Building custom AI systems, and running live workshops.
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Joined May 2024
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Still grateful I got to host one of the early CrewAI workshops at Microsoft's office.
And a little surreal I got to share a stage with AI leaders from Databricks, AbbVie, Discover, and CCC.
A few things that stuck with me:
> Trust, not tech, is what's actually slowing AI adoption. The tools already work, companies just don't trust you building it for them
> Owners already know their biggest constraints. Ask "what would save you the most time or make you the most money?" and they'll tell you the 2–3 that matter
> In-person beats the inbox. Owners go from skeptical to sold faster in two hours face-to-face than an email sequence does in two months
That last point is the whole game. Getting people in a room turns "who are you?" into "I trust you" faster than anything online can.
It's why I now run in-person AI workshops for business owners. Same energy, turned into a system that brings in clients
Still early. A lot more coming.
Akshay Patel retweeted
Yesterday in the wins channel of the Inner Circle.
A $5K/mo+ deal and a $200K rev share contract in the same 12 hours.
Reminder that the $1,000 price increase to join hits Sunday.
This quoted post is unavailable.
Your first $5K AI client is within 30 minutes of your house.
“Local business” is a lazy category.
It doesn’t just mean roofers, car detailers, plumbers.
It really means dental groups, insurance firms, property managers, big established companies with expensive operational problems.
These businesses don’t need another person explaining that AI is important.
They need someone they trust & 99% of people haven't reach out to them yet.
My first AI workshop turned into 2 clients worth $10k.
I collected 50% upfront.
But not that day. Both deals closed 1–2 weeks later.
That timeline matters because the workshop wasn't a disguised pitch.
We had 18 business owners in the room. We showed them how we were using AI, answered their questions, and listened to how their businesses worked.
We gave so much value that a follow-up call felt like the natural next step.
Now, not every workshop guarantees a $10k outcome.
But if you teach something useful, understand the businesses in the room, and follow up well, a workshop can compress the trust building cycle and give yourself a real shot at turning that trust into clients.
OpenAI launched Presence yesterday. AI agents for
customer support and sales.
Here's the detail everyone skipped:
You can't buy it on their website.
No signup. No free trial. They send engineers into
your building, through an account team, like it's
1995 and they're selling ERP software.
The company with the most famous product on the
internet decided AI agents can't be sold over the
internet.
Because an agent that touches your billing system
isn't software. It's trust. And trust still gets
built in person.
I watch this every week in workshops with business
owners. Nobody in that room buys from a cold DM.
They buy from the person standing in front of them
who showed them something real.
OpenAI just made that the official enterprise
playbook.
The internet sells software. Rooms sell trust.
Great start to the Sunday.
Another AI workshop in the bag.
Your fastest path to a $10,000 AI agency client.
Broke down the fundamentals with @lukepierceops on how to setup your 1st AI Workshop & make $10k doing it.
Im running this playbook twice a month. The only way I get clients for my agency
AP made over $10,000 with his AI agency in less than 4 weeks of starting.
All of it came from one in-person AI workshop.
I sat down with him to break down the exact playbook:
- How he got 18 business owners in a room for $200
- The pre-work that turned attendees into 6 booked audits
- How one attendee became a $60M dental chain client
- His advice for anyone starting from zero
Full video below
AI workshops are your fastest path to your first $5k AI agency client.
I’ve met businesses doing well over $10m in these rooms & closed them as clients.
Local workshops will create more 6 figure AI agencies in 2026 and most haven't realized it yet.
Think about what the biggest barrier is for business owners: Trust.
Mckinsey, BCG, Bain, the largest consulting companies in the world still fly in-person to their clients. Because nothing builds trust & value better than face 2 face.
It's how I made my first $10k, running local workshops.
I'm sharing the exact roadmap to run your 1st workshop in 15 days.
Akshay Patel retweeted
The things that actually create 10x outcomes for normal businesses:
1) New offer/pricing
2) New acquisition channels/formats
3) Time
That’s about it. Everything else is good & additive, but those are the big guns.
Your first $5k AI client is within 30 minutes of your house.
Not on upwork. Not on X.
They own a business, they have real pain, and they'd pay you tomorrow if they met you in-person.
All the chatter online would say, "But there are no big businesses in my backyard."
I've met 100+ local businesses through my in-person workshops. Some do over $30M a year.
It’s how I got my first clients and made my first $10k
They're there. Most people just don't want to look.
Everything you want is on the other side of taking just 1 step.
For the past year I was on the fence of starting my own business.
Will it work? Will I fail?
I learned there is only 1 way to find out. Just try.
And it’s working. I made my first $10k in 30 days.
Take the leap. Do the thing. It’s all there for you to take.
Any time someone asks me “how do I find my 1st client for my AI services” I recommend workshops.
It’s how I went from $0 —> $10k in 1 mo
Getting in front of people exponentially increases your odds of success & trust when you have no proof.
Before running workshops you should:
- be able to fill a room (meta ads, networking, cold outreach)
- be confident talking to people (if you can’t do this, you shouldn’t be selling)
- be shamelessly pitching in-person (the confidence in your ability to solve their problem)
Workshops aren’t the only way, but they’ve been my fastest path to $10k
Akshay Patel retweeted
My friend @jeremygiffon said something that stuck with me on an interview he did with @patrick_oshag a few years ago:
"There are two types of successful people:
Before the fall, and after the fall."
The idea is that, if you are successful—if you climb the mountain—you will fall down at some point.
And when you do fall, the world will love it.
In China, they say, "The tallest blade of grass is the first to get cut".
And in Japan, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.”
It's a natural phenomenon.
We all love an underdog celebrity on their way up, then we all love to hate them when they say something stupid or get a bad haircut or get divorced.
At the time I heard Jeremy say this, I thought shit, that hasn't happened to me yet.
It was 2023 and I was riding high. My net worth was soaring and business was booming.
Everything I did seemed to work.
My X was filled with positive feedback.
I counted many of my business heroes as friends.
Then, I fell down. HARD.
Our stock cratered. I went through a brutal divorce. I got publicly shamed.
The phone stopped ringing. I noticed people distancing themselves from me.
Suddenly, everyone thought I was a complete idiot.
Some even thought I might be a fraud.
I thought my life was over.
The reputation I'd spent decades building had crumbled.
But oddly, it ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me.
Here's a post I wrote about it:
xitter.cf/awilkinson/status/2073…
Meta is back! And finally focusing on what they do best, content.
Now that OpenAI and most of the large model providers left the image generation space, Meta can eat this space up.
Go where others aren’t
I went from $0 to $10,000 in 30 days selling AI implementation
Here's what worked for me:
1. Workshops (in-person showing what’s possible)
2. Reaching out to everyone (if you know 3 people, they each know at least 3 other people. Don’t be afraid to make your ask and tell people what you do)
3. Continuously documenting (honestly im inherently bad at this, but forcing myself to take photos, record calls, document my journey has been invaluable)
Goal: $10k → $30k by end of year
Still more to figure out.