Day 700 - December goals - https://golifelog.com/posts/december-goals-1669862622238
Setting intentions for December had always been easy. Every tail end of the year, it’s the same intentions.
Rest and reflect.
By right I should be in Bali now, having my annual solo retreat. Living in an eco-lux villa. Waking up to the sound of birds. Swimming in the sea. Taking long calm walks in rice fields. Scooting around looking for adventures on my scooter. Eating delicious local foods grown in the fertile volcanic soil. Sampling single origin drip coffee in one of their many specialty cafes. Writing under the full moon. Or just doing nothing at all.
While I look forward to reliving that past life some time in the future, I make do at home base for now.
A badly needed break, to rest and reflect.
Rest. Taking care of my health and body.
Rest. Spending much needed family time.
Rest. Loosening the mind from deadlines and goals.
Reflect. On the year that had passed.
Reflect. On the new year ahead.
Reflect. On my indie solopreneur journey. And life.
So there’s actually lots to do. But rest in action. Active rest is my poison of choice.
Active, yet centered.
Calmness in motion.
Power while at rest.
Onwards!
Rest and reflect.
By right I should be in Bali now, having my annual solo retreat. Living in an eco-lux villa. Waking up to the sound of birds. Swimming in the sea. Taking long calm walks in rice fields. Scooting around looking for adventures on my scooter. Eating delicious local foods grown in the fertile volcanic soil. Sampling single origin drip coffee in one of their many specialty cafes. Writing under the full moon. Or just doing nothing at all.
While I look forward to reliving that past life some time in the future, I make do at home base for now.
A badly needed break, to rest and reflect.
Rest. Taking care of my health and body.
Rest. Spending much needed family time.
Rest. Loosening the mind from deadlines and goals.
Reflect. On the year that had passed.
Reflect. On the new year ahead.
Reflect. On my indie solopreneur journey. And life.
So there’s actually lots to do. But rest in action. Active rest is my poison of choice.
Active, yet centered.
Calmness in motion.
Power while at rest.
Onwards!
Day 699 - November wrap-up - https://golifelog.com/posts/november-wrap-up-1669797348262
📈 Current MRR (all from Lifelog): $109 (↓$10)
📊 One-off revenue: $918 (↑$657)
💰 Total revenue: $1027 (↑$657) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🏦 Total profit: $965 (↑$641) (excl. salary and consulting costs)
👀 Tweet impressions: 260k vs 232k
💙 Likes: 3.1k vs 2.6k
💬 Engagement rate: 4.0% vs 3.9%
🏡 Profile visits: 40.5k vs 32.7k
📣 Mentions: 1517 vs 1088
👣 New followers: 402 vs 280
📧 Email subscribers: 51 (↑11)
My intentions for November were simple:
• Finish well for my consulting gigs.
• Start from zero for my products, without any preconceived or blindly inherited notions of right or wrong, should or must.
I definitely finished well for the consulting gigs. Client feedback were mostly good, though I expected better Net Promoter Scores. Overall, finishing without major mishaps. And I got paid! Phew that was a close shave... my savings were running out.
Alignment to that sense of being able to do it my own way, without any borrowed narratives felt good. I under no illusion that I’m completely free from external influence, of course. It takes time to be an independent thinking, self-assured (or shameless) creator. But the initial steps this month felt optimistically promising.
Going all in on hyper-commercialism and marketing overdrive for Black Friday was fun this month. And for the first time, my total revenue from my indie products (excl. consulting) hit the $1k milestone! That counts for something! 🤑
Overall, November felt like I’m taking my first steps of a different, more self-assured approach in my indie solopreneur journey. Definitely bodes well for the new year to come!
Onwards to December!
📊 One-off revenue: $918 (↑$657)
💰 Total revenue: $1027 (↑$657) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🏦 Total profit: $965 (↑$641) (excl. salary and consulting costs)
👀 Tweet impressions: 260k vs 232k
💙 Likes: 3.1k vs 2.6k
💬 Engagement rate: 4.0% vs 3.9%
🏡 Profile visits: 40.5k vs 32.7k
📣 Mentions: 1517 vs 1088
👣 New followers: 402 vs 280
📧 Email subscribers: 51 (↑11)
My intentions for November were simple:
• Finish well for my consulting gigs.
• Start from zero for my products, without any preconceived or blindly inherited notions of right or wrong, should or must.
I definitely finished well for the consulting gigs. Client feedback were mostly good, though I expected better Net Promoter Scores. Overall, finishing without major mishaps. And I got paid! Phew that was a close shave... my savings were running out.
Alignment to that sense of being able to do it my own way, without any borrowed narratives felt good. I under no illusion that I’m completely free from external influence, of course. It takes time to be an independent thinking, self-assured (or shameless) creator. But the initial steps this month felt optimistically promising.
Going all in on hyper-commercialism and marketing overdrive for Black Friday was fun this month. And for the first time, my total revenue from my indie products (excl. consulting) hit the $1k milestone! That counts for something! 🤑
Overall, November felt like I’m taking my first steps of a different, more self-assured approach in my indie solopreneur journey. Definitely bodes well for the new year to come!
Onwards to December!
Since Strapi forum isn't helping, posted my question about updating heroku-18 stack in Strapi Discord community
Hey guys, Heroku keeps warning me about heroku-18 stack update for my Strapi app...
Anyone know how does updating heroku-18 stack impact Strapi?
More context:
—-
System Information:
Strapi Version: 3.2.4
Operating System: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
Database: SQLite 5.0.0, PostgreSQL 8.4.1
Node Version: 12.18.4
NPM Version: >=6.0.0
Yarn Version: 1.22.4
—-
I have a Strapi instance running on Heroku with Postgres database.
With Heroku forcing our hand to update apps on heroku-18 stack, I’m wondering what impact updating the heroku-18 stack will have on my Strapi instance.
Just asking for the overall approach:
- Approach with extreme caution and follow the steps as recommended
- Nah updating that will not impact Strapi at all. Just update.
Which option should I take? So anyone did a heroku update recently?
Anyone know how does updating heroku-18 stack impact Strapi?
More context:
—-
System Information:
Strapi Version: 3.2.4
Operating System: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
Database: SQLite 5.0.0, PostgreSQL 8.4.1
Node Version: 12.18.4
NPM Version: >=6.0.0
Yarn Version: 1.22.4
—-
I have a Strapi instance running on Heroku with Postgres database.
With Heroku forcing our hand to update apps on heroku-18 stack, I’m wondering what impact updating the heroku-18 stack will have on my Strapi instance.
Just asking for the overall approach:
- Approach with extreme caution and follow the steps as recommended
- Nah updating that will not impact Strapi at all. Just update.
Which option should I take? So anyone did a heroku update recently?
Day 698 - How I came to be making plugins for Carrd: A back story - https://golifelog.com/posts/how-i-came-to-be-making-plugins-for-carrd-a-back-story-1669676890490
Totally by accident.
A happy accident.
In 2019 I decided to learn to code for the nth time. Vue.js was my poison of choice. And after multiple failed attempts at learning coding from online classes, I decided to learn by doing instead by making micro standalone apps that can be done within a week. The beauty of Vue is - I can make standalone apps and embed them anywhere.
After making I shared these little learning projects I would embed them in Carrd as a way to share my learnings. It’s also a nice digital artefact to keep as a memory and accomplishment of each step along my coding journey.
Then I had a brain fart… These apps could plug features that Carrd doesn’t have! Carrd did some things really well (being easy to set up single page landing site), but the intentional constraints meant it didn’t do some other things so good.
So I released the initial few plugins for free. The accordion dropdown menu plugin got popular.
Released more plugins like pricing tables plugin. The initial few months was wild, I was manually cloning these Carrd sites and transferring it to people. It was painful and time-consuming. Thankfully, soon came the Seller programme, and people could download the site as a template directly.
When it became clear people wanted this, I decided to start with a paid plugin, a feature most asked for in my conversations with them – a nav menu bar that’s mobile responsive.
Then rinse and repeat free + paid.
And like they love to say, the rest is history. 😆
What started as a by-product (of learning coding) ended up as a main product. Truly a “sell your sawdust” business. More and more I’m thinking that successful products often start as happy accidents.
