I Was Wrong About AI Consulting (what I learned)

[@csmac3144a]

Good luck Shaw! You're a talented KZbinr with a gift for clear communication. I know you'll do well!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks for the kind words... I hope so 😅

[@LouvoresPauloRicardo]

Congratulations, man! I tried a "solo career" twice, and I had to come back to my job (SAP BW senior analyst). It's not easy. You are an intelligent guy, and you will find a new ways to apply your entrepreneurship. The Force be with you!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks for sharing and your support! 😁

[@Shapar95]

Dude - I am also in the SAP BW space. We should talk!

[@BadrLaajali]

Hey Shaw, thanks a lot for your advice! I'm in the same place you were 9 months ago, and I can totally relate to most of the issues you faced (like those discovery calls that seem promising but end up going nowhere...). I agree with you about AI projects - sometimes clients just aren't ready for that shift yet, especially with all the uncertainty and testing phases involved, as you explained so well. You're absolutely right, when something works, we gotta try to make the most of it! I'm definitely going to give this approach some serious thought :)

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Hope things go well for you! We have a community for entrepreneurs in this space. Here's an invite in case you are interested: discord.gg/RSqZbF9ygh

[@jimgsewell]

Corporations move at a snail’s pace. That makes it hard if you want to eat every day.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

This is another challenge. Bigger company means bigger contract, but longer sales process.

[@Shapar95]

@@ShawhinTalebi Bro I need to do what you do. Do you recommend it? Where do you live - we should coordinate.

[@atlantapreneur]

You are correct. However, think smaller when reaching out to larger companies (or stay away. Lol). They are in the very beginning stages of AI and need questions answered, such as "Where do we start". A SMB may be more ready to get started. The same question still needs to be answered. However, they are probably more ready to actually find the low hanging fruit in Ai and move forward.

[@AIGooroo]

You go man! I really like your explanations of building AI pipelines with assistants and RAG systems. As an AI Lead in a tech company, you have helped me! Thank you!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks for you support! Glad the content has been helpful 😁

[@GarrettThornburg]

Love your content and I’m excited for more.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks Garrett, your support is greatly appreciated 😁

[@celticc9580]

I've been doing solo data engineering consulting for over 5 years now. I considered branching into AI (I have a theory and computation background in Comp Sci) but I decided not to in the end because of the reason you mention. For too many companies, it's still a nice to have right now. You are also dead on about all the other work, like lead generation, working new and old contacts, etc. Also, having a $60k contract pulled because the company went in a different direction suddenly sucks big time, but those are the ups and downs. Best of luck on your KZbin journey!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

I think sticking to data engineering is a good call. I know people doing 500k+/yr with that.

[@celticc9580]

@@ShawhinTalebi They can have it. Life is too short to work for the kind of companies and environments where you could make that! 😄

[@wongdoraAA]

So much honesty and so valuable advice from this video! I can’t believe it people missed this one out! Big thank you for the sharing!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Glad it was helpful :)

[@johnmartin650]

I could have told you this. All the youtubers selling you on AI and other stuff as a business make it seem like finding clients is the easy bit. The product is the easy bit. The sales process is where reality sets in. It's actually all that matters. The product is less than 1% of the equation.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

To make matters worse, those who understand AI, don't do so well when it comes to humans (and sales) 😂

[@johnmartin650]

@@ShawhinTalebi Yes true although I'd rather talk to a precise autistic type any day 😂.. Funnily enough I'll be doing some cold calling for my agency for the next month or two. I'm tempted to put the recordings online so people can see what's actually required... I've seen some hilarious attempts from some of the "how to start a business" channels.

[@ColdCallSteve]

@@johnmartin650how has it gone!? Any update?

[@atlantapreneur]

@@ShawhinTalebi Bingo, that is where the entrepreneur comes in. Bridge that gap.

