Jordan O'Connor

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” is a quote from @naval.

What I think it means is this: you should think about the final result of your actions before deciding to do something. And if the final result is stupid, then the game is stupid (and, you probably shouldn’t be playing it).

I experienced this in full force the other day.

On X (twitter) I had a post go viral. It wasn’t necessarily political, but a political twist made it triggering for people who have strong opinions about politics.

It got over 20M views on X and millions more on other platforms.

For years I have been building my X audience, somewhat hoping that it would be a good source of traffic for any businesses that I make in the future or projects I start.

But, lately, that’s just not the case.

I have a sizable audience, almost 20k followers, but unless I am pushing out expert educational content every day, it basically results to no value at all to me.

It would be one thing if I made friends on there, which I have, but most of it isn’t physically real. I don’t have anyone’s phone numbers, or have met any of them in real life (except for @jackbutcher).

It would be another thing if it was entertaining and fun, which it is sometimes, but other times it’s depressing and stressful. It’s a very serious and polarized platform. There are people who post jokes and irony all the time, but even that becomes polarizing.

And so at the end of the day I was basically trying to post in a way that I thought was entertaining to other people and something that would drive engagement.

The goal was to get to the point where I could get paid to post. The X creator program. You had to get 5M impressions in the last 3 months.

When I posted that latest post, I got that many impressions and more, and I was invited to the program. Awesome. Mission accomplished.

But, what was the actual prize?

I was basically attacked by thousands of people for no purpose. It’s not like the post made me rich, or saved my life, helped anyone, or anything like that.

And so when I think about the final result of constantly publishing on Social Media, I get the sense that prize is stupid, since, when I got to my “goal” it was essentially meaningless, and therefore the game is stupid.

This reminds me of another @naval quote (I suppose he’s pretty wise). He says, “You want to be rich and anonymous, not poor and famous.”

Which, if you look at that viral tweet, the full extent of that game is being poor and famous.

More people know about me, but I’m not getting anything of value as a result.

Stupid prize == stupid game.

BUT. I still think helping people and providing value for people is the most valuable use of my time. That’s what actually leads to me being “rich”. Providing real value.

And so I ask myself a question that I have actually asked myself many times, “how can I help lots of people without social media?”. Or, “If I didn’t have social media, how would I build a business on the Internet?”.

And it always. ALWAYS leads me back to writing and using SEO & email as a marketing channel.

There are so many advantages to operating in this way.

You’re not distracted by a feed that’s designed to hold your attention.
The people searching for stuff are actually interested in reading what you have written.
You’re providing value to people who actually need it.
You own all of the data and assets on your own site, rather than it all being on another platform.
Billions of people are searching every day. Only millions are using X.
Social media platforms are for entertainment. Search is for getting real work done.

The list goes on.

And so, what I am going to do is switch gears. No more posting on social media. Only posting on my own websites, providing value the best way I know how, and building real businesses that provide real value to people who actually want to receive it.

The trouble is, I’m out of a habit of writing, so I need to get back into writing every day. Starting with 1000 words a day, and increasing from there.

I love all the great people on X, and I wish you all the best. For me, the value isn’t there. And it’s time to take life seriously again.

Doctors hate this one weird trick!

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

“I’ve had a migraine all day.” – Sept. 20, 2022

“I’ve got a full blown migraine. I’m just in a lot of pain.” – May 1, 2023

“My head just hurts. I didn’t want to take anything but moving more just makes it hurt.” – Sept. 16, 2023

“Advil is the only thing strong enough for my crazy migraines.” – Nov. 18, 2023

“I don’t feel good at all. Beginning of a migraine. Sick to my stomach. Not sure why.” – Dec. 1, 2023

“My eyes feel really sensitive. But it’s hard to know if that’s because of the migraine, or what caused it…” – Dec. 1, 2023

“I just hate that I feel like I have to push so hard and get a migraine to get meaningful work done…” – Feb. 16, 2024

“I just hate that I feel like I have to push so hard and get a migraine to get meaningful work done…” – Feb. 16, 2024

“Woke up with a migraine…” – Mar. 27, 2024

These are real texts that I sent to my wife over the past few years.

I just did a quick search on my phone. There are more. It’s pretty wild looking back and seeing how often I was debilitated by a migraine.

I tried everything. Diet. Exercise. Going to bed on time. Less screen time. Chiropractor. The whole nine yards.

Nothing worked. The migraines always came back. I would get them weekly. Sometimes multiple times a week.

I’m happy to report that after several years of desperation, I finally figured out the cure. I’ve been migraine free for over three months now, and there hasn’t been a hint of them ever coming back.

The cool thing about the cure is it actually is a cure for a lot of health issues, specifically auto-immune diseases.

The solution being: sunlight in your eyes.

Let’s dig in.

Why sunlight in your eyes works

if you don’t have a lot of time to read, I want you to internalize these next several lines:

Your body has melanin on the inside. Actually, much more than it has on the outside.

Melanin absorbs light. Why would there be melanin inside your body if it’s not exposed to light?

Well, it is, and it’s through your eyes.

The sun acts as a biological clock. Light is information to your internal body.

The sun controls what’s called your circadian rhythm. Without sunlight in your eyes, the inside of your body doesn’t know what time it is, so it doesn’t know what it’s supposed to be doing.

Mitochondria produce energy in every cell of your body.

If they don’t get sunlight information, they don’t start producing ATP.

ATP is used as the primary energy source for most biochemical and physiological processes in your body.

So, if you don’t get sunlight in your eyes throughout the day, your mitochondria don’t produce the energy your body needs.

Similarly, if you don’t get sunlight in your eyes, your body doesn’t know when to start shutting down and getting ready for sleep.

Your circadian rhythm gets messed up, which causes you to sleep terribly, which leads to your body not being strong enough to fight off disease and repair itself.

There’s much more science and data behind why sunlight in your eyes is important for your body. I’ll link to some podcasts at the end.

But that’s basically it. If you don’t get sunlight in your eyes your body literally can’t produce the energy it needs to sustain itself, and you literally start dying.

How I came upon sunlight as the cure

In short, Dr. Jack Kruse.

I was first exposed to Jack by Jack (thanks Jack!).

Dr. Jack Kruse is a brain surgeon. He has a pretty interesting backstory. I won’t go into it here, as he covers it in multiple podcasts, but essentially he discovered sunlight was a critical piece to curing lots of diseases and helping people lose weight quickly.

It was working so well for his clients that he got invited to do a TED talk about it.

The video got banned a month later because big Pharma didn’t like it.

And for good reason! If people knew about this one weird trick there wouldn’t be a need for all those drugs. Untold $billions are generated by keeping this information hidden.

After listening to a few of his podcasts, starting with his 7 hour 2-part stint with Dr. Andrew Huberman, I decided that I needed to try out this light thing.

And boy. It was night and day (literally and figuratively).

The Protocol

You don’t need a ton of sunlight to get your body functioning properly. Just enough to let it know what time it is (though, more never hurts).

I get a half-hour of sunlight in my eyes in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

In the morning I look towards the sun as it’s rising. Usually with some coffee. In the afternoon and evening I’m usually just outside.

The sun puts out different bandwidths of light depending on what time of day it is. It’s more red in the morning and evening, and white in the afternoon. This is the information your body needs to know what it is supposed to be doing.

Don’t try to get sunlight through a window. It’s better than nothing, but it’s not the same, because it filters different bandwidths of light and it doesn’t allow UV light to hit your eyes.

Also apparently I have to say this, but don’t look directly at the sun. It’s bad for your eyes. I look in the direction of the sun, but not directly at it.

And that’s really it! The simple act of getting sunlight in my eyes three times a day has completely eliminated my migraines.

Blue light toxicity

If you’re like me, you’re on a computer the majority of the day.

As a developer/digital marketer/saas operator, if I am not on my computer typing something I’m not getting work done.

Here’s the thing though. Screens are bad for your eyes. They’re bad for two reasons:

Blue light
Flickering

It’s not that blue light specifically is bad for your body. The sun puts out a ton of blue light.

But excessive blue light completely confuses your internal organs. Because the sun puts out red in the morning and evening, and more blue in the afternoon, if you get excessive blue light then your body continually thinks it’s the middle of the day.

This is why it’s hard to fall asleep after staring at a screen for hours before bed.

This is why you wake up feeling terrible after binge-watching YouTube Shorts for hours the night before.

Your body thought it was the middle of the day. Now it’s suddenly time to sleep? Not so fast.

Your body has to shift gears too quickly and it makes you sleep terribly.

Sleeping terribly consistently evaporates your immune system.

This leads you to being sick all the time, having a lack of energy, and obtaining terrible auto-immune diseases and symptoms.

The sad thing is, most people will go to a general doctor and get prescribed medication.

The medication simply masks the symptoms without solving the root cause.

And then you’re sick for life (and very profitable to the pharmaceutical companies).

Doctors quite literally hate this one weird trick.

So get your sunlight in your eyes. Avoid artificial light when the sun is down if you can.

And if you can’t avoid artificial light, make sure it’s as red as possible so your body knows it’s the end of the day and not the middle of the day.

If you take this seriously it can change your life

If you are someone who struggles with migraines or other auto-immune issues, consider giving sunlight in your eyes a try.

It has completely changed my life. I have so much more energy every day. I don’t lose 1-2 work days a week because I am bed-ridden. I don’t have to take pain killers anymore. And, I spend more time outside, which has it’s own laundry list of benefits.

Here are some of the podcasts I’ve listened to that can give you more information about the science behind why this works:

At the time when kings go off to war

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have a confession to make.

I haven’t been working nearly as much as I should have been, nor as much as I claim to have been over the last couple of years.

It’s easy to blame it on Covid, or the economy, or acquiring 5 children over the last 7 years. But in reality I was distracted, and not putting myself in an environment where I could work productively.

This essay is about the good things that happen when you actually put in the work, and what happens when you do not. It’s about King David in the Bible, and how his work impacted his life.

Luck will find you working

Many people live their life assuming that some people are lucky, and others are not. They just happen to be an unlucky person. Otherwise, why is their life so hard and the outcomes never what they expect?

While it is true that there is a lot of variance in life, and an unending number of bad things can happen to you that are out of your control, there are also an unending number of good things that can happen to you to counteract the bad.

The caveat is, you will only get lucky while you are doing meaningful work, or after having done meaningful work.

It’s only when you provide value in the world and use it to help other people that you begin to experience luck that can earn you multiple lifetimes of income, love, and success.

You will not experience this luck by resting, sitting around, and waiting for luck to happen.

In the Bible, in 1 Samuel 16, Samuel the prophet is seeking out the anointed king of Israel (after Saul proved himself to be unfaithful).

God leads him to the house of Jesse, and assumes that the anointed king is the eldest son, who was the strongest and most handsome of the boys.

But, God told him in verse 7:

“Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

The story continues in verse 11 after all the other sons were rejected, and finally David is suggested:

So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”

Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”

David didn’t intend to be King. He didn’t set out to do anything great. He had a heart after God (i.e. a lack of selfishness), and diligently did valuable work. It’s the ultimate recipe for luck.

In my own life I have only experienced luck when I put myself out there and did meaningful work.

No one has ever given me an opportunity that I did not earn, or that I didn’t work to create on my own.

There is no replacement for doing the work, and doing meaningful work consistently that will get you where you want to go in life.

Work prepares you for challenges

There is an unending amount of work to be done, and you are designed to do it.

To be valuable in a society, to contribute meaningfully to other people, and to sustain yourself and your family, you need to be working and working hard.

Whether you’re in the world building for other people, or you’re at home maintaining a family, there is work to be done day in and day out.

Through this consistent work, you learn how to navigate and tackle all the things life throws at you.

Work isn’t pretty. And you’ll almost never be working on things you love. In fact, a lot of times the thing you work on is the thing that kills you.

Back to David, in 1 Samuel 17, Goliath is taunting the Israelites. He poses a challenge: If someone fights him and wins, the Philistines will surrender. If Goliath wins, the Israelites surrender.

David hears this and is immediately stirred to action, and knows he can defeat Goliath.

Here he is in verse 34 talking to Saul, the king of Israel:

“But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.’”

The reason David was so confident that he could kill Goliath was because he had already done this many times. David put in the work, fighting the things that could kill him and his work, and in return he was filled with skills, knowledge, and confidence that allowed him to prove himself when it mattered.

What if David only fled when danger arose? What if David simply gave up shepherding once he realized it was hard and dangerous?

You know the rest of the story of David and Goliath. It wasn’t an accident he came out victorious.

In my own life there are several different challenging aspects of life that I have unreasonable confidence and peace about. It’s not because I am different, but it’s because I have done the work. I know what it looks like, I know how to tackle it, and I know how to move forward.

Had I not done the work to figure out what it takes to be successful, I would have a much harder time making progress (as many people do).

Working prevents you from destruction

At a fundamental level, more time spend working diligently means less time goofing off and getting into trouble.

Now, obviously, there is a line to be drawn. I’m not advocating for being a workaholic, and neglecting other areas in your life. But, spending less time doing things you should not be doing is a huge win for longevity and success in your life.

But doing the work also allows you to counteract destruction. If something happens and you need more money, you know how to get more money. If something happens and you need to work hard to get through it, you can get through it.

If something happens and you haven’t been working hard and you’re not prepared for it, then you might be in a world of trouble.

Hard work prepares you for a better life.

We’re back to David. This time, it’s not a great story. It’s a story about David not doing what he was supposed to be doing, and getting into trouble.

In 2 Samuel 11:1, it says this:

“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.”

At the time when kings go off to war… David (now king of Israel) remained in Jerusalem. Huh.

You see, David was supposed to be out at war. He was supposed to be working. He was supposed to be leading. But, he decided to stay home. Kick back, and relax.

After all, he’s the king now. Kings, if anyone, deserve some rest, right?

Well, let’s see what happened to David:

“One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, ‘She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home.”

David was supposed to be working, and he found himself at home with all the women in the city while all the other men were out at war.

Sleeping with another man’s wife isn’t even the worst of it. She got pregnant, and David tried to cover it up by sending her Husband to the front-lines of battle to have him killed.

Then, the child died soon after birth as a consequence for the evil he committed.

David could have avoided all of these problems had he been doing the work he was supposed to be doing.

Now, I’m not saying that nothing bad will happen to you if you do the work you should be doing, but I can say that in my own life, the only times I have got into trouble is when I though about myself and what I wanted instead of putting myself aside and getting to work helping other people.

Work when times are good, so you can work when times are bad

It’s obvious when you think about it, but working hard when times are good to acquire resources (money, assets, time, etc) helps you sustain when times are bad (bad economies, unfortunate circumstances, etc.).

Solomon encapsulates this idea in Ecclesiastes 11 (read the whole thing slowly):

Cast your bread upon the waters,
For you will find it after many days.
Give a serving to seven, and also to eight,
For you do not know what evil will be on the earth.

If the clouds are full of rain,
They empty themselves upon the earth;
And if a tree falls to the south or the north,
In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie.
He who observes the wind will not sow,
And he who regards the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know what is the way of the wind,
Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child,
So you do not know the works of God who makes everything.
In the morning sow your seed,
And in the evening do not withhold your hand;
For you do not know which will prosper,
Either this or that,
Or whether both alike will be good.

Truly the light is sweet,
And it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun;
But if a man lives many years
And rejoices in them all,
Yet let him remember the days of darkness,
For they will be many.
All that is coming is vanity.

You don’t know when bad times are coming, and they will come.

You don’t know when you need to be prepared for something bad to happen.

You should invest in many different things, and invest often. You should be sowing seeds that will reap a harvest later on in life.

If you only work when you feel like working, or when you need to work, you will be caught unprepared for what life throws at you.

This has certainly happened in my own life. I’ve had to do things in the short term to make money because I was not prepared for things to go wrong in business (or in my personal life).

Working is gratefulness (and a duty)

The ability to work is a blessing. There are people who cannot work, and cannot earn a living, because of certain circumstances.

Because you have the ability to work hard, it is your duty to work hard. This is most beneficial for you, and for others.

Optimizing your work around ease and rest will lead to an unfulfilling life. When you make it all about yourself, and not about helping others, it leads to a default position of selfishness.

A long term thinker knows that what’s good for others is good for themselves.

In the Bible, in Luke 12:48, Jesus says:

“To whom much is given, much is required.”

This should be the default attitude of someone who is capable of working. It leads to a successful, impactful, and fulfilling life.

By working hard you’re using what you have been given to give back to others. To have been given much, and to not use it to help others and serve others, is a default position of selfishness and ultimately your own destruction.

Rest in accomplishment

Rest is very important. This essay is about work, but work isn’t possible unless you’re actually able to do it. Part of doing good work is doing good rest.

But, you shouldn’t rest before doing the work that you need to do. Rest is the reward for working hard and accomplishing what you set out to do.

By resting before you work, you are disincentivizing your work. All of a sudden it becomes the thing that disrupts your rest, instead of the thing that earns you rest.

Once again, this boils down to your level of selfishness. If you always regard how you feel, you would probably rest more often.

But if you rest too often, you might need to work when you should be resting, and it leads to an unsustainable lifestyle that leads to burnout and a host of other problems.

The Bible is so bullish on rest, that God even made it the 4th law of the 10 commandments to the Israelites in the Old Testament.

The Sabbath day is a mirror of what God did when creating the world. He made all that he did on earth in 6 days, and rested on the 7th.

And that’s the approach we should take as humans designed to work. Work hard, and then rest in accomplishment. This will ensure what needs to get done gets done, and you also are allowed to rest fully and recover to be able to continue working hard.

There’s more I could write in this essay, but I think I made my points.

Work needs to be done, and work is inevitable. Working hard not only gets the work done, but prevents you from distractions and destruction, helps you when times get tough, and allows for luck to become part of the equation of success in your life.

Conviction

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Your level of conviction will determine your level of achievement.

I’ve been thinking a lot about conviction.

The ability to be so staunch about an idea that it causes you to reject anything that’s not that idea.

When you start to observe people who are leaders, or successful, or popular, you begin to realize that they truly believe in something.

They believe in it so much that it causes them to take action, and to place bets in the direction of that idea.

I believe that depth of conviction might be one of the most important behaviors in a human life.

If you don’t have conviction, you’ll wander aimlessly and be led astray.

If you have conviction, you’ll take specific action and lead others in the same direction.

Commitment to the bit

You might not realize it, but you love people with strong convictions.

They’re edgy. Controversial. Against the grain. Willing to die on a hill for their cause.

Sometimes it’s even at a level of cringe that makes you feel bad for them.

And that’s the idea. It makes you feel something.

“Commit to the bit” is a phrase used in comedy. It’s not hard to understand: simply double down and go where most people wouldn’t go. Cross the line. Make people uncomfortable.

It’s this commitment to the bit that separates the good from the mediocre. The legends from the average.

You might not like the bit. But that’s okay. It’s not for you.

But there’s another bit that you like. Another bit that you resonate with. Another bit that makes you feel something and makes you rethink some of your core behaviors.

People with strong convictions make a difference in the world. They’re able to lead people. Rally people behind ideas. Move people to action.

If you want to be an effective leader, or if you want to make an impact on people, or if you want to generate attention, commit to the bit.

Better to be hot or cold

In the Bible, in Revelation 3:15-17, Jesus makes mention of this idea. He says:

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

No one likes a room-temperature drink. They like hot coffee. They like ice cold water. A room-temperature drink has no value and will be rejected.

Similarly, in regards to your actions, going halvsies on something you believe in will cause you to be rejected.

You don’t get the benefits of believing in something if you don’t take action on that belief.

You only receive the benefits if you are hot or you are cold. You only receive the benefits if you take a strong position. You only receive the benefits if you commit to the bit.

The wonderful thing about this idea is that, the ideas from other side do not matter.

If you’re sufficiently convicted about an idea, there is no question of it’s validity. You simply behave as if there is no other way to live.

This unlocks levels of satisfaction in your life that you may have never experienced before.

Single mindedness

In the Bible, in James 1:8, James writes:

“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

When you don’t have conviction about who you are, about what you’re doing, about what you’re never doing, and about where you are going, you will never achieve anything or make progress.

When you don’t know who you are and what you’re about, you can’t make good decisions.

When you can’t make good decisions, you’re aimless. Wandering around. Looking for something to project yourself on to make you feel something.

You become a follower. You follow other people that are single minded. They know what they are doing. “Maybe I’ll do this, maybe I’ll try that …”

Double mindedness is a trap that causes you to become ineffective.

You don’t want to be like this.

Become single minded.

Double down on what you believe in, and move in that direction.

If what you believe in is good, and works, then you will receive the benefits.

If what you believe in is bad, and doesn’t work, you will find out quickly, and then you will still have time to adjust your perspective and change your core beliefs.

But you cannot reach that point if you do not sufficiently exhaust the limits of a single idea. You cannot see the benefits of moving in a direction if you never move in that direction.

The straight and narrow

In the Bible, in Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus says:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

When every idea is acceptble to you, it leads to destruction in the end.

When everything could be true, or you can’t decide who you want to be, it will lead you down a path you don’t want to go.

The best path for your life is incredibly simple.

It’s founded on a single idea that makes it crystal clear what’s on the path, and what’s a distraction from the path.

Staying on the path is the way to receive the benefits of taking action on an idea.

Being distracted, getting on different paths all the time, and aimlessly wandering in directions that you don’t understand or know what results it will generate, will cause you to stumble and fall and ultimately destroy your life.

Decide what results you truly want in your life. Think in decades, not days. What consistent actions lead to those results? What path leads to that end?

Choose a straight path.
Stay on the path.
Do not get off the path.
Walk the path.
Get where you want to go.

Cutting out noise

When you are sufficiently convicted about a certain way of living, it becomes incredibly easy to spot great ideas and bad ideas.

You know instantly whether someone’s advice is good for you or bad for you.

Sometimes you can tell instantly by the conviction of the person you’re hearing. You look at the fruit of their life, the results they have achieved, and you know instantly whether that’s something you want or something you don’t want.

But when you are not convicted about any ideas, everything sounds good.

Partying and drinking all weekend seems like fun. I’ll do that!
Hooking up all the time and sleeping around seems like fun. I’ll do that!
Gambling looks like such a rush. I’ll do that!

Being rich sounds nice. I’ll do that!
Being married and raising a family sounds nice. I’ll do that!
Being jacked seems cool. I’ll do that!

It’s impossible to be fully convicted of all of the ideas listed above.

It’s up to you to decide what ideas to the results you’re seeking.

And when you decide on those ideas, it’s not enough to accept the ideas that you believe in.

You have to cut out what’s not accepted.

Cutting out the noise becomes easier when you know what you believe. And cutting out the noise makes making decisions (the correct decisions) easier.

Placing sound bets

At the end of the day, you don’t know if what you believe in is “true”.

You can think it’s true. You can act like it’s true. But you don’t really know if it’s true.

Every idea you take action on is a bet.

Sometimes, you’re able to latch onto an idea that proves to be lucrative and produce fruit in your life.

Sometimes, you latch onto an idea that bleeds you dry and leaves you empty-handed.

Placing sound bets requires wisdom. You need to be able to discern what is true and what is false. To be able to distinguish between truth and deception.

Wisdom is acquired by taking action on ideas. Testing ideas. Tasting the fruit of ideas. Observing the ideas of others.

Once you have sufficiently observed the outcomes of different ideas, you begin to realize what ideas line up with how you want your life to be.

You can place faith in something that will continue to generate results for you your whole life.

This could be a business, a spouse, a community, or simply how you want to spend your waking hours.

Perceive the outcomes you want in your life. Find the ideas that lead to those outcomes. Place bets on those ideas and move in that direction.

Then you will experience the fruit of the seeds you sow.

Simply never stop

Sufficient conviction allows to you continue when the outlook seems bleak.

When you’re just starting on a journey, or you are testing out ideas, sometimes things happen that you never could have expected.

You have to ask yourself, “Is it the idea that’s wrong? Or are my actions not lining up with the idea?”.

But once you find the ideas that resonate with you, they will keep you going through dark times.

Bad things happen, even to the best of people. You can’t control what happens to you in every instance.

But, if you believe in something, and you keep going, you will be able to see things through and you will be able to push through to the other side.

If you don’t have conviction about something, you’ll give up.

If you give up, it’s over. You cannot experience the results of an idea if you give up on it.

Success comes to those who do not give up. Success comes to those who double down on their ideas. Success comes to those who push through when times are tough.

Having strong convictions helps you sufficiently see things through, and helps lead you to the life that you truly want.

Evergreen ideas

It’s best to double down and be convicted about ideas that are timeless.

Timeless ideas were true thousands of years ago, and will be true thousands of years from now.

Yes, you can have conviction about a short-term idea, and it might even work out for you. But that’s like timing the stock market. It’s like winning the lottery.

You cannot generate consistent results by having conviction in short-term ideas.

You can generate consistent results by having conviction in long-term ideas.

Finding these ideas can be difficult. This is the reason I read the Bible. It gives you timeless ideas that will always be true (or, show you timeless ideas that will always be false).

When you focus on evergreen ideas, you begin to move in a direction.

When you focus on short-term ideas, you have to start and stop constantly.

Focusing on evergreen ideas allows you to keep going, so you can continue to experience the benefits of taking action on that idea.

You might be a hypocrite

If you truly believe something, and you are not taking action in that direction, then you are a hypocrite.

You might tell people you believe something, and you might even believe it in your head, but if it’s not causing you to take action and move in that direction, you don’t actually believe it, and saying you do makes you a fraud.

My challenge to you is to take action on what you believe in.

It might not be what everyone else believes. It might not be flashy, or sexy, or popular.

It might not even work.

But, you can start to move in a direction. And moving in a direction allows you to change directions.

You can’t steer a parked car.

So, become a moving vehicle. Take your strongest convictions to the limits. Test the ideas. Start from the results that you want in your life and work backwards to the ideas that lead to those results.

Then, cut out the noise. Do not take advice from people who do not line up with those ideas. Do no become double minded. Do not accept ideas that do not lead to the results you want in your life.

Commit to the bit.
Become hot or cold.
Become single minded.
Stay on the path.
Cut out the noise.
Place sound bets.
Don’t ever stop.
Focus on long-term truths.
Don’t be a hypocrite.

I believe this will help you make real progress.

Finding your audience

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone, every day, is making decisions about how to spend their time effectively.

We all make different decisions about how to spend our time because we all have different contexts. Our personalities, interests, skills, location, relationships, health, etc.

In my life I have:

A wife and 4 kids (soon 5!)
A SaaS business I run from home
A house with land and a creek
A belief and conviction in Christianity
A desire to help people

The advice I give is based on this context.

The advice I need is based on this context.

The majority of people out there are not like you at all. You would never make the decisions they make, and they wouldn’t ever take the time to listen to what you have to say.

The context is too different. What they have to say doesn’t sit right with you. What you have to say doesn’t sit right with them.

Those people are not your audience.

But, there are people out there that have an eerily similar life situation to you.

There are people out there who want the same life situation as you in the future.

There are people who wouldn’t want to be like you, but they admire what you’ve done.

There are people who like the way you speak/write and it’s easy for them to digest.

There are people whose life would change for the better if they heard what you had to say.

Those people are your audience.

When you’re trying to build an audience, it’s important to be true to yourself.

An audience isn’t just about monetizing a group of people.

It’s about finding your people and resonating together.

This energy builds new things and causes people to grow. We can all learn something from each other.

When you say something, it resonates with them. When they say something, it resonates with you.

This resonance causes people to think, grow, learn, feel, perceive.

And if what you say doesn’t resonate with someone? Not a big deal.

They’re not like you. You’re not like them. It’s okay.

Your audience is out there, and you won’t find them unless you put your true self out there.

So, put yourself out there. Share what you have to share.

It might change someone’s life. And that life might just be yours.

No, you don't need that fancy equipment

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Your favorite creator, developer, solopreneur, etc., has a decked out office with lights, a fancy sitting/standing desk, nice cameras, maxed out computer, fancy monitor, custom mechanical keyboard, studio headphones, and a chair with a price tag that will make your eyes water.

But that’s just par for the course. You NEED all that stuff to be successful. It’s just part of the game. Otherwise, why would they do it?

It’s a common fallacy to think that having all the right gear and tools will make you successful. You think that, given the right tools, creating things would be easier.

And you’re not completely wrong. A faster computer makes things faster. A better monitor means more accurate edits. A better camera makes you look better. A comfier chair means you can sit longer.

There are two problems with thinking better gear will make you better:

If you’re not already creating consistently, you don’t actually know if you like doing it.
If you haven’t mastered the tools you have available to you, you won’t be better with better tools.

Creators who have all the fancy tools are already in the game. They know this is how they want to spend their time. This is how they want to grow their career. This is how they want to make a difference in the world.

But if you’re not already in that game, how do you know if you like it? Would you want to drop $10k on a brand new setup and end up hating it? What if your tools are great, but your ideas are terrible?

Constraints cause you to have to be more creative, and it actually helps you make decisions.

With unlimited tooling, you can create anything. With limited tooling, you’re restricted to less. That lets you know what you’re able to create and it helps you get started moving in the right direction.

Being able to create anything is a curse, not a blessing. You get stuck, because you know there’s more you can do and you don’t know which direction to go.

Let your limited tooling direct where you go.

But at the same time, you can do so much more than you think with “limited” tooling.

There’s no limitation difference between a screwdriver and a drill with a screwdriver bit. You can screw stuff with either tool. One is faster and requires less effort, while the other is slower.

There’s no limitation difference between a hand saw and a circular saw. You can saw stuff with either tool. One is faster and requires less effort, while the other is slower.

Similarly, there’s no limitation difference between a cheap laptop + iPhone YouTuber setup and a decked out stream-deck controlled Sony camera Mac Studio setup. You can still make awesome content/products. One is faster, and requires less effort (in editing), while the other is slower.

The gear is only the interesting part, not the important part.

The important part is in your head. The thing that actually orchestrates creating things.

The differentiation between a great creator and a lousy creator is not the tools. It’s their ability to focus and create objectively great things.

Your brain is the ultimate creation tool. And if it’s not trained well, it’s easy to think that more/better external tooling will make it better.

More/better external tooling will not make it better.

When I got started Indiehacking over 4 years ago - all I had access to was a $200 Acer Chromebook. I loved that thing. It was light, fast, and simple.

When I decided I wanted to learn web development I didn’t go out and get a bunch of new tech. I hacked my Chromebook and dual-booted Ubuntu so I could code (at the time, Linux apps weren’t natively supported).

Instead of setting up a fancy office, I worked out of Starbucks. Fast free wifi, lots of coffee, and some wired earbuds to focus.

I worked at Starbucks Monday through Friday from 6AM to 8AM and build my SaaS business from $0 to $10k+ MRR in two years.

I would get up early and work on my side hustle before putting in a full day’s work as an Electrical Engineer.

After two years, I bought an older used MacBook pro so I could do some Windows testing using bootcamp.

And even today, my series of online products pull in $300k+ per year, and I do it all from the cheapest M1 Macbook Air.

Every once in a while I’m tempted to upgrade.

“Man, my office could look so cool. I would always be in the mood to create stuff and be focused”.

But then I remember the years when I didn’t have much, and yet I was more focused and growing faster than I am now.

It’s not about the tools. It’s about you and what you create with the tools that you have.

Don’t buy the camera. Don’t buy the maxed out computer. Don’t get fancy lights and microphones.

Just start creating. See what happens. If you like it, and other people like it, keep going.

Character precedes everything

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Who you are determines what you do, and eventually what you’ll become. Your character is the bottleneck of the trajectory of your life.

When most people get started on a new journey to better themselves, they think about the different things they need to do to achieve some goal. Do more of this, do less of this, etc.

And that’s okay. It’s important to recognize that your actions determine outcomes in your life. Change your actions, change your outcomes.

But, there’s a layer below action that is the biggest driver of change (or, your inability to change), and that’s your character (who you are).

Your actions are almost exclusively predetermined by the person that you are, unless there’s an outside influence acting on you forcing you to make different decisions with your time.

What you’re going to do in the future is set in stone by the type of person that you are.

And so, fundamentally, changing who you are will change what you do. This is the only long-term effective way to make lasting change in your life for the better.

Fortunately, you are malleable. You are not set in stone. You can change who you are.

Improving your character is the most assured way to generate positive results in your life. Character impacts so many non-obvious things: who your friends are (or, whether or not you have friends), your productivity, your interests, your skills, your opportunities, your rest, etc.

It’s impossible to internalize how dramatically a life can change based on the character of a person. It can be as different as night and day.

What is great character?

What are the characteristics of character that can be changed? What specific aspects of character drive positive results?

For this, I look to the Bible. I believe it has the best litmus test for great character that leads to a positive life.

The litmus test is what’s called “the fruit of the spirit”. The fruit of the spirit are characteristic pieces of evidence that you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, and are a new creation in Christ.

Here’s the list of characteristics you would embody:

Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Long-suffering
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-control

This list comes from Galatians 5:22-23.

Directly after this list, Paul says “Against such there is no law.” Meaning, if you continually exude these characteristics, you will not run into unlawfulness. Which supports the theory that these are undisputedly positive characteristics.

I’d encourage you to take a look at that list and question for each one: “how can I have more”.

How can I have great character?

There are two ways of perceiving the outward expression of these characteristics. To yourself, and to others.

It’s one thing to be loving to yourself, and a different think to be loving with others. It’s one thing to be patient with yourself, and a different thing to be patient with others. It’s one thing to have self-control with yourself, and a different thing to have self-control with others.

Changing your character does not only impact you, it impacts others. Who you are rubs up against the people that are around you. And you can either impact them positively, or negatively.

Jesus backs this up in Matthew 22:36-40, where he’s asked “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”.

To that, Jesus replies “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

In regards to yourself, you should focus on what God wants, not on what you want, to have great character.

In regards to others, you should focus on what others want, not on what you want, to have great character.

Having great character means doing well by others regardless of yourself.

You won’t be patient if you’re thinking about yourself and trying to get everything you want. You won’t be gentle if you only care about yourself and not others. You wont have self-control if you only care about getting what you want, and not giving others what they want.

I believe common culture is incredibly selfish. It’s all about getting what’s yours, and tearing down others who take things from you.

The people who really shine in this world, and the people who eventually get all that they could ever need or want are the people who do well by others regardless of themselves.

And so, if you want to change your outcomes, change your behavior. If you want to change your behavior, change your character. If you want to change your character, make your life about doing well by others.

You’ll get what you want, and everyone you come in contact with will get what they want. Your options will become unlimited, and the bottleneck will be removed.

Cut it off

Fri, 24 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This essay has consumed my mind for about two months. That’s normally how I write. I stew on a thought for a long time before I am ready to spill it out in writing as a coherent thought.

Well, this one is a little different. I’m not ready to write it, because I haven’t yet come to terms with how convicting it is in my own life. I know it to be true, but man, is it hard to implement.

I’m reminded that all meaningful things are difficult and require effort. Life isn’t just a “one and done”. It requires focus, showing up daily, maintaining what you have, and consistently making good decisions.

Here’s the context of what I have been laboring over in my mind the last two months:

Mark: 9:43-48 – “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where

‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where

‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where

‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’”

Taken literally this makes sense. It doesn’t matter who you are, you know that hell (or the idea of hell) is a bad place. Best to avoid it. We’re on the same page.

Where it gets interesting, is how Jesus is saying to cut things out of your life that cause you to go down the wrong path. That’s pretty radical.

It’s radical because the things Jesus is saying to cut off are useful and very good things. Your hands are incredibly useful, as is your foot, as is your eye. To remove any of these from your body would cause a severe limitation in your life.

And I think that’s the point. I don’t think the point is that you should literally cut off your hand. I think the point is that you should severely limit your life in order to stay on the right path.

The most useful things in life, if used for the wrong purposes, become detrimental and can lead to destruction. Money, sex, food, etc. In the right context, applied the correct way, all great things. Deadly when used the wrong way.

My goal here isn’t to remove the spiritual element of this passage. Clearly Jesus is talking about heaven and hell. But I want to expand the idea to other areas of life, because I believe it is a fundamental truth, and fundamental truths are true regardless of context.

I’m going to get to the worms too, don’t you worry. Let’s dig in.

You can do whatever you want (and that’s the problem)

As human beings we have free will. We don’t get to decide what scenarios we end up getting into, but we do get to decide how we respond and our actions moving forward.

Because of this, we can either make great decisions, or terrible decisions. Wise decisions, or foolish decisions. Selfless decisions, or selfish decisions.

If you want to boil the entire Bible down to a single idea it would be this: Our flesh wants to make selfish decisions, and it’s up to ourselves to deny our flesh and make better decisions.

Every story in the Bible is this, mixed in with supernatural and spiritual elements. The Bible doesn’t mince words. It tells you when people screwed up big time. But this is the concept it focuses on.

This was Jesus’ entire purpose as well. To completely deny the “self” and live a perfect, sinless life, to become a beacon of hope and salvation for all which empowers people to live lives in a way that is not only beneficial to themselves (getting to heaven through salvation), but also beneficial to others (peace on earth).

In every story in the Bible, the people who indulged on what they wanted to do, and caved to the lust of their flesh ended up in ruin.

The people who denied themselves, surrendered to God and his instruction, and made decisions centered around serving and loving others, led to the ultimate fulfillment of a life well lived, and a legacy that laid the foundation of the whole world and how human beings interact.

It goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, when they decided to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil, the Bible is the redemption story of how we can get back to our true ideal selves, and it happens to be through Christ and His finished work on the Cross, because he was the perfect sacrifice without blemish, and the perfect example of our human potential.

You might think “yeah, that’s Jesus, but what about me?” Jesus was a human being, just like you and me. Jesus could have sinned, but he chose not to. The Bible says he was tempted in all ways and therefore can sympathize with us in Hebrews 4:15.

Let’s take a look at how he was able to do this.

Knowing the truth. Speaking the truth.

Jesus knew scripture inside and out. The Bible says that He was the “Word made flesh”. From a young age he taught other spiritual leaders in the synagogs.

It was this exact thing that allowed him to combat the lust of the flesh and to deny himself any selfish gain on this earth.

Let’s take a look at this passage in Matthew where the devil tempted Jesus in every way:

Matthew 4:1-11 – At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights and afterwards was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.

He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord, your God to the test.” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”

At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him, and behold angels came and ministered to him.

So here we see that Jesus was put through the ultimate trial. He hadn’t eaten for 40 days and was offered food - yet he denied his flesh. Then, the devil instructs him to throw himself off of a roof and command the angels to save his physical body, but yet he denies his flesh. Then the devil tempts him by offering charge of all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus worships the devil, yet he denies his flesh.

Our flesh would want all of those things. If we’re hungry, we eat. If we’re fearful, we call for help. If we’re offered power, we don’t turn it down. It’s human nature. It’s what every person would do if they are led by their flesh (and most are).

I think it’s obvious to say that we “shouldn’t do that”. The whole premise of this post is to show you how denial of the self is the path to a better life. What’s not so obvious is how Jesus did it.

You see, with every temptation thrown at Him, Jesus retorted with scripture. He did not depend on his own strength - he outsourced it to a higher power, which is the truth.

And I’m not saying that with every scenario in your life you should just quote scripture - though, that might work well in a lot of scenarios, but rather it’s to unequivocally know the truth and know that you should be behaving in a way that denies your self.

You should know the truth in such a way that, when presented with ideas and thoughts that are antithetical to what you know to be true, you’re able to clearly see where those poor decisions would lead.

Once you know the truth you can stand on it with authority and it will lead you to make better decisions.

Once again, I am not trying to take away from the spirituality of the scriptures, but I want to expose how this looks for you and me in our every day lives. We’re not out in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil.

Or are we?

What cutting off looks like

Sometimes in life we are in the wilderness. We’re not led in any specific way, we don’t have a specific purpose, we don’t have a direction. Hopefully that’s just temporary, but nevertheless it happens to all of us.

It’s during these times we need the foundation of cutting off what is detrimental to us, because we are weak and unguarded.

It’s easy to focus and not be distracted when we have clear purpose.

You’re engaged to be married, and your wedding is in two weeks. You’re not out dating other people and swiping on dating apps.

You earn a decent living and have a good budget in place to both save and invest for the future so you can reach retirement at an early age. You’re not out spending money you don’t have.

You spend lots of time with your kids and help educate them and mold them into successful and honorable humans. You’re not letting them be raised up by others to be undesirable.

But when you lack vision in any area of life, you’re leaving options on the table. You don’t cut off the things that might lead you to ruin, and then you fall into traps that lead you down paths to destruction.

When you lack vision and purpose, distraction runs rampant in your life, because it’s not clearly defined as something that is detrimental to your future.

Distraction is what is detrimental to us. Cutting off means cutting off distraction from our lives so we spend them in ways that are meaningful and avoiding destruction.

Distraction is unending in it’s ability to throw us off course. This is what Jesus talked about in the beginning of this writing: “Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” When you indulge in distraction it only leads to more distraction. You quickly lose control. It consumes you.

In most cases it’s much better to do nothing than to leave distractions on the table. It’s much less destructive for you to be patient and still instead of indulging in what your flesh desires.

We should be ruthless about routing out these distractions in our lives. Like mentioned in the beginning of this writing, Jesus talked about cutting off your hand, foot, and eye. That would be completely ruthless, but nevertheless necessary in some cases.

And so, it’s up to you to establish vision and purpose in your life. If you’re married, cut out anything that might interfere with your marriage. If you have kids, cut out things that might keep you from spending the time that you want with them. In your finances, cut out things that lead you to spending instead of saving.

If you struggle with weight gain, pornography, insert your addiction here, cut off anything that would lead you down that path towards something that will ultimately destroy your life.

Only when you have successfully cut off what can lead you to destruction can you successfully traverse through times in your life where you are tempted and tried.

It’s really easy to sit here and write and pretend like I have it all put together. But the truth is I don’t. I am still routing out distractions in many different areas of my life, and it’s part of what kept me from writing this post for so long. No one is perfect, not even you. But, we can be better and we can hold each other accountable to be better.

What do we add in?

So you’ve successfully cut out all distractions and have full denial of yourself. Congrats on your new boring life!

That honestly would be boring, and purposeless. The point of life isn’t to only deny yourself, it’s to deny yourself for the benefit of everyone around you.

If you only deny yourself you become a monk. If you deny yourself for the benefit of those around you it can lead to a life full of quality time with people who love you, and adventure.

What we add in is the Golden rule – “Do unto others as you would do unto yourself”. More specifically, in Matthew 7:12 Jesus says: “All things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must do to them. This, in fact, is what the Law and the Prophets mean.”

What’s so interesting about this passage is that it not only points to how we can avoid destruction, but it also points to how we can serve others and also be served ourselves.

If you want to be loved, love others. If you want to be rich, make others rich. If you want to have friends, be a friend. Within the vision that you adopt to stay on the right path, you can use the golden rule to make sure you stay on that path and you’re consistently looking to serve others before yourself.

It’s easy to see who is living to serve others and are completely denying themselves. It’s clearly outlined in the list of the “fruits of the spirit”. Galatians 5:22-23 says:

Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

If you are not displaying these characteristics in your own behavior, then it means you’re still serving yourself, which means you’re indulging in what your flesh wants above what you should be doing.

I love how it says “against such there is no law”, because it’s completely true, and it’s how you can avoid destruction. When you live in a way that portrays these characteristics, you cannot be destroyed, because you would be blameless. No one would have any way to take you down, and you would have no chance of taking yourself down.

The takeaway for you

Distractions lead to destruction. Have a clear vision and purpose for every area of your life.
Cut off things in your life that can lead you to destruction, even if they are useful.
Severely limit your life in order to stay on the right path.
Use this to make great and wise decisions, and to serve others, and live an amazing life.

I don’t think that’s everything I wanted to cover in this post, but I gave myself a limit of three hours to write it. I wrote it in two hours and twenty minutes. I’m sure I’ll be back with more.

But for now, I hope this helps you and I hope it helps you on your journey to becoming a better person.

Jordan 🤝

Out of control

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Years ago I was very public about my company’s metrics. Revenue, traffic, etc. were all on display. Things were great. Everything was up and to the right.

But then, things started going sideways. Sideways, not in a horrible way, but literally sideways. All metrics were showing a plateau.

Then, they started slowly moving down and to the right. I was less open about sharing stats. I was embarrassed. Maybe I wasn’t as good at business as I thought I was.

This was odd, because I wasn’t doing anything different than what I was doing before when it was growing rapidly. In fact, there’s a ton more value in the product today than there was years ago, and the price hasn’t changed. Why would things be different now?

Almost a year ago I speculated in a blog post and I mentioned a lot of things I did differently that may have caused this.

There are a few reasons it stopped growing so much - I relaxed on marketing, a few competitors popped up with influencer backing, and my documentation didn’t properly keep pace with the features I have been shipping out. I have been increasing the value provided to customers without charging more. The onboarding flow got more confusing and less simple. The more I do that, the more I pay out of pocket per customer.

Ha. Hahaha! I’m so foolish. Did I really think I was that powerful?

After an entire year I finally realize the truth. The truth is I’m not in control of anything other than being an available product on the market, and working to increase my distribution (SEO presence, and my email list). How the company performs as a whole is dependent on a bunch of other things which are out of my control.

Risks you take when building for a platform

Simply put, your performance is dependent on their performance.

You can do everything in your power to grow - but if you make a Shopify extension, you’re not going to grow if Shopify isn’t growing. If you make an App on the App Store, you’re not going to grow if Apple is not growing.

If you build for any platform, you are limited to the trajectory of the platform.

The platform is dictated by market demand, and you are dictated by the platform’s performance in the market.

Instead of only telling you this, let me show you.

Here’s Closet Tools’ growth prior to Poshmark going public:

Now, here’s a look at Poshmark’s performance after going public:

Lastly, here’s Closet Tool’s business performance after Poshmark went public:

Interesting! As soon as Poshmark went public, Closet Tools started losing customers. There are three reasons for this:

When Poshmark was a private company, they pumped all of their cash into advertising to gain new customers. Growth was steady.
After going public, Poshmark stopped pumping money into advertising.
A bunch of competition popped up in the reseller insdustry and started outpacing Poshmark.

Poshmark went from being a reselling darling to being a mediocre business overnight. It’s all because of how the executives ran the company. It wasn’t great. Despite record eCommerce traffic and sales during the pandemic, Poshmark flopped.

But, oh, have a look at this. Poshmark recently announced they are going to be acquired by Naver. They also recently had PoshFest 2022, where they announced many new features Poshmark sellers have been asking for.

Very cool. Now, take a look at their stock performance in the last month:

And have a peek at Closet Tools’ stats for the last month:

Interesting. Things are trending back up. We’re back at a plateau! Much better than falling into the abyss. How good it feels to finally plug up my leaky bucket.

Here’s the final kicker. I have not pushed a single update to the app in two months. No new features, and one new blog post. Nothing major (though, I am working on some cool new features).

So, how much control do I really have? Turns out - not much at all. It’s a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is, as long as the market does well, I do well. The bad thing is, if the market is downturning, there’s not much I can do about it.

If I have no control, why do I do anything at all?

Good question. You could look at this and be pessimistic or optimistic. You can ride the wave, or watch the wave from the sidelines.

For me, I will continue to build. Will I always build for Poshmark? I’m not sure. But I will continue to move in directions where I can continue to survive my current lifestyle, which I wouldn’t change for anything.

I know I can provide value for other people. Whether or not people need the value I provide is determined by things outside of my control. The only control I have is I can make some amount of value available for anyone who would like to purchase it.

Takeaway for you

If you decide to build on top of a platform, understand you’re at the mercy of the platform. You have the advantage of people being where you want them to be, but you have the disadvantage of people leaving for reasons out of your control.

If you decide to build your own platform, understand you are at the mercy of market demand. You have the advantage of making market impacting decisions, but you also have the disadvantage of shrinking demand for the market you serve.

There’s risk in all business. There’s risk in employment too. It’s up to you to evaluate the risk, and adjust when necessary. You don’t have to be a one-trick pony. You can iterate, backtrack, grow, and learn.

My recommendation is to provide the most value you can in the most sustainable way possible and let the chips fall where they may. Some people become billionaires. Some people live modest lives. But either way, you should work hard to give back to the world in a way only you can.

That’s all for now. See you in the next one.

Write a Note to Your Spouse Every Day

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Writing a note to my wife every day has single-handedly made my life so much better in a lot of ways, and I want more people to experience the same thing.

Before we get into the juicy stuff, a bit of context:

I’m a husband who is 30. I also have 4 kids, ages 6 and under. I’m the sole-provider for the family (though my wife works harder). Between the job, the kids, and extrafamilial obligations, there’s not a lot of time for communication with my wife. We’re on the go from sun-up to sun-down, and at the end of the day we drop into bed exhausted to get just enough sleep for the next day.

Very often in the past, a week or so would go by and I hadn’t even so much as checked in on my wife. Often times if something was stressing me out I wouldn’t mention it until I boiled over, and I would treat the other people in my family unfairly and unkindly.

Then we would have the talk about not talking, followed by hurt feelings, followed by false promises, followed by another week of not really having important conversations. Needless to say, communication was an issue in our marriage.

But then, things changed.

I started writing to my wife periodically. Then I listened to Rob Dyrdek on the My First Million podcast, and he said he wrote a note to his wife everyday because sometimes she was the last to hear about the things he was working on.

Over the last 6 months I have written a note every single day to my wife.

Okay, that’s a lie. I only write them on week-days, and I definitely haven’t written them every day. Though, I’ve set that expectation, and she holds me accountable to it, so I do it very often.

This practice has improved my my relationship with my wife in the following ways:

We’re on the same page about kids, finances, how we spend our time, etc.
We talk more than ever (weird, right?).
We go to bed and want to spend some amount of intimate time with each other.
We have more trust, because nothing is hidden.
We’re less stressed because we can catch aggravations early.
We’re better parents, and our kids will be better because of it.

I could go on for a while, but you get the point. It has changed a lot in our marriage, and our future will likely be very different from the past.

So, what about these notes makes them so special? Why is it so impactful?

Writing is thinking

That’s the golden ticket. The winning numbers. The buzzer beater.

Writing is thinking - so when I write a note to my wife I am thinking about her. And taking just fifteen minutes to a forty-five minutes a day focusing solely on my wife makes out relationship exponentially better.

Are there other ways to do this? Of course. Go do them. But for me, I’m a writer, and I don’t think about things unless I write about them. And you might be a writer too if talking often isn’t one of your core traits.

At the end of the day, my wife likes it when I think about her. It doesn’t have to be all lovey-dovey. It can be very simple and formal. But it’s the time, energy, and tangible nature of the note that shows her I’m putting in the effort.

I say so many things in these notes that I would never say out loud. What I’m excited about. What’s bugging me. Why I’m feeling stressed. My hopes and dreams. Gratitude for everything in my life. What I’m working on improving in my life.

Because of this, my wife can get to know me better. She can understand what motivates me and what makes me tick. That helps her know how to help me better. It makes everything smoother. Wins all around.

I’ll get into the structure of my notes in a minute, but throughout the note I cover several different areas of communication. This helps us get on the same page, and allows us to “think out loud” about some of the decisions we have to make - whether it’s about parenting, obligations, money, whatever.

We talk more than ever now. I think this experience is profound - and the reason we talk more is because we don’t have to get through the “transactional” conversations before we can talk about more interesting things.

Now, instead of talking about money, our time, or our kids when we sit down together, we debate politics, talk about the oddities of human perception and what motivates us to do the things we do, and we talk about the most effective and impactful ways to use our time (we recently had a conversation that we should be writing more to help people, so this post is a byproduct of that).

All of the “boring” topics are covered in the note, so we just get to have fun and dream together. It’s a blast. Because of all of this synergy, we’re into each other. It’s great. We can rest at the end of the day knowing that we’re both informed and aligned on the present and the future.

Does that mean we don’t have arguments? Of course not. But even our arguments are better, because there isn’t a bunch of pent-up emotion from not communicating with each other. We can efficiently and effectively address specific issues and get to resolutions pretty quickly.

I have no idea what the benefits would be for your marriage if you wrote a note every day, but I can say it probably will be good.

The note

Here’s a general outline of what I write:

Gratitude (for her, her hard work, her amazing looks, etc.)
What I’m working on today.
What I’m working towards (goals, deadlines, etc.)
Anything I’m excited about.
Anything that’s bothering me (stress, anxiety, pessimism, etc.)
Ideas that I have (parenting, fixing the home, work related, etc.)
Transactional stuff (finances, things I need to take care of, stuff I need to remember, etc.)
Questions (are there any events coming up, are we doing a date night this week, etc.)
Gratitude (for the life we have, the things we have, the time we have, the kids we have, etc.)

I don’t write every section every day, but those are the general categories I usually fall into. The note usually takes me just shy of a half-hour if I’m not distracted.

The gratitude sections are probably the most impactful. It shows her that I am thinking about her, that I am acknowledging her, and that I am attracted to her. It makes her feel safe and cherished.

I recommend writing the note first thing in the morning, preferably when your spouse is asleep (because, if they’re awake, you technically could just tell them these things in person). That’s usually when you’re most fresh, and when you have some alone time to write the note (assuming you wake up before your kids, assuming you have kids, assuming you have a spouse to write a note for).

If you have communication issues, write a note! You can write to others too - your family, your friends, your co-workers. A well written note cuts through the noise and small talk and gets you into deeper and better relationships.

I think that about covers this topic. Hopefully this helps you out.

Jordan 🤙

Addendum: I should have mentioned I type out the notes (in whatever favorite note app you want to use), and then I usually text them to her (though, email works too).

After reading the comments on Hacker News - I find it so interesting to see how people respond. For some more context, I am a solo SaaS founder/operator, and the business tends to take up a lot of my focus. I work for 6 hours a day, but it’s always on my mind. That’s part of the reason I would neglect having good conversations with my wife.

Marriage does take some effort. Especially when you have kids. Some people commmented that my life sounds awful - it’s quite the opposite. Kids are a joy and they are my favorite people on this planet. Every day is filled with discovery and learning. Yes, feeding four additional mouths three times a day, changing diapers, and giving them things to do each day is a lot of work. But it’s the most rewarding work I’ve ever experienced.

Addendum #2: My wife and I sat down together to talk about some of the feedback we saw on the article. It’s a good conversation!

Servant

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This article might just be for me, but maybe it’s for you too. If it’s for you, I’m glad you liked it. If it’s not for you, thanks for stopping by.

This is an idea I have been thinking about for a long time (months? years?). Recently it has been striking a chord with my gut and I believe it’s something that’s a sign of maturity (and plainly, just getting older).

There’s two ideas I want to get across in this article:

You are a servant. If you earn a living, you serve markets.
Being a laser-focused servant in a market is more useful to you, and others, than jumping between different interesting opportunities that pique your interest.

You are a servant

Something I fundamentally believe is true: regardless of who you are, your background, your beliefs or your personality, your purpose in life is to serve other people with your skills, talents, interests, and perspectives.

This belief might be arguable. I’m sure someone could come up with an objection. But the way I see it, whether you’re an entrepreneur, employed, president of the country, a spouse, a parent, or a literal servant, you’re a servant to other people.

I guess the obvious objection would be people who don’t work a job and sit at home (or at their lack of a home) by themselves and do nothing. But more than likely, even if you have some disabilities or setbacks in life, you’re still working hard to help others with some amount of your time (even if you’re just volunteering your time).

To some people this might not be that wild of an idea. It’s something we as humans inherently understand and do without even thinking about it. But I think where people get confused and tied up is in who it is they are serving. It’s either other people, or themselves.

Serving yourself vs. Serving others

I believe both things are essential, but there is a balance. You do need to serve yourself often. No one else is going to take care of your responsibilities, no one else is going to manage your life, no else one can take care of your health or mental health. Only you can do that, and if you don’t do that you’ll lose all meaningful progress in life, or worse, you’ll die.

But, I think serving yourself is much easier to do, easier to focus on, and can cause distraction. The vast majority of people only care about serving themselves, and only serve others when it directly serves them (i.e., an employee only shows up because they’re getting paid, not because they have a burning desire to help people for free).

The much harder thing to do is to set aside some of your interests, your desires, and serving yourself directly in order to increasingly serve others - beyond what you’re minimally responsible for.

The absolute minimum service you can do for others is an entry-level job. You show up, clock in, do your work, and clock out. There’s very little responsibility to anyone other than your direct report and the family you might need to feed at home.

And I’m not saying that’s not noble - I believe if you are working, and working hard, and working consistently, you’re doing a good thing and the right thing.

But, at the end of the day it’s a means to an end. You’re showing up to get paid. That perspective and attitude limits your earning potential and your impact potential.

Why does earning potential or impact potential matter? I don’t know, to some people it doesn’t. But to me it does. I know my family, friends, and others around me could live a better life with more income. I know that I have skills, talents, and abilities that can literally increase the livelihood of those I choose to serve (impact). What else are you going to do with your time and energy? Only think about yourself? Seems quite limiting, don’t you think?

Founders are servants to markets

Anyways - the point I am trying to arrive at is something else, and it’s directed at founders of companies. You, as a founder, are a servant. And if you approach founding with an entirely selfish motive, you will not win.

I’ll push that idea further and say to the extent that you serve others regardless of yourself is the extent that you will be compensated for your effort. The value you provide to others is all that matters in business. No value, no compensation. No future value, no future compensation.

Once again, it seems trivial, but I want people to take this idea to its extreme, because exponential upside lives in this extreme.

As a founder you are a servant to a niche within a market. Your time, energy, focus, ideas, and drive are to give value to your customers, and be compensated a smaller percentage of that value. If there were no compensation, people would not do it (willingly) unless forced.

If you are a founder, you are a servant, and you’ll only make meaningful progress if you remain a servant (in service to others). I believe, the longer you remain a servant within a niche determines the upside you’re able to capture.

Pick a game and stick to it

We have different seasons in life. When you’re a child, you shouldn’t really worry about any of this. When you’re a young adult, you should taste-test and figure out what suits your unique skills, talents, interests, etc. But, if you’re a fully grown adult, and you know what makes you tick, you are better off locking yourself into that path than trying to taste-test your whole life.

I say this because, many people don’t taste-test when they are young, and then decide to taste-test later on in life because they don’t like the place they ended up. They’re serving themselves, not others, and that’s how you end up in a mid-life crisis instead of an opportunity that lands you and your loved ones in early retirement.

The fact is, if you haven’t done it by the time you are “set in stone” (30? 35? 40? 45?), you probably won’t do it. And if you want to do something different, and you aren’t taking every available opportunity very seriously to do something different, you aren’t going to do it.

This might sound negative, but it should be a relief. You’re locked in, and that’s okay. What you should do, and more easily could do, is stay where you are and begin to increase with the opportunities you have instead of trying to abandon ship and create a whole new life.

This applies to many more things than just a career. Maybe you have a failing marriage. Or you don’t have the best relationship with your kids. Or you have a job that you don’t like, but also don’t have the capacity to learn completely new skills and stay employed.

Rather than ditching the spouse you have and starting fresh, would it not be better to invest in the one you have? Rather than ditching your relationship with your kids, wouldn’t it be better to restore it? Similarly, with your career path, wouldn’t it be better to increase where you are, rather than abandoning everything entirely?

There are nuanced cases against all of those claims, for sure. And, there are a lot of things outside of your control. But you have control of yourself, your decisions, and how you spend your time. And you have the power to make things better, or worse, for yourself.

And if you are continually changing the game you’re playing, rather than sticking around somewhere and getting good, you’re probably not going to make the progress you’d like to make.

Why am I thinking about this?

I recently decided to go all in on a market. I think this statement isn’t very profound, but the next might be: I have no interest in this market.

To add a bit of context, I am the solo-founder and operator at my company Closet Tools. Closet Tools is an automation tool for the platform called Poshmark. Poshmark is a reselling platform, which is in the market of reselling.

I’ve never sold something I have used in my life. I don’t even use my own product. Yet, reselling is the market that I am dedicating my life work to.

You see, I almost ditched this market, because of what I mentioned. I am not interested in this market, and I will never be a reseller. It’s not at all who I am, and not at all what I am passionate about.

But, I ended up in the reseller market, because it was where I was useful at one point in the past. Over the last 4 years I have helped thousands of people make thousands of dollars every month, as well as save dozens of hours every month. That is my passion. And it’s taken me a while to realize that how I serve others doesn’t have to be completely aligned with my interests, it only has to be aligned with how I am useful.

There are other things that interest me. I would love to be an author - or at least some who writes a lot and gets paid to write. I would love to get into investing more and take a place in the wildly-fast growing crypto market. I would love to produce music that other people would like to hear.

However, I’m not doing those things. And like I said above, if I’m not doing those things already, then I am probably not going to do them. If I am genuinely interested in those things I would have a burning desire, and I would drop everything and do them. But I don’t have a burning desire, because I don’t drop everything and do them.

Yet, the thing that I repeatedly come back to is writing code that automates things to save people time and make them more money. It’s a game that I like to play, and a game that I win regularly, and a game that I am uniquely skilled in. It’s the burning desire on the inside that I can’t quench.

That’s not sexy. It’s not distracting (at least, the way other things distract me). It’s not what my friends and family do. It’s not what the people I follow on Twitter do. It’s what I do, and what I do well, better than anyone I personally know. And it’s the thing that changed my life over the last 4 years. Why would I ditch that for something that seems like a better opportunity, when I have an opportunity in my lap?

The opportunity at hand

There’s a distinction to be made here. I don’t think Closet Tools is my life’s work. For one, it only serves Poshmark users, not the whole reseller market. Secondly, it’s something that’s a hack, not a genuine platform. It’s something that’s not even allowed on the Poshmark platform, and regardless of how useful it is to others, that’s not what I want my life-legacy to be.

The reseller market is massive, and is expected to grow significantly over the next decade. These aren’t exact numbers, but it’s expected to grow from a $25B market to a $75B market between 2020 and 2030. It’s also not a speculative market - reselling will exist as long as people are alive. There is no chance of the market disappearing or being disrupted. The way it is done might change, but the market itself will always exist (at least, as long as I am alive).

I personally have helped tens of thousands of resellers with Closet Tools. I have built a reputation, I have good rapport, I have provided much more value to these people than what I have received. I have a unique opportunity to continue to serve the reseller market and drive technological innovation forward in the space.

It would frankly be stupid of me to leave a growing market when I have an advantage to succeed right where I am.

Here are my thoughts as well - seeing as how this market is very large, and there are many millions of participants, the chance of building something large and successful relatively quickly is a reasonable assumption (especially given my network and position in the market).

I only need to build one successful company to build generational wealth for my family and friends. I am conveniently (relatively) still young (30). I can dedicate a whole decade to this opportunity and build something that enables me to never have to think about where I’ll earn a living again.

Closet Tools is “successful”, but it’s not generational wealth. It’s more of a small business on the internet. I don’t plan on growing or scaling Closet Tools. It’s not worth it for many reasons. But it is a stepping stone to my true opportunity, which is serving the millions of people on this earth that call themselves (and make a living as) resllers. I can and will do this with more products, using my unique skills, observations, and ability to capture low hanging fruit. I won’t get into specifics as to how I am going to do that, but it’s something I have decided to do.

I’m not a musician, I’m not a crypto developer, I’m not an author. But, each of those things I can still actively participate in. I can write on my blog and Twitter. I can dollar-cost-average into crypto investments. I can make music at home and enjoy good music in my spare time. That’s great, and never has to change.

And so there it is. I’m Jordan, the guy who makes products and services for resellers. I didn’t choose this life, it chose me. But I couldn’t be more grateful for what it has provided me, and I will continue to serve it wholeheartedly because I know I can help more people.

I don’t know the future, but I can see myself at age 38 having built a company that serves hundreds of thousands, or millions of people in some way, and experiencing a liquidity event that changes the life of me and my future generations for the better.

Why 38? I’m not sure. I don’t think it has to take a full decade. In a very short time I made Closet Tools (mostly working part time) and made $1M in 4 years. What could/would I do if I really tried? My goal is to serve this market until I am 40, and hopefully have exited successfully by then. And who knows, if it’s something that I find genuinely useful in the future I might just dedicate my whole life to it.

The takeaway for you

The thing I want you to see more clearly is that you should focus on helping others much more than you already do now if you want to experience exponential upside. If you don’t want that upside, then just keep doing what you’re doing.

I also think you should pick something and stick to it - regardless if you have other interests or “passions”. I think you should find a way to do what makes you genuinely useful, and not distract yourself with things that seem like good opportunities but ultimately put you in a place that’s not uniquely aligned with what makes you most useful to others.

And if you’re not doing something that is genuinely useful, and you have a burning desire to do something else, you should do everything you can to do something else as soon as you can, otherwise you’re going to be miserable.