No better way to start in my opinion! 🤸♀️
A happy accident.
In 2019 I decided to learn to code for the nth time. Vue.js was my poison of choice. And after multiple failed attempts at learning coding from online classes, I decided to learn by doing instead by making micro standalone apps that can be done within a week. The beauty of Vue is - I can make standalone apps and embed them anywhere.
After making I shared these little learning projects I would embed them in Carrd as a way to share my learnings. It’s also a nice digital artefact to keep as a memory and accomplishment of each step along my coding journey.
Then I had a brain fart… These apps could plug features that Carrd doesn’t have! Carrd did some things really well (being easy to set up single page landing site), but the intentional constraints meant it didn’t do some other things so good.
So I released the initial few plugins for free. The accordion dropdown menu plugin got popular.
Released more plugins like pricing tables plugin. The initial few months was wild, I was manually cloning these Carrd sites and transferring it to people. It was painful and time-consuming. Thankfully, soon came the Seller programme, and people could download the site as a template directly.
When it became clear people wanted this, I decided to start with a paid plugin, a feature most asked for in my conversations with them – a nav menu bar that’s mobile responsive.
Then rinse and repeat free + paid.
And like they love to say, the rest is history. 😆
What started as a by-product (of learning coding) ended up as a main product. Truly a “sell your sawdust” business. More and more I’m thinking that successful products often start as happy accidents.
No better way to start in my opinion! 🤸♀️
Day 697 - Quantum tech for sleep - https://golifelog.com/posts/quantum-tech-for-sleep-1669592548893
I've been having a period of poor sleep quality lately. Even when I go to bed at 8:30pm to get 8h in bed, my sleep score's lower than usual. I would get 60%-70%, when it's usually 90% for 8h of sleep. That shows the sleep quality was poor. And indeed, I don't feel rested after I wake. Likely culprits might be stress, or a less than ideal diet, or caffeine. But it's been frustrating to not be able to pin it down to factors causing it. And I'm feeling like I'm out of options.
That's why when I saw the the 25% Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale for Leela quantum products, I thought it might be timely to introduce something new and different to my sleep biohacking. If trying the same things aren't bringing different results, it'll be insane to keep doing the same things. So I went and bought some [Leela quantum energy frequency cards](https://leelaq.com/product/leela-quantum-frequency-cards/) – the calm and rest card, and the abundance card, at US$145 each (before discount).
The cards are credit card sized metal cards with the thickness of 2-3 credit cards stacked together. It fits easily inside a pocket or wallet and are charged with powerful, positive frequencies by world-renowned healers. Here's what they said about the calm and rest card:
> The Calm & Rest frequency was designed and intended to support a much more relaxed and deeper calm and rest. Leela Quantum Tech is neither in the medical field, nor intends to be, so we also refrain from making any health claims. We can only pass on what others say about it. All test persons so far have reported that within about 1-5 minutes clearly noticeable relaxation occurred, that some described as if the Sandman came and did his magic. Several people tested it while still being in a conversation. After 5 minutes they had to put the card away so as to not want to go to bed right away. Then they picked up the card again when they were generally ready to go to bed and had very good night of sleep, deeper than normal. No morning issues were reported at all since the frequency disappears fairly quickly when you put the card away.
I think combining the abundance card with sleep card will help. Abundance to help me with stress of survival and money in the daytime, and sleep card to help me relax and rest well.
Truth is, it always feels weird to talk about quantum tech, because it's so left field. Skeptics will think this is hocus pocus, a scam. But I do have some products from them, and I've felt some difference from touching and using it. Checking with more intuitive/sensitive energy workers who are based locally have also checked out. The way I see it – if it helps, even if from a placebo effect, then it helped. Worst case scenario is I wasted a few hundred dollars. No skin off my back.
Can't wait to try it! Will report back on how it fares.
That's why when I saw the the 25% Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale for Leela quantum products, I thought it might be timely to introduce something new and different to my sleep biohacking. If trying the same things aren't bringing different results, it'll be insane to keep doing the same things. So I went and bought some [Leela quantum energy frequency cards](https://leelaq.com/product/leela-quantum-frequency-cards/) – the calm and rest card, and the abundance card, at US$145 each (before discount).
The cards are credit card sized metal cards with the thickness of 2-3 credit cards stacked together. It fits easily inside a pocket or wallet and are charged with powerful, positive frequencies by world-renowned healers. Here's what they said about the calm and rest card:
> The Calm & Rest frequency was designed and intended to support a much more relaxed and deeper calm and rest. Leela Quantum Tech is neither in the medical field, nor intends to be, so we also refrain from making any health claims. We can only pass on what others say about it. All test persons so far have reported that within about 1-5 minutes clearly noticeable relaxation occurred, that some described as if the Sandman came and did his magic. Several people tested it while still being in a conversation. After 5 minutes they had to put the card away so as to not want to go to bed right away. Then they picked up the card again when they were generally ready to go to bed and had very good night of sleep, deeper than normal. No morning issues were reported at all since the frequency disappears fairly quickly when you put the card away.
I think combining the abundance card with sleep card will help. Abundance to help me with stress of survival and money in the daytime, and sleep card to help me relax and rest well.
Truth is, it always feels weird to talk about quantum tech, because it's so left field. Skeptics will think this is hocus pocus, a scam. But I do have some products from them, and I've felt some difference from touching and using it. Checking with more intuitive/sensitive energy workers who are based locally have also checked out. The way I see it – if it helps, even if from a placebo effect, then it helped. Worst case scenario is I wasted a few hundred dollars. No skin off my back.
Can't wait to try it! Will report back on how it fares.
Day 696 - Permissionless rest - https://golifelog.com/posts/permissionless-rest-1669539317132
I’ve not had a lazy Sunday in a long time.
Just time to do nothing. Watch Youtube videos all day. Sit around. Lie on the bed. Eating. Drinking. And the most productive thing I did was just writing this post.
Much needed, really.
It’s not about not working and just being lazy, but about feeling permissionless rest.
Truth is, I’ve not felt like I have permission to rest for the past 3 years now. There’s always a crisis to manage, big or small. Survival matters. Money. COVID. Business. Baby. Everything combined feels amplified to a point where it’s life and death.
Once or twice, it’s manageable.
But chronically over years is when problems emerge. Chronic health problems. From stress, anxiety, anger. Chronic comes when it’s hard to let go.
And stubborn that I am, I’m not so good at letting go, even though I’d like to think I am, with all the Buddhist teachings I learned and meditation practices I practiced. Faaar from it.
I wished I could manage this better, but some factors are outside of my control. And the stakes are ever higher as a father and husband now, something I struggled with.
If being an indie solopreneur was playing life in hard mode, I don’t know what mode being that plus being a new dad and husband and son to elderly parents is. Legendary mode? Impossible mode?
I can only try my best.
And find more permissionless rest to sustain my climb.
Just time to do nothing. Watch Youtube videos all day. Sit around. Lie on the bed. Eating. Drinking. And the most productive thing I did was just writing this post.
Much needed, really.
It’s not about not working and just being lazy, but about feeling permissionless rest.
Truth is, I’ve not felt like I have permission to rest for the past 3 years now. There’s always a crisis to manage, big or small. Survival matters. Money. COVID. Business. Baby. Everything combined feels amplified to a point where it’s life and death.
Once or twice, it’s manageable.
But chronically over years is when problems emerge. Chronic health problems. From stress, anxiety, anger. Chronic comes when it’s hard to let go.
And stubborn that I am, I’m not so good at letting go, even though I’d like to think I am, with all the Buddhist teachings I learned and meditation practices I practiced. Faaar from it.
I wished I could manage this better, but some factors are outside of my control. And the stakes are ever higher as a father and husband now, something I struggled with.
If being an indie solopreneur was playing life in hard mode, I don’t know what mode being that plus being a new dad and husband and son to elderly parents is. Legendary mode? Impossible mode?
I can only try my best.
And find more permissionless rest to sustain my climb.
