Watch our session together: Zoom recording of Dennis + Sebastian building the plan.

The setup

Sebastian is 15. He plays football. He likes hard work and he likes money. That’s most of what I knew when we sat down together.

He’d just spent an afternoon jumping around a trampoline gym — which is the right metaphor for where his head is. Most adults treat fun and money like opposites. Kids his age usually pick one and feel guilty about the other. The whole point of being an entrepreneur is that you don’t have to choose. You can dunk on a trampoline and build a business in the same week.

The big idea

Sebastian is sitting on a niche almost nobody else has: he actually plays football AND he actually understands AI tools. Most football creators online are 30+ year-old dads who have never touched ChatGPT. Most AI-fluent teens don’t know a Cover 2 from a Tampa 2. He’s in the middle of a Venn diagram with almost nobody in it.

That’s his edge. Here’s the play we’re going to run with it: build a faceless short-form football channel — TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels — that uses AI to research, script, and produce 30-to-60 second videos about football. He doesn’t show his face. He doesn’t need money to start. His laptop is enough.

This is not “make $5K next month.” This is “build something so that when you’re 17 or 18, you have real options — not just the default high school → college → job path.” The goal isn’t to escape school. It’s to make sure school is your choice instead of your only choice.

Find his unfair advantage

Before we wrote a single line of plan, we asked four questions. They’re the same four I’d ask any 15-year-old who wanted to start something:

1. What do you know more about than most people your age? Not what’s trendy — what’s actually in your head.
2. How many hours a week, realistically, can you commit? 3 hours every week beats 10 hours once.
3. In-person hustle or online audience? Local cash now versus online empire later.
4. What gear and support do you already have? Laptop? Phone? A parent willing to sign things for you?

Sebastian’s answers cut a clean shape:

What he has	Why it matters
He plays football	He spots what’s fake. He knows what drills actually work. Authenticity is the #1 thing audiences reward.
He’s 15 and AI-fluent	He moves 10x faster than the 35-year-old “football guy” still figuring out how to make a thumbnail.
Limited time (3–5 hrs/week)	Forces him to ship simple, consistent content instead of overthinking. Short-form rewards exactly this.
Just a laptop	Every tool he needs is free. He’s not waiting on anything.

The business model — four phases

Pick the specific niche — pick ONE

Three solid angles. Pick the one that makes him most excited to make 5 videos this weekend. Don’t overthink — he can pivot in 60 days.

My pick for Sebastian: A or B. Start with whichever you’d watch yourself.

The 90-day plan

Month 1 — Foundation (≈12–16 hours total)

Week 1: Set up shop (3 hrs)

• Pick your niche (A, B, or C above). Commit.
• Pick a channel name. Use ChatGPT to brainstorm 20 names, pick the one that feels right.
• Create accounts: TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. Same handle on all three.
• Use Canva (free) + AI image gen to make a logo and banner.
• Write a one-sentence bio: “Daily football [insert your angle], built with AI.”

Week 2: Build your script engine (3 hrs)

• Sit with ChatGPT or Claude. Have it generate 20 video ideas in your niche.
• Pick your favorite 7. Have AI script them in 30-second voiceover format.
• Read each one out loud. Cut anything that sounds like a robot wrote it. Add your own voice.

Week 3: Make 5 videos (4 hrs)

• Download CapCut (free). Watch one 20-minute YouTube tutorial. That’s enough.
• Record voiceover with your laptop mic OR use ElevenLabs free tier for AI voice.
• Pull free b-roll from Pexels, Pixabay, or NFL highlights you remix under fair use guidance (keep clips short).
• Auto-caption everything (CapCut does it). Captions are non-negotiable on short-form.
• Post one video. Then a second the next day. Don’t wait for them to “do well” before posting the next one.

Week 4: Post daily, watch what works (3–5 hrs)

• Goal: 5+ videos posted this week. Quality < consistency right now.
• At the end of the week, look at which video has the best 3-second hold rate. That’s your signal — make more like it.

Month 2 — Consistency (≈12–16 hours total)

The whole month is one thing: don’t break the streak. Daily or 5x/week posting. No exceptions.