If you’re someone who wants to be a founder of a company, there are a lot of healthy, growing markets out there that are not considered “sexy” and are not what everyone in silicon valley talks about. Perhaps your opportunity is there, and it’s waiting for someone like you to come in and help people do things a little better.

I hope this article inspires you to think long-term about who you serve, and what opportunities can genuinely create exponential upside for your future (not just things that look like great opportunities on the outside, like investing in NFTs).

Humility & The Leaky Bucket

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve done yearly reviews in the past, and I’ve made predictions about the future year. Both of which were rife with survivorship bias and were largely useless. Simply opportunities to drive clicks and boost my self esteem.

This year I wanted to talk about the last year from a different perspective: one of productivity, longevity, and my intentions in regards to the future of me and my family.

In short - I (Closet Tools) make(s) less money now than I did January 1st 2021. My ego has taken a slight hit, but I’m reminded that it’s all because it falls in line with what I truly value and what matters to me.

And no, I’m not trying to brush over the fact that this isn’t a good thing necessarily for the business. It’s not. I’m not trying to make it seem like everything is sunshine and roses.

However, my life is better now than it was a year ago - in regards to how I spend my time, the relationship I have with my wife and kids, how I build wealth, and how I think about preserving my future.

This year I had to take a large dose of humble pie.

A year ago I was a big shot. Untouchable. Everything was up and to the right. I could do no wrong. Sure, I didn’t have the best marriage. Sure, I didn’t eat well and took pain killers at least once a week to mediate headaches. Sure, I didn’t save properly for taxes and overspent.

None of that mattered - as long as the business kept growing my problems could be “solved” with more money.

Boy was I wrong.

When the business stops growing, and starts shrinking, you’re forced to look at how things are right now. You can’t simply project out into the future and plan bigger and better things, you have to take stock of what you have and how you can ration it in case of a catastrophic event. You don’t know what the future holds because you thought it was going to go up, and it went down.

There are a few reasons it stopped growing so much - I relaxed on marketing, a few competitors popped up with influencer backing, and my documentation didn’t properly keep pace with the features I have been shipping out. I have been increasing the value provided to customers without charging more. The onboarding flow got more confusing and less simple. The more I do that, the more I pay out of pocket per customer.

But that’s not interesting to me. I know all of that, and it’s whatever. What matters to me is that I shifted my mindset this year. I’m no longer the “all star”, the guy who has all the answers. It turned out that I needed to strike a balance or everything that mattered to me was going to crumble.

This year I worked from the ground up to restore my marriage, change how I spent my time, truly have a plan for finances, and think longer term about what I’m actually going to do with my life.

To me, that’s so much more important than having a thriving business that only goes up and to the right. What does that matter if life at home sucks? Or if I’m not healthy enough to enjoy spending time with my kids? Or if I can’t even control where my money is going?

All of these pitfalls in my life took time to restore. Like usual, I don’t have all of the answers. I’m not perfect. But what I can do is tell you what I did to get control over my life and address some of these issues head on.

A winning marriage

I now regard my marriage over almost everything else in my life. It’s the most important thing. Without a healthy marriage, my kids are not secure and will reject my instruction. Without a healthy marriage, there are constant distractions that keep me from doing my best work (and her from doing her best work). Without healthy communication in a marriage, life is confusing and every day is different. It’s hard to make progress when you’re having the same discussions every day.

I did a few things to remediate these aspects:

We have a babysitter come watch the kids weekly while we go out on a date (every Thursday). In the past we never really went out, and especially once we had multiple kids.
I write a note to my wife every weekday morning outlining the day, updating her on finances, expressing some of my feelings, and thinking ahead about various projects/plans/events.
We established a daily routine that’s the same every single day (weekdays and weekends), so we have a routine that allows us to have quality time spent together, as well as quality time spent apart doing the work that we want to get done. We both take various shifts with the kids. Then, we come together and clean/cook/play as a family.
I added several of points of accountability to ensure to my wife that I am doing the things I say I am going to do, and that I am being trustworthy and honest. I’m now much more cautious to promise, and quick to double down on doing the things I say I am going to do.

A year ago things were so confusing. Life should have been great, but it wasn’t. There were a lot of issues that needed to be addressed, and they weren’t going to address themselves.

I can safely say these changes are implemented in a way that’s sustainable and built to grow our marriage for the long-term. I’m excited about the future of our family, and it makes me feel at peace about moving forward in life through good times and bad.

Financial awakening

I’ve never been a spender, but I’ve never been good with money. I’m generous to a fault, and I get stressed if the numbers don’t add up to what I expected. I constantly “took ownership” of finances, and then neglected them more and more over time.

My thought process was that as long as I continued to make more money I didn’t really need to be good with money. Everything would work out, and life would be grand. Boy, did I have a rude awakening.

You see, as long as you continue to make more money it’s easy to not save for taxes all year, and then just cram in saving at the end of the year. Just a couple of months of pain. But, when the business starts to shrink - all of a sudden the taxes of the past begin to overtake what you’re making now. All of a sudden I was needing to save 70%+ of my income simply to pay taxes for the past year (not even including paying taxes for this year).

It was a mess, and I’m still cleaning it up. However, I have a plan and I am sticking to it. It should all work out fine, and I have made a lot of changes about how I handle money and how I pay attention to our finances.

Now, my finances are mostly automated. I take a percentage out of every paycheck for taxes, for tithe, for bills, for saving, for investing, and for groceries/expenses. Then, the rest is up safely for grabs for my wife or I to spend.

This works well because whatever is in the joint checking account is available to spend - knowing everything else is properly accounted for. My wife doesn’t have to ask me every time she wants to buy something. I don’t have to tell her what’s available and not available. It just works.

This is what I should have been doing all along - hindsight is 20/20. But I was lazy, and truly thought as long as I just made more money things would be fine (which was technically true, but very stupid of me to not account for things taking a downturn).

My time is accounted for

Having a stable routine is something new for me (at least, in my adult life). In the past things were always slightly different each day. I would wake up at different times, go to bed at different times, work at different times, eat at different times, etc.

That has all changed now, and every day is exactly the same. The number one benefit of this is that I don’t have to talk extensively to my wife about the plan for the day. It never changes. The specifics might change (like, what I am working on, or what we are making for dinner), but the schedule never changes. This has given me so much more energy to be able to get more done in a day than ever before.

Back then I had no idea how my time was being spent. I didn’t know how much I was working, or how much time I was spending with my kids, or how much time I was spending with my wife. I was just going with the flow.

Now, I am directing the flow. I know exactly how much time I spend doing everything, and it’s easy to pinpoint exactly why I feel the way I do (if something is off). When I don’t stick to the schedule things start to go off the rails and not everything gets done that needs to get done.

With this shift I have had to make some adjustments that I am still working on - like being productive during specific times of the day, and not just when I feel productive.

It’s not easy to write, code, design, etc. when you’re not feeling inspired. It’s a chore to push through the few hours you have in a day to work to get necessary work done. It’s not like a traditional 9-5 job where you have a couple of hours of real work to do in a day and you can pace it out for whenever works best for you. I need to be on my game and productive as soon as I sit down to work, otherwise I get nothing done.

So even though having a strict schedule is way better than not having one, I’m still working on maximizing productivity in regards to my work. It takes a lot of effort to eliminate all distractions and sit down and focus on one task for an hour or so, and then move on to the next task.

2022

In 2022 I have four things to accomplish (professionally):

Finishing ranktosell.com.
Finishing a major feature with Closet Tools, and improving documentation/onboarding.
Shipping a new SaaS product.
Learning and exploring trading microcap cryptocurrencies.

I would like to have the rough (like, really rough) draft of Rank To Sell done by the end of February. Then, a few more months for testing and iteration before formally publishing and finalizing. I’ll be Tweeting throughout as I write the book to continue gaining attention.

Closet Tools is in a rough spot - it’s way more powerful now than it was a year ago, but it’s also a lot more complicated and not obvious how to get the most value out of it. I have one more major automation piece to complete, as well as several minor features to complete in the next couple of months, and then I will switch to a more marketing/documentation/customer success role while I ship a new product.

The new product is “lips sealed”. I’m not revealing anything, and I won’t tell anyone about it except for the specific people I invite. I will take time to get feedback and iterate on the product before releasing it publicly and allowing anyone access. I hope to start this towards the end of Q1 and go harder on it in Q2.

I am still interested in automated trading and investing in cryptocurrencies. I still have quantsecrets.com (though, the original intention was slightly different), but I will shift focus to earning multiples in early stage tokens. I have no plan for this right now, but it’s something I am going to be focusing on.

That’s really it. Everything else is largely the same - lots of time spent with my wife and kids, lots of time spent sleeping, eating healthy, and playing/exercising, and lots of time reading my Bible and books that interest me.

2022 is probably going to be a pivot year for me - not the best year of my life, but a foundational year that sets up the next 5-10 years of my life (whether it’s my life as an author, or a founder, or both).

I hope you enjoyed this real look at what happened in 2021 for me, and I hope it inspires you to take action on making your life better in every way (not just in business).

The Next 50 Years

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A half-baked thought came into my head the other day and I wanted to dwell on it (fully bake the thought) in this post. This may be one of the more important things I write in my lifetime (for me, at least).

Like usual, I’m thinking long-term. I don’t know if that’s something I do too much, but in hindsight when I make long-term decisions instead of short term decisions it typically works out for the better.

The thought was this: “I’m turning 30 this upcoming year. What am I going to work on until I am 80?”

In other words: What am I going to work on for the next 50 years of my life?

Why this question matters to me

I want to get to the end of my life and feel as if I had taken advantage of the opportunities given to me and used my time, skills, and talents to bring value to others.

I want to build a legacy that is honorable and respectable. Something that impacts others positively, lasts well beyond me, and leaves a path that others can follow.

I want to play long-term games with long-term people. I want to build a network of friends, colleagues, and fellow builders that will provide value for me and my family long into my old age. This is something you can only do if you stick around in an industry for a long time and don’t jump around from thing to thing.

To me, this question highlights what truly matters in my life and what I can bring to the table as an individual. If I am thinking about what I can be working on for the next 50 years, I’m not thinking about “get rich quick schemes”. I’m not thinking about maximizing every transaction. I’m thinking about the value I can provide for others long-term.

This question assumes a lot. First of all, it assumes I’ll make it to 80 years old. If all goes well, that’s the goal. Second, it assumes that what I am working on won’t change over time. Third, it assumes that I’ll be physically able to do this work for 50 years.

I see myself always working on something in the future. Who knows, maybe when I get to be 60 years old I will have had enough of working and move on to other things, like doing stuff with my grand kids or travelling the world.

But if I observe the older people in my life right now - they have a lot of time on their hands. I don’t think they’re particularly wasting their time, but there’s only so much time you can spend with family and friends, and there’s a significant amount of time that you’ll spend alone.

And so, I can reasonably say, if I make it that far in life, there will always be time to work on something.

And no, I will not work my life away. I am not a workaholic. I spend roughly 4 to 5 hours working per day. But during that time I am incredibly focused and productive, which is much more than the traditional employee “working” 8 hours per day.

A large part of my legacy will be the family that I build and raise. I will do it all with my wife by my side.

So, what will I be working on?

I don’t think it’s just one thing specifically. I think it will be a few things, continuously.

If I were to expand in the directions that I am currently traveling, I think my work would split like this:

Definitely:

SaaS (products & companies)
Writing (books, content, etc.)

Maybe:

Electronic Hardware (processor design, electronic products, etc.)
Music (production, performance, composing)

At the end of my life, I would like to have written several books, created several successful companies, produced & performed several albums of music, and invested well to build wealth for my future generations. All that, plus having raised incredible children, and maintained a healthy and thriving marriage.

That, to me, would be a life that is not only reasonable for me to do, but is also full of what I am already doing. I think this post would be different if I was unhappily employed, or currently in a stressful life situation. But I’m not. I have deliberately chosen the life that I live now, and it’s great. I don’t want it to change.

I’m currently working on my own SaaS product, and it’s something that’s quite valuable to my customers. It delivers real results for them, increasing their incomes and giving them time back. I can see myself continuing to build software automation in the future, and delivering that value to people. I can see building software as a large part of the next 50 years of my life.

I’m currently writing blog posts on my blog, Tweeting on Twitter, and actively writing a book outlining how I used SEO marketing to grow my SaaS product. I write a ~500 word note to my wife every weekday morning. I write to think, and I write to know what I am thinking. Writing is my way of outputting and communicating what’s in my head to other people. I like to document the things I am working on, and document the journey so I can look back and see how far I have come. I can 100% see writing as a large part of the next 50 years of my life.

Music is something that is near and dear to my heart, and it has always been a dream of mine to produce music. I played instruments my entire childhood, and have been involved in some aspect of playing music my entire life. It is a form of art and communication that is core to every human being, and it’s something that has long-term potential. Music will not become irrelevant in the next 50 years. I’m not 100% sure how, but I do see music as a small part of the next 50 years of my life.

The only thing on that list that I am not actively doing now is electronics hardware - though I am desperate to do more. I feel it’s something incredibly valuable and relevant for the next 50 years. All software is connected through hardware. Someone has to build the future of hardware. I have a bachelors degree in electrical engineering - which technically isn’t an indication of skills per say, but it’s an inclination that it’s something I’m highly interested in. The problem with this interest, is that it’s much more capital intensive than the other interests. It doesn’t cost a lot of money to produce music. It costs nothing to write. Code is free. Crypto has a pretty low barrier to entry. But, to try and start a hardware company from scratch is no small task. I’m not 100% sure how, but I see hardware as being an important small part of the next 50 years of my life.

Other aspects of my life

Now, as I mentioned above, my work only accounts for ~4 to 5 hours of every day. What will the next 50 years of my life look like everywhere else in my life?

The other areas of my life that will always be relevant are as follows:

Wife / spouse
Kids / family
Faith / religion
Fitness / health

Assuming nothing catastrophic happens, all of these things will remain and be important for the next 50 years of my life. Not only that, but all of these things are mostly within my control.

If I am a loving husband and invest quality time and energy into my wife, she will want to be with me and we can continue to develop an everlasting marriage that grows in quality over time.

If I am a loving father and instruct my children to be wise, knowledgeable, strong, and kind, then I know I will have a long, lasting, and great relationship with my children (and my children’s children) in the future.

If I continue to read the Word of God, the Bible, every day, continue to go to church and actively participate in a community of like-minded believers, and continue to spend time praying to God and meditating on the word, then my faith will not waver in the next 50 years. The more I learn, the more I read, and the more I spend time on my faith, I continue to grow into a person that is honorable and better than I was before. This is something that will always be relevant to me.

If I am not healthy, both physically and mentally, then I will not be able to do any of the things mentioned above. Therefore, fitness and health take a very high priority in the ranking of things that will matter for the next 50 years of my life.

The cost of having it all

Actively fulfilling all of these personal facets of life, plus the work related paths I will take, will generate a full and happy life for me. I personally know that it will require a lot of me, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

If you want to be

a great parent
and a great spouse
and a great friend
and greatly skilled
and wealthy
and wise
and physically healthy
and mentally healthy
and spiritually healthy
and full of happiness
and full of love

You're going to have to work harder than everyone you know.
— Jordan O'Connor (@jdnoc) November 15, 2021

I will need to remain focused, patient, and active in my pursuits of a full life. I will need to prune away any distractions, relationships, and habits that prevent me from moving forward in all of these areas of my life.

I don’t know why I am ambitious. I don’t know why I want all of these things. I don’t want to be famous. I don’t really care about being rich. I don’t need more than I already have.

However, I have been given an opportunity, a life, that many people would do almost anything to have. And that is not something that I take lightly. I have a responsibility to use my time, skills, talents, and knowledge to give back to others.

The takeaway for you

What are some things in your life that will never change? What unique skills, talents, desires, and interests do you have that you can use to give back to others? What’s so important in your life that it will always be relevant?

Focus on these things, and invest in these things over time. Watch your life turn into everything you desired, and more.

Building happiness (According to Rob Dyrdek)

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Rob Dyrdek was recently interviewed on the “My First Million” podcast. I didn’t have crazy expectations for this episode, but this man has gone through an incredible transformation from a skateboarding thrill junkie to an established businessman building generational wealth. It’s incredible, and reminds me of how much progress I have made in the last couple of years. It’s proof that anyone can rise to success and build wealth.

In the podcast episode he laid out a fraction of his blueprint of a fulfilling life, and I wanted to break it down in a blog post.

The ultimate ultimate financial goal

TLDR; Live off the cash flow dividends of long-term stable investments. Live a completely free life with income, forever.

I’ve understood this model for a while but it hit me differently the other day. Recently I have been very bullish on investing (rather than saving or paying down debt), but I still take a salary. Drydek invests 100% of his salary into real estate, and then lives off the cash flow of those investments.

That means even if the salary disappears tomorrow, he’s set for life. This is so simple and yet so mind-blowing. It’s simple because anyone can do it once they reach a certain financial level. It’s mind-blowing because it’s so future proof. Property ownership and real estate is something that will always exist as long as humans exist.

Early in the episode Dyrdek casually mentions having a 500 year financial wealth preservation plan. He’s literally thinking 500 years in the future, “how can I ensure Dyrdeks will have access to this wealth?”. That’s wild to think about.

For someone (me) who only has one income stream and still lives in debt, it’s eye-opening to see that there’s a totally different way to live your life in a way that dramatically impacts others.

The business that builds businesses

To be able to afford the purchases of real estate, Dyrdek has built a business that builds businesses specifically for exiting. Once there’s an exit (a liquidity event), he’s able to reinvest that money back into the machine that builds businesses, and he can scale the operation.

Once sufficiently scaled, his income scales, which scales his investments. Boom. Security for life.

Here’s what he focuses on most in regards to finances for the machine:

Taking account of the capital you’ve earned.
Taking account of the tax efficiency of how you earned it.
IRR (rate of return on internal investments) of every dollar in the system.

Maximizing these three things allows him to build a machine that continues to grow and scale. More capital, less taxes, and higher multiples on investing internally is the blueprint for future success of his machine.

His number one business tip is always build to sell.

My biggest mistake in the last 3 years is that I didn’t build Closet Tools to be sold.

From here on out, every business I will build will be built to be sold. I’m still figuring out what that means (legally, and logistically), but I’m digging into books on the topic to learn more and move in this direction for every project I do in the future.

Right now, Closet Tools is fine. It’s still generating lots of revenue. It’s not growing a lot, but it’s also not declining. It’s been very stable over the last 6 months. It’s basically like a job. I spend some time on it, but it’s not going to build generational wealth for my family.

And that’s okay. I didn’t intend for it to do that. I built it to get out of employment, get out of debt, and get freedom for the long-term.

But, going forward I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that building in that way is a mistake. It’s a small business mindset. It’s something that keeps you bound to only what you can do - instead of bringing other people and other automation into the picture.

Balancing business and life

NOW. One of is main points is that he does all of this with 30% of his time. Here’s how time in his life is allocated:

30% (7 hrs.) Work.
30% (7 hrs.) Family.
30% (7 hrs.) Sleep.
10%. (3 hrs.) Health.

Dyrdek emphasizes family and health, and business is something that works with them, rather than business being the main focus. If anything, his time leans towards more time with family if there are issues to be addressed or he’s feeling that something is off.

He diligently tracks every hour of the day, and writes down how he spent his time so he can qualitatively and quantitatively understand the quality of his life. Some of the things he writes down every day:

Did I get up before 5AM?
Did I brain train?
Did I meditate?
Did I get in the gym?
Did I have a clean diet?
Did I not drink?

Tracking these things allows him to understand exactly why he’s feeling the way he’s feeling, and it also allows him to see how his life is trending over time. As of the podcast recording, 87% of the days this year answered “yes” to all of those, so he’s feeling pretty good (and directly understands why he’s feeling pretty good). The numbers allow him to directly see his quality of life right now.

He designs a life of balance, and then only works within the confides of that balance. He’s not overworking, and he’s not compromising on anything he wants in life. In every area of life he’s tackling it intentionally and with gusto.

One thing he does (that I also have been doing for the past few months) is writing his wife a note every morning that explains what he’s doing for the day, why he’s doing those things, and a love quote.

I know for me, personally, writing these notes to my wife has completely changed our marriage. There’s much better communication and much less tension because we’re on the same page. She knows how I am spending my time, and I am held accountable to what I say I will do.

So, why do all of this? What’s the advantage of all of this work? It’s to be happy. He knows what makes him happy, and he’s designing a life that emphasizes that. All he has to do is check those boxes every day, and it defaults to a life that makes him happy.

Maybe a wife, kids, and a media business that builds businesses isn’t your thing. That’s fine, but his takeaway is to find out what makes you truly happy and build a life that emphasizes those things. Figure out your check boxes, and then check the boxes every day.

How do you design a life that defaults to balance? Dyrdek says start with the end. Work backwards from the life you want to have - what type of person attracts that type of life? Systematically become that person, and over time your life will line up with your design.

Mindset

According to Dyrdek there are two different mindsets that get you nowhere in life:

Dwelling and being negative.
Being hopeful and “wishy”.

The only mindset that can move you forward in life is one that solves problems, builds the future, and lives in the present. Whatever you’re experiencing right now is a product of the decisions you made in the past, so it’s up to you to make decisions now to build your future and create the reality you want.

If something hits you unexpectedly, rather than dwelling on it, you can problem solve and handle it. That allows you to live a life with no negative thoughts.

One pivotal mindset shift for success is understanding you’re not who you think you are. You are your results. Your past actions determine who you really are today, not who you say you are.

This became clear for Dyrdek when he first tried to sell his business, but ultimately failed because the business was a mess. He was uninvestable. He changed his future by educating himself, getting coaching, and building businesses that were organized, structured, and built to sell from the beginning.

This transition allowed him to build a stack of businesses that netted over $400+ Million in a recent acquisition, including $100+ Million for himself. He’s only moving up. Only moving forward.

Accountability & Directional expansion

Dyrdek has a “Tiger 21 experience”. If you’re not familiar with Tiger 21, it’s a group of ultra-wealthy individuals who share investment strategies and deep dive on their own portfolios to be held accountable and see if there’s anything they’re missing out on.

When asked “what’s your 100 year plan?” this put Dyrdek instantly into a generational wealth mindset, instead of a self preservation mindset. Having that level of accountability, but also designing for people who will be alive when you’re not alive is something that’s very deep and powerful. It takes you out of the equation, and what you want doesn’t matter nearly as much.

Exposing your raw wealth and justifications for those decisions can be daunting. People can find out who you really are very quickly. It’s in your best interest to act in a way that demonstrates the person you’ve designed yourself to be. You don’t want to be exposed as a farce.

His advice on happiness is to expand rapidly in one direction. That’s where exponential growth, greatness, and mastery lies. The perpetual state of high growth in a clear direction is happiness.

The only way to become a master is to continue in one direction. If you’re always changing directions, you’ll never achieve mastery, and you’ll never reach the peak of your potential. Once you have become a master your gains will grow exponentially.

Conclusion

In the end, Dyrdek concludes by saying that everyone should build an operating system for their life. They should have a plan for how they handle everything in life - from haircuts, to celebrating birthdays, to handling finances. When you have the decisions automated, it leaves you mental capacity to be more present and more focused to get things done.

Because he adds more automation to his life continually, it allows him to live and do the things he loves to do, which in return gives him more energy, focus, attention, etc. to continue doing the work, and adding more automation. A machine that builds machines.

This is inspiring, because anyone can do it. In a short five years you can become a totally different person living a totally different life because of the decisions that you make right now. Build out automation for the things that are taking up your mental capacity, and then you’ll be able to rapidly expand in one direction and build wealth.

A Productive Marriage

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A good marriage is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things a person can have in life. When fostered, it can help you become the best version of yourself, and lead to a life that brings nothing but success and increase. A productive marriage can build far greater things than any individual.

However, an incredible amount of marriages are not like this. They’re either completely broken, dysfunctional, or purely functional. For a lot of couples there’s no reason to be together other than to have sex and raise kids. Or, one partner could be stuck merely out of financial dependence. It’s unfortunate, and it doesn’t have to be that way.

I’ll be outlining some simple, fundamental ideas that can help reframe what marriage is and turn it into something that is working for you, not against you.

I’m not a marriage counselor, and I don’t have any expertise in this area other than my own marriage. Every marriage is different, and what works for me might not work for you. I’m not telling you what to do, or judging anyone, but if you find the ideas helpful then consider applying them in your own life.

The pillars of a productive marriage

Behind the functions of a marriage, such as delegating responsibilities, raising a family, and building wealth, there’s something more fundamental. The pillars of a productive marriage.

The pillars are accountability, integrity, acceptance, and selflessness.

Every marriage has secrets, and every person has flaws. Because of this, every marriage is flawed in its own way. Because every marriage is flawed, there are always problems to be solved.

Every marriage problem stems from a personal problem. Each partner brings learned behavior, preconceived notions, bad habits, and unproductive thinking to the marriage.

A marriage (and especially parenting) is like a mirror. It makes you face your fundamental flaws. You can’t ignore them, because now they are directly impacting someone else. And because your flaws are impacting someone else, they need to be addressed and resolved.

The core premise of a productive marriage is this: if you fix yourself, you can fix your marriage issues. This leads to progress. If there’s no progress, there’s little chance a marriage will make it.

But, fixing yourself is not easy. Actually, it’s nearly impossible to fix yourself without some outside influence and guidance.

And so, the game becomes building a system in your marriage of feedback and guidance that helps you fix yourself, which in turn fixes your marriage.

These pillars help establish and execute that system.

Pillar #1: Selflessness

Selflessness is incredibly unintuitive. It feels unnatural, because you’re used to thinking about yourself. If you’re hungry, you eat. If you’re tired, you sleep.

But, if you only focus on yourself, you will only do what’s in your best interest. What’s in your best interest is not always what’s in your partner’s best interest.

When you think about your partner, and what they would like and what they need before yourself, then you are living selflessly. And if you help your partner and focus on what they need, they will help you in return. It’s a productive cycle.

By focusing on helping and loving your partner, you are also helping yourself. It’s technically unselfish, but at the core it’s actually selfish. You help them, so they help you. If you only work to help yourself, then you’re not contributing to the marriage, and it will fall apart.

And so, selflessness is crucial to a productive marriage.

If you’re waiting for your partner to start helping, don’t. It starts with you. When you contribute in abundance, it will be given back to you. This is the law of reciprocity.

If you are expecting someone to do things for your best interest, there’s a small chance it could happen, but it generally doesn’t. You’ll need to do it first, if you want it for yourself.

When you start living selflessly for your partner, your partner will begin selflessly living for you. It’s a beautiful thing.

Pillar #2: Acceptance

As mentioned earlier, every person is flawed. No person is perfect, and everyone has different flaws.

Because of this, it’s easy to fall into a cycle of condemnation and judgement. You can’t believe someone would behave the way your partner does, and your partner can’t believe some of the behaviors you have in your life.

Because this is true for every relationship, and every marriage, then it is completely unproductive to expect or assume that your partner is perfect and can do nothing wrong. Putting down your partner for being flawed will only bring resentment.

Instead, you should assume that your partner is very capable of doing something wrong. And instead of condemning it, it should be accepted and dealt with accordingly.

Now, I don’t mean accepted as in “this behavior is acceptable”, but accepted as in “having flaws is acceptable”.

If the partners in the marriage are reasonable, these wrong-doings are kept secret. These secrets are in every marriage. And because they are exclusive to the marriage, the marriage is the only system that can help fix them.

Opposites attract, and that is what makes a relationship more perfect than the individual. Because we all have different flaws and different strengths, we can work together to mitigate the shortcomings and weaknesses of an individual.

This is quite literally why a productive marriage can save your life. When left to our own devices, there’s generally a single pitfall that is so detrimental that it can kill you when taken to the extreme. It generally comes in the form of an addiction, such as alcohol, food, gambling, sex, etc.

And if opposites didn’t attract, then people with the same addictions would be attracted to each other. If two people with the same addiction are together, then that addiction will never be resolved, and it will ultimately destroy the marriage and the individuals.

Because you are married, there’s an opportunity to help your partner overcome their pitfalls, or at least compensate enough for them so it does not destroy them. And because you’re married, your partner can help you overcome your own shortcomings.

It’s a win-win, and it’s what makes a marriage work.

Pillar #3: Accountability

Accountability is fundamental to making progress and improving. When there’s no accountability, there’s no framework for progress and reporting. Things get left undone. There’s no markers for success.

It’s your job to keep your partner accountable to improving their flaws.

Now, this can be taken the wrong way. It’s not your job to fix your partner, and it’s not your job to judge your partner.

It’s your job to help your partner figure out a way for building a system that helps them overcome their shortcomings, and then hold them accountable to that system.

If you simply expect your partner to get better without a system for improvement, you will be very disappointed when they keep doing the things you don’t want them to do. This is unproductive thinking, and it affects so many marriages.

Instead, you should expect your partner to stick to the system and rules you designed together. If they stick to the system, then their behavior should improve. If they don’t stick to the system, then they are not committed to the marriage (and then you have some bigger problems).

And vice versa, there are some systems and rules that you will need to stick to so you can overcome some of your own shortcomings. These should be communicated effectively with your partner so you can be clear about what is success and what is failure.

These flaws will not go away immediately. Some of them go away simply by making decisions to never do something again (or to always do something under every circumstance), but generally they will be fixed gradually and with much focus and determination.

Because of your selflessness, you’re helping your partner with their shortcomings. Because of your acceptance, your partner knows they are loved even when they mess up, and there’s room in the marriage to fail and try again. Because of your accountability, your partner is given a tool that will help them be able to help themselves.

And as I mentioned earlier, that’s the game: Building a system in your marriage of feedback and guidance that helps you fix yourself, which in turn fixes your marriage.

Pillar #4: Integrity

Integrity is the one thing you have complete control over in your marriage. You can’t control your partner, you can’t force them to improve their flaws or be selfless, and you can’t force them to help you get better.

But, you can stick to your word. And if your word is to improve, then you are in control of improving.

As with most things in life, with your integrity it’s important to under-promise and over-deliver.

You don’t want to under-promise too much, because then your partner doesn’t think you will ever change. But you don’t want to over-promise, because they will be disappointed when you don’t follow through on what you said you would do because it was unsustainable.

You want to create a plan that is sustainable and achievable, but also challenging enough that it brings real change over time. You should be committing to some amount of work, and that work needs to be done.

Because this is the one thing you can control in a marriage, it’s important to get it right.

A person who is not true to their word is completely untrustworthy. If you can’t be trusted, then no one can expect anything of you. And if no one can expect anything of you, there’s no relationship.

By establishing good integrity, your partner can trust you’ll do what you say you’re going to do. This is so healthy for a marriage, and it helps it thrive. It creates paths for effective and efficient communication, and it allows you to truly build a relationship that can accomplish more than any individual.

When you have integrity, you’re bringing everything you can to the marriage. And with most marriages, the bare minimum you are on the hook for doing can be found in your wedding vows.

To continually improve over time, you should be committing to doing things that will take you to new levels of success in all areas of life. If you don’t commit to improvement, things will stay the same.

Conclusion

Marriage is complex and messy, and these pillars don’t address every marriage issue. However, these pillars can take a marriage to new levels and help it become something that is wonderful and productive.

I believe if you live selflessly, can accept your partner as they are, build systems for improvement, and stick to those systems, then you will build a thriving and productive marriage. Not only will your marriage thrive, but you will thrive as an individual.

Mobility

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve recently discovered something quite fundamental that separates most olympic athletes from other outlets of physical fitness: their dedication to mobility.

Mobility can be boiled down to having strength while maintaining flexibility. Or, strength through a wide range of motion.

When you think of a stereotypical body builder (not necessarily an athlete), you think of someone who lacks mobility. There’s the classic image of someone putting a sticker on their back, and asking them to get it off.

If you haven’t seen it, they can’t get it off. They can’t move their arms more than the distance of the next lift. They typically have a specific lift they are able to do very well, but are unrounded (as opposed to being well-rounded) in their skills.

The stark contrast is an olympic gymnast, who has incredible strength (though maybe not as much in static lifts) while maintaining incredible mobility and a range of performance skills.

These gymnasts are not one-trick ponies. They can get on the rings, on the floor, the trampoline, the vault, the Pommel horse, the balance beam, etc., and demonstrate skills that you and I would have a hard time imagining ourselves doing.

Mobility allows athletes to have strength when pushed into physical positions that are not “normal” static positions. When an athlete wants to explode with strength, they usually need to do so in many different dynamic positions. Contrast that with a body builder, who typically focuses on very specific ranges of motion and static lifting.

These two comparisons aren’t exactly “fair” as there are many advantages and disadvantages to either, as well as many different types of athletes all throughout a range of strength and mobility.

However, I want to illustrate a dichotomy. Given the option of either incredible strength and lack of mobility, or good strength and a full range of motion, I would choose the latter.

Okay, sure. Great conclusion. Why am I even talking about physical strength and flexibility?

It directly applies to you and me. Not just in our physical ability, but in our work, relationships, and all aspects of life. Increasing mobility implies being above average at all of the things that matter - while lack of mobility means great advantages in one area and very little in another.

If you want to do well with your career as well as have a great marriage, family life, friends, and overall legacy, then you want mobility.

If you want to do well in your career (or whatever you’re optimizing for) and let everything else fall by the wayside, you want a lack of mobility.

Chances are, there’s more to your life than work

I call this the “secret to Indiehacker success” because it’s a career path that requires multiple skills and wearing multiple hats. It’s not something you can do if you’re only good at one thing.

There are a lot of aspects to running a real business that require good skills to maintain:

Product & Design
Documentation
Marketing & Media
Infrastructure
Customer Service

The list is long and diverse.

You can’t simply be a good designer and run a business. Similarly, you can’t simply be a good developer and run a business. It requires more skills that take time to learn.

Having multiple strengths in multiple areas allows you to capture the upside of running a business by yourself. This advice is similar to Scott Adams’ concept of being well above average at multiple things instead of being the best at one thing.

Being diversely skilled allows you to be unique and valuable. Being the best at one thing isn’t as good as being able to provide incredible value for others. Also, providing real value for others requires a diverse skillset.

Not only that, but being the absolute best at something is incredibly difficult, while being above average in multiple areas is relatively achievable.

Your work is a very important part of your life, but you probably have a family, friends, and other hobbies and obligations that require your time and wide-range of skills.

Marriage is a skill. If you think the “perfect” spouse is out there that will never cause any issues or disagreements, you would be mistaken. They are just as imperfect as you are, and learning to communicate effectively is key.

Parenting is a skill. When your child is born you have very little idea what to do with them and how to raise them. If you don’t learn how to raise them well and you let them grow up without instruction or direction, they probably won’t end up very successful or productive.

Having and maintaining friends is a skill. Neglecting your friends (or family, for that matter), and not investing time and energy into long-term relationships will leave you stranded when you need someone at your side.

Faith is a skill. Reading the Bible (understanding it) and applying it to your life, and making progress in the things of God requires time, effort, and attention. It’s something that can be very productive if you get better at it, and is mostly a waste of time if you’re not good at it.

Health and fitness is a skill. Knowing what foods to eat, what foods not to eat (PSA: please avoid vegetable oils), how much to eat, how to cook and prepare foods, and how your body responds to different foods takes some amount of knowledge and focus. Taking time to stretch, build muscle with resistance, and increase your physical mobility takes quite a bit of knowledge to have productive results without injuring yourself.

Maintaining mental clarity and sanity is a skill. If you don’t monitor your thoughts, and care too much about what other people think about you, then you’re going to have a hard time getting anything done. Having productive thoughts enables you to be exponentially productive in reality. Along the same vein, if the content you’re consuming is garbage, then your thoughts will be garbage.

Finances are a skill. It’s not just about how much money you make (though, I do recommend increasing income as a way to improve your life), but how you spend, save, and invest your money that allows you to make progress long-term. Learning and practicing the skills needed for this takes time and knowledge.

All of these aspects of life are important for your long-term health and wealth. If you want a fulfilled, balanced, and happy life, then you’ll want to be investing in all of these areas.

That means there are a wide range of skills you’ll want to be good at in life. You’ll need some wide-ranging knowledge and mobility to make them all happen successfully.

Not only do we need those skills, but often we need them all multiple times a day. We need to be able to get off the vault, and hop on the rings at a moments notice.

Aggregate performance, not individual performance

The wild truth about the list above is, if one of those areas is lacking significantly, it brings down the performance of all of the others.

I’ve mentioned this concept many times on my blog, but if your marriage is falling apart it’s hard to parent correctly, or maintain mental clarity.

If you’re unhealthy and can’t move without pain, you’re going to have a hard time with just about everything. Similarly, if you have no money skills, just about everything listed is pretty hard to maintain.

The sum total of all of those skills is what creates balance and progress in your life. If each of these things require time and attention, then you need to allocate your time and attention effectively.

Not only that, but you’ll also need to be able to switch hats quickly without getting overwhelmed or frustrated.

When watching sports, there are two types of performances. There’s individual performances which is a single athlete performing their best, and aggregate (or team) performances which is the total performance of all individual athletes.

No matter what, individual performances matter. But, when looking at the complete picture, some individual performances can compensate for a lack in others, and there can be some strategy involved to winning as a team even if someone loses individually.

You might think “wait, I thought he said we need to be good at all of this”. Yes, you do need all of those skills. No doubt every professional athlete has the skills to be great, but that doesn’t mean they’ll always perform perfectly.

The goal of your life is to create balance by emphasizing the aggregate performance. It’s okay to be less than great in certain areas at certain times. It’s okay to emphasize certain aspects of your life in certain seasons.

But, if you completely neglect one area of your life, then you’ll get cut from the team. And getting cut from the team means you don’t get to demonstrate great skills that make you unique and fulfilled. The balance gets skewed beyond recovery.

The team needs you as much as you need the team. Focusing on your individual performance is how you can contribute effectively (and it’s the only thing in your control), and communicating and working with the team is how you can win overall.

Conclusion

Working towards mobility allows you to have strength in multiple areas of your life. It’s what can create balance and progress, and what allows you to be successful overall (not only in one area of your life).

You are a complex human being, with needs, wants, skills, and a unique scenario that applies to you. Similarly, your skills need to be diverse and above-average to be able to compensate for the complexity of your life.

Create flexibility in your life by building skills in multiple areas. You don’t need to be the best, just good enough to continually make progress and maintain a healthy performance.

The Factory Is The Product

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I think about this tweet a lot. https://t.co/A4svCcE1Yy
— Jordan O'Connor (@jdnoc) April 3, 2021

This is one of the fundamental perspectives that first-time entrepreneurs, and especially people who’ve never manufactured (created) a product, get wrong.

They might assume it’s all about the product. How can we get people to like the product more? Should we add all the other features our competitor has? Conversion funnels, social media followers, content, the whole gamut.

And with that perspective, they focus on the features and performance of other products. “Product X has this, so we should too.” “People like this about product Y so we should make that a priority.”

This outward appearance based approach to creating products is backwards. It seems like it matters, but in the end it results in copycats, lack of vision, and competition that can do the exact same thing.

The thing about appearance is, if you make something look better than it actually is, then users will find out it’s not as good as it seems. That’s not a good place to be in, and users will look elsewhere.

So, if this isn’t the way to create value for others, what is? How can someone make a great product without focusing on how it appears to other people?

By focusing on what actually matters: the factory.

The factory determines the product. The factory determines the culture. The factory determines the speed, execution, iteration, stability, and vision of a product.

Anyone can copy designs, anyone can copy public-facing features, but no one can copy a factory. At the core it’s internal. It’s hidden. It’s behind the scenes.

And, what a factory produces is always unique from other factories, because it’s crafted by people who are different. People who have different perspectives, different goals, different lifestyles, different abilities.

Because the factory determines the product, the factory is the product.

Iterate in your factory, and you’ll iterate on your output (product). Innovate in the factory, and you’ll innovate on your output. Improve the factory, and you’ll improve the output.

Getting better at making the thing makes the thing better.

You are a factory

I keep talking about factories, and you might feel a bit like this doesn’t apply to you since you’re not manufacturing anything.

I don’t know you, but chances are you’re a developer or a writer like me. And even if you’re not, this still applies to you.

Whether you like it or not, you are a factory. You consume, you produce, you create, and you have internal processes that are running constantly to make it all happen.

Obviously this isn’t primarily about traditional manufacturing, though it does apply. It’s a mental construct that allows you to have a comprehensive view of your role in creating value for others.

In its most simple state, a factory is something that takes raw materials and energy and creates something brand new. You are not much different as a human being - you eat, you learn and apply skills, and you create new value in the world.

If you’re not creating value in the world, then you’re just consuming energy and have raw materials laying around (which is economically unproductive, but clearly people as individuals have value no matter their economic output!).

All people have different raw materials. Some people have better (more, or cheaper) energy sources. But everyone can take energy and skills and create something.

If you switch out your raw materials you can make different things. If you increase your energy input you can create more things.

I’m taking the time to elaborate on this because I want you to see the similarities of people and factories. And it makes sense, factories are designed by people (not much smarter than you or me).

And just like a factory, you have internal systems that are running constantly to ensure that necessary things happen in the correct order. You’re converting food into energy, you have habits and routines that operate like assembly lines, you have a product innovation center that thinks and learns and acquires new knowledge.

Now, these internal systems can be productive and unproductive. A person who is distracted all the time does not have good systems in place to consistently output. A person who consumes the wrong food, the wrong information, and doesn’t focus on using their factory to help others will end up in ruin.

Conversely, a well run, efficient, knowledgeable and productive person (factory) can serve others and become incredibly successful over time.

In life, you either produce or die. If you don’t produce, you’ll never be able to sustain a lifestyle the supports you needs and wants. If your factory isn’t running, you’re not going to live very long.

Similarly, if you’re unhealthy you can’t produce effectively. If your relationships/marriage is falling apart, you can’t produce effectively. If you’re constantly stressed you can’t produce effectively. If your kids are a burden because you didn’t raise them properly, you can’t produce effectively.

Improve your factory (what’s going on inside), and improve your output (what’s going on outside).

The factory principle for developers

Coding is manufacturing. Code can be infrastructure (internal) or product (external).

When you see coding as manufacturing, it instantly becomes a commodity. It’s something that could be outsourced, or done in house. Something that can almost be automated with the right processes and procedures.

I think this is a healthy approach to coding, because if you get caught up in the magic of coding, then you start to think that coding is the most important thing.

Coding is the easy part. Marketing, distribution, and sales is the difficult part of any venture. However, all of those facets of the business are part of the factory. They all have internal processes, they can all be optimized and scaled, and they all drive output of the factory.

When focusing on the factory as a whole, rather than just continuing to code for the sake of coding, then you have a more balanced approach to building a real business and providing real value to other people.

Internal processes and automations rule everything

It doesn’t matter how things appear on the outside, if things are fundamentally broken on the inside then it’s only a matter of time before things fall apart.

This applies to business, your personal life, relationships, family, etc. How things appear on the outside almost never directly reflect what’s going on inside.

This principle can work in your favor, or work directly against you. For instance, on the outside you could appear like you’re not 100% there. When in reality, you’re laser focused on a mission that will bring you success in the future.

On the other hand, you can seem like you have it all together on the outside, and in reality you’re stressed out of your mind and can’t focus on anything valuable.

How people perceive you is not what you should be thinking about. What you should be thinking about is how to improve your internal (processes, automations, life, thoughts, feelings, etc.) such that your life and work trend in the right direction.

In fact, ultimately your life is a reflection of what you do when no one is watching.

You are what you do when no one is watching.

That’s the emphasis. That’s the goal. People on the outside of the factory don’t know what’s going on in the factory. It could be falling apart or flourishing.

In the end, the factory is what’s in your control. It’s up to you to do the work to make it the best performing and most efficient factory you can.

Factory vision is more important than product vision

It doesn’t matter what’s possible if you don’t have the means to make it happen.

Don’t get me wrong, ideas are great, and they have a very important place in the lifecycle of business and progress. However, they’re worthless if they can’t be acted upon.

If you don’t have the right tools, processes, automations, and internal focus to deliver an idea from start to finish, then you’re not in a position to make progress.

If you are in a position to deliver, you’re in the sweet spot. Ideas can be a dime-a-dozen, and you get to pick and choose exactly what you want to take action on. It allows you to iterate, make mistakes, output the wrong things in hopes of eventually outputting the right thing.

Continuous improvement of output has a direct correlation to internal skills and capabilities. If you’re not getting better, the output cannot be better.

Vision for how you’re going to improve your internal processes is what allows great ideas to flourish. Therefore, factory vision is more important than product vision.

Conclusion

I think I beat this analogy to death, so I’ll stop here. Hopefully it helps people understand that what goes on inside is more important than what is shown on the outside.

Iterating on internal processes, skills, automations, etc. will directly result in better output.

Better factory, better product.

You are a factory, and you can get better, which allows you to produce better.

Practice In Public

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I told you so

When I was a kid I practiced in public.

In high school I played soccer at an elite level. One of the best players in my state. There’s one thing I did that was unique: I practiced in public.

I would practice in my backyard, performing juggling moves, and demonstrating speed and finesse for cars that drove by.

Sometimes the cars would “see” (I don’t technically know if they were watching) something spectacular. Sometimes they would see me fail.

But as I practiced, I got better. The added pressure and accountability of the cars passing by led me to fail less and less, and perfect the processes I was trying to learn.

I didn’t necessarily do it on purpose, but it was something I liked to do. I wanted to show off my skills. I wanted people to see the work I was putting in, as a visual “I told you so” when I was successful.

“I told you so.”

Since starting my entrepreneurial journey, this “I told you so” mantra has been my approach to documenting my journey.

I want a crystal clear picture of the decisions and progress I have made, so I can look back and show people that I did exactly what I said I was going to do.

There’s some nuance to this approach. There are several ways to do it wrong (I see people do it wrong all the time, and it’s tough to watch).

My approach to practicing in public

Here’s how I practice in public:

I (privately [important]) plan out the daily processes and habits I will focus on.
I execute; integrating new habits and routines in small batches.
I document things that I have done, and nod towards where it’s headed.
For added accountability, I document things I am doing live (or in a way that’s always public).

Here’s what I don’t do:

Talk about what I am “going to do”.
Talk about goals or end results (those are out of my control).
Make it seem like I am an expert and that the way I am doing things is the “right way”.

It’s important to plan privately, because if you plan publicly you will lose trust if you adjust your sights.

Even if you just decide to do something different, you’re not doing what you said you were going to do. It’s not a good look.

Plan privately so you can start building habits and routines that match a lifestyle driving towards the results you want to have, and then when things stick you can start to depend on them and plan publicly around them.

Build habits privately, execute publicly.

This framework allows me to point back to the work that I did publicly and show that I was right all along, even if I don’t actually know if I will be right.

There are times I have failed, but when I fail people see it as my learning, because I didn’t tell them the plans that I had (it could have been my plan to be executing an experiment).

And in reality, I am learning. Nothing is certain and nothing can be planned perfectly. All I can do is tend towards something, and push in a direction that travels towards the vague results I want.

Some people try to “build in public” and all they do is talk about what they are doing. Instead of showing results, and instead of showing their work, they just say they’re doing stuff.

They take polls, ask people for feedback and opinions, and ask people what they should be doing.

Instead of focusing on building processes, they focus on engaging with people. Instead of working, they’re talking. It’s not a good way to actually build anything meaningful.

Don’t be a person who talks a lot. Be a person who shows a lot. That’s meaningfully helpful.

Benefits of practicing in public

The only material benefit I have received from practicing in public is eventually building a business that changed my life.

I probably would have built something, but the only reason I built the business I operate now is because I put it out there for people to see even before I started selling it. People noticed, and I realized the demand.

There’s a lot of different ways you can practice in public. A lot of people tend to want to practice for the people they want to eventually be their customers.

That’s fine, it works. But it’s not the reason I practice in public.

I do it so I can get in front of people I want to spend time with and learn from. I want to be in a circle of people who think like me, act like me, and have ambitions similar to mine.

It’s hard to find people like that unless you put yourself out there. When you’re traversing wealth classes, there’s no connections to draw from. I knew exactly 0 business owners growing up.

I also do it for an added layer of accountability. If I don’t want to screw up in public, then I probably shouldn’t screw up. It’s really that simple.

Practicing in public builds trust. Jeff Bezos said in one of his shareholder letters,

“The way you earn trust, the way you develop a reputation is doing hard things well over and over and over.” — Jeff Bezos

When you do those hard things in public, people notice. And when you do it long enough, important people notice. That’s how you can build trust with a person before having even met them.

People automatically know who you are, what you’re about, and trust that you’re going to do what you say you are going to do, because you have a public reputation and record for doing so.

Practicing long term

Will I always practice in public?

I’m not sure. If I look at current multi-millionaire, and billionaire’s, are they practicing in public? Probably not. They are focusing on learning and growing their business, not showing how they did it to others.

I think that’s an issue though, because what happens is they never write down the whole story. They never keep track publicly about how things are going. Then, when people ask them, they paint a very generic picture about how things came about. It’s usually “luck” and “serendipity”.

I wish more people were open about their thought processes and decisions they made so others could emulate a rule-book for success. At the end of the day the decisions you make determine the progress and trajectory of your life.

What I think most people would find, is that the most important thing is making small decisions daily about how you’re going to spend your time and energy.

It’s not about grand plans, or working insane amounts every day, but there’s a difference between working on compounding tasks and working on tasks that keep you in your current position.

As for me, I can see myself continuing down this path. It’s the only way I know how to get in front of people I want a seat at the table with. It’s the only way I know to keep myself accountable outside of developing my own internal trust.

2020 Review

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve never done a true yearly review before. Mostly because I’m lazy. I don’t keep detailed track of the progress of anything, so it’s hard to remember unless I write it down.

So, this is a look back at 2020 from my memory.

The Stats

On Jan. 1 2020, I wrote a quick blog post outlining some stats about my life at that current time. Here’s what they look like now:

Age: 28 (+3.7%)
Customers: 1356 (+148.8%)
MRR: $37899.54 (+132.8%)
Twitter Followers: 6197 (+362.1%)
Email Subscribers: 686 (+96%)
Kids: 3 (+50%)
Businesses: 1 (+0%)

Just about everything was up in 2020. From that standpoint, it was a really good year. When I look back on the year, it’s hard not to see all of the inefficiencies and work that didn’t get done.

But that’s okay, because that’s the way I’ve designed my life. I made it so I don’t have to be on my game all the time to continue to take ground.

Alright, let’s do a quick recap of how the year went down.

The Beginning

2020 started out in a bit of a rough spot - it was rough because I was freshly a full-time indiehacker. I quit my job in Nov. 2019 to work 100% on Closet Tools.

I couldn’t string together a consistent schedule of work. I was home a lot, and home was one of the least productive environments for me to work (more on that later). I was normally working at the kitchen table, or my bed, which made working a lot harder than it should be.

This started my desire to have a dedicated place to work.

Most other things were good. Business revenue was up, family was healthy, no real emergencies or setbacks.

I set out to do a weekly newsletter, and lots of other writing. That didn’t really happen. It’s hard to come up with new content to push every week. It’s much easier to just talk about what I am doing and what I am learning.

I would still like to do something like that, and do plan on having more contact with the small audience I’ve gathered on the Internet. It could happen in 2021.

I started doing calisthenics as a way to get into a more productive state. It was mostly fine, except it was taking longer than it should when doing it with my family (mostly my kids). Constantly setting up and breaking down the workout station also added some friction to the process.

This started my desire for having a dedicated place to work out.

I ended up halting most physical activity once COVID-19 became a “pandemic”. I think mostly because other activities in life shifted, so just about everyone went into a more sedated lifestyle.

My wife was pregnant throughout the beginning of 2020. We heard horror stories of husbands not being able to be with their wives during births (due to COVID-19 fears), so we decided to go off the beaten path and have a birth in a birthing center (more like a home-birth in an AirBNB), where they had much less restriction than a hospital.

We started driving 2+ hours away every other week to do checkups and appointments to get prepared to have the baby there.

Around this time (March) I hit $20k with Closet Tools. Since the baby was going to be born in June, I knew I wanted to get quite a bit of work done before she was born.

Also around this time, Closet Tools’ revenue took a hit when lockdowns came into full-swing. I think it was just a bit of panic from some customers. Nothing catastrophic for me, but it scared me enough to start working really hard to make the app better so I could keep it growing.

The combination of having a child soon and the pandemic pushed me to knock out a ton of low-hanging fruit. It was both a very good time, and a very stressful time.

I specifically remember my birthday (April 23) was one of the days that the revenue dropped the most, and I didn’t have a great day.

But, I kept working and kept providing value for the customers that stuck around. I knew I had to get as much done as I possibly could before the baby was born, and then I would plan on taking a couple of months off.

The Middle

I worked just about every day through April, May, and June to get done everything I wanted. Between having a very pregnant wife, two other young kids to look after, and the small apartment to work in, it was pretty tough. I’m very glad I did it, though.

Throughout these months visits to the midwives increased, so we were spending a lot of time driving. Especially in June. I had finished up most of my work by the time the due-date rolled around, but the baby ended up being two weeks late (as it was with the first two).

We had baby Shea on June 30, and it was an awesome experience. I don’t think we’ll ever go back to doing hospital births again (pandemic or not).

I took off work for 3 months, only providing email support (no code written during this time).

Almost immediately after bringing her home, we realized that we had out-stayed our welcome at our current apartment.

It was time to get a house.

The process was a bit crazy. Mostly because I was recently self-employed.

For mortgages, the banks are looking for at least 2 years of stable income to qualify a loan. But, since I was self-employed, they couldn’t consider the W-2 income of my previous day-job in the figures.

So, instead of earning $100k in 2018, I only earned $15k in 2018 (Closet Tools’ revenue).

Then, they would average my past two year’s income and that was my “current” income. In this case, it was the average of $15k and $100k (Closet Tools’ 2019 revenue). Even though I was currently doing over $30k/month from the business, and I had already earned $200k+ in 2020, my salary was seen as $57.5k/year.

It took going through 5 lenders to figure out this is how the banks saw my income - I was surprised how little of a mortgage I qualified for.

Finally, we came across a lender how would allow us to do a YTD audit of my income, and use that in combination with my 2019 revenue. Very kind of them!

Fortunately, revenue for Closet Tools almost doubled in 3 short months (which is crazy because I was on paternity leave), so by the time our house buying process came to a close, we were able to get a home that we had only once dreamed about.

This was a crazy process. I had to get a CPA to do the audit. There was a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of changes of requirements, and a lot of effort to get the mortgage.

It was so close, that when we moved in October, we hadn’t even closed on the house yet. The sellers allowed us to move in temporarily and “rent” from them. Very kind of them, as well!

When looking at houses, we wanted a home that centered around productivity. Not just work, but something that made our lives easier to live the way we wanted to live.

Because we are all home 24/7, having a large home was a must. We also wanted all of the modern conveniences like a dishwasher (we didn’t have that at the old apartment). And, we wanted a place that was mostly move-in ready, as we didn’t want to spend a ton of time renovating just to live there.

The house we ended up getting was actually an afterthought when we were looking at listings. The pictures weren’t that great, so it was last on our list of houses to look at.

For the most part, any listing that had incredible pictures was awful, and ones with mediocre pictures ended up being better.

We upgraded to a 6 bedroom, +3000 sqft house that met all of the things we wanted (and more). It has been incredible so far, and I love this house.

During my paternity leave I wrote some blog posts, and did a talk on entrepreneurship.

The End

The end of 2020 was completely different from the beginning.

Another child added
House upgrade
Business doubled in a few months

Wild. If someone told me 5 years ago where we would be today, I don’t know what I would have said.

The last bit of 2020 has been filled with home renovations (mostly painting + furniture/decorating). I’m back to work now, and things continue to grow with Closet Tools.

I’m working on renovating an office workspace attached to my garage, so I will have a dedicated place to work and to exercise.

The kids are doing really well, my marriage is getting deeper and more valuable every day, and life is good. Really good.

Another bit of good news, we bought a 6-acre lot of land next to us. Apparently it was for sale the whole time the house was for sale, but we didn’t know because it wasn’t listed anywhere except for Zillow.

To be in a financial position to be able to purchase land on a whim like that is crazy. That’s not something I ever thought would happen, and never even intended on happening.

Between the holidays, working, and spending time with family, the end of 2020 was much less dramatic. It’s been a time to reflect, plan, and establish some roots.

2021

I can’t speculate much about what will happen in 2021. There’s no way I could have guessed what would happen in 2020, so I’m not really going to give it a shot.

What I can say, is there’s a few things I intend on working on and continuing. Hopefully they all continue uninterrupted.

I plan on being more deliberate about reading. I have purchased a lot of books, and I will set a schedule to get them all read during 2021.
I will continue to work on Quant Secrets, my algorithmic trading journey. I’ll be writing quite a bit of content, and building a trading infrastructure.
I will continue to work on Closet Tools. If it keeps increasing, I’ll keep working on it as my “day-job”.
I will be “on” Twitter less, but I will be writing there more.
I will be investing more time into family, my wife, and exercising. Less into entertainment and wasted time.
I will be more financially frugal. After getting the house and everything for it, there’s some catching up to do. I’ll also be investing more, and probably eliminating all of my debt.

That’s about it. Who knows, maybe I’ll write more, maybe I’ll learn some new skills, maybe I’ll sell the business. It’s all a guessing game.

The thing to focus on is the processes you establish for daily maintenance and progress. Just enough structure to keep things thriving, but also leaving room for serendipity and genius to be pursued.

What a crazy year. I’m glad I’m writing about it, because I don’t think future me would believe it otherwise.

That’s all for now. See you in the next one.

Competition

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Competition is an odd topic. It’s something a lot of people care about. They want to make sure their ideas are protected and that they’re not being taken over by some other company.

As an Indiehacker, competition is a bit different than corporate competition. If someone takes your idea and then adds a few employees behind it, you’re now outgunned.

That’s how it feels, but that’s not what’s actually true.

You see, competition doesn’t matter at all. Not even in the slightest. I spend 0 hours every day of every week thinking about the 20 or so competitors that have popped up in the last three years.

Why? Because they all lack skills that I have. No one has the same skills as you.

You see, when you’re confident in your skills, and you have unique talents, no one else can copy what you do. No one else has the same vision as you, and no one else can quite do what you do.

I can tell immediately if someone actually has any chance of being successful or not. People that will be successful do their own thing, not copy what other people have done.

Competitors that directly copy feature sets, design, marketing tactics, etc. don’t actually know what they’re doing. They just mimic what others are doing.

That’s an incredibly poor position to be in as a “business” owner. I feel bad for them, because they have no skills.

There are a few competitors that actually do some good things and drive innovation forward. I have respect for them, because they actually care and want to help their customers.

Ultimately, if someone is more skilled than you, more innovative than you, faster than you, and more helpful to their customers, then doesn’t that mean they deserve to be doing better than you?

That’s reality. That’s the truth. If you’re worried about the competition, you’re not good enough at what you do.

And that’s why you need to build deep skills. Not just “dangerous enough” skills. I’m talking about being one of the best in the world at what you do.

Get really good at what you do!

That’s what separates you from other people/businesses. That’s what makes you successful at everything you do. That’s what allows you to stop worrying. When you’re the best, you can keep working at a prolific level.

How competition has impacted me

Largely, it hasn’t at all.

It’s funny, I tweet publicly about all of my business stats. Revenue, users, organic traffic, everything. But, none of my customers see any of that. The only people that see it are mostly other developers that could make the tool themselves.

When I started Closet Tools there was one other competitor making a chrome extension for Poshmark automation. Now, there’s about 20.

All of them just copy the other ones. It’s sad. Customers are confused because there are so many options and they’re all similar (and cheaper).

But, I just keep doing what I’m doing. Providing value to my customers and moving forward. I have an innovative path, and vision for the product.

Here’s a graph of how all of the competition has affected my business:

Despite all of the competition that has popped up in the last few years, my business keeps growing. I keep adding features. I keep helping customers. My customers are getting better and better results.

Now, I will say there is a definite first-mover effect. I was early to the game. Many others came after me because I was talking about it. Had I not said anything, I’d probably be doing even better right now.

But it really hasn’t mattered that more people have entered the game. It’s not going to derail the amount of value I have delivered for my customers.

One other thing to note, my competitors try to compete on price and it’s great. I love that they can take the low-end of the market. They can have more customers that pay less, and tend to have more issues and support requests.

Conclusion

Don’t worry about competition. Worry about getting so good that competition doesn’t matter.

I'll never be poor again

Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

One time my wife and I were on our way home from a Church meeting. We had two kids at the time, and for some reason we didn’t have them with us (normally we would bring them).

It’s only about a 5 minute drive home from church, so we had some extra time to ourselves while the kids were at their grandparent’s. On the way home there’s a gas station, and we stopped to get some gas to fill up the car.

At that gas station we noticed a man who was sitting outside with a duffel bag. This normally wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it was really cold out, so there’s no reasonable purpose to be sitting out there.

My wife prodded me to ask him if he needed any help. I shied away from the idea, but eventually we both went to go see if he was okay.

After a minute or two, we heard his story about how he recently left an abusive relationship and was temporarily homeless. We felt for him. It was really cold out, and we wanted to help him.

We invited him to get into our car and we took him to the closest motel in town. He was thrilled.

In the car my wife prayed with him and led him to Christ. It turns out he was already a Christian but had waned away from the things of God. She had it on her heart to ensure he was saved, and even gave him a Bible he could read.

We got to the motel. Suddenly, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Why? Because I knew if this motel cost too much, I wouldn’t have enough to cover it. Pay day was tomorrow. We lived paycheck to paycheck. We cut up all of our credit cards in attempt to not get into any more debt.

I convinced myself that this place probably wasn’t that expensive and followed through with the plan.

We got inside. The place was empty except for the single person behind the counter. I didn’t see any numbers indicating the rate of a one-night stay, so I asked if we could book a room for a night.

While he was ringing up the bill, I checked my phone to see how much money I had. That’s when I started to panic internally. I knew it was going to be close, and I didn’t have any options if I didn’t have enough.

The man behind the counter wasn’t a native english speaker. The conversation wasn’t incredibly productive, but eventually we got to the point where I needed to pay.

“It’s $84”, he said.

I don’t remember exactly how much I had at the time. Probably somewhere in the $60 range. I knew I didn’t have enough.

Still, I went through with the transaction, casually acting like I didn’t know anything was wrong.

After a few failed attempts, and a few different cards (that I knew wouldn’t work), the transaction ultimately failed. I couldn’t book a room at a motel for this homeless man. I was mortified.

The man didn’t seem to care too much, he was very grateful to have a good conversation with us and spend some time with other people. He mentioned that we could just drop him off at WalMart and he’d wander around for a few hours.

So that’s what we did.

I don’t really remember what happened on the way home from that event. I don’t remember getting my kids, or the conversation I had with my wife. Though I didn’t show it on the outside, I was broken.

I vowed this would never happen again.

Never.

There had been other times when I didn’t have a lot of money, like when I couldn’t afford to get my son birthday presents. But this was different.

Going out of my way to offer to help someone, and then ultimately not being able to deliver on that offer made me dishonest. It made me untrustworthy. It made me realize how incapable I was of doing anything I wanted to do.

I like to think back on moments in my life that define who I am. They cauterize the way I think. They radically change my demeanor about certain attitudes.

This specific moment drove everything home for me. It’s an event that was completely internally embarrassing. It destroyed my ego. From then on I didn’t care what other people thought.

This is another one of the chips on my shoulder. Something that drives me to be better. To grow. To increase.

Not only do I want to help one person, I want to help thousands. I want to be able to provide for my family and be able to help a thousand other families. That’s the legacy I want to leave on this earth.

Successful by default

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This is a topic I have wanted to write about for a while. I’m not sure if it’s controversial or not. Some people might not like it. Some people might think I’m closed minded.

It’s all good, I’m just here to help people who are listening.

This is a hidden truth that isn’t spoken about much. The reason being - it’s impossible to measure.

How can you measure how much destruction you’ve avoided by behaving correctly? You can’t, really. The only thing you can measure is the consequences of your actions.

Good habits lead to success, bad habits lead to destruction.

“Behaving correctly”. “Good character”. “Successful”. These are subjective claims. They are obvious to some people, and completely foreign to others. A lot of it depends on how you were raised, what instruction you were given and the experiences you’ve had in the past.

It’s only subjective because there are certain ideologies that differ widely on what’s “good” and “bad”.

I’m not here to judge, and I’m not the arbiter of truth. But, I can certainly give you some examples that are reasonable and as objective as possible to demonstrate my claims.