Day 695 - The age of AI design - https://golifelog.com/posts/the-age-of-ai-design-1669428989527
I've been watching the AI art space with keen interest. As AI platforms like Stable Diffusion, DALLE and OpenAI/GPT-3 get more sophisticated, more and more AI apps and SaaS are popping up for various sub categories within design:
- prompthero.com - AI designed [jewellery](https://twitter.com/javierjrueda/status/1595018419899977728), [fashion](https://twitter.com/javierjrueda/status/1593327496644202496)
- interiorai.com - AI designed house interiors
- thishousedoesnotexist.org - AI designed houses and architecture
- avatarai.com - AI designed profile pics and personal photo shoots
- hairstyleai.com + http://hairgen.ai - AI designed hairstyles to try on
- imaginarypaws.com - pet styles reimagined by AI
- aigraphics.io - AI designed graphic
- [Game sheets/game development assets](https://www.facebook.com/groups/aiartuniverse/permalink/676046660827238/?mibextid=S66gvF)
As AI starts to cover more and more uses cases and niches, I can't help but see this pattern that might be an interesting business opportunity:
### AI design SaaS will replace most low value design work within the decade
So to crystal ball it a bit, what might be some more use cases and niches that AI art can disrupt? What are some mechanical turk style, low value work that AI can easily take over?
When I think tasks that's lower on the value chain, I think of Fiverr. Anything that costs $5 to do is probably low value work. And many low value work are straightforward enough to be done by a robot. *So what might be the most popular Fiverr gigs that can be done by AI?*
Just look at this [list of 40 gigs](https://moneymint.com/30-most-profitable-gigs-on-fiverr/) – I added a 🤖 beside each one I think can be fully/partly done by AI:
- Proofreading and editing 🤖
- Book covers design 🤖
- Logo design 🤖
- Virtual assistant
- Ad campaigns 🤖
- Creating video intros 🤖
- Digital marketing
- Article writing 🤖
- Website testing
- Designing flyers, leaflets, business cards, postcards 🤖
- Wordpress troubleshooter
- Diet plan
- Tips to new parents
- Photoshop editing 🤖
- Social media marketing
- Product description writing 🤖
- Making video tutorials 🤖
- Web design 🤖
- Viral promoter/Influencer marketing
- Teach language
- Transcribing audio files 🤖
- Astrology
- Creating gifts out of recycled materials
- Financial consulting
- Writing reviews 🤖
- Social media page setup
- Creating Pinterest pins 🤖
- Travel planner
- Infographic 🤖
- Making jewellery 🤖
- Social media manager
- Writing CV, cover letter, resume 🤖
- Website building using templates 🤖
- 3D, 2D modelling 🤖
- Business consulting
- Social media advertising
- Presentation design 🤖
- Architectural design 🤖
- Cartoonist 🤖
The writing gigs can already be done by GPT-3. With more specific training, you could have a SaaS.
Using AI to generate designs for logos, flyers, book covers and ad thumbnails sounds like great opportunities! Within each category lies even more opportunities for more niche uses cases, like how @Winkletter created AI-generated coloring books.
*What other AI design opportunities are there?*
- prompthero.com - AI designed [jewellery](https://twitter.com/javierjrueda/status/1595018419899977728), [fashion](https://twitter.com/javierjrueda/status/1593327496644202496)
- interiorai.com - AI designed house interiors
- thishousedoesnotexist.org - AI designed houses and architecture
- avatarai.com - AI designed profile pics and personal photo shoots
- hairstyleai.com + http://hairgen.ai - AI designed hairstyles to try on
- imaginarypaws.com - pet styles reimagined by AI
- aigraphics.io - AI designed graphic
- [Game sheets/game development assets](https://www.facebook.com/groups/aiartuniverse/permalink/676046660827238/?mibextid=S66gvF)
As AI starts to cover more and more uses cases and niches, I can't help but see this pattern that might be an interesting business opportunity:
### AI design SaaS will replace most low value design work within the decade
So to crystal ball it a bit, what might be some more use cases and niches that AI art can disrupt? What are some mechanical turk style, low value work that AI can easily take over?
When I think tasks that's lower on the value chain, I think of Fiverr. Anything that costs $5 to do is probably low value work. And many low value work are straightforward enough to be done by a robot. *So what might be the most popular Fiverr gigs that can be done by AI?*
Just look at this [list of 40 gigs](https://moneymint.com/30-most-profitable-gigs-on-fiverr/) – I added a 🤖 beside each one I think can be fully/partly done by AI:
- Proofreading and editing 🤖
- Book covers design 🤖
- Logo design 🤖
- Virtual assistant
- Ad campaigns 🤖
- Creating video intros 🤖
- Digital marketing
- Article writing 🤖
- Website testing
- Designing flyers, leaflets, business cards, postcards 🤖
- Wordpress troubleshooter
- Diet plan
- Tips to new parents
- Photoshop editing 🤖
- Social media marketing
- Product description writing 🤖
- Making video tutorials 🤖
- Web design 🤖
- Viral promoter/Influencer marketing
- Teach language
- Transcribing audio files 🤖
- Astrology
- Creating gifts out of recycled materials
- Financial consulting
- Writing reviews 🤖
- Social media page setup
- Creating Pinterest pins 🤖
- Travel planner
- Infographic 🤖
- Making jewellery 🤖
- Social media manager
- Writing CV, cover letter, resume 🤖
- Website building using templates 🤖
- 3D, 2D modelling 🤖
- Business consulting
- Social media advertising
- Presentation design 🤖
- Architectural design 🤖
- Cartoonist 🤖
The writing gigs can already be done by GPT-3. With more specific training, you could have a SaaS.
Using AI to generate designs for logos, flyers, book covers and ad thumbnails sounds like great opportunities! Within each category lies even more opportunities for more niche uses cases, like how @Winkletter created AI-generated coloring books.
*What other AI design opportunities are there?*
Day 694 - Small bets are great for mental health - https://golifelog.com/posts/small-bets-are-great-for-mental-health-1669333310840
If something is a small enough bet that you won't lose sleep over if it fails, that's actually great for your mental health as a founder or creator. Just heard this from [Arvid's podcast episode with Daniel Vassallo](https://twitter.com/arvidkahl/status/1595866963716120577).
More needs to know this.
I think there's too much hero worship around the founder who goes all in on one big bet and succeeds. Because the road to that hero's success is littered with 100s or 1000s more founders who didn't succeed from going all in that you never heard about. And these 1000s of founders likely got super stressed, lived with anxiety, and finally ran out of cash, burned out, got depressed for a while.
Is that worth it? No matter the personal growth opportunities, I doubt it's *that* worth it.
Cue small bets.
Just small enough in scope, effort, resources, time and emotions invested that you wouldn't flinch if it tanked. Make something minimum and viable, with a feature set (or just a single feature) that solves the most painful task for your user. Cap your effort by working in a calm and focused way, not stressed out. Pay for a domain, get free or cheap hosting, or run it on a free trial plan to contain costs and not overspend before it's even validated. Timebox your work, eat and drink well, have some downtime, not burning through the nights. Lower or have zero expectations that it will work to not lose sleep over it. Then rinse and repeat to make more small bets to up your chances that something will succeed.
There.
A formula for a portfolio of small bets that's great for mental health.
A saner, calmer, healthier way to create and make a living on the internet.
More needs to know this.
I think there's too much hero worship around the founder who goes all in on one big bet and succeeds. Because the road to that hero's success is littered with 100s or 1000s more founders who didn't succeed from going all in that you never heard about. And these 1000s of founders likely got super stressed, lived with anxiety, and finally ran out of cash, burned out, got depressed for a while.
Is that worth it? No matter the personal growth opportunities, I doubt it's *that* worth it.
Cue small bets.
Just small enough in scope, effort, resources, time and emotions invested that you wouldn't flinch if it tanked. Make something minimum and viable, with a feature set (or just a single feature) that solves the most painful task for your user. Cap your effort by working in a calm and focused way, not stressed out. Pay for a domain, get free or cheap hosting, or run it on a free trial plan to contain costs and not overspend before it's even validated. Timebox your work, eat and drink well, have some downtime, not burning through the nights. Lower or have zero expectations that it will work to not lose sleep over it. Then rinse and repeat to make more small bets to up your chances that something will succeed.
