⚙️ Building Value Systems — Progress Thread

[ValueSystems]

Hey guys

I've been in the dark on this forum for years. Read TMF around 6 years ago...

I have been on many entrepreneurship adventures since then, made many mistakes, learned many lessons.

But as I'm learning to become more and more consistent - as a personality trait - I want to challenge myself to posting here more regularly.
If I want to be a high-level operator, that's bare minimum hygiene standards...

I'm fascinated by this idea of creating systems that deliver value and so you'll see that my view of business is very much linked to that.
This whole concept was inspired by TMF back in the day, one of the first book I read that talked about business as a true altruistic value exchange.

It really made something click in my brain and realize that this was the meaning of my life.
Create systems that deliver value.

Anyway that's the little intro.
Let's get to business.


Current situation:

1 — I've been operating a little "short form content agency" if you can call it that, since august last year (10mo.). Recurring clients.

- This has been my first experience ever at sales, which I thought I would be terrible at. For context, my family hate sales so much so mindset towards it was tough at first. Anyways, ended up selling $25k worth of services in 10 month which I'm super proud off. Still, baby numbers, but proud.
- This was also my first experience in contracting people. All the other projects I've done in the past have been as co-founder or solo. I've worked with in total 5 contractors on and off.
- The goal of this agency was solely to pay the bills. And it's still (almost) paying the bills at this stage. We're looking at around $3k profit per month currently, but I do most of the delivery myself for good margins (basically consider this a job). Also Switzerland is mad expensive to live in :')

2 — Joined others I met while travelling in creating another agency (agency 2)

- This time with a different business model with no recurring income but a one-off paid in full offer at ~4k.
- This time I'm handling only the systems part supposedly not handling everything.
- I don't think they are very good operators so I'm worried about that. No equity for me, just profit share "TBD" in the future. I'm just doing my minum part and keeping expectations low at the moment.

3 — Third project in parallel: potential SaaS / pseudo SaaS

- A contact of mine was interested in having built for him the same tech I built for agency 2, and so it got me thinking...
- I think I can get that done for him and at same time make it so I can scale that to multiple clients automatically. We would just need an onboarding session where they provide all the info and we can connect them to the system from there.
- This one solves a huge need for content creators (basically content management system) and I think we can easily get sell that $997/pm per client. So since that's software we can scale that up easily and this market is actually huge (and bound to be bigger with coming years, everyone is a content creator now)

4 — Fourth project: Scraper software

- Alright before y'all roll your eyes saying I have too many projects at once, this one is already actually built.
- I build the basic version in 2 weeks. It's working. Now I'm gonna sell it and go from there.
- I've collected 8k leads that should be very targeted for this solution.
- Just need to figure out the apple signing apps thingy and we're off to the races.
- Since this tool is scraping a website that probably doesn't want that it can not be a sustainable business. Hence why I'm selling it as a one-off sale use-on-your-own-computer solution. Consider this a fast cash side hustle. Should sell for $100 to $1000 a pop given it solves a huge need for many of these targets.


The plan for the next year:

- Have agency 1 as clean as possible, just providing basic income.
- See what happens with agency 2 in 3 months, then either kill it or double down & remove agency 1
- This one has the most potential: See if we can scale content management system SaaS to a 100 recurring clients by next summer.
- Fast cash: Sell the scraping tool to 100 people, hopefully avg price 600 = $60k
- Cut the projects that are not ROI efficient enough as soon as others take off enough.


Obstacles to watch out for:

Mostly my own demons.
I used to be very ADD and shiny object. Working on it.

I'm starting to become more organised and diligent now.
It's actually my main goal with Q2 this year, upgrading my mental software.
Letting go of limiting beliefs and illusions of a past self.

I've put in place daily routines and simplified checks I have to run through to make sure everything is in order.
And check my goals, plans, mindset every morning.

Now it's a matter of never letting go of the momentum wheel.


I'll do one update per month for at least a year.
Even if nothing happened, even if I'm ashamed of my progress.
I'm putting it out there to add some social pressure from people I respect.

One update per month. EDIT: Actually, f*ck that. Let's make it once a week. 52 weeks.

See you next weekend!

