Marcus Grimm had to make a late-stage career shift after going through a layoff. This 52-year-old marketing automation specialist turned to her Upwork to find freelance work and leveraged AI to significantly increase her income potential.
Read next: How to earn $5,000 a month in passive income by working just 10 hours a year
Learn more: 6 unusual ways to make extra money (that actually work)
Mr. Grimm now makes about $50,000 more per year than he did when he was a full-time employee. Strategic use of AI has also streamlined workflows, reducing his working hours by 75%. Find out how Grimm was able to harness the power of his AI to earn more money by working less.
sponsor: Do you owe the IRS more than $10,000? Schedule a free consultation to see if you qualify for tax relief.
Choosing the right AI tool
Although the list of available AI tools continues to grow, Grimm says one tool in particular has been key to his success.
“I've tried many of the tools that have been released, but I always keep coming back to ChatGPT,” he said. “I like that each “chat” acts as training data for that particular topic, and I find that the more I use it, the smarter the output becomes. Rather than starting a new thread, I frequently return to and expand upon the thread of a particular conversation I had. Asking additional questions will make your results even more valuable over time. ”
Grimm also utilizes custom GPT functionality.
“ChatGPT's custom GPT engine is amazing,” he said. “It's easy to build a specific use case bot and share it with others.”
Grimm believes that ChatGPT will continue to improve and become even more useful.
“As impressed as I was with ChatGPT a year ago, ChatGPT seems to be getting more useful every day,” he said. “A good example is images. A year ago, I was hardly impressed by the images I got from OpenAI. Now, I like the first draft 90% of the time. What do you think of these tools? If it was formed a few months ago, it's no longer an informed opinion. The landscape is changing so rapidly.”
Check it out: Ramit Sethi: 5 easy steps to get rich in 2024
don't be afraid to experiment
Grimm has no formal training to learn how to use AI and believes the best way to learn how to use tools like ChatGPT is to take a hands-on approach.
“Most of my learning has been through experimentation, and I truly believe that is the best way to find the best use for your use case,” he said. “Increasingly, I turn to ChatGPT for anything that I feel would take too much time.”
For example, he currently uses ChatGPT to help analyze Excel spreadsheets and HTML code.
“As a marketing strategist, I spend a fair amount of time in Excel and probably as much time in HTML code, but I'm not an expert in either,” he said. “Instead of fumbling around, he uploads a CSV in the case of an Excel challenge, or pastes code in the case of HTML, and tells ChatGPT what he's looking for. It saves him a few minutes each time he does this. , that amount adds up quickly.”
In addition to trying out a tool like ChatGPT for yourself, we also recommend researching how other people in your field are using it.
“I try to pay attention to how other people are using tools,” Grimm said. “Last year, I heard copywriter John Morrow talk on the 'James Altucher Show' about how he uses ChatGPT, and that's how I do my own prompts. I instantly recognized it again.”
How to get the most out of AI as a freelancer
Grimm offered some important advice for other freelancers who want to use AI to increase their productivity and income potential.
“Be realistic,” he said. “The complaints I see about ChatGPT tend to be from people who somehow assume that AI should reduce task time by 95%. In my opinion, that's a tough question. But , if you think about how AI can make your work 50% faster, you'll see that AI is very good at that. And for most of us, even a 10% increase in efficiency is Well, that’s a big problem.”
Another tip Grimm shared was to “work hard on the front lines.”
“I do content writing a lot, and I always like the phrase, 'All writing is rewriting.' In theory, you should remove bad rough drafts as soon as possible and then refine, refine, refine,” he said. “That's not a bad concept, but with AI, you get the best results by sticking to the prompts thoroughly at the beginning of a project. I try to draw, so my rough drafts take a lot of time, even with ChatGPT.”
Finally, Grimm said to think carefully about how you bill your customers.
“Unlike many freelancers, I support hourly billing rather than milestone billing,” he said. “Freelancers with this mindset sometimes worry that because AI makes them work faster, they will make less money. But instead, I get more done for the same number of billable hours. I've found that by providing more value, they give me more work.
“At the same time, if you're billing based on milestones, you can complete them faster and use that time to do additional work.”
Details of GOBankingRates
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How I Used AI to Increase My Income by $50K while Working Way Short Working