[@jkboa5]

Brilliant video... proof high intelligence, clarity, honesty and humility... you shall be super successful, Shawn!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thank you for the kind words! We'll see what happens 😅

[@robw7676]

Young people who want to strike out independently should be thinking about products and platforms, not consulting services. After 10+ years consulting, I'd say contacts are everything. You need to work AS a contractor for years, delivering well, and moving regularly to build a network of other good contractors. The consulting model is sell the service, staff it, making somebody you trust the engagement lead and keep an eye on progress, but also move on to finding the next client. The big firms make a lot of their profit from the margin they get "bodyshopping" talented younger staff not yet with a CV that would let them go solo. They pay them a third of what they charge for them. To get to that scale, you've got to have the cash flow to recruit permanent staff and pay them when they are "benched". It's a big step up, which is why the market is quite polarised between "boutique" firms and global corps.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Only if I saw this comment 12 months ago 😅 Thanks for sharing your insight, great perspective!

[@terryliu3635]

Great sharing Shaw! Thank you!

[@nasiksami2351]

All the very best with all your plans. Love your tutorials!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks, glad they were helpful :)

[@mro5858]

Thanks, Shaw! I appreciate you sharing your expertise & experience. Your communication style makes complex topics easy to grasp. Keep up the great work!

[@JulienHugon]

Thanks for everything I learned thanks to your video that I have been binge-watching on the treadmill at the gym :) You are extremely good at explaining complex content to anyone. Good luck man ;)

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thank you! I hope to continue supporting your learning and fitness.

[@rembautimes8808]

Joined as a sub as I appreciate the honesty . I worked on my product idea for 4 years before finally throwing my resignation. Focus on the thing that matters and best of luck.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks for your support and insight 😁

[@ifycadeau]

Wooooow love your vulnerability Shaw, excited for you!!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks Faye... let's see how it goes 😅

[@ladyharriet4136]

Love your channel, just to say you are very talented, quitting your job might seem like a bad idea at first, but you know in your heart, that job might pay well for now will lead you to nowhere what you can ultimately achieve in your life. Not easy to take ourselves out of our comfort zone. Keep on trying, it is far better off moving at a pace where you don't hang around waiting for others to finish their jobs, changing their minds/specs, picking up pieces that others don't bother finishing, wasting your time and effort, all for a monthly income. You know you deserve better than that, sky is the limit!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks for the kind words! While it's not for everyone, I find working for myself much more aligned with my goals and values.

[@jaa928]

Just found the channel and am bingeing on the ML and LLM info. Thank you very much. I hope this comment helps with the algorithm!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Happy to help! Thanks for your support :)

[@olegbrovko4634]

You're very mature with a good mind. You'll succeed.

[@aidanszwec]

nice nice. Love the honesty.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Hope it's helpful Aidan!

[@airliners321]

Hey Shaw, I’m loving your content so far. I just left my job doing data science/engineering for hardware development at a prominent AI / robotics lab, but I would have benefited from some of your latest uploads had I stayed. 1 video / week is typically antithetical to quality, but your angle is unique and adds value so I hope it doesn’t get too hard to keep quality high. Best of luck from Palo Alto, I’ll be following along! Especially for the AI content

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Congrats on the transition! Venturing out on my own has been challenging in many ways, but it is always much more fulfilling. I agree there's a tension between quality and quantity. It's been a struggle to keep up with, but I've learned a lot. I may dial it back if I feel the quality begins to degrade. Good luck to you as well :)

[@CausalPython]

Great video and congrats on your new journey Shaw! 👏🏼

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks Alex :)

[@RajivSambasivan]

Best of luck @Shaw. I am sure as this will go well for you.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thank you Rajiv!

[@aisoluxpro]

Thank you so much for this video!

[@joseortiz8020]

You learned some very valuable lessons early on in your career. Be thankful and now keep doing what you enjoy most.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Experience is a great teacher.