There.
A formula for a portfolio of small bets that's great for mental health.
A saner, calmer, healthier way to create and make a living on the internet.
Day 693 - Being pulled forward with product-market fit - https://golifelog.com/posts/being-pulled-forward-with-product-market-fit-1669257663638
I've always liked this particular definition of product-market fit:
When you get pulled forward by the product, instead of constantly pushing with little to no results.
But I've never quite sat down and thought through what it really looks like, so here goes – a mix of real world experiences and opinions, based on my journey running the only product that's pulling me forward - [Plugins For Carrd](https://plugins.carrd.co):
### What it truly means to be pulled forward due to product-market fit:
- When people want to help you succeed, like telling you great opportunities or connecting you to the right people with the opportunities. E.g. just yesterday someone tried to connect me to collaborate with another Carrd creator. Just today, someone told me to create keyword alerts on Twitter for "carrd", so that I can engage and share links - *why didn't I think of that before?*
- When I don't do much marketing yet the sales continue to come in. True story for my plugins project. The first 1-2 years I didn't do much active marketing, because it was a side project. But yet the sales kept coming despite.
- When I'm constantly pulled forward by new ideas and opportunities, to the point where I feel like I'm just reacting reflexively (in a good way). E.g. I saw someone do a RT hack to the Black Friday launch tweet, and immediately I had to just go tweak my launch tweet before it got sent out. Or someone asked a question about how to create a feature or solve an issue in Carrd, and I. Have. To. Go. Create. It. Now.
- When customer enquiry/support gets overwhelming. Ok not there yet for me, but even now with 3-4 sales per week, I'm feeling the additional customer support load. Imagine when I'm doing hundreds of sales a week or day!
- When I enjoy the work. Ok this is more founder-product fit but I feel it does link back over to product-market fit, because to make the product fit the market you need to iterate and improve it over time, and it's only sustainable over long term if I enjoy the work. Work like creating new plugins, helping people with their Carrd problems, talking to others about Carrd.
*What other things do you think indicates product-market fit?*
When you get pulled forward by the product, instead of constantly pushing with little to no results.
But I've never quite sat down and thought through what it really looks like, so here goes – a mix of real world experiences and opinions, based on my journey running the only product that's pulling me forward - [Plugins For Carrd](https://plugins.carrd.co):
### What it truly means to be pulled forward due to product-market fit:
- When people want to help you succeed, like telling you great opportunities or connecting you to the right people with the opportunities. E.g. just yesterday someone tried to connect me to collaborate with another Carrd creator. Just today, someone told me to create keyword alerts on Twitter for "carrd", so that I can engage and share links - *why didn't I think of that before?*
- When I don't do much marketing yet the sales continue to come in. True story for my plugins project. The first 1-2 years I didn't do much active marketing, because it was a side project. But yet the sales kept coming despite.
- When I'm constantly pulled forward by new ideas and opportunities, to the point where I feel like I'm just reacting reflexively (in a good way). E.g. I saw someone do a RT hack to the Black Friday launch tweet, and immediately I had to just go tweak my launch tweet before it got sent out. Or someone asked a question about how to create a feature or solve an issue in Carrd, and I. Have. To. Go. Create. It. Now.
- When customer enquiry/support gets overwhelming. Ok not there yet for me, but even now with 3-4 sales per week, I'm feeling the additional customer support load. Imagine when I'm doing hundreds of sales a week or day!
- When I enjoy the work. Ok this is more founder-product fit but I feel it does link back over to product-market fit, because to make the product fit the market you need to iterate and improve it over time, and it's only sustainable over long term if I enjoy the work. Work like creating new plugins, helping people with their Carrd problems, talking to others about Carrd.
*What other things do you think indicates product-market fit?*
Day 692 - Success = Impatience + Patience - https://golifelog.com/posts/success-impatience-patience-1669159406196
A gem of a tweet from James Clear:
“Mastery requires both impatience and patience. The impatience to have a bias toward action, to not waste time, and to work with a sense of urgency each day. The patience to delay gratification, to wait for your actions to accumulate, and to trust the process.” – @JamesClear
Replace “mastery” with “success” and now I understand better why my lack of results in my indie solopreneur journey been frustrating for me – because it requires navigating a delicate tension between patience and impatience, when all the while I’ve been just full-on impatient in everything.
That impatience is necessary, but not sufficient. My bias towards action helped me make lots of progress in terms of output, but not outcomes. The outcomes bit is where patience is necessary. Yet patience in results alone is not sufficient either. If I didn’t hustle and continually improve, patience would just lead nowhere.
Both are necessary, but either on their own is sufficient for success. And I got to hold both polarities together, with nuance. It’s like holding a slippery fish – not too tight a grip, but not too loose either, else the fish will find a way to jump back into the sea.
Expedite everything. Expect nothing.
“Mastery requires both impatience and patience. The impatience to have a bias toward action, to not waste time, and to work with a sense of urgency each day. The patience to delay gratification, to wait for your actions to accumulate, and to trust the process.” – @JamesClear
Replace “mastery” with “success” and now I understand better why my lack of results in my indie solopreneur journey been frustrating for me – because it requires navigating a delicate tension between patience and impatience, when all the while I’ve been just full-on impatient in everything.
That impatience is necessary, but not sufficient. My bias towards action helped me make lots of progress in terms of output, but not outcomes. The outcomes bit is where patience is necessary. Yet patience in results alone is not sufficient either. If I didn’t hustle and continually improve, patience would just lead nowhere.
Both are necessary, but either on their own is sufficient for success. And I got to hold both polarities together, with nuance. It’s like holding a slippery fish – not too tight a grip, but not too loose either, else the fish will find a way to jump back into the sea.
Expedite everything. Expect nothing.
Day 691 - Stress is the root - https://golifelog.com/posts/stress-is-the-root-1669075183118
Little epiphany today: For the past 10 years since going self-employed, stress had always been the root cause of all my welbeing issues.
Relationship issues? Stress.
Chronic ailments? Stress.
Junk food issues? Stress.
Poor judgement? Stress.
Sleep problems? Stress.
Weight gain? Stress.
Low energy? Stress.
Gut issues? Stress.
Brain fog? Stress.
Injuries? Stress.
Stress? Stress.
Stress within a certain dosage is fine. It's stress that's not managed, relieved and let go off that becomes chronic and toxic.
And I've been trying to manage all the secondary problems that emerge due to stress, but doing nothing to tackle the root cause which is stress itself. No wonder I feel like I'm constantly threading water and only barely keeping my head above water. I've just been playing whack a mole on the symptoms all along!
So what's the external factors causing of all that unresolved stress?
- Not enough money, gigs drying up during pandemic
- New role, new responsibilities as father and provider
- Not getting the results I want as an indie solopreneur
- Not exercising, taking breaks, decompressing
Now I know. Many things I can influence and act on. A few things I can't control and change.
Act accordingly.
Relationship issues? Stress.
Chronic ailments? Stress.
Junk food issues? Stress.
Poor judgement? Stress.
Sleep problems? Stress.
Weight gain? Stress.
Low energy? Stress.
Gut issues? Stress.
Brain fog? Stress.
Injuries? Stress.
Stress? Stress.
Stress within a certain dosage is fine. It's stress that's not managed, relieved and let go off that becomes chronic and toxic.
And I've been trying to manage all the secondary problems that emerge due to stress, but doing nothing to tackle the root cause which is stress itself. No wonder I feel like I'm constantly threading water and only barely keeping my head above water. I've just been playing whack a mole on the symptoms all along!
So what's the external factors causing of all that unresolved stress?
- Not enough money, gigs drying up during pandemic
- New role, new responsibilities as father and provider
- Not getting the results I want as an indie solopreneur
- Not exercising, taking breaks, decompressing
Now I know. Many things I can influence and act on. A few things I can't control and change.
Act accordingly.
Day 690 - MRR gods - https://golifelog.com/posts/mrr-gods-1668997365016
Used to worship the MRR gods, but now I wanna be this guy 😈
Truth is, showing MRR progress no longer makes sense to me.
