WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.541 Welcome to Build Wiz AI, the show where we take one source and pull out everything worth knowing. 2 00:00:06.841 --> 00:00:10.425 I'm Bob, and as usual I'm the one asking the questions. 3 00:00:10.725 --> 00:00:22.065 And I'm Alice. Today it's an X article by Dan Koe called The most lucrative AI business to start in 2027, published on November 3, 2026. 4 00:00:22.365 --> 00:00:25.996 Big title. So what's the claim, in plain words? 5 00:00:26.296 --> 00:00:43.678 Here it is plainly. Dan argues the most lucrative skill has always been capturing attention, and today that means creating good content on social media. His bet is that one person who uses AI well can be a whole creative team, for their own brand or for someone else's. 6 00:00:43.978 --> 00:00:49.444 So not an app, not a startup. A person who's really good at getting attention. 7 00:00:49.744 --> 00:00:57.380 Exactly. As he puts it, "If nobody knows who you are or what you offer, how in the world are they going to pay you?" 8 00:00:57.680 --> 00:01:02.333 Before we dig in, who is Dan, and why should we listen to him on this? 9 00:01:02.633 --> 00:01:17.200 He writes as someone who is a creator, has worked for creators, and pays creators. He's also the founder of Eden, a tool creators use to research viral ideas, schedule content, sell digital products and run an email list. 10 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:22.060 So he sells a product in this exact space. Good to know going in. 11 00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:33.956 He says so himself, and he mentions Eden a lot. He also says his company knows what topics, hooks and content styles work across billions of posts. Keep that in mind as we go. 12 00:01:34.256 --> 00:01:37.550 Okay. Why attention, and why now? 13 00:01:37.850 --> 00:01:49.782 He starts with job security. As it goes down, he says people face three options. Complain and do nothing, upskill to find a better job, or start the business they've always wanted to build. 14 00:01:50.082 --> 00:01:53.585 And let me guess, he thinks a lot of people pick the last one. 15 00:01:53.885 --> 00:02:08.121 An absurd amount of people, in his words. And they'll build it by starting a personal brand, because attention is a finite resource that's only becoming more scarce. People can make more money, but they'll never get back the attention they spent. 16 00:02:08.421 --> 00:02:12.389 That's a nice line. Money comes back, attention doesn't. 17 00:02:12.689 --> 00:02:15.763 Does he back this up with numbers, or is it a vibe? 18 00:02:16.063 --> 00:02:27.995 He has numbers. Goldman Sachs predicts the creator economy will nearly double, from 250 billion dollars in 2023 to 480 billion dollars by 2027. 19 00:02:28.295 --> 00:02:31.752 Nearly double in four years. What else? 20 00:02:32.052 --> 00:02:54.496 In 2025, he says, creators earned about 185 billion dollars in ad revenue, the first year they passed traditional media. And US brands spent 13.9 billion dollars on creators in 2021, which the IAB, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, expects to reach 43.9 billion in 2026. 21 00:02:54.796 --> 00:02:57.505 So roughly triple in five years. 22 00:02:57.805 --> 00:03:10.840 Right, and his one-word reaction is absurd. He also says the prices are crazy, with venture money paying thousands of dollars for a single reel that, in his view, doesn't bring results 90 percent of the time. 23 00:03:11.140 --> 00:03:14.086 Wait, most of the time? Is that measured? 24 00:03:14.386 --> 00:03:21.674 He doesn't say. It reads like his own experience as someone who pays creators, not a study, so I'd treat it as his opinion. 25 00:03:21.974 --> 00:03:25.396 Got it. So where does the attention actually live now? 26 00:03:25.696 --> 00:03:40.693 On social media, he says. Not the radio, TV or the news anymore. Whatever business you start, from a lifestyle business to the next unicorn startup, posting content is almost a given for attracting an audience that pays you. 27 00:03:40.993 --> 00:03:43.603 And I'm guessing there's a buzzword for all this. 28 00:03:43.903 --> 00:03:56.218 Founder-led marketing. Which, he says, basically means the latest way to grow your startup is starting a personal brand and posting content. He adds that most founders are horrible at it. 29 00:03:56.518 --> 00:04:00.358 So the skill is content. But not just any content. 30 00:04:00.658 --> 00:04:15.818 Right. In his words, "good content, not infinite slop." And there's a catch. Getting a million views on one post is useless if the rest get a thousand views a pop, because your content is decent but your brand is non-existent. 31 00:04:16.118 --> 00:04:20.898 So you need both. Content that works, and a brand people come back for. 32 00:04:21.198 --> 00:04:29.810 That's it. You can try to go viral all the time, like most people do, or you can build a world of content that people can't help but explore. 