Student to AI Agency to $9,000p/m AI Real Estate SaaS in 6 Months

Summary

In this inspiring interview, Liam chats with Hamza, a successful AI entrepreneur who transitioned from a university student to running an AI automation agency and then pivoted to a SaaS model in the real estate space. Hamza shares his journey of building an AI tool that automated a tedious task during his internship, which led to his first sales and the creation of Automax, an all-in-one appraisal platform. He discusses the importance of validating ideas, personalizing outreach, and the potential of AI in real estate, offering valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Takeaways

• 😀 Hamza, a university student, discovered the potential of AI to automate tasks during a mundane internship and built a tool using GPT and Zapier to complete his work efficiently.
• 🚀 After the internship, Hamza joined an accelerator and started his own AI automation agency, eventually pivoting to a SaaS model focused on real estate appraisals.
• 💡 Hamza's first significant sales came from automating the real estate appraisal process, a niche he discovered through personal connections and market demand.
• 🛠️ He created Automax, an all-in-one platform for appraisals, which automated the entire process from inspection to final report, leading to significant time savings for appraisers.
• 💼 Hamza faced the challenge of balancing his education with the growing demands of his business, which was scaling up to a monthly recurring revenue of $8,000 to $9,000.
• 🤔 Hamza is considering whether to continue his university education or to focus on his business full-time, a decision influenced by potential exclusivity deals and acquisition offers.
• 🔑 Hamza emphasizes the importance of validating an idea with customers before investing significant time and resources into building a product.
• 📈 He suggests starting with a basic MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and using no-code tools to quickly establish proof of concept and gather customer feedback.
• 💬 Personalized outreach, especially within a specific niche, was more effective for Hamza than mass, generic emails, leading to higher engagement and sales.
• 🔍 Hamza advises new entrants to the AI space to start by focusing on a specific type of solution and to leverage warm connections and personal branding to gain initial traction.
• 🌟 The potential for AI in the real estate sector is vast, and Hamza's journey illustrates the opportunities available for those who can identify and exploit niches within the industry.

Q & A

What was Hamza's initial experience with AI that sparked his interest in building automation tools?

Hamza's initial experience with AI was during his first internship where he was given a tedious task of going through a large Excel document. He started listening to Liam's YouTube videos and podcasts about AI and automation, which inspired him to build an internal tool using GPT and Zapier to automate his task.

How did Hamza's internship experience lead to his first exposure to AI's potential in business?

During his internship, Hamza was tasked with a monotonous job of standardizing data in Excel. This experience led him to create an AI tool that automated his work, completing a year's worth of tasks in just 10 minutes, which was his first realization of AI's value in business.

What was the turning point for Hamza's business when he found a lucrative opportunity in the real estate space?

The turning point for Hamza's business was when he built an internal tool for a real estate appraiser to automate a part of the appraisal process. The success of this tool led to more clients and the realization of a significant demand for such solutions in the real estate niche.

How did Hamza validate the demand for his AI solutions in the real estate appraisal niche?

Hamza validated the demand by building an initial tool for a real estate appraiser and seeing the positive results and time saved. This success led to recommendations and more clients, showing a clear demand for his AI solutions in the real estate appraisal niche.

What is the name of the all-in-one platform Hamza created for appraisals, and what does it automate?

The all-in-one platform Hamza created is called Automax. It automates the entire appraisal process, from the start of the inspection to the completion of the appraisal.

How did Hamza's university support his entrepreneurial journey and the growth of his business?

Hamza's university had a strong focus on entrepreneurship, providing a branch dedicated to helping students start and grow their businesses. Hamza was able to get funding, find the right people, and receive advice through this support system.

What is the dilemma Hamza is facing between continuing his education and pursuing his business full-time?

Hamza is facing the dilemma of whether to drop out of university and pursue his business full-time, which is showing great potential, or to continue his education and have a backup plan in case his business doesn't succeed.

What advice does Hamza give to those starting in the AI space regarding validation and building out their solutions?

Hamza advises to validate the need for a solution before investing significant time in building it. He suggests creating a basic MVP and getting agreements or commitments from potential customers to ensure there is genuine interest in the solution.

How did Hamza find his niche and what strategy did he use to start getting clients?

