You become the go-to AI person in your industry by being the person who already understands it, then showing one useful AI task being done there where people can watch. Industry knowledge is the scarce half. Anyone can learn which button to press in Claude. Very few people can tell a boutique owner, a bookkeeper or a physio which of their weekly jobs is worth handing over.
I studied sociology and history and worked in corporate admin before any of this. I'm not a developer. Everything I teach was built by describing what I wanted in plain English, so I'm biased toward the idea that you don't need the technical half first.
Why does industry knowledge beat tech knowledge?
Because the person you're teaching only needs you to be one step ahead, and they measure that step in their own work. In my ranked list of ways to make money with AI I put it this way: you only need to know a little bit more than the person you're teaching. Their client emails and how they quote a job. Not transformer models.
I've also watched the opposite go wrong. A lot of the people giving AI talks are so technical that they lose a room of business owners in about five minutes. If you can explain AI to a non-technical room without it feeling overwhelming, you are very useful.
A member shows it better than I can. Elizabeth F. ran a Claude for Fashion masterclass. Her expertise is fashion, not tech, and that's exactly why the room was hers.
How do you pick your industry?
Pick the one you already know and are already known in. Not the one that looks most profitable on a screenshot. When I talk about this I say: if you've spent ten years in one industry, that's your niche, because you understand its workflows so well that applying AI to them gives you a solid offer.
Here's the quick version you can do in ten minutes. Open a note and answer these:
- Where do people already ask you for advice, without paying for it?
- Which group are you in where your name is already known? A networking group, an industry association, your old workplace.
- What is one annoying job in that industry that happens every week and that you suspect AI could handle?
The answer to question three is your first topic. If your work is closer to consulting, coaching or virtual assistance, I've written workflow pages for those kinds of businesses, starting with AI for consultants.
What's the first piece of public proof?
Show yourself using AI on a real task from your industry, before you claim anything. A filmed screen share, a short post, a before-and-after of a job you actually did. Not "10 things AI can do". The viewer should think "I want that", not "interesting".
The aim is association. Once I'd published enough of my actual work, people started to think of me as the AI person for the kind of business owners I help. It took a while. I posted three times a day for over 12 months before a single video went viral, and that's my timeline, not a promise about yours.
The strongest proof is a room. Here is what Elizabeth F. says happened with hers:
"43 people came to my Claude for Fashion masterclass. 20 of them signed up."
Her context line says she ran waitlist tracking and attendee analysis, "the lot", through Claude. That is one member's report of one workshop. I'm not saying it's typical, and nobody should plan around it. What I'd copy is the habit: she counted her room.
What do you teach first?
One task. Not your whole brain. In a 45-minute workshop that means two or three things people can use the same day, and anything more turns the room to mush.
Pick something your industry repeats every week. A bookkeeper might show how to turn a month of messy client emails into a list of questions for month-end. The thing you think is too obvious is often the thing people will pay you for, because you've stopped noticing how much you know.
How to build the signup page, the reminders and the close is its own job, and I've covered it step by step in how I get clients with AI workshops.
What does the first paid offer usually look like?
Small, specific, and aimed at people who have already watched you work. In the order I'd take it from zero: a one-to-one AI setup session or a 60-minute "AI for your industry" talk for a group you're already in. Run the first free, film it, collect testimonials, and charge the second time.
Bigger offers come out of the room. Someone sits in your session and says, "Can you come and look at my business?" That's where a paid consult starts, and how I run an AI consulting call walks through the whole thing. You don't need that on day one.
Quick answers
How long before people see me as the go-to person?
I can only give you my own version: I posted content all through 2025, and at the start of 2026 I still only had 2,000 followers on Instagram. I also had a successful six-figure business where every client was inbound, because the leads coming off Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn were good quality.
Do I need an audience first?
Not for the first step. One-to-one sessions and group workshops can start with five business owners you already know and the groups you're already in. Content comes later and makes everything after the first sale easier.
Should I be the AI person for more than one industry?
Start with one. It's the same advice I give for automation work: pick one industry and one thing, then sell it repeatedly. Widen it once people are asking.
Get a room to try it in
I run Wright Mode, so I have an obvious interest here. The hard part of this path is rarely knowing your industry. It's running the first public session when no one has seen you do it. Inside the membership there's a workshop pathway in the classroom, a monthly live Build with Brooke, fortnightly Co-Work + Q&A where you can bring your draft topic before you go public with it, and a private community of women doing the same thing.