[@MyWatermelonz]

Interesting, my favorite part is helping people with how great tech is. Consulting seems like an amazing way to do so but ill never be able to since i lack the technical background certifications.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

You can always learn tech. The important thing (IMO) is what you enjoy doing

[@borisSol]

HI Shaw great video, a lot of great points

[@ravityagi7441]

All the best Shaw!

[@aldotanca9430]

For what is worth, I think you are doing well focusing on YT, at least for a while. You are really good at unpacking details while keeping things intelligible and interesting to a mixed audience. I don't think I have seen anywhere else such a clear description of QLora, for instance. In a sense you are a dream teacher, even if that is probably not your ambition long term.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks Aldo, I appreciate that :) I do enjoy teaching, but I enjoy learning and doing even more

[@KunaalNaik]

Shaw, you spoke to my soul! I was going down this path. Now I need to pivot. Data Science is "nice to have". What are you ideas on growing a Data Science Channel? Currently I am reaching 10 subs. But I need to re-invent myself.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

I'm glad it resonated! Growing a channel is definitely an option (especially if you've already got some traction). However, the path is that of a content creator, which means you make money by selling attention, e.g., AdSense or paid collaborations. One can also grow a channel to support a business venture (that's not consulting), which I am currently trying to figure out now😅

[@KunaalNaik]

@@ShawhinTalebi What are the options of revenue generation for peeps from Data Science? i am currently doing community-based coaching. I plan to convert it into a reoccurring membership.

[@for-ever-22]

If you couldn’t do it then I’m doomed 😢. On a more serious note, yre videos teaching about LLMare a game changer. Yre clearly filling a void. Keep them coming.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

It's not over yet! You cannot fail if you do not quit.

[@somjrgebn]

This is a tough one. I've been in your position, though I'm more into writing and deep research than YT. The issue I have is that when I focus too much on my writing, I become less grounded with the market. And the more grounded I am with the market, the more I want to just write. In my experience, after 5 years in this process, you can't have more than 1 but you have to be dynamic with what that 1 thing is. It is not a binary, this or that. It is actually an evolution of experiences that take you from this to that. People just jump too quickly from one thing and quickly learn they weren't actually ready. But, you correct yourself, reorient, and go again. And do this again and again until something sticks. And you move on once it doesn't. I've went from writing a lot, to contracts, to freelance, to writing way more (in private), to selling calls, to selling products, to writing, then to angel investing, and then back to more writing. You try and try and try, and eventually, enough things stick that align with your passion, talent, and value to the world. Just don't stop trying.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

This is incredible, thanks for sharing! Your approach aligns well with how Stephen Wolfram described his journey balancing building his company and doing research (I asked him for advice). It seems like taking a seasonal approach (i.e. content season -> consulting season -> content season => etc.) might be a winning strategy

[@somjrgebn]

@@ShawhinTalebi “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Mahatma Gandhi And Ghandi's wisdom wasn't referring to temporary and static systems. He was referring to how he remained timeless and dynamic within them.

[@andrew8531]

Good luck love your channel. Impossible to scale consulting without Govt coming after you once you hire employees Especially in California. Contractors don't have commitment. Offshore doesn't understand the US Business. Best to make it work with someone you can trust, you! Good choice and wish you the best.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks Andrew!

[@DRAI-ow1nq]

you have my support!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks :)

[@EduardoJGaido]

If you focus on youtube... I win! Your content is great, I'm happy I'll get more of your tutorials. Thank you for your work!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Yes definitely. LlamaIndex has something like this out of the box which we can see at @14:55 with the similarity cutoff.

[@terryliu3635]

Shaw, maybe you should partner with someone to complement your core skills to provide your customers with a wide spectrum of data, analytics and Ai solutions. Just a thought

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks for the tip Terry! I've been exploring this the possibility of partnering with firms and focusing on client acquisition, but nothing worth committing to atm.

[@eurofree2261]

May be it’s better to return for whole time job? This is the world of corporations and AI is so hugely concentrated market! Your experience not less complicated as Brown, Karpinskij or other big guys in this industry.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

That's always an option, but I feel I've got more in the tank.

