The AI Consulting Launch Blueprint: Your First $10K Client in 90 Days

Having AI skills doesn't make you money. Having a paying client does. This bonus episode is the bridge — a 90-day, step-by-step blueprint to finding and closing your first $5K–$10K AI consulting engagement.

This is the advanced strategy companion to Monday's Episode 23 (The Path to $150K+). If Monday gave you the skills roadmap, Wednesday gives you the business launch system.

What you'll get in this episode:
• Why most AI consultants stay broke and the positioning formula that fixes it
• The 90-Day Client Acquisition Blueprint (Days 1-15 / 16-45 / 46-75 / 76-90)
• The 4-Rung Service Ladder (Audit → POC → Implementation → Retainer)
• The exact warm outreach script that converts 5–10x better than cold
• The Discovery Conversation Framework — 5 questions that close deals
• Pricing for first clients (real numbers, no fluff)
• The Referral Engine how to turn one client into four

⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 — Hook: Skills don't pay, clients do
03:00 — The mindset shift from learner to practitioner
08:00 — The Positioning Formula (why "AI consultant" is worth $0)
18:00 — The 90-Day Client Acquisition Blueprint
32:00 — Pricing architecture: Never sell hours again
38:00 — The Referral Engine
44:00 — The $5K-$10K math: Three scenarios
50:00 — The Three-Part Weekly Challenge
55:00 — Closing + Monday series finale preview

📌 Subscribe — new episodes every Monday and Wednesday.

#SurvivingAI #AIConsulting #AIFreelance #CareerStrategy #AI2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You can build a a stunning state of the art house, right? Complete with the best plumbing, perfect wiring, luxury finishes.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

But if it is hidden in the deep woods with absolutely no roads leading to it, well, it is functionally worthless. No one can buy it. You know, because no one even knows it's there.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Right. It's just sitting empty.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Exactly. And today on the deep dive, we are building that road. We are pulling directly from a really specific source today, a special Wednesday bonus episode of Surviving AI hosted by Carlo Thompson.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Aaron Powell Yeah. The episode is called the AI Consulting Launch Blueprint.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

That's the one. And our mission today, the whole reason we're doing this deep dive, is to bridge a massive gap. We're looking at how you go from having like raw AI skills to actually securing your first five to ten thousand dollars in consulting revenue.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Aaron Powell And doing it all within ninety days.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yes, within ninety days. Artificial system online. And we should probably set expectations right out of the gate here.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Oh, absolutely. If you're tuning in looking for, I don't know, vague motivational fluff or platitudes, this isn't that.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Not at all.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

This is a direct, tactical, no fluff playbook. We are here to build a concrete business system that takes you from invisible to hired.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

I love that. Invisible to hired. And the distinction is so critical because the core premise of this playbook shatters a myth that traps, honestly, so many talented people.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

It really does.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I need to land this line early and I need it to hit hard. Skills don't pay you. Clients do.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Clients do. That is the fundamental truth of the market.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Aaron Powell Right. I really want that to sink in for you. The absolute biggest trap you can fall into as a learner is thinking that uh just one more course or one more shiny certification is going to magically generate income.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Aaron Powell Yeah, because it absolutely won't. And what's wild is that when you look at the macro data, the sheer demand in the market right now proves that a lack of technical skill isn't the bottleneck.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Wait, really? The demand is that high?

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Oh, it's surging. The AI consulting market is growing at 30 to 40 percent year over year.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Aaron Powell That is insane. 30 to 40 percent.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yeah, and companies are actively paying uh something like$600 to$1,200 a day for junior consultants.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Wow. Just for junior level.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Exactly. The demand is not the problem at all. The capital is definitely there. The real problem is a total lack of a client acquisition system. You know, you have the inventory, but you have zero distribution.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Okay, let's unpack this. Because we are moving from this illusion that skills equal money to the actual mechanism of getting hired. Why do highly skilled people stay broke?