It’s a relic of SaaS indie hacking, which I followed just simply because other indies are doing it. The only MRR I have right now is Lifelog, which only accounts for part of my portfolio of bets. My main income stream continues to be from my consulting, which comes in bigger, one-time sums but infrequently (like a few times a year). My Carrd plugins are small, one-time payments but more regular through the month. And also random one-time, seldom repeatable gigs like website design etc.
MRR is no longer an accurate indicator of my progress because I’m so diversified. I need something that shows that diversity… or not.
Truth is, more and more I’m questioning if sharing revenue updates and milestones are even helpful. Is it more harmful than helpful? How does it benefit me other than getting more likes and impressions? Does it even help others? Do I want people to follow me because of my revenue?
Increasingly the answers to those questions are – No.
Minimal downside, minimal upside. But the downside will only increase as the revenue goes up. Many indies beyond $10k are starting to stop showing their metrics too as it gives competitors a one-way intel into your business.
Also coming from Singapore/Asia, it always feels weird to openly share how much you’re making. Growing up it’s always been culturally taboo, and if you make a handsome amount of money, talking about it can come across as a douchebag. It invites jealousy, envy, and unwanted attention.
Right now, I’m thinking of at most showing annual revenue, or none at all… 🤔
But leaning more towards just nothing.
Truth is, showing MRR progress no longer makes sense to me.
It’s a relic of SaaS indie hacking, which I followed just simply because other indies are doing it. The only MRR I have right now is Lifelog, which only accounts for part of my portfolio of bets. My main income stream continues to be from my consulting, which comes in bigger, one-time sums but infrequently (like a few times a year). My Carrd plugins are small, one-time payments but more regular through the month. And also random one-time, seldom repeatable gigs like website design etc.
MRR is no longer an accurate indicator of my progress because I’m so diversified. I need something that shows that diversity… or not.
Truth is, more and more I’m questioning if sharing revenue updates and milestones are even helpful. Is it more harmful than helpful? How does it benefit me other than getting more likes and impressions? Does it even help others? Do I want people to follow me because of my revenue?
Increasingly the answers to those questions are – No.
Minimal downside, minimal upside. But the downside will only increase as the revenue goes up. Many indies beyond $10k are starting to stop showing their metrics too as it gives competitors a one-way intel into your business.
Also coming from Singapore/Asia, it always feels weird to openly share how much you’re making. Growing up it’s always been culturally taboo, and if you make a handsome amount of money, talking about it can come across as a douchebag. It invites jealousy, envy, and unwanted attention.
Right now, I’m thinking of at most showing annual revenue, or none at all… 🤔
But leaning more towards just nothing.
Day 689 - Money buys happiness - https://golifelog.com/posts/money-buys-happiness-1668898949882
There I said it. I don't know how things had evolved to this stage, but I'm glad I added more nuance to that naive youthful idealism.
Sure, money *beyond* a point doesn't buy happiness. If you're shooting to be a billionaire to be happy, you're overreaching. But money does buy happiness, to a point and through many things. And the reality is, that point is a lot higher than we think, and we can buy a lot more happiness with money than we want to admit.
Money can buy:
- my products earning revenue makes me happy
- a nice meal outside with my wife, kid and parents, enjoying great food together
- a trip to Bali, Japan or some place we've never been, creating lovely memories
- a staycation where we have fun as a family
- healthy food and supplements that helps us feel healthier and happier
- financial freedom, and not having to stress about money
- sleep tech to help me sleep better, and feel more well rested and happier in the day
- biohacking equipment to help me develop a better quality of life
- courses, tools, conferences to learn new skills, enjoy the love of learning, not just for myself but for my child
- a nice home to shelter not just our bodies but our hearts
- supporting the livelihoods of my loved ones
- decent shoes, clothes to feel confident about myself when out
- a chance at a better life
All these would make me happy.
And there's so much more that money can buy that leads to happiness.
Why did I ever think that money doesn't buy happiness?
Where did I learn that from in my youth when I've not even earned a dime before? Nor suffered the pain of not having enough?
Youthful idealism, borrowed from some lame woke corner of society then (before "woke" even became a thing), taken on wholesale without nuance and understanding, and worst of all, believed with no direct experience to back up any of it.
Don't buy into that bullshit that money doesn't buy happiness.
Money does buy happiness.
And what happiness money can buy is often all the happiness we need to live a happy life.
Sure, money *beyond* a point doesn't buy happiness. If you're shooting to be a billionaire to be happy, you're overreaching. But money does buy happiness, to a point and through many things. And the reality is, that point is a lot higher than we think, and we can buy a lot more happiness with money than we want to admit.
Money can buy:
- my products earning revenue makes me happy
- a nice meal outside with my wife, kid and parents, enjoying great food together
- a trip to Bali, Japan or some place we've never been, creating lovely memories
- a staycation where we have fun as a family
- healthy food and supplements that helps us feel healthier and happier
- financial freedom, and not having to stress about money
- sleep tech to help me sleep better, and feel more well rested and happier in the day
- biohacking equipment to help me develop a better quality of life
- courses, tools, conferences to learn new skills, enjoy the love of learning, not just for myself but for my child
- a nice home to shelter not just our bodies but our hearts
- supporting the livelihoods of my loved ones
- decent shoes, clothes to feel confident about myself when out
- a chance at a better life
All these would make me happy.
And there's so much more that money can buy that leads to happiness.
Why did I ever think that money doesn't buy happiness?
Where did I learn that from in my youth when I've not even earned a dime before? Nor suffered the pain of not having enough?
Youthful idealism, borrowed from some lame woke corner of society then (before "woke" even became a thing), taken on wholesale without nuance and understanding, and worst of all, believed with no direct experience to back up any of it.
Don't buy into that bullshit that money doesn't buy happiness.
Money does buy happiness.
And what happiness money can buy is often all the happiness we need to live a happy life.
Day 688 - Started a Substack - https://golifelog.com/posts/started-a-substack-1668822280392
Finally got on Substack.
👉 jasonleow.substack.com
I’m been meaning to move over from Revue for months. The email deliverability is so bad on Revue – it kept showing up in people’s spam inbox. I learned from the experts that Substack has the best email deliverability amongst the different platforms, so it’s a no-brainer.
But why today? Due to the rumours that Twitter’s going down. If the mothership goes down, I’m sure Revue would too. Moving to Substack that was an initial far-off hedge that’s becoming more real of fulfilling it’s purpose as the Twitter saga unfolds.
It’s also timely because I’ve been meaning to increase the frequency of my newsletter, from monthly to weekly. More real stories and musings from my indie solopreneur journey. I started with a monthly rhythm because I didn’t know if I could do a weekly one, and the last thing I want is to give myself work I hate and begrudge writing it. So I thought, since I’m already writing my monthly reviews anyway, I could repurpose them as sort of an update to those interested in following my indie journey. But now that I’ve published monthly for a while, it’s feeling more doable to up the cadence. Weekly is more engaging for the audience, the experts say, so it’s worth a shot. Besides, I already write pretty regularly about my products here on Lifelog. So it’s really a matter of repurposing some of them over to Substack. And with so much content already written here, I doubt I’ll have any issues making the weekly deadlines. Planning to publish one every Saturday!
Substack Saturdays, it’ll be!
👉 jasonleow.substack.com
I’m been meaning to move over from Revue for months. The email deliverability is so bad on Revue – it kept showing up in people’s spam inbox. I learned from the experts that Substack has the best email deliverability amongst the different platforms, so it’s a no-brainer.
But why today? Due to the rumours that Twitter’s going down. If the mothership goes down, I’m sure Revue would too. Moving to Substack that was an initial far-off hedge that’s becoming more real of fulfilling it’s purpose as the Twitter saga unfolds.
It’s also timely because I’ve been meaning to increase the frequency of my newsletter, from monthly to weekly. More real stories and musings from my indie solopreneur journey. I started with a monthly rhythm because I didn’t know if I could do a weekly one, and the last thing I want is to give myself work I hate and begrudge writing it. So I thought, since I’m already writing my monthly reviews anyway, I could repurpose them as sort of an update to those interested in following my indie journey. But now that I’ve published monthly for a while, it’s feeling more doable to up the cadence. Weekly is more engaging for the audience, the experts say, so it’s worth a shot. Besides, I already write pretty regularly about my products here on Lifelog. So it’s really a matter of repurposing some of them over to Substack. And with so much content already written here, I doubt I’ll have any issues making the weekly deadlines. Planning to publish one every Saturday!