Don’t you have to fail to become successful?

Yes, but there’s a caveat. Failure is not destruction. Failure is not ruin. Failure is simply making the wrong decision in attempt to make the right decision.

Failure is course correction. It helps you understand how reality works, so you can re-align your mindset. When you do something you think is right, and it turns out to be wrong, then you can learn from that and make the right decision moving forward.

This is how knowledge becomes wisdom. Wisdom is applied knowledge. Sometimes you don’t know what the right answer is until you try something. Then, once you have feedback, you can make better decisions moving forward.

Destruction is an entirely different beast. Destruction is habits, actions, and decisions that actively work against you. They prevent you from being successful.

Destruction is easy

Making a mess is easy. Cleaning it up is hard. Avoiding the mess altogether is the goal.

The masses (group think, mainstream, modern culture) tend towards destruction. Certain decisions they make keep them bound in place, and never allow them to escape mediocrity.

The majority of the reason why, is because everyone around them is making the same decisions.

Not exercising. Not saving and investing money. Not getting enough sleep. Optimizing for comfort. Entertainment when bored. The list goes on. These are examples of my “subjective” claims. But it’s easy to see how those things could be bad in a person’s life.

All of these things are easy to do. Destruction is easy.

Following the crowd is easy. Mimicking those around you is easy. Fitting in is easy.

What’s hard is making your own decisions. Thinking for yourself. Optimizing for growth over comfort. Not everyone is doing that, and that makes you stick out. You don’t fit in with the crowd.

Doing the right thing when you don’t feel like it is hard. Growth is hard. Progress is hard. Success is hard. Chances are, if it’s hard, you’re doing the right thing.

Doing the right thing can lead to failure in the short term. It can mean going backwards slightly. But the difference is you’re not destroyed. Now you’re in control.

Good character is long-term invincible

Simply put, if you don’t do anything wrong you won’t be haunted by your past actions in the future.

So many (it’s actually crazy at this point) high-profile people have been torn down by their actions in the past. Sometimes it’s just stupid stuff, other times it’s criminal.

Hard work can bring you success, but hard work doesn’t make you invincible.

Those high-profile people all worked hard to get where they got in life, only to have it torn down by the bad character that haunted them and revealed their true character.

This truth is not just for high-profile people, though. This is true for everyone. For you and me.

If you consistently do things that could be perceived as evil, wrong, or illegal, eventually those actions will catch up to you and you will reap what you have sown.

But, if your character is intact, and you always look to do the right thing (and actively avoid the wrong things), your success will be protected. There’s nothing against you, so you can sleep well at night.

Being invincible from destruction is successful by default. You can consistently take action towards a goal, knowing full-well that you will eventually get there and nothing can stop you.

As a side note, people can change. Your character isn’t set in stone. If you’ve been careless in the past, your past still may haunt you. If you improve your character, you can point to a time where you made a decision to behave differently and reject destructive habits.

Typically it’s beneficial to bring forward your past wrongs. It puts you in control of the narrative. Being found out is always the worst position to be in, as people assume many things that are probably not true.

Avoiding the appearance of evil

One of my favorite examples of this truth is something that everyone loves to hate.

It’s the “Modesto Manifesto”. Or, the “Mike Pence Rule”.

The rule is this: Mike Pence never eats alone with a woman other than his wife, Karen, and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side.

I love the line just after that (in the Wikipedia article linked above): “Socially liberal or non-religious people may see Pence’s practice as misogynistic or bizarre”. How closed minded can they be?

Mike Pence’s success is invincible, because his character goes before him. Not only does he actively avoid evil (destruction), but evil avoids him, because they know his stance.

And if you think I’m saying being around women is evil, please leave this article. I don’t care what you think. It’s safe to assume we won’t be seeing Mike Pence in the same situation as Bill Clinton in the White House.

Plenty of high-profile men and women have had their lives destroyed because of careless decisions made behind closed doors as a result of a lapse in character and good judgement.

Hard work leads to success. Careless character leads to destruction. Good, strict character leads to invincibility.

Avoiding destruction (theoretically)

Okay, I’ve talked about the benefits of avoiding destruction - so what actually causes destruction? What should you be avoiding in order to remain successful?

It would be impossible to list all of the things that you need to avoid in order maintain your character.

My north star is the Bible. It has incredible nuance around the correct behavior in any situation in life. People, money, relationships, business, children, everything.

I love the progression of the Bible, because there’s a stark difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The difference is, the Old Testament focused on what you shouldn’t be doing, and the New Testament focuses on what you should be doing.

In the Old Testament, God gave his people clear rules to follow. Eight of the ten commandments are “don’t do this”. The issue with this approach, is people don’t always understand what they should be doing instead.

When Jesus arrives on the scene, he boils it down to a one liner: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Matthew 7:12.

In every situation in life, you should treat others how you would want to be treated. That’s the bare minimum. That’s going to give you 99% of the answers you need to have good character that protects your future success.

Avoiding destruction (practically)

I gave you the general answer to correct character, but let’s get more specific and talk about common pitfalls of modern Americans.

Alcohol

It’s funny, when you start mentioning the Bible people automatically point to black and white positions. It’s either a sin, or not a sin. It’s good, or it’s bad. That’s not what the Bible says at all.

Not once in the Bible does it say that drinking alcohol is a sin, but all throughout the Bible it mentions avoiding alcohol so you don’t destroy your life.

Here’s my positioning on this: if you take alcohol to it’s extreme, is it good or bad? When you’re black-out drunk, do you make intelligent, long-term oriented decisions that help you in the future? Or, do you end up making poor decisions that you regret and wish never happened?

More often than not, it’s the latter. Increased consumption of alcohol leads to careless character. It prohibits you from being steadfast in your rules that govern your character.

Am I saying never drink alcohol? No. You can do whatever you want. I definitely don’t, because I don’t want to entertain the thought of having one decision (when I’m not even coherent) that ruins my life.

You’re only one DUI away from destruction. You’re only one affair away from destruction. You’re only a few steps away from destroying your health by alcoholism. It’s just not worth messing with. Similarly with any kind of drugs.

Sex

We’re going there. Sex is a completely polarizing topic. In one context, it’s incredibly destructive. In another, it’s one of the best most valuable things in life.

This is a topic that the Bible is very clear on - there are definitive guidelines on what is sexual sin and what is not.

Whether you believe the Bible or not, here’s the reasoning behind why certain rules are the way they are.

Sex before marriage can be destructive simply because of the nature of having a child out of wedlock. If you’re young and not married, chances are you’re not ready to become a parent. It’s not the most successful position to be in.

Sex before marriage can also be destructive because of the spiritual bonding of sex between partners. When sex is freely performed with multiple partners, if you do decide to settle down with a partner in marriage, sex with that partner does not have the same bonding effect.

Not to mention STDs and STIs - the risk of increases dramatically with multiple sexual partners. When you take two people who have never had sex with anyone before, and they get married and have sex, you don’t have to guess if you’re going to contract an STD. By default it’s a successful decision.

Obsession with sex can lead to destruction as well. You tend to do things that are illegal or perceived as evil. Pedophiles are obsessed with sex. Voyeur’s are obsessed with sex. People who get in affairs tend to be obsessed with sex. You get the idea.

What you say

The words that come out of your mouth have more impact on your success than just about anything. The things you say not only impact you, but they also impact others.

Negative, pessimistic, and critical language tends towards destruction. Positive, encouraging, and empowering language tends towards success.

The things you say about yourself direct your actions.

Examples:

❌ "That's too expensive."
✅ "One day I will be able to afford that."

❌ "I'm terrible at this."
✅ "If I keep practicing I will get better."

❌ "Bad things always happen to me."
✅ "I'm so grateful for my life."
— Jordan O'Connor (@jdnoc) September 15, 2020

You can destroy your life with your words, or you can build your life with your words. Avoiding saying things that are destructive make you successful by default.

What some parents get wrong

Parents want their kids to be successful. That’s good! And that’s the way it should be.

They do this by putting rules in place the prevent the child from destroying their life. Early on in childhood, it tends to be rules that don’t get them killed (like, you can’t play in the road.) Later on in life, it’s more about character building rules.

What some parents get wrong is implementing the rules without properly educating the benefits of those rules. The other thing they do is try to scare children into behaving correctly, instead of giving them the responsibility to make the right decisions.

They’ll put rules in place about doing their homework, dating and relationships, how much TV/Video games they can play, etc. But so often the child is unaware of the destruction that lies behind breaking those rules.

The child just thinks if they break the rules, they’ll get in trouble with their parents. They don’t fully understand the implications of what breaking those rules can lead to.

When/if you have children, be clear about the benefits of following the rules in place. Typically, your child will want to be successful as well, and they will want to avoid things that can harm them in the future.

Restricting behavior is freedom

Lastly, I wanted to make the point that avoiding destruction and following strict rules gives you incredible freedom. At first glance, it might seem closed minded to restrict your behavior.

It’s hard to be free and successful when you’re in prison. It’s hard to be free and successful when you’re paying child support. It’s hard to be free and successful when you’re drunk all the time.

By restricting your behavior, you are enabling your future to be completely free. Free to be successful, free to lead a good life, and free from past behavior that might haunt you in the future.

In conclusion

Success can become your default by avoiding destructive actions and habits.

Working hard can make you successful, and having good character keeps you successful.

There’s very practical things you can avoid to make sure you stay on the path to success.

That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed this reading.

How I Learned My Skills

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Five years ago I didn’t know HTML, CSS, or JS. I didn’t know how to use Firebase as a backend, or Node for webhooks and server calls.

I didn’t even know what SEO or copywriting was. I didn’t know how to do Facebook ads, Google ads. Nothing. I’d never done any of it.

The few skills I had were product, code and writing.

I’m writing this post because my brother is getting into FB ads. He’s considering running a Facebook ads service that takes on clients. Which is funny - I took the same path at one point. You’ll find out why I am glad I didn’t.

Read on.

Existing Skills

I learned how to sit down and figure out hard things using my brain during my stint at RIT as an electrical engineering student. I learned other things, but that was the biggest takeaway.

I learned how to make products at my old day-job as an electrical engineer. I made internal engineering applications to aid in testing manufacturing. I would integrate hardware (lasers, motors, detectors, etc.) with software (mostly LabWindows using C). I worked there for about 7 years.

When I made my internal applications, the goal of whether a project was successful or not depended on how much time it saved the team. Not only that, but also how simple it was, as it would get passed down from the engineers down to manufacturing.

My (incredible, taught me so much) boss used to say, “They want to push a button and get a banana.” It has to be that simple. Push one button, and it automatically does everything it said the button would do.

Because of the hardware aspect of the applications, I learned a lot about timing, asynchronous programming, and automation. These skills are integral to the product I develop today.

To slim it down, it’s essentially skills for building robotics.

At this job I learned the C programming language, and made all of my applications in C. This was actually great, because C is a language that makes you think about how the code is operating. It doesn’t just take care of everything for you.

I also learned a lot about PCBs, manufacturing, materials, optics, and people. I’m incredibly grateful for that opportunity.

Why did I leave? Well, the pay was better with what I made. And work was a long commute. It didn’t line up perfectly with our lives. That, and I couldn’t make extra money there. So I made money on the side.

But that’s not what this post is about. This is about skills.

New Skills

There’s a common pattern with all of my new skills that I have acquired in the last five years.

Course → Action → Refinement → Service Business → Confusion & Disappointment

I literally did this four times before I realized what I was doing wrong (and what I should actually do).

Five years ago I was watching Casey Niestat in his prime, vlogging every day on YouTube and talking about how cool life is when you can do that for a living. I wanted something similar, but I didn’t want to vlog. I wanted to code.

So, I set out to learn some new skills. Starting with web development.

Web Development

With web development, I didn’t actually start out wanting to make an agency that makes websites. I just wanted to have fun and make stuff.

I took a course on Udemy that taught about HTML, CSS, and JS. I also did Free Code Camp. I don’t specifically recommend that course, but I definitely recommend free code camp.

I needed an outlet for my new skills, so I built a blog for myself, a website for my church, several websites for friends, and so on. It was a lot of work, and a lot of fun.

But, the fun and games ended when I remembered that I needed to make money doing this, not just have fun.

So, I set out to make websites as a business. A web design agency.

And that’s when I learned something very critical about my personality and how I operate as a human: I hate doing what other people want when I don’t think it’s the best thing for them.

With these websites, people wanted terrible designs, terrible UX, terrible everything. I was the expert, and I would give my opinion, and they would say “no, do it this way”. I hated that.

After about three websites, I called them all and told them I was too busy and I couldn’t do any more. It was time to get back to the drawing board.

SEO

Learning SEO was very similar to learning web development. I followed my same pattern, which was taking a course, taking action, and starting a service.

I had the intention of starting an SEO agency this time, because I had in the back of my mind that I needed to make money doing this. Not just learn new skills and have fun.

So, I took this SEO course. It was incredible. The updated version is here.

The course was not only designed to teach you SEO, but it was also designed to teach you how to create an agency that made lots of money. Perfect.

So, I set out to do SEO as a business. An SEO agency.

And that’s when I learned something very important to my journey: why would I do this very valuable skill for other businesses when I could just do it for myself?

After roughly three interviews with businesses about SEO services, I quit them all. I decided I was going to do this for myself, for my own profit, somehow.

This was when I learned I needed to make a product, not do a service.

Facebook Ads

This is a more interesting story.

Once I had some skills under my belt, I found out about dropshipping, Amazon products, and selling physical products on the internet.

I had an idea that I couldn’t shake. My wife was into journals and hand lettering, and I had an idea for a black paper journal. Simple, but something that didn’t already exist.

This is also documented on my blog. Like this post.

I made a website, talked to some manufacturers on Alibaba, got some samples, and I was ready for business.

I knew I needed to build an audience quickly, so I turned to FB ads.

I took this course. It was actually really great. I learned a lot, and had a really good plan going forward.

The one thing I lacked, was capital. I didn’t have the means to do ads correctly simply because I didn’t have the money to spend on ads.

So, in the end, the project flopped. I spent about $2500 in ads, built a launch email list, and didn’t reach my goal on Kickstarter.

It was a bit disappointing. I really believed in the idea, and I know it would have worked had I had more time and more capital.

But, as was the common thread, I needed to figure out something that made money. And I wanted to make a product.

Firebase & Web Apps

At this point, I was confused and didn’t know what to do.

Well, I knew what to do, which was learn more skills, but I needed to make money.

This was when I met a friend who has a trucking business. He had an idea for an app that would automate document filing and driver processes. I had just wrapped up a failed project, so I was desperate.

I learned so much making this app. Everything I did here applied to the current product I make for a living. I learned how to make web apps with Firebase, how to integrate webhooks into a node server, and how to think about state management and data flow for a web application.

I didn’t actually take any courses this time. I just read the documentation. But I had a project to apply what I learned.

I spent about 9 months on this project. It didn’t earn me any money, but it earned me a ton of practical and profitable skills.

And the good thing was, it worked. And he was reasonably happy about how it worked.

It was right around this time that Indiehackers got started, and I found my people. I was inspired, challenged, and advised by some really good people.

I was filled with so many ideas about what to make with my new skills.

It was also during that time that I made a script for my wife to automate sharing items on Poshmark. I put it on my blog, and a few months later I started getting inquiries about how to use it. There was market demand for my ideas and skills.

The rest, is history (currently happening?).

The Takeaway

Learn new skills by taking courses (reading books, studying documentation), and apply those new skills by helping other people. With this approach you will learn so much more than just taking a course and sitting on the information.

I followed this path so many times, and it worked out really well for me. I learned so much, and now I can build just about anything I want to build.

It takes a lot of time. But I like to say, you can spend five years now to change the rest of your life. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

And it has totally changed our lives. I’m grateful for it, and I will continue to help and teach others how to do the same.

What skills do you want to learn? How can you help other people with those skills? Are there any courses, books, or other shortcuts you can use to get the information faster?

$300k ARR

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Well, I’ve arrived at a new milestone. It’s been two months since my last post about taking action. I’ve been taking action to get to this milestone, and I’m both shocked and not surprised at the same time.

Shocked, because I didn’t intend on building something this big from the beginning. Not surprised because it’s exactly how I planned and I’ve been working on it every day for 2.5 years.

It’s weird to have a business this size. From people below (people who have never started a business), it seems incredible. From people above, it’s just a stepping stone.

1000 Customers

The business is inching its way towards 1000 active subscriptions, and it has helped over 7000 customers make more money on Poshmark. That’s really cool.

1000 customers itself isn’t really that many people. It’s a lot more than 0, but it’s also a lot less than other businesses. Even most small businesses.

Now that I’m at this point, what’s stopping it from helping 10,000 customers at the same time? Mostly marketing, distribution, and education. But it’s also the fact that I don’t even know if the market is that big.

The “most popular” (sub-par but cheaper and older) app in the space has ~6000 active installations.

One thing that inhibits me from getting more customers is simply pricing. Not everyone is willing to commit to the premium pricing that comes with a premium product.

And I’m just fine with that. Higher pricing means better customers, more money per customer, and less support requests for me.

One cheat code I have that other apps in the space don’t have, is that my app helps people make lots of money. And because of that, I can create new customers that would not have been customers in the past simply because I can help them make lots of money (not just save them time).

New Features

I wouldn’t have been able to get to this point without having launched some really useful and money making features in the app. Features that customers have been asking for since the beginning, but the right foundation was not in place to deploy them yet (as a solo developer, laying the groundwork can take some time).

I’ve heard people say that building more features doesn’t replace marketing. But, when a huge portion of your marketing is word of mouth (in this underground niche, it is), then features start the flywheel going.

When people can go from making $hundreds in a month, to $hundreds in a day by me launching a new feature, they’re going to tell all of their friends.

I’ve said all along (well, the last two years or so), that if you don’t help your customers make money, or save time, you’re going to have a hard time selling. By me adding some new features that 10x results for my 1000 customers, I am just making it easier to sell in the future.

With those new features come a few challenges though. Now there’s more code to manage, more points of failure, and more confusion added to the product. I’m constantly trying to refine and do work now so I don’t run into a big mess later on that I can’t handle.

Growth

Speaking of selling (and growth), the business/product/app has been growing incredibly fast. Well, relatively incredible. Considering it took the business roughly 3 months to get to $1k MRR, and now it grows at ~$1k MRR every week, it’s quite a big difference.

SEO is still my number one marketing channel. Some of my “competitors” (people who steal my code and the name of my app) think it’s fun to try and compete with me there and it’s hilarious at best. They also have the audacity to perform some black-hat SEO tactics to try and jump my rankings. I just watch them slowly fade off into the abyss that is the second, third, and so on pages of Google.

I’ve also been running some advertising. Lots of it actually. It’s paying off big-time. I’m doubling down on my Google marketing strategy, and it’s working. My search ads perform really well, and I’ve been pushing double-digit free-trials every day for the last month.

It’s nice to pay for some marketing, since you have slightly more control over distribution. SEO is great, but you have to write the best content. The best content is subjective. Ads are not subjective, they are put right in front of your face whether you like it or not.

If things continue this way, I’ll be at $400k ARR in just over 8 weeks, and a half-millionaire in 16 weeks. Who knows, it might even go faster (or hey, it could go really slow. Who knows).

As things are clipping along I am planning out some of the next long-term steps for my domination of the space. It’s a lot of fun to work on something that makes an impact on people at scale, and also makes good money while I sleep.

Challenges

One thing that has been getting increasingly harder is customer support. As I approach 1000 customers, even just talking to 1% of them is taking up a significant part of my day.

A few months ago, I would get 1-2 chat messages and emails a day. Usually it would be new customers asking about the application, sometimes users reporting bugs and anomalies.

Now, I can safely say it’s approaching 5-10 message streams every day. It’s not taking all of my time, but definitely some of it.

One of the most common things I do is work to avoid talking to customers. Not because I don’t want to, but because that’s the only way to scale my time.

I try to keep up with documentation, adding to the FAQ, making emails and other text that help people understand the app and how to use it best.

Doing things that help you scale your time is the best way to build something that grows beyond yourself. It’s also the best use of your time.

So many people say “do things that don’t scale” but it’s mostly a waste of time. You want to make a large impact in a personal way, without having to spend all of your time doing it.

Sure, do things that don’t scale in the beginning. But don’t stay that way. Tech companies are built on the fact that products scale.

Advice

I don’t have much advice that I haven’t already given. I eat my own dog food and it’s worked well for me. I don’t do anything that I don’t talk about publicly.

I don’t want to lose touch with the person I was when I was just getting started. I want to help people who are early in their journey and are trying to build something that people will pay for.

I try to keep my principles simple, and advise people to be cautious of who they listen to.

At the end of the day, markets exist. Make something that serves a market, and you can make money. Make something that scales your time, and you can make more money. Make something that makes other people a lot of money, and you’ll make a lot of money.

Make things that help people do what they were already doing, better and more efficiently.

I think one thing I haven’t talked about a lot is code and being able to code well. I think there’s a lot of developers that are terrible at what they do, and it holds them back.

I don’t really have a ton of advice for people like that other than it takes practice. You have to push yourself and learn new things. I am the only person who is innovative in my space. All the others just copy what I do (or don’t because they can’t).

I myself know that I am not the best developer, but I think I am one of the best in the world at being able to figure out how to develop something (AKA, read the documentation and understand it). You don’t get to $300k ARR by being average.

Level up your skills. Level up your development skills, your writing skills, your communication skills, your selling skills, any core skills that will help you become the best Indiehacker you can be.

What’s Next For Me

My wife is expecting baby number three this week, so that’ll tie me up for a bit.

I’m working on a course. I don’t know what it will be called, but I think it will be helpful for people. Not sure if it will be free or cheap.

I’m also working on a more long-term focused SaaS with a friend. That will probably eventually replace Closet Tools in the future (at least in terms of my time), and the market is much larger.

I’ll continue to build, write, develop skills, and become better every day. I want to take this life by the horns and make the most of it. I want to have success in business, as well as with my family and in my faith.

See you in the next post when I reach another milestone, or teach you something valuable.

Execution

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the future.

Not the future as a whole. My future. What do I want to be doing in 10 years? What are some of my long-term goals? What’s the point of doing all of this? What should I be writing about?

I enjoy writing, and many people have enjoyed my writing. Until now, it has been a mixed bag of technical content, “self-help” content, and documenting my journey as a solo SaaS founder.

But I can’t help but wonder what my writing would look like if restricted down to a subset of expert content. Writing about something I am exceptionally good at, mixed with research and support from other texts.

This is how most non-fiction books are made. If you read any book on habits, productivity, systems, etc. you’ll find the author’s highly refined opinions mixed with references to other people who have said similar things.

This is all great, and I do plan on being in a position to write something like that some day, but what should I be writing now?

This is where I get into trouble. I get in a mode where I focus on what I should be writing about, instead of doing things worth writing about.

And that’s the whole point of this post. Execution is the only thing that matters.

Execution matters. Action matters. Wisdom (applied knowledge) matters.

Without execution, there’s no experience. Without experience, you can’t be an expert. Without experience, I can’t write informed content that helps people.

It’s easy to get caught up thinking about what you should be writing. When in fact, the only approach is to think about what you are doing that inspires and directs your writing.

And maybe that’s the problem. I haven’t been doing as much lately. I’ve been in operator mode. I haven’t been building for the future. I’ve been maintaining what I have created in the past.

This is fine. It’s a good minimum. I’m still quite busy and it’s satisfying work.

But without forward progress I am at a loss for what I should write, and ultimately at a loss for what the future will look like.

When I am truly executing, building, growing, I get a sense for what the next step is.

When I am just maintaining, the next step is out of reach. There is no next step without me taking action.

What does execution look like?

It’s taking steps toward a concrete goal. Building systems and pieces to a puzzle that drives growth toward the things you strive for.

It’s building products, helping others, practicing skills, gaining experience, documenting what you’ve learned. It’s taking risks, and risking your time by spending it on things that might work.

It’s not consumption. It’s not watching TV, entertainment, or other media. It’s not sitting on your hands.

Obviously you cant and shouldn’t execute 24/7. That’s not humanly possible, and that’s not the point of this post. There are other things that matter in life.

But, when it comes to direction, purpose, helping others, and moving forward in life, execution is the only thing that matters.

When you have lots of experience doing something, and you’ve reached an expert level, it’s not hard to understand what your purpose is, or what the next step should be.

But when you are floundering at the bottom of the food chain, not building skills or anything valuable, it’s really hard to see what the future could look like.

And yes, you will build things that flop. You will build things you hate. You will build things that will waste your time.

I can guarantee you won’t regret building those things. You would regret not building.

Everything you do can be a learning experience, if you are pushing yourself to do things you’ve never done before. That’s the way to approach execution. Always building. Always learning. Always growing.

And so, that’s what I will be writing about. Probably for the next 20 years or so. Until I have enough experience to have informed opinions about how other people should do stuff.

More Of The Same

Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I will talk about some of the skills I acquired to start and grow my product much farther than I ever could have imagined.

Getting to $20k MRR was not an accident, but getting to $1k was. When I started out, I only intended on generating ~$500 MRR to help pay the bills. But, I did too much right (without knowing it) and was a bit naive.

I’m writing this because I haven’t talked much about what has changed since getting to $1k MRR, or even $10k MRR. Technically, my product is at $18,300 MRR, but has done over $26k in revenue in the last month.

The punchline is this: I’m doing the same stuff I was doing two years ago. Except it’s a little more refined and focused.

I’m working on adding features that help my customers, writing helpful content that doubles as sales copy, and being an attentive and reasonable customer service representative. That’s what I was doing 2 years ago when I first made the product, and that’s exactly what I am doing now.

You’ve heard people say it before, “find out what works and just keep doing it”. Well, it’s mostly accurate. But it’s the “finding out what works” part that I think first time Indiehackers struggle with the most.

I think the effort required to get to $1k MRR was much greater than getting to $20k. The work is building marketing and distribution skills, building a product that helps people, and iterating until it matches what your customers want.

Once you’ve done that work, and have built out automated distribution channels to get in front of your potential customers, you’re well on your way.

Day-to-day I work less now than I ever have in the past. That’s not to say that won’t change, since I do have big ambitions to build more products and solve more problems. But, for now, as the business “matures” and my customer base grows on autopilot, it’s pretty chill.

My hope is for you to get to this place as well. It’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and my family, and I don’t take that for granted.

Distribution Automation Is King

I think this is the most valuable lesson I have learned over the last two years. It’s something I got right from the start, and it’s something that so many people get wrong.

I didn’t launch on Product Hunt. I didn’t submit my product to Hacker News. I didn’t use ads. I didn’t spam social media.

I talk quite a bit about what I did in the early days in this post. Basically, I posted a free version of my app to a specific Reddit subreddit and got ~200 beta users of my app in exchange for feedback. Then, I built out the app over the next month and emailed that list.

That Reddit post is just about the only non-automated distribution I have done.

From the beginning, I focused on writing SEO content targeting specific intent-based keywords. Most people will tell you that SEO is a long-term game, and most people would be wrong.

If done correctly, from both on-site SEO and content perspectives, when targeting low-volume and low-difficultly keywords, you can rank and get traffic almost immediately.

There are only a handful of blog posts that I use to attract new customers from Google searches. If I had more time I would write more. To date, over 55,000 people have come to my product’s landing page through Google search alone.

Of those 55,000, just over 5000 signed up for a free trial. A few thousand of those converted into paying customers, and now there’s a steady stream of ~600+ customters.

That’s my funnel. I don’t do retargeting ads. I don’t bait and switch. I don’t try to sell (too hard). I just write great content that ranks for relevant keywords and mention my product in those posts.

Every week or so I send out an email to the people who have tried out the app. Most of the time I am just updating them about new features and helpful tips on how to use the tool more effectively.

There are a few forms of distribution automation. One, like I mentioned, is SEO. Another is paid advertising. The last is some forms of social media (YouTube promotes your content and ranks it in Google search for you if it’s good).

Without an automated distribution channel, your product cannot grow automatically. You will end up spending time every single day promoting your product and trying to get in front of the right people.

When you’re a solo-Indiehacker you simply don’t have time to be doing that every day. You have features to build, bugs to fix, and customers to take care of. If you’re able to hire someone who can write content and promote on social media, then that changes things slightly.

Maybe I’m just speaking for me. I had a full-time job, a wife and two kids, and other obligations in my life. I didn’t have time to spend promoting my product.

Though at the end of the day it’s promotion that will grow your product. It’s so important to how your product grows and how it takes over the market you’re in.

Speaking of markets, let’s talk about markets.

Markets Dictate Everything

Distribution automation and a great product does not matter if the market is not growing.

You can still be successful in a dying market, it’s just way harder. If your market is growing, that means there’s fresh customers to get in front of. You can be the first product they investigate when they’re trying to solve a problem they’re having.

Especially if you’re a first-time Indiehacker, you want to latch on to a growing market. You can snag a small piece of a pie that continues to grow. Your piece will grow with it.

When entering a market, a good approach is to understand whether or not you want to be a platform, or an add-on to an existing platform.

Building a platform is much more difficult to get off the ground, but has better longevity. An add-on is easier to get quick success, but the long-term horizon of your product may change without your discretion.

My product is an add-on. It enhances an existing platform and allows customers to save time and make more money doing the things they were already doing.

Because of that, it was super easy to get started. The first reason being: the product itself is smaller. The scope of features and product vision are simple. It’s not a wild bet, it’s a refined process that has a clear purpose.

The second reason is it fit well within the flow of existing customers. It did exactly what they were doing before, with little friction, and it saved them time (and in most cases made them more money). That’s an easy sell.

It’s harder to sell a new platform to people. New platforms require time, effort, and investment from the customer’s perspective to gain value from them.

But, once that value is gained, platforms are sticky. Your customers will be faithful to your platform and continue to use it as long as it provides them value.

So, my recommendation for first-time Indiehackers is to get your feet wet with an add-on product in a growing market (or at least on a growing platform). My recommendation for existing Indiehackers is to try and branch out into a maturing and growing market with a brand new platform.

Treat Customers Well

At the end of the day, you make your product for the money it provides you. Most people would not start businesses if it didn’t make them any money. There is a lot of satisfaction in helping other people, but that’s not everything.

With that in mind, the money a customer pays you is not as important as your relationship with that customer.

What I mean is, if they ask for a refund, give them a refund. When they ask you to cancel their subscription, cancel it (or make it very easy for them to do it on their own). You reap what you sow. If you don’t treat your customers well, then get used to them not telling other people about your product. Or worse, they will leave you bad reviews.

Word of mouth has been a powerful driver of growth for my product. I don’t know how many people I have given refunds to, or helped out in a moment’s notice, or bent-over backwards (within reason) to help out as fast as possible.

Every time I do that they get a better, more positive feeling about using the product. They trust that it’s going to be reliable for them, and they know if they need help I will be there.

This turns into people becoming advocates of the product, and ultimately leads to more customers for me. I created a referral program because my customers wanted a way to tell other people about the product (because they wanted to) and be compensated for it.

Treating customers well is a great long-term strategy to growing your business. It doesn’t always turn into sales immediately, but it puts a great foundation under your product as it begins to grow and get in front of more eyes.

Just Keep Shipping

If you’ve run a business for any amount of time (especially as a solo-founder), you know that there’s always work to be done.

Whether it’s product features, content, customer service emails, finances & taxes, refactoring code, writing documentation… the list is endless.

This can be daunting, and sometimes it’s hard to sit down everyday and know exactly what to do.

Rather than knowing exactly what to do, and exactly when to do it, it’s best to approach the work in a wholesome and disciplined way. Just. Keep. Shipping.

A general tip would be to work on whatever you feel like working on, as long as it’s productive and it’s not in avoidance of something that is prohibiting the business from functioning properly.

For instance, you probably shouldn’t be writing content if your billing integration isn’t working. But, if everything is going well, you can build features, write content, or do whatever.

Customer service has a timeline. You don’t always have to respond immediately, but responding quickly is nice. People like that. So customer service will be a small part of everyday.

Another tip for what you should be working on: things that lower your support requests.

The more you can automate away support requests, the more time you have to keep building features and writing content and working on things that add value to the business (not just keep the business afloat).

And no, I don’t mean just write more documentation and FAQs about how to do things, I mean make the product more friendly, intuitive, and stable so that people don’t have to ask you questions in the first place.

When I first started my product, every day there were different requests I had to perform manually. Changing people’s card information. Sending change password emails. Canceling subscriptions. Letting people know exactly when their free trial ended. Etc.

But, over time I built all of those things into the tool in a way that allows even the least tech-savvy customer to be able to perform them for themselves.

These days I get 1-2 emails a day from existing customers, and 1-2 chat support requests from potential customers. It’s so nice to not spend all day talking to people, and being able to spend my time working on things that grow the business.

So, is adding the ability to change a customer’s account password growing the business? Not necessarily. But, you not getting support requests gives you your time back. And as solo-founders, that’s all we have is our time. We can’t offload the work to others.

It’s best to approach shipping (features and content) in a small, consumable way. You can build big things, but with smaller steps that trend in the right direction. If you have a clear product vision, you will know what direction to head in.

You build your app one line of code at a time. It won’t happen in one day, and it might not even happen in one month, but over the years the thing you will have built will be bigger and more valuable than you could have imagined.

The Price Is Right

I’m not a pricing expert, but I do know one thing: charge more.

Here’s my rule of thumb: charge high enough so that people who are cheap and don’t want to pay complain about your price, and low enough so that people who understand it’s value think it’s a steal.

Especially when I first started, I got so many responses that $30/month was way too much to pay for an app. Now, the app just grows on autopilot. I don’t even have to attempt to convince the people who don’t want to pay that it’s worth it, because I can just get good customers who appreciate the product for what it is.

Bad customers will suck the life out of you. I would probably not charge less than $30/month, but it depends on the market and the product. Good customers will leave you alone, and they will pay you without complaint.

One of these days I will follow my advice and actually charge more for my product. As it is, I have never increased the pricing, though I have shipped 10x in value in added features for the customer. This has made it easier to sell (as of late) but there are larger fish in the pond that have deeper pockets and want more powerful tooling. Those are the customers I want.

Your pricing matters because as a solo-founder, you don’t want a million customers. You don’t want to handle the support requests from that many people, and be responsible for a service that number of people depend on everyday.

You want to have ~1000 customers to be able to make the money you want to make. If you want to make $1000/month, charge $1/month (just kidding. Never do that.) At over 600 active customer’s I’m making $18k/month, which is plenty for me an my family to be able to do just about anything we want.

If I was charging $100/month, I would be at almost $60k/month (but who knows if I would have been able to get that many customers).

So that’s the game. Generally, you can charge more than you think, and if it solves a strong enough problem people will pay for your solution.

Conclusion

So, the basic gist of this post is to say that getting from $1k MRR, to $10k MRR, to $20k MRR, is just more of the same.

There’s definitely things you can do right, and things you can do wrong. But when you find out what works, you just end up doing it over and over again to drive growth.

I firmly believe if what you are working on genuinely helps people and provides value, you can build just about anything in 5 years. It might take more time, it might take less time, but helping people is always good in the end.

Options

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I sent out this tweet which seemed to resonate with a lot of people. After I build something that exceeds my basic needs, what’s next?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and I don’t have perfect clarity on it yet (part of the reason I’m writing about it). There’s a few distinct options available to me that I can start preparing for now.

Here’s the list of options:

Keep operating this business as a solo entrepreneur.
Hire people and grow + reinvest into the company.
Prepare the business to be sold to an acquirer.
Use the net profits to build another long-term focused business.

The reason these options are on the table, is because I don’t see my current business as a long-term solution for my own goals. It’s more of a temporary first-step in my entrepreneurial journey.

The application is built on-top of another platform. That in and of itself is fine, but the way in which I have integrated the application is both not official and technically against the community guidelines of the parent platform.

All of my customers are renegades. “Fight against the system” type of people. My kind of people.

There is a definite need for the problem my product solves, and my customers are eternally grateful for the time they recover everyday using the product.

There’s no question that it’s valuable, but what I am less than thrilled about is the integration.

At any moment in time, the parent platform can “pull the plug” and make my product is rendered unusable. I don’t actually think that will happen, but it could. I don’t own the platform, I’m just riding the wave.

In the future, I would like to run/own/operate a company that has it’s own platform in an existing market. Something that’s not necessarily boring, but something that is a solution to an existing problem.

With time, any business that successfully solves the problems of a niche can become very big and very successful. I know I am fairly innovative, and understand how to automate systems and solutions to a lot of different use-cases.

But enough about what I would like to do. Let’s talk about what I can do right now.

Solo Entrepreneur

There are many great things about this option that I genuinely like, and they make it hard to turn down.

As it stands right now, this is the option I am operating under. I haven’t hired anyone. I haven’t really reinvested any money into the business. Just about everything (sans customer service) is automated.

I like this option because I am in full control. I can work when I want to, I can build the features I want to build, I can talk to customers how I want to treat them, and I run the whole show.

This option requires the least amount of responsibility on my part. My only responsibilities are to show up often enough to manage customer service, consistently make new features, and talk to customers about what they’d like to see down the road.

This option also keeps things pretty nimble. I know exactly where everything is, how it was built, why it was built, and how to improve the business.

Lastly (and probably most importantly), I am able to be with my kids while they are young, and I can help my wife out at any time. It’s a huge benefit to be able to do exactly what you want when you want.

But, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Here’s why the option is really the worst case scenario (for the business).

There’s no way I personally can grow the business faster than multiple people could. Which poses the question, does it even need to grow? Not necessarily, but ideally it would keep growing undeterred.

Being able to distribute the work load (and come up with new work) to other people would allow the business to begin operating at higher levels, making it reach more customers and solve more problems. It quite literally would be able to do more work every day, which is a direct influence on productivity.

The other downside to managing the app myself, is that I can’t easily just start another business and expand my own horizons. I would have to manage both businesses together, and it would require more work (not necessarily a lot of work, but more).

There are some moral points that I think are important as well. I want to help people. It’s a core principle in my life. By running the business all on my own, I am technically pushing out other people that would be able to contribute to the business and be direct beneficiaries of its success.

As it stands now, if I want to help people, I can’t give them a “job” or allow them to work for the company. I would only be able to spend my time and my money to help other people.

That’s great, and I do that a lot, but it requires external work. I have to plan out how I am going to bless people and how I am going to make an impact on other people.

By being able to hire people, and make them part of the vision, I am able to do philanthropic work by default. Every day I am able to help pay someone’s bills, and give them a life of flexibility.

At the end of the day, this is the most selfish option. It allows me to stay in my comfort zone, not do a lot of extra work, and not have to manage people.

Hire People + Grow

This option is probably the least attractive to me. Based on my points above (about the business being built unofficially on another platform), I don’t have the faith to hire people and grow a team under those terms.

Technically I can afford to hire people. Technically there is work that I could hire for. But, do I hire people knowing one day the carpet can get ripped out from underneath?

I think these are common fears for a first-time entrepreneur. There are all of these “what if?” scenarios that make it hard to take action on the vision you have for yourself.

A core fear for me is incompetence. I don’t want to be at the helm of the ship if it tanks. I want to appear as if I am always right, or at least always trending in the right direction.

But, if you know me, you would know that I don’t like fear. Operating out of fear is almost always the worst decision you can make. In this case, operating in faith that the company will continue to thrive is the only way to move forward and make progress.

The good things about hiring people and growing the company, is that there’s a chance of succeeding and ultimately generating a lot of money. Money that not only I can use for my future, but money that my employees could also use for their futures.

Hiring people is also good because I can offload tasks that I don’t want to spend time doing (or at least the tasks that I don’t want to do all the time). I think running your own customer service is valuable, because it gives you a better lens into how your customers are thinking, and you become more aware of the problems they are facing.

Being able to hire someone to build out new features in the code, or to do content marketing, or to do advertising, or customer success, would be really cool. I could definitely see that making a large impact on the business, and it would definitely grow over time.

The downside is I lose my precious flexibility. Now I have to show up to meetings. Now I have to manage people. Now I have to write out the vision and plan for other people. All of these things I could do on my own before, and now I would need to be held accountable.

But, accountability is ultimately healthy. It would prevent me from doing things that are not in the best interest of those around me, and it would force me to prepare for worst-case scenarios. Now that I would be responsible for the livelihood of others, I would make different decisions.

I would be forced to be prepared just about every day to work. I would have slightly less time to spend with my wife and kids. I would actually have to plan things (which I hate). Maybe I would hire a secretary first to manage my time.

So, this option once again begs the question, does it even need to grow? And the answer to that is probably not, but it certainly could.

Sell The Business

This option seems viable to me (and the most exciting!), but it’s also something that’s not directly in my control. I can’t necessarily force someone to buy my business. And with significant effort there’s no guarantee that anyone would actually buy the business.

That being said, were I able to sell the business, it would be a significant pay-day for me and my family. SaaS acquisitions can run from 5x to 10x annual revenues. This would put me squarely in the low-seven-figures range.

Since the business is more than 99% profit, there’s a lot of value in that. It can continue running if revenues dip, and it can scale to be very big without the cost of running the business growing too much.

There’s also very little maintenance and upkeep. Just about everything is automated. It would be a great product to acquire.

There’s very little downside to this option, the deterrent is that it’s not something I can just do. It requires interest from another party, and there’s no guarantee that would ever happen.

The only other downside I can think of is that I would still need to come up with another business or means of income. Low seven figures is nice, but it’s not “ride off into the sunset” money. It would be great for now, but I would still need to drum up a long-term solution.

However, that money would easily buy me the time to figure out that long term solution. It only took me two years to get to where I am now with my current business. I can’t think it would take much longer to start something else (especially since I’m not employed full-time and working on the business on the side).

I would need to do quite a bit of work to sell the business. I’m not 100% sure what it would entail, but I’m sure I would need to dress up the code quite a bit, dot my i’s and cross my t’s with any business related contracts and such, and have to do lots of financial reporting.

That’s usually quite a lot of work, and can take months. Obviously it would be worth it financially, but it would definitely be a season of life that I would be happy was over. Also, I would probably give up the reigns of the business. I doubt I would continue to operate and be in control of anything with the business.

I would most definitely get bored of not working, so I would probably write a lot more, hike a lot more, and teach my kids. It would be a totally different life for sure.

Build Another Business

This is probably the thing I will end up doing, though it’s the least appealing. It’s the least appealing because I would have to be working on two different products at the same time. Not only that, but I would be learning a new niche and dealing with new customers.

It would be like almost starting from square one, except for the small amount of experience I have from running my first business.

By taking this route, I can still maintain the flexibility I want in my schedule. I’ll probably just end up working during weird hours so I can still do the things I want to do with my family. I did this for a few years already, what’s a few more?

I would love to build a product that isn’t dependent on another platform. Obviously, the product is within a market and the market drives demand, but I can be a standalone product that can’t be directly influenced by a larger platform.

While I think that “integration” apps are the best way for an Indiehacker to get into entrepreneurship (there’s already a market and you can get in front of customers right away), I think a standalone platform is a better long-term solution that makes you more resilient to market changes.

Being your own platform allows you full control over your future. This is good and bad. It’s good because you can control your own future and drive your own success. It’s bad because you have to start from scratch. You don’t get the added benefit of piggybacking off of a larger platform’s audience.

There are so many different niches and markets out there, and it’s not hard to simply enter an existing market with a different product. Most of the work is in marketing and distribution, not in making the app itself.

The only disadvantage of this option is the risk of not building something that equals the level of success that I already have. What if I build something that’s not as good? Then I would be stuck with a not-so-good business, and another business that I’ve been neglecting to build the not-so-good business.

Nevertheless, building another business on the side is something I can do right now. I don’t need anyone else’s permission. I can just get started. Sometimes that’s the best thing to do. Just get started.

I would feel more comfortable hiring people to work on a business that owns it’s own platform. Something about it seems more legitimate, and less like an “add-on”. The success that comes from it would be more sticky, and less susceptible to churn (hopefully).

Speaking of that, I would want to build a product that has inherent “stickiness”. Something that once you start using it, it’s hard to switch away.

I think https://transistor.fm is a great example of this. Once you start with a podcast hosting platform, it’s almost guaranteed that you’re going to stick with them to the end. If you churned, you would be discontinuing the podcast, probably not moving to another host.

Another good example is https://notion.so. I use notion extensively for notes, task management, and writing (I’m writing this right now in Notion). The more I use Notion, and the more information I put into it, the more valuable it becomes to me. Soon it becomes something that is indispensable, and holds some of your most valuable assets. You can feel safe knowing your data is always going to be at your fingertips.

Rather than just being a “pay to have access” application, it’s something that hosts your data, drives growth for your business, and gets more valuable the more you use it.

An app like my current business is valuable only when you’re using it. If you stop using it, it’s not valuable to you anymore. There are competing products that have different price points, so it’s ripe for disruption. It would be much more valuable if it had some sort of value to the user when they’re not using it (like the platform it integrates with).

So yeah, I have some opinions on building platforms versus building integrations. I want to build something that has more value when it’s been used for a long time.

Conclusion

I don’t know exactly what I am going to do, and I’m going to MicroConf this year hopefully to get clarity on my vision. There are a lot of people there who have been in my shoes and can shed advice on where to head next in my journey.

Regardless, I won’t be sitting idle. I will be continuing to grow, to succeed, and to write as the next months and years go on.

I’m excited about the future, and all of these options are good problems to have.

Thanks for reading!

What Killed My Writing Productivity

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Before 2020 I had grand plans about all of the things I was going to write throughout the next year.

I was going to try to keep an active newsletter, and write helpful content for people around the mindset of creating value and increasing in wealth.

But, that didn’t happen.

It’s not because I haven’t been writing. I’ve been writing a lot, and there’s at least 5 half-written drafts that I just don’t have the interest of finishing.

It’s because being forced to write great content all the time killed my writing productivity.

It became more of a chore than a way to clear my mind. It was creating value from nothing (which is hard to do), rather than documenting the journey.

I need to get back to clearing my mind and documenting the journey.

That’s what I am doing right now, and that’s the only reason I’m writing this and the only reason you’re able to read it.

I think there’s inherent value in the things that I talk about when I am clearing my mind. But, I never get to those thoughts without spilling my guts on the page and working through ideas to the point that they are true and clear.

I used to write daily and it was great. I felt great, and it helped me process a lot of the emotions and things I was feeling. Now I write every few days or so, but it feels like it takes my time away.

When I’m just writing to myself (and publishing it publicly) it doesn’t feel like I am wasting time. When I’m writing content that is supposed to be valuable to others, I feel like I am wasting time (because I have a business that I could be spending time on and making more money).

So, I would like to get back into daily writing. No commitments, no agendas, just me and my thoughts. It’s not for anyone else but me, but I think good things will come of it.

As I work through my thoughts, I tend to come up with great tracks to take and explore further. Those are excellent ideas for content that I can write about explicitly for the purpose of educating others.

That’s the plan. Write until I find things that I want to explore further and dive deep into them.

Building Muscle with Calisthenics

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Just before the start of the new year, I started a calisthenics routine to start building muscle (mostly in my upper-body).

I grew up as a soccer player, and ran track as well. I never played a sport that demanded strength in my arms, and as a developer-by-trade neither did my work.

I’ve always had strong, muscular legs, but my upper body is a different story. Thin arms, bony chest, no lats to fill out my back.

I definitely look a bit odd - as my legs are far different than my upper-body.

So, in 2020 (and beyond) I vowed to change that by progressing my way to building strength in my upper-body.

I spent a few months researching different programs, products, and resources.

I wanted something I could do at home, on my own time, with as little commitment level as possible. With a small barrier to entry, I knew that I would be able to build up the routine and end up building a strong habit.

Ultimately, I ended up on full-body calisthenics workouts.

Calisthenics is a form of exercise that uses your own bodyweight as resistance. Because of this, there’s no gym needed. That’s what I wanted.

There are a few products you can buy that will assist you in different workouts, and I’ll go over what I purchased to be able to complete the exercises that ended up being part of my routine.

Researching Workout Plans

I’ll cut straight to the chase. I ended up following this plan exactly:

I had found several other videos and documents that contained exercise routines, but this video specifically addressed my core weakness (which was, my upper-body).

Most of the other content assumed you had some level of strength, and could perform certain exercises (and that it was just a matter of doing reps of those exercises).

I, however, couldn’t do hardly any of the exercises in their traditional form (pull-ups, dips, [more than a few] push-ups, etc.).

The above video did what no other content did. It gave progressions to get to the traditional exercise.

So, instead of just prescribing 4 sets of 10 pull-ups it showed you that you can do the following progression: Leg assisted pull-ups → Let-downs → Pull-ups → Pull-ups with additional weight.

This progression of difficulty is laid out for all of the 7 major calisthenic exercise target muscle groups.

The video also shows how to adjust reps and sets based on the difficulty, and how to understand when you’r ready to progress to the next stage of an exercise.

It even goes into some of the nutritional elements of building muscle.

Rather than lay it all out in this post, I’ll just let you watch the video. It’s a great resource.

I have ended up doing 4 workouts a week (MTThF) with 4 sets of ~10 reps of each of the exercises listed in the full-body-A and full-body-B workouts (talked about in the video).

My Setup

In the video, there are a few exercises that needed some additional hardware - whether it was parallettes, rings, or a weight bar, I didn’t have any of them.

So, rather than wait for hardware, I got started. I think this was a great decision, because I did 4 exercises and realized exactly what I could and couldn’t do at home.

The exercises that were very hard without specific hardware were inverted rows, pull-ups, dips, and knee-ups.

So, for the first four exercises I skipped those workouts entirely. I decided to get some hardware that would address those exercises so I could get a complete workout in.

After some digging (mostly on Amazon), I stumbled upon this. A “portable power tower” home gym dip/pull-up station.

Unlike most of the other products on Amazon, this one completely disassembled so it could be put out of sight. I would be doing my exercises in the living room, so being able to put it away was a must.

This portable home gym allowed me to be able to address all of the exercises that I couldn’t do without it. It’s been really useful, and I highly recommend it!

Here’s a picture of it in my dining room:

It’s a bit heavy - at roughly 40 pounds. But it’s very portable, very versatile, and allowed me to do complete workouts very easily.

It even comes with a manual on how to do specific workouts with this product, so you’re not left guessing the best way to do it.

What I like about it is that it can be flipped, rotated, and laid down to do any and every exercise you could think of.

Also, being able to set it up before a workout and break it down allows me to do exercises at home.

That’s really it for my setup. I don’t have any additional insight on other hardware, as this is the only one I purchased. I really like it, and it addressed my issues, so I recommend it.

4 Weeks In

The reason I am writing this post is because I have been able to stick to the calisthenics program for 4 weeks. After another 4 weeks or so, I will have made it into a consistent habit and it will be harder to just stop.

I’m also writing this post because there are a lot of other programs I have not stuck to, and had a hard time implementing.

This time, things are different, and I feel good about it.

Part of the reason this is easier to do (now, than in the past) is because I quit my full-time job in November 2019 to work full-time on my SaaS app.

That has given me the time and flexibility I needed to workout when I could, rather than be forced to work out at the same time everyday.

Between kids, obligations, and other things that change often, it’s hard to keep a consistent routine and not fall-behind in other things in your life.

After 4 weeks of doing the full-body workouts, I have been able to jump to the next progression in a few of the categories.

My initial goal for this program is to be able to do 10 unassisted pull-ups. That’s quite the task, as right now I can’t do a single one.

My ultimate goal is to balance out my body, by filling out my chest, arms, shoulders and lats.

I’m confident that if I stick to the program I will be able to accomplish it. The exercises are targeting the correct muscle groups to be able to build muscle in my upper-body.

My plan is to stick to these workouts for 6 months before exploring some other programs and options that will expand the routine and target specific muscle groups I want to grow.

Around that time as well I will research nutritional changes to increase muscle mass (power-lifting style).

Conclusion

Calisthenics is a great way to start exercising in a low-commitment, accessible way without needing to go to the gym and buy an exorbitant amount of equipment.

The video I have embedded in the post has all of the information you need to get started and start building muscle using calisthenics.

The equipment I mentioned in the post addressed all of the exercises I couldn’t do without equipment.

As with any exercise, you need to have a long-term approach. Things don’t happen over night, and you need to stick to them for months and years to see the results.

Hopefully this helps you!

Jordan

Building a sustainable life

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Idea

Minimize your needs, while maximizing your income.

That’s the secret to long-term success.

As soon as you need to spend all of the money you’re making, you’re in hot water. You’re not planning for the future. You’re burning too fast.

Keeping your costs to a minimum is the best way to build longevity and sustainability. It allows you to stay in the race longer.

You can hold out longer than most, and you can focus on working on the right things (not just the things that will make you more money).

Some might call it minimalism, others call it frugal. I’m all about spending on the things that matter to you.

Having a mindset of “I make money so I can spend it” is absolutely not going to build success for the future.

People have this mindset about other things in their life too. “I’m gonna do this workout so I can eat more food.”

You’re immediately spending your assets, which is why you’re never able to get ahead in life. It takes sacrifice, and a mindset of delayed gratification to eventually become successful.

In practice

There’s a difference between living these principles and talking about them. It’s easy to sit here and say “save money” and invest in the future, but it’s harder to actually put that into practice.

As I sit here today, my income is about 3x gross than I did 365 days ago. Yes, I spend more. I’ve got a wife and kids, and it’s awesome to be able to buy great things for them.

Soon, we’ll be buying our first house - because we feel it will ultimately make our family more productive and provide a space to grow the things we’re working on.

However, it’s so easy to lose track and expand to your income.

I technically could afford a home that’s very extravagant, and that would be a great forever home. However, based on our circumstances and the path of our lives, we’re opting to get a 5 year loan and buy a cheaper home that satisfies our needs.

There’s a few reasons, but put simply - we’re going to be making a lot more money in 5 years. That, and because minimizing the impact of the home on our current finances allows us to be more flexible with how we use and spend it.

Reinvesting money back into our businesses will provide the best return. Owning a home is an asset, not an investment. Having a home that allows for productivity (office, exercise room, dedicated spaces for recording and content creation) is more valuable than the home itself.

Being able to have exactly what you need to generate more income and provide for your family is incredibly valuable, and it’s the only thing we need out of a home.

Otherwise, we would probably just stay where we are. But as it is now, I’m mostly working out of coffee shops and other places that allow me to escape the kids for a few hours so I can focus.

Overall, it’s fine. But having a place in my own home that I can do that would be ideal - as I could frequently and easily switch roles with my wife as she’s working on her own projects.

It is a struggle to not spend all of your money on things. Luckily, I’m not a big spender. I only like to spend on what I need and nothing else.

I’ll wear something into the ground before I buy something newer. And even when I do buy, I typically opt for used goods or a more premium option that will last a longer time.

As you might know, having kids is pretty expensive. There’s food, clothing, diapers, travel stuff, toys, etc. It can add up if you’re not paying attention, and it’s better to be intentional with how you spend your money on your kids.

We tend to get toys that will have a long-lifetime, and will also grow with the kids. We typically buy second-hand clothing to encourage recycling and discourage fast fashion. All of this saves money, and keeps the perspective in check.

Delayed gratification

Having the means to be able to buy whatever you want, and then not doing so is a superpower. That superpower, is discipline. The discipline to delay gratification will provide you with the greatest future possible.

The longer you put off cashing in on your assets and continue building, the better chance you have of building a completely different life. A life that’s entirely different, including flexibility, options, and peace of mind.

But, the more you use credit, debt, and continue not saving and investing money, the more you lose out on the benefits of compound interest.

You can put in a hard 10 years to live the rest of your life in an incredible way.

Or, you can spend the next 40 years at the same level and never change, and have a retirement that matches the same lifestyle.

I’m choosing the former, and I’m about 2 years in.

Discipline is an incredible skill to have. To be able to avoid distraction, avoid pitfalls, and avoid bad habit cycles will allow you to continually grow. When you’re continually growing, you’re hedging against anything bad happening to you.

And if you hedged enough, even if something happens to you it’s not going to stop your progress. You’re prepared, and you’ve been planning in advance for this.

The best time to save money is when you don’t need to save money. The best time to go to the gym is when you don’t actually need to be healthier.

As long as you continue to grow, and your cost of living never rises, you will always be profitable, successful and productive.

Just Getting Started

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

2019 was the greatest year in my life. It’s the year where everything turned around. The “overnight success” that has been several years in the making.

It depends on who you ask, and what your definition of success is. I still don’t make as much as the average FAANG engineer, but I make more than double what I made a year ago.

And success isn’t just about the money. I have more time to spend with my family than I ever had. I have better relationships than I’ve ever had. People in my family are doing well.

I’m able to be generous on every occasion, and it feels good.

At the start of the year, Closet Tools was at $3170 MRR. It took close to a year to get to that point.

Around that time is when I decided that this thing was not only big enough to take seriously, but I was going to use it to get out of my job. It would be a launchpad for the businesses I want to create in the future.

My original goal for the product was to make an extra $500 MRR, because I was broke and needed some financial breathing room. Building the Closet Assistant was my last effort before picking up a second job.

As of now, it’s been floating around $16500 MRR for the past week. Even if it stayed there, and never grew again, that’s pretty cool.

Depending on how ambitious I am, I could spend anywhere from a couple of hours a week, to as many hours as I want. There’s no end to the features I can build, content I can write, and customer support.

It’s cool when I need a break. It’s also cool when I feel like crushing out some code. I’ve got a project that monetarily reflects the effort I put into it.

My personal relationships are in a better place than they’ve ever been. I’ve got great wife and our relationship has never been better, great friends, a great church, and my family is all thriving.

I didn’t read as many books this year as I had in the past. Part of that was because I was executing on the side-hustle, but now there’s no excuse. I have more than enough time to read in 2020.

It was a great year, and I only wish I would have documented more of it. I did document as much as I could on the blog, and I’m so glad I did.

Here’s some of my plans for 2020

2020 Plans

Planner

One of the major things I want to do is keep a day planner. I’m not sure about whether I want it to be physical or digital.

Having a planner isn’t just about planning events in the future, it’s also about keeping track of what you’ve done in the past. By writing down everything I do in a day, I am able to tally up how many times I do something in a week, month, or year.

I want it to be more than just a habit tracker - something that also contains ideas and other writings that I am planning out. I’ve always been a fan of the Bullet Journal and I could probably use a modified version of that.

Writing

I plan on writing. A lot. I wrote a post about it. I have lots of content to write for the business, for my guides and teachings, and personal journaling and thoughts.

I plan on keeping a consistent newsletter and blog going this year.

I want to publish content that’s educational, but also content that documents the journey. I want to show people the things I am studying, and how I am drawing out my conclusions.

The newsletter could/should be weekly, and the guides would be monthly. Writing 12 guides next year would be the goal.

Building Businesses

This is something that’s still in the works. I want to help my wife get her YouTube and blog going for content in the art, lettering, watercolor, journaling space. There are so many products and a lot of potential for traffic.

Within a year I think we can gain size-able traffic to generate affiliate revenue, and also to be able to launch a product.

Within a few years, I think she can be a leader in the space. Producing digital courses, products, and even doing in-person classes.

I truly want to start a blog similar to Cup & Leaf. A blog that produces large amounts of expert content on a specific field, and carves out traffic in a large space. The niche could be coffee, candles, fragrances, etc. Some commodity product that people need help deciding which one is best, and how to use them properly.

Similar to the Cup & Leaf story, after gaining enough traffic to sustainably build an email list, it would then be converted into an e-commerce engine for custom products in that space. Private labeling would probably be the way I would go, but affiliate revenue works as well (depending on the product).

Lastly, and probably not in 2020, but in the future, I want to build a business that actually hires people and produces jobs. It would be cool to be a true entrepreneur, and not just a hustler. I would love to give other people the opportunity to do great work with me.

Certainly, if Hannah’s blog, the coffee/fragrances blog, or any of my other ventures get big enough, my friends could join along. But I have to get to that point first, and it’s a lot of work to do so.

I’m Just Getting Started

I wanted to document my current stats so that I can revisit them in 2030 (or even next year).

Some people might think I’ve “made it”. I’m just getting started, and it’s only going to get better from here.

So, here’s some current stats on Jan. 1 2020:

Age 27
Active Customers: 545
MRR: $16274.55
Twitter Followers: 1341
Email subscribers: 350
Kids: 2
Businesses: 1

There’s probably a lot more I could and should track, but there’s a lot in life that will change over the next 10 years.

I expect to have increasing numbers in all of those categories. I’ll be older, have more customers, make more money, have a larger following, have built a bigger audience, have more kids, and will have started more businesses.

That sounds pretty good to me. It’s hard to believe life can get better than it is right now. I’m excited to be able to truly bless people with the finances I have been able to generate. I don’t really need all of it. Just enough to live comfortably.

Right now I am working out of a coffee shop. I was able to spend my time exactly how I wanted to today. I will probably work about 6 hours and not feel like working anymore. Then, I can just go home. I know I will be able to get back to it tomorrow.

I’m really excited about 2020. It’s going to be my best year yet, and it will be the decade that I take off from where I am to where I’m going.

Holiday Dip

Mon, 30 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

December was not a great month for the Closet Assistant.

Growth is down, search traffic is down, and free trials are down.

It’s not all bad - the revenue is still up from a month ago, but not much. Typically, the product has been growing at a rate of $1k to $2k MRR per month. This month it was just $300.

And obviously, I’m still making plenty of money to be able to support my family. Nothing is on fire.

Here’s the main reasons why that happened:

A month of no code and no work.
No new content in months.
Significant design changes in December.
Less traffic during the Holidays.

Let’s take it one-by-one.

November 2019

Not that my personal life matters too much, but my wife (Hannah) is pregnant! Baby #3 is on the way, and we’re super pumped.

However, with Hannah’s last three pregnancies, the first trimester is pretty tough. Extreme morning sickness pretty much renders her bed-ridden for a month or so.

That month happened to be November.

So, during November I didn’t do any work. I watched the kids all day, and cared for Hannah when she needed it. I was cooking food (mostly buying pre-made food), cleaning, taking care of the kids and managing the house.

It was pretty tough, and stay-at-home moms are way undervalued. Their work is incredible in shaping future generations, and their work never ends. Kudos to you, moms.

During that time I was basically doing minimal customer service. I have a chat interface on my site, and sometimes people email me. It’s not a ton of work, but it’s enough to be just about all I could do during that month.

It was also my first month of full-time self-employment so I didn’t have a routine or really any idea what I was doing with my time.

Thankfully, Hannah’s doing much better now and is able to take care of the kids in the morning while I work. It’s awesome to have that commitment and support from her.

Having no new features, no new content, and no email newsletters talking to customers resulted in some stagnation.

No new content

This one hurts. It’s something I should have been doing all along, and I have been ignoring it.

Since around August, I was transitioning out of my job and into full-time entrepreneurship. This resulted in some changes to my routine that made it harder to get my business work done.

I had some loose-ends to tie up at work, and lots of other responsibilities. I was barely scraping by. I just needed to get to November so I could quit and work on the business full-time.

That’s not really a good excuse, because had good routines and habits been in place I would have had plenty of time to do the extra work I needed to do.

But, that didn’t happen. So, my SEO has taken a hit as a result. It didn’t stop, but it certainly stagnated.

Since my business relies heavily on SEO (Traffic from SEO results in free trials which results in conversions), I need to be writing content consistently.

It’s not about launching new content and getting small spurts of traffic - it’s about the aggregate content machine covering all of the different things my customers are searching for.

Finally, in December, I pumped out one new blog post (it only took me a few hours). It’s not the best post I have ever written, and it’s not going to bring in significant traffic, but it at least broke the silence on my end.

It’s already starting to bring in clicks to my blog. Which is another sad reality that if I had been writing content all along I would be way farther ahead than I am right now.

Such is life. The best time to start was yesterday. The second best time to start is now.

Design changes

This one took me by surprise.

I’m not the greatest designer, and I write all of my code in pure JS and CSS, so I don’t use and frameworks to mask my lack of design skills.

Up until mid-December, the app didn’t have any scrollable tabs. If you want to see what it looks like - head over to this page (it pops up in the bottom left). You can see what I am talking about with the tabs.

Because it didn’t have any scrollable tabs, all of the features were in sight and above the fold. The user just had to switch tabs to use other features.

Well, in December I added a bunch of settings and features for my higher-end users (customers using my tool to make several thousands of dollars per month on Poshmark).

When I added those features, the app got super cluttered. I have a strict width constraint on the app, because it has to work on the old iPhone SE (which is 320px wide). So I had to make the app scroll.

Making the app scroll within the tab drove several of my customers crazy.

I don’t like to stereotype, and this isn’t the case for all of my customers, but the majority of my customers are older women. Very often they tell me they don’t know how to use a computer, and that my (what I think are simple) instructions are too difficult to follow. It’s a constant battle.

