Lee Felican Jr.

New · 2026

The Big Balla's Guide to Making Money with AI

100 Ways to Turn AI Into Income — Side Hustles, Niche Markets & Businesses You Can Start for Under $50

100 real ways to make money with AI, sorted by what they cost to start and indexed by industry — plus AI trading for beginners and a bonus playbook for launching a legal business under $50. No hype: every number is sourced, every chapter ends in a checklist.

Free AI — assistants & run-it-yourself10

ChatGPT — the all-rounder free AI assistant. p. 26
Claude — shines at long documents and careful writing. p. 28
Gemini — Google's assistant, tied into Docs and Gmail. p. 28
Microsoft Copilot — assistant plus free image creation inside Windows/Office. p. 28
Meta AI — free assistant inside WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. p. 28
Ollama — run open AI models on your own computer, free and offline. p. 26
LM Studio — the point-and-click app for local AI models. p. 26
PocketPal AI — small AI models running right on your phone. p. 28
Google AI Essentials — free beginner AI course from Google. p. 31
Elements of AI — the famous free university AI course, zero math. p. 32

Agency-in-a-box, freelancing & data work7

GoHighLevel — the white-label platform behind the Chapter 4 side hustles. p. 34
Upwork — where AI skills earn a documented 40%+ hourly premium. p. 44
Fiverr — gig marketplace whose own price guide anchors chatbot pricing. p. 37
DataAnnotation — get paid by the hour to train AI models. p. 48
Outlier — expert-domain AI training work, paid hourly. p. 48
Zapier / Make / n8n — automate workflows without code. p. 86
Calendly — a booking link so clients schedule themselves. p. 38

Content, publishing & digital products12

Amazon KDP — self-publish ebooks and paperbacks for free. p. 63
beehiiv — newsletters with built-in paid subscriptions. p. 53
Substack — the other paid-newsletter home. p. 185
Etsy — sell printables and AI-art products (disclose AI use). p. 61
Printful / Printify — print-on-demand fulfillment. p. 65
Gumroad — sell digital products directly. p. 72
PromptBase — sell prompts; sellers keep 80%. p. 73
Notion — build and sell templates (the Thomas Frank play). p. 72
Canva — free-tier design for covers, social, and products. p. 30
CapCut — free video editing for short-form clipping. p. 51
Descript — edit audio/video by editing the transcript. p. 27
Audacity — the classic free audio editor. p. 31

AI phone agents & local-business services6

Rosie — AI receptionist from ~$49/mo. p. 69
Goodcall — AI phone agent for small businesses. p. 69
My AI Front Desk — white-label-friendly AI receptionist. p. 111
NextPhone — flat-rate AI business phone. p. 69
Smith.ai — human + AI receptionist hybrid. p. 187
Google Business Profile — the free local presence and reviews hub. p. 71

Trading with AI — paper money first, always11

TradingView — charts, screeners, and free paper trading. p. 129
Trade Ideas "Holly" — AI stock screening and scanning. p. 129
TrendSpider — automated technical analysis. p. 129
Composer — build & backtest strategies, no code. p. 129
QuantConnect — free algorithmic backtesting. p. 129
Cryptohopper / 3Commas — crypto bots (free tiers). p. 129–130
eToro CopyTrader — copy traders; past ≠ future. p. 130
thinkorswim paperMoney — $100K of fake money, free. p. 132
Webull paper trading — free practice account. p. 131
Interactive Brokers — $1M simulated account. p. 132
Investopedia Simulator — free practice plus the best free education. p. 131

Business setup & getting paid — the Bonus stack5

IRS.gov — free EIN — free and instant; never pay a middleman. p. 160
Novo / Bluevine — free business checking for sole proprietors. p. 161
Mercury — free business banking for LLCs. p. 161
Wave — free invoicing and simple bookkeeping. p. 140
Stripe / PayPal — payment links with card payments built in. p. 140

📖 The Big List (all 100 Ways) starts on p. 168 · The AI Platform Index on p. 180.

On Amazon

Don't Be Replaced

How Not to Lose Your Job to AI

A working person's plan for staying valuable in the AI era: know your real exposure, split your job into the routine 80% and the human 20%, and become the most AI-capable person on your team.

