I turned my self-taught development
skill set into a multi-figure AI empire in under two years. From building an AI
development company to launching an AI SaaS and even AI Consulting Services, I've
done it all. And the truth is

that I'm not actually the most
experienced developer. I have no degree, I've got no formal experience in a
development role. But over the past two years, I've figured out the best ways to
monetize my skills in the AI age. And if

I can do it, so can you, especially if
you're already an experienced developer as well. I've served the top performing
developers across my 40,000 strong community and uncovered what they wish
they had known before diving into AI. And I've distilled those lessons to three
proven paths that will help you to

sidestep the most common pitfalls and
really just fast-track your AI success. So whether you're looking for a higher
paying job or for more freedom as a freelancer, or you want to start your own
AI business, then this roadmap will show

you exactly how to do it using those
three paths. And make sure you stick around until the end because I'll give
you access to my most comprehensive set of resources ever, complete with training
videos, step-by-step instructions, in order to help you take action on
everything that you're going to learn

today. Now if you're interested in using
the AI boom to get more out of your life and career as a developer, let me share a
little bit about my journey because I think it shows what's possible for
anyone if you have the right roadmap. So

My journey as a developer is a pretty
humble one compared to many of you probably watching this video. Uh, in about
2022, I started teaching myself how to code mainly through Udemy courses,
starting with just Python basics, then moving into machine learning with Python
and eventually exploring Go and

JavaScript. And by the end of 2022, I
began experimenting with language models like BERT for sentiment analysis tasks
that I was really interested in. And that was just before ChatGPT launched, and so
that was really the turning point for me.

I started jumping into the OpenAI APIs.
I created this channel to share what I was building, and within 7 months I was
hitting 100,000 subscribers. Now, nearly 2 years into my AI journey, I'm at over
260,000 subscribers and I've

experimented with dozens of ways to
monetize my AI skills, and so today I'm sharing the methods that have worked
best for me and for the thousands of developers I surveyed in my free
community to make this video possible. Before we jump into the three main paths
that developers are using to transition

into AI, let's make it clear why AI is
the best vehicle right now for you to get more out of your life and your
career as a developer. The AI market is expected to grow to 20 times its current
size by 2030, hitting nearly $2 trillion

in total value. And as Warren Buffett
says, it's not about how hard you row, it's about the boat that you're in. And
right now, AI is the boat to be in. There's developers who are getting into
AI and are really riding this wave to

higher paying jobs, exciting projects at
work, and new business ventures and startups as well. But the thing is that
you don't need years of training to get into AI anymore. There are tools like Open
AI pre-trained models and no-code platforms. Yes, I didn't like them either
but we'll talk about them a little bit

later. You've got things like Make.com
and even these non-techies, non-developers are getting into AI and
they're getting paid for it as well. A good example is a member of my
community, um, he's a member of my

accelerator, and he landed a job for
$250,000 per year at an AI voice startup called Thly, and his title was
Chief Solutions Engineer. Will isn't a developer, he's never learned to code. He
built all of his skills using only the

tools that are now available, while many
developers with actual development skill sets are still sitting and watching this
AI boom from the sidelines. And if that annoys you, it should, cuz AI is our arena.
This is a software revolution, and while others are getting their piece of the
pie, you're perfectly positioned to get

yours too. And so my point here is that
AI is more accessible than ever, and any experienced developer is just a few
weeks of focused learning away from being able to start capitalizing on this
moment in time and getting ahead of the

curve. And that's what this video is
really here to do for you is to show you how to use this roadmap to take
advantage of the opportunity and monetize your skills as a developer as
effectively as possible, just like myself.

