GUEST · EP 078 ROURKE SEFTON-MINNS
Rourke Sefton-Minns
Social media creator and founder of Gen HQ
On Fast Hours August 14, 2026
He Built an 8 Figure AI Business in One Year
ft. Rourke Sefton-Minns
Rourke Sefton-Minns, founder of Gen HQ, tells Drew Brucker and Rory Flynn how he scaled his AI creator business from zero to eight figures and twelve employees in one year, after failed ski-vlog and documentary channels, a stint selling real estate, and 420 straight days of Photoshop tutorials. He argues finding a paying client matters more than mastering any tool, and details brand partnerships now worth $350-600K a month plus a new AI job marketplace.
- Rourke's rule for beginners: find the paying client and signed contract first, then learn the tool — don't wait until you feel ready.
- His 90-day playbook: make two commercials a week for three months (24 videos), post each with a 'how I made this' LinkedIn write-up.
- Brand every spec ad with 'made on [tool]' and apply to that company's creative-partner program for subsidized credits once you've built a track record.
- Connect with a target brand's employees on LinkedIn before you post spec work about them, so it can get shared internally before you even reach out.
Rourke Sefton-Minns, on the record
“Nobody, even at the highest level in this space, nobody knows what they're doing. The only way you can fail is by not trying.”
“I'm much more in favor of doing the hard part first. Find the bloody client first, get the paycheck like a contract signed, then figure out how the hell to do it, right?”
“We spend roughly around forty thousand a month on ads on Meta right now for our education platform alone, and we are not growing in members. We're actually going backwards in members.”