AI Consulting Ideas: Y Combinator Podcast
Major takeaways from video:
- 50% of YC focused on AI, but not because they focus on AI, but because they focus on smart good founders, and many smart people are focusing on AI
- Tarpits are things that seem really exciting for a lot of founders, but actually isn’t that great…might be hard to solve the real problem
- Example tarpits for AI: copilot, chat interfaces
- Use UX and software, and instead of chat interface, add in LLMs in background
- Boring is often good
- Example of boring: AI that is able to search government contracts and apply for relevant ones
- If someone doesn’t want to buy your AI product, try to compete with the market itself
- For example: if you develop a product for a industry and they won’t buy it, see if you can build your own company in that industry and see if you can beat them
- I think this is KEY for consulting for big ideas like I want to do (solve their biggest issue) I need to think of ideas that would run them out of business if I made a company enhanced with AI
- Specific is important: don’t do a catchall, include a lot of business logic
- Prompting and GPT wrappers is the future: SAAS is basically a MySQL wrapper
- AI security is the future
Workpost 7: New AI Consulting Plan
Okok. After working on my AI Consulting Plan for a few days, something is really fucking clear to me (excuse my French).
I need more than 10 days to make a name for myself. I am going to need 3 months. Videos are the absolute best way to make a name for myself. However, videos take absolutely forever to create.
So let us give us enough time to make them.
Goal: Be known, give preview of consulting
UNIT ONE (1 month): Build a crowd who will engage with anything I put out
- Shoot 3 simple videos
- Shoot 3 complex videos
- Write 6 LinkedIn posts
- Involve people every step of the way
UNIT TWO (1 month): Get people to start reaching out to me with AI questions
- Create reaction videos to comments
- Create videos based off on comments
UNIT THREE 1 month): Get big enough following to invite famous people on my videos
- Figure out the platform I can get big on
- Post on it consistantly
BONUS (1 day): Look for automation/outsourcing, try to make as low effort as possible
Ok let’s dive in deeper.
UNIT ONE (1 month ends March 22nd)
- Planning and setting up artifacts for videos (10 days ends March 2nd)
- Executing, shooting and editing (10 days ends March 12th)
- Feedback and editing for bigger videos (10 days ends March 22nd)
And even deeper….
UNIT ONE | Part 1 Planning and setting up artifacts for videos (10 days ends March 2nd)
- Create plans for each of the videos (4 days ends Feb 25th)
- What videos I want to shoot (already done)
- What those videos will look like in the intro (partly done)
- What clips I need
- What research I need
- Who I need to talk to
- When I need it by – figure out shooting schedule
- How to break down each of the ideas into smaller content
- Figure out how to shoot each video (3 days ends Feb 28th)
- Break down as much of the video as I can
- If needed, come up with an imaginary best case scenario story just to know what shots I need
- Solidify shooting schedule
- Reach out to the people I need to reach out to
- Shoot preliminary non-essential parts of video (3 days ends March 2nd)
- Shoot any part that I can that don’t require other people
- Essentially get started with filming
Workpost 5: Panic Attack
I was just on the border of a panic attack when I went to go exercise.
My Head Hurts
Eyes are swimming in a pain in the back of my head
Heart beating like its a race
And no matter how fast it beats
It isn’t fast enough
To catch up
With the work I want to do
After hanging for a little bit, I decided something. I need to go back to basics. As the level of work, my ambition, my organization go up…so have my stress levels. It is beginning hard to relax, hard to feel in the moment. It feels like I’m in an endless race with no chance to catch my breath.
So here are the basics:
- The planning I’m doing in these blog posts give me a huge edge in terms of direction and thought process in a huge number of goals at the same time. However, I now need to do the opposite. The basic I have in mind is this – focus on one thing at a time. Make a todo list. Create prioritization. Make it emotionally make sense (choose what emotionally feels important to focus on first, not logically). Clear all distractions and focus on one thing.
- Use the taoist approach to achieve fulfillment. Work until you feel empty.
- Use the coaching mindset…let the world come to you, have patience.
I also realized I did not work on the product research goal.
So here it is:
Goal: Create free products in 1 month | UNIT ONE: Complete research | Part 1 Transcribe and think, what is the million dollar problem or breakthrough?
