Run a free AI training session for a company you already have a connection to, fix one of their real repetitive tasks live in the room, and let 70% of them turn into paid projects — one operator in Liam Ottley's community has made over $400,000 doing exactly this.
70% of companies he runs a basic free training workshop for become clients for much larger projects later · price ladder: free workshop → $500-$1,000 sessions → $2,000-$5,000 half-day intensives → recurring retainers → 10K/month · reference point at the top end: Morningside AI charged $60,000 for a 4-week AI audit of a 200-person company
Fewer bars = easier, cheaper, or faster for an AI-assisted solo builder. Editorial judgments based on the case details.
Liam Ottley runs Morningside AI and a paid community of people building AI service businesses, and this is the model he ranks as most accessible for a non-technical beginner. The situation it exploits: companies are spending real money on ChatGPT and Claude licences while their teams use them to write birthday messages and draft emails. The tools are bought; the capability is not. His entry route is deliberately unglamorous — reach out to people you already know, former bosses, ex-colleagues, friends who run businesses, and offer a free workshop in exchange for a testimonial. Walk in, teach the basics, and then do the thing that actually converts: take one of their genuinely repetitive tasks and rebuild it with AI live in front of them. He names an operator in his community, Matteo, who has made over $400,000 with this exact model, and attributes it to a single mechanic — 70% of the companies Matteo runs a basic free training workshop for come back as clients for much bigger projects. At the other end of the same ladder, Ottley says his own agency has delivered a four-week AI audit for a 200-person company at $60,000. Our read: the free workshop is not lead generation, it is paid discovery performed in reverse. You leave the room knowing more about where their money leaks than any outside consultant could learn from a proposal call.
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Create free accountEmail code only. No password.Data credibility: Creator-reported with a strong commercial incentive. Matteo's 'over $400,000 with this exact model' and the '70% of the companies he does these basic training workshops for become clients for much bigger projects' are both single-sentence claims by Liam Ottley about a member of his own paid community — no timeframe, no revenue split between workshops and projects, no verification, and a direct funnel to a free course and community he is promoting throughout the video. The $60,000 four-week AI audit for a 200-person company is his own agency's figure, self-reported, and mentioned in passing without contract detail. The '9 days to first client' average is described as coming from data inside his community, which is not independently checkable. The price ladder ($500-$1,000 sessions, $2,000-$5,000 half-days, '$10K per month') is presented as guidance rather than as observed results. The parts we consider solid are the demonstrated mechanics: he builds a working ElevenLabs voice agent for a real dental practice on camera in about a minute, and rebuilds a real dentist's website from its page source in a few minutes, both of which show the show-don't-tell demo is genuinely achievable in the time claimed.