Jason Leow

https://videobutton.carrd.co/

#buildsell30

https://twitter.com/BuildSell30/status/1532839698783260672

https://sheet2bio.com/bigpapi

This is a sum-up of everything I learned and relearned today about failure, from the comments in just one single tweet -https://twitter.com/jasonleowsg/status/1532724727948537856

---

Failure is but just research.

Failure is but another data point, in a long series of data points of wins and fails in the lifetime of your product, in the life journey as an entrepreneur.

Failure doesn’t mean you failed.

The launch didn’t fail.
The product didn’t fail.
I didn’t fail.
The experiment failed.
Now just move on to the next experiment.

Launches don’t have to mean anything.
It’s just an arbitrary event I created in the calendar.
Besides, it’s just been one week. Give it a year, and maybe you can call it a failure (if ever).
A failed launch is as meaningful and informative as a successful launch.
Use it, don’t be swayed by it.

Another perspective:
It’s random. It’s chance-driven. It’s luck.
There’s countless moving parts that led to the outcome today, most of which might not even be in my control.
Do the exact same launch tomorrow, and it might win.
Such is the game in an unpredictable, stochastic world of entrepreneurship and Twitter.
Luck drives outcomes a lot more than we like to accord it.
Just focus on what I can control - the process, my outputs, my effort, my intentions.
Impatience with actions, patience with results.
Downside is down to us, upside is up to God.

Failure is just a starting point, not the end point.
Avoiding failure means you’ll also avoid success.
No attempts means zero results.
Shots on goal means you’ll miss some.
But it also means you hit some.

See it this way:
Zero sign-ups isn’t a new low, it’s rock bottom.
Literally, deepest part of the ocean, Mariana trench bottom. You can’t get negative number of sign-ups.
Zero is as low I can go.
Everything else is UP after.

Truth is, 90% of launches fail on the get-go.
All the wins you see on Twitter and the news?
All survivorship bias.
All just a minority report.
If everyone fails then no one does.
Also, fact that I launched, is already way more than 99% of everyone.

In fact, there is no such thing as failures where there’s learning involved.
You either win, or you learned something.
You can’t ever fail that way.
Like Edison said, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Think about it this way:
Say you truly failed failed. What would you do then? Give up, quit, go back to 9-to-5?

Going back to a job is a non-negotiable for me. I’m too unemployable now, too deep in and enmeshed with my products and entrepreneurship to go back to working for someone else. That freedom is addictive. It’s transformative.

I can’t ever go back anyway. So what if I fail? I’m going to get back up the next day, and try again. And again. And again.

Till it works. I have no choice.

It’s been 1 week since I launched Sheet2Bio.

ZERO sign-ups so far.

It’s fair to conclude that the launch failed. Or something failed, at least.

Sigh. This is a new low.

I knew Sheet2Bio is still a scrappy MVP. I know I’m still experimenting with it. And I know I’m signalling these two points by building in public, so it does affect the product’s reputation in a way.

So I had low expectations going into the launch, but not that low. I expected something non-zero, for sure.

Not gonna lie…this was hard to stomach.

OK so back to the drawing board…

I set out to test this hypothesis through the launch:

“Are people even willing to pay for this tool to begin with?”

Not “Of the 100%, how many % are willing to pay?” because this latter hypothesis assumes some will pay, just how many % out of my target population of customers. Nope, I made no such assumptions. Because it’s still a leap from having a product that no one will pay for versus a product that some might pay (and you just have to find them). And also because most alternative link-in-bio platforms offer a freemium model - so anchoring bias might exist (where people expect it to be free than paid, a bit like how people expect apps on the app store to be 99 cents because the first apps were all 99 cents).

It’s about product-pricing fit, not channel-offer fit.

Hence from a single pricing plan of $10/month, I’m now experimenting with a two-tiered pricing model:

- One-off plan where you pay $50 once and use forever, but no future feature/updates
- Monthly subscription plan where you pay $10/month and get access to all future features/updates

But leading in front of both plans is the 14-day, no-questions-asked free trial.