Anyways, when you change something, move something, and make things different from the way they used to be, they have no idea what happened and how to get back the things you changed.

There were a few different settings that people use often that were now below the fold. I had at least 20 people ask me where they went. And at least 10 of them claimed the tab “didn’t scroll” (though after a few minutes with all of them they figured it out).

I definitely lost some customers, because instead of emailing me and figuring it out, they just quit because they thought the features were removed.

So, the moral of the story is, if you make large design changes you need to properly educate your customers as to what changed and how they can continue using the product just like they did in the past.

Don’t assume they will figure it out, and don’t assume you know best when it comes to design. The best design is the most simple design. By adding scrolling, I added an additional step for the customer to do the things they normally did. That’s a small change for me, but a big change for others.

This factor is what I attribute to the drop in revenue from $16700 MMR to $16300 MRR in about a week.

Holiday traffic dip

This change also took me by surprise. I didn’t realize how the holidays impacted my SEO traffic. Last year I didn’t have a significant enough amount of traffic to notice the dip.

In November, my organic traffic spiked to an all-time high of 237 clicks in a day.

By the time Christmas rolled around, my traffic dropped to a low of 80 clicks in one day.

That’s one third of the traffic I normally get.

One thing you can also see, is that right now my traffic is back on it’s way up. Now that Christmas is over, people are getting back to their normal routines.

Here’s a look at my free trials over the last 6 months.

Here’s a look at my organic search traffic over the last 6 months.

You can see the trends are directly correlated. Around the end of October and beginning of November my organic traffic and free trials peaked. After that, you can see both of them start to trend down.

Conclusion

There’s some things I can change for the future that will help mitigate these issues with growth.

Consistent work beats sprints

Having well-defined and consistent routines of work and progress will always beat sprints of work and taking long breaks.

Though November was mostly unavoidable, there are a lot of things I could have done to get an hour or two of work in every day to make progress with my product.

Getting to bed on time, getting up early to work, being diligent about keeping up on house chores and keeping routines consistent for the kids would have allowed me the flexibility to work when I needed to.

Write. Write. Write.

Writing more is one of my core goals for 2020. Writing is the most productive thing I can do with my time, and it’s something that directly impacts the performance of my business.

Writing new content consistently is critical to the success of my product, and it’s the major thing that keeps me progressing forward as a human being.

Depend less on Google

I normally am the person in the room who thinks that good SEO solves all of your traffic problems.

Well, it certainly makes things easier, but there’s a little bit of a problem with that.

When Google is in control of your traffic, what do you do when that traffic dries up? You don’t get to decide what traffic Google gives you.

This problem can be solved with ads, social media marketing, and building an email list. Having an audience of people to reach that’s not exclusively on Google search will help me avoid any traffic dips in the future.

Communication with customers

When I make major changes, I need to communicate that effectively with my customers. That could be an email, with a video outlining the changes, and maybe even a detailed walkthrough of everything that’s different.

I can’t assume they’ll know how to use my app. User experience is crucial to the success of a product, and if the user experience is sub-par, then your customer will use a tool that is more simple or performs better for them.

Increase

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In the year of 2020, I am writing about increase.

“Increase” is a blog series and newsletter for technical individuals who are interested in learning the principles of success found in the Bible and other writings of great minds in history.

In this post I hope to define what increase is, demonstrate it’s purpose and impact, and talk about my vision for the project.

Let’s dig in.

What is increase

Increase is defined by Merriam-Webster as: “to become progressively greater (as in size, amount, number, or intensity)”.

Progressively greater.

Increasing is a human right. To compound and grow. It’s what we’re designed to do. It’s the way the world was designed.

There are so many nuances that make humans unique. Different interests, skills, personalities, environments, and dreams.

Yet, there are fundamental principles that enable any human to live the life that they want for themselves.

These principles are the characteristics, disciplines, mindsets, and perspectives that separate successful people from people who are stagnant in life.

There is no one path that works for every person. Anyone at any given time is in a different place in their life. They’re at different levels of experience. Different positions in their life.

Though there isn’t a single path, there are traits that work together to form the journey of a successful individual. Success - regardless of their position in life.

That’s what increase is to me. Success, regardless.

Success when you’re in the best position of your life. Success when everything falls apart. Success in every high, and every low. Success when it matters and when it doesn’t.

Why I think it’s important

Perpetual success is achievable for every person. It’s a Biblical principle of a disciple of Jesus Christ.

The attitude of increase is powerful. It’s unstoppable. Once you’ve had a taste, you can’t go back.

The thing that people get wrong about success and increase is: it’s not about you.

It’s not about your success. It’s not about what you achieve in life. It’s not about how much money you make. It’s not about the knowledge you obtain.

It’s about the impact you have on others.

As you increase, you are able to greater impact those around you in a positive way.

As long as you live your life serving others instead of living for your own gain, you will always be successful.

This is important, because almost everyday I see people who don’t understand how life works.

No one cares about you and your goals. No one is looking out for you. No one is going to make you successful.

Yet, most people desperately care what others think about them. They act in certain ways to fit in with the crowd.

The only thing that people care about is what you can do for them. If you can help someone, then they will care about you.

When you continue to help people, then you eventually begin to be compensated for your efforts.

It starts with helping one person. Then 10. Then 100. Then thousands and even millions.

Helping that many people cannot go unnoticed. It would then be impossible for you to be poor, depressed, and without great relationships.

That is the life of perpetual success. That’s the life of increase.

What can you expect

Throughout the year I will be diving deep into characteristics and concepts that are requirements of a person of increase.

It will be heavily influenced by the Bible - as I have found in my years of writing that Biblical content and perspectives are lacking in the developer space.

I’m leaning hard into the Bible. It’s the most powerful text in the world when interpreted and studied with the correct perspective. It has the authority and instructions to change any person into their ideal potential.

I’ll also be reading books and the works of other great minds that have written on these principles, and will be distilling the content into a consumable and simple format.

I will be studying and writing in a monthly format. The articles will probably be long, but also dense. They’re meant to be guides for mastery, with steps to go from novice to expert.

After all, that’s what increase is. Becoming progressively greater.

During this time I will be learning as well. I don’t think any human being has every principle of success mastered, and it would be naive to think I know everything about success.

This commitment to writing and publishing is a journey for myself to be able to deeper understand what it takes to increase.

What’s the end goal

I’m actually not 100% sure. I have the personal goal of learning, and the public goal of building an audience and community of like-minded people.

I hope to become a better writer, and I hope to build a system of studying and writing that can carry across domains.

I’m committed to the project for a year, which would be 12 articles and newsletters.

During this time I will be operating my business, spending lots of time with my family, and investing time into my church.

During the year I will also be building more products and businesses, and will be reaching new levels of success.

I hope you get as much out of it as I will.

See you January 31st for the first edition.

A Lot Of Writing

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This post is dedicated to outlining what I would like to personally accomplish in 2020. In short, it’s a lot of studying, writing, and product development (code).

2020 is a new chapter

As of this past November (exactly a month ago), I am completely unemployed. I don’t have a manager. I don’t have a boss. I don’t have a todo list with priorities handed to me.

I get to do whatever I want, which is both great and terrifying.

I’ve worked hard up to this point on the correct things, so I’m not too worried about doing the wrong things. But, I think I can get in a place where I don’t want to do the things I am supposed to be doing.

In a sense, Closet Tools is my job. I don’t like having lots of obligations, so I have to keep it in a place where it’s not an obligation. It needs to be something that is fun and helping me grow.

Using new technology, exploring writing concepts, and helping other people through features and products gives me motivation to keep working and pushing the boundaries of the company.

What I’d like to remind myself for the year, is that even though there’s so much work that can be done, it’s only done one hour (or even a half-hour) at a time.

Break up the work into small chunks that can be completed in a sequence to reach the desired goal. This requires a significant amount of time planning, but it’s the only way to consistently get the right things done in the right order.

2020 is about distributed writing

This upcoming year, quite literally, will be me spilling my brain out on a keyboard.

I will be starting a regular newsletter and consistent writing. The newsletter will be called Increase and it will talk about building character, wisdom, wealth, and other timeless principles of success.

I want to deliver a perspective for engineers, developers, and other technical folks that stems from timeless truths found in the Bible and other great minds in history.

It will all be evergreen, character building pieces that help people become better and create a lasting positive impact on their lives.

I want people to read what I have written and be challenged to take steps toward getting better in that area. I want people to focus on building themselves in order to build a better future for them and their family.

The more selfish reason for all of this is that I want to dive deeper and learn more things about the different topics I write about. Writing it all down will help me learn the topics for myself, and you (the audience) are the direct beneficiaries of my writing.

I’m working out some of the kinks, but I plan on studying, reading, and taking notes for a week, and then spending another week writing.

What I just described is how I would love my life to be. Studying, diving deep into topics, writing concise guides and references, and building an audience through that.

Ideally I would like to make my living doing that. I don’t know how many years it will take, but I know I can do it. This year is about kickstarting that journey and taking it to a new level.

Another form of writing that I will be tackling is for my company Closet Tools. I’ll be writing informational articles to help Poshmark users sell more on the platform (and attract people to the tool I’ve built). I already have a sizeable amount of traffic coming in from Google every month, and I will be expanding that further.

I’ll also be writing lots of documentation, and of course responding to customer support issues. Lot’s of writing.

I want to be someone who is able to produce a complete and polished product from start to finish. Everything from billing, to features, integrations, testing, and performance. I want to have a system in place for how I tackle the problems I face when developing a tool for customers.

There are so many things that I need to work on with Closet Tools. Issues with billing, issues with features, more features to build, expansions for different pricing and product options. There’s no end.

I will be tackling things one at a time, and I will be honing my skills as a developer to be able to deliver a product that reduces the amount of time I am spending chatting with customers about issues.

The systems that I build over time will compound, and I will be able to spin up a complete business quickly. This will help in the future as I build out other income streams, and when I want to help others create businesses.

I want to make simple, performant, well designed applications that help people make more money, save time, and have a great experience when they use them.

As of right now, Closet Tools is my only source of income. So, it takes priority over some of the other things I am working on. It’s not on fire or anything, so it’s fine as it is. But I wil defenitely be spending several months working on some of the underlying issues, so I can then begin to scale it harder and promote it more.

2020 is about less distraction

Now that I work for myself, how I spend my time is 100% up to me. I can choose to waste it, or I can choose to use it wisely and productively.

We all know that social media is a huge source of distraction, so it’s a given that I will be scaling back on consumption. I will be unfollowing most people on Twitter, and YouTube. It will keep my feeds lean, and will ensure I’m not speding too much time scrolling.

What’s more important is that I am planning out my time and using it to its full potential. I should have every hour of work blocked off to work on things that will benefit me in the future.

Every day should be planned the night before, and the week should be planned before the week starts. It doesn’t have to be incredibly preceise, but it needs to be progressing me forward towards the goals that I have.

Staying focused and working consistenly will allow me to move faster, achieve more, and increase farther than I ever could have imagined.

Intersection

Sun, 17 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’m not the best developer. I’m not the best writer. I’m not the best at SEO. I’m not the best SaaS business owner.

But yet, I have combined those skills and talents into something that has brought me and my family lots of money.

Focusing on that, instead of thinking I need to be the “best” at any single given thing, allows me to continue to be consistency successful.

I’m writing about intersection of skills and talents, mostly because I want to figure out what I should be writing about.

I like the combination of SaaS, SEO, and web development. Even though I’m not the best at any of those, I can combine them to be something that’s very valuable.

Another combination is faith, writing, and engineering. There’s a lack of Biblical wisdom and education in the developer & engineering space. I would like to bring those insights.

Another combination: fatherhood, faith, and wealth. That’s what my guide Increasing Wealth As A Father is all about. It’s something I think about a lot, and can help other people understand.

The combination of those different facets of life makes them interesting. Engineering is fine, and so is faith, but combining the two makes a much more interesting dialog.

So, I have these different intersections of interests, skills, and talents. Which one do I focus on?

Well, all of them, but I think they should be separated.

The intersections should remain together, but the different intersections should be isolated.

For instance, my IndieHacker audience probably couldn’t care less about my fatherhood insights. A lot of fathers that follow me in the future probably don’t care about code.

For instance, this website is my personal website. It contains my personal thoughts on a lot of different subjects.

I also own https://unindie.com/. This is where I can build out an IndieHacker audience.

I also own https://1189days.com/. This is where I can build out a faith audience.

I would like to have a fatherhood website, through which I can learn and teach about fatherhood.

I’m under the impression that the best way to learn something is to teach it. What better way to teach it than to write in detail about it.

It doesn’t always have to drive a profit. But, making an income from valuable information is a great incentive to keep learning about it.

I love blogging, and I love SEO. I could see myself selling courses and books through email lists.

I think being multi-faceted is okay. I wouldn’t want to get locked into a single field.

Then again, my career would be “Author/Developer/Entrepreneur”. That wouldn’t really change, even across all of the intersections.

At the end of the day, I write. Mostly words, sometimes code.

What I write about will change, and everything I publish and ship will help the next thing. I can use insights, successes and failures of the different ventures to ensure my future success.

Also, I can blueprint a process that other people can follow. A sure fire way to be able to generate an income through content and products.

I don’t want my writing to get spread too thin. I think that’s the issue I would run into in the future. There’s too much to write, and not enough time. I have to decide what my core focus is during different seasons of my life.

One thing I could do, is once I build up a content machine to the point where it is generating enough income, I could automate a lot of things (or hire people) to manage stuff, so I can just write.

That’s really all I want to do anyways.

As far as generating an income, I would be building products (books, courses, physical products and apps) in the different spaces I am writing in.

I already have made a Bible app, I can sell books in that space pretty easily as well.

I’m excited about the future, and I can’t wait to get to work.

For now, I will mostly be writing for my current business, Closet Tools. I think after 6 months to a year of pushing it hard, I will be looking into other ways to build income streams.

Hopefully we’ll be working on Hannah’s stuff soon as well!

I'm Responsible

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Well, I went ahead and did it. I quit my job. I’m a full-time entrepreneur.

I think it feels exactly how I expected it to. It’s a mix of being incredibly grateful to not be caught in the corporate rat race, and a realization that every decision I make directly impacts my future.

The latter part was always true, but I didn’t have as much control over the outcome. At a job, you can work hard or slack off, and 95% of the time you get the same pay and benefits.

Now, I am responsible for everything in my life. It’s freeing, but it’s also a challenge.

It’s my responsibility to be disciplined to plan, execute, and follow through on my commitments.

It’s my responsibility to take care of myself, my family, and those around me.

It’s my responsibility to do the daily tasks that I should be doing every day.

I can’t offload the work to someone else. This is my life now. It’s this work, every day, for the rest of my life.

On one hand it’s nice that life is that simple. It’s not complicated. Do the things you’re supposed to do.

Get to bed early, and get a full nights sleep.
Eliminate distractions and get deep work done everyday.
Be attentive with my family and contribute around the home.
Get in the Word every day to feed my spirit man.
Move everyday. Get a run or a body workout in.
Eat good natural food, and not too much.
Don’t overextend myself and give away too much time.
Be generous on every occasion, helping those around me.
Write everyday, improving clarity of thinking.
Break down tasks into smaller chunks and write them down.
Keep pace with finances. 1/3 spending, 1/3 savings, 1/3 investing after tithe and taxes.
Avoid most people. Avoid drama. Avoid gossip.
Foster deep relationships with the few.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s an example of the things I need to be conscious of every day.

Conscious is the right word. It’s active. It’s not passive. These things don’t happen automatically. They’re not intuitive. They are against what the flesh would rather do.

And that’s the challenge. It’s consistent action just to maintain a level of success and progress.

This life isn’t an accident. Every decision I make matters. I don’t have room to slack off.

If I don’t get my work done, no one else is going to do it for me. It’s all on me.

I’m responsible.

The Reason You're Stuck

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a reason why you’re stuck in the same situation day after day.

You’ve tried to change things. Everyone does. You say today will be different, but then it just ends up being the same.

The truth is you’re stuck because of a biblical principle that people ignore.

That principle is seed time and harvest. Sowing and reaping.

Many people only think about it in terms of the future. “I’m gonna see my harvest one day!”. There’s always this distant future that ends up magically being everything you wanted and dreamed.

That’s not how life works.

You are a product of the choices you made yesterday, a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, even five years ago.

Think about a farmer. Does he expect to produce a crop the instant he drops a seed into the ground? No. He tends the ground, plants the seed, waters the seed, cares for it and watches it grow.

The life you have now is a direct reflection of the seeds you’ve sown in the past. It’s the “harvest” that you have obtained based on your past actions.

You can’t just decide to be different today because you feel like it. There’s a whole host of external forces holding you back.

What you’re doing today was decided by you in the past.

This isn’t supposed to be depressing. It’s actually encouraging. I’m just helping frame your perspective. I’m telling you why it’s so hard.

Once you understand why it’s so hard, you can begin to trend in the right direction. You can plant good seeds for your future.

There’s two secrets to radically changing your life.

This is the first secret to changing your life 👇

You can’t change your present harvest. You can’t change your present situation.

What you can change, is the seeds that you’re sowing.

You might be stuck in a job you don’t like. A relationship that’s failing. A body you hate. A massive amount of debt that you abhor.

You can’t change that right now. It’s not possible. It was set in stone by the decisions you made in the past.

But, you can change your future.

You can do one simple thing in every area of your life to change the direction of your future.

You can buy a book to start learning a new skill so you can change your career or start a business.

You can write a love note, or buy some flowers to help mend your relationship for the day.

You can skip a meal, or cut out snacks today to help reduce the calories you consume.

You can save $1, $10, or $100 for your future so you can get out of debt and be free.

But that’s not all it takes. One single action isn’t going to cut it. Your life won’t change in an instant.

This is the second secret to radically changing your life 👇

Doing the right things consistently compounds and builds a better future for yourself over time.

It’s consistent action. It’s a compounding of small things. It’s changing your future one step at a time.

If you take consistent action, your life will reflect that in the future.

If you buy and read a relevant book every week, you will be able to build skills to change your career in a few years, or start a business.

If you write a love note every week, or buy flowers every week, or go on a date to show them you love them every week, you can start to rebuild your relationship.

If you skip a meal everyday, and/or cut out snacking everyday, you can start to lose that extra weight.

If you save $10 a day, or $100 a week, month after month, you will have built up a decent emergency fund so you can start getting ahead on your debt.

There’s always an if.

IF you take CONSISTENT ACTION you will see RESULTS.

IF you do NOTHING you will STAY THE SAME (or get worse).

That’s how life works.

I hope this inspires you to start making small changes for your future.

You can’t be a different person today. But, you can be a different person in a month, a year, and five years.

It’s simple, but it’s not easy. It takes action, focus, vision. It doesn’t just happen automatically.

Plant good seeds. Take care of those seeds. Watch them grow. Reap your harvest.

You’re stuck today. Now you know why. Now you know what to do to change that.

Do it. Take action. Take small steps towards a better future.

Systems For The Next Chapter

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

As I noted in my last “journal” entry, I’m quitting my job in a few weeks. November 8th.

I show up to work and have thoughts. “What am I doing here?”.

I’ve had some mixed emotions about this change. It’s all great, and definitely what I want to be doing, but I’m slightly nervous about the day-to-day implementation of working on my business full-time.

Like, what do I do with all of that time? I’ve been able to grow it to where it is now without any more than an hour or two every day.

This is the first time I have ever had complete control over every second of my day. I can do exactly what I want. There’s not a single person I have to oblige (other than my wife if I want to stay happily married).

Do I have what it takes to make the business grow substantially with more time? Should I even be focusing on that? What about building multiple streams of income?

There’s a lot of questions floating around in my head. All of that, and I still want to have an awesome marriage + I want to be an awesome parent to my two kids.

There’s a lot going on, and it’s slightly overwhelming. Only slightly, though, it’s not really that bad. It’s a lot of good problems. Problems that mean I/we are growing and increasing.

One thing that I know is true (always has been and always will be) is that I need to have strict disciplined routines and maintenance in place to keep progressing in the right direction.

This is in every area of life. Business. Marriage. Parenting. Friendship. Learning. Reading. Health + Fitness. Spirituality + Faith. It’s all important, and if something gets neglected or left behind, it all suffers.

Each area of life needs a daily routine that allows it to sustain itself on autopilot. Something I can consciously do everyday to make sure I am on the right track. It requires elimination of distractions, and ruthless focus.

Developing daily routines isn’t hard, but it takes time and consistency. You have to start small, make it obvious, and make it possible. I won’t be able to address all of the different areas of life at the same time. I will have to build the habits one at a time.

Something I’m doing on the spirituality + faith front, is a website I made about a year ago called https://1189days.com. It’s a journey through the Bible one chapter at a time, and there’s 1189 chapters in the Bible.

I started it out, but I didn’t have enough time to do the required writing and studying every day. It took upwards of an hour.

Now, I have plenty of time to implement that into my day, and I have a chance to take it a step further. I plan on doing YouTube, Podcast, Writing, and an email sequence for the whole thing.

I’m not sure how I would monetize it, but building an audience in the space would be fun. At first I will just put out content, and I will see who is attracted to it. Then I’ll build a product for them (course, book, app, etc.).

I don’t want to build an audience around every area of my life. Some things I have no interest in producing content about.

But, I might do something with my wife that allows us to help teach other parents to be more productive and create businesses while raising successful children.

Lots of things going on. That’s the danger. I can’t do it all at once. I have to do it one at a time. I have to at least maintain the business until a more long-term income stream comes along.

Some things have to wait. Some things I have to say no to. That’s okay. I just have to be okay with it.

I know for sure that writing is critical to my success. It’s the one thing that I love to do that I can do everyday. So a daily writing routine is a must.

I can easily see myself being an author in the future, and even an author as a career. But that’s now right now. Right now I am an app developer that likes to write. In the future I will be a writer that happens to make apps.

So, my goal at first is to get back into the habit of getting up early every day to write. I write best in the mornings, and that’s the most productive use of my time.

By getting up early every morning, that means I need to get to bed early as well. I also need to make sure my house is picked up and clean every evening, so I can get up and write without distractions.

Writing is the least friction thing I can do in the mornings. If I had to get up early to workout every morning, I probably wouldn’t do it (I’ve never had the motivation to do it). Writing is fun. Writing helps me think. Writing helps my mental health. Writing generates revenue and profit. It’s my number one thing.

It might end up that I do the 1189days task first thing in the morning. I might batch that work. I’m not sure. I might just end up journaling in the mornings. It might just depend on what I need and how I feel.

After a stint of writing, there will be some code, some customer service, some exercising, some maintenance, etc.

Each one of those things will require a system. Something that I can work towards that compounds my time and energy. Something that’s documented and simple to implement.

What's Next For Me

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

It’s October. Crisp fall days here in western NY. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic.

Soon, in November, I’ll be quitting my full-time job. Something I’ve had for the last 7 years. Every week, Monday though Friday, a 45 minute drive to work.

Right now I am working part-time to transition to full-time founder. I work Thursdays and Fridays on the product, and Monday - Wednesday at my job.

The free time is amazing. I can do whatever I want with it. I can write this post. I can work on my business. I can help my friends. I can stay home.

One thing I’m noticing, is that my work time is sacred. If I don’t make it happen, it disappears.

This doesn’t mean that I should be working long hours everyday. I never want to do that. But I should be doing some work almost every day. Consistent work towards goals is the only way to grow a venture.

Speaking of goals, I don’t have enough at the moment. I tend to work well with deadlines and goals, and so I should be making more.

I know that I want to be using Google Ads to grow the business. I have had a lot of success with search, and want to continue to write content, but if I can create a profitable scaled solution using advertising (and steal a competitor’s thunder), then I will be creating an engine that will drive growth for the long-term.

FB ads are okay. I’m not big into social. I don’t see it as a way that I like to interact with customers. That’s something I would hire out one day.

But Google ads, and a more B2B business, is how I like to do things. Something that’s less personal and mostly a solution to someone’s problem that they can implement right away without talking to me.

Just like everything else I have learned, I will probably be taking a few courses and going over some advanced ways to grow a product using Google ads. I want to continue running this show for as long as I can.

I will be running Closet Tools hard for another year or so. I will be coming out with some more advanced features, more pricing tiers, and more products. There’s so much room in the space for growth, it’s almost unbelievable.

I’m thinking I can push the product to 1MM ARR. That’s the goal I have for myself. That would be 2750+ active customers (assuming the price doesn’t change). That’s not a huge number. It’s actually really achievable. Especially with good sales and acquisition (and retention).

I want to start a few more personal projects in the next year or two. Stuff that helps me grow as a person. I’d like to be exercising daily, and getting in the Bible more. I’ll probably be creating resources and products in those spaces.

One space that I would like to make products for is the Homeschooling space. It’s the fastest growing form of education in the USA. There’s not a lot of innovation there.

Another space is kids toys. I’ve got electrical engineering experience, embedded programming experience, and can market physical products. I think it would be a lot of fun, and the kids toys space is massive.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I make businesses in a lot of different niches. I don’t like to be tied down, and I like to use my skills in as many areas as possible.

For now, I am just excited to be working on Closet Tools full-time soon. It’s the first step to our dreams coming true.

I Paid $2500 for $1400 Per Month In Organic Traffic

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This was a happy accident, and I wouldn’t have really discovered the power of it had Harry not pinged me about some of my SEO tactics.

He’ll be writing something over on marketingexamples.com about it. Definitely check it out!

Okay, it wasn’t an accident. I talked about it the “External Traffic” section of my last article on SEO.

Here’s the hook: I got an article that had essentially 0 organic traffic in the first month it was published to 2200 clicks per month by spending ~$2500 in FB ads.

At roughly $0.63 per click (from the FB ads), that means I now get $1386 in free traffic every month from Google.

So, I basically paid $2500 once to get $1400 in traffic every month. I call that a win.

I don’t think you need to spend $2500 to see these results. You can probably spend less and see good success.

I’ll show you how paid traffic can boost your organic traffic massively. Step by step.

Why does this work?

The underlying premise is that Google needs to know how your content performs when traffic arrives.

Say you write a great article that’s an incredible piece. It’s got 5000+ words, explains a topic/solution beautifully, and should probably be published as a small book.

When you hit ‘publish’, and Google scrapes your site, they’ll see this article. They think, “Great! I’ll index it so we can keep an eye on it.”

And then, crickets. One month goes by. Two months goes by. Surely Google has read the article, they know what it’s about, and they know what keywords it should rank for, right?

Yes, but here’s what they don’t have: data.

Google doesn’t care if you’ve written the best content in the world. They care about the experience of the traffic that comes to your content.

They look at the page speed, the page weight, the mobile friendly-ness, the scroll distance, the average time on the page, etc.

Those are the only factors that Google has to indicate whether or not your content is worth promoting for organic traffic.

When there’s no traffic to your content, Google has no way of evaluating that data.

So, it’s a bit of a fly-wheel. You need a traffic jump-start to get Google comfortable with promoting you in Google Search.

Here’s the proof

Alright, I know, this guy is just spouting off about you spending money to make money. Let’s be real.

I published the article on March 8th.

Here’s how much I spent on ads. I started them on April 18th and ended them on September 1st.

Here’s my traffic for the post. This graph starts on April 1st (almost a month after it was published). You can see it was getting almost zero traffic until I started pushing ads to it.

And lastly, the most important screenshot. My organic traffic for the post. As you can see, it started out at a big fat zero clicks. It’s now getting roughly 100 clicks per day.

That’s about the extent of the keyword. It’s a 1000/month search in Ahrefs. That, plus long-tail clicks, gets my total traffic for the post. Sounds about right.

Here’s some of the top keywords the post ranks for:

As you can see, the top keywords account for 1184 clicks. There’s been a total of 8480 clicks on the article.

That means there’s lots of long-tail action going on (and if you play your cards right, that’s where the money is!).

Who is this for?

This tactic is for people who have a brand-new site with content, or who have a site that has great content but doesn’t have any organic reach (small email list, social presence, etc.).

If you’re someone who has a large audience, and can get a few thousand targeted visitors to a new blog post, this isn’t necessary. Just use your audience to get that traffic.

For large publishers and companies, they have an audience that gives them a jumpstart. They just send out an email or notification and it’s done.

For you and me, we don’t have that luxury. We need to get the traffic from somewhere else.

Luckily, we can spend money in exchange for traffic. FB ads, Twitter ads, Google ads, etc.

Like I said above, I don’t think you need to spend $2500 to see these results. I basically put FB ads on autopilot spending $20/day for around 4 months.

But, if your content isn’t worth investing some money into traffic, then it might just not be worth it at all.

The process is simple

Here’s the steps:

Write awesome content.
- Do your keyword research!
Publish it.
Index it.
Promote it.
…
Profit.

Okay, there’s a little bit more nuance than that, but it’s not magic. Simple stuff.

The major piece to the puzzle is making sure your content is optimized for the metrics that matter the most to Google. Things like average page-on time, and page speed.

If you have good metrics when you promote your content, then Google will handle promoting you in search.

There’s some things you can do with your ads that will help you get better quality traffic that actually wants to read your content and give Google good data.

How to advertise content

Once again, this isn’t rocket science. It’s pretty simple. But there’s some things you should definitely do.

First of all, you should be using any organic audience that you’ve already built up. Even if it’s 100 people. That’s a great start.

You’ll want to put out your content to your email list, to your social media followers, and to anyone else you can think of that would be a good fit for the topic.

Next, you need to decide where you want to promote your content.

FB is relatively cheap. At $0.63 per click, that’s a pretty good deal. Google AdWords is much more expensive (though much better at getting specific audiences to your content), and Twitter ads are meh. Try them all if you want.

I went with FB because I could build a lookalike audience with the email list of users of my product.

Once you make a lookalike audience, you’ll get access to a FB audience of around a million people that are somewhat similar to the people who already engage with your stuff.

If you don’t have users of an app, this could be your current email list. If you don’t have an email list, don’t worry about it. You can just use the FB targeting demographics to dial into the right audience.

Promoting content is easy, because it’s a light-weight ask. You’re not asking people to buy your product, you’re just asking them to read the awesome stuff you wrote for them. Sounds pretty nice.

Put a catchy caption on the ad, a catchy title, and slap some money on it.

You could run it at $10 a day for a month. That’s $300. Or roughly 200 clicks.

Is that enough for Google to evaluate? I’m not sure, that’s for you to test. I think over 1000 visitors is probably a better metric to get to.

Here’s a screenshot of the ad I pushed out:

Patience and capturing your audience

Okay, so since the tactic is really that simple, I’ll talk a little bit about what you should do with all of this traffic.

You don’t want to push traffic to your content only to have Google rank it in Google search. You want to capture that traffic so you don’t have to rely on paying for traffic in the future.

You should have lead magnets, email captures, product sign-ups, anything you can to make sure you retain the audience you’re building.

Another thing you can do is put a FB pixel on your site, so you can build a custom audience of people that have already visited your site. Chances are, if they’ve visited your site, then they will probably visit again (and read your stuff).

That’s a much better paid traffic strategy than going in blind.

Also, during this time you can be writing more content, and pushing your new audience to it.

There’s a lot you can do with this. Don’t settle! Capture your audience and make your future self happy.

A caveat

I don’t know how well this works for more competitive keywords.

This keyword was a very easy target. It had very little competition, and wasn’t a massive amount of traffic.

So, do your keyword research, write great content for that keyword, and you should be okay to use this tactic.

I hope you enjoyed this! Share it on Twitter. I’d appreciate it.

Smaller. Faster. Better.

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve gone from full-time employee to part-time.

First of all, this is huge for me. The Closet Assistant makes more than enough for me and my family to survive, and it’s stable enough to rely on.

There needs to be a fundamental shift in how I operate the business, however. That’s what this post is about.

In the month of August, I spent the entire month adding features.

I spent the last week reverting most of those. Let me explain why.

Smaller feature updates

It’s hard as a developer to not try and code your way out of problems. You just want to keep coding. Keep adding. Keep automating.

However, this can lead to other things falling apart. It can also make you vulnerable to making too many changes at once.

Your customers are used to how your software operates. If you go straight from version 1 to version 2 without any ramping, your customers might not like the change.

Features and other code improvements should be implemented in small chunks, with feedback and verification that there’s no issues with what you pushed out.

You should be testing your code (no, not unit testing), but at least checking if things work. That’s debugging 101.

But sometimes you miss something obvious, and your customers panic because “it’s broken”.

You don’t know what “it’s broken” means, and because you shipped 10 features and changed some of the existing code, you don’t even know where to start with debugging.

When you ship smaller updates, it allows you to fail gracefully.

“Oh, that’s broken? I know the exact place that could be. Yup. Okay, it’s all fixed.”

Instead of:

“Oh wow, you’re the 10th person who has emailed me about that. I’ll get back to you in a week. I might have it fixed by then, we’ll see when I can get another 4 hours of uninterrupted work done.”

When you’re an indie developer, who doesn’t work full time on your project, you can’t waste precious hours fixing the problems you made (and fixing code that’s not broken when there’s problems to try and figure out what’s wrong).

Take time to plan out your features. Ship them one at a time (maybe two if you’re confident). Small, consistent changes will feel great to customers, and it will bode well for your sanity.

Faster iteration

By shipping small features often, you get better feedback about your vision for the product.

The product direction is ultimately up to you, but it’s largely dictated by the demand of your customers.

If you bundle a bunch of features into a new update and shove it at your customers, they may or may not like it.

If they like it, great. You are aligned on vision.

If they don’t like it however, then you’re out a month of work and you need to revise the direction you were taking the product.

Your customers complain when you remove things you use, but they don’t say anything when you add stuff that they don’t use.

You don’t know what features are significantly more popular than others unless you ask.

Asking for feedback too often can be annoying, so your customers will become numb to it.

However, if you launch small updates, every time you add a small update there’s an opportunity for your best customers to chime in about what they like or don’t like.

They’re also an opportunity for you to ask for feature requests and what your customers would like to see happen.

This helps keep you aligned with what the customer wants, and it keeps them aligned with the features you expect to actually ship.

Win win.

Better features, better marketing, better product.

Sometimes, making the features you already have better is the way to your customer’s heart.

If you already have customers, they came and paid for the features you have now. Not the future your product has.

When you ship better features, instead of just new ones, there’s delight all around.

You can’t change too much, but you can adjust the speed, flexibility, and autonomy of the user.

Making things faster, more flexible (but still simple), and having chances to automate repeat tasks are all wins.

This will help reduce churn, while also making your current customers bigger advocates for your product.

Sometimes, you can add all the features you want to a product and it won’t move the needle.

It’s essential that you are focusing on marketing your product, not just writing code.

Things like writing blog posts, how-to guides, advertising, and other forms of marketing can be powerful with the features you already have.

This is similar with design.

There’s definitely a ‘good enough’ with design, and once you hit that you can put it down for a while. Only when things have matured should you think about changing the design.

I’ve been running a test with FB Ads. I have been running about $20 a day in prospecting ads.

They’ve been largely ineffective, as most of my targeted traffic comes in through SEO. So, I’ll be running some Google ads for keywords I’d like to rank for, competitor keywords (with comparison guides), and for my own brand keywords.

This is guaranteed to drive results, as I’ve seen that SEO is basically the only channel that drives free-trials.

Simply nailing this tactic will explode my growth much more than any feature would. The market is not saturated in the slightest.

Everything you do drives a better product. The documentation. The support. The design. The features. The results.

All of these things should be maintained and should represent a company/product you are proud of.

How this impacts me

I’ll be sticking to a weekly feature roll-out schedule, writing an article every two weeks, and iterating on my marketing channels monthly.

As of right now, I am working two full days a week on the Closet Assistant. That’s way more than I was working before.

Now I actually get a chance to decide what I do with my time, instead of it being chosen for me by handling whatever was most important.

I Know So Little

Thu, 01 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been trying to figure out a good way to talk about this. I’m not an expert. I don’t know what I am doing most of the time.

Most of the success I have had has been based on a few good principles that pretty much everyone can follow.

If that’s the case, why should anyone listen to what I have to say? Sure, following my journey might be entertaining, but when I talk about best practices I’m only referencing what’s worked for me.

What’s worked for me won’t work for 90% of people reading what I write.

This is why it’s hard for me to justify selling my knowledge. The only way I would feel comfortable is if I produced something that fulfilled the need of someone who already knows that my experience will apply exactly to their situation.

Because of this, it’s hard for me to justify selling introductory content for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Other people have built way bigger businesses than me, using totally different tactics. Some people use those other tactics and build businesses way smaller than mine.

There’s so much more to it than the tactics. It has to do with market, timing, competition, product, branding, design, etc.

Why should someone follow the way I build businesses? Everyone should do what they think is best, and figure it out for themselves.

Am I supposed to be a complete expert on all of those things? I don’t think so, maybe not to the level that I would sell a course or produce a book on what I know.

What’s my thing?

What’s the one or two things that I can be a complete expert in that I can help people with?

I strive to be a polymath. Someone who knows a little bit of everything. I want to be able to run my whole business, and automate everything that would require another person.

But by being a polymath, I don’t necessarily have a great depth of knowledge in certain areas.

Do I spend my time focusing on being above-average at everything, or by being the best at one or two things?

I think my plan to answer that question has two parts:

Build up as much knowledge as possible across disciplines, and use that knowledge to make lots of money and gain equity + status.
Use that equity to then specialize and spend my time becoming the best in the world at one or two things.

My first goal is to make enough money to make sure I don’t ever have to worry about making money.

My next goal is to use that leverage to niche down further and become the best person on the planet in that space.

So, at first my thing is to be everything. A one-man-show. That’s my thing.

But don’t be surprised in the future when the switch flips and I niche down into one space. That’s how I will probably sustain myself financially,

My best advice

Stick to first principles. Things that are always true, across the board. That’s the best type of content, and the only things worth listening to or reading.

Everything else is mostly noise, and you’re much, much better off learning it for yourself.

What are first principles? Things like the fundamental teachings of the Bible. Or, @naval’s tweet-storm on building wealth.

These things help build your character. They don’t directly help you with your business, but they help you become the best version of yourself (which is the best way to build a great business).

You’ve seen businesses that fail because the founder is a jerk and has a shady lifestyle. And If you can’t get out of bed to work everyday you’re not going to build anything worth selling.

Build yourself. Build your character. Become your best person, and then build a business. You’ll have a much better time.

This is why you see a lot of founders post things on Twitter about fitness, sleeping, meditating, etc. You are the core piece to your business. If you don’t exist, or are maimed, you can’t do what you need to do to keep building your empire.

Take care of yourself.

So, why should you listen to me?

I’m not sure you should. But, I do try to teach what I know, and help other people. If you get something from it, great! If you don’t, that’s okay. It wasn’t for you.

I want to help people make money on the internet. I am figuring out how to do that for myself, and if you can carve a path that’s similar to mine, you might get a lot from this blog.

Otherwise, I think I will be at my most-useful when I niche down in to a space where I can be a leading expert. Then I can deliver real value that isn’t based on guesses and ‘what worked for me’.

Writing To My Friends

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Lately I have been writing on Facebook to my friends. I’m trying to help encourage them to start growing and changing their lives for the better.

This was mostly an experiment. It was to see who still existed on FB, and also to test some of my content on my friends.

I found it really easy to write to my firends, which was surprising. It’s a lot easier to write something that’s helpful when you really care about the person.

These are the things I wrote in the last week or so. You might notice some of the semantics from other places on my blog.

Start A Business To Get Rich

You won’t get rich renting out your time (aka, a job). You’re just trading dollars for time.

To get rich you need to earn non-linearly. You need to be able to make money while you sleep.

Products (Physical and digital [courses, ebooks, resources]), content (blog, podcast, video), code (app, website, tools) can scale beyond yourself. They can be automated and earn non-linearly.

It also takes a non-linear amount of effort up front. Expect years of work with no pay. But when it clicks, you’ve built a system that’s valuable. You will earn money in exchange for the value you (or your system) produce.

Check out @naval for more on this.

1000 True Fans

The rule of 1000 true fans is all I needed to be convinced that it’s easier to work for yourself and build wealth through entrepreneurship.

The rule of 1000 true fans works like this: Essentially, to make a living working for yourself, you need to have 1000 people pay you $100 a year to make $100,000 a year. After taxes, that’s not a bad income.

Let’s put that in perspective. There’s 7 BILLION people on the planet. Even in the USA alone there’s 300 Million. All you need is 1000 people. That’s 0.00033% of the population.

Now, if you live in a small town, it might be harder to get 1000 people to pay you within a 25 mile radius. Luckily, we have the internet. Facebook alone has 2 Billion active users. There’s huge audiences out there looking for the value you have to provide.

Not only that, but you can cater your customer’s experience to be the best they’ve ever had. Something that bigger brands and companies can’t do. You have an edge, and you can find your 1000 true fans.

What value are you going to provide for people? How are you going to contribute your skills to build wealth? Where will you find your 1000 true fans? Can you make something that’s worth $100?

I’ve got a suggestion for something you can make. If you help save people time, and make them more money, you will have no problem selling something for $100. People see the value in convenience, saving time, and saving (making more) money.

For those interested, here’s the full essay about the power of 1000 true fans: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

Everyone Can Be Rich

I think everyone has something to offer. If you don’t, learn specific skills that make you valuable.

If you can build something (physical or digital) that provides value for others, you can make money. If you can’t build something, learn the skills necessary to do everything it takes to make something valuable.

I spent 3 years learning how to make websites, do SEO, and make web apps before I made a single dollar online. But, I now have that knowledge forever. I can build whatever I want given enough time.

Invest in yourself. Believe in yourself. Pay for the course. Get an apprenticeship. Get close to people who are doing what you want to do.

Yes it takes time. Yes it takes grit. Yes it takes patience. But anyone can live a rich life. It’s a matter of education, diligence, and delayed gratification.

You Choose Your Life

Everything is up to you. You can’t blame anyone else.

You don’t get to necessarily choose what happens to you (most times you do), but you always get to chose how you respond.

How you respond is much more important than what happens to you.

And even in the vein of not being able to choose what happens to you — you choose the people you surround yourself with. You choose the things you say and don’t say. You choose how you spend your time. You choose your investments. You have a lot of control over what happens to you.

You will always reap a harvest of the choices you sow today.

And the choices you make today can be one of two things:

For your benefit.
For your detriment.

There is no middle of the road. You’re either growing or shrinking.

You’re making choices everyday. Those choices are creating the person you will be in the future. You’re choosing what happens to you. You’re choosing your path in life.

Successful Habits. Successful Life.

The quality of your habits generally determine the quality of your life.

How you sleep. How you eat. How you exercise. How you work. How you talk (positive or negative).

Habits are automatic responses to environmental signals and changes. Cultivate good habits, and you’ll be in control of how your environment affects you.

Bad habits, on the other hand, are like a leaky bucket. You don’t realize how bad things are until it’s too late.

Eliminating bad habits, and incorporating good habits into your life will make a dramatic effect on who you become in one year, five years, ten years.

Sleep 8 hours a night. Eat good food, mostly vegetables, and not too much. Walk a bit everyday, and do some lifts/body exercises a few times a week. Work on something you’re passionate about for at least an hour everyday. Talk positively and use that to fuel your attitude.

Life is simple. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Take time to take small steps in the right direction. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Optimize to be the person you really want to be in a few years.

I’m not the same person I was a few years ago. I won’t be the same person I am now in a few years.

Here’s a guide to building good habits (excellent book): https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits

Environmental Impact

Your environment shapes most of your behavior. It’s the people you hang around, your family, your co-workers, your peers.

You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

We don’t do it on purpose. It’s human nature. We’re hard-wired to fit in. Fitting in means other people will like us. Fitting in means less confrontation.

But, what if you want to break the mold? What if you want to become someone else? Maybe you want to be rich, maybe you want to be fit, maybe you want to be happy.

Two things: 1. Get rid of toxic relationships. 2. Cultivate positive relationships with people that support you or are where you want to be some day.

You won’t get rich hanging around people who don’t work. You won’t get fit hanging around people who don’t move or eat healthy. You won’t be happy hanging around people who are always negative and pessimistic.

It’s a simple concept, but so many people get it wrong. They have the same friends their entire life and wonder why they never made anything of themselves.

If you can’t escape the people around you for the time being, get into books.

I’ve got a secret for you: books are the best way to escape your current environment and enter into the brains of some of the greatest humans on earth.

If you don’t like to read, read stuff you like to read until you do. You can gain wisdom, gain knowledge, and gain new mental models from the right books.

You can become better. Change your environment, and you’ll change yourself.

Think Long Term

Short term thinking is what keeps most people from growing and achieving their goals.

People want convenience right now. They want gratification right now. Entertainment right now. Satisfaction right now.

The secret to success in life is delayed gratification.

There’s pain of discipline, and pain of regret. No matter what, there’s pain, but the pain of discipline creates actual gratification and satisfaction.

The longer you can put off convenience, gratification, entertainment, and satisfaction, the better those things will actually be in the future.

The longer you put in the work, grind out your daily tasks, stay focused on what matters, and have self control, the quicker you will reach your goals and become the person you want to be.

When you only think about the short term, you make decisions that stifle your future self. You spend all of your money. You eat way too much. You complain about minor things that don’t really matter. You take any ‘good’ opportunity that’s thrown at you.

When you think about the long term, you make informed intelligent decisions. Will I regret buying this thing I don’t need? Will I regret taking this job that takes me away from my family more?

Some of the worst things in life are free and easy. Sex outside of marriage. Your first shot of heroin. Complaining on social media. Sitting on the couch watching TV every evening.

Some of the best things in life are free and hard. Going out for a run everyday. Showing up to work on time. Listening to others. Helping your friends when they need it. Saving and investing money every month. Learning new skills. Being ethical and honest.

Anything that is good takes a lot of work up front, and becomes a blessing for the rest of your life.

You get to choose when you want the pain - now or later. If you choose now, then you’re going to have good success and no regrets. If you choose later, get ready for life that goes nowhere. Regret is poisonous.

Consistency Is The Key

Consistency is the key to growth and progress. There’s nothing more powerful than momentum and compound interest.

By simply deciding to show up everyday and do the things you need to do, you have a significant advantage over most people. Most people can’t stick to what they say they’re going to do. Most people don’t have the discipline.

If you improve something by 1% everyday, by the end of a year it would be 37x greater than it was at the start. On the contrary, decreasing 1% everyday for a year essentially gets you to 0. Are you growing or shrinking?

The first business you start will probably fail. The first book you write will probably flop. The first YouTube video you post will probably get 0 views.

That’s OK. It’s part of the process.

The goal isn’t to build a single massive business, it’s to work on something so it becomes a business. The goal isn’t to write a New York Times best seller, the goal is to write books consistently. The goal isn’t to have a single viral YouTube video, it’s to build an audience by posting on a consistent schedule and get better at making videos.

By changing your goal from being a ‘results based’ goal, to a ‘systems based’ goal, you start to see how it’s more powerful.

By consistently performing the actions above, you can see how it would lead someone to become a successful business person, or a best selling author, or a YouTube influencer. When you consistently work towards something, it eventually happens.

My goals are to write some code everyday. Write some words everyday. Play with my kids everyday. Get enough sleep everyday. Etc.

My goals are action. My goals are consistent progress. Eventually, I’ll become the person that I set out to be years ago.

The process is the goal. Otherwise, good luck trying to reach that lofty goal that has no plan of how you’ll actually do it.

Consistency is the key. It unlocks the wealth hidden in every worthy pursuit. Excellence done consistently will produce great profits, while inconsistency produces waste.

What you do consistently will grow.

A Little Bit At A Time

People overestimate how much they can get done in one day.

But they underestimate what they can do in a year.

We stress ourselves out, almost daily, trying to check off our to-do lists and getting everything done that needs to get done.

We feel like because we were only able to spend 10 minutes doing something that we actually enjoyed doing, that we aren’t going to be able to get anywhere with our passions or dreams.

But it’s not about how much you got done today. It’s about how much you get done over time. That’s what really matters.

Growing and working just a little bit everyday compounds over time.

When you put your head down and commit to something for an extended period of time, amazing things can happen.

All of a sudden, when you spend an hour a day for a month doing something, it’s almost a full week’s worth of work on that thing. That’s a lot of time to get some incredible things done.

Many people could write a book, or lose 40 pounds, or make an extra $5000, with just an hour a day for several months.

Don’t beat yourself up when you don’t accomplish all of your goals in one day. You have to master a habit before you can improve it.

Big things take time, and big things start small.

Big things start really, really small.

10 Years

To achieve great things in life, it takes time. But maybe not as much time as you think. People usually don’t think about their entire life, they just think about the next few weeks.

It takes 10 years to build something great. That’s really it.

You’ve probably heard about the 10,000 hour rule. It’s a metric people use to estimate how long it takes to become a true master at some specific skill.

10,000 hours is roughly 20 hours per week for 10 years.

10,000 is definitely over-estimation. It doesn’t take that long to be truly good at something. It might take that long to become the best in the world at something.

But having that mindset (that it’s going to take 10 years) is a good mindset to have. If you can just hold your breath for 10 years, you can become any person you want to become.

I’m 27. I still have another ~60 years on this planet. If it only takes 10 years, part-time, to become the best in the world at something, then I can do that and reap the benefits of it for another 50 years.

Maybe you’re 50. You still have another ~40 years on this planet. Even you, can spend 10 years completely rewiring yourself to become a master at anything you’ve ever wanted to be.

And, you’ll be able to have the rewards of your success for the next 30 years. Sounds like a good deal to me!

Please. I’m imploring you. If you truly know yourself, and you know who you want to be, take the next 10 years and work towards it.

It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take time. It’s better to accept that up-front, and put in the work a little bit at a time.

You can become anything you want to be in this world. You can be rich. You can be healthy. You can be a great parent. You can travel the world. You can help thousands of people.

Can you hold your breath for 10 years?

Just Start

Build a habit before tracking anything.

Tracking progress is a powerful tool. It allows you to get a dopamine shot when you’ve progressed towards your goals. It also helps you wrap your head around your progress and how you can improve more in the future.

Though it’s powerful, it’s not something I would recommend until you have built a successful habit.

You’re not going to see your weight drop after a week of intermittent fasting.

You’re not going to see your bench press increase after a week at the gym.

You’re not going to feel energized by getting enough sleep a couple of times.

The habit needs to be established first before measuring progress. Otherwise, you’ll be discouraged when you don’t see any progress for some time.

Life is a marathon. You shouldn’t expect to be someone totally different tomorrow. Things take time. And the most important things take a really long time.

Try going for a walk everyday for three months. Doesn’t matter how far. I guarantee you’ll feel the benefits.

Now after three months, start to track how far you walk. Now you’ll start to see even more benefits as you go longer and longer.

If you started to go longer and longer from the beginning, you probably would have quit. It would have been hard. You didn’t build the habit.

But since the habit was established, now you can grow that habit into a powerful tool for your success. You can easily see how you could increase it to be a running habit, or any other exercise habit.

Niche Blogging

Thu, 13 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I never set out to become a niche blogger. Yet, here I am, writing to you, the reader, about specific topics that probably only interest a few million people on the planet.

Every time I go digging through Ahrefs, I am blown away by the sheer amount of intent-based keywords that are easy to rank for (and don’t have a clear winning top result) across any niche you can possibly imagine.

I’ve done it so many times. I go into Ahrefs with an idea about a topic that I would be interested in learning more about, and I come out with so many more ideas for things I could research further. The internet is a vast, vast place.

How many of these ideas can be turned into profitable internet businesses?

Well, it depends.

Writing and blogging don’t just turn words into cash. There has to be some exchange of value. You can either charge for the words on the page, package them as a book, point the readers to products mentioned (affiliate), or sell your own products that are talked about in the content.

Or, if you’re an expert, you can sell digital courses that are a deeper take on the topics you discuss. Charge a premium for access to the man/woman behind the curtain.

I guess you could do ads too, like Google ads, but I think that would largely be a waste of time and people hate (and block) ads. Probably the worst way to build an audience (or, I guess the best way not to build an audience of active readers).

The best way to use ads, is to get a sponsor. A company that wants access to your users and/or your email list. In this way, the more emails you can capture for your niche audience, the more that business will pay you for access.

Since there are so many ways to make money online, I would argue that just about any niche has a chance of making money online. The majority of the determining factor lies in market demand and market growth. If you’re ahead of the curve, the wave will drive all of the traffic to you.

An SEO Experiment

Earlier this week I sent out a tweet, saying I wanted to take a blog to 1MM annual visitors.

The only thing is, I can’t figure out which niche I should tackle (there are so many).

I recently purchased a Google PixelBook, which is a niche product in-and-of itself, but I could certainly do a Chromebook based blog. Anyone else in the space doesn’t even seem like they know what they’re doing (it’s all news and hype, not evergreen content).

That would be fine, and I would probably monetize using affiliate links. Not massive money, but it would still be fun.

Google Chrome as a whole would be a good niche, since it has over 1 Billion users, but I don’t exactly know how I would monetize. Maybe a (or several) chrome extension(s)? That would be interesting, and right up my alley of skills.

The screenshot above is simply a list of the top keywords in Ahrefs filtered by having the words “how to” and “chrome” in them. Oh, and it’s filtered to be a difficulty of 15 or less. It’s roughly 100,000 searches per month in traffic.

What’s not in the screenshot are the thousands of keywords that have less traffic, which is what I would be going for. They have essentially no competition. It would be incredibly easy to make something, put it on the internet, and see results.

Now, these are not intent based keywords. They are not audience building keywords. They are not revenue generating keywords.

But, ranking for these terms can help boost your SEO standing with Google, so you can rank for more competitive product intent based keywords.

It’s not about the first blog post you write. It’s about building up enough weight and clout on the internet. Then, when you write something, Google listens and ranks accordingly.

I could spend the first half-year, writing upwards of 3 or 4 blog posts per week, on keywords like this. Then, I could turn it around and start a product reviews based site (with affiliate revenue) or I could make chrome apps, or both.

This is something I would really enjoy doing. I love to code, but I also love to write (and be an expert, and teach). To be able to build an audience based on my expertise and see consistent traffic to something that interests me would be so much fun.

Running a SaaS product is totally different than being a content engine. There’s a lot more at stake, and it’s more risky. Being able to consistently bring in traffic and make revenue simply by people showing up and clicking links is pretty reliable (though, not as lucrative unless you get gobs of traffic).

What about me?

I’ve already written about what I would want to be an expert in (as a topic) that could feed my content selection.

Basically, it came down to: Christianity/Faith, Firebase, Tech Blogger, and what this blog is (indie SaaS stuff).

I personally think tech blogger would be the most fun. Though, the thing that I probably want to become more of an expert in is Christianity/faith (more specifically, the Bible). I suppose I could do both, but that would be a lot of work.

I’m not afraid of a lot of work, but I would like my efforts to be successful. I know I would be spread thin if I had too many projects going at the same time.

What I would like to do is make the project a little bit more self-serving. I know that Hannah (my wife) wants to run a bullet journal / watercolor / lettering blog. I could very, very easily do something incredible in that space. It’s totally untapped, and there are so many products out there for creators in that space (thinking affiliate revenue).

She has a knack for making cool stuff, and I could direct the path of the content using the keyword research.

Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do (I’m figuring this out in my head as I write it). I want to use my wife’s talent as an artist to be an SEO experiment. It’s something that most SEOs can’t even compete on, because they don’t have the content.

Exciting!

Looking Back

Thu, 30 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Just over a year ago, I wrote this blog post. It’s titled “What It’s Like to be an Indiehacker with $200k in Debt”.

Today, I’m in a much different financial situation. In fact, I recently crossed $100k in annual revenue for my business. My debt is getting eliminated, and I can afford to go on a date with my wife whenever we want.

What changed? How did I go from that poor of a scenario, to getting ahead in life?

I’m not a different person. I’ve always been the same way. The difference was discipline. Discipline to be laser focused on first principles that drive economic prosperity.

Anything that didn’t fit within my vision was cast away. Distractions eliminated, doubters silenced, toxic friendships stripped away, and consistent content from those ahead of me in life.

Principles

I’m a huge believer in principles. There are certain principles you can follow to be successful in just about any venture.

Systems

“You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear

When your life is lived in the moment, you can’t gain traction. There has to be a long term vision to align with. Systems can get you to your long term goals.

They do this by eliminating options. The less options you have, the easier it is to make the right decisions. The more right decisions you make, the closer you can get to your goals.

Systems can get you past your inner lack of motivation. When your environment fosters productivity and progress, that’s exactly what will happen.

Systems also allow you to create accountability and feedback loops. You know exactly when you’re off-track, and other people will know it too. Staying on the path is the best way to get where you want to go.

Specific Goals

You can’t recognize your goal unless you’re specific about what it is.

Say I didn’t have a map, and I wanted to get to Colorado. I know there’s mountains and clean air in Colorado, so my generic goal is to find a place that has “mountains and clear air”.

Well, I could end up in Vermont, where there’s clean air and mountains, and technically I reached my ‘goals’. My generic goal was mountains and clean air, my specific goal was Colorado.

If you know your specific goals, you know when you have reached them. If you don’t know what you’re aiming for you’ll never hit the target.

Consistency

In the book Art & Fear, there is a story about a ceramics teacher who performed an experiment. The goal was to create the ‘best pot’.

Half of the class was tasked to make as many pots as possible. While the other half was tasked to create the most perfect single pot.

Derek Sivers explains the outcome better than I could:

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.

It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work-and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

As you can see, consistent output is always a better driver than having one moment of intense creativity and productivity.

Small consistent outputs will beat sprints in the long term.

It’s also a more sustainable and predictable way of working. It takes more discipline, though. It’s not easy to be consistent. But it’s the best thing you can do to create long term success.

Investing In Myself

Once I started making money with the Closet Assistant, I gave myself an unlimited book budget.

From now on, I have the liberty to purchase any book I think might add value to my life.

This has dramatically increased the amount of good content I’ve consumed in the last few months, and it also gives me the flexibility to put down a book when I don’t think it actually delivers the value I expect.

If you’re not a reader, I highly recommend reading things you like to read until you become a reader. By being a reader, you can learn things without waiting for other people to teach you. By being a reader, you can put yourself in the shoes of people that have done the thing you want to do.

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time —none, zero.” – Charlie Munger

Tithing & Giving

I’m a Bible believing Christian. Even if you’re not a Christian, the Bible is a factually correct and powerful text, though it will not make sense to people who are not born again.

In Malachi chapter 3, God tells His people (The Jews):

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Just before that, God says that by not paying the tithe to the Church, you are robbing Him. Not only are you robbing Him, you’re robbing yourself of Gods blessing over your finances. For those who may not know, a tithe is 10% of your income.

This might sound like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to someone not accustomed to reading the Bible, but if you take it literally, what it says is that God will rebuke the devourer (the Devil) so that the fruits of your land (the money you make from your investments of time and work) will not be destroyed, and that the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit (you’ll always be making money).

Not only that, but God says to “Test Me in this.” He literally wants you to test this out, and see that it works.

I can tell you, it works.

Before coming to the current church that I attend, I didn’t know much about tithing and giving. And because of that, I didn’t really participate.

What I didn’t know is that I was robbing myself of God’s blessing and protection over my finances.

For the last three years, even when I had little to no money, I tithed and gave consistently. I’ve never missed a week.

A year ago, I had almost no money, but my finances were blessed. Here’s some examples:

I have two older cars (2010 and 2006). Neither one of them have had any major repairs needed since I bought them ~4 years ago.
The cost of the birth of our first child was waived.
I haven’t had a single large maintenance expense for my house.
I have only ever had increase, bonuses, and success at my current employment.
I’ve only ever had increase and growth with my side business.
I’ve only ever had less and less debt.

My finances are protected. If I follow the commands of God, I will always be protected.

There is so much more in the Bible when it comes to tithes, giving, and financial prosperity. This is only one small take. If you’re interested in learning more, shoot me an email.

Talking To Customers

This is my one piece of business advice for anyone looking to break into the Indihacker space. Once you launch a product, talk to the people who are using it. Ask questions (even when you know the response will be negative).

It’s incredibly valuable to be able to have a conversation with someone about how they would make your product better. They have different insights, different perceptions, and different goals.

Now, you don’t always have to do exactly what they say, but just by talking to them you might figure out a more elegant way to fix a problem or eliminate a set of problems all together.

One thing I’m going to do in the next few months is switch most of my operation from Drift to Intercom. I believe Intercom delivers a much more complete business virtual assistant, rather than just a chat interface.

As Indiehackers, we don’t typically have other people working with us. To be able to have a chat bot that intelligently answers people’s questions and points them in the right direction is a powerful tool. Not to mention the built in funnels, notifications, documentation, and more.

Quick SEO Rankings

Sat, 18 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll try to keep this story brief.

In fact, just about everything in this post is brief. It’s meant to introduce you to topics to let you explore further.

On April 26, 2019, I wanted to write a blog post for my startup Closet Tools. I did some keyword research, found an easy intent-based keyword, and got writing.

I spent about an hour at Starbucks writing a ~1300 word blog post targeting the keyword ‘Poshmark 30 minute method’ with some images. I think I had a Caramel Cloud Macchiato that day. I don’t normally like sugary drinks but I needed a boost to get it done quickly.

I spent about another half-hour editing and publishing, writing a good title, and submitting my sitemap to Google.

After that, I went on with life. I didn’t think too much about it. It wouldn’t bring in a crazy amount of traffic.

‘Poshmark 30 minute method’ is a very easy keyword to rank for. It’s a level 0/100 on Ahrefs, gets 480 searches per month, and didn’t have very strong content in the top 10.

I normally use the Google Search Console to track my rankings. The downside is, it’s two days behind. So I wouldn’t really be able to see the effects of what I had written for another few days.

Well, to my surprise, I looked a few days later and I had ranked in the top 10 for the keyword the same day I published it.

This is a screenshot of the rankings of the post on April 27 for the query ‘poshmark 30 minute method’:

That’s about it. That’s the story. It might not seem crazy to you, but as someone who has done SEO for a while, a same-day SEO ranking is just about unheard of for a small site.

It’s about a month later, and this is how the post has performed in the last 28 days:

As you can see, I do still rank in the top 10 for my target keyword. But, to my surprise, I’m getting much more traffic from two other keywords!

The first keyword ‘Poshmark 30 minute method 2019’ makes sense. It’s people looking for a fresh take on the topic.

The second one is much more interesting. If you look at the blog post, you’ll notice that ‘Poshmark Algorithms’ is an H2 sub-header within the article.

Using keyword based headers within an article is a powerful way to rank for super-long-tail keywords. I specifically targeted that keyword and it’s bringing in more traffic than the original keyword for the post. More on this (and more) below.

I’m writing this post to teach you a little bit about SEO, and how I set up my sites to be successful. It’s brief, but should be valuable to just about anyone.

(If you want something more comprehensive, read this.)

Without further ado, read on to get a small crash course in SEO 👇.

What To Expect From This Method

Expect very little.

You have to come at SEO with an open mind and lots of patience. It has taken me a few years to see the results of the work I have done. That being said, once you’ve put in the work, it compounds over time. That’s why SEO is awesome.

This post is written specifically talking about ranking for very easy keywords, on a site that has a pretty low domain authority but has been around and getting traffic for over a year, and already has roughly 1500 organic clicks per month to the site.

So, if you just created your site, you probably won’t see these results (maybe you will!). If you don’t already have a bit of traffic, this might not work the same for you.

However, if you have an older site that has good standing with Google and is already getting traffic, this will absolutely work for you.

SEO Is Simple

SEO is simple. Simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen instantly.

Simple means it has a straight-forward path to success. SEO is and always has been about one thing:

Provide the best value for a given keyword.

The best value may be a 10000 word blog post. It may be a 100 word blog post. It might be a video. It might be an app. Maybe a product on Amazon. Could even be an image.

Regardless, the best will win. And Google is really good at figuring out who is best (and rising them to the top).

Now, there are many things you can do to signal to Google that you are the best result for a keyword, and that’s when SEO gets messy.

There’s backlinks, keyword stuffing, headers and subheaders, click through rate, on-page time, images, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

I wouldn’t worry too much about any of those things, but you do want to check some of the boxes. That’s what this post is about.

Basic SEO

SEO can be broken down into on-page SEO, and off page SEO.

On-page SEO are the things you can control on your website. Things like the loading speed, the title tags, the meta information, the URL path, etc.

Off-page SEO can be somewhat out of your control, but still important. It’s things like backlinks, social media mentions, web 2.0 links (social media profile links), domain authority, and your domain history length (the longer, the better).

