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

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.

ai newsstaying updatedfocus

Related answers

youtube ↗Agency Operations

What's your daily routine for recording updates, from filming to running the business and choosing titles/thumbnails?

It's straightforward: I let AI handle the selection of questions, so the process is low-friction. By answering your questions I get ground-truth data on what my audience is thinking, which I feed back into my YouTube content, Maker School, and my offers to make them better. I don't spend much time on it—I just fire up the stream, read the comments, and use that insight to improve everything in my business. The daily updates also provide public accountability, motivation, and a way to connect with people, with no real downside. My routine is minimal: when I have a few free minutes before leaving the house, I record using whatever device is handy (often just my MacBook); I don't worry about camera quality, lighting, title, or thumbnail because showing up consistently over the long term is what matters.

daily updatesworkflowAI
youtube ↗Mindset

I'm finding that learning, implementing, and creating an AI automation agency is really time-consuming and slow. Is it actually true that this stuff takes time, or am I just slow?

These things take time. There is no shortcut in life — you have to sit down and do the work. You're not slow, or rather, we're all slow. People making a ton of money usually just started earlier and put in a lot more work than you have. You can genuinely predict a lot of someone's success just by how many hours they've spent on the thing: if someone started at the same time as you and is making four times as much money, they've usually put in two to four times as much time — there are exponential gains the more time you put in, so the more you put in, the less you need for the same results going forward. Look at my YouTube channel versus smaller channels and compare total minutes of content published — it's almost a one-to-one relationship. I have about four times as much content as another creator I know, and I'm about four times as big as he is. It really is mostly just a matter of how much time you put in.

time investmentpatienceconsistency
youtube ↗Mindset

Should I have started a daily updates channel earlier, or what advice do you give for launching one from day one, especially for someone uncomfortable on camera and without a script?

No, I wouldn’t start a daily updates channel just for the sake of it. I do it now because my own work—running a scrappy AI automation business—is inherently interesting to watch; it’s like seeing a vlog of someone operating at a high profit level that few people achieve. For most people, watching them wouldn’t be interesting unless they’re already skilled at what they do. Running the channel takes extra time (20‑30 minutes daily) that could be spent elsewhere, but I keep it because the distribution and personal accountability it creates are valuable, and there’s a large potential payoff later as people see my consistent effort over months or years. That said, I appreciate when others start their own channels—like the one set up for me posting daily short Q&A clips—or when they share feedback, clipping content, or experimenting with formats (vertical videos, podcast clips). I’ve seen others, such as Marlon, launch similar channels and grow to around 100 subscribers. I’m open to tips, but I think the current approach is solid. I’m currently bottlenecked for taking calls, so I don’t see near‑term upside in spending time on them. Instead, I’d prefer an affiliate arrangement: if you join Maker School and create clips on channels like this, you can earn money when those clips drive sign‑ups, plus a flat CPM payment for views. This aligns incentives and creates a win‑win. I’ve already answered similar questions about the channel before, so I’ll keep it brief.

daily updatesyoutubecontentadvice
youtube ↗Mindset

I graduated in visual communications with skills in filmmaking, cinematography, graphic design, and AI video. I see all these trendy AI opportunities and feel left out. Should I start something in the AI world, and if so, what? Do I keep going into the creative field or pivot to something more profitable with a clear ROI? My goal is to reach 5K/month as fast as possible, then 10K, then scale to 30-50K, but I'm unemployed with a couple of freelance gigs in Turkey and feel paralyzed by all the AI advancements.

The reality is AI has not made anything new possible. It has just made old processes more profitable. And it is in the making of old processes more profitable that some things appear more possible. But I don't want you to feel confused — nothing here is fundamentally new. These are all market opportunities that are pre-existing and either growing slightly or shrinking slightly. The people that, as a rule in my life, have always made the most money are not the people that pick up every new shiny object, every new cool video gen tool, every cool new cinematography tool. The people in my life that have always made the most money are the people that just pick one thing, get really good at that one thing, and then milk it like a fat cow. So my recommendation: I understand it feels paralyzing because so much is happening so quickly. That is only going to increase. You best deal with it now, not in a year from now when we have 10x as many developments in a tenth of the time. Figure out a couple of things that you feel reasonably confident provide value to an end user. Learn them really, really well. Stick your head down in the sand. Turn off all social media platforms aside from maybe my daily updates channel. Then get really good at them and sell them.

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