Jack Miller sitting at a desk holding a whiteboard showing Day 87 progress on his journey to $40,000 per month with AI content creation, earnings, and lead growth highlighted in a bright colorful home office setup

Day 87 Of My Journey To $40,000 Per Month – Family, AI Videos & Why I Can’t Quit

May 12, 2026•6 min read

So today is Monday, May 11th, 2026 and officially day 87 of my journey to $40,000 per month.

Honestly… today felt a little heavy emotionally, but also motivating at the same time.

Earlier today I ate grilled steaks with my mom and dad because tomorrow my dad is going in for a major surgery on his left eye. If you’ve been following my journey for a while now, then you probably already know my dad has been dealing with a lot of health problems lately. Diabetes. Heart disease. Multiple strokes. Blindness in one eye already. It’s been rough watching all of this happen in real time.

At the same time though, life still keeps moving forward.

I still put out content today. I still worked on the business. I still kept building.

A couple short-form videos. One long-form YouTube video. One review video for a program I’m promoting. Emails. Social posts. Blog updates. The usual grind.

And on top of that, another $122.75 commission payout finally hit my bank account today.

So let’s talk about everything.

My Online Income For May So Far

So as of today, the amount of money that has officially hit my bank account for the month of May has now climbed to $1,259.83.

Not life-changing money yet.

But honestly? I’m excited about it because this income is coming from systems and content I’m building online. A lot of this money is being generated from videos, emails, blog posts and funnels that continue working even while I’m doing other things.

That payout today specifically came from the main offer I’m currently promoting, which makes me feel like I made the right decision focusing on it harder lately.

What’s exciting is that it’s starting to feel more consistent.

Not just random lucky sales.

Actual weekly payouts.

That’s a very different feeling psychologically because once consistency starts showing up, your brain starts realizing:

“Okay… this might actually become something real.”

And honestly, that’s the stage I feel like I’m entering right now.

My Email List Keeps Growing

My email list has now officially grown to 4,048 leads.

That number honestly blows my mind a little because I still remember when I was excited to get my first 10 subscribers.

Most of this recent growth came from a solo ad order mixed with organic traffic from YouTube and Facebook.

I WAS running Facebook ads recently too, but today I decided to shut them off for now.

Not because they weren’t working.

Mainly because I just don’t have a huge amount of extra cash lying around at the moment and I’d rather play things a little safer financially right now.

That’s one thing people don’t always talk about enough in the online business world:

Sometimes strategy matters less than cash flow.

Even if something works, you still need breathing room financially to scale it comfortably.

I’ll probably turn the ads back on again later when things feel more stable.

For now, I’m leaning harder into organic content, email marketing and AI-assisted content creation.

AI Is Helping Me Create Content WAY Faster

And speaking of content creation…

I absolutely went hard with AI tools today.

This whole “fully AI-assisted content” thing is still pretty new to me, but honestly it’s kind of crazy what’s possible now.

The scripts? AI helped.

The voiceover? AI helped.

The avatar? AI helped.

The video structure? AI helped.

The B-roll scenes? AI helped.

Even parts of the descriptions and layouts were AI-assisted.

When I watch the videos back, yes… I can still tell they’re AI-generated.

But here’s the thing:

The information still comes across clearly.

The videos are still useful.

And most importantly… they save me an insane amount of time and mental energy.

That matters because consistency is everything online.

If something allows you to create more consistently without burning yourself out, that’s powerful.

I genuinely think AI tools are going to completely change content creation over the next few years, especially for regular people who don’t have giant teams or huge budgets.

A few years ago, making multiple videos in a single day would’ve felt overwhelming to me.

Now it actually feels possible.

That’s exciting.

The Real Reason I Want Financial Freedom

Now let’s talk about the heavier part of today.

Like I mentioned earlier, my dad is going in for eye surgery tomorrow.

And honestly… seeing someone you love slowly destroy their health is a really painful thing to watch.

Especially when they’ve mentally accepted it.

My dad still eats junk food constantly despite everything that’s happened to him medically. And as much as I wish I could force him to change, I can’t.

At some point, people make their own decisions.

And that hurts.

A lot.

But moments like this are honestly one of the biggest reasons I’m chasing financial freedom so hard.

People sometimes think wanting to become wealthy automatically means you’re greedy or materialistic.

For me, it’s never really been about flashy cars or showing off.

I want leverage.

I want options.

I want control over my life.

I want to be able to help the people I care about.

I want to help my parents.

I want to help myself too because honestly… I’ve had my own share of health problems over the years as well.

ER visits.

Medical bills.

Stress.

Fear.

All of it.

That stuff changes the way you think about money.

When you’ve experienced health problems personally or watched the people you love suffer through them, financial freedom stops feeling like some cheesy motivational slogan.

It starts feeling necessary.

That’s a huge reason why I keep pushing.

Why I keep posting.

Why I keep building.

Why I keep making videos, writing emails, updating blogs and learning new skills even when I’m tired.

Because deep down, I truly believe a better life is possible.

Not overnight.

Not magically.

But step by step.

Video by video.

Lead by lead.

Day by day.

Final Thoughts

Anyways, that about wraps up day 87 of my journey to $40,000 per month.

Tomorrow is going to be a stressful day with my dad’s surgery, so hopefully everything goes smoothly.

And if you’ve been following my journey so far, I genuinely appreciate you being here. Seriously.

Whether you’re trying to build an online business, escape a miserable job, make extra money, or just create more freedom in your life… I hope these updates help show you that regular people really CAN start building something online.

Even if they’re starting from scratch.

Even if life feels messy.

Even if things aren’t perfect.

Because trust me… my life definitely isn’t perfect either.

But I’m still moving forward.

And I hope you do too.