• Save 2 hours every Sunday to script and shoot 5 videos for the week. This is the only mandatory block.
• Pay attention to your top 3 videos every week. Steal from yourself.
• Apply for Amazon Associates (parent signs up — they’re the account holder, you run it).
• Drop one affiliate link in your bio: a piece of football gear you actually use.
• Start a free ConvertKit account. Add “Get my weekly football breakdown” link in bio. Just collect emails for now — don’t send anything yet.

Month 3 — Compound (≈12–16 hours total)

This is where most people quit because “it’s not working fast enough.” Don’t.

• Keep posting. Aim for 50+ videos total by month-end.
• Send your first newsletter email. Just one. Make it good. Then commit to weekly.
• Make a free PDF — “10 Drills Every HS Football Player Should Do” or “5 Mistakes Sophomores Make in Recruiting.” 1 page each, made with ChatGPT + Canva. Use it as a lead magnet to grow your email list faster.
• Reach out (via DM) to 2 small football brands (training apps, cleat brands, recovery products) saying “I have X followers, can I post your product in exchange for free product?” Don’t ask for money yet.

The free stack

Tool	What it’s for	Cost
ChatGPT (free) or Claude (free)	Video ideas, scripts, captions, hooks, brainstorming	$0
CapCut	Video editing, auto-captions, templates	$0
Canva	Logos, thumbnails, PDFs	$0
ElevenLabs (free tier)	AI voiceover if you don’t want to use your voice	$0
Pexels / Pixabay	Free b-roll footage	$0
ConvertKit (free under 1K subs)	Email newsletter	$0
Buffer (free)	Schedule posts across TikTok/YT/IG at once	$0
Google Sheets	Track every video’s views, every $ earned, every hour spent	$0
Notion (free)	Idea bank, content calendar	$0

Total monthly cost to start: $0. You don’t need to spend a dime for the first 90 days. If anyone tells you otherwise, they’re selling you something.

The Sebastian-at-15 reality check

Stuff nobody else will tell a 15-year-old entrepreneur straight.

On money and the law

• You can’t legally open Stripe, PayPal, or most payout accounts under 18 in your own name. Talk to your parent. They sign up, you run it. Be 100% clean and transparent with them — this is your unfair advantage, not a workaround.
• Amazon Associates, YouTube monetization, TikTok Creator Rewards — all need an adult on the account until you’re 18.
• Track every dollar. Even $3. Get a free spreadsheet going day one. When tax stuff matters in 2 years, past-you will thank present-you.

On time

• 3–5 hours a week is enough if it’s consistent. 10 hours one week and 0 the next is worse than 3 hours every week.
• The cheat code: batch. Sunday afternoon, script + shoot the whole week. Then 15 minutes a day to post and reply to comments. That’s it.
• Football and school come first. This works because you’re a real athlete and student — not despite it.

On “escaping” college or a job

• The honest reframe: you’re not escaping anything. You’re building options.
• The kid who builds an audience of 50K football fans by senior year has more college options (NIL!), more job options, and the option to skip both and run his own thing. The skill-building wins no matter which path you pick.
• Don’t quit school for this. Don’t even consider it. Stack both.

On quitting

• 90% of people who start this kind of thing quit between day 30 and day 60. The algorithm rewards almost nobody early. Then around video 40–80, something clicks for those who stayed.
• If you’re going to quit, quit now and pick a different game. If you start, commit to 90 days no matter what the numbers look like.

On safety

• Don’t put your last name, school, address, or your face in football gear with your school logo on your channel. “Faceless” includes “identity-less.” Your parents will be more supportive of all this if you handle the safety part proactively.

Understand what most people get wrong

The first ten videos will get embarrassingly few views. So will the next twenty. The algorithm rewards almost nobody early. About 90% of creators quit between day 30 and day 60. Then around video 40 to 80, something clicks for the ones who stayed.

This is the actual game. Not the niche, not the gear, not even the AI tools — those are table stakes now. The game is showing up after the first 86 videos each got 12 views and posting video #87 anyway. That’s the entire moat.

Sebastian told me he likes hard work. Good. That’s the only thing this requires that AI can’t do for him. It’s the same principle we teach in the BlitzMetrics Content Factory — reps, not magic.