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Because they market themselves completely wrong.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

They fall into the generic trap, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:50

That's the single biggest mistake new consultants make. They update their LinkedIn or their website to just say, I am an AI consultant, or I help businesses with AI.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Which sounds nice, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

It sounds nice, but in the real world of B2B commerce, that sentence is worth exactly zero dollars.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Yeah, that makes total sense.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Because I'm putting the burden on the client. If I say I do AI, I'm basically forcing the client to figure out how to use me.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Precisely. Clients do not buy AI help. A CEO doesn't wake up in a cold sweat wishing they had more artificial intelligence in their organization.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Right. They aren't losing sleep over the tech stack itself.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Exactly. They wake up stressing about painful, expensive business problems. They buy solutions to those very specific problems.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Here's where it gets really interesting, though. The source material breaks down a formula to fix this. It's called the positioning formula.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

And it is beautifully simple.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

It really is. Yeah. You take your AI skill, you add your industry niche, and you add a specific outcome. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

AI skill plus industry niche plus specific outcome. And the contrast when you apply this formula is just staggering.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Aaron Powell It completely changes the perceived value. Let's actually do a side-by-side comparison for that. Let's do it. So the generic approach sounds like I offer AI consulting services. Boring, invisible.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Completely invisible.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

But the positioned approach, you say I build AI-powered invoice processing systems for mid-market manufacturing companies, reducing processing time by 75% in 60 days.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Boom. That position statement is instantly worth$5,000 or more.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

It's a night and day difference.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Notice what happened there. You aren't selling some nebulous technology anymore. You are selling a highly specific business result to a highly specific buyer.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Okay, let's use an analogy here. This is like the difference between putting up a sign on the street that just says I fix things versus a sign that says I fix the transmission on 2018 Honda Civics in under two hours.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Oh, that's a perfect analogy.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Right. Specificity creates value. If I have a broken 2018 Honda Civic, I am driving right past the IFixThings guy. I don't care how good he is.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

You're handing the second guy all your money.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Exactly, because he is speaking directly to my exact pain point.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

And the beauty of this approach is that you don't need to be the world's foremost machine learning researcher to get started.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

You really don't.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

You just need to be more expert than the average person in your specific target industry. Like if you have three years of prior career experience in healthcare logistics or commercial real estate or local retail.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Then that is your niche.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Exactly. You combine your existing industry knowledge with your new AI automation skills to solve a problem you already understand intimately.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Okay, so we have the positioning. We know what we are selling and who we are selling it to, but how do you actually find that person? Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

How do you get them to hand you a check?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Exactly. This leads directly into the executable 90-day blueprint. It's broken into four distinct phases. Let's start with phase one, which covers days one through 15, the foundation.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

So during these first two weeks, your focus is incredibly narrow. You are really only doing three things.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Okay, what are they?

SPEAKER_02 6:01

First, you write that positioning statement we just built. Second, you build a digital proof infrastructure.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Aaron Powell Which means what? Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

We're talking about a clean LinkedIn profile and a simple one-page document that leads with your specific positioning. And third, and this is the most important part, you build one single spec portfolio project.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Aaron Powell A spec project. Let's pause here, because I think a lot of technical folks get like completely tangled up on what this should actually look like.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

They overcomplicate it.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

They really do.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

And remember to avoid the jargon here, frame it to yourself as an AI automation project rather than, you know, an agentic workflow implementation.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Aaron Powell Yes, please. You have to speak the language of business, not a computer science textbook.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Aaron Powell But practically speaking, what does a good spec project actually entail?

SPEAKER_02 6:46

It's crucial to understand that a strong spec project is not a massive, complex code base uploaded to GitHub. Business clients won't read your code.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Aaron Powell They don't have the time or the background for that.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Right. A good spec project is a recorded three-minute video, maybe using a tool like Loom, showing a side-by-side comparison.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Just a simple screen recording.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Exactly. You show a human taking 10 minutes to manually process an invoice on the left side of the screen and your AI workflow doing it flawlessly in 10 seconds on the right side.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

I love that. You are visually proving the business outcome.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Yes, and it doesn't even have to be for a paying client. It's just a demo for a hypothetical business problem in your target industry.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Okay, so you're building undeniable visual proof. I've got my positioning statement, and my three-minute spec video is sitting on a clean one pager.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

You're ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

But the natural instinct here is to start blasting cold emails to hundreds of strangers, right? Or running LinkedIn ads. Where do I actually take this inventory to get distribution?