 

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[ValueSystems]

W20 — Weekly Update

Trying a format, let's see if we keep it with time or iterate:


PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Agency 2 closed down.
  Well, that was short-lived... But it might be for the best if it brings more focus & energy to the rest. One founder left and empty promises and misplaced expectations made the whole thing crumble.
• Finally got project four (scraper software) notarized by apple to be able to distribute it, bought the $100/y apple dev license.
• Travelled end of week so reduced my output due to semi-vacation. Most time was spent doing delivery on agency 1.
• Did a minor test on project 3 (pseudo SaaS) but will need to prioritize it more next week.
• Insight from agency 2: stop believing salemen to be good CEOs/operators.
  • I saw the red flag but chose to go with the flow, see where it took me. Took me nowhere.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• Hard to find good co-founder, but at the same time it's hard to go solo. There's no easy solution for this challenge.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Be more deliberate with my choice instead of following others. I saw the red flag but chose to go.
• Prioritize more project three (pseudo SaaS) next week to have it built fast.

Thoughts & Quotes

People think changing the world is about innovation.
But I think it's more about incentives, leverage, and positioning.

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” - Leonardo Da Vinci

-> Relates to my realizations this week.


Alright that's it!
See you next week. Same place same time.

 

[ValueSystems]

Week 21 Update

Overall, life is good.

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Spent a lof of time just delivering on client services, which is frustrating because it's working IN the business not ON the business, which is basically a job and preventing me from building the next pieces for the next level.
• Finally did the jump & bought the $100 apple developer license to distribute on MacOS, not knowing if I would be able to actually use it. Spoiler alert, it was more complicated than predicted - of course.
• Got my scraper software notarized by apple, impossible to staple it with the tech I use tho so will have to distribute it as is. But I found a new error so back to code.
• Launched a google chrome extension on the chrome store (code I used to solve a problem for myself anyway) - waiting on approval from google.
• Postulated on a couple marketing and webdev jobs, because I need to start earning more asap, in any way possible. My current clients are not enough and I would want to focus on my products / software more than scaling services. I don't really believe in my offer of simple short-form that much anymore so I prefer not selling more of that.
• My daily mindset exercises are going great, focusing on goals and vision every day first thing in the morning, and nearly every night before bed. I'm installing new software to my mind that I feel is pushing the tought processes to the next level.
• Gym is going solid, hit new PRs on multiple key lifts.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• Apple security processes are a nightmare.
• Mindset is great.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Hire experts and coaches for the things I bang my head on (apple notarization) -> solve these faster this way.
• Productivity habits are going well so no obvious improvement there this week.

Thoughts & Quotes

It's crazy how easily you forget to do the things that got you here, every time.
I was having difficulties focusing, ADD (if you believe in that) was hitting hard.
Then for 3 days I woke up earlier (obvious), walked every day (obvious) and went to sleep at correct hours...
and boom: problem solved.
Back on top of the world baby.

So, note to self: waking up past 9AM gives you HEAVY brain-fog.
Stop understimating it.
Even if it means less sleep for a night, no waking up past 9AM.

We'll talk about those weekly updates in a decade and find it inconsequential. What a journey life is.

See you next week.

 

[ValueSystems]

Week 22 Update


PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Not a great week. Sleep deprivation and losing focus were frequent. Gluten intake last Sunday fcked me up for around 48h, good to note. It was a few months since my previous contact.
• Had a meeting for a potential job . It's full time, but it might help finances for a few months. We'll see.
• Lots of client delivery
• Worked on the tech side of pseudo SaaS project. Changed the plan and decided to go straight to more advanced version which will make more sense as a position on the market.
• Had to resend to validated chrome extension, it's still not out.
• With GPT & google, managed to create some tech stuff with AWS that I didn't think I was capable of doing this quickly, win!

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• More code and complexity than expected on pseudo SaaS project. Ambitious project. But it has immense potential. Current objective is to take it to 100 recurring clients by next year (summer 2024). I could live off 3-4 recurring clients already.
• The scraper is still going on but what a mess.. always problem solving a whole lot.
  • Looked into hiring experts but the problem is so specific and niche that I struggle to find someone
• Still a challenge to go to bed early, so there is some residual sleep deprivation here.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Need to go to bed earlier.
  • So brain functions better

Thoughts & Quotes

Predicting where AI will go is a fools game.
Adapting along the way as it progresses is the only way.

See ya next week!

 

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[Wolffe]

Week 22 Update


PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Not a great week. Sleep deprivation and losing focus were frequent. Gluten intake last Sunday fcked me up for around 48h, good to note. It was a few months since my previous contact.
• Had a meeting for a potential job . It's full time, but it might help finances for a few months. We'll see.
• Lots of client delivery
• Worked on the tech side of pseudo SaaS project. Changed the plan and decided to go straight to more advanced version which will make more sense as a position on the market.
• Had to resend to validated chrome extension, it's still not out.
• With GPT & google, managed to create some tech stuff with AWS that I didn't think I was capable of doing this quickly, win!

