Many entrepreneurs and small business owners are still unsure about how to effectively leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to grow their companies. However, Chris Winfield, owner of brand coaching firm Super Connector Media, recently shared how teaching business owners how to use AI tools helped him earn over $2.7 million in revenue in just half a year.
Winfield's story demonstrates the immense money-making potential of AI for business owners who implement it strategically both internally and as part of their customer offerings.
Backstory
Chris Winfield founded Super Connector Media in 2018 with his partner Jen Gottlieb. The company focuses on PR, branding, and coaching for entrepreneurs. Winfield had worked in PR for eight years before starting Super Connector Media. However, he shared that running a PR agency was never his ultimate passion.
In 2021, Winfield began experimenting with early AI content creation tools like Jasper and Copy.AI. He realized these tools could generate marketing copy and emails for his brand with just text prompts.
Winfield recalls feeling amazed at the possibilities of AI tools:
"For every hour I spent learning ChatGPT, it felt like I got 40 hours back. I had never used anything that could give me results that quickly."
As more advanced AI systems like DALL-E and ChatGPT emerged in 2022, Winfield became enthralled. He saw the potential for these tools to revolutionize workflows and business processes.
With extra time after selling his PR agency, Winfield devoted himself to deeply learning ChatGPT and other AI systems as they launched.
Teaching Other Business Owners about AI
As Winfield mastered new AI tools, he realized many entrepreneurs felt overwhelmed and behind on AI adoption. They needed guidance on practical use cases. To help other business owners overcome their AI fears and integration challenges, Winfield and Gottlieb launched their Understanding AI project and began selling online courses and challenges focused on AI applications.
They promoted these AI training products through email lists, social media, and paid advertising on Meta's platforms. The initial investment in Facebook and Instagram ads was $25 000.
The AI challenges took off in popularity, with over 40 000 people purchasing them over 8 months. Winfield and Gottlieb brought in six figures in revenue just from the AI challenges.
For customers who wanted more in-depth training after completing a challenge, Winfield offered AI masterclasses and coaching programs. These premium products ranged from the low four figures to the low five figures in price.
The AI masterclasses and coaching sessions teach entrepreneurs how to build profitable personal brands and online businesses faster with AI.
Winfield's strategic approach to teaching AI directly to other business owners allows him to capitalize on the AI hype and confusion in the market. By positioning himself as an AI expert, he significantly grew his customer base and revenue.
Using AI in His Business to Boost Productivity
A key component of Winfield's success was not only selling AI courses but extensively implementing AI tools within his own business. He used ChatGPT to generate upwards of 80% of his blog posts, emails, and other marketing content. This allowed him to scale his content production exponentially.
Winfield also utilized AI meme creation tools like Supermeme to improve his ads. The meme-style ads reduced cost per click by 72% compared to previous ad campaigns.
For his sales process, Winfield invested in an AI sales assistant called WooSender. This tool automatically follows up with prospective customers and books sales call appointments. WooSender had an immense impact on revenue. After deploying the AI sales assistant, Winfield nearly doubled sales for his next product launch.
In addition to the AI sales assistant, Winfield used a tool called Chorus to analyze and optimize sales call recordings. Chorus detected areas for improvement in his sales script that helped boost conversion rates.
By combining excellent sales and marketing automation with high-quality AI-generated content, Winfield was able to scale his business dramatically. His investments in AI tools gave him an advantage over competitors still relying solely on human efforts.
The Compounding Benefits of Teaching and Using AI
In total, after aggressively adopting AI both internally and as external training products, Winfield earned over $2.7 million in revenue in just 6 months. He expanded his team from 8 to 17 people to handle the growth driven by AI systems. The addition of roles like sales, ads, customer support, and more helped maximize the value from AI tools.
For other business owners, Winfield emphasizes starting small with one AI tool that can make a measurable difference. Over time, you can build an AI stack that completely transforms your productivity and efficiency.
Winfield's advice is to stay focused on high-impact AI use cases that save you time or generate significant new revenue. Avoid "shiny object syndrome" and only learn tools that will clearly benefit your business or customers.
The combination of leveraging AI internally while also training others on practical uses is a proven formula for rapid growth. Winfield more than doubled his revenue in half a year by providing high-value AI education and integrating automation.
Key Takeaways from Winfield's Journey
To summarize the key lessons from Winfield's incredible AI-powered business growth:
- Look for early opportunities to incorporate AI tools into your workflows to free up time and increase productivity. Start with content creation and data analysis.
- Position yourself as an AI expert by teaching others how to adopt AI through online courses, challenges, and coaching. Capitalize on interest and confusion around AI.
- Promote AI educational products through email lists, organic and paid social media, and influencer partnerships. Offer varying price points.
- Use AI internally for sales, marketing, and other processes to boost efficiency. Tools like ChatGPT, WooSender, and Chorus optimize content and sales.
- Achieve exponential growth by combining internal AI adoption and selling external AI training products. Automate and teach.
- Don't get distracted by too many shiny new AI tools. Carefully select and commit to platforms with proven business benefits.
Chris Winfield's approach shows how becoming an AI power user and educator can significantly increase revenues and growth. Business owners should follow his blueprint to leverage AI and build a future-proof company.
Conclusion
AI adoption among entrepreneurs and small businesses is still in the very early stages. However, pioneers like Chris Winfield are showing the massive financial upside of getting ahead of the curve on AI tools. Both using AI internally and teaching others how to implement it can drive profits and growth for modern companies. As Winfield demonstrated, even deploying basic AI tools in a few key areas can make an enormous difference.
Business owners who delay integrating artificial intelligence into their operations risk falling behind. Taking an AI-first approach like Winfield allows you to tap into new opportunities and dramatically expand your business.
The future competitive marketplaces will be defined by those who strategically leverage AI to boost productivity, marketing, sales, and more. Follow Winfield's advice to position your company today to fully benefit from everything AI has to offer.
