How I'd Become an AI Consultant If I Had To Start Over (2 Paths)

I made $231,000 in 30 days as an AI consultant. And in this video, I'm going to show you guys exactly how I did it, how I'd do it again if I was just starting out, and give you actionable steps to do this yourself. My name's Nate. I'm a co-founder of True Horizon AI, an AI consultancy that helps business implement AI. And I also make YouTube videos teaching you guys about AI automation. So, first things first, what even is an AI consultant? Well, very simply put, an AI consultant is someone who takes their knowledge of AI and applies it to a business or an individual to save them time or make them money. So whether that's teaching a beginner how to build with AI or seven figure business owner how to systematize their operations, you're using your knowledge to add value and you get paid in return. So how did I make 231,000 in just one month? Well, it's important that I'm totally transparent about what that actually means because that number comes from multiple sources. It's not all just from one huge client deal or one massive launch. It's a mix of different income streams that all tie back to this theory of AI consulting. So part of that came from my school community where I teach people how to build with AI and think like consultants themselves. Part of it came from consulting projects I did with my business through True Horizon AI, the agency I co-founded with my partners. And then part of it came from implementation work where we actually build and deliver AI systems for those clients. So you can see there's kind of two sides of this AI consultant business. You got B to C, business to consumer and B2B, business to business. They're completely different ballgames. B TOC is my educational side. So that's with my school communities, my YouTube channel, my courses, that kind of stuff where I teach beginners, freelancers, and small business owners how to use tools like NN to start implementing or selling AI solutions. It's a lot more scalable. It runs on content and it has a lot more volume, but typically a lower ticket price. Then there's B2B, which is where I work with my team at True Horizon to consult directly for businesses, diagnosing where AI fits into their operations, designing implementation roadmaps, and then helping them execute. Now, I want to be super clear about this. When I say I made $231,000 in a month, the majority of that revenue came from my B TOC side. That's just because it's more scalable. Because when you teach and build communities, you can impact thousands of people at once. But that doesn't mean at all that there's not money in B2B. It's far from it. Consulting firms easily clear hundreds of millions of dollars a year. For context, big firms like Mckenzie, BCG, and Asenture, they charge hundreds of thousands of dollars just for AI audits or road maps. And that's before they even touch actual implementation. Asenture alone booked over $600 million in AI consulting revenue in a single quarter. and then over $2 billion in half of a year. So, there's a massive opportunity for you to consult to the small to mediumsiz businesses that just can't afford those premium rates because that's absolutely ridiculous. So, there's opportunity on both sides. I actually started on the BB side. I was working as a freelancer doing builds and consulting projects, helping companies figure out how to use AI in their own workflows. But over time, I started to realize that my biggest leverage was an education because I could help thousands of people learn how to do this for themselves. Cuz once again, at its core, AI consulting just means that you're using your knowledge with AI to help someone reach a desired outcome. Whether that's saving time, money, or scaling without hiring more people. And here's the key. Most people reach out to me and they say the same thing. I know I need to start using AI, but I don't know how. I don't know where to start. And that's where the role of an AI consultant comes in. You're not just handing them a pre-built workflow. You're helping them figure out what to build and why. You're diagnosing problems before you prescribe a solution. Taking the doctor approach rather than the pharmacist approach. And the way that I positioned myself was simple. I gave away free value through YouTube. Those people trusted me before they ever reached out. So by the time someone booked a call or joined my community, they already knew that I could help them. So, I didn't have to do any cold DM or outreach or hard sell anybody. So, that inbound demand paired with a clear fulfillment system is what allowed me to scale past 231K in a single month. And the truth is, anyone can build to that point if they understand how to combine education, consulting, and implementation the right way. All right, so now that you know how I made that money, let's break down the two main paths that you can take to make money as an AI consultant because I've done both. So, path one is B TOC, educating the market. Path two, B2B, working directly with businesses. So, let's start with path one, which is the B TOC route. This is where you learn a tool like NAND or any automation platform, and then you teach it to others. You can do that through YouTube videos, school communities, notion templates, digital