Lifelog

If you have a business that can’t operate without you being there;
It’s not a business
It’s a job
~ @Entrepreneurfo3

Ouch. That hit a sore spot.

Indeed. Looking through my product portfolio on Makerlog, I have 22 products. One or two on hiatus, some on maintenance, a handful are active. But all require me to be there.

I often refer them as businesses, but truly, are they businesses if I’m working for it instead it working for me? Is it really a company if the processes are not systematized and replicable, that anyone can come in to do it on my behalf, without me?

... since I'm planning to focus more on goals for Lifelog, makes sense that there should be tweets about goals too, not just about writing.

Money is infinite, time is limited.

If we look at it purely from a cost perspective, I should really be buying anything that costs less than the amount of time I spend on it, based on my aspirational hourly rate.

(A × B) − C
where
A = Amount of time spent doing it myself
B = My aspirational hourly rate
C = Price of product/manpower

What time can I buy now, as a baby start? Perhaps:

• A few hours of virtual assistant time every month to do absolutely boring admin work
• If public transport takes twice the time or more than a cab, I’ll take a cab
• Paying for grocery delivery - the time it takes to commute to the supermarket takes longer

Any other suggestions?

• scheduled tweets for whole August, featuring quotes about writing from famous writers
• started using typefully to schedule tweets - so much easier!
• organic Twitter engagement
• started using personal acc instead to engage on writing tweets

• tweeted out another thread on personal acc
• organic engagement on Lifelog acc

What does compounding work look like?

t’s hard to identify compounding work because it’s hard to measure if the increase/growth is “interest on interest”. I can imagine some good habits like reading, writing, exercise, diet as potentially compounding, but I can also recall reading many books which didn’t amount to much at all. So how we do it seems to be key – it has to somehow build an “interest on interest” increase, not just an incremental increase.

compounding work would have these attributes:

• Recurring, unsexy habits (or even boring)
• Aligned to your existing store of knowledge, assets or skills
• Has an “interest on interest” amplification to the returns on your time/effort
• Actually moves the needle, give measurable, tangible progress
• Only things that you are uniquely capable of doing
• Scalable, beyond yourself and your time

What if I prioritized only that which compounds? What if I only did things that has a compounding effect? What would happen if I ignored non-compounding work completely?

Wow today was on busy day on Twitter... what happened there??

• Twitter thread on production-first and distribution-first really hit a spot. I guess some degree of controversy really does help huh..
• 4am posts started getting more attn too...people seem to just vibe with it, not sure what to make of it
• sent out another thread on personal acc based on Lifelog post

Been learning a lot about rich vs poor money mindsets, and here’s some I’m working on right now:

• Make money work for me, not me working for money
• Buys time, not wastes time
• Multiple income streams instead of one
• Net worth-driven, not income-driven
• You can be rich and be ethical

What other important mindsets did I miss?

• tweeted a thread based off a Lifelog post on personal acc
• chatted with more folks about finding distribution channel
• organic engagement and sent out links to "making time to write" tweet via Lifelog acc
• review content strat

There’s a phrase going around on Twitter that I hear a lot. That first-time founders focus on product, second-time founders focus on distribution. I wonder if I’m going through that now, the hard way.

So what gives?

What if I went distribution-first for a product?

Find a growing market and a reliable and sustainable distribution channel first, before even making the product?

For an existing product, how about finding a distribution channel and then shaping the marketing and product around it instead?

What are the conditions that might favour a product-first approach? When should I use distribution-first approach instead?

I don’t know. I have more questions than answers now.

• Scheduled a tweet on Lifelog acc
• Tweeted out a thread of a Lifelog post on my personal acc
• Asked more qns on Twitter about finding the right distribution channel
• More thinking and plotting

How to say no:

"Great to hear from you. Taking a break from networking in person because I’m focusing time on new priorities. Sincerely wishing you the best on your new project."
- Simple. To the point. Asserting boundaries by giving an reason. Yet polite and positive.

Even better:
"Thanks for the invite. Apologies I’m not available for speaking at this event. All the best for your proceedings."
- Don't have to explain yourself or give a reason for saying no

Saying no is much easier than it feels.

• DMed some indie hacker folks to learn about how they manage personal vs brand Twitter accounts
• Scheduled tweets for Lifelog - reusing organic replies as standalone tweets scheduled for future publishing
• Trying out Naval-esque style tweets - just 1-2 lines, succinct, punchy, inspiring, useful
• Started another week of Twitter ad campaign, with improvements to key words and follower look-alikes
• Tweeted a thread from one of my Lifelog posts on personal acc

“There’s magic in what you did before 10 years of age.” ~ Scott Adams.

I'm constantly confused if I should use my personal acc to engage or the Lifelog one. When should I use what? Use Lifelog acc when promoting? Use personal when chatting?

What's the pros and cons over each?

Maybe I should have just stuck to personal since it's simpler, and I can accrue social capital via my personal brand rather than a faceless 'corporate' acc?

It’s always Day One at Amazon, said Jeff Bezos. That’s an aspiration for Amazon, that it will always act like a startup, no matter its size. To Bezos, Day Two is stasis, which leads to irrelevance and decline.

Always be in Day One, he said.

• My best tweets so far are the threads I wrote in April! It shouldn't be surprising, but I was. It didn't seem to do that well in April, but they are clearly in the front now with constant retweets and sharing. Makes complete sense.

• Ad audience were overwhelmingly majority from India - wuttt? Like, how, why? I always thought my target was US folks... I wonder if it's a one-off thing. Interesting insight.

More analysis to come...

There are only 3 strategies…
• Try again
• Try harder
• Try something else
~ @julia_saxena via @joshskaja

This really helps in clarifying my thinking, and making my approach to marketing for Lifelog a bit more methodical. I don’t think I’m at the stage of trying something else yet. Need more data. Let’s start from the top of the list, and go down in sequence.

I need to do something different. Organic engagement is great and all, but not working as well as I would like it.

What else can I do? The more automated the better.

• Trying Twitter ads now.
• More long form content?
• Posting site on directories?
• Engineering-as-marketing?
• Reddit?

BUT before throwing spaghetti on the wall, I need more real-world data. Which kinds of tweets are working, which ones isn't. Which platforms work better.

It’s unreasonable, this beauty of normalcy. You can’t reason with it, because it was dropped upon us and we were thrust into it, kicking and screaming. We didn’t want to have to appreciate such normalcy, but now we do.

If there’s any one lesson from 2020-21 that I’m learning, it is this. The things we all took for granted previously, the normal things, are actually the precious things.

I wished I didn’t have to learn this lesson, yet I can’t bargain or reason my way out of this situation. Aren’t we all?

This unreasonable beauty of normalcy.

"Focus on what you can control, not on what you cannot control.
Focus on the possibilities, not dead-ends.
Focus on what you can do, not on what you cannot do.
Focus on the present, not the past/future.
Focus on what you can contribute, not on what you can take."
~ @fatehshernu

Tiny steps:

• Tweeted thread on personal Tw acc, based on a Lifelog post
• Organic commenting via @golifelog acc
• Scheduled 1 tweet