Substack Saturdays, it’ll be!
Imported past posts from Revue to Substack!
Day 687 - Small bets within a small bet - https://golifelog.com/posts/small-bets-within-a-small-bet-1668726989965
Crazy hypothesis about why my Carrd plugins project clicked:
It’s a small bet project containing many smaller bets within.
It’s started as a side project, a small bet within my portfolio of products. Though I’m now putting more focus into it, I still consider it a side project, a small bet. Within that project itself, I’m making many plugins to sell, each a small bet in its own right. This is where it gets meta – many small bets within a small bet.
Maybe that’s the secret! I get to push out many bets within the project, and test which one works better, which one doesn’t, and make more plugins that work well. For example, because of the success of my free accordion plugin, I made another one in a different design. Likewise for the paid navbar plugin – I made a simple version, it sold well, then based on feedback, I created a separate upgraded version the meganavbar plugin.
The versatility from having many small bets within the Carrd plugins projects also gives me more opportunities to share links to them in online Carrd communities, because they solve different problems and painpoints. My indie twin @ayushtweetshere like to say, “Put more buy buttons on the internet.” So I went to count all the buy buttons for my most successful project so far… There’s THIRTY FOUR of them! So there’s a bit of in-built virality to them.
But of course, not all plugins work well though. Some are too niche, too specialised to have widespread appeal, like the video button plugin. So not everything works, but all in a day of work when it comes to using the diversified small bets approach – expect wins and fails. But the great thing about that is - the wins and fails are small. I don’t spend more than a few days making each plugin. Most of them are done in 1-2 day. In fact the work that takes longer (and less enjoyable) are the tutorials I have to create for each paid plugin.
It’s so interesting to analyse this project, how it has it’s own path that’s not similar to common best practices in indie hacking.
Perhaps that’s the key.
That it finds its own way.
It’s a small bet project containing many smaller bets within.
It’s started as a side project, a small bet within my portfolio of products. Though I’m now putting more focus into it, I still consider it a side project, a small bet. Within that project itself, I’m making many plugins to sell, each a small bet in its own right. This is where it gets meta – many small bets within a small bet.
Maybe that’s the secret! I get to push out many bets within the project, and test which one works better, which one doesn’t, and make more plugins that work well. For example, because of the success of my free accordion plugin, I made another one in a different design. Likewise for the paid navbar plugin – I made a simple version, it sold well, then based on feedback, I created a separate upgraded version the meganavbar plugin.
The versatility from having many small bets within the Carrd plugins projects also gives me more opportunities to share links to them in online Carrd communities, because they solve different problems and painpoints. My indie twin @ayushtweetshere like to say, “Put more buy buttons on the internet.” So I went to count all the buy buttons for my most successful project so far… There’s THIRTY FOUR of them! So there’s a bit of in-built virality to them.
But of course, not all plugins work well though. Some are too niche, too specialised to have widespread appeal, like the video button plugin. So not everything works, but all in a day of work when it comes to using the diversified small bets approach – expect wins and fails. But the great thing about that is - the wins and fails are small. I don’t spend more than a few days making each plugin. Most of them are done in 1-2 day. In fact the work that takes longer (and less enjoyable) are the tutorials I have to create for each paid plugin.
It’s so interesting to analyse this project, how it has it’s own path that’s not similar to common best practices in indie hacking.
Perhaps that’s the key.
That it finds its own way.
Day 686 - Good day - https://golifelog.com/posts/good-day-1668639554707
Yesterday was a good day.
I had 4 sales of my Carrd plugins. I never get 4 in a day, that’s why it’s a good day.
I attended my first in-person conference in a long time.
I got to see and try out new technology (yes that Boston robotics dog).
I had a great steak lunch with my 2 design mates.
There were free flat whites all round at the conference.
I meet many familiar faces for the first time - people I worked with remotely for the past 3 years but had never seen face-to-face.
It was a lot of fun at work that I’ve not had in some time.
I just finished well for my non-profit consulting project, and in discussion with more work next year.
I’m working on a smaller gig right now working with a client team whom I really enjoyed working with.
New leads are coming in for my consulting for next year. A tender bid for a government Ministry project. A link up with another. An adjunct lecturing opportunity for next year.
I’m finishing up my consulting for the year, and can’t wait to get back to coding. In fact I’ve already started building a markdown preview mode and a rich text editor for Lifelog.
Got a Black Friday deal for Carrd plugins coming up next week.
It was a good day. A good week. A good past few months.
Things are looking up. Rounding off in a nice way for the year…
And I am truly grateful.
I had 4 sales of my Carrd plugins. I never get 4 in a day, that’s why it’s a good day.
I attended my first in-person conference in a long time.
I got to see and try out new technology (yes that Boston robotics dog).
I had a great steak lunch with my 2 design mates.
There were free flat whites all round at the conference.
I meet many familiar faces for the first time - people I worked with remotely for the past 3 years but had never seen face-to-face.
It was a lot of fun at work that I’ve not had in some time.
I just finished well for my non-profit consulting project, and in discussion with more work next year.
I’m working on a smaller gig right now working with a client team whom I really enjoyed working with.
New leads are coming in for my consulting for next year. A tender bid for a government Ministry project. A link up with another. An adjunct lecturing opportunity for next year.
I’m finishing up my consulting for the year, and can’t wait to get back to coding. In fact I’ve already started building a markdown preview mode and a rich text editor for Lifelog.
Got a Black Friday deal for Carrd plugins coming up next week.
It was a good day. A good week. A good past few months.
Things are looking up. Rounding off in a nice way for the year…
And I am truly grateful.
Day 685 - Good old customer service - https://golifelog.com/posts/good-old-customer-service-1668553231977
Something I’m doing for my Carrd plugins business that I found super refreshing:
Just help people with expecting any returns.
Just good old customer service.
Just being giving to a fault.
No fancy mind tricks.
No lame shortcuts.
No growth hacks.
Just old school basics.
People like it. I love it. Win-win.
It’s amazing how old school basics like this are so simple, effective and fundamental, yet mostly ignored as advice. Everyone’s wants the shortcut, the silver bullet, the elevator pitch. Just being helpful? Nah boooring.
It’s also a great reminder for myself – this was how I started building my first businesses, and this was how I enjoyed it, worked with it, succeeded with it. Nothing has to change. Just because I create products now, not services, doesn’t mean the old ways are outdated and the new hacks are better. It doesn’t have to. Products now are just a single touchpoint in the entire chain of touchpoints that a customer experience. An experience which also includes services.
In the end, people buy products but like dealing with people. And a pleasant exchange, a helpful reply, a delightful outcome, are critical parts of that.
Sometimes, that's all you need for a good business.
Just help people with expecting any returns.
Just good old customer service.
Just being giving to a fault.
No fancy mind tricks.
No lame shortcuts.
No growth hacks.
Just old school basics.
People like it. I love it. Win-win.
It’s amazing how old school basics like this are so simple, effective and fundamental, yet mostly ignored as advice. Everyone’s wants the shortcut, the silver bullet, the elevator pitch. Just being helpful? Nah boooring.
It’s also a great reminder for myself – this was how I started building my first businesses, and this was how I enjoyed it, worked with it, succeeded with it. Nothing has to change. Just because I create products now, not services, doesn’t mean the old ways are outdated and the new hacks are better. It doesn’t have to. Products now are just a single touchpoint in the entire chain of touchpoints that a customer experience. An experience which also includes services.
In the end, people buy products but like dealing with people. And a pleasant exchange, a helpful reply, a delightful outcome, are critical parts of that.
Sometimes, that's all you need for a good business.