His first 7 days, exact actions

If Sebastian does nothing else, he does this:

1. Tonight: Pick Option A, B, or C. Write it on a sticky note. Put it on your laptop.
2. Tomorrow: Open ChatGPT. Ask it to generate 30 video ideas in your chosen niche. Save the list.
3. Day 3: Pick 5 ideas. Have AI script them. Read them out loud, edit to sound like you.
4. Day 4: Make accounts (TikTok, YT, IG). Same handle. Use Canva to make a simple logo.
5. Day 5: Download CapCut. Watch a 20-min tutorial. Edit video #1.
6. Day 6: Post video #1. Then immediately start editing video #2.
7. Day 7: Post video #2. Tell one trusted adult what you’re building.

That’s it. The hardest part is video #1. Once you ship it, everything after is just reps.

If Sebastian wants to skip the solo grind

Here’s the honest part. The plan above works. I’ve watched it work for hundreds of young adults. But doing it alone — staring at video #15 with 11 views and wondering if any of this matters — is the hardest version of this game.

That’s why Dylan Haugen and I built the AI Builder Program at Local Service Spotlight. It’s a one-year apprenticeship for US-based young adults — high school juniors and seniors, college students, kids like Sebastian — who want to learn how to use AI to run real marketing for real local service businesses. The agency is you. The first client can be your parents’ business, your uncle’s HVAC shop, or one we give you.

Dylan and I sat down to walk through exactly how this works — who it’s for, what you build in your first 90 days, and how graduation isn’t a date on the calendar, it’s the day you demonstrate provable phone calls coming in at an acceptable cost per lead for a real client.

What the program actually is

• Weekly live group coaching every Thursday at 2 PM Pacific with me, Dylan, Jack Wendt, and rotating coaches.
• 140+ courses covering Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Google Business Profile, Maps Visibility, the Content Factory, AI agents, and everything in between — kept up to date as the tools change.
• An active Facebook group of 400+ AI Builders running 24/7. Someone’s always awake.
• A real client from day one. If you don’t have one, we give you one. Plumbing, roofing, HVAC, dental, landscaping — we know the cost-per-lead benchmarks in every category.
• In-person mastermind events — Vegas, DigiMarCon, our private seminars. The relationships are half the value.
• Weekly MAA reports (Metrics, Analysis, Action) due every Friday. Accountability is the whole point.

The proof: A-players who came through

None of these people are unusually smart. They’re committed. They show up. They submit the report on Friday. They run the playbook.

Who this is for

• US-based young adult — high school junior/senior, college student, recent grad.
• Can commit at least 5 hours a week.
• Self-motivated. Coachable. Resourceful. Not afraid of technology.
• Can communicate clearly on video — not Gary Vee live-streaming, just clear instruction and management.
• Wants to actually run marketing for a real local business, not just watch courses.

Who this is NOT for

• Anyone who needs babysitting, hand-holding, or permission before doing anything.
• People who give up the first time the UI changes.
• Complainers, excuse-makers, refund-askers.
• “Maybe I’ll try it for a week” people. Six-pack abs don’t come from one workout, and neither does this.

The bigger lesson

Sebastian said he likes football, hard work, and money. This plan is built around all three:

• Football is the niche.
• Hard work is the engine — there’s no shortcut, just shipping more videos than the next kid.
• Money is the scoreboard, and it’ll show up later than he wants it to.

The kids who win this game aren’t the smartest or the most talented. They’re the ones who post video #87 when video #1 through #86 got 12 views each. That can be Sebastian. That can be your kid.

For parents reading this

If you have a teen who’s hungry like Sebastian: don’t fund the dream. Don’t buy the course. Don’t pay for the camera. Make them prove they’ll show up for 90 days with what they already have. The kid who’ll do that with a $0 stack is the same kid who’d do it with a $5K stack. The kid who needs the $5K stack to start is the kid who won’t finish.

Your job is the legal scaffolding (Amazon Associates account, PayPal, eventually an LLC) and the safety guardrails. The hustle, the reps, the showing up at video #87 — that’s their job, and they have to want it. If they do, you’ll know within 30 days. And when they prove it — that’s when the AI Builder Program becomes the right next step. We don’t take kids who haven’t already shown they’ll show up. But the ones who do? We make them dangerous.

Sebastian — your first video is due Sunday. I want a link in my inbox by Monday morning. We’ll review video #15 together in 30 days. Go ship.