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• More code and complexity than expected on pseudo SaaS project. Ambitious project. But it has immense potential. Current objective is to take it to 100 recurring clients by next year (summer 2024). I could live off 3-4 recurring clients already.
• The scraper is still going on but what a mess.. always problem solving a whole lot.
  • Looked into hiring experts but the problem is so specific and niche that I struggle to find someone
• Still a challenge to go to bed early, so there is some residual sleep deprivation here.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Need to go to bed earlier.
  • So brain functions better

Thoughts & Quotes


See ya next week!

"More code and complexity than expected..." Happens to me a lot too, especially my time estimations end up always being longer than I expect when starting a new project/adding a new feature.

Going to bed and waking up at the same time is something that helped me get better sleep. Also, try to get sunlight early in the morning if you can.

Keep up the good work

 

[xShepherdx]

Following. Keep up the good work!

 

[ValueSystems]

"More code and complexity than expected..." Happens to me a lot too, especially my time estimations end up always being longer than I expect when starting a new project/adding a new feature.

Going to bed and waking up at the same time is something that helped me get better sleep. Also, try to get sunlight early in the morning if you can.

Keep up the good work

Hey thanks for tuning in!

Yeah used to do sunlight first thing too but now with the pollen season here it's terrible, I can't stop sneezing for half an hour after if I do that.

Oh man when I was in Bali, sun first thing then hop in the fresh pool... best way to start the day.

To your point about complexity in code, yeah it's always difficult to predict workload ahead of time on these.
In this case specifically I decided to switch entirely the plan and go immediately for what was supposed to be V2 so there's also that changes all my expectations.

 

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[ValueSystems]

Following. Keep up the good work!

Hey thank you for reading, appreciate it!

 

[ValueSystems]

Week 23 Update

Good week! Hard on the body but good on the soul.

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Built an accountability coach AI Telegram chatbot that asks you every end of day how you day has been and with whom you can chat of your goals/tasks. I'm thinking of sending it for people in this forum to test - hit me up if interested. It was kind of a hobby project
  • It looks like this:
  • 
• Did a lot of client delivery to get back to planning
• Broke a 2nd phone in 3 weeks lol
• Went to a job interview, landed the job, told them no.
• Continued to bang my head against the wall on this whole signing and notarizing apps on MacOS what a nightmare...
• Figure out the offer for the service I'm gonna sell that is actually my future SaaS but disguised as a service so I can build it while having early clients on it already.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• Distribute accountability coach AI telegram chatbot to TFF if people are interested, might become a paid project at some point if it brings enough value to enough people.
• I fear I might have gone too far on this MacOS app signing & notary route - so far it's taken more than 2x the time of developping the app itself and still not solved. Insane. Wasteful.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Post an offering on upwork and see if some experts can help with this macos sign & notary situation for a fee. Let me know if you guys know good websites to find experts to consult for super specific problems?

Thoughts & Quotes

‍

Cheers, see you next week!

 

[Wolffe]

Week 23 Update

Good week! Hard on the body but good on the soul.

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Built an accountability coach AI Telegram chatbot that asks you every end of day how you day has been and with whom you can chat of your goals/tasks. I'm thinking of sending it for people in this forum to test - hit me up if interested. It was kind of a hobby project
  • It looks like this:
  • View attachment 49263
• Did a lot of client delivery to get back to planning
• Broke a 2nd phone in 3 weeks lol
• Went to a job interview, landed the job, told them no.
• Continued to bang my head against the wall on this whole signing and notarizing apps on MacOS what a nightmare...
• Figure out the offer for the service I'm gonna sell that is actually my future SaaS but disguised as a service so I can build it while having early clients on it already.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• Distribute accountability coach AI telegram chatbot to TFF if people are interested, might become a paid project at some point if it brings enough value to enough people.
• I fear I might have gone too far on this MacOS app signing & notary route - so far it's taken more than 2x the time of developping the app itself and still not solved. Insane. Wasteful.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Post an offering on upwork and see if some experts can help with this macos sign & notary situation for a fee. Let me know if you guys know good websites to find experts to consult for super specific problems?

Thoughts & Quotes


Cheers, see you next week!

Accountability chatbot looks cool. Can definitely be a great way to keep yourself accountable/reflect on what you've been doing. This guy on twitter (

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645111641602682881

View: https://twitter.com/RunGreatClasses/status/1645111641602682881?s=20
) does something similar with chatGPT, he's using some really good prompts.

