I built this business on night shifts, with no tech background and no shortcuts
Before AI, I tried digital marketing — done-for-you courses, my own products. I wrote an ebook. I sold one copy. I was proud of it, and still nowhere near the life I wanted for my children.
Friends who were already into AI and automation kept telling me to get into the space. I didn't even know what a chatbot was. My first attempt at GoHighLevel was a mess — I didn't understand what I was looking at, and I told my friend I'd never touch it again. She kept pointing me back to it anyway, this time to a free community on Skool with simple, step-by-step training. I practiced. I got things wrong. I tried again.
All of this happened while I was still working night shifts as a nurse — twelve hours at a time, then home to my children, running on empty, barely looking after myself. I wasn't chasing a hobby. I was trying to build a second income so my kids wouldn't grow up watching me live paycheck to paycheck the way I had.
As I got better, I started teaching other women what I'd learned — free workshops, no gatekeeping. That's what led to my first client: someone who'd seen the value I was giving away for free and referred me to a business owner who needed AI systems built. That referral became Malaika AI Agency. I'm still doing the cold outreach, still learning, still pushing — and I still work as a nurse part-time. I never left it. I just stopped letting it be the only thing paying my bills.