Free courses featured in the book6

Elements of AI — University of Helsinki's free AI course. p. 86
Google AI Essentials & Prompting Essentials — short and practical. p. 86
IBM SkillsBuild — AI Fundamentals — free course + free badge. p. 86
Microsoft + LinkedIn — Career Essentials in Generative AI — free certificate path. p. 86
DeepLearning.AI — AI for Everyone — Andrew Ng's non-technical classic. p. 86
freeCodeCamp — Machine Learning with Python — free, for going technical. p. 86

New-career doors3

DataAnnotation.tech — AI trainer and annotation work. p. 86
Scale AI — AI training careers. p. 86
IAPP AIGP — the AI governance certification. p. 86

📖 The full "Resources & Next Steps" section starts on p. 86 of the paperback — now a full-color interactive edition with illustrations throughout.

On Amazon

Stop Being Nice to AI

How to Talk to AI Like a Pro with the GRRRRR Method

The fast, practical guide to getting great results from any AI tool, built around the simple GRRRRR prompting method — the training manual for becoming the best AI user in the room.

The tools it trains you on4

ChatGPT — the GRRRRR method's home turf. pp. 41–47 & 91
Claude — same method, longer memory. pp. 41–47 & 91
Gemini — GRRRRR inside Google's world. pp. 41–47 & 91
Copilot — GRRRRR at the office. pp. 41–47 & 91

📖 The glossary and resources run pp. 87–94 of the paperback — now a full-color interactive edition with illustrations throughout.

On Amazon

The BIG AI Book

A Children's Guide to AI (For Grown-Ups)

AI made wonderfully simple: what it is, where it hides in your day, and how it works — explained with zero jargon in a fully illustrated, full-color storybook for grown-ups — including how to put AI to work as agents with skills and tools.

Every tool in the book9

ChatGPT — the friendly all-rounder that started the craze. p. 33
Claude — the thoughtful one; careful writing and long documents. p. 34
Gemini — the connected one, woven into Google's world. p. 34
Copilot — the office colleague inside Windows and Office. p. 34
Perplexity — the researcher that shows its sources. p. 34
Elements of AI — free University of Helsinki course; no math, no coding. p. 54
Google AI Essentials — short, practical, built for everyday work. p. 54
AI for Everyone — Andrew Ng's non-technical classic; audit free. p. 54
Career Essentials in Generative AI — free Microsoft + LinkedIn certificate path. p. 54

Author · Builder · Technologist for everyday people.

Lee writes about technology for the people it actually happens to — workers, parents, students, and small-business owners — with a simple rule carried across every book: the facts, framing, and final say are human. He uses AI the way he teaches readers to use it: as a powerful tool with a human firmly in the driver's seat.

4Books

100+Documented AI income paths

2AI companies

The Library

The Big Balla's Guide to Making Money with AI (2026) — 100 sourced ways to turn AI into income.
Don't Be Replaced — how not to lose your job to AI.
Stop Being Nice to AI — prompt like a pro with the GRRRRR method.
The BIG AI Book — a children's guide to AI (for grown-ups too).

Builder's Résumé

Founder — Private AI Global: secure, private enterprise AI deployed inside the client's own network.
Founder — Felican.ai: AI-powered platforms and websites for real businesses — commerce operations, dealership AI, client sites with built-in AI assistants.
Shipped: a white-label multi-tenant AI commerce platform, an AI assistant for auto dealerships, AI receptionists, newsletters, and small-business sites — all running in production.

Curriculum Vitae

LinkedIn → Download Full CV (PDF) →

Recognition

Top 10 AI Directors of 2026 — CIOReview — recognized among the year's most influential AI leaders driving transformative impact across regulated industries.
P.A.M.M. patent (granted) — Predictive Analysis Mobile Monitoring, custom AI algorithms licensed and distributed through engagement with Google — plus 4 patents pending in agentic AI, personalized AI delivery, AI-augmented case navigation, and intelligent intake.

Now

Director of Artificial Intelligence — Resolution Economics (2025–present): owns the firm-wide AI strategy for expert analysis in employment, wage-and-hour, and labor litigation — litigation-risk prediction, document classification, and AI systems built to withstand legal and adversarial scrutiny.

Career — nearly 30 years in technology

Binance — AI Cloud Solutions Architect (2020–2025): AI-driven blockchain gaming — LLM chains, RL, GANs, MLOps on hybrid AWS; 30% tech-debt reduction, 17% profit increase.
Resolution Economics — Sr. Technology Manager, Digital Forensics & Software Architect (2015–2020): forensic/eDiscovery tooling and the firm's earliest applied ML/NLP.
Dell — Chief Web & Mobility Architect (2013–2015): healthcare ICD-10 digital strategy, SOA on Azure/.NET.
Google — Senior Software Engineer (2012–2013): B2B mobile predictive-intelligence platforms; P.A.M.M. licensing and integration.
Nasdaq — Sr Software / Web Architect (2009–2011): financial-analysis application architecture.
Earlier: Liberty Power (architecture consultant) · US Gas & Electric (team lead) · Q Capital · Kellogg · U.S. Department of Defense (2003–2006, Level IV security clearance) · AT&T · American Express · Bank of America (1996–1999).