33 00:04:30.110 --> 00:04:34.542 Okay, here's the business part. What is the one-person creative team? 34 00:04:34.842 --> 00:04:46.437 He starts with what content agencies tell his company. One says they're not firing people yet, but they can take on so much more work without expanding the team, because everyone's output has gone up. 35 00:04:46.737 --> 00:04:52.110 So AI makes each person faster. What does a writer actually do all day then? 36 00:04:52.410 --> 00:05:05.445 One of them put it this way. AI can research what's performing and draft posts that are almost there, so their entire job is now reviewing and rewriting drafts. It takes them 4 hours a day instead of 12. 37 00:05:05.745 --> 00:05:09.167 So what are the businesses he's actually pitching? 38 00:05:09.467 --> 00:05:21.863 The first is becoming your own creative team: a personal brand, an audience, digital products and an email list, as your sole focus. He says it's a full-time job, even with AI. 39 00:05:22.163 --> 00:05:23.159 And the second? 40 00:05:23.459 --> 00:05:39.118 Becoming someone else's creative team. You help companies, founders and even creators who don't have the creative bandwidth. He says most founders still post announcement style content and have no idea what it takes to build influence online. 41 00:05:39.418 --> 00:05:40.970 And what does that pay? 42 00:05:41.270 --> 00:05:55.425 He thinks 10 to 75 thousand dollars a month for one to three clients isn't that far out of reach, if you're good at this and practice. But he also warns, don't let your mind convince you this is your next chance to get rich quick. 43 00:05:55.725 --> 00:06:00.378 I'm glad he says that, because that number does sound a bit like get rich quick. 44 00:06:00.678 --> 00:06:04.309 So what skills does this one person need? 45 00:06:04.609 --> 00:06:18.155 He describes three jobs. The brand strategist is in charge of positioning and perception, and is the first to say you shouldn't just follow trends. Growth and engagement matter, but not at the expense of trust and authority. 46 00:06:18.455 --> 00:06:19.828 And the second job? 47 00:06:20.128 --> 00:06:39.426 The content strategist. They scout what's performing in different topics and niches and propose the next posts, studying formats, thumbnails, titles, retention and virality. They're good at growing accounts, but without brand strategy, if the creator stopped posting, nobody would ask where they went. 48 00:06:39.726 --> 00:06:41.958 Ouch. Okay, and the third? 49 00:06:42.258 --> 00:06:53.888 The content writer, or social media manager. They draft the tweets, video scripts, articles and newsletters, plan them and post them, and make sure it all lines up with the other two. 50 00:06:54.188 --> 00:06:57.617 So why does he think most people fail at this with AI? 51 00:06:57.917 --> 00:07:13.453 They treat it as a get rich quick scheme, he says, and just have Claude pump out scripts without direction or data. Almost nobody accounts for brand strategy, some people account for content strategy, and most just turn random ideas into posts and pray. 52 00:07:13.753 --> 00:07:17.082 So the bar is low. That's kind of encouraging. 53 00:07:17.382 --> 00:07:24.287 That's his point exactly. As he puts it, "This is your competition, and it's not hard to stand out." 54 00:07:24.587 --> 00:07:28.811 Then he walks through how he'd onboard a client. Take me through it. 55 00:07:29.111 --> 00:07:40.184 Step one is an onboarding call to create what he calls their intellectual signature. You interview them, record the call, and store the transcript so you can reference it with AI later. 56 00:07:40.484 --> 00:07:42.434 What do you actually ask? 57 00:07:42.734 --> 00:07:57.388 Who they help, described as one real person, and what that person says when they complain to a friend. Their story, the moment things changed, and the results they can point to. And whose books, posts or videos they never skip. 58 00:07:57.688 --> 00:07:59.198 That's already a lot. 59 00:07:59.498 --> 00:08:11.256 There's more. Their content pillars, their mission and beliefs, what they're against, and why it matters right now. Then where they're taking their audience, and their own names for their ideas. 60 00:08:11.556 --> 00:08:14.885 Can you really get all of that across in one post? 61 00:08:15.185 --> 00:08:25.563 He says you don't. These become topics you post about over six to twelve months. It's a long term game, and most people fail because they want quick attention and authority. 62 00:08:25.863 --> 00:08:27.576 Okay. Step two? 63 00:08:27.876 --> 00:08:41.514 Scrape their best content. He thinks AI can't replicate someone's voice, there's always one little thing that feels off. So the goal isn't to automate everything, it's to build a knowledge base of what's unique about that person. 