Hope this reduces the barrier to payment!

Also tweaking the landing page design, adding more style and overall making it look more credible and legit, while maintaining the brutalist vibe.

I want to see what happens if I just do my own path despite going against prevailing best practices and how-tos…

Will I regret it? Or will it lead to contrast and standing out?

Thanks to @benlkatz for the suggestion!

Fixed contact form:
- added netlify honeypot field to prevent spam
- added required fields and label text to get all the details
- added 1s delay button disable function to prevent duplicate submissions
- added 1s delay reset() function to clear form fields after submission
- added free netlify form attribute to collect form submissions via html form

Netlify is DA BEST. Makes potentially complicated things like collecting form submissions as easy as adding an attribute to html

I've been posting every day on LinkedIn since 25th March. The aim is to build an audience—fellow designers and non-design folks interested in design (either to outsource or hire)—for my design consultancy Outsprint.

I posted daily about Lifelog and my writing there during my #100daysofmarketing challenge last year (Sept-Dec). But LinkedIn didn't work out as a good channel for Lifelog, so I stopped posting after that. Looking back, it didn't make sense because most in my connected network are from the design industry in Singapore, not about writing.

So when I decided to fully embrace my portfolio of products as the way forward—including my design consultancy work—I decided I could use LinkedIn as my distribution channel for Outsprint, and leverage everything I learned from doing content on Twitter to LinkedIn.

Some thoughts so far after two months on LinkedIn:

- Then: 699 (as at 22 Apr). Now: 752 followers. I can at least conclude the past 50 followers were a result of my audience-building efforts!
- Also got a few warm leads for consultancy work, so it's definitely helpful in terms of potential revenue!
- Content is less ephemeral. The algo definitely works way differently from Twitter. I have posts from days or weeks ago that can still get likes or views. Whereas on Twitter the content cycle is like 24h.
- User engagement is lower, less frequent. Most people in my network don't check LinkedIn all that often.
- Views and engagement goes significantly down on weekends. Maybe LinkedIn is synced to the Mon-Fri, 9-to-5 schedule?
- Memes work too! I used to think LinkedIn is a serious place, and people are less willing to joke around because it's a place for their career and their current/future employers might be looking. But I've got a meme that's been going strong even after 2 weeks, and still getting Likes and Views! Looks like I was wrong.
- Comments are more combative, people aren’t as nice (as Maker Twitter). I got folks who don't follow me or are connected replying to my posts who don't filter their words for friendliness, or are out to prove me wrong. OK you get that on other parts of Twitter too, but less so based on my experience in Maker Twitter.
- The presence of randos in my replies also mean that hashtags still work in LinkedIn. It helps people outside of your connected network discover your content.
- I'm running out of content ideas after this initial burst of two months, so time for a structure:
• Mon - showing results, proof of work, testimonial, review
• Tue-Fri - content to help my audience
• Sat - a question/poll to prompt reflection
• Sun - a meme for relaxed Sunday
- After 2 months of data, I can now start to firm up the topics for my content matrix:
• anything about UX design, design, design thinking, design-driven innovation
• design in government/non-profit space
• careers, career progression in design
• challenges we face as designers
• interesting hacks, techniques and methods in design
• helping non-designers commission design services

What do you think of LinkedIn?

I mentioned I needed a reality check in my May wrap-up. But here’s the thing: the best reality checks isn’t sitting down to think, trying to squeeze out some insight or plan. It’s about letting it rise out and emerge from within, without getting in its way.

It’s not artificially forced, but naturally arising.

So that’s what I’m going to do. By doing nothing, by having no goals, no targets, no intentions (other than the intention to have no intention, if that counts as one haha).

And just do whatever comes, whatever inspires. And see where that brings me, what it shows me.

Just being still in movement, being active in stillness. And observe.

It’s not about passive. It’s not about being lazy, sedentary or having no appointments, even though it can look that way. The outward form is misleading, if we just focus on what it looks like on the outside.

Kind of like meditation, but not the neatly sitting down kind, but messily living it out type. This practice of aimlessness is tricky, but effective.

