Jason Leow

2 years ago, it didn't even exist.
Today, my very first Carrd plugin went past 1000 downloads.
Wild 😮
And grateful 🙏

https://animatedaccordionfaqs.carrd.co

They say mindset is everything. Sometimes it's easy to shrug this off as some new age BS, but I recently discovered this about sleep.

Yes, the mindset for sleep biohacking.

Before, I was anxious about my sleep. The anxiety could be due to the general background anxiety during the pandemic (I started sleep biohacking then). It could be due to the growing pains of settling into fatherhood. Or it could even be due to financial anxiety. Or a combination of everything. I would obsessively track my sleep quantity and quality. Each night entailed a win or a fail. Did I get enough sleep? Did I sleep well? What can I do to keep up with the sleep debt?

Yet somehow, I never felt like I was on top of things. I was always flailing. Always one step behind this "infinite game" as I like to call it.

But something shifted recently. The anxiety is mostly gone. It could be due to being able to let go of the [experiences of the past few years](https://golifelog.com/posts/here-comes-the-sun-1676784259686). It could be that finances are doing better this year. It could be that my toddler is turning three soon and things are a lot more stable with him being older and more independent. For sure my sleep habits had not changed much. Yet I'm less fazed by poor sleep nights. I'll feel tired for sure. But I've got this "I got this" sense of equanimity to it. Tired? OK sure. Life goes on. I'll handle it. Got sh*t sleep like 50% sleep score? Oh well shrugs. Looks like I have to catch up on sleep debt tonight, and try to nap a bit or move around more. I still try to manage my sleep in all the ways I know, but the mindset's totally different. And it's psychosomatic. When I got this, I feel less burdened by the sleep lack. I just go about my day, function normally.

Life goes on.

Amazing what a mindset shift can bring.

Does activiating purchasing power parity really help with (revenue) growth?

Heard a lot about the upsides... But what might be some downsides for indie solopreneurs that few talk about?

I asked that [question on Twitter](https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1626523347772407808) and got a great discussion out of it!

Here's a summary on the potential pros and cons:

**Upsides:**
- It's not about revenue but access. PPP allows your product to be more inclusive and equitable to everyone around the world.
- Good for brand and reputation, as it's seen as a kind gesture for folks from countries with weaker currencies.
- Brings in more sales and gross revenue you would otherwise not have, even if it's a smaller margin.
- PPP makes more business sense where the costs of replication is zero or very small, e.g. digital products. Services or physical goods might requires more analysis to make it worthwhile.


**Downsides:**
- Abuse by tech savvy customers who know how to use VPN to buy via countries with better exchange rates. The question is, would this be in the small minority? Or are your customers that tech savvy that there'll be widespread abuse? Re: Gumroad (which I use), thankfully, they require a credit card from the same country of the geolocation address, so that helps make it harder to abuse.
- Dilution of your brand and erode the perceived value of your product if it's cheaper. But it's relative to income levels of those who need PPP, so it's a toss up.
- You attract a different group of customers who might have different support needs/load, types of questions etc. It will have to be worthwhile for you to support that. Customers asking 100 questions before buying, requiring a call, etc, might not make it business sense.
- Sense of fairness. Would those paying full price feel that it's unfair, or that they are subsidizing people in other countries? How would that perception of fairness influence their decision to buy? They might not even be aware there's PPP to start with...
- Might not be financially worthwhile depending on your product and business model. If server costs increase with increased usage (e.g. generative AI apps), then PPP might cause a loss. Have to account for cost per user, even at the lowest PPP rate. If your business model is more service-related, like say, consulting/freelance, or customer/tech support that's manpower/time-intensive and constitutes a huge part of your delivery, then PPP might not make sense.
- Taxes and fees for certain foreign currencies. There might be additional tax and conversion/processing fees that payment platforms will charge you when customer buy from those countries. On top of that, you'll also have to handle tax compliance in more countries = more complexity. If sales volume is high, it might be worth it.

*What else did I miss?*

- Direct bank transfer is better than Revolut cos Revolut had 1% fee
- No advantage to Revolut because Paypal forced money transfer to SGD when outgoing, so no USD to USD savings
- to try Wise later when account gets approved

Jannis gave me some good feedback on my landing page - https://twitter.com/JannisBetschki/status/1627260197818273792

• Darkened hero overlay
• Added a testimonial higher up the page

Doing the [review of all the products I've ever made](https://golifelog.com/posts/all-the-products-i-made-1676710309695) was fun. A few interesting themes emerged:

- I started my 1st business in 2011. That's more than a decade since!

- My 2nd biz (Outsprint Design) from 2015 still accounts for 90% of my revenue. It's wild to think anything you made on 2nd try would have this much longevity and endurance.

- 2018 was the year of public design products. It was also when I started indie hacking, bringing the indie approach to creating social impact products.

- Out of the total 35 products, 33 started in the last 5 years, since 2018. When I was 38. I sure am a late bloomer! But when I do start, I go go go.

- I only learned to code my own products from 2019. But I already made 11 things by then (using Wordpress)! The point here is: Coding is not necessary for making.

- 2020 was the year of COVID products... understandably. It was my way of coping with the crisis, by making things that could make a difference. It's a way to reclaim some sense of control over the whole pandemic that's out of our control.

- Products made for a particular phase or season in life are susceptible to short lifespans. Like my COVID projects, or the keto one. That doesn't mean they're not worth doing. It just means I got to build it with an expiry date in mind, even if it's self-inflicted.

- The underlying thread weaving all the products together is that they were all in niches where I had direct experience in. It could come from my lifestyle (like keto, sleep), or work (like public design), or things I'm living through (like COVID). When I did try products were I never had any experience in (like Restobio for the F&B industry), it fizzled out fast. And the ones with staying power were in niches/topics that were persistent in my life – design (Outsprint), writing/reflection (Lifelog), coding/making (Plugins), social causes (COVID, social good projects). Projecting that ahead, it'll be safe to say, as long as I stick to projects where I have direct experience and are part of these few persistent themes, it'll have a better chance of success.

I don't think I'll ever stop making. I just can't help myself! 33 products in 5 years. I've theoretically got another 40 years left in me.

That means I might have 264 products ahead!

Onwards.

Just a few months ago, I was at a carnival with my wife and son. It felt like the whole Singapore was there. Everyone looked like they were having fun, being out.

Like the pandemic didn't happened.

I remarked to my wife that it felt surreal to see everyone like that. Like how could everyone have moved on from that so easily? I felt emotionally distanced from the fun, even though I was physically there. There, but not really there.

We talked about it, and concluded it could be some form of trauma still lingering in the back of my psyche.

Then just yesterday, we were out and chanced on a basker performing on the guitar. As we watched the performance, I had this mindful moment of self-awareness, a realisation that I no longer had that surreal feeling. I was enjoying the performance, just as everyone as in the audience. I *almost* had a tear in my eye.

The basker was playing *Here Comes The Sun* by the Beatles:

*Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright*

*Little darlin', it's been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been here*

*Little darlin', the smile's returning to their faces
Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been here*

*Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright*

And I can't think of a more apt song to signal the start of this new season.

Onwards.

A list of everything I've ever made over the years – all 35 of them.

And only 3 are still making money currently:

- Outsprint
- Plugins For Carrd
- Lifelog

That's a hit rate of only 8.5% for making profitable products.

Ship MORE.