courses, or even just one-on-one coaching. Before you teach it, you obviously have to understand it well enough to explain it. And I know you may be thinking, you need a huge following or something like that to sell that. Well, it's not true at all. Some people like the smaller feel and they'd rather have you be able to give them a really hightouch experience. So, if you have a small following at the moment, use that to your advantage. And that's actually how my YouTube channel started. I wanted to help people, but I was also learning myself still. Back in college, I realized the best way for me to learn was to teach. Because if I could explain a concept to a friend, it meant that I truly understood it. So when I started building an NN, I made videos walking through what I was learning. Not because I was an expert, but because teaching helped me learn faster. And that's the beauty of this path because you attract people through free value. And once you build that trust, you can monetize it in tons of ways. Info products, communities, courses, mentorships, templates, or one-on-one consulting. And you may be thinking, there's already so much free value on the internet. And that's true. But here's what people actually pay for. shortcuts, clarity, and accountability. They don't just want to learn faster, they want a road map. They want someone to guide them, give them feedback, and keep them on track. So, what you're really selling is a faster path to success. And this model works incredibly well because it's scalable. It's a one to many rather than a onetoone. It builds authority fast. And the more authority that you build, the more opportunities will start presenting themselves everywhere, whether that's speaking gigs, consulting clients, or partnerships. And if you already enjoy creating content, then it's an amazing path. You can make YouTube videos, build a school community, sell courses online, or even run cohort programs or paid Discords. So that's exactly what I do on the B TOC side through my school communities, which are the main source of my revenue here because they combine learning, accountability, and community all in one place. So that's the B TOC side. Now, let's talk about path two, which is B2B, working with businesses directly. This is where you get to be hands-on with companies and help them actually implement AI. You can offer consulting, done for you automations, or even full AI implementation packages. For example, someone may come to you and say, "Man, our sales process is so inefficient. We're losing like 50% of our inbound leads because we don't follow up with them quickly enough. What you're able to do is then dissect that problem, understand it from beginning to end, and design an AI automation solution that will cut the speed to lead time to practically nothing. Making sure that all of the inbound leads receive communication when they're most ready to buy. And here's how that works. You would start by identifying the problem. What's costing the business time, money, or focus? You then dive into their workflows and operations. You study their SOPs. You figure out where the inefficiencies are and you design a solution using AI or automation or both. And from there, you can charge anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars per project. You just need to make sure that you're anchoring the price off of the actual value that you're adding. And a good rule of thumb there is that within a year of the system being implemented, the business owner should see 10x their return on that initial investment. So, I've talked a lot about structuring pricing so that it's a no-brainer. And in my previous YouTube videos, you can go check those out. You can check out the monetizing AI automation playlist on my channel to dive into some of those details deeper. Anyways, when the value is clear, a lot of those clients stay on as long-term partners, paying you monthly retainers for continuous improvement. The reason this model works so well is because it's high ticket and low volume. You don't need hundreds of clients. You don't need a huge audience. You can be extremely profitable with just a few, especially if you keep your team lean and you focus on building deep relationships. In fact, I'd much rather have one high-paying client than managing 10 lowerpaying clients that cause more headaches. The first one's the hardest, but once you start to work with people, you can really easily build momentum through referrals or by getting embedded in a single company and just expanding horizontally into different departments if you're able to actually drive results. And what's really interesting is that even in B2B, education is still a massive lever that you can pull. At True Horizon, we've been paid tens of thousands of dollars just to educate teams. Literally just come in for a few hours and show them how to build something in or how it works or walk them through our AI audit process. Right now, there's just a huge demand for education and enablement. I know people who are crushing it just by going into companies and teaching them how to use chatbt more effectively, set up custom GPTs, or automate simple marketing workflows, which is something that I'm sure a lot of you guys watching this video could go do right now. I know others