Hamza found his niche in the real estate appraisal space after trying various industries. He used a strategy of personalized outreach on LinkedIn, tailoring messages to individual profiles, which led to higher engagement and his first clients.

What is Hamza's perspective on the importance of having a university degree versus gaining skills and knowledge?

Hamza believes that it's not the degree itself that leads to success, but the skills and knowledge one acquires. He thinks that these can be gained with or without a degree and are more important for providing value to people.

What strategies does Hamza recommend for someone starting in AI and looking to find their first clients?

Hamza recommends starting with warm outreach to friends and family, leveraging any connections one might have. If that doesn't work, he suggests focusing on inbound strategies like personal branding to attract clients.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 From Internship to AI Entrepreneurship

Hamza, a university student, shares his journey from an internship at a company where he automated a tedious task using AI, to building his own AI automation agency and pivoting to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model in the real estate space. He discusses the challenges of finding clients, the pivotal moment when he automated a real estate appraisal process, and the subsequent success that led to his current business, Automax. Hamza also reflects on the decision to potentially drop out of university to focus on his booming business.

05:00

🌟 Scaling Automax: From Student Project to SaaS Success

The narrative continues with Hamza detailing the growth of Automax, an all-in-one platform for real estate appraisals. He talks about the challenges of transitioning from an agency model to a SaaS product, the importance of hiring a development team, and the significant milestones achieved, including reaching a monthly recurring revenue of $8,000 to $9,000. Hamza also discusses the potential for exclusivity deals and acquisition offers, highlighting the burgeoning real estate AI market in Canada.

10:01

🤔 Balancing Education and Entrepreneurship

In this segment, Hamza grapples with the decision between continuing his university education and diving full-time into his business. He acknowledges the support and opportunities provided by his university's focus on entrepreneurship, the challenges of managing both academic and business responsibilities, and the dilemma of whether to pursue the uncertain but potentially rewarding path of entrepreneurship over a traditional degree.

15:02

🛠️ Leveraging AI in Niche Markets: Strategy and Growth

Hamza elaborates on his strategy for leveraging AI in niche markets, emphasizing the importance of validation before development, the use of no-code tools for rapid prototyping, and the shift from mass outreach to personalized engagement with potential clients. He shares insights on the value of specific knowledge in AI and the compounding benefits of establishing oneself as an expert in a niche, as well as the importance of building systems for scalability.

20:03

🚀 Personalized Outreach and the Path to Success

The final paragraph focuses on Hamza's advice for those starting in the AI space, highlighting the effectiveness of personalized outreach over generic mass emails. He shares his experience with LinkedIn connection strategies and the importance of tailoring messages to individual prospects. Hamza also discusses the potential of leveraging warm connections and building a personal brand as effective entry points into the market, offering a roadmap for aspiring AI entrepreneurs.

Keywords

💡AI Automation

AI Automation refers to the use of artificial intelligence to perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making. In the video, the guest, Hamza, utilized AI automation to create tools that streamlined processes in real estate appraisals, demonstrating the practical application of AI in business operations.

💡YouTube Video

A YouTube video is a piece of content hosted on the YouTube platform, often used for educational, entertainment, or promotional purposes. In the context of the video, a YouTube video by Liam inspired Hamza to explore AI's potential in business, acting as a catalyst for his journey into AI automation and entrepreneurship.

💡Accelerator

An accelerator is a program designed to support startups with resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities to help them grow quickly. Hamza was a member of Liam's accelerator, which provided him with the community and knowledge to transition from a student to a successful entrepreneur in the AI space.

💡Real Estate Appraisals

Real estate appraisals are professional opinions on the value of a property. They are a crucial part of the real estate industry. In the video, Hamza identified a niche within this industry, creating AI tools to automate and improve the efficiency of the appraisal process, which was traditionally time-consuming and manual.

💡Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is a metric that shows how much a subscription-based business is expected to earn each month. Hamza's business, Automax, reached an MRR of $8,000 to $9,000, indicating the success and scalability of his AI solution in the real estate appraisal niche.

💡SaaS (Software as a Service)

SaaS refers to a software licensing and delivery model in which software is provided on a subscription basis over the internet. Hamza's company, Automax, is described as an all-in-one SaaS platform for appraisals, automating various aspects of the appraisal process from start to finish.

