 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. And like, it probably seems more competitive to you because like, you. because like it's more competitive than it used to be but it's been around almost 20 years you know and 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 maybe for other niches it's not competitive enough but I just find that like an interesting concept um 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 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 automate the SEO stuff, right? 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, just very slightly, and then go with a slightly 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 this? No. You're just using ChachapD. Yeah. Oh, man. I love this.

I know. It's like, no experience whatsoever. I'm like, what the freak is this mean? You know, like backlinks, internal links. I had no idea. So I had to educate myself before I jump on a call. Yeah. I just wish that I could like buy a billboard on every highway and every city in the world that just said like you are now an expert in everything.

Like period. Like we remodeled our upstairs with Chad GBT. We've never done anything like that. Oh my God. We're building a house with Chad GPD. I fixed my lawnmower with Chad GBT. Like so many people use chat GPD but we're still so early that they don't yet know that they're now a PhD and 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 confidence that fake it tell you make it has never been more like in everyone's grasp than it is today. So it is long for that. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that.

It is real for sure. And then my thought behind this is if chatchipiti can be my agent underneath me, if he's the expert, 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 a month, they're

probably using ChadjapD. 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 like they need someone, not something, to be accountable, right? 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 I just think that humans are much more likely from a place of insecurity or scarcity to like, oh, who am I? I don't know any about SEO. Like, no, just like do it. Just go try it. 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? Give him your money back and keep trying. You know, like that's the worst that could happen. 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? What do you do for them? So I work for funeral marketing 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, I mean, hang out with the people who's

about to die like all the night, you know, like they were a 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're just talking. And not to 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 I don't, and then that was me not starting my business and me not believing myself of doing that. So right now, it totally changed my mindset. It's like, I can do this.

If that person can do it, I can do it. Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, 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 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?

Like aside from like outlier things where we make like terrible, 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. Because we always learn something from things that we did, but we never learned from something we never did. Yeah. So you either win or you 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 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. 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, LUM video, explaining how you can help them. And that's exactly what I did.

So even though I don't know anything about SEO, I had Chachipil the N-A-N system for me. So basically, N-A-D looks complicated. So what business 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. In reality, I didn't even understand what anything was. So I'm like, I'm learning this, but I didn't say that obviously. Sure. I'm like, you know what? This is what the workflow is based on what chat chip, your BD has given me, the script.

This is how the workflow works, and this is where I'm going to come in and help you out. So 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 a video so that people can engage

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. 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 naivete, like that optimism, 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 are it going to be? It's like, it's kind of hard. There's a lot going on here. But I'm an expert now.

I have Chagupit. Like, it just as a framework. Like, if you find yourself saying that a lot, you'll probably be successful. A little ignorance could be helpful. Yeah. That's true. I love that. I'm like walking in between being humble and also being ignorant, but not really ignore.

It's more confident. I will say, let's just say confident. being confident and then not feeling imposter syndrome. Those are three feelings just I'm going back and forth a lot. Yeah, yeah. Where am I? Yeah. Well, I also want to say imposter syndrome is just, 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 your pay grade. You're stretching yourself. Like it's, I think it's good to feel imposter syndrome. 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, and it does something that I've never seen on any other platform.

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whether it's free, freemium, fully paywalled, or paywalled with upsells inside. And yes, of course, Bihav 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 same place instead of renting that space on social media. Get more juice from everything you produce, the links in the description below. Okay, so you make this loom video. How long was it, give or take?

Did you edit 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 rerecored a couple of times 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. So two to three minutes.

And eventually, though, eventually I deliver the work for this client, and I was really successful for their SEO. By the way, Claude Code, so we can talk about it. 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 price to 5.5K, months of retainer, same client. What gave you the confidence to do that? 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 dollar business, a hundred million dollar business, home services, e-commerce, what we talked? 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 they generated from SEO in general.

But, yeah. 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 going to expand this to Korean and Spanish, and that way you're going to pay me more. And 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, but I'm giving you a cut to 5.5K. So they got a good deal. But for me, on my side of it, I just do copy and paste.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now, did you increase the price after you saw that their SEO was working? Yes, of course. Okay. Smart. Do you still have them as a client? I don't anymore.

Last month was the last month that I have them. Now, how did you get 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 way, just because I'm 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 us to the people. So I thought to myself, you know what? I need to actually teach people how to do that. Anyways, 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 emails asking if I can become their senior market officer or can I teach this people, this group of people for this business as a consultant, which that's one of the sidekick that I did. And then last month I was working for this company as an AI strategist. They got me for 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, I've, a lot of people think, you know, my content needs to get tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of views. Like, I need to be an influencer. I need to go viral. Obviously, this is like a softball question, but 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 because, okay, so here are two different things. When I was sending outbound before inbound cane, 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 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 quad code, how can I teach these steps? And then I learned red and then it got into my head and then I record. You know, hit press the button. That's what I did. Okay. So your YouTube channel is Sandy Lee AI, right? And I'm going to go to your oldest video. Your oldest video is only nine months ago 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. Uh-huh. Very niche. And I hate 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 who are wanting to learn Korean, you know, Spanish speakers wanting to learn Korean, they were all students. There were kids, 14 year old, 13 year old. What am I going to? 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? Yeah, yeah. So Iki-gai 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 covering this is because I want you to see the difference

between my old channel, which is this, which I grew my channel across three platforms to 550K, K 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, and also what does rural 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 is not my way. But when I started this channel specifically, not even that long ago, the oldest channel was nine months ago, right? So pretty recent. I focus on all different four things of Ikigai. What do I love to do? And what are you good at?

