Arlan Hamilton hit another home run with this video. I gave ChatGPT an overview of the points I wanted to explore in this blog post, inspired by Arlan Hamilton's powerful video and prompt document.
I highly encourage all of us to pull our courage together and take an independent look at who we are, what we've learned, what we know how to do and how the skills we already possess might help us create greater currency and earn more money.
Enjoy Arlan's video, try her prompt for yourself. I am ever so grateful I did.
Here's ChatGPT's overview of the work. Click on her link on her Youtube video page to get the prompt.
"Sometimes the opportunity isn't learning one more skill.
Sometimes the opportunity is finally recognizing the value of the skills, experience, knowledge, judgment and wisdom you already have.
I recently watched a video by entrepreneur and investor Arlan Hamilton that stopped me in my tracks. She shared an AI prompt designed to help people uncover income opportunities hidden inside what they already know.
What a powerful question:
What do you know how to do that somebody else would gladly pay to learn, receive, understand or have done for them?
Many of us underestimate our own value because we've been doing certain things for so long that they feel ordinary.
Maybe you're the person everybody calls when they don't understand a computer.
Maybe you know how to organize a chaotic office.
Maybe you can stretch a food budget farther than anybody you know.
Maybe you've spent twenty years navigating a particular industry.
Maybe you know how to care for plants, repair things, research information, organize events, teach children, help seniors, prepare documents, tell stories, find resources, solve problems, negotiate purchases or explain complicated subjects in language ordinary people understand.
You may think:
“That's nothing special. I've been doing that for years.”
Exactly.
That's why it may be valuable.
Let AI Help You Look at Yourself Differently
One of the most useful things we can do with artificial intelligence is not ask it to replace what we know.
Ask it to help us recognize what we know.
Tell AI about your life.
Tell it about the jobs you've had.
Tell it what people constantly ask you for help with.
Tell it about the problems you've solved.
Tell it about the work you did without getting paid.
Tell it what you've learned from raising a family, running a household, surviving hard times, building a business, volunteering, pursuing a mission or spending decades in a profession.
Then ask:
What is valuable here?
Who has a problem that my experience could help solve?
Are people already paying for that solution?
What could I offer without going back to school, spending thousands of dollars or reinventing myself?
What could I test this week?
And perhaps the most exciting question:
What do I know that I don't realize people pay for?
Don't simply accept the AI's answer. Investigate it.
Ask for evidence.
Search the marketplace.
Look at what people are already buying.
Check prices.
Study competitors.
Talk to potential customers.
Then test the idea before spending a fortune building it.
Your Experience Is an Asset
The Information Age has given ordinary people extraordinary research tools.
AI can help us examine our own lives almost as if we were looking at somebody else's résumé.
That distance can be revealing.
You may discover that something you've dismissed as “just something I know how to do” solves a problem that costs someone else time, frustration, mistakes or money.
And solving problems has value.
Your first experiment doesn't have to become a corporation.
Maybe it earns the first $100.
Then $500.
Then $1,000.
Maybe that's enough.
Or perhaps that little experiment reveals an entirely new income stream.
The important thing is to discover what is possible.
Include the Steward
There is another lesson here that has become especially important to me.
Those of us committed to families, communities, causes and missions can become very good at directing our resources outward.
But sustainable service must include the person doing the serving.
The steward is part of the infrastructure.
Money for decent shoes isn't a departure from the mission.
Money for nourishment isn't taking from the mission.
Money that allows the person doing the work to be comfortable, secure, rested and prepared is not evidence that service has become selfish.
A model that continuously consumes its steward without replenishment is not yet a sustainable model.
So take a little time with Arlan Hamilton's video and prompt.
Don't just ask AI what new thing you should become.
Tell it who you already are.
Tell it what you've lived.
Tell it what you've learned.
Tell it what you can do.
Then ask it to research the marketplace and help you discover where those abilities intersect with a problem somebody is already willing to pay to solve.
You might be surprised by what has been hiding in plain sight.
Information Is Transformation.
And sometimes the information that transforms your future is information about the value already inside you.
Take an AI look at yourself.
You may discover:
“Wait… people actually pay for THAT?”
