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#51 · How to Start an AI Automation Agency In High School (2025)

youtube ↗AI & Automation

I already have outreach skills from B2B sales and I'm learning low-code automation well, but I'm not sure which workflows/automations to actually pitch — project management, CRM, lead gen? I don't know what people would actually pay money for. If I could figure that out, I'd be set.

I get some version of this question basically every day. The reason you're asking it is because you don't yet understand the problems most businesses actually suffer from. The vast majority of businesses I work with — mostly B2B agencies and B2B tech/SaaS products — tend to struggle with three things: front-end lead generation, inefficient client onboarding systems, and bad fulfillment/project management full of unnecessary manual work. Once you understand those problems, it's not hard to know what people will pay for — anything that solves one of those three and helps them make more money. Practically, the fastest way to get unstuck: spend an hour picking 2-3 candidate niches (say, videographers, B2B creative agencies, recruitment companies), join Reddit communities for people who own those kinds of businesses, and scroll top to bottom reading what questions and problems people are actually posting about.

what to sellniche researchreddit research

Related answers

youtube ↗Niches

As someone with a software development and cyber background who has built sites and one automation pipeline but hasn't done any outbound, offers, or positioning, and is interested in cyber, web app, dev, and automation, what should I focus on and how should I put myself out there to become a one-stop shop?

It's a common problem for beginners to spend too much time thinking about the business model instead of actually doing it. You're likely stuck in your head wondering what niche to pick, how to reach people, and which platforms to use. Rather than overthinking, you should test an idea in the market. Pick three things: choose an outreach minimum per day on platforms you have experience with—like DMs on Instagram, X, LinkedIn, communities, Reddit—and run it for a month without changing anything. After 30 days, if you do about 10 pieces of outreach per platform, you'll have contacted nearly 1,000 people, giving you real data to inform your next step. For example, you might find that your web development offer converts at 2.9% while your cyber offer doesn't perform as well, letting you focus on what works. This approach turns you into a scientist of your own life, gradually carving out the solution space and increasing your chances of success.

nichingoutreachpositioning
youtube ↗AI & Automation

How does one even start to think like an automation developer? I can never come up with the ideas for automations on the spot.

Never say never. I've been in agencies for about 10 years — I got out of school and started a marketing agency, sent hundreds of proposals, talked to thousands of people, and basically seen the same business model pitched a thousand different ways. When you see something that many times, you start picking up on the trends. My recommendation: don't try to think like an automation developer, think like a business person in general. Every business is basically a pipeline: there's a customer, you pay some money to get that customer, your business adds value to what the customer wants (a project, knowledge, a product, whatever), and at the end you get a higher-quality thing you can charge more for. So there's a multiple on the value of the raw good versus the finished thing. That gives you three or four places to optimize right off the bat: lead gen and sales, fulfillment, and retention. Think of every business through that lens and the automation opportunities become obvious.

automation ideasbusiness fundamentalsmindset
youtube ↗Agency Operations

How have things changed in the past year for someone starting a B2B services agency, are no‑code platforms becoming obsolete because of agentic AI, should a beginner still learn Make or n8n, is Upwork still the best way to start, and what would you do if you had to start from scratch today?

There’s a lot more emphasis on cloud‑code based solutions and education now. It’s become viable to sell education around cloud‑code rather than just implementation services. A few years ago teaching tools like Make, Zapier, or Power Automate was difficult because of the steep learning curve and cost justification. With cloud‑code you can run a workshop and see ROI within a week, making education a sellable product. On job platforms like Upwork you now see many requests for cloud‑code coaching, workshops, and short‑term coaching series, which you can sell to both large enterprises and SMBs. The calculus has shifted: instead of spending all day becoming the best implementation specialist, you can spend part of your time learning agentic AI and the rest on sales, marketing, and outreach, then sell that knowledge delta. You can position yourself as a cloud‑code educator, offering workshops, two‑month coaching programs, or internal upskilling for companies, and charge a premium for the ROI you deliver. This approach works across large and mid‑size businesses, and you can even guarantee results to make the offer more compelling.

b2bagencyno-codeupwork
youtube ↗AI & Automation

How do you differentiate Maker School from other AI automation communities like Jack's?

Yeah, it's a great question. For those who don't know, I run Maker School community, and I'm currently number three on the revenue leaderboard with about $292k. My success comes from how I package the community. I position it as a B2B offer where members pay $184 a month to learn how to get their first paying customer for an AI or automation service. In 90 days they earn back the money they spent (not counting tool costs), effectively getting a customer that pays around $1,000, which feels like a five‑to‑six‑times ROI. While Jack's community and other AI automation groups were first movers just by being the go‑to place for AI talk, I took a sniper‑rifle approach: I niche down to teaching how to build a business, not just how to use AI. Now I'm integrating AI and automation curriculum directly into Maker School—I've finished a make.com and an NAN accelerator and just need to record the videos. We also still do Q&A and similar offerings. Most other automation communities stay broad and less differentiated; I solve the specific problem of wanting to sell something with AI/automation and then actually doing it.

ai automationdifferentiationmaker school