Ey ! 

Let me tell you the time I tried to build a website for our videography school business back in 2014. 

Yes, I may be a freelancer now, but I was also a filmmaking mentor and co-founder of a videography school before, among other things.

Yes, I’ve had several careers at this point.

And y(ik)es, that was 11 years ago na pala. 

I shit you not, I spent at least three weeks watching YouTube tutorials on HTML and CSS, only to end up with something that looked like it was made by a 7-year old using MS Paint. 

No you won’t see it anymore because I pulled the site off the internet na hahaha. It was that bad. Also, I bet you don’t know what MS Paint is. ^_^

After wasting precious billable hours that I could have used to get clients and make money INSTEAD, I still tried to do it on my own.

Eventually though, I gave up and hired a developer who charged me almost 45k. 

Sakit sa bulsa, but back then, wala akong no choice. 

And then it was also hard as heck to update (kasi you’d need to coordinate with the dev pa.) I ended up actually taking some courses on Udemy to use and properly update Wordpress pa din.

Back then wala pa mga drag and drop page builders. 

We were sweating bullets and we didn’t know what we were doing most of the time, but we made it work. 

Thankfully may sales naman every month. We were able to get that business making 6-figures a month after taxes and expenses.

But yeah, that was the old world. 

The world where techies ruled and the rest of us just had to wait in line (or empty our wallets). Feeling ko lang dati techie ako, but I knew nothing about coding or webdev. 

But something wild is happening right now, .

One of my freelancing buddies and fellow coaches inside of TFMT, Dominic Barrios (who also used to be a wedding photographer in his past life) has been building his own AI Employees for himself and his clients left and right. He’s even teaching others to build their own AI marketing agents. 

And no, he’s not a developer by trade or training. 

Even one of our readers in this very newsletter, has also gotten started.

Syempre di ako papahuli, hehe. 

On top of building and training a lot of my own GPTs (some of them for sale) to make my life as a freelancer and a coach immensely easier, I’ve also been building automations AND very recently finally built my own full blown fitness tracker app… for fun.

Sheeesh. Never ko naisip na sasabihin ko yan.

To build an APP for fun. 

Wuuuut? Ang galing lang.

The barriers have fallen na talaga.

For as long as I can remember though, tech belonged to those who could code. 

Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft, writing early code for its software and becoming one of the world's wealthiest individuals.

Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook while at Harvard, revolutionizing social media. He kinda stole the idea from the Winklevoss twins, and another co-founder but that's ancient history na to the tune of a juicy settlement. (lol, may drama?)

Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed Google as Ph.D. students at Stanford, transforming how we access information online. We kind of take it for granted now, but this was a giant that even Bill Gates did not see coming. (Hello naka-Internet Explorer pa sila)

Jeff Bezos, who has a background in computer science (you didn't know that, no?), founded Amazon. It evolved from a humble online bookstore to a global retail giant. He had a divorce, gave half of his stuff away, AND still is among the richest people in the planet.

Elon Musk co-founded Zip2 maps and later X.com, now PayPal, before making headlines with Tesla and SpaceX. And now bought twitter and called it X uli. Rich people, amiright?

Lastly, Evan Spiegel co-founded Snapchat during his time at Stanford, creating a significant social media platform. He was almost bought out by the Zuck, and is worth billions more these days.

One thing in common with them? All billionaires.

They had the tools, the language, and the head start.

AI changed all that. It removed the barriers and made the tools accessible to everyone.

Now, writers, artists, and creators are in front. They're building faster, launching smarter, and reaching wider.

There's even this saying going around in AI circles, that it will only take between 3 to 5 people to get their company to a billion dollars. The record so far was Instagram with 13 employees in 2012. And the co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger also had tech backgrounds.

Now, I'm not saying we're going to change the world tomorrow. But now, there seems to be a way there even if you're not a pure-bred techie.

Here's what AI removes for non-technical Pinoy freelancers like us:

1. The technical co-founder hunt

No need to give away half your business just to bring your idea to life. AI can build the first version while you test the market. Imagine launching without needing to find that elusive "tech guy." This used to be my biggest pain point (because yes, I've tried and failed at 3 tech start ups already)

2. The wallet-draining development costs

Building a custom app used to mean spending at least 50k or more. Now you can get a working prototype for less than 10k. Sheet na to.

3. The technical learning curve

Instead of grinding through months of code tutorials (like me and my sad website attempt), you can learn prompt engineering in a couple of weeks. The speed and return are on a different level.

4. The confidence gap

Non-technical freelancers used to get dismissed in client meetings. With AI, you walk in ahead of the curve—often knowing more than the so-called experts.

5. The execution timeline

Ideas that once took a year now take a few weeks. You can test multiple directions instead of betting everything on one path.

This window of opportunity won't last forever.

Eventually, everyone will learn how to use these tools. I’m even going to start training my own son to think out of the box with AI, para prepared din sya.

But for now, creators, coaches, writers, artists, and speakers have the edge. 

You already know how to connect with people and explain things clearly,. 

That skill, combined with AI, is more powerful than a computer science degree.

The best businesses come from people who deeply understand real problems. AI just removed the one thing that used to hold you back from solving them.

So what are you going to build, ?

Let me know by hitting reply. 

I'm genuinely curious what ideas you've been sitting on that AI could help bring to life.

Shoden "Dati puro ideas lang" San

PS. There are actually several other paths I've researched that you can take in this brave and bold new future! (Most of what I've been doing is called Prompt Engineering mixed with some AI Content Creation)

Check out the full guide HERE. It's only 299 petot. It's not a full course ha. It's a guided tour of what you need to learn if you want to thrive with AI.

Some of you are actually in this list because of this guide, thanks for supporting this small digital product!

🎉 Pst. Don't Keep Me A Secret. refer this newsletter to your freelancer friends. This REALLY REALLY helps me a lot, thanks! Or if you're done referring and you just want to buy me some coffee, I won't stop you.