My current stack is Jekyll on Github Pages. Using a static site builder allows me to build a very fast, secure, and SEO friendly website. I’ve never really used WordPress, or other blog generators that use a CMS, but I’ve heard it’s not nearly as good as a static site (most bloggers push WordPress because of the affiliate revenue for hosting platforms).

That being said, my on-page SEO generally consists of the following things:

The Jekyll SEO Tag gem.
Really small, yet HD images using the .webp format. For cross-browser compatibility issues, see this article.
Long-tail keyword based H2 headers.
A visible ‘date published’.
Target keyword in the title, and URL path (/your-keyword-here).
A subtle ‘clickbait’ title.
Clear, concise, exhaustive, and valuable content focused on a specific keyword.
Check your speed, SEO, and usability scores on web.dev.
Submit your sitemap and track your search analytics using the Google Search Console.
Use Google Analytics on your website.
Share buttons via AddThis.

If you use that checklist long enough and for enough posts, Google’s going to start ranking your content.

The Jekyll SEO tag ruby gem takes care of all of the little things you may need in the header of your web page. Things like meta tags, social media image, title, date published, etc. It’s great. As long as you have the right header information in your Jekyll post, it will take that information and fill it all out for you. Just follow the documentation.

The clickbait title increased your click-through rate on Google. If you don’t get people to click on your post, Google won’t be able to tell if people like your post (they can tell by how long they stay on the page and read your content). So give Google the information it needs to make a decision on your content.

As noted in my story at the beginning of the post, using keyword based H2 headers can help your post rank for more than just the target keyword.

Images help make your content seem less dry, and holds engagement longer. By holding engagement longer, Google sees that people are reading your content more and they will give your post a rankings boost.

The Google stuff might be controversial for some Indie Hackers. Most people don’t like the privacy invasion of Google. But to me, Google’s one of the best ways to build a small business on the internet. Any way I can leverage all of the free tools they offer to grow my business is a win for me.

If people don’t want to be tracked by Google, they can do that personally. But I want to provide Google with as much information as possible to show my site is the best for the keywords I am trying to rank for.

Producing Content

At the end of the day, the content is what matters. If your content sucks, you can have all of those other things going strong and you’ll still never see any traffic from Google (at least, not good, targeted traffic).

The best way to figure out what to write is to look at what is already ranking for the keyword you are trying to target, and writing/producing something that is better or provides more value.

I have two great resources that can help you write great content:

The Backlinko blog. Sign up for the newsletter as well. It has some gems. Their YouTube is very good as well.
The Ahrefs blog, and YouTube.
- This video will help you wrap your head around what to write to rank on Google.

Keyword Research

So many other people have done this topic justice. I don’t want to spend a lot of time explaining it here. Check out the this blog post and this blog post to learn everything you need to know.

I do however, have a very basic list of things to do for keyword research.

Use Ahrefs and search for keywords related to your niche.
Add relevant and intent-based keywords to a list.
Use that list to generate more keywords on Ahrefs.
Filter the list to only show less than 15 difficulty.
Pick through what remains, and find keywords that you can produce content around.

That’s really about it. I did this for a friend recently and it just about blew his mind. There are so many long-tail keywords for just about any niche that are easy to rank for.

Obviously, there are more challenging keywords you can try to tackle, but you aren’t going to rank for those keywords right away unless you have a hefty domain authority.

Also, I try to write content for keywords that get 500+ searches per month. If you can’t find any that high, you may need to broaden your search a bit.

One keyword bringing in a few hundred clicks per month isn’t anything too special. But, if you write content for a hundred keywords like that you can be sure to have a massive amount of traffic rolling in.

External Traffic

One way to show Google that your website or blog post is worth visiting is by pushing other traffic to that page and letting Google Analytics judge its quality.

You can do this by posting it on social media, pushing it to an email list, or even using your blog post as content marketing in some ads on Facebook.

Getting a spike in traffic signals that your site is at least worth visiting, and the performance of the readers that come to your site will let Google know what content is worth ranking higher.

It’s an easy way to get some data flowing when you don’t have lots of organic traffic.

My startup’s website didn’t really start growing in rankings until I did this post on Indie Hackers and got 1500 visitors in one day to my site.

Conclusion

That’s about it! I told you it was simple.

To recap, here’s the simple list of things to do:

Keyword Research
Write Content
Publish

As noted above. SEO is great. Like any internet venture, the momentum builds. If you’re consistent and patient, compound interest works in your favor. It’s hard to dip in rankings if your content is the best.

I’d love to hear how this works out for you. Be sure to let me know on twitter @jdnoc.

Choices

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

You Choose

That’s the beauty of everything in life. Everything is your choice.

You don’t get to choose necessarily what happens to you, but you get to chose how you respond.

How you respond is much more important that what happens to you.

You will always reap a harvest of the choices you sow today.

And the choices you make today can be one of two things:

For Your Benefit
For Your Detriment

There is no middle of the road. You’re either growing or shrinking.

This can be different depending on the context. Maybe you’re growing in one area and shrinking in another.

Regardless, you’re making choices everyday. Those choices are creating the person you will be in the future. You’re choosing what happens to you. You’re choosing your path in life.

I like this tweet by @julian.

The ultimate lifehack that encompasses all others: Be good to your future self. Unfortunately, it’s the easiest thing to recognize while being the hardest thing to enact.

Eliminating Options Gives You Freedom

What?

That might seem counter intuitive at first. You might think that being able to choose anything is freedom. But in reality, being able to choose an option of everything is an incredible burden and requires so much discipline to maintain.

When you choose to eliminate options, your choices are made for you in the future. That way, you don’t need to have discipline to make the right decisions for your life.

I’ll give you an example: I’m married with two small children. This fact about my life eliminates so many choices and options off of my table.

I’m married, so I don’t need to think about any other women in a manner that would lead to dating or marriage. That decision has been made, and in my mind it’s final.

I have kids. I don’t have to decide whether or not I’m going to go out partying on a Friday night. That decision has been made for me.

I can’t just goof off at work. I can’t just slack for a day. I can’t eat unhealthily. I can’t stay up all night. Etc. These people depend on me showing up and doing the right thing every day.

All of these decisions are already made. Which frees up so much cognitive load in my brain to focus on things that are much more important and make an impact on other people.

Eliminating options doesn’t give you ‘freedom of choice’, it gives you freedom to deeply pursue the things that are beneficial to you and everyone around you. Because if you didn’t choose that, everything around you would fall apart.

Delayed Gratification Is Everything

It’s the secret to success.

The longer you can hold off on cashing in, the more you can grow.

Similarly, the longer you can hold off the things that will make you shrink, the more you can grow in an area.

You can see this in a lot of different areas:

Saving instead of spending.
Eating healthy instead of eating unhealthy.
Reading a book instead of watching TV.

Spending money, eating unhealthily, and watching TV are all much more gratifying and tempting choices. But, they aren’t helping you grow.

Delay those options and choose the things that are going to help you in the long term.

Here’s the ultimate secret — delayed gratification compounds.

Saving once is fine, but saving for a whole year, or decade is where you’ll see massive growth.

Eating healthy once is great, but eating healthy everyday will make you feel so much better in 20 years that you would if you ate junk all the time.

Reading one book is great, but reading several books every year can give you the knowledge to grow in so many areas of life.

These actions, when sustained for the long term, provide a rich foundation and momentum of success that can never be turned around.

Discipline Is The Way

Discipline is painful.

You can either choose discipline or regret. There’s nothing between.

The pain will be there no matter what.

There will either be pain of discipline now, or pain of regret later.

Cast a vision, set a plan, and be disciplined about it. Choose the person you are going to be in 5, 10, 30, 50 years. Put in the work today to make movements towards the person you want to be.

Do the necessary work everyday. Budget, eat healthy, love those around you, and work hard on your dreams. Do this for years and your efforts will compound. Your success will be inevitable.

Decide when you want the pain. Now, or later.

Who I Want To Be

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

“It all comes down to who you want to be in 5 years…“ is something I say very often when talking to people about how they haven’t taken action on their goals.

When you can precisely create a vision for yourself, it helps you create a framework for decisions that you need to make today.

When you can ask yourself, “does this line up with who I want to be in 5 years?”, it adds a tremendous amount of self control and authority in your life.

You can use that framework for who you hang out with, what you work on, what you eat, who you date/marry, what you do with your kids, etc.

Because here’s the truth: If you don’t work on doing healthy things in your life right now, you won’t work on it in the future. You’ll literally never become the person you want to be, because it’s something that you are right now. It’s a decision, not a destination.

5 years is usually the time frame I use because it’s short enough to actually register in our minds, but it’s long enough to make some massive changes in a person’s life.

You can get an entire college degree in 5 years. Or grow a successful business. Or date someone and get married. Or change careers. Or do whatever you’ve been dying to do your whole life but have been waiting for it to just show up in your lap.

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t just show up. You have to go get it. It takes action, time, and focus.

So, who do I want to be?

The funny thing is, I don’t think about it often myself. At least not in a specific sense.

I do think about arbitrary mid-term goals like being debt free and owing a home. Simple stuff.

But, who do I actually want to be in 5 years? What skills will I have? What kind of person will I become? What are some characteristics about me?

Lets define who I will be in 5 years simply adjusted for time.

I’ll be 32.
Married for 8 years.
My son will be 7, and my daughter will be 5.
I’ll probably have at least one more child in that time.

Great! So I’ll still be a young dad with a growing family. That’s pretty similar to today.

Speaking of family, what are my goals for them? How will I interact with them? I’d like to…

Spend at least an hour with my wife every day. Just the two of us.
Do a night out with her at least twice a month.
Take a longer vacation at least twice a year.
Spend at least an two hours interacting with my children every day.
Have a flexible schedule that allows me to be home with them in the late mornings and evenings.

Awesome. Here’s something to notice - all of my ‘goals’ for myself are some sort of action. It’s not, “I want something like this”, it’s “I will do this, this often with these people”.

What about work, and skills that I will hone?

Writing. Lots of writing. I think this will always be core to who I am. It’s my way of providing value to others.
- I’ll probably have written some-sort of book or course on growing an indie SAAS business.
An E-Commerce business. This is something that I hope to create in the next year or so. E-Commerce is a very stable business model. SAAS is great, but physical products rule.
Reading. I want to be known as a proficient and well-read person.
Content Marketing. Though I’ve had success with this in the past, I would like to have more. I want to create content that drives 100k+ sessions per month.

There’s more, I’m sure. But this list covers most of my core plans and ethos.

None of this will come to pass unless I am paying attention and putting in the work today. It is paramount that I look 5 years into the future and begin to operate as if that is my present state.

My First Year Growing A Product

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a year since I launched the Closet Assistant. It’s also been a year (to the day) since I made my first dollar online.

I’m not an expert. I’m not a better marketer, developer, or founder than anyone else. I don’t always know what I’m doing - but there are a few things I know. That’s what this post is about.

Picking An Idea

I would write quite a bit about this topic here, but I already have. Check out my notes on how to pick an idea for a product that sells itself.

Once you’ve got a solid idea as to what you will be building, you can move on to validation.

Starting On The Right Foot

Validation. Validation. Validation.

There’s no question this is one of the most important pieces to creating, selling, and marketing a product.

Do people actually want what you’re making?
And if they do, are they willing to pay?

Answering those questions early and honestly can save you a world of turmoil. If the overwhelming response is no, it’s probably a sign that it won’t grow on it’s own very well.

If the overwhelming response is yes, then you might have a winner!

How do you validate? What is good validation? Should I build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)? How long should I spend on my MVP?

How To Validate

To validate a product, you need to reach an audience with your idea. This can either be an audience you’ve built organically over time, or an audience that already exists.

In my case, my audience was Poshmark users. I’m not a Poshmark user, but my wife is. I initially built the product for her, and then decided to turn it into something that anyone could use.

I didn’t have a Poshmark audience under my control, so I had to go somewhere else. An example of existing audiences could be Reddit subreddits, Facebook groups, forums, or tapping into someone else’s existing audience.

I decided to reach out on Reddit to see if there was any interest. There was.

But before I go any further, let’s talk about MVP’s, since that’s what I used to garner interest.

MVPs - To build or not to build?

So, an MVP is something that is the slimmest, simplest, and functioning version of the product you are going to build. If you’re building a SAAS app, this would be one core feature and some authentication for users. If you’re writing a book/course, this would be the first few chapters, or the first few lessons.

What makes an MVP so valuable is that it gives people a taste of the finished product, but also allows them to know that you’re not just blowing smoke. You’re building something, it’s just not done yet.

An MVP is something people can buy into, an idea or vision that they can associate with. It also makes it incredibly easy to build an email list when you give people free access to the MVP while you are testing and gathering feedback.

My MVP was a bookmarklet that allowed users to run a script to automate sharing their items to their followers/to a party (a common thing for Poshmark sellers).

All they would do is click the bookmarklet, it would share all of their items. No UI, no login, no payment processing, just a script.

When I launched the ‘beta/MVP’, I hid it behind an email signup. The users had to enter their email, and then they would get an email explaining how to install the MVP. The email signup was on a landing page that explained some things about the tool and what it did.

From this one post I was able to get ~150 emails from potential customers. I got emails by using Google Forms (not necessarily recommended, but it still works!).

So, to answer the question, ‘should I build an MVP?’ Yes. And a landing page to collect emails. A great way to get started with landing pages would be Launchaco or Carrd.

Talk To Your Users

So, now that I’ve made the Reddit post and gathered some emails, what now? Talk to your users.

What you should do is start an email list. This will allow you to email all of your users and get some conversations started. I recommend using ButtonDown for starting an email list. Once you start your list, embed that on your landing page and enter in any emails you’ve already obtained.

Now, here’s where the conversation starts. What I did, was I asked people for feedback and ideas in exchange for 1 month free of the tool when it launched (which in my case was basically a $30 discount). This worked really well, I got a lot of responses and ideas.

Some of the ideas were bogus, others were interesting. You need to be able to filter out the noise and notice the things that will actually help your users accomplish the thing your tool sets out to do.

Build The MVP

My application really had two MVPs. The first was a super beta version of the app - everything was stripped out except for the functionality. The second was a culmination of all of the feedback and feature ideas I got from the users.

How long should it take to make your MVP? It depends, but I wouldn’t spend more than 2-3 months on it.

My application was built in about 4 weeks. The majority of that time was spent figuring out how to integrate Stripe and process payments, while using Firebase as a backend.

I’d try to make it as slim as you can, and stable as you can. If there’s any bugs people will stop using it. If there’s too many half-baked features people will pass. You want a solid few core features that show people the reason they might pay you in the future.

Launch To Your List (This is the validation)

Getting an email list is not validation.

Anyone will put their email in for free stuff. The only validation that’s worth anything is people pulling out their wallets, entering their CC info in your app, and paying you.

For my app, I required a CC to sign up. No, it wasn’t one of those scam apps that just charges you whenever it wants. The app is very upfront about how to cancel your free trial and/or subscription.

By requiring the CC, I’m also self-filtering out people that aren’t serious customers. If you’re not willing to put in your CC info, you’re not interested in paying me later on. I’ll pass on you.

Another topic to talk about is pricing. I priced my app at $30/month. That might seem steep for a small app - but it’s all about the value you provide and what type of customers you want to deal with.

If you charge $1/month, get ready to fend off a host of customers that will demand your time and demand features to be added to your app. You want to charge high enough so that people who don’t understand it’s value complain that it’s too expensive, and people that do understand it’s value think it’s a steal. That’s my criteria.

So, launch day comes. You’ve got your list. You send out an email saying ‘buy it now!”. Now you wait to see what happens. This is where your idea gets validated.

I had a list of about 200 people by the time I launched my app. The first month I launched I went from $0 to $350/month in revenue. That’s roughly 11 customers. That’s actually a pretty standard conversion rate for an email list - 5%. So, you can imagine, the larger the email list you can build when making the MVP, the more sales you will make during your launch.

There of course will be haters. Some people won’t want to pay for your app. But, those aren’t your customers. You needn’t worry about them.

Here’s what happened in public when I launched my app on Reddit.

Growth And Communication

I bet on SEO. It was a good bet.

So, there’s a lot of ways to grow a SAAS app. You can do Facebook Ads, Content Marketing, AdWords, Influencer Campaigns, the list goes on.

I decided to be on Content Marketing. It’s something that I have seen be successful time and time again, and it builds the kind of long term marketing juice that I was striving to have.

Early on, after making the Closet Assistant, I wrote some blog posts. The Poshmark niche is under saturated as far as SEO goes, so I was able to rank pretty quickly for several terms.

Here’s what my SEO stats looked like over the past year.

As you can see, my search traffic was almost nothing for the first 3-4 months. The only way I actually grew the app during this time was by creating features and launching them to my email list and on Reddit. I did that at least 3 times.

But, once my organic traffic began to grow, I started to see the app grow by itself without me needing to post on Reddit.

So, this was my growth process.

Make a feature.
Blog about that feature (targeting keyword).
Launch to list.
Talk to customers on the site.

That’s about it. I would make a new feature and launch it to the list. That would generate some new interest and some sales.

Then I would start to see some traffic coming in from the targeted blog post about the feature.

Communication is paramount.

On that page, I had Drift installed. I encouraged people to contact me if they had any questions or concerns. This was invaluable. Being able to talk someone through your product not only helps turn them into customers, but it also helps you build a better product.

You start to see where customers are always asking questions and tripping up in your onboarding. Then, instead of asking questions over and over again, you can address them once in the documentation or on another landing page.

Another thing that’s valuable about Drift (or any other instant chat on your site), is that the customers perceive it as great customer service. When you’re there in less than a minute to help them out with what they’re struggling with, it leaves a good taste in their mouth.

Speaking of customer service, always give people their money back when they ask for it, and always go out of your way to give them value when your product doesn’t live up to their expectations.

One person that you refuse to give a refund can be the one person that convinces everyone to not use your product. Conversely, you can convert an angry customer into an advocate simply by being nice and giving them their money back with no questions asked.

I’m getting to the point now where sometimes my chat is a little bit too much to handle. I constantly have to update the documentation and add pages explaining features so I can cut down the time I am spending talking to people.

Year Two

So, that was the rough guide to how I grew the Closet Assistant from $0 to $4500 in a year. What does that mean for next year? How do I plan on going to $10k, or even $50k? Here’s my list:

More content.
More features.
More stability.
More automation.
Free side-products.

More content is simple. There’s some whale sized keywords that I’m missing out on that could bring lots of traffic to the site. I’ll be writing lots of content, but I might give an SEO farm a shot. That would allow me to focus on building tools instead of writing.

There’s a lot of features I want to add to the Closet Assistant. This will make it way more valuable. I plan on doing a 2.0 launch this summer, and when I do I want to increase the price (while retaining legacy pricing for those who sign up early).

Stability is a must for growth. When you have 1000 users, and there’s a bug in your software, you hear about it. It’s not good. Every feature needs to be tested and tested again, and then pushed out with the utmost confidence that it’s going to do exactly what it is supposed to do.

Automation is obvious, but there’s certain things I am doing that I can automate when I scale bigger. I won’t be able to manage the chat interface one-on-one for much longer, so I will probably invest in the more premium features of Drift to build out documentation and use their bot to filter my inbox by helping people out before I need to chat with them.

That, and creating better profile/account management pages for users. This would allow users to be able to better control their own accounts, and they won’t have to ask me to do stuff for them.

Onboarding needs to be optimized as well. The interface needs to be much more intuitive, and easy to get going without visiting the website documentation (such as, if they’re installing the Chrome Extension).

Free side-products is something that I believe is one of the best ways to get new customers and traffic to a product. There’s a few reasons:

People love free stuff and will give up a lot to get free stuff.
You’re adding value up-front to a potential customer, so they’re more likely to pay you.
You’re giving them a taste of what your premium products look like.
It is much more likely to go viral on social media or forums.

Thanks For Joining Me!

If you’ve been following my story on Twitter, thanks for following along! My only hope is that I can inspire more people to ship new products and make money doing it.

I hope you got something out of this blog post. If you did, feel free to share it!

Jordan

Boundaries For Work

Sun, 24 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I have already written about my ‘One Rep’ system. A system of starting so small that building a successful habit is inevitable.

But I’ve been thinking lately about my own self maintenance and how I - more often than not - don’t take care of myself and let my current preoccupation consume my time and energy for far too long.

It’s a problem that is common with people of my personality type (Enneagram 5w6). Being prefixed on a subject until it is completed and/or the knowledge from it has been completely consumed.

It’s as if I forget what all of my priorities are when I’m in that mode. I don’t eat right, I don’t exercise (or even move), I don’t think about other people and what they need. It’s not good.

The reason this happens is mostly because I don’t have a system of stopping what I’m doing to take a break. I just continue to work and think until I am completely exhausted and/or a definite priority interrupts me.

When I have no rules, I constantly push the boundaries without thinking about the consequences of what I’m actually doing and who it impacts. Usually, when I’ve exhausted myself, I come home and do not treat my family the way I would had I taken care of my primary needs as a human being.

I get completely enthralled by whatever I am working on. I can sit in a chair for 8 hours and work on a single project without getting up, eating, taking a break, or moving a muscle.

I’m always trying to squeeze the most work out of the shortest amount of time. And if I don’t get it done and have to go somewhere else or do something else, I constantly think about it until I am able to get back to it to complete the task I started.

That’s just not healthy.

I need to have a better structure for getting work done, but also being able to let work go until tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow, and I think I forget that in the moment.

There’s things out there like Pomodoro timers, but a 25 minute block of work with a 5 minute break feels way too small for me.

After a quick Google, there’s a method called the 90 Minute Focus Block. It’s a process of working for 90 minutes straight, and then taking a break for 30 minutes. This works well with our ultradian rhythm as a species, and I think it makes more logical sense to me.

If I adopted the 90 minute focus block, what would that look like?

Well, I get up in the morning at 5:30. That means I can work on maintenance tasks (like exercise, read the Bible, and write) for 90 minutes. That means at 7 I can shower and be out the door by 7:30.

That puts me at work just after 8AM. I can start my work blocks with the 30 minute break - so that I can start working at 8:30AM. Then I would work until 10AM, take a break until 10:30AM, and then work until 12PM, take a lunch, and then do two more blocks. Then I’d head home at 4PM.

So that means I have 5 blocks of time to work each day. one of those is absolutely dedicated to maintenance tasks. I’d probably use one block for side project tasks, and three for my day-job. This also means I have ample amount of time to relax, go for a walk, eat food, and interact with people in a meaningful way.

It sounds healthy, it sounds great, but how do I implement it? How do I communicate with people that I work in blocks and cannot necessarily be disturbed? I don’t think it would be too hard. Just wait to talk to me until 7:30AM 10:30AM, 12PM, 2PM, or 4PM.

I actually really like this block style system, because I can set even more rules about what I am able to do with that time. My phone is a major distractor when I am working - if I know I can check it every 90 minutes, and set it in a drawer until then (and tell my wife that what times I’m available), then I would be able to get more undistracted work done.

There needs to be flexibility in my system. Not everyday will be the same - in fact every day will be different. Therefore, the focus is on the relaxation, not the work. The rules are:

I cannot work more than a 90 minute period without a 30 minute break.
I can only have 5 work blocks in a day.
I must document where I am in my work at the end of the block so I can release the mental power used to think about the project.
Use brain.fm to stay focused when I’m feeling unmotivated to work.

That’s it. It’s not surrounded by ‘times’ necessarily. The hours and minutes will always change, but the rules will not. This will help me implement this system into my everyday life.

This also forces me to break my work up into chunks, forcing me to get work done over time instead of waiting until the last minute to get it done. This will help me be less stressed when deadlines come - which usually results in me being unhappy at home.

To be able to get consistent work done, have consistent breaks, and a consistent reference as to what I am supposed to be doing with my time will help me immensely. And thus, it will help me interact with my family better (and be healthier in general).

Writing For Traffic

Sat, 16 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Writing is a daily discipline that can’t afford to be missed. It’s something that’s incredibly valuable - especially on the internet.

I’m incredibly inspired by the stories I have heard about people getting massive amounts of traffic to their websites simply by publishing authoritative content on a given subject.

Here’s a story about a tea blog that went from 0 to 150,000 visitors/month in just 8 months by writing 4 articles per week.

After looking at the SEO stats on Ahrefs, Flavio Copes has amassed over 200,000 visitors/month after publishing a daily article on web development related topics for 2.5 years.

There’s so many examples of this happening. It’s staggering.

It’s crazy to me how straight forward it is. Simply write good content. Everyday. That’s it.

You can be an authority on any topic. You can have massive amounts of content to any website in just a couple of years of committed effort.

James Clear did this. He’s an authoritative voice on habits, and just became a NYT best seller because of his massive 500,000+ email list. How did he build that list? By writing a blog post twice weekly for 4 years.

It’s so simple. Yet at the same time, it’s so hard.

That level of discipline isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s a lot of research. It’s a lot of time.

But, the payoff is so great. We’re talking at least 7-figures annually in traffic with a simple sales funnel.

I’m just thinking to myself - what would I write about? What topic would I want to research enough to be drawing that much traffic? What topic would I want to be known for?

Off the top of my head, I’m interested in web development, indie SAAS businesses, Firebase, being a husband/father, my Christian faith, soccer (Arsenal F.C.), hiking, SEO, and tech (laptops, phones, development, etc.).

That’s quite a few topics, so I obviously wouldn’t choose all of them. But, what’s one or two that I could choose to start writing and studying?

I’m betting a Firebase blog would be well received, it’s still relatively new and unexplored (to the common developer). It would be cool to be an expert on the topic since I use it so much.

Web development is super saturated, and so is soccer. Writing about my faith would probably go well, but I’m not sure that’s what I want to be known for.

Being a tech blogger would be SO fun. I would love that. I love exploring new tech, and I’m not very biased towards brands. I love exploring and seeing all of the features that different brands have for different products.

So, tech blogger or Firebase? I know being better at Firebase development would help me become a better developer. Though, I would probably want to dive deeper into proper JS development before doing that. I don’t want to put out tutorials with bad/not well managed code.

Being a tech blogger would be fun, though it wouldn’t help me out in learning new things. It’s more of a race to get out content for the new devices on the market. That’s not really my thing.

Just looking at the Firebase SEO potential - It’s a mixed bag. I think it’s specific enough to carve out a niche for myself, but I may have to expand it to other Serverless platforms (such as AWS Lambda and Now/Next.js) to get bigger amounts of traffic for tutorials and blog posts.

By nature, for almost everything I write, there will be 10 other articles on the topic. But, that’s the game we play. There will be a few that bring in most of your traffic, and several that are duds.

It all builds up over time to become a content behemoth that draws in targeted traffic that you can use for generating a profit and/or creating successful products.

It’s no question that daily articles is better than even twice weekly, or weekly articles. The quality may suffer at that point, depending on how conscience and impactful you can make an article. If you can pack a lot into a little, then you may be good to go.

I’m excited about the focus on a venture like this. I’ll first be applying it to my startup Closet Tools, but then I will be turning it around and working on it for my own future ventures.

Betting On Content

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The more I post on social media about the Closet Assistant’s success, the more scummy and boastful I feel.

It’s doing great, don’t get me wrong. But when every post I do is an update about how many free trials I got, or how the revenue has grown, I’m not actually contributing any value to the Indiehackers community.

That, and when I post updates about the monetary success of the assistant, people get envious and focus on the ‘profit’ and think it all happened overnight.

The profit doesn’t really matter unless I’m not profitable. It took 3 years of learning and one year of executing to get to the point I am at now. If you don’t care about the process then you have no business getting envious about the results.

Content That Matters

I’m not out here to boast about my success. It’s not even my success. I stand on the shoulders of the people that came before me. I’m well supported, well loved, and have an excellent life. None of this is an accident, I didn’t find some magic bullet. I just found something I liked to do and stuck with it.

Posting about how much money I’m making shouldn’t be what people are drawn to - and yet they are. Every time I posted on Twitter about how much the Closet Assistant brought in last month, my comments are flooded with ‘Great job!’ and ‘Amazing!’. But when I post about the things I did to get there, there’s no response. People don’t care about the process.

The funny thing is, that’s the content that matters. It’s the process. It’s the daily ins-and-outs, the ups-and-downs, and the gritty details that truly help give context behind the metrics and numbers.

It was my intentions to share those things on social media. To try an break through the noise of the maker bubble. But I failed. In the end, I resorted to simply updating people about the numbers, and not the things that generated the numbers.

I don’t feel good about that. I don’t want to make people envious. I want to help them do the same (if that’s what they’re into).

This is an interesting topic for me.

I sometimes refer to myself as a growth hacker. I know the ins-and-outs of building an online brand - exploiting tactics and tricks to grow quickly on social media.

But in the end, nothing changes. It’s still a rat race to the bottom. And the worst thing about a rat race is, you’re a rat.

Social media is explicitly designed to be addictive. It’s designed to suck you in. To make you envious. To confuse the social nature of your brain into thinking this is social interaction. It dumbs down the internet in a way that makes it so the information fed to you is an algorithm designed to extract money from you.

I’m currently reading Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport - and though his message never changes, it’s ringing truer than ever for me.

Its core premise is that social media and our digital lives are intruding on our fundamental functions as humans, and it’s making an impact on us as a society. We’re addicted to the dopamine hits, and these apps are delivering them digitally by the minute.

It’s time to reflect on what we’re trying to achieve on social media. Is it just a vanity metric? Are we genuinely trying to help people? Are we just trying to make money from people? Be honest.

No matter what your reason, I guarantee there’s a better, more sustainable, less intrusive way to reach an audience than social media.

For this reason, and because I couldn’t really come up with a good reason to post on social media, I’m stopping all social media traffic (personal and business related).

SEO and Email Lists

You can talk all you want about building audiences, marketing tactics, and paid traffic. SEO and email lists are the number one way to build an audience in 2019. It was true 10 years ago. It’s true today.

Google traffic is intent filled, hyper-focused and ready to do exactly what they searched. Your email list knows who you are, what you offer, and why you’re emailing them. It’s the best way to talk to people, sell to people, and give people things they actually need/want.

I don’t have to go too far to convince you this is the way to go. Take a look at James Clear, or Cal Newport, or Brian Dean (the list goes on). They’ve built massive audiences through making awesome blog content, and building an email list in an honest way.

They don’t have to convince people to sign up for their email lists, people do because the value they provide is extraordinary. The free content they put out is almost surely better than any book you could read at the moment.

That’s where I want to be.

I don’t want to put out small, irrelevant pieces of content that don’t provide value. I want to provide people with rich insights and methods to replicate the things I’ve done to have the success I’ve experienced.

I don’t need social media. I don’t need complex funnels and email marketing automation (though simple ones are very powerful). It just needs to be an exchange of value. I provide incredible value up-front, and in the end, the user pays me (through attention, buying something I make, or by supporting me).

That’s it. That’s the secret sauce. It’s not hard to understand - but it’s hard to implement. You have to put in the work to provide other people with the value before anyone starts paying you.

Replacing Time

So, I’m replacing the time I would have normally spent mindlessly browsing Twitter with something much more valuable - writing content that matters and will make an impact on other people.

I’ll be writing guides, making courses, showing people how to create value and then charge money for it (honestly, not the scummy way ‘online marketers’ tell you how to do it).

I’m in this for the long-haul. I don’t want to do anything other than creating profitable online businesses. I don’t want to trade my authenticity for a few more clicks on social media. This is me, I believe in SEO, I believe in email lists, and that’s what I am sticking to.

How To Make A Product That Sells Itself

Mon, 21 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

That’s a pretty bold title, you might be thinking.

Sure, yeah. It’s bold. This is probably the best advice I could give someone just starting their Indiehacker journey.

What if I told you that you could guarantee sales and revenue without having a massive audience?

What if I told you that this is the secret to making a product that users come back to time and time again, and they rave about it to their friends?

Okay, now that’s even more bold than the title. I’ll be upfront and honest - you don’t have to follow this advice. It’s not true for everything, and it’s not something that’s applicable to all products. It’s just something that works for me.

This is the one thing that I did with my product that I didn’t even realize was the reason it was successful out of the gate. It was an accident. But I’m so glad it worked out that way.

Here’s my two rules for making a product that sells itself:

Save your users time. Make your users more money.

That’s it. Pick a niche, solve a pain-point that is causing users to spend more time on something than they should, and then have that solution inevitably make them more money.

At the end of the day, people care about how they spend their time. It’s a fact of life. As our world grows more and more into technology, the aspect of how time is spent is on the forefront of our minds.

My product saves people several hours per day. I’m talking like 4+ hours. These are mom’s with kids, busy students in school, people working two jobs. They don’t have the time to be spending on the pain-point my app resolves.

Not only that, but as an added bonus, say hello to $XXX more money in the bank every month.

Now, here’s my one and only sales pitch. This is why it sells itself.

Save several hours of time everyday, for $1 a day.

👆 This is how you earn $30/month from a user.

Is several hours of your time worth $1 to you? Of course it is. That’s a no brainer.

Every customer I talk to that uses my product speaks very highly about it. Sure, it’s a solid app that doesn’t have any bugs.

But at the end of the day it solves a major problem for my customer, and they are grateful because the value they get from my product is way better than what they pay with their wallet.

So, if you’re just getting started and you’re trying to come up with a product/service to make, keep this lesson in mind.

It’s is possible to have a product that doesn’t follow these rules. But, the success of it typically requires some external driving force. Since it’s not a need for the end-user, they forget about it.

It either needs to be used by all of their friends, be heavily marketed, or introduced to a large and specific audience.

If you want to do that, that’s fine. As for me, I will be making products that follow at least one of these rules. That way, I know the product will be successful and it will sell itself.

One Rep

Mon, 17 Dec 2018 20:48:09 +0000

Small actions done consistently define who we are. It’s the little actions that add up to incredible momentum. Impossible goals are achieved not by one large action, but by infinite smaller actions.

What’s my one rep look like?

Run for 5 minutes - I run everyday.

Read one chapter of the Bible - I read the Bible every day.

Do one set of body exercises - I workout everyday.

Write one sentence - I write everyday.

Write one line of code - I ship everyday.

Send one love text to my wife - I love my wife everyday.

Play with my kids for 5-minutes - I play with my kids everyday.

Eat one clean meal - I eat healthy everyday.

Say a one-minute prayer - I pray everyday.

Stream live for 5-minutes - I livestream everyday.

Clean for 5-minutes - I clean everyday.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be long.

Soon you’ll get used to it. Soon you’ll start to expand the goals. Soon you’ll start to depend on these healthy habits. Soon it will become second nature.

All of a sudden you are doing the things you are supposed to be doing every day. You’ve replaced your bad habits with these good habits. You leave no room for bad habits to exist.

You don’t even have to decide between good and bad habits. The good ones win because they are easy, simple, and achievable.

One rep. Everyday. That’s the goal. The goal isn’t “A million dollars” or “A Six-pack”. It’s to show up. It’s to do one rep. It’s to create and love the habit.

Bookends

When do you perform your small habits? One way to do it is to ‘bookend’ your days. Do it all at the beginning and the end of the day.

In the morning: run, exercise, pray, write, code, stream.

In the evening: eat, play, clean, read, plan, sleep.

Make them so easy to do that it’s laughable.

Start your day with small wins. End your day with small wins. You’ll love yourself, and you’ll love the person you’ll become.

Distractions

Notice how “browsing social media” isn’t on my list? Notice how “wasting time” isn’t on my list? These are distractions. They need to be eliminated. They’re detrimental to your health.

I think this is the single most powerful thing that’s working against people. They allow distractions. They allow things to come in and cause them to do something different than what they’re supposed to be doing.

I’m susceptible to distractions. It’s toxic. It feels good in in the moment but it’s killing your future self. Distractions slow you down, and they make it hard to achieve the long-term goals you have.

I believe if you create small bookend habits without distractions you can achieve anything you want in life.

Full Circle

Sun, 25 Nov 2018 05:51:56 +0000

There’s a reason why I started this blog. It took me a while to remember that reason.

I started this blog as a place to document what I am doing to grow, practice my skills, and increase in productivity as a maker.

A while back, I wrote a post about my first guide, which was a guide about increasing my typing speed.

I did actually attempt to write faster. I spent about a week doing it. But I lost interest and moved on.

Since then, I never recovered the vision that I once had. The vision that I would improve all of the individual skills that a maker needs - programming, design, marketing, copy-writing, SEO, content, etc.

I have indeed studied all of these topics deeply. But, I’ve never documented it, and there’s always more to learn.

So, why was my first guide about typing faster? Typing is the back-bone of a maker. It’s what impacts every single part of each skill. If you type faster, you can program faster (and with less error), you can write more content in less time, and you can iterate faster on ideas and feedback.

By being able to type faster, I can make faster. It’s just that simple. Being able to make faster means I can make more products in less time, and with less error. That sounds like a worthy investment.

But, here’s the catch.

It takes a lot of hard and not very romantic work. It’s not sexy, it’s not fun, and it’s not always successful. It’s deliberate practice, and it’s something that is necessary to growth for someone who wants to hone their craft.

Deliberate Practice

For those of you who may not know, deliberate practice is the fancy scientific name for putting in the work.

It’s sitting down, putting in the reps, writing the words, swinging the clubs, over and over and over again.

It’s consistent, meditated, tracked, and vision oriented. It’s focused around a specific skill that you are trying to develop.

In this case, I am trying to become a better maker. One of the ways to become a better maker is to become a better writer/programmer/marketer. One of the core pieces to that puzzle is being able to type correctly, quickly.

Quite literally, if I am able to type twice as fast, I can ship twice as fast. Even at the same skill level that I am at now (which is pretty low, if you ask me).

The great thing about deliberate practice is that it works for learning just about everything. Putting in a smallish amount of time learning something every day over a long period of time turns into mastery and perfection.

I want to be able to write a 2000 work blog post in a day. I want to be able to write a successful e-book in a week. I want to know my keyboard so well that I look like I am a professional hacker. I want to be able to code error free, and in the fastest way possible.

When it comes to coding, coding faster may mean coding better, but luckily that’s just another bout of deliberate practice.

My Challenge

The challenge I have for myself is to spend at least a half-hour every day practicing typing until I can hit 100 WPM consistently.

I am going to be studying posture, correct techniques, and hacks that people use to type fast. I’ll be reading books, watching YouTube videos, and putting in the work.

I’d really like to live-stream my experience. I think it would be cool for people to see me putting in the work everyday, while at the same time watching me do something that’s not fun or sexy. They may be confused, but we know the goal, and we know the vision.

This is just step one.

Day one.

Finish What You Start

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This is something that I have never upheld well. I give up too easy, and bail when it matters. My word isn’t worth very much to some people, and that’s an awful thing to say.

I want to be regarded as someone who does what he says he will do, and nothing less. It doesn’t matter how much money is on the table, it doesn’t matter how long it will take, it doesn’t matter who it’s for or who it’s with.

When you think of things that way, you’ll say yes less often. You’ll think about the things you commit to. You’ll be more valuable in the areas that mean the most to you.

I typically say yes too quickly without counting the cost of what I have committed to. And it’s not inherently wrong to say yes to things, but it’s wrong to go back on your word. Saying yes to things is what can help you learn. You need applications to put to action what you have learned.

This makes for a great way to quickly learn new skills at a deep level. You have to actually ship something.

But, when you already have other commitments that are taking up your time, then you have to compare it to your current priorities.

It’s easy to justify something when you think you can do it quickly. “Oh, that will only take a day or two” I’ll say. Then it turns in to a week. Two weeks. A month. There’s absolutely 0% of a chance that I will be able to dedicate two entire days to a project within two days of saying yes to the project.

Overestimate, Overinflate, Plan

The best way to approach any sort of side-work, client applications, or work in general, is to over budget the time, money, and tasks needed for the work. That way, when you finish it early, under budget and in fewer steps, everyone is delighted.

Sure, you get better at estimating the time needed to do a project the better you get at the tasks, but it’s still better to estimate for the worst and plan for the best.

Inevitably, there will be a hang-up or thing that you’ll need to work through to solve a problem. You don’t actually know how long it will take to figure it out, so you don’t actually know if you will be able to finish things as fast as your initial budget allowed. What’s the solution? Over budget.

Planning is critical to projects, even the small ones. Having a concrete path and/or plan that you can follow will not only help you but it will help other people know where you are at in the process. Communicating this often will allow them to be more flexible if the schedule slips.

Learning On The Job

It’s okay to learn on the job, that’s how most new things get done. If you’re not learning, then you’re not growing and becoming more valuable.

But, that also needs to be accounted for when budgeting time to a project. You need to know how fast you can learn, and how fast you can get the information you need.

Sometimes, you might even need to buy a book, or a course, or something that will give you the step-by-step approach so you know exactly how long it will take to know what you need to know.

Learning should be specific, not generic. If you don’t need something to finish the project, don’t learn it. If you want to learn something, find some way to use that thing in a project. But don’t just learn to learn. Then you will get stuck consuming instead of creating, and you’ll never ship anything. And when you never ship anything, then you are unreliable and no one can trust your word.

Finish what you start. Learn what you need to know. Keep the scope small. Over budget time and money. Delightfully surprise you, your friends, and your clients when you ship consistently early.

Importance Of Habits

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Would I Ever Get A Tattoo?

Tattoos are something that I think about a lot. Not in a frivolous way, but in a way that says "what do I believe so much that I would write it on my body to remind myself every day?" kind-of way.

Okay, I don’t really think about it a lot, but it’s something I have been entertaining lately. So far, I have come up with two phrases:

Die Daily

and

Mind Your Habits

or something to that effect.

Flesh 👎 Good Habits 👍

There’s some meaning behind those phrases, of course. The first phrase is a reference to Paul’s scripture in the Bible where he says in 1 Corinthians 15:31 that he “dies daily” to his flesh. What does that even mean?

To die to your flesh is to put your body into submission. To discipline and control your body in a manner that allows you to live not only a sin-free life, but also living by the spirit and not by the emotions and feelings of your flesh. Pain is a feeling. Depression is a feeling. Victimization is a feeling. These are all things that make you do things that interrupt the purpose you have in this life.

Putting your body into submission looks like exercise, eating healthy, fasting, creating (not consuming), not entertaining distractions or thoughts that are not pure, and always doing the right thing. This mindset needs to be implemented everyday with intention, and thus is why Paul said he “dies daily”. Everyday our minds need to be renewed to the Word of God.

Mind Your Habits is about longevity. It’s about legacy. It’s about becoming the person you were meant to become.

No matter who you are, your habits drive the majority of decisions you make throughout the day. If you have a habit of eating unhealthily, you won’t eat healthy unless you consciously think about it. If you have a habit of exercising, you will reap the benefits of that long into the later years of your life. If you have a habit of being shy and/or timid, then you may inhibit the opportunities and strategic people in your life that can bring you success.

Those habits aren’t the only habits in life, but you get the point. Your habits, good or bad, drive the person you become. So if your habits aren’t put into check, you will end up becoming someone that isn’t who you want to be, and that can be very discouraging.

Are these the only who things that I would put on my body? Probably not, but they have been sticking out to me lately.

Constant Attention

Habits and discipline require constant attention. They require you waking up every day and deciding the person you are going to be, and not falling into what the day brings you.

As for me, I want to be known as an successful app developer, a great husband and dad, and a person after God’s heart. What am I doing everyday to make these characteristics true? Each of these things requires time. They don’t require a crazy amount of time, just a bit everyday. But it’s the everyday that matters. It’s the habit of doing it that matters.

If I spent time with my family once a month, or wrote code only once a week, would that really amount to anything? Could I actually build anything of value? Probably not. But, with just an hour or two every day, people can build wonderfully successful relationships, incredible products, and great spiritual wisdom.

So, at the end of the day, what will allow me to become the person described above? Disciplining my body, and consciously forming my daily habits to drive towards those things. That’s it. Imagine the person I would be if I did that every day for 10 years. 10 years is not a long time, I’ll be on earth for at least 60 more years.

If it takes 10 years to become the person I want to become, or build the things I want to build, then I get to spend the next 50 years being exactly who I want to be, and doing exactly what I want to do.

What habits are you forming? What needs work in your life? Are you the person you want to be? Answer and address these questions, and you’re sure to make a lasting impact in your life.

P.S. I am super stoked about this book: Atomic Habits. I will definitely be updating the blog with concepts that I learn from it.

How Do You Write A Web App?

Sat, 15 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’m undergoing a complete overhaul of how I work, and how I think about work.

It’s subtle, yet fundamental. I’ve never approached work in this way, but now it’s necessary.

What’s the change? Breaking work down into smaller parts, and working on those parts individually.

How I Used To Work

For the longest time, since high school, I could only work in sprints. Last-ditch efforts to get all of the work done in one sitting at the last moment possible. It was very effective, and efficient (or so I thought). I had the time and availability to do so, so why not?

I was able to curb stress because I didn’t have to think about completing tasks until slightly before they were absolutely due. It worked well for me.

In college this method started to eat away at me. Instead of spending just a few hours last minute, I was pulling ‘all-nighters’ at least once a week. I was a mess, I had no routine, I had no process. I would just procrastinate until I couldn’t anymore.

That doesn’t work now. It’s not shocking. That wouldn’t work for a lot of people.

There are many reasons that way of working doesn’t work now, mostly attributed to family, friends, priorities, obligations, and my overall health.

I can’t just sit down and work for a 10-hour stretch all night. I would effectively trash the next day, and my family needs me to be there for them. Fully present.

I also can’t sit down and work on side-projects for 8 hours a day (yet). I have a day-job, and weekends are for family.

I have other projects I’m working on and other people to do side-work for. I try to keep this to a minimum, but some things are necessary. I can’t only do my work and ignore that other work.

So, how do I get work done and still be a well-rounded human being? Breaking down tasks into small consumable chunks so I can take them on one at a time.

Easier In More Ways Than One

There are a lot of benefits to working like this.

For starters, if I have just one, two or three hours available to work, I can maximize that time and know exactly what I am working on.

I actually have to plan out what I am making, so feature creep goes away.

I have to explicitly think about how I am going to build features, so I am able to write better code because I know the architecture of the application.

I don’t stress about ‘not solving a problem’ because the problems are very small and approachable. Typically I can watch a single YouTube video or read some documentation to figure out what I need to do to solve a problem.

I can actually form healthy habits and make good choices about how I spend my time. I like to work in the mornings, so I spend about 2-3 hours working on side-work before anyone else in the house wakes up. This allows me to spend more time with them when they’re awake.

In It For The Long Haul

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” - Bill Gates

When I was in College, or even in High School, work was just a means to an end. I wasn’t building legacy, I wasn’t crafting my future, I was just showing up to do the work and do what I was supposed to do.

There’s no question that slow, methodical and planned work is much more powerful than the alternative. Working in sprints causes you to write bad code, not document anything, and cause headaches later when you need to fix everything you made.

At this stage in life, I am looking to build something that scales beyond myself. Something that brings in wealth, and enriches my life. You don’t get that by working hard once. It’s a continual process that needs daily attention.

Anyone can build something incredible in 10 years, but most people aren’t patient enough to see it through. In 10 years you can become a leading expert in just about any subject area. And, putting in the work everyday allows you to truly internalize the things you learn.

There’s no doubt that working in this way is beneficial in every way. I used to be a person that thought I couldn’t do work without sprinting.

I still have to remind myself to break things down into smaller chunks when I look at problems. Right now I am working on a complete overhaul of my app The Closet Assistant. When I look at the complete overhaul, I get overwhelmed and think that I’ll never finish it.

But then I remember, “How do you build a web app? One function at a time.”

As You Learn

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Document vs. Create is an argument that always eludes me. I feel like I need to create original content for an audience that doesn’t yet exist.

The opposite is so much more powerful. Building an audience around the things you are already doing.

I’m writing apps, I’m learning spiritual truths, I’m learning how to be a good husband and father. Those are the things I’m doing.

I don’t have to make a new guide on a serverless framework. I don’t need to create my own messages / sermons. I don’t need to come up with new strategies to teach other people about parenting and being a spouse.

I just need to document what I do, and let the chips fall where they may.

Now, you can document in public, or in private. If you want to build an audience, build in public. If you just want to grow as a person, document in secret. But either way, documenting is a powerful tool.

I originally wanted this site to be a hub for serverless guides and instructions. I don’t have any guides posted. Why? Because I haven’t documented anything.

I’ve been learning a lot, and I have been applying it, but I haven’t explicitly written it down so others can see.

I need a better method of making sure that I document everything that I learn, and produce it in a way that allows others to follow along.

That way, when I learn something new, I can just feed it into the machine that I have already built, instead of creating something new every time.

Resources will build up over time, and they will become more valuable as I learn more complex knowledge. Then, after I have compiled enough, I can turn it into a complete and coherent package that people can consume in order.

Until then it’s just me presenting what I did and what I learned.

Doing Then Writing

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Is It Just Me?

I have often written pieces of content in the past that resemble this pattern:

I want to do this thing.
I will be the best at this thing.
Watch me do this thing.

…

I want to do this other thing.

I do this partially to get my thoughts out of my head, but it ends up in the wrong place. This is the type of stuff that should be in a journal. Not on a blog.

So, what’s the alternative? How can I avoid the trap of saying I’ll do something, and then doing another thing?

Well, I can start by just doing the thing in the first place. Then I can write about it.

I’ve actually found this to be beneficial to me in a lot of ways. Not only do I do the thing, but for some reason when I don’t talk about it I usually end up doing it.

When I started the Closet Assistant, I didn’t tell anyone. I just got to work. When I started running again for a few weeks, I just started doing it. I didn’t tell anyone. When I started getting up early, I just started doing it.

It seems like only when I acknowledge that I am doing a thing is when I stop doing it. Maybe because I ruin the fun of keeping my secret powers secret? I’m not 100% sure.

Here’s a meta thought - will I actually change my ways if I am writing about changing my ways? 🤯

Moving Forward

Do, then write. Not write, then do. This will force me to document while I do, which is also a benefit.

This rule applies to my Twitter as well. I won’t tweet before I do something, it’s only after I have done the thing that I will tweet about it.

The solution to almost anything is action. Doing. Not writing, thinking and pondering. Iteration is king.

So, what will I write about next? I’m not 100% sure. I’ve been touting this whole serverless thing, but I have yet to act on it. Once I act on something, I will write about it.

Providing Value

Fri, 17 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I used to write daily on this website. That’s no longer the case. I want to continue having those discussions, but I want to have them on my Twitter and potentially on Blurt (still test-driving).

I want this blog to deliver exceptional value for indiehackers that are looking to build profitable serverless apps. That’s the value I want to provide.

Essentially there’s two parts. Profitable and Serverless. Each of these entail a lot of things. Profitable means marketing, funnels, launching, etc. Serverless mostly means Firebase (for me), and learning how to build scalable apps in JS.

I believe in the Serverless manifesto. I was learning how to program in JS while the serverless movement was getting stared. I had a decision to make, learn how to manage servers and deploy hosted code, or use static sites / serverless nodes to do things like authentication, databases and more.

I chose the latter, not only because it’s easier, but it’s infinitely scaleable. It also doesn’t require you to have to manage everything in the stack. You just have to be able to write solid front-end code and a little bit of Node.js to write cloud functions.

It’s super easy to connect to an API and extend your app to do anything. You can write an SPA, or any other type of app, in static code.

That’s how I wrote Closet Tools. That’s how I write all of my apps. It works really well, and I am able to make a lot of money because of it.

This certainly is a new era of app development. As of right now you can write your code once and see it deployed on every platform. JS is getting more powerful, PWAs are getting more native everyday, and WebAssembly is changing the game entirely. It’s a fun time to be a web developer.

Being deeply skilled has never been more valuable. People that don’t have the capacity to learn hard things won’t be successful in the future. I never want to be part of that crowd, and I will always be pushing myself to learn new things and add to my success.

I really want to grow my Twitter. The twitter ecosystem is amazing for web developers (and indiehackers) right now. That’s where I want to be known as an indiehacker that helps other people.

But, by nature I’m no the most social person. So that’s why I am taking my daily blog posts there. Everyday I will need to drum up conversations and things to talk about related to marketing, serverless apps, and indiehacking.

This journey has been a long one. I’ve been on it for almost 4 years now, and I am just starting to gain my footing. I listened to an excellent podcast today, and it reaffirmed everything I thought. SEO is the end-all-be-all marketing tool. Hands down. Billions of people are using Google and searching every day.

It’s the only reason that my startup has been successful. Everyday about 50 people come to the site, and one or two sign up for my app. Once you get consistent traffic, it’s just a numbers game. What percentage signs up, what percentage converts, and what percentage churns.

BTW, you can view my current revenue and numbers for the Closet Assistant here.

That’s all for now. I can’t wait to see what I produce for all of you.

Content

Sun, 29 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Content Is King

You’ve probably heard that before. If not, you haven’t been around internet marketers long enough.

I’m here to tell you (and remind myself) that a consistent and valuable content strategy is a major key to success online. It’s the only way to build an audience.

Now, that content doesn’t have to be ‘content’ per-say. It can be a side-project, a free product, anything that provides people value.

The medium doesn’t really matter either. You want to focus on one platform exclusively until focusing on growing other platforms. It could be video, audio, or written.

The easiest way to generate content is to first have a series of pillar content. This concept is explained well in Gary Vaynerchuk’s Content Strategy.

The pillar content can be a podcast, and interview, a long-form article, or anything that can be broken down into micro-content.

My Own Observations

Content has worked for me. Really well, in fact. My numbers aren’t as massive as some others, but it proves that the concept works.

Here’s my SEO stats for Closet Tools over the last 90 days.

I really don’t have a content or social media strategy, but I have written some content for the website. One piece in particular has attracted the most attention.

The article I wrote about a feature of the Closet Assistant called the Closet Organizer has brought almost 70 people to my website. That’s not a huge number, but to go from nothing to almost 20 clicks a day is a pretty sweet feeling, and it’s something I need to bet more on.

That sweet exponential trendline is the exact thing any SEO wants to see. Google see’s my content as valuable, so everyday it pushes it closer to the top for the keywords I am targeting.

This site is really the first I have had any success ranking for keywords. It’s also the only site in which have consistenly put out valuable content. Go figure.

Planning My Strategy

This blog / personal site’s agenda is mostly to teach people about building SAAS products and marketing them so they can live off of the profits.

It’s also about personal growth, planning, productivity, and my struggles as an indie maker.

The long-form content is supposed to be the Guides. I haven’t written one yet, mostly becuase I haven’t had a content strategy.

My strategy will be a little different from Gary’s, but it will be similar.

Instead of just breaking down the long-form content, I will be breaking it down and combining it into a larger piece of content.

And instead of starting with the larger content, it will start with the micro-content.

My daily blog posts will be centralized around a theme. There will be roughly 30 micro-posts on that topic in a month. Those will be combined into 4 weekly blog posts, which will make a more cohesive story. Lastly those blog posts will be turned into a guide which will be marketed and produced to draw attention to the website.

It’s the perfect plan to get things done if you don’t want to wait until the last minute (which I am chronically bad at).

I think this content strategy will work for me because I’m the one producing the content. If I was interviewing someone, or going out and getting my content from somewhere else, it would make sense to start the opposite direction.

But, it’s much easier to create a small helpful piece of content every day than to make the whole product from the beginning.

Not every piece of micro-content will be included in the blog posts and guides, and I’m sure there will be stuff in the guides that will not be from the micro-content.

That’s the idea, and next month (August) should be a good candidate to start.

Up And To The Right

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In the past 3 months, I’ve made $2000 from an app that took me 3 weeks to write and 1 month to test. Not only that, but I have amassed $1000/month in subscriptions (36 customers at ~$30/month). That’s income that will come in whether I decide to work or decide to go on vacation. I get paid while I sleep. I get paid while I’m at my job (on top of being paid for my job). It’s pretty awesome.

Now, it hasn’t always been this way. That’s only been the last 3 months. The past 3 years have been filled with struggle, learning, praying and seeking. Many of you may remember the Blacklet Project (R.I.P). It was supposed to be a culmination of everything I had learned about building an audience and digital advertising. In the end, it turned into something that put us further into debt. Not necessarily a blessing.

Some History

Three years ago, I told Hannah that I wanted to be an app developer. An Indiehacker. Someone who is a solo-entrepreneur, that can build a business and run every aspect of it. So, I got to work. I learned all I could about web development in a short amount of time. I made some websites, small apps, and was super stoked to get it all going.

After a few months, I began looking into how people made money making apps. Long story short, the hard part isn’t making the app. That’s only about 20% of the work. The hard part is marketing, advertising, distribution, sales, product management, market fit, customer relations and support, SEO, finances, etc. Crud. I had a lot to learn. It didn’t really phase me, and I didn’t really realize how many pieces there were to the puzzle, but I took them all on. One at a time.

I didn’t realize it was going to be a 3-year journey until I was 3 years in. I spent 6 months learning SEO, 6 months learning paid advertising, 9 months working on the Blacklet, and all the while I was building websites, testing out all of the things I was learning. I was consuming so much content, learning everything I needed to learn. Learning everything I didn’t need to learn. Right now I can tell you how to become a YouTube sensation if that’s your cup-of-tea. I just learned it all.

All of this learning added up over time. It was about 20 hours a week, every week. Sometimes more. I’ve put an insane amount of time (side-project time) into learning, building, and testing. It’s no accident that I’m in the position I am today. It was on purpose and simply a response to the vision that I stuck to from the beginning.

The vision set forth was also backed by faith - faith that our tithes and offerings that were sewn would reap a harvest in due time. Faith that God would protect the vision and see it come to light. Faith that even when things were tough, we were doing the right thing.

That faith. combined with action and persistence is what drove me to be in the place that I am now. And it’s what will continue to drive me forward for the foreseeable future.

Then Came Closet Tools

I had actually created the base functionality of the Closet Assistant two years ago for my wife Hannah and her friends. They were doing lots of manual actions on Poshmark that was taking a lot of time. I told them that I could automate the process, and I did. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

All the while they told me I should sell it. In the back of my mind I knew I should, but it was so simple that I couldn’t possibly sell that version of it.

Fast forward to a few months ago, and I needed an additional source of income. I had tried several things, but nothing was working out. This was my last-ditch effort before just handing in the towel and getting a second job.

I revisited the initial app I had written for Hannah, and realized that there’s a lot I could do to it to make it much more professional, polished and worthy of paying for. So, I got to work. I made the base functionality much more stable and bug-free, while building an interface that looked somewhat decent.

While building it, I went to the Poshmark subreddit and asked the users there if they were interested in an app that would automate some of the things on the website. I offered this initial version for free in exchange for feedback and ideas. The response was overwhelming. In just 3 days I had 150 people sign up to become a beta tester. This really helped me hone in on what I wanted the app to do, and see if people liked it.

Well, they loved it. Everyone was making more sales, getting more followers, and saving time while doing it. I was hooked, they were hooked. It was so cool helping people make more money. I kept working on the app for about 3 weeks until I had the first paid version released.

When I released the paid version, I got some heat from Reddit users, mostly because automation is somewhat unfair in their eyes. It didn’t matter though, because when I released it I got at least 10 sign-ups at $30/month in the first week or two.

This was awesome. It was my first experience actually making money online. Not only that, but people were thanking me for building it. They appreciated the time it gave them to spend on other things, and the increase in sales and followers helped too!

Fast-forward to today, and I’m 3 months in. This is really cool, and my customers still love the tool. I add features almost weekly, and each time I add a feature I get more sign-ups for the free trial. I can work on the app whenever I want, wherever I want, and I can directly impact my sales and growth based on how much effort I put into it.

This is the style of work I have been craving for the last 3 years. Something that’s proactive, but passive income. I’m not working for $X/hour, or working for a boss. I get to call the shots, I get to show of my skills, and I get to decide how much I want to dedicate to growing and succeeding. There’s no rules, just providing value and getting paid for it.

The ultimate goal is to get to 1000 active customers ($30k/month). That’s a big goal, but there are several million people on the platform. I don’t think finding 1000 will be too hard. It’s just a matter of time. My short-term goal is to complete the automation of the business, including user on-boarding, subscription ending, credit card updating, and SEO. I want to have all of those things in place by the end of the summer, and I would like to have the majority of it done before our little daughter arrives!

Some Lessons I’ve Learned

I put together some lessons I’ve learned along the way. I’m not an expert. I’m not right about everything. I just know what works for me, and what can possibly help you achieve your goals. If you’re remotely interested in attempting to do something like I’ve done, read on.

Audit Your Inner Circle

This is one of the fastest ways to get momentum in the right direction in your life. Get rid of the negative and bad people in your life, and replace them with good people that are positive and optimistic. It’s not only getting rid of the bad, but it replaces it with good. This will accelerate any progress that you’d like to make in any area. Sure, this isn’t easy. You’ll likely need to cut ties with someone you’ve been associated with for a long time. But what’s worth more, your future? Or not wanting to offend someone? That’s for you to decide.

Not just that, but become friends with people that are ahead of you in the area you’d like to excel in. Want to lose weight? Hang out with people that have lost a ton of weight. Want to learn a new skill? Hand out with experts in that area. Want to quit a bad habit? Hang out with people who have overcome that habit and can positively influence you.

Positive Confession/Affirmations

The largest impact on this entire venture has been the words that I have been speaking daily. Words of affirmation. Words that speak life into the situation, and call into existence things that are unseen. (Proverbs 18:21 + Hebrews 11:1). No matter how things looked on the outside, I knew that this day would come. This future was inevitable, not just a chance. And simply by speaking the word and life into our situation, we solidified it’s destiny in the future, and it was just a matter of time before it was realized.

Sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo? I can assure you, it’s not. It’s the simplest and one of the most powerful ways to change the trajectory of your life. Don’t like something about yourself? Speak to yourself about the future self you want to be. I am successful. I am intelligent. I am resourceful. I am prolific. I am energetic. But, when you line it up with God’s word, it’s amplified. One of the best sources of affirmations in the Bible is the reading of the blessings that are contained in a covenant with God (Deuteronomy 28:1-12).

Become a Producer, Not a Consumer

There’s a fundamental difference between people that produce things and people that consume things. Consumers are all about entertainment, instant gratification, and the weekend. Producers are always looking for a way to create something meaningful, provide value to others, and progress forward in life. Consumers are reactive, producers are proactive. Consumers spend all day in their Instagram feed wishing they were like the people they look up to, while producers get to work becoming an inspiration for others. To put it frankly, consumers consume what producers produce. Guess which one has more fulfilment and success in the long run?

At the end of the day, you get to make the decisions that create your future. You either let your future happen to you, or you happen to your future. You can create the future that you want. You don’t have to let it be influenced by everything around you.

Blue Ocean Mindset

This is about abundance. The blue ocean mindset is a framework that allows you to understand that there’s enough out there for everyone and you just need to get your piece of the pie. Sure, there’s inequality. There are poverty and riches everywhere. But, every day trillions (yes, trillions) of dollars are spent and transacted. By 2020, the Apple app store revenue will increase from ~$50 billion to ~$75 billion (not the only reason why I’m an app developer, but it sure helps). Here’s the thing though, I don’t need that whole $25 billion. I just need 0.001% of it. When you look at it that way, there’s a lot of opportunity. Having a mindset of abundance will allow you to approach anything you attempt with less stress about competition or failure.

Triple Down on your Strengths

This has been super powerful for me. I have spent the last few years really honing in on my strengths. I know exactly what I am amazing at, and what I’m terrible at. But here’s the thing, most people focus on what they are bad at and they spend their whole lives trying to get better at those things. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is no excuse to not have fundamental skills that people need, but it is SO much more of a productive use of your time to focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. When you do this, you can truly become an expert in a very well defined area. That’s what gets people paid. Think about it, when you need a plumber, do you call a generic handyman? Or do you call a plumber that’s been in the business for years? Don’t try to be who you’re not. Emphasize your strengths, and find a way to let your talents shine.

Prioritize Your Time

This is a no-brainer, but it’s still very important. I have stopped all social media consumption several times, and each time it has helped me get more focussed and be more productive. Yes, I come back to it eventually, because I use it to keep up with people. On instagram, I follow 43 people. On Facebook, I follow about 50 people. Not hundreds, not thousands, but tens of people. This helps my stay out of my social media feeds and get to work. Instagram get’s pretty boring when you check it a few times in one hour and nothing has changed. It has helped me get the work done that got me to the place I am now. But also, prioritize your time for what matters to you. If you want to spend more time with your family, do it. If you want to spend more time learning something, do it.

Don’t feel like you have time? The best way to get more time is to go to bed very early and get up very early. I get up at 5:30 every day. Every day I have the first 2-3 hours of the day all to myself. I can work, relax, read, pray, exercise, whatever I want. But I have to be disciplined enough to go to bed on time so that I can get up that early.