[@MrJodyfleck]

You rock my man

[@mohammadamiri-lc3ic]

عالی بود پسر موفق باشی

[@TheCloudShepherd]

Good video Shaw

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks :)

[@kapilkhond6339]

I like the way you explained concepts of large language model like finetuning. Can you share your strategies on learning such complex topics and explaining it in simpler words ?

[@ShawhinTalebi]

I talk more about my approach to learning technical topics here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGemnqiMes5qh7s

[@atap777]

What was you starting like? Did you build a website or did you just reach out to business around or or did you just already have warm leads because of your background? I am just starting out and I find myself stuck with really putting myself out there

[@ShawhinTalebi]

I started on Upwork. I still think that's a good starting point for most people. When I quit my job, I had been posting content for a few year so that got me about 2 discovery calls/wk.

[@atap777]

@ShawhinTalebi thank you! I'm going to set up my up work profile and go all in, I will quit my job this year too

[@damjangnjidic]

3:28 what is your opinion on other people talking about how service business is a must step towards successful product? Thay often show it like service -> productized service -> product. Maybe you can make a video about that...

[@ShawhinTalebi]

I don't think there are any rules to entrepreneurship (or product development), so I'd be skeptical of any "must steps". While, of the dozens of consultants I've met, none have successfully launched a product, I'm sure there are many who have done exactly what you've described.

[@Tfostyy]

Haha welcome to the rollercoaster of attempting to manage uncertainty that is sales brotha

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Haha thanks 😅

[@YedenLife]

To what sort of industry were you able to sell your AI/data consulting service? I am in Australia working for a government agency but thinking about running my own consulting.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

It was mainly research work and consultations in a wide range of industries e.g. medicine, human performance, geoscience, professional services.

Make Me video on the data consultancy ....hoe do you staet and get clients

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Great suggestion! I'll add it to my list. In the meantime, I shared several videos on freelance and consulting here: www.youtube.com/@TheDataEntrepreneurs

[@PasacheDigra]

How much money would it cost a beginner like me to invest in AI resources to become a high quality AI Consultant ?

[@ShawhinTalebi]

This depends on your current experience, but potentially $0 because you can start by selling your services on sites like Upwork.

[@PasacheDigra]

@ what do you mean ?

[@matthieusaussaye]

👏👏👏

[@ELITEXPERIENCEHUB]

Brother I am currently pursuing b tech in data science what should I do next 😢I need help

[@ShawhinTalebi]

While it's hard to give guidance without additional context, feel free to email me: www.shawhintalebi.com/contact

[@explorer945]

I only wonder how Musk was able to manage multiple companies doing different types of businesses. It does seem one thing as an entrepreneur but they are all different businesses. Anyways, good content. Good luck

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Musk has figured something out that I need to learn.

[@CouchProgrammer]

In the end, you chose to build the channel as your product. But was this product the product you wanted to build? KZbin is the same as consulting; in the end, all the time will be spent on the main source of income, simply because in optimising sources of income, “build personal projects” where income is zero, at the beginning of the queue for elimination.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

That's a great point. In some sense, I am still distracting myself from the end goal of building a software product. One difference I see, however, is that consulting requires me to show up to get paid, while KZbin I can post the content once and get paid many times for it. My hope is to get YT to a place it generates steady income to pay the bills to allow me to devote more time to product dev, but we'll see how that actually plays out 😅

[@DRAI-ow1nq]

you can make more money as a Data Analyst or Data Engineer than a Data Scientist

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Based on convos with other creator/consultants, I think you might be right 😅

[@divyv20]

Hey Shaw , really nice video ! I was wondering if I could help you with Best Quality Editing in your videos better than your Editor and also make a highly engaging Thumbnail which will help your videos to reach to a wider audience ? Pls let me know what do you think ?

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks for watching!