What's the issue you're having notarizing the mac app?

 

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[ValueSystems]

Accountability chatbot looks cool. Can definitely be a great way to keep yourself accountable/reflect on what you've been doing. This guy on twitter (

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645111641602682881

View: https://twitter.com/RunGreatClasses/status/1645111641602682881?s=20
) does something similar with chatGPT, he's using some really good prompts.

What's the issue you're having notarizing the mac app?

Interesting, some good ideas for prompts in there - I will implement some of those thanks!

Yeah I felt I would benefit from more external accountability but getting a coach is out of my budget currently.
So the bot does 50% of what a coach would do which is, asking you the important questions at the right time - forcing you to reflect and adjust.

The whole idea for my bot compared to the tweet is that it sends you a daily message (currently it sends at 10PM) via Telegram so you have no choice but to be accountable to your Head Coach

The first message in the screenshot above is unprompted, automatic, you get a notification like a person sending you message.

On the mac app notarization, there were so many issues...
But the current one is that I'm using some packages within the package I am trying to distribute and those packages have to be also signed and notarized themselves but there's always a new problem each time I try something.
Each step that can go wrong goes wrong, it's crazy haha.

I'm armed with GPT4 every step of the way but it sure isn't perfect, and sometimes it doesn't have the up-to-date answers I need.

Have you done some apple signing/notarization/stapling stuff yourself?

 

[Wolffe]

Interesting, some good ideas for prompts in there - I will implement some of those thanks!

Yeah I felt I would benefit from more external accountability but getting a coach is out of my budget currently.
So the bot does 50% of what a coach would do which is, asking you the important questions at the right time - forcing you to reflect and adjust.

The whole idea for my bot compared to the tweet is that it sends you a daily message (currently it sends at 10PM) via Telegram so you have no choice but to be accountable to your Head Coach

The first message in the screenshot above is unprompted, automatic, you get a notification like a person sending you message.

On the mac app notarization, there were so many issues...
But the current one is that I'm using some packages within the package I am trying to distribute and those packages have to be also signed and notarized themselves but there's always a new problem each time I try something.
Each step that can go wrong goes wrong, it's crazy haha.

I'm armed with GPT4 every step of the way but it sure isn't perfect, and sometimes it doesn't have the up-to-date answers I need.

Have you done some apple signing/notarization/stapling stuff yourself?

I’ve not. I’ve some experience with Swift ui, but have never notarized an app. Good luck with that.

 

[ValueSystems]

Week 24 Update

Hard week. Emotions. Confusion.

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Worked the actual full offer of the SaaS + the cold email copy for it
• Updated the accountability coach bot so that the user can set their goals and the bot takes that into account in each response he gives:
  • 
• Came to the realization: I need a part-time job. Can't continue like this without a job on the side. I'm letting my people down if I continue to push like this and forcing them to support me. Not acceptable.
• Negociating another freelance client, we'll see.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• Find a part-time job.
• One thing at a time, I have been too spread out

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Find a part-time job.

Thoughts & Quotes

‍"Still waters run deep" - some of the most calm and quiet people have often the deepest minds and ideas

Player 1 — You're the main character of the video game of your life, act like it. Came from an interview of Israel Adesanya where he talked about seeing his life as a video game.

See you next week lads

 

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[ValueSystems]

Week 25 Update

New week new challenges

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Good old boring client delivery.
• Sent a couple job postings, asked around if people know people looking for part-time digital marketer or motion designer.
• Re-did my LinkedIn and CV, now I think it's pretty impressive if I do say so myself haha.
• Still feeling the effects from existential crisis of last week if I'm being honest. I need a bit more recovery but do not let myself sleep enough yet. NEED TO SLEEP MORE/BETTER.
• Created a new chrome extension (in 2 hours) to scratch my own itch. In gmail, I used to have so many newsletters polluting my inbox... but it would take so much time to open each one, copy their email, add that to a filter so that it skips the inbox and goes to a label "newsletter". So build that. You select the conversations you want to filter, click the icon and it automatically creates a new filter and adds all of them. Then you can choose your label and that's done. Let me know if you need it, haven't posted it to the chrome store yet.
• A lot more social events than usual this week so some time spent outside of work there. Also ate gluten and ate late (a friends wedding so special exception) so I feel that strongly on my energy levels.
• Had a meeting for a potential business collaboration with a friend I trust and have worked with in the past, this could be super interesting opportunity in itself and make me skip needing a job as well. The part I would help with is the part I excell at and love the most so it would really be satisfying.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• Need to find a better sleep rythm to maximize energy levels.
• I love building apps and projects so much it feels like an addiction at times. If I can put myself in a position where that is the main task that needs to be done and not a distraction as it sometimes is currently, that could lead to super powerful results.
• This new opportunity with the friend could be huge. We'll see.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Currently I'm doing walking and 3x gym per week, but I'd love to get some more cardio in. Something like weekly 1-2x basketball sessions, practising hoops alone with a good podcast.
• Sleep hygiene routine.
• Need to implement daily meditation to help focus. I already do it here and there but not daily yet.