who are crushing it by teaching internal marketing teams how to use and prompt tools like Nano Banana or V3 to save hours and thousands of dollars in ad costs. And the best part is you don't even have to be super super technical like an expert. You just need to be a few steps ahead of the people that you're helping and be able to understand how to solve a business owner's problems. Because remember our golden rule, AI isn't about full automation. It's about leverage. It's about helping people become 10x more productive with the same amount of effort. So whether you're doing this through B TOC or B2B, the core idea is the same. You're using your knowledge of AI to create leverage for yourself or for someone else. So now the big question is which path should you start with? And the way that I like to think about this is simple. Ask yourself, do you want scale or simplicity? If your goal is scale, meaning you want to build an audience, create leverage, and have systems that grow even while you sleep, then B TOC is your path. but it's slower to start and it takes time to build trust, grow a following, and create consistent content. If your goal is simplicity and immediate cash flow, then start with B2B. With B2B, you don't need a big audience or fancy funnels. You just need to solve one business problem really well. You can close a $3,000 to maybe $10,000 project in a week, build your proof of concept, and get paid fast. The trade-off is that B2B gives you money faster, but less leverage at first. B TOC gives you leverage, but could take longer to build. And here's the part that a lot of people overlook. These two paths actually start to feed into each other. When I started, I was completely B2B first. I worked directly with businesses, built systems for them, and those client projects gave me proof, testimonials, and confidence. And that proof became the foundation for my B TOC content because I could show real examples and talk about my experiences. Then, as my B TOC audience started to grow a little bit through YouTube and my school communities, that audience began to feed right back into my B2B pipeline. So, whichever one you decide to start with, just remember that they're not competing paths. They're actually a flywheel. Each one of those makes the other one stronger. And that's exactly why I personally decided to put more of my focus on B TOC right now because it's more scaled and it helps me impact way more people. But behind the scenes, we're still growing at True Horizon and taking on larger and large projects because both sides complement each other well and both sides are viable options. So don't overthink it. Start where you have the most momentum and over time both paths will start to reinforce each other. All right, so let's break down the exact framework that I'd follow if I had to replicate this from scratch. Whether you want to go B TOC or B2B or eventually both, this framework will get you there. The first step is to focus on problems, not tools. And this is the biggest mindset shift that you can make. Don't lead with the tech. Lead with the problem that you're solving. Every business owner you talk to has a painoint or multiple. They have wasted time. They have wasted money or lack of clarity. And your job is to figure out what that painoint actually is. And the truth is sometimes the best answer isn't even a custom AI solution. Sometimes it might just be a $30 SAS product that already exists. Sometimes it may be a simple automation that doesn't even use AI, but it takes an annoying manual task off their plate. And that's still value. That's still leverage. So before you start building anything custom, just ask yourself, what's the real problem here? What's the simplest way to solve it? And how can I provide value to this person? When you think like a problem solver instead of an AI automator, you'll start seeing opportunities everywhere. And honestly, when someone's asking me for advice with an AI automation project, my first thought is, how can we solve this with the minimum amount of AI possible? Step two is to learn one I leverage tool. You don't need to know everything. In fact, you'll go way further by picking one tool and just going deep. So for me, that tool was NN. I spent months mastering it until I became sort of known as the NN guy. And that level of depth made everything easier for me. My content, my consulting, my client work, all of it. So whether it's NN, make Nano Banana or Claude, pick one and make it your thing. Be known as the person who can solve X problem using Y tool. Depth builds authority. Authority builds opportunity. Exactly why you'd pay a premium for a steak at a steakhouse rather than being able to get one for much cheaper at a buffet. Step three is to document everything publicly. This is one of your biggest multipliers. Don't wait until you think you're an expert to share. Just document as you go. Post your builds. Share your before and after results. Share what you're learning, where you're failing, and what's working. This transparency makes you relatable and it builds trust. And trust is the single biggest currency that you can have whether you're doing B2B or B TOC. Because whatever your main goal is, your public documentation becomes your portfolio. And it makes you human. It brings inbound