Hey there,
When I launched The AI Consultancy Project two and a half years ago, I told my own story – how I got serious about my business, built the systems to bring in high-quality clients, and went from just-getting-by to thriving – so I could spend more time with my wife and son.
Today, my story is just one of hundreds of success stories from the AI Consultancy Project.
Enrollment for The AI Consultancy Project – our program for consultants and owner-operators to engineer ROI with AI using the PROOF Process™ – closes tonight at 11:59 PM Pacific. This is the last email I’ll send about it for this cohort.
Story Time: Me, 14 years ago in Washington, DC…

Flash back to 2010. The Rob you’re looking at there was making $50K a year as a solo developer and lovestruck for the woman sitting next to him. They didn’t have much – a one-bedroom apartment between the two of them and a daily routine.
She’d go off to work at a DC accounting firm. He’d work remotely from the kitchen countertop.
It wasn’t much, and yet, I felt like I had it all. I knew she was the one for me, and I was determined to create a life we’d always be grateful for.
As for what that looked like…well, if anything, I had a much better idea of what I didn’t want:

❌ 60-80+ hour work weeks that kept us apart.
❌ Saying no to vacations because I had to “put in extra weekend work.”
❌ To become an “absent” dad and partner who, even when in the room, was “away in his head at work.”
❌ Having zero time or energy to give back to the causes we cared about.
❌ Scraping by to make ends meet, constantly stressed about what came next.

I was willing to do whatever it took to not end up like this.
I wanted more.
Back then, I was also $20,000 in credit-card debt. Then, just one year later, I made $175K – that 3.5X jump happened because I decided to stop ‘fucking around with freelancing’ and finally get serious.
(btw, all the client and consultancy skills + systems I built back then are part of the Trusted Advisor Skills Engine™ inside the program – 16 years later, they’re still relevant, even with AI.)
And after over a decade of ‘figuring it out’, I can say this…

Now: I have more time to date my wife (and hang with our son)

Fast forward to today and life looks very different.
My smile is even wider than the first pic because hey, the love of my life became my wife, and we have a son who knows he’s loved by both his parents.
That dream life we envisioned in our first apartment?
After years of choosing ‘the path less traveled’, it became a reality: I built a $2M/year service freedom business.
One that allows me to do things like:

Date my wife all over again at our old date spots
Take father-son trips to hang out with Pokémon in Japan
“Bucket-list family trips” to places like Antarctica

I’m talking about the kind of freedom where I take my wife to revisit all our old date spots, while taking my son to tour the Smithsonian museums, and capping it all off with a family beach trip to Delaware.
Great times… and whenever I get back to my home office, there is NO mountain pile-up of work – my systems and team take care of it.
Email?
Done in less than 1 hour.
Instead of feeling chained to the chair on a Monday, I’m thankful for everything that got done while I was away.
It’s interesting… because I’ve had friends who were paid just as well, even more so, but they rarely had all of what I call the Four Freedoms:

Freedom of Time: Spend your days on things that matter – whether that’s work, family, or exploring something new.
Freedom of Money: Build stability for yourself and your loved ones while enjoying the life you’ve worked for.
Freedom of Relationships: Surround yourself with people who uplift you and align with your values.
Freedom of Purpose: Live a life that’s meaningful to you, whether through your work, loved ones, or giving back.

When I started this program, I was my own best example of all four. After 1,400+ students over two-and-a-half years, my story is basically no big deal 