You know Claude. You're probably pretty good at it. But you're not making money from it yet — and you're watching people talk about multi six figures thinking what do they know that I don't?
I'll tell you exactly what it is. It's not a secret tool. It's not a better prompt. It's not a bigger audience.
It's the order.
Nobody teaches the path to making money with Claude in the right sequence. They teach the tools, the prompts, the hacks — not the order you do them in. Get the order wrong and you'll work yourself into the ground and make nothing. I know, because I nearly did.
There are four phases. Each one only works because the one before it already happened. This post is about the sequence — if you want the broader business build, I've written separately on building an AI consultancy from scratch. This one is specifically about why the order is the whole game.
Phase one: free workshops (the part everyone skips)
This is the phase that feels backwards, so most people never do it. When I started I had no proof, no testimonials, no audience, no case studies — and therefore nobody willing to pay me, even though I knew AI well.
What I did have: I understood Claude better than most people in my world, and I could explain it without making anyone feel stupid.
So I ran free online workshops. Showed up, taught, gave loads of value. And something I didn't expect happened — people started sliding into my DMs asking me to set this up for their actual business.
That's the whole trick. A free workshop isn't you working for free forever. It's you building trust at speed — and trust is the only thing that converts when everyone's drowning in AI overwhelm. Pick one thing you know how to do in Claude, teach it on Zoom or a live, and send people away with one to three things to implement. That's it.
If you're at zero right now, run one this week.
Phase two: consulting (where the money starts)
After the workshops, I told people they could work with me further through consulting. And people were already asking — not for a free session, but "can you look at my business and I'll pay you for it?"
Here's what I want you to hear: you don't need to be the world's leading AI expert. You need to be one step ahead of the person asking. Most business owners haven't even opened Claude. They're copying random prompts off Reddit and wondering why the output is garbage.
I packaged my STACK method — strategy, tools, automations, checkpoints — into 90-minute sessions. They started at $400. They're up to thousands now, because I've got case studies and testimonials behind me. At one stage I was doing 10k months from consulting alone, one person, no team.
And consulting feeds the next phase without you trying — every client problem becomes a piece of content.
Phase three: content (running the whole time)
I ran content alongside everything else from the start, because you have to build audience in parallel — not after.
This is where most people quit. My content didn't blow up overnight. I started with 158 followers in January one year, and had 2,000 the next. I made videos that got 200 views and felt like a failure. I kept going anyway.
Content is how you build trust at scale without hiring a team. Every workshop became email marketing and short clips. Every consulting insight became a reel. Every new thing I figured out, I shared publicly. Sixty thousand followers now — I started from zero, posting consistently, getting specific.
And specificity mattered. I wasn't talking about "AI" in general. I was talking to women in business, without the jargon. Own a corner, show up in it, and the right people find you.
Phase four: membership (last, never first)
I did not start here, and I don't recommend you do either. If you launch a membership before you've done phases one to three, you'll quit it within six months. I can almost guarantee it.
A membership only works when people already trust you and you have audience — because it's a volume game. Five people at $50 a month is $250, and the work for five is the same as the work for fifty. That won't pay you well. If you can get paid consulting gigs for thousands, start there.
My membership exists because I'd already proven the concept — run the workshops, done the consulting, built the audience — and people kept asking "can I keep learning from you?" The membership was the answer to a question my audience was already asking.
The quick version
- It's not the tools or the prompts — it's the ORDER
- Phase 1: free workshops → trust + proof + email list
- Phase 2: consulting → real money, one client at a time
- Phase 3: content → runs the whole time, builds trust at scale
- Phase 4: membership → only once the audience is there to hold it
This isn't get-rich-quick. It's get-paid-well-for-what-you-already-know. Businesses are desperate for AI help right now. If you know Claude, you're sitting on something real.
FAQ
What's the right order to make money with Claude?
Free workshops first (build trust and an email list), then consulting (your fastest real income), then content running the whole time (audience at scale), and a membership or product last — only once you have an audience to sustain it. The order matters more than the tools.
Why shouldn't I start with a membership?
A membership is a volume game — the work for five members is the same as for fifty, so a handful of sign-ups pays badly and the energy fizzles. It only works after people already trust you and you have an audience, which phases one to three build.
Do I need a big audience to make money with Claude?
No. Consulting needs zero audience — it comes from workshops and word of mouth. You need to be one step ahead of the person paying you, not the world's leading expert. Audience matters for the later phases, not the first paying client.
If you want to walk this exact path with support — alongside other women founders building the same thing, with the whole sequence laid out — come and join us inside the Wright Mode membership.