- One interview per day
Workpost 4: Tired
I feel really tired today. I am worried about my sleep cycle. At least I went to bed 30 minutes earlier than I did the night before at 1:30 AM. I really feel I need more sleep than that to be healthy.
I suppose I can commit to taking a nap today.
Something I was wondering, is if I put positive, confident people on a pedestal. I mean, they can’t be that great right? I like how calm I can feel around them, but I can get that anywhere. In fact, one of the ways that I want to develop myself as a coach is to live more by the coaching mindset (you’re in my house, be patient, take risks, be ok with silence). If I live by that mindset 24/7, not only will I get more clients, I will also feel more calm in everything that I do.
Ok now onto the projects:
Goal: Shoot 3 videos, spend 3 hours on each. I have 2 days to do this.
I think today this will be my primary focus.
The videos I want to choose are:
- Can AI be used to create a cure?
- Today I’m going to try to use AI to cure all diseases.
- How do cures work?
- What part of the process can AI help?
- What skills are still needed in the age of AI?
- AI can do everything, write essays, create art, open doors, and even create videos
- Where does that leave you?
- Today I’m going to figure out what humans still need to know in the age of AI
- How can AI be used to develop innovative products?
- Let’s say you got a product – reliable, affordable, but a little boring
- Today I’m going to use AI to develop an innovative product
Ok, so in doing this exercise I realize that I have to pivot. none of these ideas are going to take 3 hours to make. I need to choose something that is really really fast to make.
My new top 3:
- GPT Prompt: Ask AI to explain a really difficult concept to you on a 2nd grade level
- Do you want the be the world’s smartest man…or woman?
- Today I’m going to use AI to enhance my intelligence with one simple prompt
- Explain it to me like I’m in 2nd grade
- GPT Prompt: Take everything in your fridge and ask for recipes
- Can I cook like Gordon Ramsey with nothing in my fridge?
- Today I’m challenging myself to cook like a high dining chef using one simple prompt
- Give me a high-dining recipe
- GPT Prompt: Take a boardgame and invent new rules
- Monopoly is boring
- Let’s make it insane with one simple prompt
- Use the monopoly boardgame and make it more skill based
Ok time for Goal 2.
UNIT ONE: Focus on my craft – become a coach I would hire for 1000 per month | Day 1 Create plans
- 1 hr of meditation every day
- 1 hr of speaking to other people about this every day
Workpost 3: Pleasant Uncertainty
Today I feel a bit like there is a lot of uncertainty. There is uncertainty with my coaching business and with my career as an AI consultant, but there are also lots of opportunities moving forward.
I want to strive to move forwards and not start to distract myself from the emotions via games and videos.
The first thing I want to tackle is sleep. That is my main priority today. I want to understand why I feel unfulfilled at night, like something wasn’t quite done.
My intuition tells me that I desire to create art. I don’t know why.
Perhaps my first step is to start working on art at 9:30 PM.
Before that I want to achieve something in Valorant, so I will need to do some gaming earlier in the day.
I also desire to work on myself more, I think it really helps to think about emotional development as work. When I think about it as vulnerability, it feels not productive. But when I think of it as emotional work, it takes on new meaning and purpose.
Ok so lets take a look at my two projects right now:
So for my AI Consulting plan, I want to stick to the plan, but the timeline has changed a bit.
I wanted this current goal (Be known, give preview of consulting) to finish by Feb 27th. That leaves 7 days to film, shoot, edit and get feedback.
UNIT ONE (ends 23rd): Shoot 3 videos
- Spend total of 3 hours per video (9 hours total)
UNIT TWO (ends 24th): Write 2 LinkedIn posts
- Spend total of 1.5 hrs per post (3 hrs total)
UNIT THREE (ends 26th): Get feedback, harden process
Looking at my goal for art coaching, I feel dissatisfied with my current structure on process for that. I feel I need to work on finding more ambitious and exciting goals at every step of the way (even if I have a lot of time to get there). I realized in order for the syllabus method to work, you need to have very ambitious exciting goal…then think about how to make it difficult to expect anything other than success.
So let’s revisit the master plan here.
Goal: Ramp up to an income of 8333 per month (100k per year) within one year
I want to choose a new goal…make 1500 per week in coaching.
I want to achieve this within the next 3 months.