SPEAKER_02 7:47

And that brings us to phase two, days 16 through 45. Warm outreach. This is a crucial reality check that most people fight against.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Lay it on us.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Your first client almost certainly already knows you. New consultants waste months of their lives trying to cold pitch strangers on the internet.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

So what should they do instead?

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Your job in phase two is simply to build a list of 50 warm contacts in or adjacent to your target industry.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Aaron Powell We're talking about former colleagues, vendors you've worked with, friends of friends.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

People from local professional associations, yeah. And your approach is highly strategic. You send them specific non-transactional messages.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Aaron Powell What does a non-transactional message sound like?

SPEAKER_02 8:28

It sounds like hey Sarah, I'm building a new AI automation service for manufacturing companies, and I'd love to get 15 minutes of your advice on my initial concept. Oh, that's smart. Right. You say, no pitch, just value your industry perspective. You are literally just asking for advice or an introduction. You absolutely do not ask for a sale.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

You're just opening the door without triggering their sales defenses.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Which naturally leads into phase three, days 46 to 75. Discovery. Now I have to play devil's advocate for a second here.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Go for it.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Wait, isn't discovery just a corporate word for a sneaky sales pitch? You know the drill. You pretend to listen for 10 minutes and then spring the trap.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I completely get why it feels that way, especially if you've been on the receiving end of a bad software pitch. But true discovery is the exact opposite.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

How so?

SPEAKER_02 9:18

If you are pitching during this phase, you are doing it entirely wrong. Think of it like a doctor. A doctor doesn't walk into the exam room, look at you, and immediately try to sell you a leg cast.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

That would be terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Right. They poke your arm and ask, does this hurt? If you say no, they move on to the next test. Your discovery call is just you poking the business to see where it hurts.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

So what specific symptoms are we looking for when we poke the business?

SPEAKER_02 9:42

You are diagnosing for three mandatory elements pain, urgency, and budget authority.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Pain, urgency, and budget.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Right. Is the problem genuinely painful to their daily operations? Do they need it solved soon, or is it a someday wish?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

And the budget part.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Does the person you were talking to actually have the power to write a check? If they aren't actively trying to solve the problem right now, you politely move on.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Okay, that relieves so much pressure. You're filtering, not forcing. If they don't have the pain, urgency, or budget, you just walk away.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

You are a diagnostic professional, not a sleazy salesperson pushing a product on someone who doesn't need it.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

But let's say they do have all three. They are bleeding money on a manual process, they need it fixed yesterday, and you are talking to the operations director who holds the credit card.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Then we move to phase four.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Days 76 to 90. The proposal.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

The golden rules for the proposal are brevity and mirroring. Keep it under two pages.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

Just two pages.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Yes. Business leaders do not have the time to read a 20-page academic thesis, and you must use their exact words from the discovery call to describe the problem.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Oh, that's a great psychological trick.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

It's vital. If they called their data entry process a soul-crushing nightmare, your proposal better use the phrase soul-crushing nightmare.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

I love that. And there's a really important metric from the sources here about phase four. You have to follow up three times.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Yes, three times. Minimum.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

So many brilliant technical minds send a proposal into the email void, hear nothing for 48 hours, and just assume it's a hard rejection.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

The data on this is unforgiving. 90% of deals that close after a proposal close within the first two follow-ups.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

90%.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

People are incredibly busy. The operations director you pitched might have had a supply chain crisis the morning they got your email. Their silence is usually a distraction, not rejection.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

You really have to professionally guide them over the finish.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Oh, do you?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

So what does this all mean? We've successfully diagnosed the problem and we're writing the proposal. Now we hit the climax of the entire system. How do you actually price it?