opportunities your way and helps people see your expertise before you even talk to them. So they'll start to reach out to you asking for help rather than the other way around. Step four is to build simple offers. Just don't over complicate it. Your offer should be clear, easy to understand, and easy to buy. For B to C, it could be something like learn how to automate your business using Nen. For B2B, it might be we'll automate three workflows for your business for XML or we'll audit your sales process and show you exactly where AI can save you time and money. Simple offers sell faster because people instantly understand that value. And then step five, overd deliver and systematize. Every client or student is an opportunity not just to get paid but to build proof. So when you overd deliver, you get testimonials, referrals, and case studies. And you turn those into more clients, more content, and more credibility. Every project that you complete becomes another piece of your digital resume, which is proof that you know what you're doing. And that builds more trust. And once you start getting consistent results, build systems around that. Systematize how you onboard clients, how you deliver, how you share results faster you can go from idea to test to feedback to improvement, the faster you'll grow. Because in this space, the quicker you fail, the quicker you learn, and the quicker you learn, the quicker you win. So that was the framework. Now, here is your 30-day action plan. If you're starting from scratch and you want to build momentum fast, step one is to go ahead and pick a niche. This can be from days 1 to three. Start by choosing an industry that you already understand or have connections in. Look for niches that are simple to work with, ones that don't have heavy regulations and have lots of repeatable manual tasks. So think things like real estate, coaching, e-commerce, or marketing agencies. And maybe don't start with healthcare or finance. So step two is your market research. This can be from days 3 to 10. Spend the next week studying that niche. Dig into Reddit threads, LinkedIn posts, and use chatbt to brainstorm pain points. Talk to people in that industry and figure out what repetitive tasks or bottlenecks that they deal with every week. Your goal here is to learn their language and uncover three clear problems that are worth solving. Step three is to offer free audits, days 10 through 15. Once you understand their pain points, start reaching out and offering free AI automation audits. This isn't about selling. This is still about learning and doing primary market research. You're giving away free value, identifying inefficiencies, and you're showing that you understand their operations better than anyone else can. These free audits are your primary research, your foot in the door, and it's your credibility builder. Step four is you can then turn those free audits into paid clients. stays 15 through 20. Some of those businesses will naturally ask, "Well, can you just build this for us now?" And that's your first paid project. Even if it's just one or two clients, overd deliver on those. Your first few builds aren't about profit. It's about reps. It's about getting real world proof and results that you can show. And then step five, overd deliver and turn it into case studies. Days 20 through 30. Go allin for those clients. Track the before and after results. Hours saved, revenue gained, costs reduced. Turn that into case studies and content. Post your results, your processes, and your takeaways. That content will attract more inbound leads and start building your authority because people will say, "Hey, this person just did this. I want to learn from them." Or, "This person just did this. I want them to do that for my business." And from there, you're off to the races. You'll have proof, confidence, and momentum, which are the three things that fuel both sides of the business. Once you have that foundation, you can start scaling up B2B consulting or you can move into B2C education to teach what you've learned because remember, it all compounds. So, I know that that was a ton of information. So, what I'm going to do is throw all of this into a resource guide that you guys can go ahead and download and save. So, you can look over these different paths and the framework that I laid out for you today. You can access that resource guide for completely free in my free school community. The link for that will be down in the description. And if you really enjoy talking about this kind of stuff and you want to connect with some other people who are already doing this, then definitely check out my plus community. Link for that is also down in the description. We've got a great community of over 200 members who are building businesses with AI every single day. And we've got courses in there that cover the foundations of AI all the way up to learning how to run your own oneperson AI agency as well as one live call per week. So I'd love to see you guys in those communities in those calls. But that's going to do it for today. If you enjoyed the video or you learned something new, please give it a like. It definitely helps me out a ton. And as always, I appreciate you guys making it to the end of the video. I'll see you on the next one. Thanks everyone.