and thousands of other people in the
community have done as well. So if you're ready to use this moment to earn more, to
work on more exciting projects, or even have more freedom in your career, the
first step is pretty clear and that's to

decide which path into AI you want to
take. Each of the three paths we're going to cover leverages your existing skills
differently, whether you're looking for stability, flexibility, or the chance to
build something from scratch. So let's

break down each of the paths and what
they look like, so you can decide on which one aligns with what you're after
from your life and your career. But I want you to think about what you value
most right now in your life. Is it

stability? Is it freedom? Or is it
building something of your own? The first path people are using to get into AI is
what we can call the '9 to 5' route. And this is if you prefer the stability or comfort
of a traditional job, but want

better pay or you want to work on more
exciting things at work, then this 9 to 5 route could be the perfect fit for you.
You don't need to launch a new startup, you don't need to completely reinvent
yourself to take advantage of this AI

boom. It's just a few strategic moves
that can be used to basically boost your income, put you onto more innovative
projects, and make you stand out in your company overall. I mean, it's no secret
these days that AI-focused roles in the development world are paying
significantly more these days. You've got

entry-level AI engineers at top
companies starting around $224,000 with olds going up to more than a million
dollar in comp, plus stocks and bonuses, etc. So not only does the AI development
skill set make you a much more desirable

higher for the foreseeable future, you
also get to do what deep down I think most developers really want to do, and
that's to solve real problems. At least that's what attracted me to the field
and generative AI is a is a new frontier

of innovation and it's completely
reshaping certain industries and and business processes. And so by
transitioning into AI within this 9 to 5 role, you get to earn more while working
on groundbreaking technology that's actively changing the world rather than
working on probably some of the mundane

projects that you've you've had at work
that you'd rather you'd wish you weren't really working on, but you had to do
anyway. So if you want to stay within the traditional framework of a developer
role but also maximize your rewards in

life and career, then this 9-to-5 path is
for you. So the overall goal for the 9-to-5 path is to get a higher-paying
and more exciting role in the AI space. And so keep that in mind because for all
of the goals that I'm going to cover

here, that's going to take us into the
next part of this video where we're going to break down the steps to get to
those goals and to monetize your skills. Eventually getting into number two, we
have the second path, which is the

freelancer the freelancer path is for
people who value freedom and flexibility more than a traditional office job and
they want to control their own projects, their own schedule, and ultimately
control their own lifestyle. So if that sounds like you, then the AI freelancer
path is ideal right now. Demand for AI

developers is through the roof. My own AI
automation agency has received thousands of project requests over the past 18
months alone through this channel. And if you want more proof of this surging
demand for AI development talent and services, in my free community of the 356
recent posts in my hiring or for a hire

channel, 61% of those recent posts were
from businesses or individuals who are actively looking to hire AI development
talent. This kind of demand for AI development services within online
communities is a particularly important part of the strategies that we're going
to cover later in this video, so keep

that in mind. But beyond just development
services, freelancing isn't just about taking on project work. You can also set
your own rates and build multiple sources of income, like doing consulting
or doing coaching as well. There are developers like Timu and Tara who are
development coaches in my accelerator

program, and they both left their jobs
and started as freelancers going through sort of online communities, etc. And now
found their lane of coaching others, building both income and reputation in
the space. So if high-paying, flexible work from a dreamy location like Bali
or Thailand or the Caribbean without the

9-to-5 structure appeals to you, then this
freelancer route is for you. The overarching goal for the freelancer path
is to make enough money to quit your job and then work for yourself from anywhere
in the world. Then getting into our third and final path, we have what we can call
the founder. This is the path for

developers who want more than just a job
or a contract for a client. They want to be able to build something of their own
and I think secretly a large chunk of the developer community secretly is
longing to ditch their 9 to 5, ditch

their job and launch their own startup
to bring new products into the world, like solving real problems and creating
a product around it. And so if you're entrepreneurial like this, now is the
perfect time to consider making that jump and becoming a Founder because AI
is really attracting everyone to it

right now, meaning that you have
thousands of expert business people and marketers with multi-million dollar ideas
and the means to market those ideas effectively who are desperately
searching for technical partners to bring their product ideas to life. So
there are literally hundreds of people

joining my free community every single
day, hundreds, and many of these people are actively looking for development
partners to pair up with and co-found startups. And like I said, 61% of the
recent posts in my hiring and For Hire channel in my community were from
businesses or individuals who are

actively looking to hire development
talent. There's a large chunk of those people who are also looking for
co-founders, development partners to join them in a business. So what I'm
saying is that there's never been a

better time to pair up with
entrepreneurs who want to do all the stuff that you don't want to do as a
developer. So they do all the marketing and sales, you get to just focus on
building an incredible product, which I think is what the majority of developers
want out of being a founder and creating