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Because if you price this wrong, you trap yourself in a glorified, stressful hourly wage.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

This is where we need a massive paradigm shift. If you take absolutely nothing else away from this deep dive, take this rule never sell hours again.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Never sell hours again. It is the golden rule.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Why is hourly billing so toxic for this kind of work, though?

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Hourly billing fundamentally misaligns your incentives with the client's incentives. If you get faster and better at your job because you use AI, it takes you less time, right? Right. Which means you make less money. Meanwhile, it makes the client watch the clock and question every single minute of your time.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

It turns a partnership into an adversarial audit.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Exactly. Instead, you package your services. The client buys a guaranteed outcome, not your time. In the playbook, this is called the service ladder.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Okay, I'm gonna deliberately slow things down here for a second. Good call. I want you to really visualize these numbers and internalize this ladder because understanding the corporate psychology behind these tiers is how you build a real business.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Let's walk the ladder.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Rung one is the audit. This is a one-to-two-week roadmap that you price at$750 to$2,500. Let's just use$750 for our baseline scenario.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

The reason you start with a$750 audit is low friction. Corporate budgets are highly guarded fortresses.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Getting money out of a corporation is notoriously hard.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

If you ask a new client for$30,000 on day one, you trigger a massive, agonizing approval process involving procurement teams and senior vice presidents.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

But a$750 audit.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

A mid-level manager can often put that straight on a corporate credit card without asking anyone's permission. It slips right past their corporate red tape.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

That is incredibly strategic. You're basically designing the price to match the buying behavior.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Then, once you deliver that audit and earn their trust, you step up to rung two. The proof of concept.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

Right. This is a working prototype demonstrating actual return on investment, usually priced around$2,500 to$7,500.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Rung three is full implementation. This is the production-ready AI system fully deployed in their business. This goes for$7,500 to$30,000.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Let's say$7,500 for our baseline.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

And finally, rung four, the retainer. Ongoing optimization, maintenance, and updates at$2,000 to$6,000 a month.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

If we look at the raw economics of this ladder, a single client relationship systematically moving from the audit to the proof of concept to full implementation to a retainer.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

It adds up fast.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

It represents$15,000 to$40,000 in year one revenue. With this system, a realistic target for your first 90 days is five to ten thousand dollars in consulting revenue.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

I have to push back here though, because I know what people are thinking. Isn't$750 way too low for an AI audit?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

I know it sounds low.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Especially if we just acknowledge that a full implementation is worth tens of thousands of dollars. Yeah. Are we undervaluing the work right out of the gate?

SPEAKER_02 14:55

It absolutely sounds like you're underselling yourself on the surface. But what's fascinating here is the underlying economics of your early engagement. That's so your first one to three clients are priced slightly lower on the front end because you aren't just earning a fee. You are essentially purchasing a case study.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Aaron Powell Purchasing a case study.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Exactly. If a$750 audit seamlessly converts into a$7,500 implementation, and that gives you a documented, undeniable case study.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Showing you saved a company$50,000 a year in operational costs, for example.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

Right. That single case study is the asset that will win you your next 10 clients at full premium pricing. The initial discount makes it entirely worth it.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

That completely reframes why you take a slightly smaller check on day one. You are trading a bit of margin for irrefutable proof. So you've landed that first client, you've moved them up the ladder, you've delivered the goods, and you have your case study. What's next? Do you start the 90 days over and go back to messaging 50 people on LinkedIn?

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Absolutely not. And this is where we transition from the launch phase to the long game.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

The final gear in the system.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Yes. The gear that makes the second client far easier than the first.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

The referral engine. Listen to these statistics from the deep dive sources because they blew my mind and completely validate why we focus on warm contacts.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

These are arguably the heaviest statistics in this entire blueprint. Referral clients close at four to five times the rate of cold prospects.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Four to five times.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Let me say that again. Four to five times the rate. Furthermore, 70 to 80 percent of professional consulting engagements come entirely from networking and referrals.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

70 to 80 percent.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

They do not come from cold emails. They do not come from running Facebook ads, and they certainly don't come from competing on race to the bottom freelance platforms.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

That means your best, most effective salesperson isn't you. It's your successful client. But you can't just hope they talk about you at a dinner party, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:53

