Hey there,
I'm allergic to trading my time for money.
So when people started offering to pay me for AI consulting I shut them down immediately. And look, I'm all about hustling to make money by any means necessary.
But I didn't think anyone would actually pay what I believe my time is worth (which is $1,000 an hour) so I wrote it off entirely.
But the requests kept coming. So I stopped saying no and started asking a better question:
What would have to be true for me to make $1,000 an hour doing AI consulting?
That simple question turned into an offer.
I call it the AI Concierge. It's stupid simple. Two 45-minute done-with-you calls a month with a small business owner.
I onboard them to Claude Cowork, then run every one of their processes through my AOA framework: Audit, Optimize, Automate.
I pitched the first client at $1,200 a month. Immediate yes. Pitched the next one at $1,500. Yes again. Then a third at $1,500, a fourth at $1,800, and last week I closed my newest client at $2,000 a month.
Of the 6 people I've pitched, 5 said yes immediately.
At $1,500 a month, two 45-minute calls works out to exactly $1,000 an hour. Funny how I was too scared to charge this by the hour but when I packaged it into an offer people are saying yes without blinking.
Here's why it works, and how to build your own version this week.
Step 1: Pick your hourly number.
Decide what one hour of your time is actually worth to you. Mine is $1,000. Write it down. Everything reverse-engineers from this.
Step 2: Build the offer backwards from it.
I run two 45-minute calls a month, which is 1.5 hours. At $1,500 a month, that's $1,000 an hour. Don't go below $1,000 a month for a high-touch done-with-you service. That's your floor.
Step 3: Send an intake form before call one.
I had Claude build mine in Jotform. It takes the client 10 minutes and surfaces their biggest time sinks, bottlenecks, current tools, and the tasks they'd pay most to make disappear.
Make it a hard requirement. If it's not filled out, you reschedule. It's what lets you hit the ground running instead of burning the first call figuring out where to start.
Step 4: Run the calls through AOA.
Audit how they do a process today. Optimize it by cutting steps. Automate what's left into a Claude skill or a scheduled task. Aim to ship at least one automation on day one so they feel the progress immediately.
Step 5: Add async access with Voxer.
I give clients unlimited voice messages through Voxer, a walkie-talkie app, and promise a reply within 12 business hours. It turns you into an always-on partner so they're not stuck waiting two weeks between calls.
Step 6: Build a shared Notion hub.
This is your renewal mechanism. Every call gets a recording link, top three takeaways, action items for both sides, and a quantified list of everything you built. When a client can see "we built two skills and three context files this month," the $1,500 justifies itself in their head.
Step 7: Automate your own busywork.
I built two Claude skills. One fills out the Notion call log from the transcript. The other pulls action items and drafts the client follow-up email. Two commands, 30 seconds, and I'm done until the next call.
(AI Operator Academy members get these Claude skills, the Notion templates, the intake form, and the scripts/templates for closing clients).
Step 8: Raise your price every time everyone says yes.
That's the whole offer.
A couple hours to build the infrastructure once, two calls a month per client, and an effective rate I never thought the market would pay. The trick was selling an offer, not selling hours.
Build your version this week. Reply and tell me what your $1,000-an-hour offer would be. I read every response.
- Corey
P.S. I broke the entire system down step by step, the intake form, the calls, the Notion hub, the pricing, in this week's episode of the Build With AI podcast. Watch the full breakdown here.
A few notes/tweets/cool things sourced from the AI community.
1)
One of the best content systems I've seen.
2)
I love this AI business idea.
3)
How to build wealth during the AI gold rush.
Thanks for reading the Corey's Notes newsletter. I'd appreciate it if you sent it to a friend that might find it interesting.
Be sure to check out t he Build With AI podcast on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. If you're a non-technical entrepreneur who wants to learn how to integrate AI into your business, you'll love it.
Be back next week.
-Corey