a startup and so while the typical
build and AI startup route does have its appeal there's a faster way to get into
AI business which is through what's called the AI automation agency model so
you can think of this as a modern

version of a web development agency but
specifically for building AI systems for businesses it's really a
great entry point and exposes you to the best use cases for AI in the world right
now that can be spun into their own AI SaaS products which given your experience
as a developer that transition from

finding a product or solution that you
built for a client into its own AI SaaS product it's going to be much easier
than for these non-techies who are also getting into it so you have an advantage
there of being able to transition from a

solution for one client into a SaaS
product for example I started my own AI automation agency Morningside AI because
I've always been more interested in and building the business than strictly
developing and being on the keys all the time the AI automation agency model lets
you start quite small with minimal

startup capital just a few hundred
really especially as a developer and this helps you to avoid the painfully
long VC funding route you can just start a business quite quickly start to
generate cash flow leave your job if that's what you want to do and
eventually scale into larger ventures

like the AI SaaS plays I've just
mentioned so with the revenue and experience that I gain from running
Morningside AI I launched my own AI SaaS product which now has over 28,000 users
on it if launching a startup and creating

awesome new products is your goal the
founder path is built for you so the overarching goal for the founder is to
partner with an entrepreneur or marketer who has a validated idea ideally the
connections and the sales expertise needed to take this to market but they
lack the technical expertise and need a

partner to build it with so choosing
your path really comes down to what you want most right now in your life and
career whether that's stability with high pay and interesting things to work
on as a 9-to-5 AI developer or the freedom

to set your own schedule and choose your
clients as a freelancer or purpose in building something of your own as a
founder and it's important to note that these paths aren't mutually exclusive
freelancing can easily lead into founding your own business down the line
but you need to start with one that fits

with your current goals and also your
lifestyle constraints as well if you've got a family or you've got other
commitments etc you need to pick one that works for your goals and also the
constraints you have and at the end of

this video I'm going to be sharing the
resources and the road map with real case studies from community members that
I've surveyed so that you can see what's possible with each of these paths if you
can't quite make up your mind now so

that's all in the end with the road map
that I'm going to give to you step two of the road map is called the learn
phase and so once you've chosen your path it's time to level up with the
right skills to get into the AI space

and I think a lot of developers really
overthink this, but learning AI is a lot simpler than it looks. And as a developer,
you really already have the foundational knowledge to excel in AI. It's just a
case of adding the right skills on top

of what you already know. What surprised
me most when I was upskilling in AI was how simple many of the AI programs are
compared to some of their traditional equivalents because the models are
doing so much of the heavy lifting in

these programs. Your programs end up
being so much more compact and short, and for me, with an 8-month long self-taught
development skill set, this was a godsend because I could just build way cooler stuff
and way more complex programs by doing

less work, which was really the most
awesome part about getting into AI development for me. And in my own
development journey, what you end up noticing is that it's often just about
crafting a well-written prompt or set of prompts and then connecting these tools
or prompts in a way that accomplishes

pretty complex tasks really efficiently.
Based on my own experience and the insights from the top developers I
surveyed in my community, in this section we're going to go over the core areas
that you need to focus on upskilling in

but you're going to find a full list of
resources in the roadmap guide that I'm going to provide at the end of this
video. So the first thing, of course, that you're going to need to upskill in is
prompt engineering and mastering prompts.

is really the foundation of the AI
technology that we work with these days and it's incredibly powerful rather than
having to write these big long functions to process data like you typically would
have to, you can now just craft a well-written set of words into a prompt
that's going to transform that input

data into output data. As You Wish
basically instantly. There Andre Kathy famously said the hottest new programming
language is English, and in a sense prompt engineering is exactly that: your
coding in natural language. You can achieve the same things that you could
with a big function with just an API

call with a carefully written prompt, and
so with the right prompt engineering techniques, you can reliably transform
large amounts of data and get the results you need at scale. So you can
create functions based around these natural language prompts that can do
things for businesses typically

businesses at scale. And of course
nowadays everyone thinks they know prompt engineering because they've played
around with ChatGPT, but mastering it for business applications, which is
typically where you're going to be creating the most value, requires a lot
more precision. And I've included the

best resources to quickly master this
and the roadmap we're going to cover at the end. Prompt engineering really is
modern-day magic, so you do need to take it quite seriously. The next area that
you'll need to upskill in is with no

code and low-code tools. Now I know I
felt the exact same way when I first got into the AI space, but before you
completely dismiss these no-code tools, you need to let me explain for two
seconds, right? So I used to think that