UNIT ONE (1 month): Focus on my craft – become a coach I would hire for 1000 per month
- Create plans (10 days, ends March 2nd)
- Deeply understanding clients
- Creating extreme focus and presence in life and sessions
- Developing connections clients need
- Materials and exercises to create and track strategy
- Execute on plans (10 days, ends March 12th)
- Research and refinement (10 days, ends March 22nd)
- Interview other coaches
- Read books
- Further brainstorming
UNIT TWO (1 month): Build 100 hot leads – depends on having free stuff
- Random try posting (10 days, ends April 1st)
- Get feedback and do networking and outreach (10 days, ends April 11th)
- Turn warm leads into hot leads with offer (10 days, ends April 21st)
UNIT THREE (1 month): Meld and combine top level coaching with leads machine
- Talk about my clients achievements, use it to push their art (10 days, ends May 1st)
- Clients have voice on my platform to talk about concepts in my coaching (10 days, ends May 11th)
- Refine call for action to get warm leads to ask for my offer, then turn into hot leads (10 days, ends May 21st)
Okok, I finally have a good framework, but working on this framework makes me realize I really do need to work on free products in the meantime.
Goal: Create free products in 1 month
UNIT ONE (10 days, ends March 2nd): Complete research
- Transcribe and think, what is the million dollar problem or breakthrough?
- Collate results, come up with solutions
- Research competition
UNIT TWO (10 days, ends March 12th): Develop products
- Planning and gathering materials doing research
- Create products
UNIT THREE (10 days, ends March 22nd): Continue development
- Testing and creating more products
Ideas About Business From
Takeaways:
- Get partners and make them money
- What other coaches can I refer?
- What social media experts can I refer?
- What managers/promoters/sales can I refer?
- What software companies can I refer?
- Be vulnerable
- How can I be vulnerable in AI consulting to explain exactly what I want to do?
- Want to tackle the most difficult problems
- Get hired to head the strategy and lead the initiative
- How can I be vulnerable in AI consulting to explain exactly what I want to do?
- Act like you could not be punished to be authentic
- Aim in the longterm (100 year company)
- Find your north star
- How do I make everything related to emotional honesty?
Profit in Peace 24: Warm and Cold Outreach
As Alex Hormozi said (or am I just saying this?) everyone needs to know sales. Because sales lead to money and everyone needs money. If you don’t know how to sell, then you end up working for someone who does.
Before I try out the leads techniques on my coaching business, I am using it for my AI company.
And for that company, I’ve been feeling extreme pressure and stress around talking to my warm and lukewarm or cold leads.
I’ve processed some of these emotions and came up with some of a process:
- Accept that I cannot control how someone sees me and even if I could, I don’t want to. Everyone’s mind and thoughts are sacred and my freedom is sacred as well. Both would be violated if I were to control how people saw me because I have to put on a mask and deceive people.
- If I’m not trying to control people then the point is just to engage with my network. Talk to people, have a good time, make some jokes.
- Anyone who doesn’t respond is an opportunity to process my feelings around rejection because that is the most important thing to me – not trying to change their mind.
The other part of this equation that I still am scratching my head about is delivering fast and big value. Alex talks about that but I don’t know what that value means, and I don’t know if I am allowed to give away things. I need to think about it some more and come up with some ideas. Perhaps my time can be split between developing value and content and reaching out.
I’ve been thinking of way to provide people value and the only thing I can really think of is having some time with me.
Maybe one way to think about it is I need to establish myself as an AI expert or someone with a lot of prior success. Perhaps one helpful detail is that I’ve worked with companies where we saw a 10x increase in efficiency in specific areas.
Maybe it would be helpful to show them the website as well for use cases or a list of ideas for their specific area.
Profit in Peace 22: Feeling Like Shit
I feel like total shit. I didn’t sleep well and the back of my eyes hurt and I’m tired and bleary and a little cold. It is taking everything to not play games all day. I feel what gives me anxiety in this house isn’t just the expectations from my parents…but also the amount of stuff. There is too much stuff to feel comfortable around here. To feel calm.
I have been thinking about this idea a lot. The idea of “Whatever you feel the world is withholding from you is what you withhold from the world.”
I feel that this can help with a lot of the turmoil in my mind.