💡Pivot

To pivot in a business context means to change direction or strategy in response to new information or market conditions. Hamza initially started with an AI automation agency but pivoted to creating a SaaS product after identifying a lucrative opportunity in the real estate appraisal market.

💡Exclusive Deal

An exclusive deal implies an agreement where one party agrees to work with only one partner or customer, often in exchange for certain benefits. Hamza discussed potential exclusivity with a large appraisal firm, which could significantly scale his business and provide a stable revenue stream.

💡University Internship

A university internship is a work experience opportunity that students undertake as part of their education. Hamza's first internship in an engineering position led him to the realization of AI's potential to automate tedious tasks, sparking his interest in AI and setting the stage for his entrepreneurial venture.

💡Personalized Outreach

Personalized outreach involves tailoring communication to the specific interests or needs of the recipient, rather than using generic messages. Hamza found success with personalized messages on LinkedIn, which led to more engaging responses and ultimately, clients for his AI services.

💡MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

An MVP is a version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future development. Hamza built an MVP to validate the need for his AI tool in the real estate appraisal industry, which helped him understand the market need before fully developing his SaaS product.

Highlights

Hamza's journey from a university student to founder of an AI automation agency and an AI SaaS product in the real estate space.

The pivotal YouTube video that inspired Hamza to automate his internship tasks, leading to significant productivity gains.

The initial challenge of finding clients and the transition from AAA to a niche-focused SaaS with real estate appraisals.

How Hamza identified a lucrative opportunity in the real estate appraisal niche by automating redundant processes.

The creation of Automax, an all-in-one platform for appraisals that automates the entire process from inspection to completion.

The strategy of building an internal tool for a specific client that led to referrals and market validation.

Scaling the business to a monthly recurring revenue of $8,000-$9,000 through targeted marketing and satisfied clients.

Potential exclusivity deals and acquisition offers that validate Hamza's AI solution in the real estate appraisal market.

The dilemma of continuing education versus pursuing the growing business opportunity full-time.

The importance of having a backup plan and weighing the risks of focusing solely on an AI business.

Hamza's advice on validating ideas with customers before investing significant time and resources into development.

The effectiveness of personalized outreach over mass emails in acquiring the first clients.

Building an MVP using no-code tools to quickly test the market and gather feedback.

The transition from doing AAA for various clients to focusing on a specific niche to build a SaaS product.

The role of university support and resources in helping Hamza start his business and connect with the right people.

The potential of AI in real estate and how Hamza is positioned at the forefront of this emerging market.

Strategies for beginners in AI, including starting with a specific solution and leveraging warm connections for initial clients.

The importance of building systems and a team to scale the business beyond the founder's individual capabilities.

Hamza's perspective on the value of a university degree versus the skills and knowledge gained through practical experience.