64 00:08:41.814 --> 00:08:43.314 How does he pull that in? 65 00:08:43.614 --> 00:08:56.870 He connects Eden to Claude or ChatGPT and asks for ten to twenty of their best posts from each platform. Then the AI notes their core ideas, the personality in their voice, and a guess at their worldview. 66 00:08:57.170 --> 00:08:59.558 And if someone hasn't posted anything yet? 67 00:08:59.858 --> 00:09:16.173 Then he suggests listing the five to ten people who've impacted you the most, and running the same research on their ideas. His own mind, he says, is largely ideas mashed together from Naval, Leo Gura, Steven Kotler, Ken Wilber and others. 68 00:09:16.473 --> 00:09:17.662 And step three? 69 00:09:17.962 --> 00:09:32.832 A research-backed content map. You give both documents to a prompt that builds three or four broad content pillars. Those branch into topics, ideas and angles, merged with patterns that performed over the past six to twelve months. 70 00:09:33.132 --> 00:09:35.485 How much content does that give you? 71 00:09:35.785 --> 00:09:47.845 About six months of ideas, he says. And the research isn't marketing, it's collecting references, like an artist's inspiration board. You pull patterns and principles, you don't copy one to one. 72 00:09:48.145 --> 00:09:51.110 I like that. Data as a mood board. 73 00:09:51.410 --> 00:09:54.832 Last piece. How do you land your first client? 74 00:09:55.132 --> 00:10:06.936 He tells a story. Years ago, his friend JK Molina wrote him ten posts without being asked and sent them over, saying if you like them, let me write more, or just give me a testimonial. 75 00:10:07.236 --> 00:10:08.511 Bold move. 76 00:10:08.811 --> 00:10:22.238 Dan calls it the Permissionless Apprentice approach. You do free work for a dream client, then get it in front of them. He thinks it's one of the best ways to land a content client for 2,500 to 5,000 dollars a month. 77 00:10:22.538 --> 00:10:24.811 And if private messages don't work? 78 00:10:25.111 --> 00:10:37.345 Do it in public. He describes a reel that opened with, "Grant Cardone needs a new creative director and this is my application." And Grant Cardone actually responded, saying "Hit me I'm stuck." 79 00:10:37.645 --> 00:10:40.335 That's a pretty good result for a cold pitch. 80 00:10:40.635 --> 00:10:47.238 Let me push back a bit. He sells Eden, and the whole process runs through Eden. Isn't this partly an ad? 81 00:10:47.538 --> 00:11:00.655 Partly, yes. He adds a disclaimer saying he mentions Eden a lot because, in his view, nothing else can do the job, and the article doesn't test that. My take is you could try the same steps with other tools. 82 00:11:00.955 --> 00:11:05.352 And the money. That top number feels like a stretch for most people. 83 00:11:05.652 --> 00:11:14.318 He hedges it himself. You have to be good at this and practice, he says. But the article doesn't show how many people actually reach those numbers. 84 00:11:14.618 --> 00:11:16.926 And the big market numbers at the start? 85 00:11:17.226 --> 00:11:27.625 Those describe the whole creator economy, with forecasts and spending. They don't tell you what one new creator will earn. That's my reading, the article doesn't draw that line. 86 00:11:27.925 --> 00:11:30.825 So what can a listener try this week? 87 00:11:31.125 --> 00:11:42.546 Start with the interview questions, even on yourself. Who you help, your story, who shaped your mind and what you're against. Save the answers as a brand document you can give to AI. 88 00:11:42.846 --> 00:11:43.781 Then what? 89 00:11:44.081 --> 00:11:53.587 Collect references. Pick the people who shaped you, pull their best ideas, and sketch a small content map with a few pillars before you write a single post. 90 00:11:53.887 --> 00:11:55.493 And if I want clients? 91 00:11:55.793 --> 00:12:07.551 Try the permissionless approach. Write a handful of posts for someone you'd love to work with, polish them, and send them. Use AI for research and drafts, and do the final rewrite yourself. 92 00:12:07.851 --> 00:12:09.404 What's still open for you? 93 00:12:09.704 --> 00:12:21.172 Whether this lasts once everyone has the same AI tools. He only promises it works for at least the next few years. And whether AI will ever write the best posts, which one writer he quotes doubts. 94 00:12:21.472 --> 00:12:24.638 And how many people can do this before it gets crowded? 95 00:12:24.938 --> 00:12:28.314 The article doesn't say. That's the one I'd watch. 96 00:12:28.614 --> 00:12:31.780 And that's it for this episode of Build Wiz AI. 97 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:42.143 This episode was based on The most lucrative AI business to start in 2027, an X article by Dan Koe. Thanks to Dan for the ideas and the examples. 98 00:12:42.443 --> 00:12:45.006 Thanks for listening, and see you next time.