[@gody7334]

most practical suggestion: Buy google stock 😆; if you willing put your time on KZbin, why not your money lol

[@ShawhinTalebi]

LOL I can make more investing in myself... at least that's the hope 😂

[@baby_onyx]

Please can you be my mentor? I am a computer science graduate. I want to move into the AI space and be mainly an AI consultant. Please i need someone who would take me through all these stuffs.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

I run a (free) community for entrepreneurs in the data/AI space. Here's an invite in case you are interested: discord.gg/RSqZbF9ygh

[@baby_onyx]

@@ShawhinTalebi Thanks. I've joined the discord. I'll check my schedule for the office hours.

[@cheattube]

YBW young but wise :)

[@Alcalfa]

To shift your focus to only YT content means that you'll no longer be a practitioner, but a "blablaer", and your content will decrease in quality. No two ways about it. Your technical side will lose out. Is that really what you want? You seem to have turned down a supervisor role after doing technical, which sounds to me like you really enjoy doing technical work. Doing YT content is not doing technical work. "Trust yourself to figure it out". As a 55 year old going through a major career shift for the second time, this is terribly optimistic. It ignores several things: 1) removing yourself from the job market to do YT means it will be much harder to return to the job market. 2) there are situations that you have no control over, no influence on, and where your efforts will make absolutely no difference. We all can and will fail to make things work. 3) we can tramline ourselves into situations where a previous wrong/foolish decision puts us in a context where certain courses of action appear "the most logical" (e.g. "YT is working for me right now"), but that appearance is deceiving, and only presents itself this way because of the previous foolish decision. The further along these paths we go, the more unrecoverable our situation becomes. Then, a decade later, you wonder how the f*ck you did this to yourself. Generally, we are all our own worst enemies. I wish you wisdom.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks for your insight. Indeed this could all be a terrible mistake 😅 One thing I'd push back on, however, is making YT content and doing technical work may not be incompatible. Now that i've removed client-based work, I feel there is room for me to build out my own personal projects and share learnings along the way.

[@RyanStuart85]

Join a startup sir

[@ShawhinTalebi]

I'm trying to make one!

[@CaribSurfKing1]

Becoming the Novak Djokovic in AI/ML dev YT videos ( which is the only way to financially get anywhere ) is….a statistically low probability venture. Good luck. I worry about your eventual audience limit, despite AI being current and future hot dev area!

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Thanks, there's a lot to learn and explore 😅

[@jsward17]

This was super disappointing tbh. The solution? Become a KZbinr. I’m going to go build a product.

[@ShawhinTalebi]

Sorry to disappoint 😅 However, I wouldn't say my goal is to now be a KZbinr. Rather it's to use KZbin as a way to explore product ideas and grow an audience simultaneously. Sure it splits my attention a bit, but I think having an audience makes it easier to validate and implement products.

[@jsward17]

@@ShawhinTalebi if i learned anything from YC, Thiel, et al, it’s don’t split your focus on anything. Be uncompromising, be fast, have a high iteration cycle, talk to your actual customers, not just an audience. I genuinely think you’re making a huge mistake you’ll look back on and regret that you didn’t FOCUS, when you had all this knowledge. But the fact that you didn’t listen to your friend right from the get go just tells me a lot about your capacity to absorb advice. Or even the fact you would try the ai patchwork approach to human orgs in the age of AI agents?? Anyways this is probably falling on deaf ears. Good luck though.

[@Rami_Zaki-k2b]

No offense - but does it really take a genius to realize a person cannot do the work of an entire company ?

[@ShawhinTalebi]

To be fair, I know a few people who are successfully running (and scaling) consultancies in this space. The key difference is consulting is their one and only focus. My main learning was selling AI services as a side hustle wasn't the best fit for me.

[@Rami_Zaki-k2b]

@@ShawhinTalebi If they run they cannot be the main IC in it - which is cool, plenty of people on earth. You want to manage or do ? remembers managers always come out on top 😉