Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets to Monetizing Knowledge in the Age of AI

Full video transcript

Just because you could make money doing something doesn’t mean you should do it. You should really talk to people, make sure they want it and think it’s a good idea to pursue.

The panel opens with the moderator framing the goal: to equip viewers with actionable insights on leveraging their own knowledge for entrepreneurship, innovation, and societal impact. The panelists introduce themselves: Tyrese, a community member who built her own AI tools to help with job searching; Mike Chya, co-founder of Pickaxe, which helps knowledge entrepreneurs monetize their knowledge by making it easy to create AI apps; Shelley Burman Rubera, who brings years of business development, consulting, and coaching experience; and Travis Rosser, CEO and founder of TapMender, co-founder of Kajabi, and author of “You Inc.”

Asked what distinguishes knowledge entrepreneurship from traditional entrepreneurship, Mike says it’s taking knowledge or expertise and turning it into a product or venture other people can buy, starting with online courses and now increasingly AI products like chatbots that embody a microservice of your knowledge. Travis says he stumbled onto knowledge entrepreneurship by accident: before Kajabi, knowledge entrepreneurs sold information through DVDs and TV commercials. Since Kajabi launched, its customers have made billions of dollars selling their knowledge. He frames it as combining information with real-world experience, and calls Pickaxe the next evolution of that same idea, turning knowledge into software rather than just courses. Shelley says she doesn’t see much difference between a knowledge entrepreneur and any entrepreneur, other than a stronger orientation toward societal change, comparing it to “cause marketing.” Tyrese clarifies with an example: a traditional travel agent books trips for a one-time commission, while a knowledge entrepreneur like a travel blogger turns their own experience into courses and guides that spare others the same pain points.

On staying current in a fast-moving market, Mike splits knowledge entrepreneurs into two groups: those already selling knowledge (courses, consulting, coaching) who should spend more time with clients to uncover new areas of value, and those who haven’t yet figured out how to sell what they know but have rich life experience to draw on. He recommends reading newsletters, attending summits, socializing, and experimenting with AI, since large language models are well suited to scaling knowledge work.

Travis explains he built Kajabi without fully understanding his customers until he interviewed hundreds of “Kajabi Heroes,” which led him to write “You Inc.” He breaks knowledge down into four categories: profession (what you’re good at), passion (what you do for fun), a problem you’ve overcome, and pain you’ve been through, which is often the hardest to monetize but the most powerful, since knowledge entrepreneurs frequently solve a problem for themselves before teaching others to solve it. He notes that unlike physical products, there’s no manufacturing, inventory, or shipping. His advice is to start by sharing for free on social media, since helping people builds goodwill and connection, and monetization can follow once you understand what people are willing to pay for.

Shelley says the biggest difference now versus 10-20 years ago comes down to commitment and discipline, and describes her own effort to separate from screens (preferring physical books over a Kindle) to stay grounded. Tyrese describes building a resume and cover letter app after being laid off in February, realizing how much wasted time job seekers spend on individual applications, and recognizing that a pain point she felt personally was likely shared by other unemployed people.

Asked where technology is having the most impact for new entrepreneurs, Mike says the barrier to participating in the digital economy used to be knowing how to code; the trend industry-wide, and specifically what Pickaxe enables, is making it possible to launch digital products with no code, reaching a global audience. On balancing commercial success with positive impact, Mike says the two aren’t opposed as long as you keep listening to buyers, stay honest, and remember that just because AI lets you scale something doesn’t mean you should, cautioning entrepreneurs to validate ideas with real people before building. He also advises putting your face on the product rather than staying anonymous, since personal brand builds the “know, like, trust” factor that drives business.

Travis addresses the discomfort some new entrepreneurs feel about charging money: helping for free first builds “karma” and practice, but undervaluing your knowledge is a real risk, and feedback and success stories (people telling him Kajabi changed their financial lives) validate that the value being delivered justifies the price, similar to how universities charge per course unit. He stresses authenticity and integrity, including generous refund policies, and shares a story about a customer who taught lawn care on video and received a message from someone who said the videos pulled them out of a dark place and into a new business.

Kelly, joining partway through, speaks about supporting aspiring knowledge entrepreneurs as an educator: the biggest obstacle is impostor syndrome, the feeling of “who am I to teach this.” She shares a story from her early teaching career, when she taught sixth-grade earth science just two chapters ahead of her students despite not being a scientist, and says everyone can teach something even without deep expertise, as long as they know a little more than the person they’re helping.

On success metrics, Tyrese and Mike both say the strongest signal isn’t hard numbers but people following through on advice, seeing results, and coming back to say thank you. Shelley emphasizes referrals and repeat clients returning after years, and names integrity as the most important KPI, given how often small businesses get taken advantage of by low-quality services. Travis offers a three-part formula for monetization: can you create a product, do people want it, and will they pay for it, illustrated with a story about a pet photographer who pivoted from teaching photography skills to teaching people how to start their own pet photography business.

On future trends, Kelly expects platforms to consolidate into all-in-one tools rather than requiring a stack of separate apps. Mike flags three trends: growing comfort with chat interfaces for finding information, an explosion in AI-generated media (image, video, and text) across social platforms, and a coming “crisis of citation and facts” that will make sourcing and verification increasingly important. Tyrese and Shelley both point to a broader crisis of loneliness and isolation, predicting demand for hybrid models that pair AI tools with real human community, alongside a renewed need for basic business and speaking skills.

Travis shares success stories, including a woman he met who made $600,000 selling online music courses through Kajabi after struggling with an earlier, harder-to-use platform, and describes his own approach of following whatever seems interesting or frustrating to him as a way to find business opportunities. Kelly highlights people leaving 9-to-5 jobs to build their own businesses using tools from panelists like Mike and Travis. Mike shares a story about a Pickaxe user who built a small side business advising on financial independence and geographic arbitrage, starting from personal curiosity. Tyrese credits Mike’s hands-on customer support in helping her get her resume app onto Pickaxe. Shelley describes a partnership with Constant Contact where she co-hosted a paid event that converted 123 attendees into signed members and generated 23 new clients for her, framing it as an example of combining someone else’s audience with your own expertise.

Closing the panel, each guest offers one piece of advice. Travis says the biggest blocker for knowledge entrepreneurs is simply not starting, and recommends finding a partner if you’re stuck, then testing pricing by asking people what they’d pay before building anything. Kelly advises being adaptable as needs and products change over time. Mike says to socialize, since humans want contact with other humans and community-building, online or off, is where customers and mentors are found. Tyrese advises starting with one core idea and building outward rather than overwhelming people with everything at once. Shelley closes with a personal note about commitment and accountability, sharing a quote her late father left her: “sorrow in proportion to thy efforts will be thy recompense.” Asked what question wasn’t asked, Travis adds that entrepreneurs need to be lifelong self-educators, take time to reflect on what they learn, and choose which “wave” of opportunity to ride rather than trying to control all of them.