Transcripts

I think I remember seeing you and the

winds Channel and the accelerator just

like banging out like win after win

after I was like who the hell is this

Hamza kid absolutely crushing again

scaled it up all the way at about eight8

$9,000 in monthly recurring Revenue cuz

who knew that one tiny YouTube video

like that could just change my life as a

as a uni student right the choice for me

is I drop out at the same time there's

always that part of me in the back of my

brain which was telling me amza you

should have a back up hello everyone and

welcome back to the channel today we

have a special guest Hamza a member of

my accelerator in the original 150

members back in uh this time last year

and hum has gone on to do some

incredible things in the real estate and

AI space going from being a student

working at an internship to starting his

own AI automation agency and to pivoting

down to an AI SAS after he found a

pretty lucrative opportunity in the real

estate space so I think hum's story in

particular shows the the hero's journey

of a of a AAA owner or an AI

entrepreneur and how you can get in and

find your opportunity and he now getting

um massive deal potential um and options

for acquisition company later down the

line so I think uh everyone can learn a

lot from this and he's also going to be

sharing if he was to start again what

tips and tricks he give to people uh

starting in his position so Hamza thank

you for your time and I'm looking

forward to sharing your story thank you

for having me Liam yeah it's a pleasure

pleasure to talk uh I kind of found Liam

as he as he mentioned around April of

last year and the story kind of started

in the middle of an internship uh it was

my first internship as a as a first year

kind of University student I was hired

for an engineering position I was so

excited and on my first day of work my

manager came in and gave me basically

like a 10,000 row XEL document and my he

told me my job for the whole four months

that I was hired there was I to go

through every single part search it

online and write like a long kind of

standardization number for it and that

was it again and again and again and it

was just brain dead work uh and it was

so painfully boring that I started to

put in my headphones and listen to

YouTube videos and podcasts on the side

and that's where I found Liam mle this

guy who talking about Ai and

implementing AI in businesses and all

this cool stuff and so I was just

listening to it while I'm doing this

kind of brain dead job on the side and a

kind of a realization moment happened

why don't I just build something to

automate this this really boring process

and so that's where I started I built an

internal tool which used GPT to

automatically write those

standardizations uh and then use zapier

to fill them in on onto Excel uh and I

finished a year worth of work that they

had for for me to do that internship in

like 10 minutes uh and it was my first

kind of eye openening experience into

how much value you can bring with these

these AI systems into large businesses

and how little they really know about it

and over the course of the remaining

three months I had of that internship

they ended up just transferring me to

like the software department and I built

a whole bunch of other internal tools

for them to use even one to do like

staff training for a bunch of the the

softwares that they were using one to

automate a whole bunch of different

procedures and that's where I kind of

got started joined the accelerator uh as

one of the first 150 members members uh

and then that's when I started my

AAA and then in AAA it was kind of a

rocky start I think when I had the

internship it was awesome so much

experience building stuff so much

experience you know doing all that part

but I don't have to look for clients I

had the customer right there right the

business self was kind of sorted it was

just like development then I started and

getting customers was just a nightmare

um I remember those first couple of

months I had up dental clinics I had up

mental health agencies like th bu and

stuff I hit up real estate agents like

Realtors every Niche you can think of I

was hitting them up and it was all just

coming back as at zeros and so it took

quite a while for me to kind of nail

down the the niche and what I could do

uh and then kind of found my stride I

think later that year when I had my

first couple of sales and one of the big

ones was in real estate appraisals so

real estate appraisals is basically how

people value properties it's a very

small Niche most people have no idea how

it works I didn't have any clue how it

worked back then but I was talking to a

real estate appraiser also just happened

to be a bunch of my family is actually

in appraisals over in the US which I

didn't know too much about but when

talking to them they kept describing hey

we're filling in these forms for hours

every single day the process is so

redundant the software we're using were

built in the 90s and they haven't been

updated since then a whole bunch of

those similar complaints to what I was

hearing at the company that I was

interning at and so I ended up just

building them their first kind of

internal tool just to automate one small

part of the appraisal process and it was

so successful with them saved them so

much time that they recommended me to

one of their friends who was also an

appraiser I built them another tool

which was to automate a slightly

different part of their process they're

like okay awesome this is great I

brought it up to Canada from the US and

then started marketing it here and there

was just the demand was flowing in and

everyone was just saying the same thing

which is that we're looking for a way to

make our process better but there's no

alternative out there and so that's kind

of where I pivoted from being a AAA

taking on any sort of client any sort of

customer doing all those marketing and

building these AI Solutions into more of

a SAS that's where Automax was born and

so the way Automax works pretty much I

