🥃 Robots on the rocks: While bourbon brands collapse left and right, two Kentucky vets just opened Whiskey House, a five-story robot-run distillery that tracks 1,500 sensors per barrel. They make whiskey for everyone else’s labels, like a ghostwriter with a drinking problem. The crazy part? Only seven people run the whole plant. The story about it is really interesting (paywall link).
Holiday cash: How to create & sell T-shirts without ever touching inventory
ChatGPT
Let’s talk T-shirts. Not the boring kind. I’m talking about clever, seasonal, giftable shirts people actually want to buy.
Whether it’s a “Dear Santa, I Can Explain…,” “Sleigh My Name, Sleigh My Name” or “Resting Grinch Face” tee, custom tops make great holiday gifts. And thanks to AI and print-on-demand, you can start a T-shirt side hustle from your couch.
No design skills, inventory or shipping labels required. Yes, really.
🧠 Step 1: Brainstorm ideas
Start with a tool like ChatGPT to generate concepts and slogans. Prompt it like “Give me 15 funny Christmas T-shirt ideas for dads.”
Want niche ideas? Ask for Christmas wear for gamers, teachers, dog moms or pickleball fans. AI is a gold mine of clever copy.
🎨 Step 2: Use AI art tools
Use Canva, Kittl or DALL·E to design a shirt graphic. You can even generate original art like “a cool cartoon Santa lifting weights” or “retro-style gingerbread cookies doing yoga.”
Keep your designs clean and high-contrast. Save as PNG files with a transparent background and 300 DPI resolution.
🛍️ Step 3: Make money
Upload your design to platforms. They list the items for sale, print the design on the item, ship it, collect the taxes, and the rest. You make the money.
- Amazon Merch on Demand: You earn $2 to $8 per shirt, depending on the sale price and type (standard, premium, long sleeve, etc.). It’s on Amazon Prime, which boosts visibility during the holiday shopping season.
- Redbubble and TeePublic: Set your own profit margin. Most creators make $3 to $10 per sale.
- Etsy + Printful: Combine AI art with Etsy traffic. After production and fees, you’ll typically earn $5 to $15 per shirt, depending on your pricing and upgrades (like organic cotton). Btw, this is how I run my Etsy store that, wow, needs love. I promise to work on it!
We may earn a commission from purchases, but our recommendations are always objective.
Shutter showdown: Stock vs. AI photos
ID 324976990 | Ai © Svetlana Diacenco | Dreamstime.com
I love making AI-generated pics. I’ve spent hours tinkering with prompts to see what I can dream up. But here’s the big question I get from business owners: Do AI images or good old-fashioned stock photos work better in marketing? Let’s put them head-to-head.
$1.4 million
That’s monthly profit for an 18-year-old who still lives like a frat star. Zach Yadegari launched Cal AI from his parents’ house, hired 30 staffers and now makes more in a month than most professors earn in a decade. At 18, I was debating ramen flavors. Now he’s debating multigenerational wealth tax strategies.
🌟 Get the best for free: If you’re building your team, this is the perfect time. The best candidates are on LinkedIn right now. With my link, you can post a job for free. Go get your next superstar!
“Help me schedule”: That’s Gmail’s new AI feature that makes setting up meetings easier. Hit the button in your toolbar, and Gemini checks your Google Calendar and the email’s context to figure out what you need (like a 30-minute slot next week). It then suggests times you can drop right into your reply. It’s rolling out to Workspace customers, AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers.
🍥 Bun believable: What started as one woman selling her grandma’s cinnamon buns turned into Mav’s Top Buns, a New Jersey bakery that’s pulled in over $1 million and sold 500,000 buns in a year, all thanks to social media. No ads, no investors, just gooey carbs with a “bake it and post it” philosophy. This was a dangerous story to write at lunchtime.
Paying too much for cloud services? Check this out. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, is built for speed, power and serious savings, without the usual cloud headaches. That’s why some of the biggest AI innovators trust it. Try it for free right now.
Compare docs the easy way: Collabing in Google Docs can get messy fast. Skip the side-by-side chaos of spotting changes manually. Instead, go to Tools > Compare documents and select the other file. Google creates a new doc with deletions crossed out and additions highlighted. Lifesaver.
🔥 Email land mines: Your emails might feel polite, but phrases like “per my last email” or “thanks in advance” can make you sound like a corporate arsonist. Executive coaches say these slipups read passive-aggressive, erode trust and cost promotions. The fix? Cut the fluff, set clear asks and maybe stop accidentally weaponizing your correspondence.
Running a business isn’t easy: More than 42,000 companies trust NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud ERP. It brings accounting, finances, inventory and HR together in one platform. Download the FREE “CFO’s Guide to AI and Machine Learning” today!
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Paper jammed in your printer? Open the back panel and gently pull the paper in the same direction it feeds. Pulling backward can damage the rollers.
$50,000
That’s the max cash author James Patterson is handing authors to finally hit “The End.” Some people buy yachts. Patterson funds novels. Each of the 12 authors out of hundreds of applications snagged up to $50K to finish their book, basically the literary version of a no-excuses gym membership.
Paying too much for cloud services? Check this out. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or OCI, is built for speed, power and serious savings, without the usual cloud headaches. That’s why some of the biggest AI innovators trust it. Try it for free right now.
💭 What if the fastest, most powerful cloud also cost way less? Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) packs the speed, muscle and big-league savings the smartest companies swear by, minus the usual cloud drama. See what the buzz is about, and try it free today.
Accepting faxed résumés: Job hunting’s turned into a cat-and-mouse game with AI. Résumés look polished, cover letters sound the same, and employers can’t tell who’s real. So they’re ditching the bots, asking for paper résumés, surprise in-person tests and even flying people out. If you’re job hunting, showing real human effort will beat the AI polish.
Hiring? Don’t waste time on the wrong candidates. LinkedIn connects you with qualified pros fast. Right now, you can post your job for free. Tap into the world’s largest professional network and find your next great hire today!
📉 Debt end job: You ever feel like your job is draining you one unread email at a time, but you can’t leave because … bills? There’s a new term for that: “quiet cracking.” You’re not quitting. You’re just there. Fatigue, disconnection, stuck in place. A lot of folks feel the same. PSA: If work feels like it’s draining you, remember, bills need paying, but so do you. Take five. Breathe.
Add GIFs to your presentations: In Google Slides, go to Insert > Image > Stock & web. A panel will pop up on the right of your screen. Select GIFs, search for the one you want and click it. Your spicy meme will drop into the current slide, ready to resize and move wherever you want. Nice.
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