No, you have to engineer it.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Carla lays out a very deliberate activation protocol to build this unpaid sales force. Let's break it down.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Step one deliver a memorable, documented, one-page success summary at the end of the project. Show them exactly how much time or money you save them in black and white.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Make the value obvious.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Step two, do a 30-day check-in. Put it on your calendar to call them a month later just to make sure the AI system is still running smoothly.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

It's step three where the real magic of the engine activates, though.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Yes. During that 30-day check-in, you make a specific referral ask.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

The specific being the operative word.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Always. You do not say, hey, do you know anyone else who needs AI? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Which is what everyone says.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

And it's a terrible question because it forces the client to do the cognitive heavy lifting of figuring out who your target audience is. It's too vague, so their mind goes blank.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Aaron Powell So what do you say instead?

SPEAKER_02 17:48

You say, Do you happen to know two other directors in manufacturing who are struggling with this exact same invoice processing bottleneck?

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Aaron Powell It's that Honda Civic transmission analogy all over again. You make the prompt so incredibly specific that a face or a name instantly pops into their head.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

And finally, step four, draft the LinkedIn recommendation for them to make it totally frictionless. Just email them and say, I'd love a testimonial. Here's a quick draft highlighting the metrics we achieved.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

And you say, edit it however you want. Nine times out of ten, they are so busy and so grateful you save them time, they'll post it exactly as you wrote it.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Okay, this raises a very sobering question, though. We have the positioning formula, we have the 90-day execution plan, we have the pricing ladder, and we have the referral engine.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

The entire system is laid out.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

So why do so many highly capable people still fail to launch? We have all the theory. Now it's time to talk about turning all this listening into doing.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

We need to soften the pace here for a second and address the underlying psychological barrier that stops brilliant people from succeeding.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Let's get real for a minute.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Aaron Powell Because it isn't the lack of technical knowledge and it isn't a lack of market demand. We already established the market is growing by 40%.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

So what is it?

SPEAKER_02 19:02

The real reason people don't start is the deep-seated, paralyzing fear of being told no.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Rejection hurts. It feels like a personal judgment on your abilities.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

It feels terrible. But if you want to succeed in consulting, we have to fundamentally reframe what a no means in this context. A no is just a filter.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

It's just a filter.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

It is not a failure. If a prospect says no, it simply means they lack the specific problem you solve or they lack the budget to solve it right now.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

It's a logistical mismatch.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Exactly. It is not a personal indictment of your worth, your intelligence, or your skills. In a market expanding this rapidly, the only true failure mode is not starting at all.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

A no is just a filter. I love that perspective. It takes all the emotional weight out of the equation. So here's our challenge to you.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Time for action.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

We want to activate you right now. We are directly challenging you to complete three specific tasks before this week is over.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Task number one, write your positioning statement.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Use the formula.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Task number two, build your list of 50 warm contacts.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

You don't even have to message them yet. Just open a spreadsheet and make the list.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Once you start writing names down, former coworkers, vendors, LinkedIn connections, you'll be surprised how quickly you hit 50.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Absolutely. And task number three, identify your one spec portfolio project.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Figure out what that three-minute before and after demonstration of your skills is going to be. Do these three things this week.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

And when you write that positioning statement, don't just leave it in a notebook.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Right. Post your positioning statement online this week using the hashtag SurvivingAI.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Put it out into the world, claim your niche, and very importantly, make sure you tune in next Monday.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

It is the Surviving AI episode 24 series finale.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

The 2025 to 2035 master plan. You absolutely will not want to miss how these short-term tactics tie into the 10-year macro trends.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

As we wrap up, I want to leave you with one final provocative thought to mull over.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

If the AI consulting market is expanding by 30 to 40% every single year, what happens to the businesses in your specific niche that don't hire someone like you?

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Wow. They get left behind.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

You aren't just selling them a software service or a few hours of coding. By bringing these solutions to them, you might literally be saving them from obsolescence.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

You are building the road that connects them to the future. Don't leave that beautiful house you've built hidden in the woods. Go find your clients.