Be Grateful

This is one of those super-powers that are hard to explain, but it works like magic. People who are grateful tend to be more optimistic, more hopeful, and more joyful. Happiness doesn’t come from getting more things, or having more money, or climbing the ladder. Happiness comes when you are grateful for the things you have, the people in your life, and the opportunities you have been given. Expressing gratitude and treating other people with grace will free yourself to think more positively about the things you want to conquer. It will allow you to be your own cheerleader, and you can become the person you always wanted to be.

Grow Gradually

You don’t have to be super fit, or a super-genius, or a millionaire tomorrow. That’s just not realistic. Yet, when most people set goals for themselves (New Years resolutions) they start by changing almost everything in their life. They spend a day eating healthy, going to the gym, and other things that they think they should be doing. A week later, they are back to their old habits as if nothing changed. Now, of course you definitely want to change. This has nothing to do with your intentions, but more to do with your willpower.

One habit that I have been able to stick to for the better part of two years is getting up early. There’s a precursor to getting up early, which is going to bed early. So really it’s two habits, going to bed early and getting up early. Regardless, here’s how I became a morning person. I used to get up at 8AM every day. I started by getting up at 7:30 for a week straight, then 7 the next week, then 6:30 the next, and so on. A month or two in, I was getting up at the crack of dawn, but yet I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t jet-lagged, I wasn’t miserable. I was productive and alert, and I now had better control of my time.

So, what habits do you want to develop? Do you want to exercise more? Start by taking a walk down the street every day for two weeks. Or if you want to go to the gym, start out by just putting on your gym clothes at a certain time for a week (don’t go to the gym), then put your clothes on and drive to the gym (but don’t go in) for a week, then go to the gym and do one simple exercise for a week that’s not to strenuous. Keep doing this, and you’ll have the habitual momentum to be able to get fit and stay fit in just a few months.

Start with your goal and work backwards. Where do you want to be in 5 years? Break it down into small chunks, and take it on week by week or month by month. Chances are, it won’t take you 5 years to get there.

Conclusion

We only get one shot at life here on earth. You have one chance to become the person you want to be. One chance to do the things you want to do. One chance to attempt to change the world. Don’t settle for the person you are right now. You can be better, and it’s not impossible to change. Your current situation doesn’t have to define who you are, and every decision you make today decides who you are in the future. Are you going to decide to become the person you have the potential to be? Or will you just coast through life and let life happen to you?

There’s no judgement from me if you just want to coast. If you are truly happy, and you love yourself and your life, that’s amazing. You’ve won. But, for the many people out there that wish they were better than they are right now, this is a reminder that you can do it. It’s not impossible, and it’s actually very practically within reach. Make the changes, and get to work. You’ll wake up one day and realize you’re not the same person you used to be.

What It's Like to be an Indiehacker with $200k in Debt

Thu, 03 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Currently

Half of my current income goes towards paying the minimum payments on the debts that I owe. Just the debt, not other bills like rent or electricity.

That’s a mind-boggling statistic. It’s been my reality for 2 years now.

Every day I get at least 4 calls from debt collectors. I’m behind on a few of my bills. I could negotiate lower payments but it’s easier to just ignore them and pay the late-fee.

It’s hard to open my finances spreadsheet that allows little wiggle room. There’s no money allocated for dates with my wife, no money allocated to saving, no money invested, just bills. Lots and lots of bills.

Living like this has been eating me alive for a long time. Anytime my spouse mentions the things we need to buy for our upcoming second child, I go numb. I know we can’t afford any of those things in this current state.

In January I set a goal of making an extra $500/mo on the side by the end of April 2018. If I didn’t reach my goal, I needed to get a second job just to keep up with our debt.

Through the Indiehackers community and support, I was able to launch and start Closet Tools. In just two months, I hit $460/mo. It’s been slow but steady growth. I fell just shy of my goal, but it was close enough for me to not get a second job (which would have killed me inside).

That extra $460/mo is just enough to allow us some wiggle-room in our budget. Maybe my wife and I could go out on a date once a month, or my wife could buy some extra art supplies.

But no, that extra money needs to go towards accelerating my debt snowball. That’s the only way I’ll be able to get out of this mess in this lifetime.

How Did This Happen?

Back in 2010 I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology for Electrical Engineering. I had no concept of what it was like to pay for student loans, so I took out as much as I could. My student loans payed for housing, tuition, and food for me for 4 years.

That alone put me at $120k in debt.

Then, I got married to my awesome and beautiful wife. She brought along another $25k in student loans from her state-school college education.

When my wife and I got married in 2015 we needed vehicles, so we picked up two cheap ones for $8k and $6k.

Right off the bat, when I graduated college, my income didn’t support the payments that I needed monthly. So, regretfully, over the next two years we accumulated another $15k in credit card debt.

It just kept growing and growing. It never went in the right direction. The hole just got deeper every month.

The minimum payments were increasing much faster than my engineering job salary was increasing over the years. This was a completely unsustainable model for my finances.

I decided the answer to our problem was increased income. I don’t live very lavishly, so there isn’t a lot of room to cut anything out of the budget. The only way to get this under control was to make more money.

So, I tried to start an e-commerce business. That ended up being a failure. I tried to start an SEO service business, a web design firm, and a phone repair shop. They all failed and/or were not for me.

I was just about at my wits-end when I decided that I needed an additional $500/mo by April 2018. You can understand the relief when it actually happened.

What It’s Like To Pay Bills With App Revenue

TLDR; It sucks. But, I’m grateful to be able to finally catch a break and stay afloat.

I’d love to reinvest that money back into the business. I’d pay for an SEO monitoring service, some FB ads, and run some giveaways to generate some quick growth.

But, my family needs to use the money. I can’t reinvest in the app until I get out of this hole (or at least can see the light).

It’s growing slowly. I’m just going to have to live with that. I don’t have the luxury of throwing money at different funnels to see what sticks. Everything I do has to have a $0 price tag.

Things Are Finally Looking Up

It’s been a long 2 years. I’m tired of being behind the 8-ball on my finances. But, I can finally say I am making additional income, and that I will be able to get out of debt before I’m old and gray.

I wanted to write this post to document my journey. Maybe it will resonate with someone else, and maybe it will inspire them to keep going.

Thanks for reading.

Time Management

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Time management is one of those things that you should have implemented a year ago to in order see the benefits today.

It’s something that incrementally improves your life over time. It isn’t always a noticeable shift in productivity levels or output.

So, as they say, the next best time to start is right now.

Changes I’d Like To Make

Today is my birthday 🎉. I’m 26. I typically get very introspective on my birthday. It’s a time for me to reflect on how I’m doing as a human being.

26 may not seem old to you, but time is flying. If I don’t actively manage my time it will slip away so easily. Before I know it I will be 36.

I don’t have time to spend on social media. I don’t have time to play games, or watch TV. I don’t have time to consume.

On the other hand, I do want to make improvements in my social relationships and time spent in those areas. So by default I do need to spend some amount of time on social media, playing games with people and consuming with them.

But, consumption doesn’t have to be my default. In fact, it should be hard for me to consume, and easy for me to produce.

Changing your environment is just about the only sure-fire way to make changes in your life. If you don’t have control on your environment, it by default controls you.

I’d like to make more time to spend on things that matter. Faith, family, health, and work. Pretty much anything outside of those circles doesn’t matter.

I’d like to spend less time consuming, and actively manage the time that I do spend consuming (doing it on my own time and not on other people’s time).

I’ve talked about all of this before, but I’ve never changed my environment to give me the boost I need to stay productive, stay focused, and really enhance the important things in my life.

I want this shift in momentum to be able to carry me through different seasons as things change around me. I want my default habits to enrich my life, not fill me with regrets.

My New Rules

Drink Lots of Water: If I’m thirsty, I’ve waited too long. This will dramatically reduce how often I get headaches and my overall health will increase.
Do Things To Delight Others: Little things go a long way. Do at least one thing every day. Funny things happen when you try to figure out how you can bless someone.
Leaders Eat Last: Put others first. Always be thinking about how you can benefit those around you.
Make A List of 6 Things To Get Done: It’s simple. List them in order of importance, and complete them in that order. If you get 3 of them done it means you had a successful day. Continue that list into tomorrow. Do this everyday and you’ll make lots of progress in any venture.
Cut Out Consumption: Every once in a while I get on a social media binge. I need to be producing, not consuming.
Working Out Isn’t Just About Getting Fit: I need to work out to reduce my stress levels. When I am stressed, I tend to get very little work done.
Write Things Down (Everything): I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten something that I should know. Brains should be used for computation, not storage. Write things down so they are stored somewhere else.
Track Your Progress: You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Get data, and act on that data.
Think Long Term: The actions you do today will change who you are tomorrow. Stop thinking so short term. You’re in this for the rest of your life.
Communicate. Over communicate.: It really helps me to let others know how I feel, what I’m doing and how I feel about them. It helps me because it informs them, and they can make better decisions with better information, which directly impacts me in the long term.
Listen To Music While You Work: Music helps me focus while I work. It eliminates distractions and gets my mind in the right place when I listen to something on repeat.

This list changes a lot, but these things are

So, it might seem like this list is somewhat random, but I actually wrote this list back in July. I don’t really actively do any of these things. I only do them as a reaction, not as an active participant.

Here’s some other truth’s I’ve written about in the past:

Win The Morning, Win The Day

This is the truth. It’s not debatable. The best way to set yourself up for success is to have a strict blueprint that you follow every morning. This allows you to get in the right mindset for the day, and stabilize your state.

Life Is A Marathon

I’m convicted of this in my own mind when I think about quitting something due to a lack of effort. Why would you quit in months on something that you want to do for the rest of your life? The rest of your life.

I’m 26, let’s guess I have 64 years left. I have 64 years of work, passion, love, and success ahead of me. The things that I do every day will be the biggest indicator of how I will grow over time.

Start Small

Every time I try to change a lot of things (habits, ‘passions’, goals, etc.), I end up going back to what I call my ‘default self’. My default self isn’t who I want to be.

When you start small with goals and changing habits, you slowly change your default self rather than just changing for that day. When you change your default self, you can rely on your newfound habits. That’s when success comes to you naturally.

Journal (write)

I’ve found this to make the largest impact on my clarity and focus for the day. When I write, I let my thoughts do the talking. And when I let them talk, they figure out what they need to be doing.

When I have an explicit direction for the day, it’s not hard to accomplish what I set out to do. But when I don’t have clarity of mind, I often neglect the things I should be working on for other things that I can procrastinate on.

And here’s an insight into what an Ideal day looks like for me:

Ideal Day

Run
Lots Of Water
Healthy, Low-Carb Meals
Bible Reading / Prayer Time
Play Time / Learning Time with My Kids
Wife Time
Work that I love (business that I own)
Tasks Planned
8 Hours of Actual Work
Be With People I Love

Non-Ideal Day

No Exercise
Headache from Lack of Water
Lots of Carbs (and feeling bloated)
No Bible / Spiritual Time
To Tired To Play With Finn
Just Going To Bed and No Conversations / Intimacy
Dead-end Day-Job
Tasks At A Whim
Only and Hour or Two of Actual Work
Isolation

The crazy thing is, the non-ideal day is what most days look like for me.

That needs to change.

As you can see, I’ve thought a lot about what I should and shouldn’t be doing. But, if you were to grade me on my performance as of right now, I’d be barely passing. I’m nowhere near where I want to be as a person.

So, if you read this, you know the bar I have set for myself. You also know the framework for how I decide to spend my time. If you don’t fit in that framework, it’s going to be increasingly harder for you to take my time away from me.

Hold me accountable, and think about how you should be spending your own time. What could you be doing differently? How can you improve?

From Nothing to $140/Month in 2 Months

Fri, 16 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Hey! 👋 It’s been a while. I wanted to show you what I have been working on for the last two months.

My latest project is the Closet Assistant. It falls under my new company, Closet Tools. The Closet Assistant is a tool that helps Poshmark users share their items and follow people automatically.

Let’s Start From The Beginning

When was the beginning? A few years ago. Long before the Closet Assistant, or even the idea of the assistant existed.

My wife’s friend was introducing my wife to Poshmark. It was an exciting new venture. A way to make some side income. A way to exchange old clothes and purses for new ones.

At the time I had just started getting into web development.

When I was listening to how the Poshmark platform operated, I overheard and observed the process of sharing your items. It seemed really lame. I immediately told them I could automate it.

Lo and behold, I did just that. A few lines of code and voilà. A simple way to share all of the items on your page to your followers.

They were delighted and used it often. Both of them generated more sales, and both of them increased their followings by thousands. My wife was able to amass 20000 followers in a year and become a Poshmark Ambassador shortly after a year.

I’m into blogging, so I had blogged about my code and provided it freely — thinking nothing of it.

Then, about a year or so in, I started getting emails from random people that wanted more info on this ‘share button’ I had made. I was getting about one email a week. I helped them all out and gave it all a way for free. After all, it was just a few lines of code.

My wife and her friends all told me I should sell it. I brushed it off because it was very simple at the time.

Fast Forward

A couple of months ago, I wanted a way to test some of my new skills and I also wanted to build an internet based business (who doesn’t?).

I decided to put the original ‘button’ out there as a beta test. I posted it on Reddit in the r/Poshmark subreddit and got 50 beta testers in the first day. I sent them all the button in exchange for feedback and ideas.

The response was overwhelming. From those that I heard back from, they all loved it. And they had awesome ideas to extend it for more use cases.

This is where I got the idea for the Closet Assistant. I compiled all of their ideas, put my nose to the grindstone and started working. Instead of just being a ‘button’, I was going to make a suite of tools to help people hyper-grow on Poshmark.

I made the interface, wrote all of the code, and tested the application in about a month. Surprisingly, the hardest thing to figure out was the payments portion through Stripe since I had never done it before.

Right Now

Right now, I am just beginning to start marketing the Closet Assistant and push it into the public. The assistant is done, and the website is just about done. I don’t really love the design, but it works and it’s fast. I’ve made several efforts to market on Poshmark, all of which have been blocked for one reason or another.

I have been able to grow the monthly revenue to $140 a month with 6 paying customers (and 9 still on a 7-day free trial). Most of these customers came from Reddit and my previous email list from the beta button.

I haven’t used a lot of my growth expertise and tactics yet. For now, I’m mostly trying to build a stable product and website. Soon, I’ll be implementing all of the automation that helps the product sell itself.

If you want to check out the tool, go here: https://closet.tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSVG0Dx5AMM

It's Time To Work

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The past three years have certainly been a journey. I’ve learned a lot. Like, a ton. Probably several college degrees worth of information.

Learning is amazing. You should never stop learning. But there comes a point where you can learn so much that your vision gets blurred.

I’ve learned what it takes to make it in internet based businesses. I’ve learned how to do it through e-commerce, SEO, web development, digital advertising, coaching, SAAS — you name it, I can be successful with it.

But there comes a time when you’ve learned enough information, and you don’t get any more value unless you try the things you have learned. That, for me, was the Blacklet. I learned a lot more by doing that then any book can teach me.

One of the things it taught me is that I need more money to be able to pull something like that off. The only way to make more money is to work more — for money.

So rather than focusing on lofty long-term goals, there are some short-term things I need to figure out in my life. And all of those things require work, not more learning.

Narrowing My Focus

Being an expert in so many things is both a blessing and a curse. I feel like I can do anything. If someone asks me for help, I usually can offer them some value and domain expertise, even if it’s not my biggest interest.

But when it comes to building something sustainable and long-term, I struggle because that feeling of being able to do anything makes me want to do everything.

If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither one. — Russian Proverb

So what should I build? Should I think incredibly long term and build something meaningful? Or should I work to get short term gains in order to clear debts and increase my capability of freedom?

I think both — but not at the same time.

To Move Forward, I Have To Step Back

Obviously, for the context of walking, that statement makes no sense. But for my situation, it does.

I have a lot of student loan debt. It’s something that I don’t like in my life. It causes my family stress and makes things harder than they should be.

That’s my reality right now, whether I choose to accept it or not.

So I think that should be my first attack point for the thing that I choose to do.

Once I am debt free, my family has options. We can live on significantly less money, and can afford to take bigger risks.

That would be an incredible feeling — and would be something that I can achieve with certainty. It’s a short enough goal that I can see the end in sight.

But I don’t think that should be what my whole life is about.

I don’t want to have things go back to normal once I am debt free. I want that to be a launching pad for success in my family. I want to use that as an asset — something that makes me less dependent on the world and institutions.

So basically, I have a 5 year and a lifetime goal. The 5 year goal is to be debt free. The lifetime goal is to build something amazingly valuable that helps people.

The 5 year goal is first, and the lifetime goal is after. It’s not at the same time.

Jeff Bezos started Amazon when he was 30 (and now he’s the richest man in the world at 53), so that’s a number I can work with. My 5 year goal of being debt free puts me right at 30 years old.

Short Term Plans

So I have established that I’m working on the 5 year goal. It’s going to take a lot of work, and it’s also going to have to be work that is put in the right things.

Let me explain.

Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing. — Peter Drucker

I don’t want to just work another job. I want to build an asset. Something that I can continue building and scaling even after I am debt free. If I ditch it — fine. If I love it, then it’s amazing to have full control of it.

There are certain things I procrastinate on, and other things I am super excited to work on. Doing a load of laundry takes me a few days, and building a full blown website from scratch takes me a few days. I’ll let you figure out what I like doing more.

But even further than that, I don’t just want to make websites and throw it out into the wind. Every action I take needs to be calculated and with purpose.

There are two ‘easy’ avenues to make money online that you can learn for free; SEO, and web development. Things like digital advertising and e-commerce require some upfront money to get started and get experience. You can learn them for free, but not put them into practice.

So those are my starting points — SEO and web development. And I think I will focus on SEO to begin with.

SEO is powerful, and is more obviously beneficial for businesses. A new shiny website does nothing for you unless you have people visiting it.

I’d like to transition from SEO into digital advertising eventually, but that’s getting ahead of myself. I need to establish a baseline and increase income.

So SEO it is, but who will I serve?

Forward Thinking

Dealerships. Specifically, used car dealerships.

The reason for this is mostly two-fold. Reason one, is because used car dealerships are more approachable than new car dealerships (and tend to need more help), and reason two is because it is mind-blowing how easy it is to target people on FB Ads who want to buy a car (and most dealerships are not tapping into it!).

I got this idea a few months ago, and I can’t shake it. I don’t have a particular interest in cars, but I have always liked them. And I know a lot about working with cars, so I am knowledgeable in the space (I have kept a few clunkers alive for far too long).

So, since I eventually want to transition (or at least include) FB Ads in my services, I want to pick a market that is easy to target on FB.

Not only that, but every car that exists today will be around for another 20 years, so I’m safe to use this for my 5 year goal.

So as of today, I’m introducing http://carfunnels.com.

How I Will Do It

Rank and rent. While I’m doing that, I will cold email and call local dealerships around me, and I will be blogging and doing research.

Basically, I will rank for terms using SEO, and then rent my high-rankings to people who want more traffic and leads.

I live in Rochester, NY. So, I want to rank for ‘used cars rochester ny’. That way, when I rank in the top spot (which takes a month or two), I can rent that spot to a local dealership that is looking for some fresh blood.

This is an ‘easy’ way to get an extra $1k a month with little to no work after it’s in place.

I always put ‘easy’ in quotes because it’s relatively easy for me.

While that is cooking, I will get started cold emailing and calling all of the local dealerships around me. I’ll pitch them my services to them at a lower cost than the industry standard so I can get some experience.

I plan on getting most of that information from the https://bbb.org.

I hope to get a few clients for SEO, and I might even be able to get a few from the web development side. The web development side is much harder to convince, because it’s quite an overhaul. A lot of SEO can be done without even touching the website.

I might even be able to convince them to put all of their stock in to Facebook and I can run ads for them (getting ahead of myself). For a smaller dealership, managing something like a FB Page is much easier than managing your own website.

Also, while I am reaching out to potential clients, I will be writing about SEO, web development and FB Ads for car dealerships. The purpose of this is to become and authority in the space, and to make me seem like I have experience.

I’ll be doing this over at http://carfunnels.com.

What I Need To Do Now

I need to build out my FB page, make a website (blog + rank and rent), and gather potential clients in the Rochester area.

This is fun!

Funnel Hacker

Sun, 15 Oct 2017 01:21:00 +0000

I Want To Be Prolific At Marketing Funnels

I’ve obsessed over many passions. Web development, SEO, app development, Facebook ads, growth hacking… Now funnels.

Funnels tie all of those things together. That’s what I like about it. You have to be good at a lot of things. Which is usually how I describe myself.

But, I want to be known for one thing. That will be Funnels (I’ve said stuff like this before).

Also, being prolific at building marketing funnels allows me to build businesses, and help other people build businesses, which is directly in line with my core values and motivation for doing all of this.

For some reason, I really like the name ‘yofunnels’. The domain is available. I’m going to snag it. It’s short, catchy, and not too serious. But it’s also specific. It’s about funnels. That’s it.

There’s a lot I need to learn about funnels (and marketing in general). But that’s why I want to start a blog/resource library. I want to document my journey to becoming a prolific funnel hacker.

I’ll Be A Funnel Hacker

A funnel is different from growth hacking because it’s directing traffic to something that converts them - not just gaining a following quickly.

Technically, you don’t need a following at all to build funnels. You can do it all with instant paid traffic. So yeah, it’s a little bit of an investment, but if you’re good enough you can turn instant traffic into instant profit. Then scale almost infinitely.

I’ve done a lot in the last three years. I really like the amount of control and potential of building funnels (for content and profit).

I want to take really good notes on other people’s funnels and where they apply them. I want to make resources for other people who want to learn the best ways to turn traffic into money in an ethical and beneficial-to-the-customer way.

I also want to make a lot of money building funnels, so I don’t have to make money teaching it to others.

Starting With Blacklet

I’ll be starting this all out with my current venture, The Blacklet. It’ll be an e-commerce funnel that sells the notebook. I’ve yet to build out any funnels for it, but I will soon.

So… I guess I’ll see you over at yofunnels soon!

Getting Organized (Trello)

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Planning Is My Worst Attribute

For some reason, planning into the future is really hard for me. It’s not hard for me to have a vision about what I should be doing in the future, but it’s really hard for me to make a schedule and stick to it.

It’s almost as if when I am tasked with something, If I can’t do it now then I don’t do it. I’m very immediate and quick. Very last minute. I’m ultra productive when I feel inclined to be - but utterly useless when I don’t have the will power.

There are a lot of things I should be planning that I am not. Things like dates with my wife, financial tracking, fitness goals, and even where my personal endeavors are headed.

I’ve let the all go to the wind. They happen when they happen. It’s really unhealthy.

I’ve Dabbled In Trello For Years

I was one of the initial beta testers of Trello. I have admired productivity for a long time - but I never committed to it.

I want to commit to using it to help plan out everything in my life. Whether it’s Bible readings, a content calendar, financial updates, whatever.

I need to be a strong planner to be able to map my ambition to my actions. I can’t allow not having a plan get me into situations where I am distracted.

I even need to plan things such as when I visit social media, when I rest and when I work. Being able to segment things will be very powerful for me.

One of my strengths (I see it as a strength) is the ability to be laser focused. But, when distracting things start popping up, not only do I get distracted, but I can’t get refocused.

Trello will help me organize my tasks for the day and get my tasks aligned to my goals.

Here’s my board for the Blacklet launch so far!

Something Had To Give

I can’t keep going on without a plan. I need to be executing on my goals every day. Right now my goal is to have an awesome launch. All of my extra energy needs to be focused on that (after work/family).

Planning needs to be central and core to everything I do. Once I have mastered planning and then executing that plan, I will be much more productive.

What's The Point of All of This?

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 10:00:00 +0000

The point of everything I am doing right now is to bring freedom to my family. Freedom of time, money, and choice.

As of right now, I work a 9-5. We don’t have freedom of time. As of right now, we are strapped in debt. We don’t have freedom of money. Right now, we can’t afford to buy a home / take vacations / build meaningful and impactful things. We don’t have freedom of choice.

Why Work More?

That’s an interesting question.

Does it line up with my core values? Not necessarily. My top priorities are my spirituality, my wife, my kid(s), my health, and then maybe my work.

But, when the chips are down and we’re honest with ourselves, theres things that money will help our family with.

The short-term goal is increased income, and the long-term goal is freedom.

But the mid-term goal is to be working on something that I find interesting and important. I’m not so money hungry that I’ll just do anything to get an extra dollar.

I’m working to build assets that will make an impact on our family. Things that will have generational impact, and that can be passed on. I’m in it for legacy.

This Is A Season

During this season, I am pulled in a lot of directions.

Both work and my creative work are asking for my time. This means I have less time to procrastinate and waste. That’s been the biggest battle for me.

I’ve got other obligations and work too - between family and church. I’d rather make sure those things get done than take free time for myself.

Speaking of free time - that will come as well. And I’ll use it to teach my son amazing things, and bless my wife with lots of things, time, and attention.

I Have One Life

I’m trying to act like it.

We all only have one life. I’d rather live it on my own terms than someone else’s.

That mentality comes at a cost for a season, but the harvest is great.

We’re all going to die one day. What did you do with your time?

What An Ideal (And Non-Ideal) Day Looks Like

Tue, 26 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Ideal Day

Run
Lots Of Water
Healthy, Low Carb Meals
Bible Reading / Prayer
Play Time with Finn
Wife Time
Work that I love (business that I own)
Tasks Planned
8 Hours of Actual Work
Be With People I Love

Non-Ideal Day

No Exercise
Headache from Lack of Water
Lots of Carbs (and feeling bloated)
No Bible / Spiritual Time
To Tired To Play With Finn
Just Going To Bed and No Conversations / Intimacy
Dead-end Day-Job
Tasks At A Whim
Only and Hour or Two of Actual Work
Isolation

The crazy thing is, the non-ideal day is what most days look like for me.

That needs to change.

Starting The Habit Is Hard

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

What happens if I don’t feel like prepping or cleaning?

I had it all planned out.

Last night I had my list of things to clean, and things to pack.

I didn’t do any of it though. I did work instead.

That’s a habit I need to break. Evenings should be for winding down, not working.

I have all day to spend working and spending my energy. If I don’t get this evening routine right I won’t be successful in the morning.

Having a successful morning makes it easier to have a successful evening. Having a successful evening makes it easier to have a successful morning.

Somewhere along the line, I have to do it when I don’t feel like doing it. That’ll be tonight.

Consistency

Tue, 05 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Consistency Is All I Want

Right now, there are only a few things that are consistent in my life.

I go to work every weekday. I go to church every Wednesday evening and Sunday morning. I go to bed between 10 and 11 and wake up between 5 and 6 (sometimes 7).

Other than that, I don’t have a lot of habits floating around. Most days look different. I really want to change that.

I NEED Exercise

It’s a staple that needs to be in my life.

It’s the cornerstone of a lot of things - it increases my water intake and energy, reduces stress, and boosts self-confidence.

I simply can’t ignore something that applies to so many things in my life.

The thing is, where do I fit it in within a day?

I can workout / run at 5 AM. Or, I could do it at 8 PM. That’s about it.

I could do it at work / at the canal at work, or at home.

Evening Routine

If I were to work out at the canal at work in the mornings, I would need to have a seriously involved evening routine. Which might actually be the thing I need.

I would have to get up at 5 - put on my workout clothes, and walk out the door with my stuff.

I’d get to work at 5:40, and run until 6:20. Then I’d shower and stuff to get me to about 6:45.

I could then plan for the day and make my most important tasks lists.

Then I could spend 2 - 3 hours on stuff that I need to get done personally.

That puts me at 10 AM. I’d then work until 4 PM.

Then I can come home and initiate my involved evening routine.

Spiritual Routine

I want to be getting into the word more. It’s something that is long overdue and I need to amplify it if I want to see more personal growth.

I could make that part of my morning routine at work, and part of my evening routine.

Even a half-hour of my 7 to 10 AM time is enough for right now.

That, and affirmations / gratefulness exercises.

I’m just thinking outloud here.

Things I Forget Too Often

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This happens too often to me

I am reminded of the things I should be focusing on after a period of neglect. Then I focus on them for a few weeks, and it drifts away. Then I am reminded of the things I should be focusing on. Over and over and over again.

So this is my list of things I should remember everyday.

Drink Lots of Water

If I’m thirsty, I’ve waited too long. This will dramatically reduce how often I get headaches and my overall health will increase.

Do Things To Delight Others

Little things go a long way. Do at least one thing every day. Funny things happen when you try to figure out how you can bless someone.

Leaders Eat Last

Put others first. Always be thinking about how you can benefit those around you.

Make A List of 3 Things To Get Done

It’s simple. List 3 things that — if you get them done — mean you had a successful day. Do this everyday and you’ll make lots of progress in any venture.

Cut Out Consumption

Every once in a while I get on a social media binge. I need to be producing, not consuming.

Working Out Isn’t Just About Getting Fit

I need to work out to reduce my stress levels. When I am stressed, I tend to get very little work done. I also tend to get sick when I’m too stressed.

Write Things Down (Everything)

I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten something that I should know. Brains should be used for computation, not storage. Write things down so they are stored somewhere else.

Track Your Progress

You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Get data, and act on that data.

Think Long Term

The actions you do today will change who you are tomorrow. Stop thinking so short term. You’re in this for the rest of your life.

Communicate. Over communicate.

It really helps me to let others know how I feel, what I’m doing and how I feel about them. It helps me because it informs them, and they can make better decisions with better information, which directly impacts me in the long term.

Stretch

I will thank myself in 20 years.

This list will grow over time as I remember things that I should remember.

Stacking Growth

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve Been Slacking

I haven’t been as organized about this launch as I should have been. In fact, I have been really lazy in a lot of areas during this launch. It’s a combination of stress and a lack of planning, and a lack of getting things off of my plate.

Needless to say, the launch sould be doing better. I’ve so far collected 250 emails - my goal was 1000.

I don’t want to spend a ton more money, meaning I am going to have to do it the old-fashioned and manual way.

I still haven’t utilized all of the channels yet, such as pinterest and twitter. One thing I might do is get a list of 100 or 200 Instagram influencers with 10k to 50k followers to get on board. I can offer them free stuff in exchange for spreading the word. If I got 100 influencers with 10k followers, that’s 1M potential reach.

Especially now with campaign monitored posts, it would be really easy to see how they are performing when it launches. That’s probably my best idea to get the biggest reach for “free”. If I give out 200 ($2000 cost) notebooks, it would be chump change if I was able to get 1000 ($30k revenue, at least $10k profit) orders, which would be 5 orders per influencer.

That’s a number I would love to reach. I know what I’ll be doing this week and next (that’s why I’m writing this, to figure out what I am doing 😂)

It’s About Omnipresence

Be everwhere at once, and stack your growth.

Here’s Justin Wu’s simple take on Kickstarter growth:

When growing any company, product and service focus - you have to put in maximum effort for growth. No part-time growth. You get part time results. 10x mindset.
Plan your roadmap. Those who don’t plan are planning to fail. Take a pause, and think about methodically all the steps you need to take in the next few months. Map it out. You might not have all the answers, but who cares? Fill in as much dots as possible. It gives you a clear path to execute on. You can add more as you go and know more.
Stack Growth. You have to run campaigns across multiple channels through a lot of experimentation.
Build a funnel; a place where all your customers, traffic etc and flow through. Everything should follow this customer journey.

You cannot just expect to run one ad campaign, one channel, etc and base your growth on that.

Even if acquisition costs come in high, take those leads and add it to your overall stack and keep pushing forward.

Faith Based Affirmations

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

“Say This With Me”

Say this with me: God Has Delivered Me, Even From Things That I Have Caused. - Dr. Gene Lingerfelt

My family has lately been in somewhat of a rut. Bills keep coming in and money keep oging out, and rarely do we see increase.

But that’s not what I am supposed to say. You see, that’s just my current situation. My current situation isn’t God’s ultimate plan for my life or my family’s life.

My family is always increasing. This month is better than last month. We have more than enough to provide for everything we have.

There’s a Miracle In Your Mouth

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. - Proverbs 18:21

The things you say have power, and it doesn’t matter if you are speaking life or death.

The things you say about yourself have power. The things you say about your friends have power.

If you continually speak death to a situation, that is what you will receive every time.

If you continually speak life and faith to a situation, things will always work out in your favor in the end.

Last week we were convinced that we needed to get rid of a car to be able to afford everything we need to pay for. After listening to the teachings of Dr. Gene Lingerfelt we are now convinced that we need to change what we are speaking over our situation.

I want to make a plan that allows us (my wife and I) to recite positive affirmations and faith based claims every morning and evening (maybe afternoon as well?).

We’ve got to apply faith to everything we do. I believe that we have the power to flip our current situation for good.

Daily Routine

Tue, 22 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I Haven’t Been Able To Stick To Anything

I think it’s all because of my messed up evening routine.

I want to have a consistent morning routine, but I go to bed at different times every night. And, I never know how well I am going to sleep, so it’s hard to justify waking up super early (like 4:30 AM).

But, if I can generate an evening routine that basically revolves around when Finn goes to bed at 8 PM, I think I can get things consistent enough to have a solid evening and morning.

I think I need a long routine (normal days) and a short routine (after I get home a little later from something else).

The longer routine would involve the following things:

Reading
Cleaning
Planning
Prepping

The shorter routine would involve only planning and prepping.

As far as daily habits go, that would leave me with this as my morning tasks:

Writing
Meditating
Bible Reading
Exercising
Getting Ready

So I think I want to do this as my evening routine:

7:00 PM - Bath with Finn and Reading
7:30 PM - Bed Time for Finn
8:00 PM - Bedtime Routine

Bedtime Routine:

Cleaning
Prepping
Planning
Reading

I’m not putting a timeframe on any of these tasks, mostly because they will change from night to night. Some nights there will be very little cleaning and lots of reading. Other nights there may be lots of cleaning and no reading. I think prepping and planning will take similar amounts of time each night.

Things to prepare for the next day

I think that’s it. This list will probably change.

I Want To Be Consistent

I still haven’t decided whether or not I will be going to work and exercising, or staying home and exercising.

There are a lot of advantages to going to work, sans the drive. It feels weird to drive 40 minutes as soon as you wake up.

I’d almost prefer the drive be after I complete some of the morning tasks that I need to do. The only way to figure out what I like is to test it thoroughly. Do it for a week one way, and do it for the next week the other way.

During my commute, I’d like to either have some educational material or some spiritual material playing. I have a daily bible audio app that I will be testing out. I figure this is a good way to get in the word daily while still using my time wisely. I could do Bible in the morning, and a sermon, podcast or audio book on the way home.

Building a solid daily routine is tough. Eliminating distractions and things that can stop the routine is hard as well. This will need to be an effort on both my and my wife’s part.

I desperately want to be consistent. I want to be reliable. I want to be the person I know I can to be.

I would like to start by getting up at 6 AM, following going to bed at 11 PM. I want to start getting less sleep. I want to be able to run on 6 - 6.5 solid hours, meaning I will need to have good healthy routines in place to stay alert and fresh.

It would be nice to do 11 to 5, that would mean I could pretty much have an evening routine even after doing things in the evening with family and friends.

Working In Different Places Helps Me Focus

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

There’s Something I Have Noticed Lately

I work better when I’m not in the same place all day.

Today I got more done than I have in a long time - in less time.

I spent my first hour outside, under the tent, at a picnic table, answering emails. Then, I worked in the cafeteria. Then I worked at my desk.

I want to experiment with different areas. I find the new environments stimulating and inspirational. When I sit at my desk all day, I get into old bad habits. When I am in more public areas, with more accountability and accessibility, it helps me focus on what I am doing.

I Simply Cannot Sit At My Desk All Day

It’s bad for everything. I need to batch my time, spending as much time is needed in a different area, in order to get one major task done.

I’m figuring out what works for me, and what doesn’t. Right now, working at my desk is just simply not working. I can’t seperate tasks and I can’t focus on one singular thing.

How To Set Up Prelaunchr In Heroku

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This is relatively easy to set up. It’s just a matter of:

Forking the Prelaunchr Github Repo
Making a Heroku Account / making a new project
Under the ‘Deploy’ Tab - Link Your Github
Link the cloned repo
Deploy the master branch
In the ‘More’ Menu (Top Right) - Run Console
Type heroku run rake db:migrate (Heroku Run is autofilled)
Go to your deployed app! Should be https://project-name.herokuapp.com

I’m using this for my Blacklet launch to get more emails.

Building Resilience (Being Anti-Fragile)

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It seems there’s more to starting habits than just doing them.

We’ve explored the two major methods of implementing habits - environment and starting slowly, but how do you actually prepare yourself to be a completely different person?

Changing who you are is tough. In fact, it’s one of the toughest things you can do. That’s why so many people are put on a pedestal when they finally reach goals that seemed impossible.

There are ways that you can build up a tolerance for change, and a resilience to the effects of change both mentally and physically.

Building Resilience

“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

It’s true. The only way to grow and gain experience is through doing and facing resistance.

But coming to odds about starting a new track in life can be daunting. Daunting enough to convince you to quit as soon as things start to get tough.

That’s where building resilience can help. It helps you push through when you feel like quitting or when things get harder than you thought they would.

There are a ton of ways to practice building resilience. Here are a few options:

Cold Showers
Fasting
Testing Patience (always eating last, serving other’s before yourself, etc.)
Sitting with your thoughts for more than an hour with no distractions
Get less sleep and wake up at the same time

There’s probably more, but you see what I’m getting at.

I think all of these things help to build a personality that takes on challenges head on. It builds a character that makes changes in life seem much easier.

When you’re standing in a cold shower - nothing else matters, and nothing else is really that bad. The goal is to slow your breathing and keep from tensing up.

The more you can relax in a cold shower, the more successful you’ll be at relaxing in a high-pressure or stressful situation.

Being Anti-Fragile

This is a mindset that comes along after building resilience.

It’s a mindset that doesn’t let things affect you the way they affect others (within reason).

It also perseveres when other’s would quit. It makes the impossible possible. It challenges the norm by being ultra-focused on completing the task at hand.

I think building a mentality of being Anti-Fragile is crucial to becoming a fundamentally different person. When you can push through anything, nothing can stop you.

Killing Many Birds with One Stone

Fri, 04 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I just had this thought when I was out walking and avoiding screens and dringking water (I do this almost every day for a little bit).

You can get more done when you do more than one thing at once. What do I mean by that? I don’t mean mutltitasking. I mean adding on to autonomous activities.

What are autonomous activities? Walking, commute to work, brushing your teeth, sleeping, etc.

These are tasks that you can do without brain control (or minimal brain control).

Here’s some examples of combining them with new habits:

Listening to books on your commute
Listening to the audio bible while you walk
Do squats while you brush your teeth
Have your computer (or someone) do tasks while you sleep
Do Pushups while you wait for your coffee to brew

The first part is the new habit, which is tacked on to the second part. The second part you were going to do anyways. They are your keystone habits. You don’t have to think about or make time to do them. You just do them.

I think this is a powerful concept. Sometimes I think that I just don’t have enough time in the day to get things done. Combining habits like this will allow me to get more done with less time.

Chatbots or Emails?

Fri, 04 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I needed to write today - I’ve got a lot on my mind.

If you snooped around, you’d know that I am launching a kickstarter soon.

I’m at odds with how to collect leads. Traditional email marketing? Or the Chatbot landgrab?

I think the best choice is Chatbots - simply because of the integration with Facebook.

The major attraction to email is the fact that is very matrure. There are a lot of programs out there that support email marketing efforts, like referrals, competitions and giveaways.

But Chatbots, oh Chatbots, it’s never been easier to get in front of someone’s eyes. There’s no cluttered inbox to sift through. There’s no barrier to entry, no typing, no confirmation email. It’s as simple as it can get to get started.

But it’s super new. And it’s super unstable. I have no idea what the ROI will be, and how affective the campaign will be.

I have little to no idea how to get people to share the bot (other than getting them to share my page). This is a major thing for me.

There are plenty of referral tools for email - but little to none for chatbots.

One major, major advantage of chatbots, is the ability to message people who comment on a post (with a specific word).

I just want this to work so bad that I don’t want to mess it up. I think it’s a really good idea, and I’d hate for all of my mistakes to have been pointed back to this decision.

Then again, if it works, I know it will work well (the chatbots, that is). So what if my massive success is the result of chatbots?

Today I have everything pointing to the chatbots. We’ll run some ads and such soon and see hwo it performs there as well.

PS: I love ChatFuel.

Instagram Follow Bookmarklet

Wed, 02 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Instagram Auto-Follow / Auto-Unfollow Bookmarklets

Follow (87s)

Unfollow (87s)

👆 Drag these links to your bookmarks bar! (Desktop Google Chrome Only)

How To Use

Go to Instagram.
Go to a page where you want to follow the followers.
Click the “«some number» Followers” button. You’ll see the list of followers pop up.
Click the bookmarklet button you want.
Profit $$

You’ll notice it scrolls a little bit. If you scroll up - you’ll see that it followed/unfollowed someone (based on the one you picked).

If it’s scrolling, it’s working. No worries. Or just scroll up to check. But make sure you scroll back down when you’re done checking.

Tips And Tricks

The Math

It clicks every 87s, which is 1000 follows a day if you let it run all day. Obviously, you can only follow less than 7500 people, so you’ll have to unfollow eventually.

More math: If you get a follow-back rate of 20% (pretty standard for a targeted audience), you have the potential to get 250 followers a day. Not bad for doing nothing! Just keep posting and doing stories. You’ll grow in no time.

It’s Not Smart

This button isn’t very smart. It just looks for ‘follow’ or ‘following’ buttons on the page, clicks them, and scrolls down a little bit after it clicks.

It Might Not Work

The reason it scrolls is so new buttons can come up. If no new buttons come up, the script can’t do anything.

But It Should Work

It should keep scrolling, so even if you hit a patch of people that you already follow/need to unfollow, then you should be able to get past them eventually. It just won’t follow anyone for a while until it gets to new faces.

Part Of The Game

Sometimes you’ll notice that it follows the second person and not the first in the list, that’s because it takes into account the follow/following button on the account that you are taking followers from.

Stealth Mode

If you want to unfollow a bunch of people, go to your own account and open the same ‘followers popup’ that you would on another account. This guarantees that you are only unfollowing people that follow you. Obviously, if you want to get rid of all of your followers, open the following popup window. Then you can go wild.

Let It Work

I’ve found that minimizing the browser makes things not behave well. Leave it open and viewable (on that tab). You can always open a new instance of the browser if you want to continue doing other stuff.

Environment

Sun, 30 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Environment Drives Habits

Your environment impacts you, whether you like it or not.

If people are negative around you, you’ll tend to be more negative. If people constantly put you down and tell you you are worthless, you start to feel that.

If people around you treat you well, are nice to you and are positive towards you, you’ll tend to be more positive.

I could go on but you get the point.

Unless you explicitly know the biases that those around you have, you are indirectly influenced by everyone.

Environment Can Change Everything

Not only can your environment have gradual impacts on your personality, it can have drastic and quick impacts as well.

When someone dies that is close to you - it changes your world. A marriage, a divorce, a child, a graduation. These things can change you forever, very quickly.

Some are good, some are bad. But there are some elements of your environment that you can control.

You can control your sphere of influence. The people that are closest to you. You don’t have to hang out with the people that bring you down. You can get new friends - ones that will lift you up.

You Can Make An Impact On Your Environment

If you’re ‘stuck’, you can help others change by offering value in exchange for nothing.

That means doing things for people that genuinely mean something. That typically allows you to be able to talk to those people about things you normally wouldn’t talk about, and you might even be able to get them to change some of their ways.

Your enviroment won’t change without you taking action. So, you can either make an impact, or get someone pregnant. You decide the thing that’s going to get you towards your goals.

Habit Destorying

Fri, 28 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Habit Destroying

Equally as important as establishing new habits, is getting rid of the bad ones.

I’ve decided there are three core features of this journey. Habit building, habit destroying, and environment development. I’ll write about environment in another post.

Habit destroying is something I haven’t explored as much. You cannot just do habit destroying alone- because if you don’t replace those actions with positive habits, they’ll come back.

These bad habits are the things that are deliberately holding you back - mentally, physically and emotionally. It’s inaction to not fix them - and inaction is toxic. Inaction becomes regret. Regret is toxic.

The thing about the habit destroying process, is that it’s different for everyone. It’s funny, I’ve heard this before when referencing family dynamics, “Healthy families all look the same, while dysfunctional families all have different problems.”

Your problems are not the same as my problems, and your bad habits are not like everyone else’s. Even if you have the same problem, they are not at the same depth of issues.

So this process is more personal. It’s more specific to the person. One thing is true, as with habit building, it takes gradual steps over time.

Some things can happen cold turkey - and that’s the power of changing your environment.

To talk about environment briefly, imagine you are a smoker and you find out your wife is pregnant. Then, you find out that smoking will hurt the baby. That’s motivation enough (for some) to stop there. Their environment changed, thus forcing their habits to change.

But gradual decreases in habits is the way to banish them forever. Taking this process proves that you want to get rid of whatever it is. It’s a conscious decision.

The cool thing is, you can gradually decrease a bad habit while gradually replacing it with a healthy habit. Which is the most powerful thing you can do.

Imagine being a completely different person. Not only do you not struggle, you thrive on purpose.

That’s mind-blowing. Yet it’s not that hard. It takes time, patience, and determination.

I think the last piece to the puzzle, the piece that makes this all happen, is accountability. I’ll talk about that in another post.

Bad habits can look different to everyone. It could be social media addiction (or any addiction for that matter), it could be a mentality towards financial prosperity or faith, or it could be your inability to properly communicate with the people you love.

There are plenty of bad habits out there, some are worse than others. But if you’re open and honest about them, things can change.

I know that I want to be a completely different person. I want my default-self to be the person I want to be. Someone that upholds my values, displays them even when things are hard, and never waivers.

And I don’t want to be a completely different person in an envious way. There are certain quirks about me, that some might consider ‘bad’, that I actually like. Like my ability to focus on something and filter everything else out.

My wife hates it when I’m working and I should be helping around the house - but I am genuinely able to complete deep work that takes that level of focus. I guess the bad habit here would be to not do that when I’m at home and should be doing something else.

So I’ll be doing more research into how to destroy bad habits while replacing them with good habits. I know the whole action + reward thing, but I want to figure out what actually works. Not just what works in your head.

Habit development and destruction, environment shifting, and accountability. I think this will work.

A Year Of Growth - Updating Definition

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Categories vs. Habits

In my last post about the year of growth, I don’t think I was very clear about what this is, and what it isn’t.

This is a method of building daily habits.

This is not a general habit suggestion. It is very specific to what the person wants.

For instance, I listed “Health” as one of the options. What does that mean?

Both health and fitness go together. But health, to me, is drinking lots of water, avoiding too many carbs, intermittent fasting, and eating lots of protein and healthy fats.

So, for the habits listed, I could certainly put “Drink X Amount of Water”, but writing “Avoid Too Many Carbs” is too generic, and hard to track. The habit should be measureable and actionable.

Though I should avoid eating too many carbs, It’s more of a mindset than a habit. It’s something that is different everyday, and needs a different source of motivation to complete.

Now, if my goal is to implement intermittent fasting - then obviously that impacts my carb intake, and it is directly influenced. I can still follow my health rules by creating actionable habits.

The same goes for “Sprirtuality”. What does that mean? It means I’m reading my Bible everyday, meditating and praying every day, and praying with my family every day. Those are habits.

“Spirituality” is not a habit - though it is a catagory of habits that I want to implement.

So the more generic names are rough categories of habits I would like to implement - but the more specific I can make the habits, the more affective this experiement will be.

Definition Is Important

The better I can define this program, the more affective it will be. And, the better I can explain it to someone.

The next thing I need to think about is how quickly I want to generate new habits.

For instance, should it take me a whole month to start reading my Bible? Probably not. But, to build a proper exercise habit it might take a whole month.

I think the way I will handle this, is by increasing time chunks throughout the month. So when I am working on my morning routine, I will spend 5 minutes, then 10, then 15, then 20 on reading throughout the month. But, the time increases will be happening for all of the actions I want in my morning routine.

This will apply for things like meditation, prayer, reading, sleeping, etc.

An evening routine can be the same way.

Getting Closer to The Real Deal

I’ve got a lot going on currently. I’m married and have a child. I’m working on a kickstarter product. I’m working a full time job. And I’m trying to stay healthy, fit and motivated. There isn’t much time to mess around.

I’m hoping to implement this program with all of these things going on, both because it will help me and it will force me to grow in a non-ideal environment (which is better for growth). Meaning if I can do it now, then I will be able to stick to it in the future.

Things I Forget Too Often

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I Often Forget The Most Important Things

This happens too often to me - I am reminded of the things I should be focusing on after a period of neglect. Then I focus on them for a few weeks, and it drifts away. Then I am reminded of the things I should be focusing on. Over and over and over again.

So this is my list of things I should remember everyday.

Drink Lots of Water

If I’m thirsty, I’ve waited too long. This will dramatically reduce how often I get headaches and my overall health will increase.

Do Things To Delight Others

Little things go a long way. Do at least one thing every day. Funny things happen when you try to figure out how you can bless someone.

Leaders Eat Last

Put others first. Always be thinking about how you can benefit those around you.

Make A List of 3 Things To Get Done

It’s simple. List 3 things that - if you get them done - mean you had a successful day. Do this everyday and you’ll make lots of progress in any venture.

Cut Out Consumption

Every once in a while I get on a social media binge. I need to be producing, not consuming.

Working Out Isn’t Just About Getting Fit

I need to work out to reduce my stress levels. When I am stressed, I tend to get very little work done.

Write Things Down (Everything)

I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten something that I should know. Brains should be used for computation, not storage. Write things down so they are stored somewhere else.

Track Your Progress

You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Get data, and act on that data.

Think Long Term

The actions you do today will change who you are tomorrow. Stop thinking so short term. You’re in this for the rest of your life.

Communicate. Over communicate.

Stretch

I will thank myself in 20 years.

Listen To Music While You Work

Music helps me focus while I work. It elimitanes distractions and gets my mind in the right place when I listen to something on repeat.

This list will grow over time as I remember things that I should remember.

A Year Of Growth

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

As I’m thinking about what I want to do with this blog - I have a large and long project in mind. Here’s my idea.

A Year Of Growth

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.” ― W. H. Auden

I really like James Clear - this is an extension of the stuff he talks about in his article, Achieve Your Goals: The Scientific Argument for Mastering One Thing at a Time.

I want to take a year and change a habit / grow every day.

Since there are 365 days in a year, this can be very gradual. This is a marathon, remember?

There are 12 months in a year, so I want to develop 12 pillars of habits that can be edited.

These can include:

Health
Fitness
Family
Spouse
Morning Routine
Spirituality
Reading
Producing
Meditation
Waking Up Earlier
Evening Routines
Sleeping
etc.

I’ll add more and cut some from this list, but you get the point.

Then, each month is focussed on editing one of those pillars gradually.

There are roughly 4 weeks in a month, so I will take 4 gradual steps to editing that habit.

For example, if the habit is ‘Waking Up Earlier’, the weeks in the month could look like this:

Begin Waking Up at 7 AM
Wake Up at 6:30 AM
Wake Up at 6 AM
Wake up at 5:30 AM

The start and end times could be anything - depending on the person. They can also be more coarse or gradual depending on how successful they are at making the habit stick (Maybe 4 or 5 days instead of a week).

The object of the pillars, is to have them stick, and you continue to do the previous pillars while editing new pillars.

There is a snag, though, some pillars cannot be done very easily before others. For instance, staying on the ‘Waking Up Early’ habit - It’s nearly impossible to be successful at getting up early if you don’t have an evening routine / good sleep habit.

So, before we can wake up early, we have to sleep well, and that would come first in the program.

And before we can have a morning routine, we have to be waking up early.

And before we can make time for meditation, spirituality, journaling, exercising, etc., we need a morning routine.

So most of this all hinges on sleeping well. The thing we do for more than a third of our lives.

So that’s what this is all about. I am going to make a plan, stick to it and write about it’s affectiveness.

A year from now, if I am successfully doing all of the things mentioned above, I don’t think there is anything that could stop me.

Some Things I Know

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Win The Morning, Win The Day

Life Is A Marathon

I’m 25, let’s guess I have 65 years left. I have 65 years of work, passion, love, and success ahead of me. The things that I do every day will be the biggest indicator of how I will grow over time.

Start Small

Every time I try to change a lot of things (habits, ‘passions’, goals, etc.), I end up going back to what I call my ‘default self’. My default self isn’t who I want to be.

Journal (write)

I’ve found this to make the largest impact on my clarity and focus for the day. When I write, I let my thoughts do the talking. And when I let them talk, they figure out what they need to be doing.

Welcome To 1% Growth

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve Been Thinking About This For A While

This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now. I really want to help people get un-stuck, or at least convince them that they can live a better life by changing themselves.

I personally have been on a journey that is leading me out of debt and corporate America, and leading me to financial security, freedom to use my time how I want, and working on what I want to work on.

It’s simple. I’m chasing freedom, and you should be as well.

Success to me is freedom. Freedom of time, money, and work.

Why A Blog?

What does this have to do with 1% Growth? Well, I believe these philosophies:

If you’re not living you’re dying.
Seize the morning and you’ll seize the day.
Success is the sum of little things over time, not a single sprint.
A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.

And the one that pertains to this blog:

Grow 1% everyday and you’ll be 37.8 times farther than you were last year.

37.8 times. That’s quite a lot - and frankly a completely unreasonable growth rate, but it sounds good. Conversely, if you decrease 1% daily, you’ll be 3% of what you were the prior year.

There are certain things that we can do every day - little things - that make a huge difference in our lives.

Working out a little bit every day, and not overeating everyday, can be crucial to maintaining your weight.

Reading good, successful books and content everyday will expand your mind to allow you to be successful.

Doing things to impress your spouse, give attention to your kids, and showing your family you love them every day can go a long way.

The list goes on - and that’s what this blog is about.

I want to bring you little things that you can implement in your life right now that will make a big difference.

What You Can Expect

Daily posts - yes.

Longer more complete posts - of course.

A podcast (in the future) - definitely.

Great content - absolutely.

I’ll be putting my thoughts, shortcomings, successes, growth tips and tricks, advice and more on this blog. It’s going to be awesome.

Thanks for joining me.

You Have The Freedom To Choose

Tue, 04 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I love this country for the ability to do just that.

There’s nothing stopping you from becoming the person you want to be other than yourself.

True freedom starts in your mind. It’s when you allow yourself to think differently, and perceive the world in a different way.

You decide to embrace the hard things, do what’s right when it’s not easy, and live with passion for the things that matter to you.

You ignore everyone that tries to tear you down. You push through the noise to get clarity. You figure out who you truly are and what you’re made of.

If you’re reading this, you probably live in the USA. Meaning you live in the wealthiest country on the planet, with the most freedom and opportunity so you can do anything you want with your life.

Do you know the odds of having that opportunity? It’s not much, I can tell you that.

The fact that I can sit here and write this is a privilege most do not have.

We’ve gotten used to being the best. The middle class has plateaued because we didn’t need to work hard anymore to live a decent life.

But you have the opportunity to better your life everyday. What will you choose?

You have the freedom to choose. That’s why I love this country.

Happy Independence Day.

People Overestimate

Sat, 01 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

But they underestimate what they can do with a year.

We stress ourselves out, almost daily, trying to check off our to-do lists and getting everything done that needs to get done.

We feel like because we were only able to spend 10 minutes doing something that we actually enjoyed doing, that we aren’t going to be able to get anywhere with our passions or dreams.

But it’s not about how much you got done today, but how much you get done over time, that really matters.

Growing and working just a little bit everyday compounds over time.

When you put your head down and commit to something for an extended period of time, amazing things can happen.

All of a sudden, when you spend an hour a day for a month doing something, it’s almost a full week’s worth of work on that thing. That’s a lot of time to get some incredible things done.

Many people could write a book, or lose 40 pounds, or make an extra $5000, with just an hour a day for several months.

Don’t beat yourself up when you don’t accomplish all of your goals in one day. Big things take time, and big things start small.

Testing, Testing, 123

Wed, 28 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The only way you can grow something from scratch (social media, blog, online product, etc.) is to try something, collect data, and let the data tell you how it’s performing.

If it is performing poorly, you change one thing and test again. If it’s doing really well, you change one thing and test again while continuing to do the thing that was working really well.

The only way to find out if something else would work better is to try it. Thinking about trying something, or trying something and not collecting data on it’s performance will get you nowhere fast.

The same thing applies for any goals you are trying to reach in life. Some things come with consistency and time, but before you build a consistent approach, you have to have data that shows that approach is the best approach for you.

I’m applying this concept in the area of Facebook ads. Some people get ‘lucky’ and create amazing ads out of the gate, getting conversions for a few pennies. While others can’t seem to get anyone to do anything for $5 or less.

If you start with a bad ad, there are a lot of things you can change. But, you don’t want to change everything at once. It could be one simple thing that is making it perform bad. You change one thing, and then wait a few days for Facebook to give you feedback about how it is performing.

Optimizing the process is key to reaching your goals. The more efficient you can be with your approach, the easier it will be to be successful.

Change Your Environment

Tue, 27 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Your environment might be the biggest inhibitor to your success.

The environment around you is the biggest determining factor in your ability to grow and change as a person. And I’m not talking about the air around you, I’m talking about the people and circumstances.

What people are encouraging (or discouraging) you to do often determines what you actually do. It’s like peer pressure in high school. You want to fit in and not cause a scene, so you do what makes the most people happy.

The people around you can either bring you down, or pick you up. They can encourage you to be your best self, or they can encourage you to fit in with the crowd and ignore your dreams.

“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” — Tim Ferriss

Tim says that very often. In fact, that’s what he considers to be his most important piece of advice. It’s a statement that is true for everyone.

I have seen this in my own life. My older brother was a grade above me in school. We had the same upbringing, the same parents, the same rules, the same disciplines. We even have similar levels of talent and intellect.

In high school, my five closest friends were ambitious students, always looking to learn more and push the boundaries of their knowledge. They performed well in the classroom, and followed the rules. I ended up doing really well in school.

My brother’s five closest friends, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less about doing well in school. They caused my brother’s attitude towards learning and growing to wane. He ended up doing poorly in school, and dropped out of college.

Now, dropping out of college isn’t the worst thing. In fact, I would probably advise that to most. But, he didn’t drop out of college because he had ambitions of doing amazing things, he dropped out because he didn’t care about anything. He was in a dark time in his life.

A few short years later, he found new friends, a new church, a new girlfriend who encourages him, he has now finished college and has wild ambitions for the future. He has plans to leave his mark on this world and be successful.

He truly is a different person than he was 5 years ago, and it’s not just because of his own ambitions, it’s because his environment changed for the better.

If you’ve got friends who think your dreams are crazy, get new friends.

If you’ve got parents who tell you to live a normal life and get into debt to go to college, get new parents (kidding). Tell them you love them but you have big plans and goals for the future. They’ll come around when you show them the success you achieve.

If you live in a neighborhood filled with bad influences and poor conditions, move out.

If you are surrounded by negativity and complaining, go somewhere else.

Find friends that will encourage you to pursue your dreams and goals.

Hang out with successful people that are where you want to be in 5 years.

Find groups, a church, anyone who will have your back when the chips are down and celebrate with you when you win.

Read books written by successful people. Listen to their speeches and talks. Listen to podcasts that encourage you to grow and challenge yourself. Watch their videos. Follow them on social media.

Get around people that are going to get you to where you want to go. Don’t let anyone hold you back.

Start When You’re Not Ready

Sun, 25 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’m not ready, and I’m starting.

Tomorrow marks the day I will begin to dedicate at least 2 hours a day to Blacklet related tasks.

I’ll be finalizing designs, writing social media posts and content, talking to the manufacturer, talking to future customers, planning the Kickstarter launch and Facebook Ad spend, marketing copy and influencer interaction, and a bunch of other stuff.

This week will be based on planning. I’ll probably do some work, but I’ll mostly be planning.

A lot of people have asked how they can help me, and planning out my exact steps will help me help them figure out how they can contribute.

2 hours a day might not sound like a ton, but it’s enough to get me started. When I have an actual plan and a set course of action, then I can increase the amount of time spent — because at that point it’s all about the amount of time I spend on it.

I’m Not Ready To Build A Business Online

I’m really not. I may be a lot further than I was six months ago, but I’m still learning and growing and figuring out things.

I’m not letting that stop me though.

The best way to learn is to get your feet wet. Trial and error. Maybe I’ll get into this notebook thing and I’ll fail miserably. Maybe I’ll be a blow-out success.

I’ll never know if I don’t try, and I’ll never try if I don’t start.

I’m Not Ready To Be That Disciplined

But I’m giving myself no option.

There will be no casual social media, no entertainment, I’ll be getting my chores done around the house, taking care of my family and working. That’s really it — until the notebook is launched.

I want every day to be the same. Speed is king, but consistency multiplies it. Small actions daily overtime become a big movement. That’s what I’m looking for.

That’s going to be hard. But it’s necessary. I’m not ready, but I’m forcing myself to do it. Because I just need to start.

I’m Not Ready To Be Successful

If I had a bunch of money, I know what I would do with it, but do I have the character to maintain it? Am I underestimating how hard it will be? How will my family be impacted?

Just some of the things I think about. I know I don’t have to be perfect, but I want to be able to adjust when things happen.

At the same point, I’ve never been more ready to be successful. I’ve been learning and growing so much this last year, I am pumped to see where I take it!

I’m not ready, but I’m starting anyways. What’s stopping you?

My Dream, Vision and Goals

Sat, 24 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It’s June 24th, 2017. I’m sure this will all change, but right now this is all true. I’m using this as a template framework for reaching the levels of success that I want to obtain.

I’m splitting this into two sections, each with the same template, since there are goals for both my personal life and for my business venture.

Personal Dream

My personal dream is freedom. Financial, time, and family freedom.

I want to have zero debt, invest large sums of my income, and have multiple streams of income.

I want to be in full control of my time. I want to be intentional about the tasks and obligations I adhere to. I don’t want a boss, and I don’t want to fulfill someone else’s dream as my only job (though I do want to help fulfill all of the dreams of my friends and family, but that’s different).

I want to be able to raise my kids the way I want, which is outside of the public school system. I want to be able to travel with my family when we want. I want to be able to have experiences with my family that will allow them to grow into well-educated, caring and successful people.

Vision

I am going to realize this dream by starting a product based business, learn the system to do that successfully, and replicate that over and over again.

In one year, I will be working on growing my black notebook business. I will not be working a full-time job. I will be a full-time entrepreneur.

In five years I will have had a few businesses. I won’t be operating in them directly, but rather overseeing operations from a distance. I might be debt free at this point — if not, well on my way to being debt free. Finn will be starting school and I’ll want to be involved.

In ten years I would like to be helping my friends and family do the same things I did to become a millionaire. Helping them become better versions of themselves so they can overcome the things that hold them back in life.

Mission Statement

I exist to impact the others around me by teaching them to build success and freedom into their own lives, after learning how to do it myself.

Business Dream

Run product based businesses that make an impact on people in a positive way. Provide quality products, cheerful service and genuine care.

The businesses bring in much more money than I could ever need. So much so that I can implement giving and philanthropy to a higher level.

Vision

Be the best I can be at market recognition, branding, marketing, social media, advertising and growth.

When those things are mastered, I believe I can start any business I want.

Mission Statement

My businesses will exist to bring joy to everyone, wealth to my family, and prosperity to those around me.

Ideas To Keep Content Rolling

Fri, 23 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I usually have been coming up with things on the spot, but I want to blog the way professionals do.

1. Keep A List

Having a content list of ideas to write about is a great start to making sure you always have something to write.

Keep a list of at least 10 things to write about. As soon as you finish one, cross one off of the list and add a new one to the list. That way, it’s always refreshed.

2. Schedule Your Posts

When you have that list, you can then plan when you will write the content, and when you will post it.

Knowing exactly what you will be writing when you sit down to write makes it so much easier. Creating an outline before writing makes it even more easy. Just fill in the blanks.

If you’re ahead of the game and have content lined up, then the scheduling of the posting matters. Otherwise, you can post as soon as you are done writing and editing.

3. Don’t Care What People Think

You’ll waste a lot of time if you care what people think about your content.

Rather than deliberating about the quality of your post, get it out there. The more posts you do, the more it makes you a better writer.

If you get in a habit of writing consistently. You will be a content machine.

4. Dedicate Time To Writing

This seems obvious, but you actually have to dedicate time to writing or it will never get done. If it’s not a priority, then it won’t get done.