Education & Certifications

University of Bridgeport — Computer Science
MIT — AI Certification · AWS — Certified Cloud Architect · Google Cloud — Certified AI Specialist · TOGAF — Enterprise Architecture

Focus areas

AI strategy & governance (ISO/IEC 42001, NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act) · agentic AI & multi-agent orchestration · enterprise RAG · LLM fine-tuning · MLOps · zero-trust AI security (ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR) · building and mentoring AI teams.

The Operating Principle

"Nobody pays for AI. People pay for outcomes."

Every book and every product starts from the same place: what does the reader — or the customer — actually walk away with?

Get in touch

For consulting, speaking, or private-AI projects, reach out through privateaiglobal.com or felican.ai.

🔒 Private AI Global

Secure Enterprise AI Solutions — starting at $999.

Unlock the power of AI without sacrificing privacy: enterprise-grade private AI with zero data exposure, deployed securely inside your own network. Your documents, your models, your infrastructure — nothing leaves the building.

🎯 AI Coaching

Executive and team coaching that turns AI from a buzzword into a working habit — hands-on, role-specific, judgment-free.

⚙️ AI Automation

The boring, expensive work — intake, follow-up, documents, reporting — automated with AI and delivered as running systems, not slideware.

🏛️ AI Governance & Strategy

Enterprise AI strategy, ISO/IEC 42001 AI management systems, NIST AI RMF and EU AI Act readiness, model risk and bias auditing — led by a director who does this for regulated industries.

🤖 AI Agents

Multi-agent systems that actually take actions — with tool use, guardrails, confirmation steps, and observability designed in from day one.

📈 AI Trading Bots

Research, backtesting, and automation infrastructure for algorithmic trading — engineered honestly: paper-tested first, risk-managed always, never a "guaranteed returns" pitch.

💻 AI Software Development

Custom AI-powered software end-to-end — from RAG knowledge systems to full platforms — built by the team behind Felican.ai's production products.

Visit privateaiglobal.com →

⚡ Felican.ai

AI-powered platforms for real businesses — the done-for-you side of the books.

White-label, multi-tenant AI commerce & operations platform — inventory, marketing, finance, and an AI assistant that takes action.
Felican AI for Dealerships — AI that answers, books, and follows up for auto dealers.
Business websites & AI receptionists — get found, answer every call, capture every lead.

Visit felican.ai →

Both companies practice what the books preach: outcomes first, honest pricing, and humans in the driver's seat.

100% Free

AI From Absolute Zero

For people who know nothing about AI — and would like to keep the "no math, no jargon" energy.

Seven short lessons that take you from "what even is AI?" to a daily habit — every lesson ends with a 5-minute task you actually do, and the whole course lives free on one page.

7 Lessons ~1 Hour Free

Start Free Course →

Course

Vibe Coding: Build Real Things with AI

For would-be builders with ideas and zero coding background — no CS degree, no bootcamp.

Direct AI coding assistants to build real apps, sites, and tools: idea → prompt → working version → debugged → live on the internet → maybe even sold. Includes a full free preview lesson.

8 Modules ~6 Hours $49

See the Course →

Course

AI at Work: The Professional's Edge

For professionals who want their current job to take half the time and look twice as sharp.

Audit the routine 80% of your job, hand it to AI safely and compliantly, and become the AI person on your team — email, meetings, documents, data, and recurring reports. Free preview lesson included.

8 Modules ~5 Hours $79

See the Course →

Free · Monthly · Six Cities

The Free AI Seminar

Real talk about AI from someone who builds it for a living. In two and a half hours, Lee Felican Jr. — Director of AI, four-time AI author, and CIOReview Top 10 AI Director of 2026 — shows you what AI actually is, how to put it to work at your job, and how everyday people are turning it into income.

No hype, no jargon, no sales pitch. It's completely free and everyone is welcome — but seats are limited, so register early.

Second Saturday of every month · 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Houston skyline in ink-black and gold — The Free AI Seminar, Houston

Saturday, August 8, 2026 · 10:00 AM

Houston, TX

The series kicks off in Houston — a city that runs on energy, medicine, and space, three industries AI is rewriting right now. Be in the room where it starts.