Day 684 - Hoarding is good - https://golifelog.com/posts/hoarding-is-good-1668466201806
I’m probably weird for doing this… but I like keep my projects alive forever. But always felt peer influenced to abandon it in order to “focus”. If the costs on your attention is zero, do you need to kill it? If the financial costs and effort for maintenance or tech support is low to zero, I just keep them on. Because you’ll never know if the growth opportunity can come later. Sometimes the product failed because it was before its time. Maybe at a later time, the market or something about it will trend and it will get successful then.
I’ve personally experienced this twice.
The Grant Hunt bot was a social impact project I made early on in my indie journey. It’s a directory of local social impact grants that non-profits can search on to find grants to fund their social good programmes. I made it, it didn’t quite get popular or viral, and then I just left it alone for a few years, no coding, no marketing it. Then later when the pandemic arrived, a philanthropic funder wanted to fund it to be updated to the latest grants so that non-profits can benefit during that time of crisis. If I had killed it early, I wouldn’t have had that chance to revive it for the pandemic!
The other project was Sheet2Bio. Truth is, Sheet2bio was like the third iteration of an idea. It started with me making a Carrd plugin that pulled data from a Google Sheet to display some data and charts. I left it there after making it for fun. Then after talking to a friend in F&B, that evolved into Restobio, a bio link contact page for the F&B industry. Restaurants could update their Google Sheet easily that then updates the contact bio link page to share important links to their website, order page and social media pages. I built out 1 bio link page for 1 local restaurant. But I wasn’t from the F&B industry, so I didn’t know how to market or grow it, so it went cold. But I kept it alive and left it alone. Finally, early this year I had an idea to make a Google Sheet version of the personal bio link page, and launched it. Got many users, and 1-2 paid ones. Wasn’t a great success, but it fared better after 3 pivots! Who knows what the next iteration will bring!
So moral of the story:
Hoarding is good.
Hoard your projects, if costs are low. Let it lie low and wait for the ripe opportunity to pounce back to life.
They say, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. But you can’t take the shot if you killed it too early.
I’ve personally experienced this twice.
The Grant Hunt bot was a social impact project I made early on in my indie journey. It’s a directory of local social impact grants that non-profits can search on to find grants to fund their social good programmes. I made it, it didn’t quite get popular or viral, and then I just left it alone for a few years, no coding, no marketing it. Then later when the pandemic arrived, a philanthropic funder wanted to fund it to be updated to the latest grants so that non-profits can benefit during that time of crisis. If I had killed it early, I wouldn’t have had that chance to revive it for the pandemic!
The other project was Sheet2Bio. Truth is, Sheet2bio was like the third iteration of an idea. It started with me making a Carrd plugin that pulled data from a Google Sheet to display some data and charts. I left it there after making it for fun. Then after talking to a friend in F&B, that evolved into Restobio, a bio link contact page for the F&B industry. Restaurants could update their Google Sheet easily that then updates the contact bio link page to share important links to their website, order page and social media pages. I built out 1 bio link page for 1 local restaurant. But I wasn’t from the F&B industry, so I didn’t know how to market or grow it, so it went cold. But I kept it alive and left it alone. Finally, early this year I had an idea to make a Google Sheet version of the personal bio link page, and launched it. Got many users, and 1-2 paid ones. Wasn’t a great success, but it fared better after 3 pivots! Who knows what the next iteration will bring!
So moral of the story:
Hoarding is good.
Hoard your projects, if costs are low. Let it lie low and wait for the ripe opportunity to pounce back to life.
They say, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. But you can’t take the shot if you killed it too early.
Day 683 - Be lazy - https://golifelog.com/posts/be-lazy-1668377468316
I lazed through the entire Sunday morning yesterday in bed, just chillaxing and watching Youtube videos. My wife and kid were away at her mum’s. It was chilly from the rain. I snuggled up in bed, under a toasty blanket, just consuming cheap entertainment.
Lame, I know.
What a super unproductive way to spend a nice Sunday. And probably unhealthy too – so much screen time and cheap dopamine.
But I enjoyed it immensely. I realised I’ve not done that since… I can’t even remember the last time I had the time and space to do that. I’ve not given myself the permission to just be lazy for so long. Even on my day off, I’m working, caring, fulfilling obligations and responsibilities. For the past 3 years.
I need more of this.
It’s not about chillaxing in bed watching Youtube. It’s not about being entertained, nor the content being consumed. It’s not about being alone.
It’s about giving myself permission to just be lazy. GUILT-FREE permission.
So much of my stress is wrapped up in my roles and duties. Letting myself off the hook for a day or half, is one of the best ways to decompress and manage those stress levels.
Be lazy.
Lame, I know.
What a super unproductive way to spend a nice Sunday. And probably unhealthy too – so much screen time and cheap dopamine.
But I enjoyed it immensely. I realised I’ve not done that since… I can’t even remember the last time I had the time and space to do that. I’ve not given myself the permission to just be lazy for so long. Even on my day off, I’m working, caring, fulfilling obligations and responsibilities. For the past 3 years.
I need more of this.
It’s not about chillaxing in bed watching Youtube. It’s not about being entertained, nor the content being consumed. It’s not about being alone.
It’s about giving myself permission to just be lazy. GUILT-FREE permission.
So much of my stress is wrapped up in my roles and duties. Letting myself off the hook for a day or half, is one of the best ways to decompress and manage those stress levels.
Be lazy.
Day 682 - Restarting from zero - https://golifelog.com/posts/restarting-from-zero-1668326266345
"Big companies and repeat entrepreneurs struggle to go from zero to one because they refuse to restart at zero." – [@naval](https://twitter.com/naval/status/1578435113766961153)
This is something I've been musing over, something I feel I want when it comes to my indie solopreneur journey.
*What does it truly feel like to restart from zero?*
- Spending the past 3 months away from building my products gave some perspective. I guess this is the kind of detox that helps you restart. Maybe 3 months isn't enough to actually go all the way back to zero, but too much and I fear I might forget altogether.
- To read other advice, tips and hacks on the internet and go, "We'll try and see" instead of lapping it up like a puppy dog. Healthy skepticism.
- To get disapproval and negative opinions from others—peers, friends, even folks you look up to—and not flinch. Same healthy skepticism.
- To have beginner's mind and ask "Why not?" instead of "No that's not how it's usually done." I kept thinking back at a decade ago when I just started and I was just making things up, improvising as I went. I want to go back full circle, to that blank slate.
- Not having assumptions that I know anything at all, and not having expectations that things will happen how I envision it.
- A state of relaxed focus, a kind of flow state, where I not too tight in my focus, yet also loose enough to look up and about, to see other opportunities popping up. Even relaxed enough to go for stroll online or offline to flaneur and wander.
Restarting from zero, now.
This is something I've been musing over, something I feel I want when it comes to my indie solopreneur journey.
*What does it truly feel like to restart from zero?*
- Spending the past 3 months away from building my products gave some perspective. I guess this is the kind of detox that helps you restart. Maybe 3 months isn't enough to actually go all the way back to zero, but too much and I fear I might forget altogether.
- To read other advice, tips and hacks on the internet and go, "We'll try and see" instead of lapping it up like a puppy dog. Healthy skepticism.
- To get disapproval and negative opinions from others—peers, friends, even folks you look up to—and not flinch. Same healthy skepticism.
- To have beginner's mind and ask "Why not?" instead of "No that's not how it's usually done." I kept thinking back at a decade ago when I just started and I was just making things up, improvising as I went. I want to go back full circle, to that blank slate.
- Not having assumptions that I know anything at all, and not having expectations that things will happen how I envision it.
- A state of relaxed focus, a kind of flow state, where I not too tight in my focus, yet also loose enough to look up and about, to see other opportunities popping up. Even relaxed enough to go for stroll online or offline to flaneur and wander.
Restarting from zero, now.
Day 681 - Deploy straight to production - https://golifelog.com/posts/deploy-straight-to-production-1668235729994
One of the ‘secrets’ to @levelsio’s productivity is how he git commits straight to production with CMD+D:
"I commit with CMD+Enter git shortcut, no commit messages, straight to production. When I am coding I might be committing 3 times per minute or more etc. Uptime 99.99% no issues. I’m a bit different though 😅 This isn’t advice"
That resonated because that’s what I want to do too. I remember when I was coding Sheet2Bio, I enjoyed the process so much because I could play with code on Codepen, then edit the code directly in Github web and commit directly to production with a click of a button (Netlify takes care of everything). None of that nonsense of logging into Heroku, firing up terminal, writing a commit note, waiting for code to bundle while praying that nothing breaks, deploying to a staging site, and then repeat everything for production. All even if it’s just a single line of code, or a random style change.