Try to dedicate the same time everyday to writing. That, combined with all of these other tips, will get you rolling big time.

The Elements Of Scalable Leadership

Thu, 22 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. — Warren Bennis

Without vision, leadership is lost.

If there is no clear path as to how to lead the people below you to some measurable and attainable goal, then there is no way to lead those people.

Defining a vision and the constraints of that vision is mission critical to being able to scale beyond yourself as a leader.

Not having vision is like not having a basket to shoot at in Basketball. You can take shots all day, but no one really knows when they score, and no one even knows why they are shooting.

There are many ways to define a vision — you can create it from scratch on your own, glean from someone else’s work, or attach yourself to someone else’s mission.

When gleaning (copying) from someone else’s work, don’t consider it copying as if you haven’t done any work. The fact that you are choosing to copy that specific method or vision means you are honing in on the specific vision you have for your team.

Constraints

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution. — Igor Stravinsky

Typically, a natural born leader (or someone who is passionate about a certain thing) will have vision for a project / team. Honing that vision and clearly defining it is typically the issue with getting the people below you on board.

Without clear, well defined constraints on the tasks and services that those below you will be performing, the only way to lead them is by micromanaging.

Micromanaging may work for a time, but soon you will be overwhelmed by the work coming from all directions. You’ll be wondering why nothing is getting done, and you’ll feel like you are still doing all of the work.

Upfront definition and communication about the specific constraints of whatever task or job a subordinate is going to do is critical. It will allow for not only the work to get done the right way the first time, but also to allow you to truly step away from the work — knowing full well that it’s going to be done right the first time.

By imposing constraints, it alleviates the burden of checking the work that is being completed to make sure that it lines up with the vision that is in your head.

These constraints must be documented and controlled by leadership. If the constraints are not documented, how will people be able to work within them?

Like Sean McCabe says, “You don’t have a process if it isn’t written down.” Processes with well defined constraints and vision need to be put in place to be able to scale the work beyond yourself.

The great thing about a well defined process is, you can edit it over time. And, instead of reinventing the wheel every time, you can make minor edits when necessary.

If you care a lot about the way a specific thing is done, then you as the leader need to figure out the way that it is going to be done and write down the process for achieving that result.

In the end, if the process is well defined and the person does a task that is within those constraints, and you don’t like the result, it’s not the person’s fault. It’s your fault as the leader for having faulty constraints.

This level of communication allows people to flourish, because they know they can put out work without the boss yelling at them for doing it the wrong way.

Trust

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them. — Ernest Hemingway

When the vision is well defined, and the constraints are well documented, it’s up to you whether or not you will trust the people beneath you to carry out that vision.

Assuming you hired well (this is a separate conversation), trusting the person to get the job done right is a binary decision. It’s not something that you decide over time, or wait to see whether or not they can make the cut.

Without trust, the people beneath you can’t flourish. If you don’t trust them to make the tough decisions that are based on the constraints applied above, they won’t be willing to put in their best effort. People like to have control, and when they don’t feel like they have control, they don’t feel like doing it.

Proper and full trust will also allow you to truly alleviate the mental tax of thinking about the tasks that you have given to your team. Because of this, you can actually focus on the things that you make the biggest impact doing, and the rest of the work will work itself out.

Trust is the most underrated component to scalable leadership, because it also cultivates a climate of safety and creativity. It allows people to push themselves creatively and play to their strengths.

Teaching Them To Lead

“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.” — Andrew Carnegie

When you teach the people beneath you to become leaders, then there is no end to how large your organization can be.

If you are the only person leading one layer of people, then the work is barely scaling beyond yourself. But when you add multiple layers of people beneath you, then the amount of work that can get done is staggering.

A tiered structure of leadership is key to proper leadership and communication. You, as the visionary, can communicate that to one layer of leadership, then they to the next, and so on.

It’s important to put natural born leaders into roles that allow them to have the biggest impact. If you don’t, you may lose them. Recognizing talent and rewarding it is critical to getting amazing work done.

The majority of leadership can be boiled down to proper communication, but it’s much deeper than that.

If you have mastered these traits of leadership, you are well on your way to operating at scale.

The 4 Main Reasons Why I Write

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It may or may not be why you think.

Writing is an amazing tool. It’s the beginning of everything that’s creative, productive and valuable.

You can write to teach. You can write to inspire. You can write to learn more about yourself.

1. I Write For You

“A drop of ink may make a million think.” — Lord Byron

The reader is the most important person to me.

I read a lot about success, habits, mindset, personal development and business. I like to relay that information to my friends, family, and followers that come along the way.

My hope is to inspire you to take action on your hopes and dreams, and to let you know that there is always a way to achieve them.

I also want to help teach people around me about the principles of wealth, and the mindset that comes along with it. I want to see everyone I know thrive in ways they never have before.

I don’t write for any one person, I don’t single people out. I write as I learn, and I write when I know something is true.

2. I Write For Me

“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” — Isaac Asimov

Writing brings me clarity.

I have a lot going on in life right now. I have a full time job, a full time family, lots of time spent helping with my church, growing a small business into an online empire, and trying to stay fit / healthy / spiritually connected through all of that.

When I’m confused, I write. When I don’t know what to do next, I write. When I am procrastinating, I write.

Most of the time I am talking to myself, even though it may sound like I am directing everything at the reader.

When I say “you”, I mean “I” just as much. So when I write a motivational post, I am motivating myself as much as I am motivating you. When I am trying to teach you, I am writing things down so I remember them.

I make my writing public so that other’s can benefit from it, and also to add an accountability layer to it. If I call something “Jordan’s Daily”, then it should be daily and I don’t want to go back on my word.

Eventually, I want to write more than just my daily posts. I want to write about the methods and practices that have brought me success. I have to go out and do things first, though. That’s this season of life.

3. I Write For Legacy

“Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

Nothing I do will be remembered if it isn’t written down.

I don’t want to get to the end of my life and wish that I had written down the things that I did throughout my years.

I want to get to the end of my life and be able to pass on the legacy of the things I did to my grand kids, and generations after that.

I want everyone to know who I was, what I stood for, and what I contributed to society.

If I don’t write it down, who will? I’m not some mega-billionaire (yet) that has writers write biographies for me. It’s my duty to keep track of what I have done.

4. I Write To Learn

“You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.” — Doris Lessing

Not only do I want to learn to be a better writer, I also use writing to become a better version of myself in every area of life.

When I write down a process I have learned, or a lesson I have heard, collecting my thoughts into a wholesome piece of content reinforces the knowledge in my head.

When I have to think critically about how I am going to describe something to someone, or teach them something I have learned, I have to recreate it for the specific audience I have in order to make the biggest impact.

At the end of the day, the only way to become better at something is to do that thing. You don’t become a better athlete by watching sports on TV, you don’t become a better music artist by listening to music, you have to show up and do the work.

By showing up everyday to write, I am putting in the work to become a better writer. I don’t write right now because I think I am the best writer and I have it all figured out. This is me learning in public. Documenting my process.

By becoming the best writer I can be, I can make a bigger impact on the people that read my content.

Why You Should Write

“The worst thing you write is better than the best thing you did not write.”

I’m hoping that this inspired you to take on writing yourself. It doesn’t have to be public, like mine. It can be a journal, a note here and there, or it can be a novel, journalism, even just Facebook posts.

I hope you think about what you’re writing, and try to bring the biggest impact to those around you.

The Best Habits Start Small (Really Small)

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve All Done This

It’s Monday, time to hit the gym and get fit again right? Time to finally eat healthy, get more work done, spend more time with family, etc.

You start out by going to the gym. You know what you like to do. You jump on the treadmill and you run until you can’t breathe. Then, you go to the machines and do as many as you know how to do.

When you get home, you eat a salad. Because you’re healthy now, right? Mind over matter. Even though you’re hungry you stick to it.

You go to sleep that night feeling accomplished — you crushed that day.

You wake up in the morning, after you’ve hit snooze a few times. You’re sore and don’t feel like getting out of bed at all.

Your body is starving for some carbohydrates. You eat a huge breakfast. You eat a huge lunch. You eat a huge dinner. You don’t go to the gym that day because you are so sore and can hardly move.

You piddle around the rest of the week recovering from your soreness. You eat a salad here and there, but it’s not much different than before. You weigh your self on the scale. No change at all.

It’s Monday again, time to hit the gym and …

Why do we do this? We want to change, and we want to work hard towards that change. We feel like we are working hard, and it feels like we are struggling. That’s what it is supposed to feel like, right?

You Can’t Change Everything In One Day

It’s just not capable for human beings to do.

What if I told you that getting fit isn’t supposed to be a struggle? Sure, it’s hard, but it’s not the uphill battle you may have been facing.

The same goes for eating healthy, reaching your goals, making any major changes in your life.

You have to start small. Really small. Like, embarrassingly small. So small that you don’t even consider it progress.

Instead of going to the gym on the first day and getting your butt kicked, simply start out by getting your gym clothes on at the time you’ve decided to go.

That’s it. Do that for a few days.

Then, when your body begins to naturally remind you that you’re supposed to put your gym clothes on (meaning you’re beginning to build a habit), drive to the gym (or get out your stuff at home).

That’s it. Do that for a few days.

Now, you’re probably feeling embarrassed about going to the gym and then leaving, right? Well, now it’s time to go in.

When you get in, don’t do a full-blown workout. Do a light workout. Focus on your breathing, shake the cobwebs out. Do some stretching.

That’s it. Do that for a few days.

Now, it’s finally time to start putting in the work an progressing. Start getting stronger and fitter. Start tracking your progress and the workouts you do each day. Measure your progress and use it to tweak your routine.

It’s probably about a month later now, and you’ll be shocked how much easier it is to get to the gym and do your workout. You’re not sore, you’re not stressed about it, it’s simply part of your routine.

Do you see how this method can translate to other routines in your life?

Instead of starting out by eating salads for every meal, start out by just cutting out sugary drinks. Then swap out carbs in the morning for some protein.

Make little steps. Take a few days on each step. After all, what’s the rush?

Start Thinking Long Term, Not Short Term

You don’t need to be fit right this minute. You should want to be fit for life.

You have a long life, so why do you want to change everything right now? Take this month to get fit, next month to get healthy, next month to learn that thing you’ve always wanted to learn.

Cramming everything into one day is a good way to get nowhere with your goals.

Thinking long term is the best way to make good decisions today. The things you do today impact tomorrow.

Call To Action

If you really want to get serious about creating amazing, long lasting habits (and breaking the bad ones) check out James Clear. He has some incredible guides and processes to make you more productive and successful.

Altering My Own Mindset Is The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done

Sat, 17 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know everything.

And I’ve also come to a place in my life where I don’t care what people think about me.

The old me would have obliged to whatever was normal, whatever was practical.

The new me has huge goals and lives a very impractical life.

The things I do are considered crazy by most.

My mindset used to be controlled by others before. Now, it’s my own.

It’s scary challenging all of the things you learned growing up.

But it’s also the most freeing thing.

There’s a better way to live. If you’re feeling stuck, complaining a lot, or just unsatisfied, do the things you do now line up with who you really are?

You don’t have to change everything about yourself. In fact, a lot of things won’t change. But your attitude and mindset will change.

Think of other’s first. Help solve their problems using your own talents.

You’ll be amazed at how happy you can be when you don’t think about yourself all of the time.

Find your truths. Blaze your own trail. Be the light that someone needs.

Consistency Is Hard

Fri, 16 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

You’ll hear me say again and again how small, consistent steps towards a goal will trump short-term bursts any day.

Here’s what’s interesting about that: It’s the biggest thing I struggle with.

When I get up in the morning, I may or may not have a plan.

I go to my day-job somewhere between 7AM and 9AM.

I get home and sometimes I feel like working on stuff, sometimes I don’t.

I procrastinate on A LOT of things, which makes things even more hectic and unclear.

It’s funny, the only thing that I am doing consistently is this daily blog. It’s also the one of the only things in my life that is progressing forward.

If I worked out every day, even just a little bit, I would make progress.

If I planned out my tasks the night before, my mornings would be more productive, even if I only did one small task.

If I went to work at the same time everyday, I could actually plan time to spend on growing my side-projects.

If I just planned things in my life, I would actually know what’s going on.

I’ve been at the whim of not planning for far too long. And now that I am more ambitious than ever, it’s starting to inhibit me.

When I was in college I didn’t need to plan anything to get decent grades.

When I was in high school I didn’t need to plan anything to get decent grades.

When I had less obligations I didn’t need to plan anything because I could manage it all in my head.

Now I am pushing my mental capacity to the limit and it’s getting harder and harder to see the small steps that I need to take every day.

I need to become a planner. I need to take those small steps daily. I know that’s the only way I can make any of this happen.

Anything That Prevents You From Doing Is An Excuse

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Indecision is an excuse.

Perfection is an excuse.

Anything to do with complaining is an excuse.

If you truly want something, do it. DO it. Don’t think about it, don’t wait, don’t try to do it perfectly. Do it.

You’ll learn along the way. You’ll make mistakes. You’ll figure out something that no one else has ever done and you’ll use that to bring success.

If you only do what everyone else has always done, you’ll only get what they got.

If you feel like you can’t do it, it’s just an excuse. Make the changes in your life and personally to be in a place where you can do it.

Corporate America Is Lost

Wed, 14 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This quickly turned into a long rant. Sorry if it’s not super polished. I just needed to talk about this.

I went to school because that’s what I was told would be the best way for me to be successful.

I was good at math and science, why not become an engineer?

In high school I had never even thought about business or entrepreneurship. I thought the only way to make a decent living was to go to school and get a “real job”.

I go to college at RIT and cruise through without any major issues. It’s here that I learn programming (one of the best things that have ever happened to me).

During college, I was required to have an internship. I finally landed one after much deliberation at Corning Incorporated, a large glass and optics manufacturer.

The internship was great. I was learning new things, growing, getting exposure to things that not a lot of people get to see.

But then I graduated and needed a job with a real salary to start paying off those student loans. I’ve got about $100k, and it never impacted me until I had to make that first payment.

I took a job at the same place I had interned. They offered me a seemingly good salary for the area, and it was enough to pay my loans/live on.

Fast forward a year — the growth has all but stopped. Projects are now just a slight differentiation of something I had done a few months ago.

The work is incredibly easy, and SLOW. So slow, that I can do nothing for almost 4 days of the week and get all of my work done on Friday. Yet they’ll still say they are “happy with my work” in my review. I hate that.

I’m currently seated to replace someone who has been there for 20 years. He’s arguably one of the smartest people I know. He’s incredible at his job.

But if I look at his life, and most of the other people in the office, what do they have to show for their 20 years of work?

A decent retirement? More vacations? A pat on the back from the company?

When I look at the lack of growth in all of their lives, it’s so evident to me that I don’t want to be one of them. Their main goal in life is to show up at work, do good work, and take a vacation here and there.

There’s little to no growth. And when there is, it’s just a step up the corporate ladder.

The Corporate System Is Insane

The sole reason why corporations hire people is because the people are more valuable than what they are getting paid. That’s how corporations make money.

When I realized that, I began to wonder what I would really get paid if I was doing the same work as a contractor. Turns out I would make 3x what I make now.

But it also turns out that my skills that I have learned at work are hardly transitional to other job places. The stuff I do now isn’t really done the same way anywhere else.

So not only would I get paid more for the same work if I wasn’t in corporate America, my skills are almost useless outside of corporate america.

Let that sink in. There is a system out there that has convinced people to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get skills that are only applicable in the system that directly benefits from the fact that they can pay less for good talent.

The sad thing is, this system has everyone convinced it’s the only way to a good life. It’s so sad. Parents are still forcing their kids to go to college even if they don’t know what they want to do. If the parents are paying for it, great! If not, it’s insane for a student to take on that debt.

Now I know there are jobs out there that aren’t all bad, and there are jobs out there that definitely require some form of higher education.

But to have that be the only option for kids in high school is absurd. Do you know how many kids think they are failures at life because they can’t pass their math tests? And yet they have so many talents outside of the classroom that they put little to no value on because the ‘system’ doesn’t value it.

Not only does the system force you into a job that matches a certain skillset, there is no guarantee that job exists, and there is no guarantee that you will be able to keep that job (layoffs, fired, etc.).

So you graduate college thinking you can just walk into a position that pays you what you need to get paid, but it turns out you have to put in a whole bunch more work just to be able to land a job. Then, you have to actively make sure you keep that job — otherwise you have no income.

The System Is Built To Keep You Poor

The literal exchange of time for money is the lowest possible form of income that you can bring in. The only form of growth is an increase in the amount of money you get for the time you spend working.

Why is it the lowest possible form of income you could bring in? Because there is no way it can grow beyond yourself. If you don’t put in the hours, you don’t get paid.

For example, if you create a product, or provide a service and you have clients, there are ways that you can make money when you aren’t working. If you have a product, you can bring in sales and revenue through proper advertising and social media marketing. You don’t need to go out and make every sale. A service can scale beyond you once you have employees involved that can distribute some of the work for you.

Not only does the system force you to exchange time for money, they base the system on the fact that you will spend all of your money — whether it be on entertainment, cars, a house, whatever. That’s why corporations have built-in 401Ks, because people are brainwashed into spending all of their money because it’s the normal thing to do. If they didn’t do that, people would never retire, and they would have to continue to pay you more than someone that would replace you with less experience.

They want you trapped, they want you spending all of your money so you can stay in the system and contribute to the agenda that keeps the rich rich and the poor poor.

And when you retire, the standard of living is very similar to what you are doing now. So you will work you whole life to maintain the standard of living you are at now. It’s insane to me that someone can spend 30 years honing their craft, getting good at something, only in exchange for a paycheck and a decent retirement.

How Can I Get Out Of The System?

Question everything.

Why did you by that brand new car a few months ago? Why did you buy that new phone? Why did you buy that house? Was it because that’s what you actually wanted? Or did you feel pressured to be normal?

Don’t be normal. Normal people don’t make an impact.

Is there a way you could do what you do at your job on the side and make more money? Could you start your own business doing what you do now? Want to learn a different skill entirely and be something completely different?

The system doesn’t want you to question anything. They want you to be okay with what they offer you.

Step out of your comfort zone, learn more about who you are as a person and follow that lead. You don’t always have to deal with your life as it is now. It can grow, you can grow, and you can live a better life.

Believe In Yourself

Tue, 13 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

You may have been told that you can’t be successful for different reasons.

You’re too old.

You’re too young.

You’re too dumb.

You’re too undisciplined.

You’re too average.

You’re not good enough.

You don’t live in a big city.

You’re too far gone.

None of it is true.

Don’t let your perception of yourself be determined by others.

Believe in yourself. You’ll be shocked how much you are capable of accomplishing.

Success Is Binary

Thu, 08 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

You’ve got two options.

You are or you aren’t. You will or you won’t. You do or you don’t.

In the end, you decide the life that you have. No one else can do that for you.

And everything is predicated on that binary decision.

You decide what you do with your time. You decide the path you take. You decide what’s reasonable and what’s not.

Then you live with the consequences of those decisions. You’re either successful or you’re not.

There is no ‘try’. It’s only through doing that success comes your way.

The world doesn’t care about your specific situation. It doesn’t care about your problems or your past successes.

They might make a good story in a few years, but right now they can either be excuses or kindling for the burning desire you have in your heart.

You decide the approach.

Are you going to let yourself hold you back? Or are you going to take your life by the horns and push it so far in the right direction that getting the life you want is inevitable?

Figure out who you want to be, what you want to do and how you want to make an impact and chase it with all you have.

Or, dream about who you want to be and sit on the sidelines and watch life pass you by while your dreams quickly fade away.

Don’t let high school be your glory years. Don’t let your past be the best version of yourself.

The best in life is yet to come. But it’s up to you whether or not that statement is actually true.

There’s no pondering. It’s binary. You’re either going to do it or you’re not. You might as well not lie to yourself.

If a dream is buried deep in your heart, it becomes part of who you are. It becomes the north star of all of your decisions. It causes you to grow beyond yourself.

You know the saying, “when there’s a will, there’s a way”. The will is binary — and there is always a way.

You decide.

Showing Up Is Half Of The Battle

Sat, 03 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve talked about this before, but there is no such thing as an overnight success.

The leaders and influencers you look up to have been working for years, honing their craft and making it look easy.

They are the 1% of people who continued to show up — when things were good and when things were bad.

The other 99% quit when something gets hard, or when they have to put in more time than they thought was necessary.

Showing up every day gives you that edge. It builds trust, discipline and a track record.

When you get to a certain point, your long trail of productivity becomes a platform that people see you on. Look at all of the things you have done!

People become best selling authors on their 5th book. People get income from a blog that they pour into everyday for 5 years. It takes months of hard work to get a product to start selling online.

I’ve also talked about how time is a multiplier of your ventures. People overestimate what they get done in a day, but underestimate how much they can do in a year.

When you show up everyday, time is on your side. Then, you only have to do the other half of the battle.

What I’m Learning About

Fri, 02 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Building Audiences

I’ve been studying this one for a while, but I’m convinced that once you have invested in this, you will never have to worry about making money again.

Monetizing reach is nothing new, people and companies have been doing it for decades. But never has there ever been a better time for normal people like you and me to gather a following and use that influence to make money.

You can use social media platforms to find people that are interested in what you are doing, or what you are offering, and use them to generate traffic and sales for your business.

The most valuable audience, which has been for a while, is an email list. But other platforms, like Snapchat, have so much engagement it’s much easier to convert followers into buyers.

To give you an example, Brian Dean from Backlinko (who is really really good at what he does, SEO and backlinks) turned a 2000 person email list into an over $100k course launch in a week’s time. Can you imagine generating $100k in a week? Granted, he worked really hard on that course, and he had a high quality following that had a need to be met. His course cost buyers $1k, so that means he only needed to convert 100 of the 2000 to do this.

That’s a 5% sales rate, but most people see about a 1% sales rate from email marketing. You have to be really good at what you do, and offer things to your audience that they truly need. But I’m convinced that once you build the audience, you can generate money from them on almost a monthly basis.

It’s much easier to sell very-high priced items ($1k to $2k) because you only need to sell a few of them to make good money. If you only make $5 profit on what you are selling, then it would have taken you 20,000 sales to make the amount that Brian did. You would have had to have a massive audience to be able to pull that off. It’s better to sell ultra-premium or give your stuff away.

Speaking of giving your stuff away, that’s exactly what you should do as well. In fact, I would argue that you should give away some of your best stuff. People love to follow people that are putting out good quality content, and it makes them feel better about buying from someone they know is an expert.

I could go on for a while about building an audience, but I’ll cut it off there. You can talk to me if you want to find out more!

Facebook Ads

I’m finding more and more that proper targeted advertising is the shortcut to building an audience. Granted, you do need some upfront capital to invest. But, you can start testing ads on Facebook for about $10 a day and get somewhat decent data that will show you how you are performing.

The crazy thing is — when you find an ad that works, and you have a product to sell, you can literally turn $1 in advertising into $2 in profit. Meaning, if you do advertising properly, you can basically print money. Then you can go from spending $10 a day and making $20 a day, to spending $1000 a day and making $2000 a day.

There’s definitely a lot more to it, and there needs to be a lot of different things in place. I’ve been dabbling with it recently on my Blacklet launch, and I have seen some good results (just looking for traffic and email sign-ups).

I’m actually thinking about doing my own pre-order launch instead of a Kickstarter if I can figure out the right formula. If I can create a cash-generating machine, it’s something that would work well beyond a Kickstarter launch, and it could propel my business for a good while.

Affiliate Marketing

You put links to products and you get a commission.

Just like the others this is much more complicated than that, but it’s actually that simple once everything is implemented.

Amazon has the most popular affiliate marketing program. Often times, if you’re reading an article or watching a YouTube article about a product, there will be an Amazon link to that product. It might seem like a harmless link, but in the background, that person makes a certain percentage of the cost of that product if you actually buy it (say, 3% — 7% depending on the product).

Often times, people will start blogs or YouTube channels that are built around the fact that you can make money doing this. It’s not hard to make a lot of money once you build an audience like I talked about above.

So if you want to support a content creator, click those links. If you don’t want to give them a cut, don’t click those links. But, keep in mind that this is a great way to make money in 2017.

Drop-shipping

Drop-shipping isn’t anything new, but you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s super simple. You list something on eBay for slightly more than it is listed for on Amazon, and you get a small profit when you sell. When you sell, you buy the product from Amazon and put the eBay buyer’s address in the Amazon shipment address.

Okay, it’s definitely more complicated than that, but that’s the basic gist. There are many other factors like competition, pricing, and SEO for the listing on eBay that play into the success of your drop-shipping venture. Being able to do this is called taking advantage of arbitrage, which is making a profit from a difference in costs.

The benefit of drop-shipping is, there is no upfront cost to get started. The profit margins are low, but if you list hundreds of products and sell 1 a day of each, that lands a few hundred bucks in your pocket everyday.

The disadvantage of drop-shipping is the buyer experience. You have no control over what gets sent to the customer. So, if / when there is a complaint from the customer, you have to relay that to the amazon seller and it becomes a big mess.

Also, if eBay found out you didn’t have the inventory you were selling, they’d probably shut you down. But lots of people do it, and eBay profits from it, so I doubt they are too aggressive about shutting people down.

So if you’re looking for some extra cash, this might be for you. I think I will get into this heavy either after my Blacklet launch or in the near future.

I’ve been learning a lot — and even things not on this list. But I wanted to tell you guys about what I am interested in, and what I will be exploring in the future!

The Advantage of Mental Toughness

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

These all sound like great qualities to have. And they are!

The truth is, without these, you won’t get very far on your journey to success.

These qualities give you will power when you feel like giving up.

These qualities give you the edge over your competition.

These qualities are the difference between success and failure.

Just how do you develop mental toughness?

The truth is, there are many ways to develop mental toughness.

Do hard things when no one is watching.

Cut out the fluff, emphasize what’s important.

Go against the grain.

Take the hard road.

See hardship as a challenge, not a failure.

Mental toughness alters your perception of the things you encounter.

A mentally tough mind can surmount the most impossible of tasks.

A mentally tough mind continues when everyone else quits.

A mentally tough mind ignores the small things that stumble others.

Challenge yourself to be great. Conquer your giants. Take your fears head on.

It’s Almost Impossible for Smart People to Win in Business

Wed, 31 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Smart people look good, act good, and talk good.

They know the best way to approach any problem — and if they don’t they’ll figure it out.

There’s one thing that smart people lack, though.

It’s the tenacity to do the work when the work is beneath them.

That’s the difference between successful people and failures.

Smart people just never get around to doing anything meaningful.

They’re always trying to learn more, figure out more and consume more.

To win in business, you have to be a person that is doing the work, not figuring out a way to get around doing the work.

If you’re smart and you know the best way to do something, just do it.

If you’re dumb and you don’t know what you’re doing at all, just do it.

If you want to be successful at all in this life, you need to do it.

There’s no amount of thinking, pondering or learning that will get you past the doing.

Success is found in the doing, and it’s often the difference between those that win and those that don’t.

Patience Is The Game

Tue, 30 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It might take 1 year…

… 2 years …

… 3 years …

… 10 years …

To see your goals and dreams turn into reality.

There is no get-rich-quick plan.

There is no shortcut to getting past hard work and discipline.

No one will do it for you.

People might even try to keep you from doing it.

Just remember the clarity you have about your vision. Speak it every day.

Speak it until it becomes your reality.

It takes a lot of patience to sacrifice things today in order to have a better future.

It takes a lot of patience to do the grinding work that no one else will do.

It takes a lot of patience to rise up out of an underdog position.

If you don’t have patience, it may just never happen.

5 years will pass by and you’ll wonder why you didn’t start 5 years ago.

Get Uncomfortable

Wed, 24 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Getting up at 5AM sucks.

Cold showers suck.

Staying up and working instead of going to bed with your wife some nights sucks.

Missing out on childhood memories with my son sucks.

Staring at a screen for 12 hours a day sucks.

Skipping meals because you need to keep working sucks.

Not watching Netflix every night sucks.

Working when you feel like doing nothing sucks.

Getting rejected and going back to the drawing board sucks.

Scrapping everything and starting over sucks.

It’s just for a season. The work never goes away, but when you get used to being uncomfortable, you look at the benefits that come along with it.

Financial freedom is amazing.

Getting control of your time is amazing.

Being able to provide for your family is amazing.

Spending quality undistracted time with your family is amazing.

Having people buy what you made and thanking you is amazing.

Becoming the person you always wanted to be is amazing.

Eliminating financial hardship in your marriage is amazing.

Creating something that you created with your own two hands is amazing.

Flexibility in your schedule to compensate for life events is amazing.

I’m putting in the time and effort now so I can live the life I want. These are a rough outline of what success looks like to me.

It Won’t Make Sense

Tue, 23 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been working for almost two years on what appeared to be wasted ventures.

I’m not an expert, and this isn’t advice as to how you should do things for yourself. This is just my experience.

I worked hard in my spare time to learn web development and user experience design. I got pretty good. But when I tried to ‘become a web developer’ it just didn’t suit me.

I worked hard in my spare time to learn growth hacking and SEO. I got pretty good. But when I tried to ‘become a growth hacker’ it just didn’t suit me.

I worked hard in my spare time to learn online marketing, copywriting and branding. I got pretty good. But when I tried to ‘become an online marketer’ it just didn’t suit me.

I thought I had failed. Two years of getting up at 5AM, putting in 2–3 hours a day writing, reading, learning, coding and implementing. I had nothing to show for it.

After all, the motivation was always money. Just being honest. My family is swamped in debt, living paycheck to paycheck. I knew the only answer was increased income — but I knew I was better than just obtaining another paycheck in exchange for my time.

I was supposed to be solving that problem, not spending hours on end growing and learning. That’s what college was supposed to be for.

Now, I have an application for everything I have learned. It was only after I launched the website for Blacklet that I realised this.

It was my web development experience that allowed me to develop a fast performing and quality website for desktop and mobile. Not having to farm that out saved me money and time.

It was my copywriting and marketing education that allowed me to land an influencer with over 90k followers on Instagram that will do a review and promote my product, simply because I asked.

It was my growth hacking skills that influenced my friends to grow their own influence. The results are amazing and it gets better every day. I will use these skills myself to grow Blacklet.

I didn’t know why I was learning these things. It didn’t make sense when I was doing it. I just knew I needed to do it.

The common thread we all share is the need to do what we were made to do. There is something innate in you that you are excellent at or interests you to the point where you will do it for free for two years.

I encourage you to find out what that is for yourself. Spend time thinking, experimenting, growing mentally, physically and spiritually. Work hard in your spare time.

When I look back, after all of the success that I have planned for the future, I will be glad that I wrote most of it down. I think it will be an encouragement to people who need to go on their own journey to find who they are and what they were meant to do.

I’m nowhere near done growing or figuring out what I was meant to do. My best work is in the future, and will be a culmination of all of the little successes along the way.

One thing I do have to say, is you should not learn simply to learn cool things. You should learn so you can apply it to your life and become a better version of yourself.

At a certain point, more knowledge has no value. Only application and doing will allow you to grow and succeed.

I spent two years learning, and had my own applications along the way. Doing work for free (River Rochester Website), doing favors for my friends (Jeremiah Thomas’ and Marijke Fetzner’s Websites), helping others get on their own path (Growth and Audience Building for My Wife Hannah).

The sooner you can get on the journey to finding out who you are and what you were meant to do, the sooner you can help others and be on your path to success.

I hope this encourages you today!

Time Constraints

Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The best way to never do something is to never plan it.

Most people think that things are harder than they actually are, so they put them off until they have ‘time’.

You don’t have time. You make time for what’s important to you.

It doesn’t take a year to start a business. It takes a weekend of going out and figuring out if people want what you have to offer.

Don’t let your dreams slip away from you. Figure out the minimum work needed to get something started and do that this weekend.

If it’s really your dream, you need to make it a priority.

If you don’t, it’ll never happen.

Patience

Tue, 16 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The pace of technology gives everyone the false sense that they can become a viral success overnight.

The truth is, on social media, it’s more human than it is technology.

Social media is a means of channeling word of mouth.

Word of mouth doesn’t happen over night. It happens over months and years.

You build a reputation for consistently meeting the expectations of the word of mouth.

It’s a long haul, but that shouldn’t deter you. This is the best time to build an audience ever.

Today you don’t have to go through big publishers or traditional routes to get your message out. You can build an audience on platforms that already have massive attention.

Be open. Be vulnerable. Be authentic. That’s what people want.

It’s funny, we want to be seen as perfect and without mistakes, when that’s exactly what people want to see. They want to see how you face adversity.

The story is what grabs people’s attention.

The longer you have their attention, the more your message spreads. The more your message spreads, the more people you can impact.

Don’t forget to be human.

Persistence Beats Talent

Thu, 11 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Persistence is a key factor to success. Picking something and sticking to it.

The people who spend 80 hours a week for 20 years while getting good constructive feedback and focusing on the right goals will be very successful.

At the same time, someone with natural talent that spends that amount of time might be even more successful.

But if a very talented person never puts in the work and never does the things it takes to be successful (like discipline, leadership, character and others), they can’t guarantee success.

Your natural talent will only take you so far.

At some point, other people need to be involved. Other skills need to be learned.

If you think that because you are good at something you are going to just get paid to do it, think again.

At the same time, like I said in my last post, emphasize your strengths.

But it takes a lot of planning, time and effort to be in a place where people will pay for your skill.

If you don’t feel like you are good at anything — I have good news. Persistence beats talent.

At the end of the day, it’s the person who works the hardest that will win.

If you want to become something, work super hard at it. Watch what happens when you show up everyday for two years.

Push through the growth period when you are learning something new and have no audience.

Be prolific, even. Put in the work every day. Make people marvel at your work ethic. Don’t stop until you have what you want.

Emphasize Your Strengths

Wed, 10 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This is one major thing a lot of people get wrong when they try to become a better version of themselves.

They think that they need to become better at the things they are bad at. This is only true for fundamental human behavior, not skills and talents.

So if you can’t properly hold a conversation with a human being, you should probably work on that. But if you are terrible at art, and really good at math, don’t try to become an artist.

You don’t need to be a perfect, complete human being to be able to do something amazing with your life. You only need to take what you are good at, and amplify it on a scale that is well above the average person.

Often times, other people can help you with your shortcomings and weaknesses. Ask someone to help you with it. They’ll probably be more than willing.

For instance, I’m terrible at cooking. (Is this a basic life skill? Maybe) Regardless, my wife Hannah does most of the cooking around here. That’s well understood and communicated with each other.

On the other hand, I’m good at math and spreadsheets, so I manage the finances.

If Hannah were to try and force me to become better at cooking, it would be a lost cause. Vice versa for the spreadsheets.

When you’re naturally good at something, that’s an advantage you have that many people do not. Hone in on it. Use it. Grow it. Multiply it.

When you become the best at that thing, success will follow.

I like to think I am good at coding. I am not so good at design. So when I start a website, I start with a pre-made template that pushes me in the right direction.

It would be a waste of time for me to spend days, even months figuring out how to develop a great design, when someone else is already naturally good at it and does it better than I ever would.

I pay them for that talent. I’d pay you as well, if you had a talent that met my shortcomings.

This is the fundamental framework for how a business works.

Your talents are valuable. Don’t let them go to waste. Find out what you are good at and run with it. Make everyone say, “You make it look so easy,” because it is easy for you.

Don't Think. Just Do.

Tue, 09 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Most fears are entirely irrational.

Fear of failure, fear of judgement, fear of letting someone down.

You look at the chances of success and you quit before you even try.

It’s always important to think about the worst-case scenario when you fear doing something.

Most times, it’s not all that bad. For instance, if I am not successful with my side ventures, I still have a job and a place to live and food on the table.

Push through the fear when attempting to do something new. Don’t let irrational fears keep you from being who you want to be.

Failing at things is a good sign — it means you are trying something new. If you never try anything new, you’ll always have the same lifestyle.

Set a goal, make a plan backwards from that goal, and stick to it. Or, don’t set a goal and just do things that push your boundaries every day. Get better at something everyday. Build your potential for success.

Don’t think about if the thing you’re doing is the best thing you could be doing. If you are doing something that is making you better, that’s good enough.

Promise me you’ll do something today that makes you a better version of yourself.

Don’t think about it, just do it.

Action Breeds Action

Mon, 08 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post is inspired by this Art Of Manliness podcast episode. They say it much better than I do, but this is my version of it.

It’s about action, and how action is the answer to everything.

Yes, everything. Even being still is a calculated action.

It’s a habit of ‘reaction’ that causes us to plateau.

Unfortunately, reaction is more common than action. What does reaction look like?

Checking your phone first thing when you wake up and you’re still in bed. Checking your email every time you get an email. Taking phone calls when it’s inconvenient for you.

You’re letting those things decide what you are doing at that exact moment. You’re reacting to the system that is literally designed to keep your attention.

Think about the value of your time before letting Facebook control it for you.

Action is taking control over your life and the situations you encounter.

You don’t feel like working out until you get started. You don’t feel like going to that party until you get there. You don’t feel like finishing that project until you sit down to start.

Action breeds action. The best way to get motivated to do something is to start doing it, or at least taking necessary steps to get you in a position to not be able to turn back.

Going to the gym to work out might be a hard habit for you to get into. To make it easier, just simply put on your gym clothes every day you want to go to the gym.

Then, once you have a habit of doing that, take a drive to the gym every day you want to go to the gym. Once you’re at the gym, you might feel pretty lame about turning around and going back, so you might as well go in!

Simple, small, calculated actions are the difference between success and failure.

Setting up systems in your life to make these actions automatic is the best thing you can do. When you are forced into certain constraints, you have no option to not take action.

An example of this is to put a social media blocker on your phone to increase your productivity, or automating your savings every week.

You can have a better life, and you can kick those bad habits. Replace them with small actions that defy who you used to be.

Try Something

Fri, 05 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

When you break the norm, you never know what will happen.

There’s that one thing that you always wanted to do, or that you know you should be doing but don’t think it’s possible right now in your current situation.

Try it.

Try to move towards that thing. Make that call, send that email, put your hands to work creating that thing.

Find people who are doing what you do and try to emulate them. Find out what they did when they started. You’ll be surprised that they too were once beginners.

It’s never too late to start something, and you’re never too young to be the best at what you do.

When you find your passion, it doesn’t feel like work. It feels effortless. It feels like you are growing and have hope in your life again.

If you don’t like what you start, simply stop doing it. No one will get hurt, no one will criticize you.

But at the same time, don’t mistake a lull for a reason to stop what you’re pursuing. Push through the tough stuff if it’s something you know you should be doing.

It’s the people that strive for something and come out on the other side that succeed.

Don’t be afraid to start.

What Do You Want To Be Known For?

Thu, 04 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This question has haunted me for some time.

I’m constantly in battle with my passions / talents. Indecisive on where I should sow them.

I know what I’m good at, I know the limitlessness of my capabilities, why is it so hard to decide?

Maybe you already know the answer to this question — you’re way ahead of me.

I’m writing this to remind myself that what I am known for can change.

I don’t have to be the same person I am now in 10 years. I don’t have to have the same passions, skills and mindset.

In fact, I truly hope I am not the same person at all.

What I want to do now isn’t a lock-in. I’m not making a life-long commitment to something that I might hate the thought of in 10 years.

The same goes for you.

Commit deeply to something. Obsess over it. Become that thing. Become the best at that thing.

Show up every day for two years.

Only at that time can you decide whether or not it is for you.

In the early stages, when you suck and you know it, you are not in the right place to decide if it’s what you should be doing.

You might discover your true calling on this journey. You might discover exactly what you don’t want to be doing with your life.

The commitment part is the hardest thing for me. I don’t want to waste time.

On the other hand, time is the only thing that will allow me to truly discover whether something is what I should be doing.

What do you want to be known for?

What do I want to be known for?

Answer this question, and you’ll be well on your way to success.

You’ve Got One Shot At Life

Wed, 03 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This is something I have to remind myself of everyday.

When I don’t feel like getting out of bed. When I don’t feel like being productive. When I don’t think I can make a difference in the world.

YOU decide how you feel. Perception is up to you. If you actually got out of bed this morning, be thankful you have the ability to do that.

This is different from the perspective of “live everyday like it’s your last”. That’s hogwash.

This is a call to dream, to build, and to spend time on the things that matter in life.

People get comfortable with their lives and settle for things that are well within their capabilities. They act like they are going to live forever.

I understand you have obligations. I understand you have baggage. I understand someone in the past said you couldn’t be exactly what you want to be.

But the fact of the matter is, you decide how you respond to the things that happen to you.

I want everyone I know to reach their full potential. I want them to be pushed to their limits, so they can truly know who they are.

It’s sad watching some people live out mediocre lives when they have the capability to be world changers.

The world needs you. You’re the only person on the planet that has your experiences, your mentality, and your perspective.

Sure, it’s hard to be that. Sure, it would mean changing almost everything about your life. Sure, you might have to drop some relationships along the way.

But you only live once, remember?

What would you rather choose? An incredible legacy, documented and talked about for hundreds of years? Or the only written evidence you existed is on a tombstone?

Everyone dies. Most have regrets, some don’t. Which will you choose?

These are harsh words, but you can’t tell me it’s not true.

Solve Problems

Tue, 02 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It’s a simple principle, but it’s the foundation of entrepreneurship.

If you can solve someone’s problem or at least make it more convenient for them, you can make money doing that.

But don’t assume that because you are good at one thing that it’s the answer to everyone’s problem.

When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Find a way to grow your skill set to adapt to what people want around you.

It’s more useful for them, and beneficial for you in the long run.

Instead of focusing on the metrics that you bring to the table, focus on solving the specific problem of another person.

You never know what you might learn if you just ask people what they want.

You can be the person to help them achieve their dreams. Or you can be the person that makes their day a little better.

Oh, and you can make money doing it.

You Have Time

Mon, 01 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Time is no respecter of persons.

Meaning, it doesn’t care about you.

You should care about time, though.

It’s the one thing that we all have the exact same amount of everyday. It levels the playing field. It’s the most valuable thing on the planet.

How you spend it determines everything in your life.

Where you spend your time shows the true passions of your heart.

Those passions can be used to build, or they can be used to destroy.

They can be wasted, or they can be multiplied.

Priorities. Sacrifice. Focus. You’ve heard it all before.

The reason you don’t listen is because time has no value to you.

It has no value to you because you’ve traded your time for dollars per hour.

You exchange time for a fixed rate of money. If you work harder you get the same amount. If you suck at your job you get the same amount. It’s just time.

What if you built something with that time? Something that only you can control. Something that can be multiplied. Something that gets better over time.

Just a thought.

I’m not going to tell you what to do. I probably am offending you right now. Whatever.

I just want you to think about where and how you spend your time. Even just thinking about it might free you up to do some of the things you always wanted to do.

Some of the things we spend time are are so pale and minuscule compared to the things we could be building.

You can’t get wasted time back.

You can choose how you spend your time in the future.

No one is perfect. But time doesn’t care if you are perfect.

Time doesn’t care about anyone.

Selling is Serving

Sun, 30 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

If you don’t sell, you can’t spread your message (product, service, mentality, etc.).

Your message is important. Someone needs your message.

If you don’t sell your message, the person that needs it won’t see it.

By selling, you are serving the people that you need to reach.

You’re solving a specific problem that they have. You’re meeting a need in their life.

When you sell, you have a chance to bring joy and fulfillment to a real person.

When you don’t sell, someone misses out on what you have to offer.

Sure, selling is awkward. It’s not natural. But its completely necessary for the furthering of your message.

Sell to many, and some will even give you money for what you offer.

Some will only take your free stuff. They still needed what you offered. Ask them what they need — provide what they ask for. They might even give you money as well.

Either way, you made a difference in their life. That’s what matters.

Awareness

Sat, 29 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

People don’t know who you are.

You have your own, tiny little circle of people that know you, but the people you want to reach don’t know you.

How do you get in front of the people you want to reach?

Follow people who like stuff that you do. Some of them will follow you back.

You can create a following a little bit everyday.

In the words of Yann Girard:

Follow people who like stuff that’s similar to yours.

Follow people who follow people who put out similar stuff to yours.

And then some of them will check you out.

They will check out your stuff.

And then some of them will follow you back.

And then you have to put out good stuff.

Over and over again.

It really is that simple.

Did I mention he has hundreds of thousands of people who read his stuff every month?

The truth is, you can do the same thing.

What he says isn’t revolutionary. What he says isn’t necessarily ground breaking.

He just got in front of the people who wanted to listen to what he had to say.

Who wants to listen to what you have to say?

You can find out a little bit every day. Over and over again. It’s really that simple.

Start Now

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Think back to a time when things were more simple, when everyday was less stressful and more meaningful. For most of us, it’s pretty easy to remember a time like that.

As time moves forward, life gets more cluttered. You have more obligations, more priorities, more things that suck your time away.

What if you would have started that book two years ago? What if you would have started that blog five years ago? What if you would have acted on that business idea three years ago?

By now, each of those things would have seen growth and increase, because time has a compound interest effect.

But what if I told you that thinking back and wishing you would have started a few years ago is not the way to live?

It’s Never Too Late

You feel like it’s too late, but it truly is never too late to start something that you have always wanted to do.

It takes a year to lose most of the weight you have gained. It takes a two years to turn that side-hustle into a full-time business, it takes a few years to become a master at a new craft or skill.

Most “overnight successes” are a result of the compound interest of 10 or 20 years of hard work. It takes time to do anything meaningful, but you have to actually start in order for time to be on your side.

If you never start something, time will move forward, but you will not.

On the contrary, if you do something and stick with it, both you and time will move forward. The secret is, time will move at a constant rate, but you will grow exponentially.

Someone who has written three books is more efficient and faster at writing another book. Someone who has programmed certain technologies for four years will be much faster, more confident and more efficient than someone who started yesterday.

The only difference between you and a more successful version of you, it time and action.

The reason why it is never too late to start today, is because it takes 10 to 20 years to be truly successful. If you’re 20, you can be ultra-successful by the time you are 30. If you’re 50, you can be ultra-successful by the time you are 60.

It doesn’t matter how old you are right now. Time is time, whether you are 20 or 50. What matters is how hungry you are to put in the time and effort.

It’s Tough To Keep Going

When you’re two months in, you wonder if the business you started will make any money. When you’re four months in, you wonder if you’ll ever be able to run a marathon in the near future. When you’re 6 months in, you wonder if you’ll ever actually finish that book.

These are common thoughts, and thoughts everyone has when they are second guessing their hard work.

It’s commonly referred to as the dip. A period in time at which things start to slow and make less progress than they were initially.

Most of the time, it is beneficial to stick it out. You’ll develop that intuition over time.

But if you don’t have the passion that you once had, or you don’t have the will to move on, keep moving forward. Why? Because time has compound interest, and staying invested makes sure you capitalize on that effect.

You have to give things time in order to see them be successful (I’m the worst at this, trust me). It’s going to be hard work. There will be days that you don’t feel like doing it. There will be times where it seems like all hope is lost.

Don’t quit when it gets tough. Don’t quit when you lose some fiery passion. Think about what you’ll think about in five years. Because in five years time will move forward, but will you?

Stop Talking About Your Goals

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Inspiration

I really like Derek Sivers. He’s unconventional, and advocates for doing things your own way. He’s been very successful, but yet he learns and grows in public every day.

Recently, I stumbled across his TED talk: Keep Your Goals To Yourself

It’s an interesting philosophy, stating that when you talk about your goals you are less likely to accomplish them.

Why? When you talk about your goals, you begin to put on an attitude or feeling that personifies that goal. It makes you think that you are closer to your goal than you actually are, and that you are already successful without having put in very much work.

Feeling like there is a lot more work to be done is a much better place to be in than feeling like you have already done enough. You will underestimate the effort necessary to reach your goal when you talk about it.

He backs it up with social psychology in the video.

This Is For Personal Goals. Not Group Goals.

Personal goals lack accountability. That’s exactly why you need the mental capacity to stay motivated and in a mindset of working (not talking).

Group goals are different, because of the built in accountability. Group goals need to be communicated so everyone is on the same page.

Why This Resonates With Me

It’s painful to admit it, but I do this a lot. I love the thought of working on cool projects, and telling people all of the great ideas that I have.

But when it comes down to it, when I sit down to work on that cool project, the motivation is just not there and I waste my time on distractions. Though, in a week I will feel as if I have done something.

This is why I tend to jump from project to project, without having done very much work on any of them.

I actually came to this revelation the other day before watching this video. I looked at all of the things I am working on, and really wondered why I hadn’t made meaningful progress on any of it.

Sure, I do have actual goals that are goals for actual reasons. But when I present them to the world and tell everyone “I am X”, when I am clearly not, it takes away the pressure to put in the work to actually achieve my goals.

I’ll Still Talk About What I am Working On

I don’t think that is a problem. People are genuinely interested in what people are doing. The issue is when the conversation tends towards big picture claims.

The more you can focus on being all about the things you are working on now, the more you can protect that lofty goal that you have in your head.

Talking about what you are working on is important for learning as well. If you know how to explain something in a simple way to someone, then it shows you have mastered the topic.

Call To Action

From now on I won’t be talking about my goals with other people. I’ll talk about the work I am putting in, and the interesting things that come along with that!

Once I have made meaningful progress and can show someone something that I have finished, then I can talk about the goals that I had and the vision for it.

I hope you enjoyed this!

Fear of Failure

Fri, 10 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I come from a background of conformity. Excelling nonetheless, but within the mold provided to me. I am a product of the machine of the public school system. The system that cranks out good employees for large corporations.

I never once thought about what I was actually good at. I just looked at what my grades told me I was good at. I never once thought about what I actually wanted, I just picked what was most interesting from the list. I never once tried to explore my options, I only knew what the system told me my options were.

This path leads to a comfortable life. The most average, middle class life. It pays the bills, puts food on the table and even lets me go out to dinner every once in a while.

This is all I knew. I didn’t have anyone in my life telling me there was another way. I thought I needed to take on my student loan debt because it was the only way to get a degree, which was the only way to get a job, which was the only way to get paid.

For 20 years this has been ingrained into my head. It’s burned into my brain. I was on autopilot. Not only was I a part of the system, I was the system. I exchanged my time for money to pay bills that I didn’t need. Wash, rinse, repeat.

About A Year Ago

It finally dawned on me.

I’ve talked about this before, but this inspiration came from YouTube. One day I figured out that there were people who put out content everyday, and it was really good! I watched it for entertainment, but then I realized something…

These people make a living doing this.

This isn’t a job, this isn’t a cubicle. This isn’t a daily 9–5. This is a lifestyle of creativity, flexibility and freedom.

Sure, I knew who the CEOs of businesses were, but I never thought about the fact that they branched out on their own and started those businesses. I never thought of them as normal people.

Then I began seeing it everywhere. People out there hustling to get paid while doing what they truly love and enjoy. Art, music, programming, contracting, all over the place.

Then I began to think about where I was at in my life.

Happily married, but swimming in loads of debt. A job that’s considered “great”, but doesn’t feel great. It feels more like I am trapped.

Not only that, but it’s an extension of the system. If I just follow the rules for another 30 years, I’ll finally be able to reap the rewards of the system.

What are the rewards? A decent retirement, maybe enough money to move somewhere with nice weather and less stress. More time to spend with my family.

Why can’t I have that now? Why can’t I take mini retirements and travel the world? Why can’t I live wherever I want? Why can’t I spend more time with my family today?

These questions fueled my newly burning fire. A desire to seek out a lifestyle of freedom. A desire to break the mold, and exit the system.

I began furiously consuming content from entrepreneurs, business people and creatives. Sean McCabe, Gary Vaynerchuck, Casey Neistat. I began reading books like Essentialism, Deep Work, The 10x Rule and Start With Why.

I took it all like a firehose. I absorbed all of it. I felt empowered, like I could take on the world and show everyone that I could make something of myself. That I could hustle and make a dollar on my own intuition, knowledge and hard work.

After a few months of this, one message broke through everything: Do. It’s a simple message, but a powerful one. It’s what distinguishes successful people from unsuccessful people. It’s what makes this whole entrepreneurial journey hard. You have to get out of your comfort zone and do something that creates value.

Today

Today I have clarity as to how I am going to break that mold. What I am going to do.

I have three goals — get out of debt, work remotely / from home and to have the ability to do what I actually want, which is making progressive web apps.

There is so much I have learned about making businesses, building an audience and hustling day in and day out.

Here is how I am going to do that.

I am going to start a web design and local SEO business, purely to get out of debt faster. It’s not because I love doing it, it’s because it’s what I am good at and can deploy it very quickly.

Why not just start making web apps? Because I need money sooner than later. I don’t have years to learn all that I need to know and build a customer base for a passive income, I need to hustle now and get clients that pay cash today.

I am also going to be building an audience by documenting my journey. I call it — Cube to Remote. My journey from working in a soul-sucking day job to working wherever I want, whenever I want and as hard as I want.

This sounds great when I say it out loud but actually doing it is a different story.

I still have remnants of the system I was groomed to be a part of. It still knocks at my door to make sure I am not breaking the mold, or doing anything that would invoke risk.

The truth is, anything that is great invokes risk. Anything that is better than average takes guts, courage and sacrifice. It’s risky to put my day job on edge. I get paralyzed when I think about it. How I am I going to pay my monthly bills? How am I going to put food on the table for my family? What if I fail?

What if I fail?

…

What if I succeed?

The downside to me leaving my day job is having to work two jobs, or working for less money. I might have to move to cheaper housing, or cut back on our internet bill. I might make $50k, $40k or $30k.

But the upside, oh the upside!

The upside is infinite. It’s scalable beyond anything I can imagine. The amount of money that I can make is double, triple, 10x what I am making now. I would be living a lifestyle that I choose, and be working when I want and how I want.

Isn’t that risk worth it?

It is, and I am deciding that now. No more excuses, no more paralysis. This is the best thing for my future.

I have been afraid of failure in the past, but not anymore. I am not afraid to break the mold that the system gave me. I am taking my life on a different course, and it’s going to be amazing.

Loose Ends

Right now I have some loose ends to clean up. I need to finish making some websites for my current clients (mostly friends and family), and then I can move on to making my web design and Local SEO business.

I will also be working on a product based startup. Stay tuned to find out more about my startup journey!

I’m excited, I’m scared, I’m ready.

Thank you everyone for your support and feedback during this time of learning and growing. It’s been an amazing journey.

It’s time for me to do.

Writing Every Day

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

One thing that has been consistent throughout all of my recent ventures has been writing. It’s what allows me to get ideas on the page and out of my head.

This process allows me to flush out ideas — good and bad. This is necessary for me, since I am not one to talk much.

The other thing it is good for is documenting. Documenting the journey that I have been on to completely change my mindset about the world and my role in it.

That’s not an easy task. I am still intimidated by the freedom associated with choosing the lifestyle you want. I was always brought up in the system, I was a purebred employee that knew how to obey.

Luckily, I always had rebellious side and never liked to be normal. After fulfilling the ‘dream’ of going to college and getting a real job, I was stuck. My options were finally limited. I was suffocating.

I Don’t Know How It Started, But I’m Glad It Did

Actually, I somewhat know where it started — YouTube.

I discovered that there were people who put out daily content, and that you could subscribe to it. It stared as my form of entertainment, but then it turned into an obsession.

How were they able to make a living doing exactly what they wanted? The concept never dawned on me. I thought you needed an education for that.

I had never realized that you could pick what you wanted to do, stick with it for a few years and get really good at it and then begin to thrive on that alone.

“Show up everyday for two years, watch what happens.” — Sean McCabe

My first real obsession was Casey Niestat. Watching him hone his craft and crank everyday was inspirational and made me want to have something like that in my own life.

I have no desire to be a YouTuber, but, that doesn’t mean that work ethic couldn’t translate to me.

Fast Forward

Fast forward to today — about 8 months later. Where am I at with this whole thing?

Ashamedly, not too much further along. And it’s entirely a mindset thing.

My mind is 100% the thing that holds me back. It tries to keep me safe. It tries to justify living the way I always have, working a safe 9–5 job and staying in the system.

That’s been the hardest thing to change. But it definitely has changed.

The other hardest thing to change is work ethic. It’s funny how it’s called work ethic, because it’s more about being honest with yourself about how much work you are getting done and less about actually getting a lot more done.

I’ve learned that consistent daily output is essential to living a lifestyle that you want. That takes a lot of discipline. Discipline that I definitely did not have.

Working a 9–5 is easy; do what your boss says in a reasonably quick amount of time and stay out of trouble.

Working for yourself is much harder, because your success is directly predicated on the amount and quality of the work you produce.

My mind also likes to try and distract me. It makes me think about other things like social media and browsing the internet. It’s terrible how distracted an undisciplined mind can be.

It’s terrible how unproductive an addicted mind can be.

It continues to be a struggle, but it has gotten better. I am able to sit down and write without distraction, and also read.

But when it comes to work — like developing an app or working on a website for a client — the last thing my mind wants to do is focus on that.

Producing is greater than consuming. That’s a concept I have to remind myself of daily.

The people that consume all day are not successful. It’s the people that produce the content that is consumed that are successful.

Don’t Listen to Anything I Have to Say

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I have been sending emails out to all of you claiming a lot of different things. The truth is, none of it matters unless you figure out what works for you.

I like to tell you guys what works for me, or what resonates with me. I don’t always do the things that I tell you guys is what you should do. I’m not perfect, and I definitely am not the hardest working person I know.

I do know what works for me, though. And if me telling you these things makes you get up and do something different with your life, then that’s awesome!

Everyday I figure out more about who I am, what I am good at and what I am terrible at. All I do to maximize my productivity is focus on the things I am good at, and push off the things I am bad at to other people.

Don’t think that you need to fix every area of your life before you can make a difference in your life.

Everyone Is Different

I read a lot of books, I listen to a lot of leaders and successful people, talking about the ways to be come just like them. They all have different stories and timelines. One thing is always the same, they figured out what made them tick and they stuck with it.

Are you not good at talking to people? You don’t have to. Are you not good with you hands? Don’t force yourself to do something with them.

This isn’t an excuse to be bad at everything, but a call to focus on what makes you you. When you focus on what you are good at, you can exponentially increase your talents and success.

There is an example of this with singing. If you’re a 5 out of 10 rated singer, you can bust your butt and become a 7 out of 10. But the truth is, no one is going to pay money to see a 7 out of 10.

Do what comes naturally to you and work hard to hone that craft meticulously.

Some things are always true

The harder you work on your strengths, the more successful you will be.

The time you spend trying to fix your weaknesses is mostly wasted time.

It doesn’t matter how much you read, listen to or learn about successful tactics. If you don’t execute, you won’t succeed.

Finding out what works for you and ignoring everything else is one of the most useful things you can do with your time.

Routines and strengths will change over time. They will be dependent on what’s most important to you at that time.

I hope you enjoyed this! Get out and make a difference.

Getting The Life You Want

Thu, 22 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Why do you work a 9–5 job? You probably don’t want to, and I’m here to tell you — you don’t have to!

It’s not hard to figure out, but it’s a lot of hard work.

What do you actually want?

This is an interesting question. Most people have to think long and hard.

I like to ask it like this: If you never had to work for money anymore, what would you do with your time?

That’s more than likely what you actually want in life. And that’s okay!

For me, I love working on things that matter, make a difference and are cutting edge. If I never had to work for money, I would serve other people by developing tools they can use for free that would allow them to do things they have never done before.

That’s right. If I never had to work a day in my life, I would work anyways. Why? Because it’s our duty.

Seriously, though. Give this some thought. If there is a lifestyle, monetary value or level of depth that you want to reach in your life, choose to pursue it! You only get one chance at life. You might as well make it worth it!

Going Deeper

Why do you want that? This is an even tougher question. If you don’t have a why, you’re going to lose steam quickly. Having a why is like having wind in your sails, a compass to guide you and a bulls-eye to aim at.

Your why should be yours, not someone else’s. It’s not what your mom wants for you, it’s not what your friends want for you, it’s what you truly and genuinely want your life to represent.

Your why doesn’t have to make sense to other people. You could give everything you own away to homeless people and travel the world with little material possessions. Some people might call you crazy, but this might be the one and only thing that would satisfy your why.

Crafting a why can be difficult, but it is essential to the process. Make sure you take a lot of time to figure out exactly what you want to be doing. Once you do, the rest is just the work it takes to get there!

There is a lot of information on this topic. One of my new favorite books, Start With Why is a great starting point to figure out your best why.

Obsession and Balance

To get the life you want, you have to be obsessed. You have to do what it takes, and you have to ignore the things and people who don’t support you.

Now, there is a difference between ignoring people who don’t support you, and people who support you but are telling you things you don’t want to hear. This is necessary. You need to be kept in check.

Often times, I struggle with putting my work first before my family and faith. When this imbalance occurs, my wife feels neglected and I start to burn out.

I might feel like I am being productive and working hard, but none of that matters if I don’t have a family to share it with or the moral compass to make the right decisions in life.

Obsession is key, but a balance in your life is necessary to avoid a train wreck.

What things do you need to keep in balance? Sleep, family, relaxation, fun. These are all essential to keep in check when you are working 12+ hour days on your dreams.

Push Back

This is a lesson that I have learned only recently.

I’ve found that a big difference between people who actually achieve their dreams and those who don’t, is their ability to push back when things seem against them.

Did you hit a roadblock? Was there some unforeseen life altering experience that changed how you need to structure your day? Someone steal your idea, beat you to the chase, or tell you you can’t do something?

Find another way. Push back. There are so any ways to do anything. Find the way that works for you.

I’ve heard a lot of stories about people pushing back on their bosses, on laws, regulations and rules, and even on large institutions that are trying to prevent you from taking their massive profits.

Pushing back is key to moving forward. You need to pursue your goal against all odds. There can’t be anything that stands in your way.

Patience

Once you have found your ideal life, found out why you want to do it, and are now putting in the work; the next most important thing is patience.

It’s not going to happen over night. If you read my last post it can take a long time. Is it worth it? Yes, but patience is tough.

The truth is, as long as you have your bases covered (financially, physically, family), what’s the worst case scenario? You put in three years and you are still making the same amount of money you make today? You need to move in with friends or family for a few months?

The worst case scenario for most Americans isn’t that bad at all. We are fearful when we take risks, but in reality the worst thing that can happen is completely manageable and not life-altering at all.

Follow Through

Anyone can have the life that they want. It’s a matter of putting in the work to get there.

You don’t need to live the way you do right now. You can make the changes necessary to put you on the path of success.

Follow through on your goals, and don’t let up. Get some accountability and finish the work you start.

I hope this inspires you to start attacking the life you want for you and your family!

Overnight Success

Wed, 14 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

It doesn’t matter what other’s are doing. Your success depends on you putting in the work and time, not on wishing you had someone else’s life.

You can become as successful as you want to be. You can become the person you want to be. Set goals, break them down and accomplish them one at a time.

The only person you should be competing against is yourself. As long as you strive to become better every day, there is no limit to the things that you can accomplish.

Star Gazing

We all do this. There is someone out there right now that is doing exactly what you want to be doing. We love these people because they embody the person that we want to be.

They make work seem fun. They make life seem easy. They make it look like they have it all figured out. They make a huge impact wherever they go. What you don’t see, is the hard work and dedication it took to get there.

The truth is, you only see what’s on the outside. You don’t see the countless hours put in over the last several years (decades) that went into the image they portray today. They make it look easy because it is easy for them. It wasn’t always easy, though.

The more time you spend watching and following these people, the more time you waste.

Sure, it’s great to learn from these people; read their books, listen to their advice, use their tactics. But when you spend all of your time wondering why you aren’t as successful as them, you are wasting time that you could be spending on making yourself more successful.

Producer > Consumer

Being a producer is greater than being a consumer. Producers have influence. They plan, gain attention and help people around them. Consumers are reactive. They browse, give attention and are generally selfish.

Up until recently, I was primarily a consumer. I created nothing and consumed everything. Nothing that I was doing was helping people, or even helping me.

There is a clear distinction between successful people and non-successful people.

Successful people are producers. They share their gifts, knowledge, and talents with the world in an exchange of money, attention and influence.

Consumers, on the other hand, don’t share anything. If they do share, it’s something someone else created. They give attention to the successful people in exchange for entertainment and perceived value.

When you are a producer, you can control your future. Your success eventually becomes an exponential realization of the hard work and effort you put forth.

When you are a consumer, your future is controlled by the people that feed you information. Your success is living paycheck to paycheck no matter how hard you worked the week before.

Producers are valuable to everyone. Consumers are valuable to producers. Do you see the difference?

To be successful you must be creating or generating something of value. You must be a producer. A do-er. Not a consumer.