made it was the all-in-one platform for

appraisals which automated everything

from when an appraiser starts the

process they do their inspection all the

way to finishing the appraisal I ended

up hiring a bunch of devs at that time

as well who I also found from the Excel

so initially I was going on like the the

Discord back then before we had Circle

and looking for for devs and one guy

really stood out to me talked to him we

signed like an initial Contracting deal

found another guy through him as well

that he had on his team and that's where

kind of the team team started to get

built up from there and then stuff kind

of really started blowing up when I took

some time off uni to work on it full

time uh and then started signing a bunch

more more appraisals more clients scaled

it up all the way to about eight8 $9,000

in monthly recurring revenue and we have

some really exciting stuff going on in

the next couple of months we have a

potential deals for exclusivity with one

of our clients and hopefully getting

acquired by them as well within a year

or two years and stuff is really blowing

up in the the real estate AI Market in

in Canada so yeah huge thanks to Liam

for even starting all this because who

knew that one tiny YouTube video like

that could just changed my life as a as

a uni student right uh so yeah it's been

an awesome Journey that's that's awesome

man I think your story is such a great

example of uh well one the the

internship aspect the value of exp of of

experience and you getting that early

dose of experience and seeing firsthand

what the soft can do I think people

still come to this space with a lot of

skepticism that AI it can't really help

the businesses that well or like it's

not that valuable or even using low code

stuff like zapia Etc is not going to be

that valuable but you were able to see

it firsthand and I think that was really

key in in your journey and for anyone

else who can take the same approach of

saying okay where can I get some

experience in your case it was through

an internship and just that the right

the cards kind of played out in the

right way but taking the same approach

of just any experience will do because

you were able to take that experience

and go straight into starting your own

agency and then you're able to identify

the use case through doing multiple

clients for projects for clients

identify that use case and then double

down a niche down to that and eventually

get to the point where you productize

that into a house so if there's any

example of the exact strategy I've been

telling people to to try and follow in

the space to to succeed um and you've

been able to do it it really rapidly

within the first couple of projects I

guess you were already finding a a

valuable solution and I think that comes

down to you having that that prior

experience in the internship that

allowed you to immediately start

providing value so um if you want to

give us a little bit more I think the

most impressive thing about what you're

doing right now and where this house is

at um is the the potential exclusivity

that you've gotten so can you give us a

little bit of background on I know you

probably can't say too many details but

I think the size of the firm that you're

looking at working at will and working

with um could really show just what

level you're at and what the the

potential is for you because I think

with a real estate is such a huge market

and you are like right on the on the on

the edge of that you're already into it

but if you continue to like press this

like screw this in and go deeper and

deeper and deeper you're going to have

an extremely valuable skill set as you

as I'm sure you can explain with some of

the deals that have come across your

table recently yeah for sure I think

appraisals specifically within real

estate as well is an even kind of

further Niche down kind of aspect of it

that people don't even know how it how

it works and so happens to be that

there's really almost no competition in

the space either the firm that we're

talking to for exclusivity

they're the largest firm in Canada that

does appraisals like uncontested they

have about 13 14 branches across the

country they also have a sister branch

in America which has another 150

appraisers with several different

branches all over the country they also

have a branch in Australia another

branch in Europe as well right and so

they're by far the largest firm in the

country and the scale at which we could

grow this working with them uh is is

massive I mean you can only imagine if

you have 100 hundreds of dollars in

monthly retainers per per appraiser per

user and hundreds of users at a Time the

numbers just multiply and it works out

to to a really nice nice figure okay so

I think key thing to to mention here is

that you're managing all of this as a

student yes you took off your six months

you took your entrepreneurial break did

work on the business but now you're back

at school so you're faced with a pretty

tricky decision here where you've taken

the six months off you've kind of done

what you intended to do which was find

an opportunity here and get this thing

rolling with and I mean that's some of

the most incredible offers in kind of

but opportunities that I've ever seen in

front of someone like you have a very

narrow implementation of AI that you've

been able to create from scratch you've

got this big company gigantic company

who's basically saying hey look we want

you to sell it to no one else and work

with us exclusively um and you're also

trying to juggle this this aspect to

being a student um can you talk us

through your thought process right now

and I mean you're wearing the University

of water lot shirt here and you've also

as you said we're being approached by

people through University as the as the

AI guy and that's leading to things

through through the government as well

so can walk us through the uh your

thought process right now as a student

and you weighing these up but also some

of those I think you mentioned