And guess what? There’s no better way to spend my birthday month—my 43rd round trip around the sun—than to just be!

📈 Current MRR: US$129 (all from Lifelog)
📊 One-off revenue: ~US$418.55


Twitter stats - May vs Apr
– Tweets: 1537 vs 1466
– Tweet impressions: 346K vs 390K
– Likes: 3.8K vs 4.1K
– Engagement rate: 4.2% vs 3.9%
– Profile visits: 67K vs 79.3K
– Mentions: 1652 vs 1643
– New followers: 237 vs 406
– Link clicks: 955 vs 818
– Retweets: 341 vs 332
– Replies: 1.5K vs 1.4K

—————

40% of 2022 had passed. Time for a reality check.

I tend to prefer being optimistic most of the time, but I feel the days are passing me by way faster than I can feel them, and that makes me feel anxious.

What have I achieved so far?

Still low MRR.
Still no $5K/m revenue.
Still no breakthrough products.

I had set an intention to try #30daysofluck challenge for May, but got side-tracked by Sheet2Bio. In a way that’s good. I launched my 2nd SaaS. That’s another opportunity that can buy me more luck.

The past few months were hopeful, forward-looking ones. But with the halfway point coming up on the year, I think being realistic is in order. Hopefully, the switch of focus for early morning deep work will help me make more progress too.

I definitely need to double down on getting to ramen profitability.

Read up about the larger brutalist/antidesign movement behind this no-design landing page that I stumbled on to:

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/brutalism-antidesign/

When you get that uncomfortable, icky, nagging, “unfinished business” feeling if you didn’t perform the habit that day/week/month.

You know, like forgetting to brush your teeth?

That’s what I’m realising now for my weekly recaps.

I had a busy day on Friday—my usual analog recap day—and missed my weekly review. I told myself I’ll try to do it on the weekend, but weekends are busy family days. And now it’s the new week and a Monday, and still I’ve not done my weekly recap.

And that nagging, icky feeling is back.

I feel lost at sea without having done it. There’s a cathartic clarity around being able to download your mind on to a piece of paper, more so every week when so much happens. After I do it, I always feel somewhat relieved, lighter, and more grounded.

It’s like I’m a tree, and I spend the week growing my branches and leaves outwards and upwards. If I don’t have half a day deepening my roots downwards, I’d feel adrift, unanchored, easy to topple.

It’s weird how I’ve only just started on this habit for 1 month, only did 4 reps on it, but it’s stuck so well.

All the more a sign that I’ve built a habit that lasts.

I wrote about how in recession there was opportunity. But it’ll also help to get prepared and ready for it. In any downturn, consumption goes down. People spend less. Indie hackers and solo creators might still end up feeling the downstream impact of less consumer dollars going around.

So what’s a solopreneur to do in times of an economic downturn? Brainstorming some ideas:

Lower costs
• Ask for discounts to SaaS subscriptions
• Reduce burn rate and fixed expenses e.g. rent, hires, overheads
• Eliminate luxury expenses e.g. lavish WeWork office subscriptions
• Drop the co-working hot desk/expenses on lattes in cafes - work remotely at home
• Reevaluate your monthly/annual budgets for everything
• Pay off high-interest debts, don’t take on new debts

Increase revenue
• Ask for or add an annual subscription for upfront cash
• Build products quickly in market gaps where VC-funded startups failed and left
• Start a side hustle or venture into a new category - the more recession-proof type of work/product, the better
• Learn new skills that could come in useful later
• Rethink your financial investments

Maintain buffers
• Shore up more cash reserves, emergency funds
• Have backup plans - Plan Bs, Plan Cs
• Borrow instead of cash upfront (where it makes sense, if loan is cheaper or low interest vs less liquidity)
• Find legal ways to reduce tax burden, find what’s tax-deductible

Generate goodwill
• Help others out - those who are laid off or in financial distress
• Give away free resources or content
• Network more, build connections and relationships
• Make introductions
• Give references for job interviews
• Collaborate for collective benefit

What else did I miss?