What can you get paid for? What does a world 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 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 what can you get paid for that you're most easily able to access or have the skills towards, et cetera? And same with like what the world needs. Like what does your corner of the world need? Because I can 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 really hard to find that there's 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. Absolutely. Yeah, that's so true. I agree with you on that. That's the reason why what I'm trying to figure out for myself right now, which I can share in my revenue, 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 started. This is the first thing, just to be full transparent with you guys. I even have like Stribe 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 still have my full-time job just because I love the work that I do. And sponsorships is something that I think is another side gig, which doesn't take a long time for me to do. Because just keep that in mind, I still have my full-time job nine to five.

Also, I have three kids under the age of eight right now. So building all of this have to be easy for me. It had to work. I could only spend one to two hours a day per platform. So that's how I was able to make it. Even the client work, I only spend like an hour a day maximum. That's it. Can I?

I'm trying to look at this, but my. That's just small. Could you zoom in a little bit? Yeah. Let's see. Okay, so client retainer. That's like the first client you had, right? or like being a CMO.

Full time. That's your job. Sponsors. There's people like advertising in your videos. You have a school community, an app, and YouTube revenue, like YouTube AdSense. 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. my channel, like 100K View, which is selling AI website and clock. I had no idea how to build website. And then I just made this video because they went viral. So I'm like, might as well just me building a website. So I did. 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. Yeah, 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. This was the very first app, which is the GEO audit app. And how do I know GEO? AI, come on. I ask GEO how to do it. And also I have a lot of friends who knows about GEO, which is generative engine optimization, which means AISEO.

Same thing. Yeah, AISO. So this was the first app. But then I also made another video, Chris. So I want people to realize this. The reason why I'm sharing this is because I 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 first and then saw what is needed and then build the 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 building. So I just thought to myself, hmm, what can I make an app out of this? Let's do it. And that's the app that I made. So it's pretty much what it is, is not to burn my app, by the way, not at all.

But what this does 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. Yeah, like, it's, I mean, it's better to copy formats that are already working than to try and re-end the wheel. Yeah, that's literally what Mr. Beast does too. You know, Mr. Beast, he's people. He'd 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. It gives teleprompters. So pretty much all in one platform. And when I first got first clients for this app, I'm like, holy crap, people are actually paying for this. That was my first thought.

But then right now, I hire an engineer to make it better just 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 built for my school too. So just a couple different ideas. I'm testing multiple different things to see what's working for my lifestyle. So you're making over 50,000 a month. It's somewhat recent. You still have a full-time job. 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, actually YouTube just because I want to grow my personal brand and I'm finding different ideas.

App, I used to take, you know, some time, but ClockCode did the most of the work. So I would say maybe three to four hours a week. But even that, I wanted to gain that time for my YouTube. So I hired an engineer very recently a 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.

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? This is all inbound. Sponsorship, this is everything is inbound.

Okay. Yeah. Now, I'm going to try to pull away some high level takeaways from what I've learned so far and fill in the gap. So if we were to make like a Sandy's playbook for success, It's like fake it till you make it. Sell it before you build it. Sell it before you have it. Be emboldened by AI, chat you BT.

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 feel this artificial, or not even artificial, you'll feel this pressure. Just kind of like cramming for a test. Like there's a lot of negative things to say about cramming for a test.

Like we grew up in our teachers like, don't just cram. It's like actually I will because it works. Thank you very much. That pressure works. Yes. So it's like, all right, cram for the test. What am I missing? Like, build cool stuff and hit publish and then 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 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 chatubt. And Code is pretty good too. But Cloudcode is so good. It's like really, really good. Yeah, even especially. like Fable, but don't use Fable too much.

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 looked at me. He's like, you built this? And he's like in a judgment tone. Yeah.

He's like, wait, do you even know what SFL is? I'm like, I don't care what the crap that means, you know? I don't know. I don't know. I don't need to know, babe. I know. That's exactly what it is. And, yeah, he's obviously really proud of my success and really support.

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 them and say, wait, you know what SSL means? What a nerd.

What a nerd. I know. I should have said. It's like, wait, you actually know. Teachers pet. Yeah. Oh. Well, that's amazing.

Like, where can we find? you, your products, your apps, like, where can we find Sandy if we want to learn more? Yeah. The best place to find me is my YouTube. Just because I share everything, my journey, what are my thoughts 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. So the strategy behind it.

So, yeah, YouTube, 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. 50K a month in nine months. And none of this would be possible if you'd never hit publish on what you're doing. Like, show the world. 100%.

I'm a huge believer in content creation. Huge. It doesn't matter what you look like. Honestly, it doesn't matter how you sound like either. You learn those skills. I mean, think about it 20 years ago. We all had to choose between like 100 TV channels. It's like, don't like golf.

Okay, now you got 9 to 9 to choose from. Don't like, but now it's like there's eight 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 dude that would really feel like he connects with you. Like there's someone out there for everyone. 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. My huge belief is you only need one thousand. people to follow you. That's what it is. The true 1,000 people who will support you. And that's it. Amen. And you're going to be successful. Yeah. Thank you. Sandy. You're awesome. Just was great. No, thank you. Thanks, Chris. Thanks for having me. Hey, guys. If you're still listening to this, it's probably because you haven't had a chance to take your AirPods out. You're still mulling the lawn. You're still driving. What have you. If you're still here with me, I would really, really love and

appreciate a five-star review on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcast. It would mean a lot. If you want to go the extra mile, share this episode with a friend that might have an interest in starting a business. It would mean a ton. Hope you have the best day of your life today.