governmental opportunities who getting

just from from doing what you've been

doing I think there's a lot of help that

I got from being a university student

while I was doing all this stuff just

because my university has a huge focus

on entrepreneurship we have like a whole

branch of the uni which is just

dedicated to starting like helping

students start startups and companies

and and grow them and stuff and so I was

a part of that got some funding to help

the start of of automatic my company as

well and so I think it was really

instrumental in finding the right people

as well right advisers and stuff as well

but yeah this is the whole dilemma right

is you're working full time on something

you're you're putting your heart and

soul into it and stuff's going really

well but if you have to all of a sudden

go back to school it's not like the work

just stops the work just multiplies and

adds on right you have all the stuff

from from your your uh business working

as well and then all the studies five

courses full-time I on top of it so the

choice for me is I drop out leave the

the Cozy degree behind and I pursue it

full-time which is for sure enticing I

think the the opportunity is there I

think that's been proven over the last

couple of months and there's exciting

stuff possible at the same time there's

always that part of me in the back of my

brain which was telling me amza you

should have a backup and you know

University is important it's something

important for for me in my life I know

Liam you had a uh you ended up going the

the Dropout route as well and doing all

that but I don't know it's just it's

it's a bit of a mental struggle at this

point there's all there's always a

possib

AI crashes and burns right a solar flare

hits us and we're we're going back to

the Stone Age or something and you have

to to find something else the important

thing is that I don't think it's the

degree that will get you success in life

it's having the skills and the knowledge

that are necessary to be able to provide

value to people I could do that with the

degree or without and so just weighing

my options for the time being and

potentially going to to bigger

opportunities like one of the

connections that I got through my

university is actually to the kind of

Municipal board in in Canada that does

property tax valuation

and so that's a different side from core

appraisals but it's a massive Market

because you have to appraise every

single property in the country every

year in order to find the government

property tax that's millions and

millions and millions of dollars so no

idea how big the deal is but it has a

lot of zeros it's funny because the Ary

of The Bu of the University having a

entrepreneurship department but then

like if it succeeds what am I going to

do drop out so do they not have a like

exit strategy so if we start a

successful business in our

entrepreneurship program we allow you to

like

or do you just have to at at the end of

the day make the decision hey look I'm

done this is done well enough I'm having

like a honorable discharge from the uni

but I'm going on to bigger and B things

like do they not have some kind of

process for that so it's a mix of both I

think the main thing that they do is

they like recruit students that are in

like the end of their degree and then

they get them started on their start up

at the end of their degree so as soon as

they graduate they move to the incubator

full-time and then they're only working

on their startup fulltime I'm in second

year so I have like two and a half years

left if I was to

yeah yeah do it so way too early to to

do that so for people like me they

literally come up to me and recommend

hey Hamza why don't you just drop out

and so is it conflicting with the

university sometimes but ultimately it's

all run by entrepreneurs as well a bunch

of them are drop outs I guess the

interesting part for you is trying to

get a a sufficient deal lined up whether

that's going to be exclusivity and you

can make that transition say okay I

think like whether that's them hiring

you or whether you're getting a nice

contract from them would that be enough

for you to to drop this and go fulltime

that might push me over the edge for

sure well I'm I'm sure myself and and

everyone else are rooting for you I'm

sure you're going to pull it off but I

think your your story is such a great

example of acquiring specific knowledge

and I I've been hopping on about this

quite a lot recently and I'm going to

continue to but

the understanding how AI can be utilized

within a given Niche we are still

searching for there're waiting for I

call them like empty Thrones right every

niche in the in the world every niche in

the business world if you look at say

smma for example there are guys who are

established leaders they have

established Brands and businesses in

each of the different things whether

it's Roofing or name any any Niche you

can you can imagine um we don't have

that yet for AI and in your case you're

starting to see the compounding benefits

of being the AI guy and you'll notice

that as soon as you start putting

yourself out there more you get this

weird kind of celebrity effect where

everyone knows that AI is is going to

change the world and going to change

their business everyone wants to be in

touch with you and and you're starting

to see it compound in that real estate

uh in the real estate sector and you're

gaining that specific knowledge that no

one else really has okay how AI ' got

the appraisal section now you're going

to go to maybe the property tax and

you're going to have this wide view of

everything in the OR at least at the at

The Cutting Edge of how AI can help real

estate so that's particularly what I'm

most excited about for you and I think

anyone who's looking to replicate the

success can also follow that same route

of starting whether that's Consulting

whether that's just starting a personal

brand and and doing so Consulting

initially like I did and then moving

into an agency and using that as a