These no-code platforms like Voiceflow
and Zapier were just a way of like people who couldn't code coping and like
an inferior accepting that it's some inferior platform, uh, I can't code but I
can use this instead, which kind of gets

me halfway there, kind of like a a
compromise basically, but as my AI automation agency Morningside AI grew, I
realized these platforms have come quite a long way from what I thought they were
and they're actually excellent for prototyping and building out core
functionality very quickly, and then

custom-coded features can be added for
more advanced things as needed. What you'll quickly realize is most of the
work that you'll do in the AI space initially will be around proof of
concept or minimum viable products, MVPs, just to test and validate that these AI
systems are actually one, they work, and

two, that they're actually valuable. Then
building on no-code and low-code platforms here is completely logical and it
literally saves you days of effort and costs. However, once a system is validated
and ready to scale, then it's worth transitioning to a fully custom build
which is where you can provide a lot

more value as a developer with these
skills needed to do so. This open-mindedness towards low-code and no
code tools is so important for developers who are moving into AI. It's
literally one of the most common bits of advice given from people who have
successfully transitioned that I

surveyed in my community to make this
video. You essentially have to swallow your pride a little bit and be more
pragmatic about how you approach these projects. It's more so about building
quickly and building reliable systems in a cost-effective manner than your own
personal opinions and feelings towards

these platforms and of course I've
included all of the resources that you'll need to learn these platforms
quickly in the roadmap I'll give you at the end of this video the next thing you
need to learn is what we can call

advanced tools so once you've got the
basics of prompt engineering and no-code and low-code tools you can dive into advanced
libraries like LangChain or Llama Index and learn to build with vector databases
this is where you can really leverage your development skills to tackle larger
and more complex projects because unlike

the newbies who don't have any developer
background you'll be able to understand the power and flexibility that these
libraries offer and use this to deliver advanced and really tailored solutions
to clients who need more than just the kind of off-the-shelf applications that
you can build with a lot of these no

code and low-code tools so this is
really where you get to show your strength you understand the prompt
engineering and low-code foundation but on top of it you can provide the
customization and extensibility that ultimately a lot of businesses need so
you really can just have the best of

both worlds as a developer who has
really been open-minded to master both the custom-coded aspect of it and also
the no-code and low-code side and finally the last part of this learning phase is
going to be community surrounding yourself with other AI focused
developers is one of the fastest ways

that you can pick up new skills and stay
up to date on where the current tech is moving having a place that you can ask
questions to more experienced AI developers can literally save you days
of trouble particularly with certain kinds of builds so getting around a
community of other AI developers is a

no-brainer step for you in your roadmap
I've created a list of the best developer-focused AI communities that
you can join and they'll all be included in the roadmap guide with this video
and realistically this learning phase that we've just gone through is going to
take you about 2 months or so before

you're ready to move on to the real
world application in the next step but the goal here in this learning phase is
simple: you need to get skilled, you need to get comfortable with the technology
and you need to prepare to apply what you've learned in the real world
so to make this easy I've organized all

of the top-rated resources to upskill an
AI developer from the developers that I surveyed and even from our own experience into
one single guide which you can follow step by step to rapidly move through
this learning phase, which will be included with the roadmap at the end of
this video. Step three in your roadmap

is what we can call the apply phase, so
once you've built up your skills the next step you need to take is to get
some real-world experience with those skills and the best way to do that is to
start by helping people who actually

need AI solutions right now, and so many
early-stage AI entrepreneurs and AI automation agency owners, business owners
etc. are eager to integrate AI into their business or build products but they lack
the technical skills to do so, and this of course is where you come in. So the
best place to find these kinds of

