#279 · why AI agents aren't making you money

youtube ↗AI & Automation

Can you share a guide on your software setup, especially the framework behind your AI agents and how you cue tasks from your phone to orchestrate more complex workflows?

When I make videos like this, I constantly balance how deep to go on one person’s question versus covering enough to help many viewers. That’s why I don’t go super deep on niche topics like AI agent orchestration from a phone—most people are dealing with more fundamental issues, like the ones Muhammad and Sam raised. It’s also a matter of top‑of‑funnel versus bottom‑of‑funnel content. My recommendation is to stop worrying about queuing tasks from your phone and instead focus on the actual bottom‑line ROI you’re generating with your current workflow. Many people try to apply AI agents to everything because it sounds cool, but in my own experience, only a small fraction of my most valuable actions over the past week involved agents. I do use them for preliminary research, scoping, scaffolding, or creating outlines, but the core revenue drivers—what actually makes me money—come from me, not the agents. The real ROI lies in simple, repeatable systems like Getting Things Done by David Allen: having a place to capture ideas, checking back to decide if something is actionable, and then working through a clear next‑action flow. It may sound boring, but that’s where the real secrets are—rooted in proven, past‑tested methods, not chasing the latest AI trends.

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Related answers

youtube ↗AI & Automation

Can you make a video about agent loops and agent harnesses?

Loops have been interesting to play with. The simplest way to get started: before you go to bed, give your AI agent a goal, and have it loop every X minutes as part of achieving that goal — this solves the problem of a model finishing a goal too early, and lets you trade tokens/time for quality since it doesn't matter if it takes 8 hours while you're asleep. Example: I wanted to scaffold out possible structures for a free community, so I set a goal and had it loop every 15 minutes overnight — over about 8 hours that's roughly 32 independent passes, each consulting the master list of ideas so far and adding a few new ones, ending with a massive list of options. A second major use is loops for software optimization: set up a loop where every X minutes an agent spawns and tries to improve some metric you care about (like page load speed) on a live property — it's essentially 'auto-research in a box,' logging what it's tried before and improving a test metric over time. The downside nobody talks about much: loops burn a ton of tokens — creators pushing loops are often fine spending $2-3K/month on AI tokens, so if you don't have that kind of budget, it can be a rough way to work.

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youtube ↗Mindset

Should I stop making AI videos and focus on consistency and discipline instead?

Thank you. I had a great rest last night and I'm on fire today. If you want to talk about consistency and discipline, the best way is to get 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night—it makes everything easier. You asked about making a video on how to create an AI appointment setter; that would help a lot. Are you referring to an AI voice agent? If so, check out my AI voice agent—search for it, as Googling my content helps boost my rankings. One of my daily updates videos appears there, and there's also Nick's AI net worth search, which is funny. Another option is the AI agent, probably the website agent I built, which does some setting for you—give it a try and let me know your thoughts.

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youtube ↗Marketing

For someone who understands AI tools and has sales experience, which of your videos should they watch to get started, and would you still recommend starting with speed‑to‑lead?

That’s actually quite comparable to what you’re doing at Apple—Apple’s approach is consultative, not hard‑selling, and that’s exactly how you should use AI and automation. Instead of pushing a product, ask the prospect what’s important to them or why they’re interested in the possibility of working with you. Their answer tells you exactly what makes them want to buy, and you simply reflect that back while discussing your offering. From that perspective, I’m looking for a more scalable way to generate leads than going door‑to‑door. Everything I do after that point refers back to scalability and how much better it is than door‑to‑door. In fact, this approach is far more scalable because you set it up once and it delivers leads indefinitely. Apple’s sales model is similar: people want something simple that just works when they turn it on, without constant worries—that’s exactly what you achieve with a consultative, AI‑driven process. To answer your original question: if you’re looking to start using the tools, my Claude Code course is probably the best place to begin. I’m also working on a much larger course that will be even longer, so keep an eye out for that. If your focus is more on what to sell, concentrate on growth‑based systems—those that improve reach, acquisition, conversion, or expansion. As long as you sell systems that touch any of those four areas, you’ll make good money.

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youtube ↗Mindset

How do you stay updated on new AI tools and updates—do you follow X newsrooms, newsletters, or other sources to quickly make videos on them?

My workflow for staying updated is simple: I keep X (Twitter) open and subscribe to all the top creators, publishers, and the platforms themselves. Whenever a new AI tool appears on any of those accounts, I get a notification—one of the few I actually have enabled. I try to check these notifications between 5 a.m. and 3‑4 p.m., when I’m at my computer. If a notification pops up, I ask myself within 30 seconds whether it’s worth making a video about right now. If yes, I start recording immediately and worry about editing and polishing later. Seeing an update and having a 5‑minute video ready within 10 minutes is pretty cool, and I’ve automated the editing, publishing, and audio‑enhancement steps to make the flow efficient. That said, the question of how I stay on top of everything is a bit different. Honestly, I don’t try to stay on top of it all because the pace is so fast that trying to do so would consume all my time and prevent me from making money in my other businesses. It becomes mental masturbation—like AI porn—so I avoid it. My litmus test is simple: will this make me money? Is it possible? Can I use it to make money for my clients? If the answer is no, I don’t even think about it. I also find that my own processes look basic and old‑school compared to those who are constantly plugged into the cloud, chasing every agent and update; to me, that’s just a waste.

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