vehicle to identify use cases and work

with multiple clients and as you've done

Niche down to it start a SAS whatever

you need to do um to really bounce to

pounce on that opportunity so looking

back on your past I guess it's been a

year and a bit in the space since you

started watching the videos um if you

could give advice to someone who

starting again maybe starting in your

position or just interested in getting

into the space as a whole um what would

you recommend to do um is there anything

that you learned along the way that

would be would have been a lot more

helpful if you had known it a bit

earlier I think one thing that's super

important is to validate something

before you go out and build and spend

all this time and and go into actually

building it out right there's no point

spending a year and a half or like

several months building out the super

complicated product that you think is

going to change the world because it

uses Ai and you go and talk to the

customers and no one wants it right you

gotta I mean even one of the guys I was

talking to he he had like a hardware

product he built like a a 3D printed

prototype that did not work took some

photos of it made like a fake video put

on Kickstarter raised 250 Grand in a

year to actually build out the product

right that's his validation he knows

it's worth it right and so there's

hundreds and hundreds of stories of

people like that that I've been exposed

to in the past couple months so talk to

your customers get Lois get an agreement

get something signed with them which

shows that they're interested which

shows that they have genuine need for

whatever you're building and then go out

and build it now with no Cod tools it's

actually super easy to make that initial

MVP you can go on voice flow and within

like 15 minutes even you can have a

super basic thing built up maximum like

2 hours if you want to add a little bit

more functionality onto it maybe use zap

here for some stuff as well so build out

a super basic MVP and go talk to whoever

you're wanting to talk to and the

biggest thing is um in my experience

Mass Outreach was not working as well as

personalized Outreach I think

personalization is is massive especially

with depending on which Niche you're

working in initially I was using

instantly I bought like three domains

like 10 nine or 10 different emails and

I was doing like 500 emails a month or

whatever blasting it out and there the

leads were just not engaged like if they

got on a call rarely did they get on a

call if they got on a call they're like

why should we talk to a random guy that

emailed us that is doing AI automations

right as opposed to when I selected a

niche tried to really go down into it in

in appraisals as well and start just

dming people with personalized messages

based off of their profile I had a

really interesting call with uh Nico on

the accelerator earlier on which which

was like we were super prepared going to

the knowing what we wanted to do and

during the call we booked a meeting with

one of the guys that I ended up also

signing as a client like a little bit

later on as well right and so being

personalized in your Outreach is super

important for getting those first couple

clients signed in and then once you

start seeing the the Stars line and the

dominoes are kind of falling in place

you just have to grind it out you have

to get into the rhythm of doing it again

and again and again and Building Systems

at that point which will scale which is

one of the things that I'm trying to do

right now as well is even like build a

team around myself that can scale so I'm

not needed to do every single thing uh

and yeah that's where I think you take

it from that stage to the next stage not

everyone has the same story that I had

not everyone has the same opportunities

I had obviously there's an aspect of

luck involved as well everyone has

different paths and different exposures

but as long as you have the same kind of

end goal in mind regardless of your path

I think you can find a way to to make it

happen sure yeah I think I remember

seeing you and the winds Channel and the

accelerator just like banging out like

win after win after I was like who the

hell is this ham kid abolutely crushing

but uh yeah so when it comes want to dig

a little bit deeper into their

personalized Outreach just so everyone's

100% clear on on what you're doing so

instead of getting a scraping a lead

list from somewhere and putting it in

blasting out Cod email and I guess at

that point when you were doing the Cod

email do you think it was ineffective

because you didn't have a were you doing

cold email and the messaging was built

around I've built this for someone else

and you actually had some kind of

evidence of it or was it more just I can

build you this would you be interested

so I think those are two different

phases of doing Cod Outreach right yeah

for sure I think at that St I'd only had

the internship experience and the stuff

I built for that but it was nothing for

a specific Niche like I was trying to

called Outreach to dentists and I hadn't

built anything for dentist I was trying

to C Outreach to Mother clinic and done

anything for them so it was more General

I was trying to like use GPT to write

personalized first lines but even with

that the the expense was up here and the

results were just not cutting it for

that in terms of personalization what it

really was is I had a lead list of let's

say 200 appraisers that I was connected

to un LinkedIn I started I just made a

profile really early on started just

connecting to people also I found it

strangely it was more successful

connecting when I didn't write a

connection message if I just send a

connection requests they accepted but

anytime they see a message because I

think you're trying to sell them

something exactly they think you're

trying to sell them something they don't

they don't accept it right and so I just

had like a basic profile on there with

some some like one post about real

estate appraisals or something like that