opportunities where people are looking
for these skills is in online communities where you're getting AI
enthusiasts and professionals all gathering together. And so my free School
Community is the largest AI community on School with over 40,000 members and that
includes developers, business owners, even

investors just everyone who's been drawn
into this as an opportunity is coming through that Community every day there's
hundreds of new people coming in from my videos and from elsewhere and they're
posting in channels and in the hiring tab or development discussions looking
for help looking for advice the

opportunities here are nearly endless
especially if you're willing to provide some value up front before asking for
something right so here's how you can start applying your skills in these
communities you can start with my school group that's going to be linked in the
first link in the description it's a hub

of people excited about AI and
Entrepreneurship and business and Tech and many people are actively looking for
help advice and technical support which you can help them out with next you need
to set up your profile within that Community to make it clear that you're
an AI developer and you're ready to help

so this is a small change but it can do
a world of difference for people who are coming into these communities it's just
to correctly position yourself and being proud of what you've done or of your
skill set I know it's it's a common

developer thing to want to be like
fairly humble or I'm not qualified to do this I need to go and get a Masters
in AI you need to drop that and you need to leave it at the door now is not the
time to be shy this is one of again one

of the most important things that came
through in the survey that I did is that you need to be willing to put yourself
out there and be proud of your skills and the value you bring to the table you
don't need to have a master's degree or

a PhD and AI to say that you're an AI developer these days the technology is so new you can within the space of a couple of months come up and be literally one of the top 0.1% of the people who are using say AI voice agent technology the space is moving so fast now the experts are really just the ones who are keeping up in your profile you can stand out by listing the skills you have expressing your interest in contributing to the community and by this way people can see at a glance what you bring to the table when you're

interacting within the community then the next step is to offer some free value upfront don't wait for paid gigs right now you can just answer questions you can make posts you can explain complex AI Concepts in simple terms or share tutorials on setting up useful AI systems many of the developers in my

community have got hundreds and hundreds of comments and connections through their post just by sharing some helpful and valuable insights and helpful content and I've put a couple of examples of this on the road map so you can see just exactly the kinds of posts you can make and just get tons and tons

of engagement and interest in your services and become a little bit of a celebrity within the community really and then finally you just need to start taking on some real projects so by providing free help to people in the community you'll find plenty of chances to dive into actual projects with them

and so don't worry about the money at this stage you need to focus on gaining the experience and building some credibility up improving your skills and the paid work will come but right now it's more important to build a solid foundation and applying those skills in the real world and getting experience

and a great example of this is is again
teu one of my coaches and my accelerator and so he joined my free community last
year and started offering free advice and very quickly got recognized in the
community as a go-to AI developer for

anything that they needed from there my
team quickly noticed him and hired him as a freelance development coach with my
accelerator for our members and then he's also gone on to start his own AI
automation agency with another coach of mine or you can take Tara as another
example who's another one of my coaches

and my accelerator she started off her
AI Journey just jumping in as a developer into my free school Community
she just dove in started helping out whatever she could and quickly caught
the attention of not only myself and my team but everyone in the community as
well Tara's background was in Consulting

at the L but she was able to leave that
job begin traveling Asia start working freelance as a coach and a consultant
with the level of flexibility and freedom that she'd always wanted and now
she's actually leading the setup of our

[한글자막]개발자가 AI로 돈벌기 시작하는 3가지 현실적인 방법(AI 콘텐츠 스터디 #2)

🚀 안녕하세요, '평범한 사업가' 채널에 오신 것을 환영합니다! 
제 채널에서는 최신 AI 기술, 혁신적인 비즈니스 전략, 그리고 유튜브 채널 성장을 위한 실질적인 인사이트를 공유합니다. 🤖💡

🌟 이 채널은 기술과 비즈니스에 열정을 가진 사람들을 위한 공간입니다. AI의 최신 동향부터 초 개인화를 위한 실용적인 팁까지, 여러분의 비즈니스 여정에 필요한 모든 것을 제공합니다. 📈🔥

🔍 구독하시고, AI와 ChatGPT를 활용하여 엄청난 효율화와 생산성을 경험하시고 성공적인 여정을 함께 시작해보세요. 매주 업데이트되는 콘텐츠로 여러분을 기다리고 있습니다! 🎥🎉"