That whole process is a barrier to constantly improving and working on my projects, like Lifelog. Whereas for Sheet2Bio when I was building it I was committing multiple times per day, because it’s all just HTML, CSS and Javascript!
I think Sheet2Bio opened up my eyes to what I prefer when it comes to coding my own products, even if that’s not considered industry best practice. @levelsio own self-taught approach resonated because it showed how it’s possible to build products that way.
With serverless and edge computing becoming more mainstream and convenient, I can imagine this approach to be easy to adopt.
Is it possible to build secure, performant SaaS using HTML, CSS and vanilla Javascript? No Javascript frameworks, no bundles, no npm. No installing of special software just to start coding, or to deploy. Everything goes to Github, and something like Netlify or Cloudflare will continuously deploy on a code commit.
Can’t wait to experiment more in this!
"I commit with CMD+Enter git shortcut, no commit messages, straight to production. When I am coding I might be committing 3 times per minute or more etc. Uptime 99.99% no issues. I’m a bit different though 😅 This isn’t advice"
That resonated because that’s what I want to do too. I remember when I was coding Sheet2Bio, I enjoyed the process so much because I could play with code on Codepen, then edit the code directly in Github web and commit directly to production with a click of a button (Netlify takes care of everything). None of that nonsense of logging into Heroku, firing up terminal, writing a commit note, waiting for code to bundle while praying that nothing breaks, deploying to a staging site, and then repeat everything for production. All even if it’s just a single line of code, or a random style change.
That whole process is a barrier to constantly improving and working on my projects, like Lifelog. Whereas for Sheet2Bio when I was building it I was committing multiple times per day, because it’s all just HTML, CSS and Javascript!
I think Sheet2Bio opened up my eyes to what I prefer when it comes to coding my own products, even if that’s not considered industry best practice. @levelsio own self-taught approach resonated because it showed how it’s possible to build products that way.
With serverless and edge computing becoming more mainstream and convenient, I can imagine this approach to be easy to adopt.
Is it possible to build secure, performant SaaS using HTML, CSS and vanilla Javascript? No Javascript frameworks, no bundles, no npm. No installing of special software just to start coding, or to deploy. Everything goes to Github, and something like Netlify or Cloudflare will continuously deploy on a code commit.
Can’t wait to experiment more in this!
Day 680 - Irony of indie freedom - https://golifelog.com/posts/irony-of-indie-freedom-1668158472034
I hated a 9-5, so I quit and started working 24/7 on my own products. 😅🙃
The irony isn’t lost on me. And the funny thing is, this story is way more common amongst founders than we admit. But I’m a willing victim here. Truth is, ownership of my misery changes everything. I own all the pains and gains. I can adjust my schedule and workload if I should so choose otherwise, not at the mercy of someone else. Everyone’s less free due to having to work, but I get to choose what will make me less free.
It’s the freedom.
Of course the caveat is: the 24/7 is not the aim here. It’s a consequence of (hopefully) a founder in the early stages of his startup. Burnout is real. Not here to make small of the ill effects of 24/7 hustling. No badges given here for coding late at night till early morning, working on weekends, missing out on major life events like your child’s birthday or wedding anniversary. I do recognise the early days building a business needs some hustling, but I’m constantly seeking to balance with family and personal time. Hard but trying.
I’m only human. When I do have to burn the candle on both ends, I whine and grumble. But taking a step back, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I’m living my best life and career, and I want to balance it better all the more to keep having this chance to live it.
The easiest part of it all – working on your own thing often doesn’t feel like work.
I can do this all day.
The irony isn’t lost on me. And the funny thing is, this story is way more common amongst founders than we admit. But I’m a willing victim here. Truth is, ownership of my misery changes everything. I own all the pains and gains. I can adjust my schedule and workload if I should so choose otherwise, not at the mercy of someone else. Everyone’s less free due to having to work, but I get to choose what will make me less free.
It’s the freedom.
Of course the caveat is: the 24/7 is not the aim here. It’s a consequence of (hopefully) a founder in the early stages of his startup. Burnout is real. Not here to make small of the ill effects of 24/7 hustling. No badges given here for coding late at night till early morning, working on weekends, missing out on major life events like your child’s birthday or wedding anniversary. I do recognise the early days building a business needs some hustling, but I’m constantly seeking to balance with family and personal time. Hard but trying.
I’m only human. When I do have to burn the candle on both ends, I whine and grumble. But taking a step back, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I’m living my best life and career, and I want to balance it better all the more to keep having this chance to live it.
The easiest part of it all – working on your own thing often doesn’t feel like work.
I can do this all day.
Day 679 - Black Friday buys - https://golifelog.com/posts/black-friday-buys-1668034220083
Black Friday’s coming. Some things I’m looking out for:
• Carrd subscription for 100 sites! I’ve looked forward to the yearly BF sale on Carrd for a few years now. It was 40% last year – a substantial discount in BF land. This time, I’m not just renewing but upgrading too, to 100 sites. Need more space to hold all those templates I’m making and all the expansion plans for my Plugins For Carrd business!
• The defining buys this BF is probably all from Leela Quantum tech. I don’t understand enough about the tech but it seems to have a noticeable effect on me after trying the HEAL capsule and prosperity card. They have 25% off for BF now.
- The [travel bloc](https://leelaq.com/leela-travel-car-bloc/, a quantum energy generator to protect the household from harmful energies and provide vitalizing quantum energy and supportive frequencies for general well-being.
- The abundance card for both me and my wife to help us create abundance in our life, and unblock any scarcity deficits.
- The calm and rest card for sleep. This will be interesting for my sleep biohacking! With such poor quality sleep lately, I’m quite looking forward to experimenting with this.
• The Mute snoring tech starter pack was a nobrainer immediate buy for me as I recognised it solved a clear and present problem for my sleep – my nasal passage narrowing when I lie down, making it hard to breathe and causing the snoring issues I had all along. Mouth taping didn’t work because I still needed to breathe somehow, and I would unconsciously tear them off in my sleep. I’ve been using Mute for some months now, and I can feel an incremental improvement. It’s not a huge lifesaver, but I can feel it helps open up my inner nasal passage a bit more. Definitely worth investing in getting a few more as backups. No BF discount spotted yet!
So what Black Friday buys are you thinking of? Do share!
• Carrd subscription for 100 sites! I’ve looked forward to the yearly BF sale on Carrd for a few years now. It was 40% last year – a substantial discount in BF land. This time, I’m not just renewing but upgrading too, to 100 sites. Need more space to hold all those templates I’m making and all the expansion plans for my Plugins For Carrd business!
• The defining buys this BF is probably all from Leela Quantum tech. I don’t understand enough about the tech but it seems to have a noticeable effect on me after trying the HEAL capsule and prosperity card. They have 25% off for BF now.
- The [travel bloc](https://leelaq.com/leela-travel-car-bloc/, a quantum energy generator to protect the household from harmful energies and provide vitalizing quantum energy and supportive frequencies for general well-being.
- The abundance card for both me and my wife to help us create abundance in our life, and unblock any scarcity deficits.
- The calm and rest card for sleep. This will be interesting for my sleep biohacking! With such poor quality sleep lately, I’m quite looking forward to experimenting with this.
• The Mute snoring tech starter pack was a nobrainer immediate buy for me as I recognised it solved a clear and present problem for my sleep – my nasal passage narrowing when I lie down, making it hard to breathe and causing the snoring issues I had all along. Mouth taping didn’t work because I still needed to breathe somehow, and I would unconsciously tear them off in my sleep. I’ve been using Mute for some months now, and I can feel an incremental improvement. It’s not a huge lifesaver, but I can feel it helps open up my inner nasal passage a bit more. Definitely worth investing in getting a few more as backups. No BF discount spotted yet!
So what Black Friday buys are you thinking of? Do share!