I just started connecting to people when

I had 30 40 connections then uh instead

of just like writing the same copy

pasted email uh DM to each person

me and Nico when we were on the call

together we went to their profile found

some of their recent posts comments or

things that they liked personalized a DM

specifically for them and sent that in

and then we started getting responses

way faster uh and so that was kind of

what led into it yeah yeah Nico's a wi

I'm so glad we got him on the team um

okay so personalized Outreach do you

think if you now moved it back to I mean

now you've kind of got this exclusivity

deal on the cards you think if you

switch back and and I don't know hopped

on called Nico and got this start in but

if you were to use the evidence you have

now and maybe you built up your LinkedIn

a bit more and you have more evidence to

show what you're doing and you laser

focused on just finding more appraises

or finding more real estate firms you

can talk to about potentially building

different stuff outside of the appraiser

space do you think you'd be getting a a

lot better results now with you Callo

for sure I think it makes sense right

now now we have the niche we have the

evidence we have the self the systems

built in and so it's natural that's the

way that uh reveals the the hardest part

about this whole thing and it's that's

finding your lane and as you took a

while to find that appraisal solution

this is the most difficult part for

anyone getting in we've only just niched

my agency down to education and coaching

solutions for for those kind of

businesses um it's not easy and I know

anyone watching this who's like I just

have no clue where to start with

this AI thing I don't even know what

tools to start working on I don't know

like how I'm going to get in touch with

people I I've got a bunch of videos I

put one up here wherever it is that's

the best one to started in terms of

narrowing down your scope of what you're

trying to learn I think a lot of

beginners get overwhelmed initially

thinking they have to do what flow and

then and then make and then zap here and

then air table and everything at once

and while it is good to know everything

at once if you can starting off just

with okay I'm just going to do voice

agents and voice agents is selling very

well right now we're seeing in the

school community and the accelerator as

well if you just narrow down to a

specific type of solution to start like

you did playing around with the during

the internship and getting familiar with

Mak zpp here um that narrows down the

scope of what you need to learn and that

will sort of lead you to being able to

make a certain set of solutions and from

there you can try to PCH those Solutions

or or find people who are interested in

them as well but it's that finding of

the thing which is is so difficult and

we rely primarily if you if you're

looking to get started and find your

first couple clients is warm Outreach is

the most important one I mean in your

case you are using some connections with

your your family that you didn't really

even know we doing appraises in the

states and then uh personal branding as

well so if you have warm connections

guys watching this warm connections are

your best chance and homasi has a great

podcast well I guess it's a section of

his audio book on warm reach CHS and the

strategy he recommends all of you if you

don't have your first couple clients you

don't have anyone you'll allow you to

get the experience like kza got in that

uh in that internship do that warm

Outreach strategy and try to find some

people in your network you may not even

think you have any but I promise you you

do and if that doesn't work then you go

to inbound personal branding and try to

build a personal brand around it so

there's my little strategy session for

the for the for the video um H H if

there's anything else on on that or

anyone getting started any advice you

give for them feel free otherwise we can

probably wrap things up yeah so friends

and family first that's how I got

started that's how virtually everyone

gets started cuz that's the niche that

you can have some competitive advantage

in right there's hundreds of people out

there that are even now doing AAA that

are trying different niches how do you

differentiate yourself being in the

niche of dental clinics from 10 other

guys are going to be in it you know

someone in that Niche right you know

someone in in there to get you started

which gets you in the door as soon as

your foot's in the door stuff will P up

from that point right that's the hardest

part so yeah go to friends and family

see see what happening there and then

get get on from that point onwards yeah

thanks for having me Liam it was a

pleasure talking to you yeah awesome

thank you for your time hza we uh well

myself and everyone else are so excited

for what you what you're doing man um uh

can't wait to maybe have another one of

these calls in in six months 12 months

from now and you've cut a deal and

you're making a whole bunch of money now

um I'm so excited to see how you go with

this real estate and AI Niche um because

there's so much potential there as you

know so uh looking forward to seeing you

on the channel again soon and if anyone

wants to get in touch with HS up more

importantly the whole point of these

interviews the main point is to be able

to get some exposure on on the people

who are doing great work in the space so

if any of you are doing great work in

the space you can try to get in touch

with me I might leave a a a form down

below if you want to apply for one of

these interviews and you think you got

something cool like Hamza but more

importantly hamza's details are going to

be down below so if you are interested

in real estate for AI or anything

related to real estate in AI or his

services or or working with them more

closely or you have an opportunity you

want to bring him in on then hum's

linked will be down in the description

and I really urge you all to reach out

to them um before you get snapped up by

someone else