How do you become like those people that you idolize? You put in the work, and you stop wasting time wishing you had a different life. Create and reinvent your own life.

Break It Down

You NEED to make a plan. However, the plan you make does not have to be set in stone. It’s designed to help you create a vision and a path that you can follow.

I’ve found it helpful to have three big plans and several little plans. The three big plans are:

A somewhat reasonable but ambitious 1-year plan
A pretty crazy 5-year plan
An impossible 20-year plan

For the 20 year plan, think about what a lot of money is to you. Now, multiply that by 10, or 100. Can you imagine having that much money? If so, you need to think even bigger.

For example, I want to own 1000 acres of land of my choosing in 15 years. That can cost anywhere from $1 million to $5 million depending on where it is.

I want this purchase to be 10% of my overall wealth, meaning I need to have at least $100 million in the bank. Seems impossible, right?

Having outlandish goals can be daunting for some. You think to yourself, “I’ll never reach those goals. They are too big.” That’s what the smaller goals are for.

Daily (Hourly) Goals

On a daily basis, need to be focused on what is right in front of you — not what’s 5, 10, 20 years in front of you. Your day should be broken into super small pieces that are easy to accomplish and progress you towards your goals for the week.

Your goals for the week should be broken into pieces that progress you towards your goal for the month, and your goals for the month should progress you towards your goal for the year.

When you break it down that small — it doesn’t seem so hard.

For example, I want to make 12 apps next year (one a month). I figure there are at least 24 working days in every month (Mon. — Sat.), which gives me 4 separate 6 day periods to get an app done.

What I would do then, is look at the finished product I want to create. I would break that down into 4 major features — something like design, front-end, back-end, and testing. Then, I would break each of those four categories into 6 groups.

Then, I would break each of those into 2 more groups, since I will be spending 2 hours a day working on it. That makes 48–1-hour tasks that are are super easy to follow and easy to accomplish.

What if you get stuck, or don’t work on a day you are supposed to? No problem! Just bump your next task to the next day. It’s not hard to complete large tasks when you always know what you are supposed to be working on next.

By the way, I am going to be using this tactic next year and I want to design a process around developing and designing a professional app in 48 hours.

Get Data And Use It

Data is super powerful, not only in knowing your progress but in motivating you to keep moving forward. How does it motivate you? It gets you to pay attention.

For weight loss, even though the actual diet of “counting calories” is severely flawed, actually keeping a rough count of your caloric intake will get you to pay attention to what you are eating.

When you pay attention to what you are eating, you realize the simple things you can change that will make drastic impacts on your diet.

For finances, developing a strict budget and cutting costs left and right works for some. But most people just find it too inconvenient and intense. The simple act of paying attention to every transaction that you make can help dramatically.

This is why the “cash” method is pushed hard by budgeters and personal finance gurus. By using cash, you are paying attention to the money that you are spending and you begin to see where all of your money is going.

Data works. When you can see trends and progress (or deterioration) in your goals, you have more control over the tweaks you can make to get to your goals faster or get back on track.

That’s why on my 31-day challenge I have been keeping track of the hours spent, distances run and the number of lines of code I have written. When I pay attention to that data, it lets me make intelligent decisions about how I want to change my routine and habits.

I encourage you to start tracking things in your life. Weight, finances, words written, books read, hours with kids, anything that you want to do better at in life.

Get Better A Little Bit At A Time

When you make a plan to become a little bit better every day, not only is it easy to follow, but it is a sure-fire way to become an overnight success (in 10 years).

It’s the people that put in the work today that control the future. Don’t think you need to completely overhaul your life to become successful. Okay, maybe you do, but you can do it a little bit at a time!

One of my first big successes was getting up early. I didn’t just magically begin to wake up at 4:30 am or 5:30 am. I started with 7:30 am and worked my way backward a half hour each week.

In a month, I was getting up 2 hours earlier than I was just a month before. These two hours are what I needed to being working on the things that I want to become better at. Simple things line that can make a huge impact on your life.

I implore you — even BEG you to get a little bit better one day at a time. I want you to live your best life. I want you to create your own success. Over time, you’ll be shocked at how much you can accomplish and how much influence you have on the direction of your life.

Finding the Time

Sat, 03 Sep 2016 10:00:00 +0000

Last Wednesday, my wife and I had our first baby! A baby boy, who goes by the name of Finley James O’Connor. He’s incredible. It’s such an honor and a blessing to be his father.

As I am writing this, he is laying across my mid-section and I am trying not to move my left arm while I type. He’s happy and asleep, and I don’t want to change that!

This past week has been rough, very little and not consistent sleep, changing diapers left and right, carrying him everywhere you go, making sure he is satisfied.

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade him for anything. He is literally perfect. I love him so much, and I can’t wait to see the impact he will make on the world. But, when can I make the time to do the project that I am working on?

He does need the attention and time, and that time is a priority for me. My family is very high on my priority list. I want to make sure I am spending quality time with them when I do spend time with them.

I’m thinking the only way that I can find time to get the work done that I need to get done, is by further decreasing the time I spend on other things that aren’t on my priority list. I already get up at 4 AM each morning to do work, it’s not like I can (or should) sleep less.

I need to amplify the time I spend with my family, the time I spend working and the time I spend sleeping. It needs to be 100% me, all the time. When I am with my family for a few hours in the evening, I need to be all there. When I am working in the mornings, I need to be all there. And when I am sleeping, it needs to be deep quality sleep.

Cutting out the Cruft

There needs to be a line drawn in my life when it comes to things other than what is most important to me. I need to be able to consciously define whether or not the thing I am currently doing is something I should be doing.

Something like surfing social media, when I am sitting with friends and family, is an example of something I should not be doing. I honestly should never be surfing through social media, only producing it.

Something like reading the news and blog posts is not something I should be doing during my work time. I need to be able to sit down and crank. I need quality of time, not quantity of time.

When I am sleeping, I need to be in a place that I can truly rest. I need to be able to make sure I get the right amount of sleep by going to bed on time. I need to make sure I am prepping for the next morning properly so I can get the day started off right.

Any of the other stuff I might do is cruft. Watching TV, surfing social media, even reading the news. All of it has no impact on the things that I want to make, and it has a negative impact on the time I can allocate to the things that are a priority to me.

Daddypreneur

I bet a lot of people say that it is tough to raise a family and work on / follow your dreams. It is tough! But it is also simple. Cut out the cruft. It’s so unnecessary to you as a person. Your relationships, work, health and spirituality all need your best undivided attention. So give it to them!

One of the big motivations for me to start my own business, is to have more control over when and how much I see my family. I don’t necessarily want to work less, or even see them more, but I want that control. I want to make sure I am with my family at a time that I can focus on them 100%. I want to be working when I can focus on that 100%.

I don’t want work to get in the way of my family time, and family time to get in the way of my work. I don’t want to waste my time away by watching TV with my family, or by answering work emails, I want to be actively engaged when I am with them. I don’t want to be changing diapers and feeding kids while I am working, I need to be cranking hard on my work.

This is somewhat of an idealist way of thinking, but it’s a goal that I have for myself to get there. When I find myself indulging in things that take attention away from my priorities, I get ornery, confused and frankly depressed because things aren’t balanced correctly.

There is so much that I want to do in this life because of the legacy that I want to leave for my kids. I want my kids to think that I am a good father, as well as a hard worker. I want them to know that I value them over everything, but I still made time to make sure their futures are taken care of.

This is How You 10x Your Life

You can truly 10x your life by getting rid of the things that are taking you away from your priorities. This is how you can be a great parent, and a great entrepreneur. Every single person on this planet has the same 24 hours in a day, and everyone makes time for the things that are important for them.

If you never define what is important to you, you might waste time on things that aren’t bringing you closer to your goals.

It’s time for me to make sure I am 100% there when I am doing the things that are important to me. I just don’t have time for anything else.

Jordan

Smallest to Largest

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 06:00:00 +0000

My first project will be a community based debt snowball tracker. It will allow you to create your snowball, track your progress over time, and allow you to invite friends to hold you accountable.

This is a tool that I would use, and that would really help me. It seems that as every month rolls around, life is almost completely different. There are different expenses, different expectations and different goals. There is one thing that I want to be steadfast and true, and that is my debt payoff.

Not only my debt payoff, but accelerated debt payoff. You see, I can make the minimum payments on everything. But that’s not my goal. I want to be contributing as much as I possibly can to get it out of my life.

Without debt, people can be free to be who they want to be. They can choose to work in something that is actually in line with their passion, and not just a day job that covers the bills that they have because they are in debt.

Debt stifles you. It creates a mindset that you feel like you are stuck, but you should be happy because you have the things that you went into debt for (car, house, degree, etc.). In reality it’s just not true. There is so much more joy in working hard for something over time, and then being able to get it when the time is right.

I will never go into debt again, that’s for sure. But one thing that discourages me is the fact that if I don’t accelerate things, my payoff is going to take near 10 years to accomplish. That’s way, way too long to not be able to do the things that I want to do with my money.

There are so any people in the situation that I am describing above. They are in a lot of pain, stress and overall sadness that they can’t escape from. I hope to change that with the tool that I make.

I want to make it so that it is fun to pay off debt. I want it to be like a game. People love games, especially when they have great real life ramifications. You should have a goal, and then you should smash it, and you should be rewarded for the hard work that you put into it.

Functionality

The tool itself will be a web app, as well as a mobile app. It will allow people to log in, link their bank accounts, observe their current situation and create a plan of attack for paying it all off.

It will be accessible from anywhere, and it will keep you updated about your progress often. It will remind you what your goals are and the steps you should be taking daily to get there.

The tool will also be social. It will allow you to share, uninhibited, all of the debt that you have with other people that can hold you accountable and also support/cheer for you along the way.

This aspect will be so helpful for many. I feel that many people hide all of their debt in shame. I don’t really think your friends care about what your financials look like, but rather that you are accomplishing the goals that you set out for yourself.

It will be rich in data, as well as being very user friendly. It needs to be simple enough to get the job done, but complete enough to provide all of the necessary information that a person needs to make daily financial decisions.

Timeline

I’m not exactly sure when I will complete this project. It will take several months, but I need to break down the pieces of work that need to happen to get this thing off the ground.

On the back-end, the tool needs to connect to bank accounts, calculate financial data and generate plots. It also needs to manage user accounts, have a social aspect and have information that is accessible on any platform.

On the front end, it needs to have rich graphs and information specifically about what a user’s debt payoff will look like over time, and how some of the little changes they can make day to day will affect that result. It needs to be mobile friendly, designed in a way that is accessible for anyone, and simple to use.

There also needs to be quite a bit of work done getting the tool documented, packaged and deployed. Before it is released to the public, it will need to have significant marketing associated with it. I don’t want to launch to crickets.

This is a Journey

I don’t know how to do all of the things I just talked about above. I don’t know all of the code, the processes or solutions to most of the problems I will face. This will be a journey for me to show my progress as a web developer and build something that has meaning.

I will be documenting things along the way, so stay tuned. I want to fill people in on the journey and show that anything is really possible if you put your mind to it.

Jordan @Thrown

Individual? Or Corporate?

Fri, 12 Aug 2016 06:00:00 +0000

I think the short answer is yes. But, do I even have a business?

Not really. I would like to, but I don’t have one. You see, I don’t want to do freelance work for other people. I want to build things that help people and make their lives easier. So when I started this “freelancing” gig, I really hit some roadblocks.

I’m not great at selling myself without letting my work do the talking for me. It’s different than being humble, because even if you are humble you can still sell your personal skills to someone. No, it’s more of a communication breakdown. I don’t know why I’m good at this, but here is what I have done to show you I am good.

Web development for me is starting at square one. I don’t have a massive list of things that makes me qualified to work on different projects. I don’t have a core group of people that I know that are doing the same type of development. Over time all of this will come, but until then I need to begin building ( or joining) a community and getting projects out the door that can show my worth.

So when I want to push my own brand, I want to push it through something that I can be more objective about. Through a “business” I can be whoever I want to be. I can hide behind whatever branding I decide to take the business down. Me on the other hand, I will always be me. Will I change over time? Yes, but only slightly.

But I also need to get my name out there as a seasoned developer so that I can turn my skills in to cash. I need to put my name on tools that I build so I can get recognition for those things. That’s my version of selling myself. You like the tool that I built? You know where to find me.

Most of this will come over time, but clarity on where I am going to emphasize my efforts is important. The emphasis for me is on the tools, and documenting the process to get there.

Jordan @Thrown

Not Sure What I'm Supposed to be Working On

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 06:30:00 +0000

What even is my goal?

That’s an important question. If I can’t answer that, I’ve got no business trying to adjust the course of my life. I can’t do that without a vison or a goal in mind. It needs to be tangible, out of reach yet attainable over time.

I think my ultimate goal is to be a lead developer on at least one (if not many) major open source project that is used by thousands of developers daily. That’s the “if money didn’t matter” dream.

Since money actually matters an incredible amount, I also have other goals. I want my family to be completely debt free in 5 years or less. That’s essentially 5 years of $2500 a month thrown at debt. As of right now, with my day job, I can contribute about $1600 a month towards my debt. It meets the minimum payments, but it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

I also have a goal of working for myself, and eventually starting my own business. I have been working a corporate lifestyle for the past 3 years and it has been torture. Not from a cushy paycheck every two weeks perspective, but rather from a growth, value and lifestyle perspective. I want to grow faster, make money based on my actual worth and how hard I work for it, and I want to have the flexibility to work from anywhere and have work be much more integrated with my family.

Having a side business is good practice, extra income is awesome and it is a good thing all around. But, what I can’t decide is whether or not I want to create a product or service to sell, or if I want to do client work.

You see, I need the money. That’s the killer here. My day job income is enough to get us by, but if I don’t figure out something soon, my goal of being debt free in 5 years or less will fade quickly.

I know that client work would be the quickest way to make some cash, but it also is the least attractive to me. I don’t know how to reach out to people and sell to them. I also don’t really want to. So trying to do that the last month or so has been quite the experience.

I think that ultimately, client work doesn’t really contribute to my goal of being a lead developer on an open source project. It’s not my cup of tea, and it’s something that would suck the life out of my passion for web development.

Am I complaining? Maybe. I can’t really be picky about how I get my money, since I actually need it sooner rather than later.

What I actually would like to do with my time is work on a project that I can eventually monetize. It works towards my goal of being a lead developer on a project, and it also works towards my goal of being debt free. Will it take longer? Maybe. Will it be more fulfilling? Definitely.

So that’s where I am at. I am deciding that projects are more important at this point. I have done a few other things in our lifestyle that will give us a money buffer, so that’s not as crucial. But I still need to work hard and crank some projects out quickly.

My first project is going to be a debt snowball calculator. I want to make it highly interactive and informative about how long it will take you to get debt free. I also want to gamify it somewhat. I can make it so it’s your goal to get out of debt faster than what the debt snowball originally says you will.

I need to think of some other services that I can build that other developers can use in their projects. That’s how I can work towards my ultimate goal.

This is only the beginning.

Jordan @Thrown

Better Place

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 06:30:00 +0000

Can I attribute that to getting out of bed an running everyday? Maybe. But I can also attribute it to the fact that I got some work off of my plate and I can move on to some better things soon.

I am 95% done with a redesign at [riverrochester.com][1]. It’s looking great and it boast a lot of cool features like an integrated CMS and great hosting.

I built it from the ground up in Jekyll. I use Jekyll’s awesome posts feature to drive things like a blog, events and media pages. All of those are able to be updated by people other than me.

Because of that, I can spend more time on growing the online presence of the Church instead of doing repeat tasks that take time away.

Because I am using CloudCannon for hosting and CMS, I was able to clean up my github account really well. I made an organization account (Thrown), and was able to dump several repositories there. Now, my projects are my projects and my web development projects are under Thrown.

My goal for this month is to get my first web development client. Not only could I use the money, but I really want to get my business going. I want to be able to have it sustain me in the future, and I want it to continue to grow.

I get somewhat frustrated when I see other web developers in Rochester getting business. Almost always, the websites they build are terrible. It makes me sad knowing that people are paying for bad quality and they don’t even know it.

I feel like it is my duty to offer clients a totally premium website that is future proof, accessible, modern and fast.

Business is a funny thing. It’s so personal. If there is one thing I have realized on this venture, it’s that you need to be able to interact with people an provide them value.

If you can’t interact with people on a personal level, you won’t be able to make sales and you won’t get any business, no matter how good you are.

Since there seems to be quite a few web developers posting on Craigslist, I think I will do the same. It pains me to know that is one of my only ways to advertise, but so be it. I need the business more than I need to be picky.

I think that getting a client would help me organize my time better. Instead of being able to do whatever I want in the mornings, I would have something specific to work on. I could make a plan and stick to it. There would be an end in site.

I’m hoping today that I get some work done at work. I know that’s a weird thing to say, but I have not been very motivated. It’s been dragging for a while and I need some change. The fun projects I thought I would be working on fell through, and the ones lined up are meh.

I honestly can’t wait to get out of the corporate culture. The people there mean well, but they just aren’t on the same page as me with their goals and dreams. I mean, do most of them even have any dreams anymore? They come to work everyday and work on stuff so they can get paid and OK salary and live an average life.

It makes me sad sometimes because some of these people are amazing at what they do, yet they have no idea that their talents are so undervalued. Working a day job is just something they have always done. It’s a way of life for them.

I want my life to be incredibly flexible, so that if I want to work insane hours I can, and if I want to take an awesome vacation and forget everything for a few weeks I can.

I think it’s important for me to have that flexibility everywhere in life. Having my kids homeschooled, my wife at home (or working remotely / habing her own business). I just want that to be a way of life for me and my family.

Jordan @Thrown

At A Crossroad

Mon, 01 Aug 2016 06:30:00 +0000

Literally. That’s all I want to do with my web development venture.

I know that the work is out there. I see all the time in Rochester that small businesses are getting new - albeit crappy - websites. Where do I look to see where these businesses are asking for web developers?

I’m trying my best to keep a level head about it all, but going out and getting clients isn’t the easiest thing for me. I’m much better at just doing the work once the client gives me a project.

But, that’s what this whole venture is about. I am trying to buff up my business skills. If I can’t make a single sale for myself, how can I expect to start a business that will grow and expand as far as I would like to?

I am patiently waiting out this time period. I have a feeling I will get to a point one day when I will look back and be amazed that I didn’t have any work lined up. I’ll be so swamped with work I’ll need to hire people to keep up.

I am trying this thing called “Self Journal”. It’s helping me get organized with my short-term goals. My short-term goals are these:

Get my First client
Make my First $1000
Make $1000 in a Month

This is all organized to take place in the next three months. Hopefully it takes less time than that, but that’s what my goal is. I know that I will need to work really hard to get to that point.

There are some things that I need to get out of the way before I can start to build this web development dream of mine. I need to finish the River Rochester website, since it isn’t making me any money (though it is good practice). I also need to get working on some templates that I can use to show off some of my skills as a web developer.

I can certainly hold-weight with most in my skills, but my experience is weak. I’ll need to do the templates and maybe a few more free projects to get moving in the direction that I want to go. That means I need to get all of that done this month.

This morning went okay, I somewhat stuck to the plan. I kinda don’t like taking a shower directly after working out because I continue to sweat for a while even after the shower. I almost think I should reserve getting ready in the morning for a slightly later time so that I can cool off before I shower.

Staying motivated! Hannah helps me with that. She is tough on me and I appreciate it. Hopefully I can live up to my potential and start to bring in some income.

Jordan @Thrown

Back At It Again

Sun, 24 Jul 2016 06:30:00 +0000

It’s been a while, I’ve been really busy. This week things are going to slow down a little bit before they ramp up again when the baby is born!

This week I would like to get the River Rochester site finished, and also work on developing some templates for a possible business venture. Hannah (from Cathy) came up with the idea of doing wedding websites for people. I could make a few tiers, and add additional features to each. Using CloudCannon’s CMS they should be able to edit things how they want it.

I really really need to get back into an exercise routine again. I need to be a role model for my family and I also need to be fit for my health in general. There really aren’t any excuses as to why I’m not exercising everyday.

I haven’t has as much consistency as I would like lately. Is that how things will always be? I know that consistency today comes from good planning the day before, so am I just not planning correctly? That’s probably it, since I say I am not a very good planner. Maybe it’s time to change that.

It’s really tough to get up at 4AM when I either don’t go to bed on time, or I don’t get a good nights sleep. The question is, what should suffer because of it? Should I cut out my workout and just work for two hours? Maybe I should work out and take an hour out of my work time? Skip the blog? Skip breakfast?

That’s what I need to make up my mind about. I think I really need the consistency of working out everyday. My body needs it. I think that will make me more resilient to fluctuations in my daily evening routine.

It stinks that I would need to sacrifice my work for the sake of consistency. I need to be working on my business so that I can move forward and one day get out of the corporate world. But I know that with good planning I can get more done with less time. Maybe that’s what it takes.

If I can actually get more down with less time that would be awesome. I would need to eliminate any distractions and be 100% there wherever I am.

Tomorrow I will get back on this train of me working 12 hour days.

Jordan @Thrown

Updated Vision

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 06:30:00 +0000

I still need consistency in all areas of my life. That vision will never change. I need consistency in my relationship with my Wife, my family, spirituality, exercise, eating, sleeping, working, etc. But these things need to work together to push towards a common vision. Something that allows me to keep growing daily.

There is one thing that annoys me a lot. My entire life, there has been a guy who is also named Jordan O’Connor that has been able to dominate the search for that name. He’s a Canadian music artist that hasn’t put out an album in more than a decade, yet he still reigns the search. That is going to change. I am going to dominate that search. I will be the most popular and successful Jordan O’Connor in the world.

I plan on doing this my web development firm thrown. I plan on using the alias “@thrown” for all of my online projects and things that will bring attention to the brand. I’m super excited about this and I can’t wait to see what things will be like in the future.

Even though I am kicking off my business, I am still in a learning phase. I need to be a JavaScript guru. I need to be able to be a one-stop solution for all of my customers. I need to be able to make Jekyll sing. I need to have design standards that I can live by that will make my workflow quicker and more efficient.

My fitness goals are all but trashed. I was supposed to be fit by now. I think I have been approaching it the wrong way by wanting to do a marathon. Really, it’s not about running. It’s not even about being fit (though that’s awesome). It’s about discipline. Same with lifting weights, eating healthy, loving my wife, being there for my family.

The mere fact that I want to do these things doesn’t make me a better person if I don’t have the discipline to go out and do them consistently without wavering.

By approaching this from a consistency and discipline perspective, it doesn’t matter how I do these things, but rather that I actually show up and do them. I need to be able to rely on this consistency to get me through anything that I decide to tackle in life. I need it to make sure I am always loving my wife, always staying fit, always being my best self no matter what.

This consistency and discipline approach is something that can rub off on others as well. I can make an influence on other people by being able to truly embody the person that I want to be. As long as I am the person that I want to be, then I can do anything that I set my mind to doing.

I should be in better control of all of the aspects of my life that I can reach. I should be making sure that we have our meals planned out and I should be helping prepare them so that we can eat healthy and feel good about ourselves. I should be planning out my time in the mornings so that I spend adequate time on exercise, spirituality and my work. I should be allowing specific time for myself to grow and learn alongside the work that I am doing.

There is a lot of accountability, communication and planning that needs to go into getting these things done daily. I’ve talked about all of this before, and I have tried to plan things out, but it’s about time I actually started doing them.

Getting There

Communication and planning are two things that I have struggled with a lot in the past. They have kept me from reaching my true potential, from being the person that I want to be.

I want to be the person that can take on any challenge, yet remain steady in all of the things that I am doing in life. I can’t just be good at one thing and think that all of the other things will fall into place. Everything takes practice. Everything takes work. Everything needs time.

I love reviewing my daily timeline - so let’s do that. Here is what I currently have:

4AM: Web Dev
6AM: Bible / Prayer Time
6:30AM: Work out
7:15AM: Get ready for work
7:45AM: Blog post
8:30AM: - 5PM: Work
5:30PM: Make dinner/Have dinner/Hang with family
9:30PM: Get Ready for next day / Bed
9:45PM: In bed / Write plan for next day
10PM: Sleep

The problem with this is that I think I have to work out and get ready before anything. It’s imperative that I am wide awake and ready to go when I begin working. Also, I need to establish a “screens off” time for the evening with Hannah. This would be just during the week, but I think that 9:30 PM timeframe is a good cutoff point.

I think that I should be making my lunch the night before. This would allow me to squeeze even more time out of my morning. Breakfast should also be made before I start working, not after.

Let’s remake that timeline:

New Timeline

4AM: Wake up to Work Out
5AM: Shower/Get Ready
5:30AM: Make Breakfast
5:45AM: Bible Time
6AM: Work Time
8AM: Leave
8:30AM: Day Job
12PM: Call clients
1PM: Day Job
5PM: Head Home
5:30PM: Make dinner/Have dinner/Hang with family
9:30PM: Make Lunch / Screen Off
9:45PM: In bed / Write Plan for Next Morning
10PM: Sleep

This timeline will work well. I always say that, but I want to stick to this one. I have tried several things and I think this one comes from experience.

The worst thing I can do for myself is not plan accordingly the day before.

Jordan @thrown

Starting Is Hard

Tue, 21 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

I want to get my web design business started and off the ground. That’s a scary thought for me, considering I have learned all I know within the past two years or so, and I didn’t go to school for it.

It’s scary because I feel like I don’t have the credentials. When I got my corporate job, I almost felt entitled to a position because of how qualified I was. Now, it’s intimidating calling a client because they might ask for something I don’t know how to do.

Successful people commit first and figure it out later. That’s part of the 10x Rules.

It’s also intimidating having my success ride on the fact that I need to be able to be diligent to get my work done as soon as I can, and acting as fast as I can. I need to be calling up clients, communicating, working, learning all the time.

I’m normally one to put things off. That’s what I am trying to change about me. If I am going to be a self-starter, I have to be able to do the work I need to do before I actually need it done.

This includes the things I don’t always want to do, and the things that aren’t glamorous about having a small business. Things like cold-calling clients, following up on things, and certain financial pieces.

I don’t really have a choice, though. No one is going to make me successful other than myself. No one is going to do the work for me.

I know what work needs to be done. It needs to be prioritized, planned and attacked. I need set times and steps to get me moving in the right direction.

My next big step is cold-calling/emailing small businesses in the area. Well, as soon as I finish my re-branding as a web design company only.

My go-to workflow will be a static Jekyll site with CloudCannon CMS and Snipcart e-commerce if needed. All of these are on the cutting edge and are modern. They represent what I want to give to my customers.

I should be practicing this workflow, though. I should know the Jekyll documentation forwards and backwards. I should know exactly how CloudCannon will respond when I do a specific configuration.

One thing I’ll need to do is pick a UI framework. I typically go with Skeleton, but there is always the option of Bootstrap. I think that Skeleton really falls in line with what I am trying to achieve. Besides, the lighter my setup the more I can customize it.

I’ve noticed that I really like getting to work first thing in the morning. It comes naturally to me. I think my planned schedule will look like this from now on:

4AM: Web Dev
6AM: Bible / Prayer Time
6:30AM: Work out
7:15AM: Get ready for work
7:45AM: Blog post
8:30AM: - 5PM: Work
5:30PM: Make dinner/Have dinner/Hang with family
9:30PM: Get Ready for next day / Bed
9:45PM: In bed / Write plan for next day
10PM: Sleep

It’s tough to squeeze the blog post in there. Normally it takes me longer than 15 minutes to write. I’ll need to stat planning topics so I can move faster and think faster.

This is good, I’m constantly trying to adjust so I can be productive. I really want to be able to achieve the things that I want to do. I want to be successful, and It’s on me to make sure that happens.

Jordan

Same Page

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

My wife and I just passed the 1 year mark on our marriage! It’s really awesome and I couldn’t be happier with where we are today. Even in this past short year we have grown as individuals and have achieved a lot. We had a great year of success, and the future is way brighter.

We are definitely on the same page about a lot of things when it comes to priorities, success, finances and each other. We have goals and dreams individually, and support each other corporately. This helps make out marriage go really smoothly.

You see, we believe in something better than the standard quo. We believe that the best years are in front of us, not behind us. The notion that having a kid is going to inhibit our goals and dreams is bogus, and the suggestion that the first few years of our marriage is going to be the hardest just isn’t true.

Yeah, these things will be hard. Sure, a typical person would feel overwhelmed at the level of responsibility and effort it will take to maintain everything in their life. But that’s not us, no. We are called to a higher standard. We live at a high level of success, communication, passion, and love. We find ways to make our priorities work together and benefit the family as a whole.

We consider success an ethical and moral duty to our family. It’s not a question of, “will I be successful?” It’s a statement of, “It is our duty to be successful.”

I love you Hannah, and I am proud of how far we have come. We will be awesome parents, and we will be so successful in the years to come.

I’ve refocused my business site today to be just web development for businesses. I also changed the name to BCKBNE.CO. I did this because I needed to focus down my business to one thing, and I also didn’t really want the business of fixing people’s devices.

My goal right now is to make my first $1000. That’s my goal. I’m not going to put a timeline on it or stipulations, but rather I’m just going to talk about how I am going to get there.

I will start by trying to get a list of small businesses in Rochester, and I will look at their websites. I will cold-call and email those businesses to let them know of my services and tell them how I can improve their website so they can attract more customers. I will continually follow up to make the sale until they say no.

It’s really not any harder than that. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that the successful people are willing to do the things that others aren’t, and they have priorities that have a successful purpose and are not focused on their entertainment or gratification.

I’ll probably start this agenda today - maybe this afternoon. I’m super pumped about helping people make better websites and helping them feel good about their business.

I’m also really pumped that I am doing this. I’m glad I am just taking the plunge and not waiting for my dreams to show up one day like most people. I’m going to go out and capture them myself.

Jordan

New Day. New Mindset.

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

Right now I am at such a polarizing crossroads, it stresses me out. I feel so strongly that I want to be an entrepreneur, but I absolutely need my job right now. Then, when I think about it, there are ways to be entrepreneurial and successful at work. I mean, the CEO makes $12 million a year. I could handle that.

Well, there is no reason for me not to be successful at work. I almost always don’t want to do the work, but I always have the same 8 hours everyday. I should be the most productive, most social person in the office. I need the social aspect to be successful in any business.

Why don’t I want to do the work? It’s almost always not what I think I should do, but what someone else tells me to do. I know, I’m not a senior engineer, but I like to have a say in the decisions that are made and how I can implement them. Also, I feel like there are things at work that are neglected in my discipline that I could change and really make a difference.

I have somewhat of an ultimatum to present to my engineering manager. You see, I need to make more money. My division of the company is scheduled to double in revenue over the next few years. I want a piece of the pot. I want my salary to be 50% higher in two years, and I want to find out from them what it would take to make that happen. There are goals and agendas from the people above me that need people to complete. I want to be the person that is the go-to for all of those agendas, so that I can have a platform to stage my raise.

I don’t think I’ll present this today, because I need to build my social repertoire. I need to be more closely involved in people’s lives at work. I need to think about it fro more of a tactical standpoint, otherwise I don’t always see the benefit of it. I think I get that attitude from my Dad. Once I build up my social presence, then I can present my goals for myself at my company. I know the people there really like me, but I have so much more planned for my life. If they can’t meet my demands when I meet theirs, then they aren’t going to be included in my future plans. Simple as that.

I need to be able to approach anyone and be able to win them over. I need to be able to hold a conversation with the big dogs, without making myself seem like an introverted sociopath. I need to know things about people, interact with people, and find ways to make myself a part of their life.

I have always had a lot of self awareness. I have a keen sense about how people are feeling, how things operate around me, but I have never tried to capitalize on that. I’ve never been one to go out of my way to acknowledge that I know what’s going on with someone. I should be the nicest and most interactive person that people know at work.

This will be an interesting chapter. I’m working towards my 10x goal. When I find out what that goal is, I’ll let you know. For now, just know that it is bigger than anything you can imagine right now.

Jordan

Different

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

I have been doing really well in some areas but not others. I have been coding quite a bit, working on my business and trying to get clients, but spiritually, physically, and financially I have been lacking.

I need these things to drive me to a lifestyle that I want for myself. These are things I want people to know about me. I want people to know that I am a spiritual man with a faithful heart and pure motives. I want people to know that I am physically fit and maintain my physical body well both through exercise and healthy eating. I want people to know that I have money and I am being a good steward of that money, so that I can be an example.

But if someone were to ask me about these things today, I wouldn’t have much to say. I would have to admit that I am not exactly working on them as often as I would like, and I have a somewhat imbalanced lifestyle right now.

I can’t be imbalanced when the baby comes. If I am, I will be a mess. I will feel like I can’t get everything done that I want to, and I will get frustrated about not moving as fast as I think I should.

Don’t get me wrong, when the baby comes everything will be different and I will put so much energy and focus into my family. But, I need to keep hustling. It is my duty to my family to be successful and accept nothing less. I need to be the one who will provide at levels that are true to my full potential.

I also need to write some new content. I have been doing this daily blog thing for a while, but I need to be writing about my experiences and the things that I learn on a day-to-day basis. I learn a lot, and if I don’t capture that, I will lose it. I’ll probably start a technical blog at some point. It will be at this URL when it’s ready.

I need to document my journey to becoming a pioneer in web development. I need to capture my route to contributing to open source projects and communities. And who knows, maybe I will be able to start my own open source community.

Jordan

Maybe my First Client

Tue, 14 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

I might get a chance to do my first web development project for a real client soon. Aaron has a friend down in Alabama that needs a website for his business and I quoted him a few numbers.

It would be really awesome to get my first client. Not only is it good pay, but some of that money could be reinvested into the business so that I can create my LLC and get some more clients!

I’m looking forward to the day when I can spend my time working on web development and technologies, paving my own path into the industry.

Right now I am setting up a Hackintosh VM so that I can develop and iPhone app. I had an idea to turn live photos into long exposure shots by adding on the frames with diminishing opacity.

The Hackintosh thing is weird though. Not your average install. Hopefully I can figure it out without too much trouble. Right now it is giving me trouble.

One thing that I find interesting and that I somewhat struggle with is the sense that I need to have a perfectly normal week to be able to perform the way I need to for my business to be successful or for me to become the backend web developer that I really want to be.

Almost every week is different in my life. It’s never the same. Rather than relying on the mood of the week to influence my daily balance, my daily balance should be influencing my week!

I should be planning ahead, knowing that something will be different about tomorrow and that I should flex some of my hours to make sure I get in everything that I need/want to. Like this week, I have this optics course instead of going to work everyday, and next week I will have my anniversary overnight with my wife and starting a small vacation in the finger lakes.

Every week is different. There are very few days in the year that are “normal”. I really need to approach my days like that and make sure my daily habits are forming my lifestyle, and not the other way around.

Jordan

What I Want to Be

Mon, 13 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

I don’t want to be what I am right now. Right now I’m somewhat of an electrical data acquisition / controls engineer. It’s a neat niche, but not exactly what I thought I would be doing when I started college.

I want to be a backend web developer, for a few reasons.

It’s awesome, and some of the most amazing developments in the web are done in the backend.
I could do it remotely.
I could make my own projects that could turn into companies.
I actually really enjoy it. Like a lot.

I love the web, and developing on the web. It make so much sense to me, and I think that everything should be powered by the web.

I don’t want to be a frontend web developer because it really requires a lot of design knowledge, which isn’t really something that I want to be spending my time on.

As a backend engineer, I could come up with ideas, implement them, and get some income from them with very low startup costs. It’s an awesome way that I could contribute to the awesome web community, accomplish really cool things and do so while making some passive income.

Speaking of income, there wouldn’t really be any pay gap between a backend engineer and what I am doing now. If anything it could very well be more.

I could work remotely as a backend engineer. This. This would be incredible. I’m not one to want to make things easier on myself, or choose the easy route, but working remotely is such an incredible advantage over working at a specific location.

Working remotely would bode well for me. I think I would do well with the remote communication, and I would be able to do time management well. Overall it would be the best thing for my productivity and happiness. It would be a dream.

I think that the ultimate dream for me is to start my own business. I think that becoming a successful backend engineer will be part of that equation, since I can get a project off the ground and running before I delegate everything off to employees.

I’m going to see what it would take to get started as a backend web developer and try to plot out my course to get there.

Oh, and this will help with my Backbone Electronics small business, since I would be able to better help small businesses with web development.

Jordan

Lambo Goals

Fri, 10 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

In one of the series that Seanwes does, they talk about Lambo goals. A massive goal that is something you are striving for. Something, like in this case, a Lamborghini.

I don’t really have a Lambo goal yet. I’ve never been one to be attached to physical things, so maybe my Lambo goal is experiences. That’s what this post will be used to figure out.

I’m into gadgets and electronics, so I’d want the best computer around. But even that would be a maximum of $10K or so. That’s nowhere near the multi million dollar price tag on a Lamborghini.

I would definitely be interested in owning a lot of land. Land in different places all over the US. Land in the mountains, forests, hundreds of thousands of acres of land. Now that would be pretty neat.

Of course I would want to include my wife in on my goals, but I’d have to ask her what she wants. I know that she would like a multi-million dollar house, and I would like that too! But, if I had to choose between that and land, I’d probably choose land.

I certainly would like to travel quite a bit. I’d like to take my family places that I’ve never been, and I’d like to be able to not be restricted by a tight budget. I don’t necessarily want to be ridiculous, spending all of my money on stupid touristy stuff, but rather on cool experiences and exclusivity.

A goal for me is to be tithing what I currently make at my job right now. This falls right in line with the 10x rule. I would need to be making 10 times what I am making now. That would be incredible.

So what is the timeline on some of these things? 10 years, 20 years, 30 years? That, I’m not exactly sure. The one thing I know is that I am setting out to change my family tree. I will have a legacy that extends well beyond me for many generations to come.

Jordan

Crush It

Thu, 09 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

Things aren’t the same as they were a few weeks ago. Now I have a focus, now I have something to pursue. One thing to pursue. This makes life less complicated, more fulfilling, and easier to crush. With only having one focus (from a passion and work perspective), I can truly dedicate the necessary energy and resources to be successful.

I created my first ads today. It was definitely cumbersome trying to think of ad material on the spot. I’ll need to hold on to my stuff so I can repeat some things - with a twist of course.

It also took longer than I thought it would. Mostly because I didn’t plan the content ahead of time. But, last night I talked with Hannah briefly about what I was going to accomplish this morning and I crushed that. I think both the planning and the accountability make for a great motivator in my mind.

I only got up at 5AM today because that is what I have done all week. I’ll kick it back to 4AM next week. I definitely could have used the extra time this morning. I still need to get a workout in.

I like having my own business, it’s a neat way to be kept accountable for working hard. It’s obvious to people when you give up, and it would be very hard for me to justify quitting. I hope that I can gain some credibility in the community around me and begin to get clients. That’s my biggest hurdle right now.

Having one focus is great. It brings me clarity. I don’t have to sit and think about what project I should try tomorrow, or what venture I want to pursue. Its a simple answer now: work on my business. As long as I maintain planning the night before, I will be able to rush every morning that comes my way.

Now, I need to begin crushing it more at my day job. I just need to be more aggressive about getting my work done, asking for more work and socializing with my coworkers. There are new people in the engineering group and I have no idea who they are. I don’t think that is good, and I should be one of the first people that new employees meet because of how awesome I am (#yeahright).

Seanwes is supposed to be putting out material next week about making your first $1000. Hopefully I can apply their technique to my business!

Jordan

Building

Wed, 08 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

After several months, there is a path that I have chosen, and now I need to stay here and build on it. I can’t go around trying out different ideas and spending my time elsewhere. This is my work now, and it won’t get done unless I build it myself.

I have chosen the path of starting my own computer repair business because it will allow me to bring in cash in a direct amount to how much effort I put into it. It is also something that is easy for me, and is a great precursor into small business practices.

As I have said before, the hardest thing for me will be getting clients. It’s just not my strongpoint yet. I’ll need to learn how to reach out to those who might need me, and find the best ways for people to find me. This will need to be a big focus for me over the coming months. Doing the work will be easy, getting it is what will prove difficult.

I’m in a good place to start building for my own success. My day job covers all of my expenses, I have time allotted for building a client based business on the side, and I am balancing things that are important to me like family, exercise and faith.

This pattern will go on for a few years, I have to accept that. I put myself in this box when I took out all of my student loans. I’ve learned a lot since then, and wish I had a bit more common sense when starting that journey.

Building takes time. It takes focused effort over time. It needs to be consistently brought to the forefront of my attention, and it needs to be high on my priority list.

One thing that I’ll need to get better at is explicitly planning my day out so I get things done during the time that I am supposed to be spending on them. This includes both my side gig and my day job. My day job requires attention and planning so that I don’t get laid off or something because they think I’m not getting my work done. Getting laid off would put everything on hold.

This will need to happen the night before. Also, I need to be getting to bed on time. The past two days I have gotten up at 5AM instead of 4AM because I have been going to bed around 11PM. 5 hours of sleep is just not enough. I need at least 6.

This brings even more importance to me spending time with Hannah in the evening. Since I need to be going to bed at a certain point, our time is not unlimited. Also, when the business picks up, I will be spending less time with Hannah in the evenings because I will be out on calls or whatnot.

I’m really excited about all of this, and I am heading in the right direction. It’s time to build something foundational for me to use as a platform for my success.

Jordan

Beginning

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

Today I kicked off my business, Backbone Electronics in Rochester, NY.

This is something that has been on my mind for a while now, and it’s awesome to see how it is all unfolding. I am hoping that I can get enough business to make the financial goals that I have set for myself.

I also am hoping that this business venture will give me valuable knowledge about the dos and don’ts of small business operation. Many people I have talked to say that starting and running a business is way more valuable than going to school to learn.

I’ll begin by posting on craigslist, maybe responding to requests from people searching for tech help. All in all, getting customers will be the hardest thing for my business. I’ll need to do some serious networking with local businesses to get the clients that need services.

Now, I need to start tracking my time and balancing my time with other things in my life. I need to be fit, healthy and communicate well with others. I can’t afford to spend every minute on this business.

This is an exciting time! I am really happy about where things are at, and I want to continue to grow this way.

Jordan

Hustle Mentality

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

I believe there are four stages of a successful lifestyle. Learn, execute, educate and harvest. First, you learn what you do best and learn the tools to do it well. Then, you execute it hard, like real hard. Then, you pass on knowledge and wisdom to the next generation about how you got to where you are. And lastly, assuming you build your future for wealth (financially or otherwise), you get to reap your harvest.

I’m in the learning stage of my life still. I feel like I am learning a lot about myself and learning how to operate at my highest potential. I’m learning about the work that I want to be doing for the rest of my life.

This is no excuse not to hustle, though. I am in a hole that would kill me if I waited around for everyone else to solve my problems. It’s up to me how hard I work and how hard I hustle in order to get to the lifestyle and future that I want for me and my family.

I don’t want my family to be burdened by the things that knock us down in this world. I want to affect the world, not be affected by it. But, in order to do that, I need to be active and create a lifestyle that scales beyond me.

I like the quote “People want to live like the 1% but don’t want to work like them.” It’s so true. People dream about the lifestyle they want, and then they complain when it isn’t handed to them. It’s like they just expect to one day be successful without doing anything different or meaningful.

As of right now, I make pretty good money. But also, as of right now, I barely make enough money. My debt-to-income ratio is absurd. My job is comfortable, plush even. I can show up, do what I do best, and go home. No high stakes, no risk, slow growth. This is what I am hoping to change. I want to work like no one else so that I can live like no one else.

The past several years of my life, especially at college, I was growing and learning at such an accelerated rate. Everyday presented new knowledge and chances to apply it. Then, after graduation, it all stopped. I stopped growing, I stopped feeling good about where I was headed, I began to grown stagnate. That’s where I found myself a few months ago when I began this hustle journey. I decided that my life is mine, and I am going to make it extraordinary.

Even though it’s a hustle, it’s still a long haul. You’ve got to be in it day after day. There are no excuses, no complaining, no wishing, just doing. That’s what it takes to be successful at anything. You reap what you sow, and if you sow excuses, complaining and wishing, that’s exactly what you will get in return.

Today is the best day to start your journey. Today is the best day to stop living affected by the things around you. Today is the day you being to make an impact and influence on the things around you. The only thing that is stopping you, is you.

Jordan

Focus

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 06:30:00 +0000

Things change rapidly for me all of the time. Soon I will have a baby to take care of with my wife. When that time comes, I’ll need as much consistency as I can in order to stay on the path that I have chosen.

I’ve decided to start a technology services company backbonetech.co. I will push forward with this as a means of making more income, so that I can kiss my debt goodbye sooner rather than later.

There’s no doubt if I were to just keep working my corporate job that I would be debt free in 10 years, but I can’t wait that long. I don’t want to come across as arrogant, but I am too talented to be stuck for that long. I have way to much to offer.

This small business is a means to get me out of debt, and supplement a lifestyle that will allow us to build significant wealth over time. Who knows, if it becomes big enough, maybe I could afford to hire some of my friends and family.

The current state of computer repair shops in Rochester is pretty sad. The online presence and marketing (or lack thereof) of these other businesses are almost embarrassing. I’m hoping to change that for the better. I want to tap into the gaps that the current businesses have not filled.

From a practical standpoint, my hope is to be making at least $1000 a month from this small business. I figure 20 hours a month at $50 is very reasonable as long as I get the work. $1000 a month will put my debt payoff at 5 years max.

Getting the work is new for me, I’ve never had to advertise and take on clients or customers. I hope that I can work with Hannah very closely so that I can make sure I stay organized and on top of everything.

One fear for me is that I won’t be able to get the customers calling. I still need to work on an advertising and job posting plan. I plan on using craigslist, but I need to find other platforms that I can operate on to attract customers.

I also should be looking into being a reference for different phone / computer businesses as a go-to guy for things that they can’t do. My brother works at AT&T and he said that he could get me several customers a day just because they don’t repair phone screens there.

Another whole side of the business that I will need to work on is the legitimacy of it. I need to get it incorporated, copyright the logo and name, open a bank account for it, and use invoicing software to bill customers with.

I’m technically two days into starting the business. Pretty awesome!

Jordan

Appreciation

Fri, 13 May 2016 06:30:00 +0000

It’s easy to take things for granted when you live in the richest country in the world. It’s in our culture to have the best of everything and expect nothing less.

I think it’s a healthy thing to want more, to expect more. I don’t want to stay in the same place my entire life. I want to grown and have things grow around me. But, That’s no excuse to neglect or forget the most important things in my life. I can’t get caught up in the dream if there is no balance.

Every important area of my life deserves the same amount of appreciation, tenacity, and hustle that I put towards my ventures. I can’t use all of my energy and attention in one place, it needs to be spread across all of the things that are important to me. Things like my wife, family, my health, my spirituality, my friendships and social interactions. They all matter, and they all come together to form a great life if you don’t allow them to go to the wayside.

It would be tragic for me to lose one of those things just because I want to grow in a business/monetary sense. Imagine if I let my relationship with Hannah go astray, or my friends or co-workers or my health. All of those things would be terrible. And for what? So I could try to grow faster myself?

There is a definite balance that needs to be struck during this growing period. It is pertinent that I pay close attention to all areas of my life. It’s not enough to focus on only the things that will make me grow. That’s selfishness at its core.

Jordan

Integrity

Thu, 12 May 2016 07:30:00 +0000

Sometimes it’s hard for me to live up to the outlandish promises that I make for people. I’m not a people pleaser, I genuinely want to help people. But, sometimes I say I will do things that are really hard to complete and I don’t understand that going into it.

I tend to make a lot more promises than I should. That’s partly because I A: have a hard time saying no, and B: like to do things myself to make sure they are done right.

This often sets me back in a few ways. When I don’t complete a task that I say I will do, people are disappointed and don’t trust me as much. But often times, they feel bad because the task was crazy and they weren’t sure how I was going to get it done in the first place.

Either way, there is an element of trust that I lose when I don’t do what I say I am going to do, and that should change.

If I am going to work for myself, or lead a successful company, I can’t do everything. I need to delegate my tasks in a way that makes sense and allows me to complete the work that is most important and necessary for me.

This doesn’t mean I will stop doing crazy things. Rather, it’s a reminder to think twice about the promises I make so that I can always stick to my word. When I can do that, my word becomes more valuable and people will believe what I say.

Jordan

Perseverance

Wed, 11 May 2016 07:30:00 +0000

What you’re trying to accomplish isn’t easy and it takes a perseverance mentality to complete it.

Often times, because I typically am a chronic procrastinator, if I ever attempt to begin working on a project early, I stop working on it because I don’t see the point of doing it early. My will to persevere quickly decays and I am left wanting to do anything other than that project.

I understand now that the power of working on something a little bit at a time, over time, is much greater than doing it all at once. But sometimes I lose that understanding and I forget why I am doing what I am doing.

That’s why this blog helps me. It allows me to remind myself daily that I am working on becoming greater, and that’s not just going to happen over night. It must be everyday, continuing even when things get tough.

When I try to do too many changes at once, I get discouraged. That’s also why trying to accomplish projects over time is a much better plan. Rather than becoming a new person over night, I can make small changes on a daily or weekly basis that will allow me to continue growing and completing my goals.

That’s a mentality that, over 30 years, can produce a harvest that is far greater than anything I could imagine.

Jordan

Either Work Hard or Don't Complain

Tue, 10 May 2016 06:30:00 +0000

I’m not usually one to complain about anything. I take hits as they come and deal with it. But, up until two months ago, I was complaining about where I was at regarding my progress in life.

You see, it’s easy to blame other people for the things that go wrong in your life. It’s easy to shift the focus off of you and direct it to things that no one can change. In reality, you are the one thing you have complete control over. Stop complaining about how every thing affects you and instead, start affecting your own life.

We all have choices to make, day in and day out. We make choices about our time, our priorities, our struggles (either consciously or subconsciously). When you think about those choices and you actually apply some thought to the direction of your life, things begin to change.

Success and happiness are about maximizing the things that are important to you, and minimizing the things that you don’t want in your life. It’s that simple. I want to spend more time with my family - maximize that. I want to spend less time watching TV and scrolling through social media - minimize that.

Life is about doing the best with what you are given. Shame on us if we don’t capitalize on the major opportunities that we as Americans have been given. We live in the most free country on the planet, and with the internet, have 1000X more chances to be successful than the generations before us.

Don’t complain unless you have changed yourself first. Become the hardest working person you know. Become the most loving person you know. Become the best person for the job. If you’re not striving for that, then you can’t complain when someone else does better than you.

I decided to make radical changes in my life, for a bunch of different reasons. And now, I’m not complaining, I’m working; working on becoming the hardest working person I know, becoming the best husband/father I know, and becoming the most successful person I know.

I can only imagine how much I will get done if I continue at this pace. Every day I get more and more done. I now understand that consistent daily habits and pieces of work every day goes a lot farther than last minute sprints. Procrastination and last minute was the old me, the new me just gets to work and makes time to grow everyday.

I hope this resonates for someone, and helps them get out of a rut.

Jordan

18 Hours

Mon, 09 May 2016 05:30:00 +0000

I’ve got 18 hours a day to become the person I want to be. I’ve got 18 hours a day to chase my goals and dreams. I’ve got 18 hours a day to grow, plan and lead.

Today I have kicked off my 4am club campaign. My schedule now looks like this:

4AM: Prayer/Bible
4:30AM: Web Dev/Freelance
6:30AM: Work out
7:30AM: Get ready for work
8AM: Blog post
9AM: - 5PM: Work
5:30PM: Make dinner/Have dinner/Hang with family
8:30PM: Read/Plan for next day
9:45PM: In bed
10PM: Sleep

I might need to tweak it in the future, but it works for now. This schedule, of course, is only for days that we aren’t doing anything in the evenings. I think setting a bed time of 10PM isn’t too unreasonable. I still get my 18 hours.

This schedule leaves me with 2 hours of work time on a week day, which isn’t too bad. Since I have other things in my priorities, I can’t spend all of my time working. My life needs maintenance and balance.

Once I have confidence that I can start accepting clients for web development, I might add an hour of work in the evenings as well. I don’t think Hannah would mind a little more time as long as it is bringing in income.

This has been an interesting time, to say the least. I have been moving forward in a lot of ways, but I can always afford to plan better and be more organized. All of the areas that I am trying to work in should have goals, and plans to reach those goals.

I know the power of good habits, and working over time. It’s much like compound interest. Working small bits of work over time allows you to create something much better and larger than if you were to do it all at once.

Doing things day to day allows for a better schedule, one that promotes health and balance. It makes it easier to manage my priorities, and establish them.

I really like where all of this is headed, and I am sure that I will be successful in finding work that I can use to bring income in as I tackle my debt.

Jordan

Is it too much?

Sat, 07 May 2016 06:45:00 +0000

I think that humans are incredible creatures, built with a lot more tenacity than they think they have.

But is there a limit to how much I can do in the day? Sure, but I haven’t hit that yet. My goal is to get 6 hours of sleep regularly, and get up at 4 AM. That means, sleep 10 PM to 4 AM.

Getting less sleep hasn’t really effected me yet. When I wake up, I’m just as tired as I would be if I woke up at 9 AM. Part of that is due to how I eat and how I exercise. But knowing that I have put good hours into the things that are important to me? That makes it so worth it.

At the end of the day I truly feel like I got things done. I can relax, give my attention to Hannah and not worry about not living my dream. Part of my dream is the work that I have to put into it, so when I am doing that, I am satisfied.

Getting up at 4 AM makes things more even in my mind. I can spend an hour on three things before 7. And honestly, it only takes me a half hour to get ready in the mornings, so I could spend 30 minutes on something else.

In order to do this, I will need to have prepared the night before. I will need to get all of my clothes ready (for exercise and work), and I will need to plan out my hours so that I don’t waste them. As long as I do that, I think this getting up at 4 AM thing won’t be so bad.

I can get a lot done in 1 hour everyday. Because I’m not doing tasks all at once, I have time to reflect and brew on choices before I make progress the next day. Between 1 hour weekdays and 4 ~ 5 hours on Saturdays, I will be well on my way to completing my goals and being successful.

All of the pieces to the puzzle need to be in place for me to be able to pull this off. I need to be praying, exercising and eating healthy. The work part is easy for me, but the other things require paying attention.

I feel like I’m in a really good spot. I’m growing everyday, and not staying stagnate like I was before I started doing all of this.

Jordan

Refinement

Fri, 06 May 2016 06:45:00 +0000

Attention is limited, and what you give your attention to defines who you are as a person. Be it work, family, TV, video games, social media, it’s all on the table. What you do in secret, or when no one is watching, defines you in the end.

Since I have a limited attention, I don’t want to spend it on things that don’t rank high on my priority list. I want to make sure the most important things in my life get the most attention.

This takes discipline, though, and you have to recognize what you believe to be your top priorities. Mine are: Prayer/Bible, Wife, Work, Side Work, Exercise, Social Activity (in that order). All other things that try to affect my time that aren’t on this list should be ignored or at least minimized.

This is a rough list, and it is flexible, but those are the things that I want to spend time on day-in and day-out. On a typical work day, I could afford to give at least an hour to each of those things (other than work). If I was paying attention to other things that distract me, it would take away from the most important things to me.

I want to be frank and clear about what is most important to me, because if you aren’t, your priorities will blend and you will make mistakes with your time. This is especially the case when it involves people. If I prioritize work over my wife, that will affect her negatively. If I prioritize social activity over work, I won’t get much work done. If I prioritize anything over prayer/bible time, it would affect me negatively.

It also helps me to organize my priorities because it forces me to stick to a set list of things that I should be spending my time on. If I find myself not spending time on one of these things, should I be doing it?

Also, since attention is limited, I want to make sure I give attention to things that take the most energy and creativity first thing in the morning. That’s why I have been getting up at 5 AM (soon 4 AM) to frontload my day with the things that I want to accomplish. Then, in the evenings, I can focus on things that are low energy, but I can be at ease because I know I got the things done for the day that I wanted to.

In other news, I would like to keep a technical blog that goes over the things that I learn over time at work and on the side. It won’t be daily, but it will help me document things so I can reference back to them.

Jordan

Finishing

Thu, 05 May 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Lately, I have really been prying into this web development thing. I still am a beginner, but I am quickly learning the ropes and applying myself in a few different ways.

I want to reverse engineer where I would like to be a half year from now. A few months from now, I would like to be freelance web developing at least 10 hours a week, at around $300 to $500 a week. That’s not a crazy successful goal, but it’s a goal that I can work towards. It’s about the money, but it’s more about doing what I like to do.

To get there, would mean that I would have something to offer to people/businesses. I need to be competent in design standards, as well as conversion best practices. I need to be flexible and creative in design, but also slimming and minimalistic so the project can actually finish on time. I also need to be quick, meaning my workflow needs to be in place long before I start. I also need to be versed in types of sites, e-commerce for small businesses, media for churches, etc.

Before all of that, I need to have a portfolio that shows off all of the things I can do. I would need to have some projects lined up that I can work on for free so I can get some practice. I actually do have a few lined up - I will be working on finishing the e-commerce site for my brother’s coffee business, potentially (I haven’t asked yet) working on a non-profit website for my mother-in-law, and also potentially working on another church website.

Before I get to those, I have some learning that I need to complete. I am still working on the Udemy course I purchased that has been really helpful in learning the basics of web development and web app design. I will need to read and study some fundamental design standards and put them into practice as well. I plan on being active on CodePen.

So that’s where I am now. I am in the learning phase. I will never really leave the learning phase, but at some point I will feel confident and move on to the application stage, and then once I have built a portfolio and “themes” I can move on to hiring clients that I will do work for.

This is all for a season. Who knows, maybe I will get into full time web development. I doubt I would continue doing that, though. I need to build something that is bigger than myself. I need to be working on something that impacts way more people than I could ever do on my own.

Jordan

Consistency

Wed, 04 May 2016 06:00:00 +0000

Lately I have been inconsistent with the things that I accomplish in the mornings. It has been tough with the recent move, but I should still be doing everything that I need to do.

I need to work out, not because I want to run a half marathon in September, but it will allow me to have more energy and be healthy. That’s a necessary thing for me.

I really would like to be getting up at 4 every morning. There are three things that have some of my highest priority ranking that I would like to do daily. I’d like to spend 1 hour on all three.

I want to have dedicated praying/Bible time. I want to work out. I want to keep moving forward with my learning and web development.

I want to have a consistent morning every morning. Something that is the same, so I know what to expect. Right now, when I wake up, I don’t really know what I will be doing. I need to have a set timeline rather than making it up as I go.

I think I would like to start off with praying/reading. Then, working out. Then, working on skill. Then, web development / business development. An example of a skill could be something like speeding up my typing, or learning a new skill that I can use often to make my life better (like cooking, catching up on math/physics, etc.).

This would allow me to fully embrace the evenings and allow me to unwind for the day knowing that I have accomplished the things that I set out to do. In the evenings, It would be all about spending time with my wife and eventually my family. I would also like to set aside time to read in the evenings. At least a half hour.

I think doing this will allow me to be better as a person, it would allow me to be more consistent in how I am and how I spend my time. Part of my consistency will also come with how I plan my day the night before. I need to have a set plan of what I will accomplish during the hours that I am spending on these things.

I am currently reading a book by 99U, and the basic emphasis is that much more can be accomplished in your life if you spend smaller chunks on it everyday rather than doing it all in one shot. Not only is it more consistent and productive, it also allows your mind to think about things in between days when you are not working on it. I believe that, and want to practice it.

This is my goal. To be consistent. But, I also want to be disruptable. I want to be able to handle the things that life throws at me gracefully. Something like, the baby getting up in the middle of the night, or any other emergency that can happen that will change how I spend my time slightly.

How will I be able to be disrupted? Possibly by prioritizing. If I am healthy, I can rely less on the amount of sleep I get, and rather get shorter but more quality sleep.

My next goal is to start waking up at 4am every morning. It sounds crazy typing that, seeing as how a month ago I could hardly get out of bed to get to work on time. I guess it comes down to how badly I want to affect things in my life, rather than have my life affect me. I want to be the thing that drives my outcome. No one can take the time away from me that I want to spend growing myself.

Wish me luck.

Jordan

Do What You Do Best

Tue, 03 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I like to learn something every day. I enjoy taking the hard road if it means I will be more successful and be noticed.

I’m a young electrical engineer (EE) that started working for Corning, Inc. back in July, and today I had my first managerial review. It was quick and dirty, what did I expect? With just under six months of contribution, there wasn’t much to glean on. The gist of it was, “You’re completing your tasks and there haven’t been any complaints, so good job…” Which was fine. I understand. But there came a point in our conversation that I wanted to talk to my manager about.

You see, I’m an EE by trade. That’s what my diploma, resume, LinkedIn and any other thing listing anything I have accomplished says (which isn’t much). When I got to college, I wanted to, very generically, “build electronics.” I came from a small rural town, and it’s safe to say I had no idea what I was getting into. I figured I am good at math, yada yada science, yada yada physics… typical freshman engineering fluff, so why not? It was shortly after I arrived at college that I was introduced to programming. It was love at first sight. I was fortunate enough to be in the same dorm as a guy that would let me watch him program. I would sit for hours and watch him (looking back, he was much more of a phenomenal coder than I ever will be). It inspired me, it made me want to solve any and every problem that was thrown at me.

But I was torn. I wanted to “build electronics,” remember? That was my desire since I was a little kid. I couldn’t go back on that. So I decided that I would force my EE electives to focus in computer engineering courses and computer science courses. I was excelling and dominating in my operating systems, artificial intelligence, programming for engineers (C/C++), and computer architecture (VHDL on an FPGA) classes, all while fumbling through my core classes of electronics, circuits and analog filter design. This path was very satisfying, yet disappointing at the same time. I was pursuing my passion and neglecting my calling.

I graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, but I was really a computer engineer. I decided to call myself a firmware engineer because that is what I really was, an engineering mutt of sorts. Turns out the combination of programming and electrical engineering is somewhat of a niche area of expertise, and I was pretty decent at it. The branch of Corning that I work for has several mechanical engineers, several optical engineers, and one electro-optical engineer, who happens to be my boss! He’s a mutt too, which is why I fit very well under his wing. He’s an amazing engineer/mentor with loads of experience, but that’s not what this story is about. This is about doing what I do best.

It came to the point in my review where I wanted to bring up something. It was the fact that I wasn’t being challenged as an EE. My soul has been telling me I want to grow as a hardware designer, not continue as a mutt. All of the tasks I had been given revolved around software and firmware, but I had yet to touch any PCB design or circuit design. I told him “Don’t get me wrong, I love what I am doing, but I haven’t been doing any hardware design.” In reality I was saying, “I’m not getting any chance to do my calling… ‘building electronics’”. He responded by saying “Yeah that’s something we could look into…”, I kinda just stopped listening at that point. But then he said, “Isn’t that one project you’re working on involving hardware?” Yeah, technically it is. But it’s hardly EE worthy to string together off the shelf sensors, controllers and APIs. I told him it was, and he responded by saying this,

“Making all of those pieces fit together isn’t easy, and it is electrical engineering.”

I didn’t think anything of it. I responded with a shrug, and so ended the meeting.

Later on in the evening I was reading some medium posts, and the quote “do what you’re good at” kept coming up. I usually never think about it. It’s somewhat of a ‘duh’ statement for me. But then it hit me.

I’m doing what I’m good at. It’s not my calling, it’s not my pure passion, but it is truly what I am good at. All of my life leading up to this moment has pointed me to be this niche firmware EE computer engineering mutt that happens to fit perfectly where I am. You see, what might be easy for me is hard for some, and what might be hard for me may be easy for some. I might stare at and admire a “pure” electrical engineer working his/her craft. But that’s not me, and that’s not what I am good at.

Appreciate what you’re good at, and foster it. Don’t ever get tired of doing it. Don’t let your childhood dreams keep you from doing it. Just do what you do best, and all the rest will work out.

Fresh Start

Sun, 01 May 2016 20:00:00 +0000

We moved into our new apartment today, and it’s a really good change.

It’s not a massive change, not too much larger or any more special, but it is a much more inspiring and creative environment. Our last apartment was half underground, had hardly any windows, and didn’t have the greatest layout.

Should I let something like an apartment affect me? Probably not. But, when you are at your weakest moments, you never know what subconscious things are going to help pull you through.

Tomorrow morning I will get up early as I have been for the past several weeks. I get up at 5 AM and work on the most important thing for that day. Sometimes it’s for the church website, sometimes my own, sometimes Hannah’s, sometimes it’s used to increase my own learning in web development.

Tomorrow isn’t exactly anything special, but it’s a new start, just like every morning. Here’s to tomorrow.

Jordan