Thoughts

Either put full effort into projects, or none at all.
Don't half-a$$ it. Half-assed project can never beat full-effort projects.
Half-effort is where mediocrity lives.

I don't want to be rich. Honestly I don't.
I just want to NOT to HAVE TO THINK ABOUT MONEY.
I want to create stuff freely that will benefit the world.
Be free to go through life at the mercy of nothing but my own will, following what drives me along the way.

How will you protect your mind/life/people against a future where A.I. is everywhere?
A world where you can't trust written content, can't trust pictures, can't even trust voices and videos of people.
That's a whole different world, and I think no one is ready for that.
Don't get me started on if bad actors get their own modified A.I.s models to create malicious code dynamically to invade every system constantly, none of our digital data will be safe.
Anyway, good thought exercise to think about.

I don't really expect anyone to read these, as they can get pretty boring.
But if you did, share you thoughts!
Do you think I'm neglecting things, not seeing the obvious, having too much ego, etc. -> Do let me know!

Alright, let's see where next week takes us where we can make next week go.

 

[Mo Joe]

Week 25 Update

New week new challenges

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Good old boring client delivery.
• Sent a couple job postings, asked around if people know people looking for part-time digital marketer or motion designer.
• Re-did my LinkedIn and CV, now I think it's pretty impressive if I do say so myself haha.
• Still feeling the effects from existential crisis of last week if I'm being honest. I need a bit more recovery but do not let myself sleep enough yet. NEED TO SLEEP MORE/BETTER.
• Created a new chrome extension (in 2 hours) to scratch my own itch. In gmail, I used to have so many newsletters polluting my inbox... but it would take so much time to open each one, copy their email, add that to a filter so that it skips the inbox and goes to a label "newsletter". So build that. You select the conversations you want to filter, click the icon and it automatically creates a new filter and adds all of them. Then you can choose your label and that's done. Let me know if you need it, haven't posted it to the chrome store yet.
• A lot more social events than usual this week so some time spent outside of work there. Also ate gluten and ate late (a friends wedding so special exception) so I feel that strongly on my energy levels.
• Had a meeting for a potential business collaboration with a friend I trust and have worked with in the past, this could be super interesting opportunity in itself and make me skip needing a job as well. The part I would help with is the part I excell at and love the most so it would really be satisfying.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• Need to find a better sleep rythm to maximize energy levels.
• I love building apps and projects so much it feels like an addiction at times. If I can put myself in a position where that is the main task that needs to be done and not a distraction as it sometimes is currently, that could lead to super powerful results.
• This new opportunity with the friend could be huge. We'll see.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Currently I'm doing walking and 3x gym per week, but I'd love to get some more cardio in. Something like weekly 1-2x basketball sessions, practising hoops alone with a good podcast.
• Sleep hygiene routine.
• Need to implement daily meditation to help focus. I already do it here and there but not daily yet.

Thoughts




I don't really expect anyone to read these, as they can get pretty boring.
But if you did, share you thoughts!
Do you think I'm neglecting things, not seeing the obvious, having too much ego, etc. -> Do let me know!

Alright, let's see where next week takes us where we can make next week go.

Hello!

I am reading your journey and it's interesting!

Can you pls share me the chrome extension?

Created a new chrome extension (in 2 hours) to scratch my own itch. In gmail, I used to have so many newsletters polluting my inbox... but it would take so much time to open each one, copy their email, add that to a filter so that it skips the inbox and goes to a label "newsletter". So build that. You select the conversations you want to filter, click the icon and it automatically creates a new filter and adds all of them. Then you can choose your label and that's done. Let me know if you need it, haven't posted it to the chrome store yet.

Previously I see some accountability app... do you use some? Or only to do system?

Thanks

 

[xShepherdx]

I don't really expect anyone to read these, as they can get pretty boring.
But if you did, share you thoughts!
Do you think I'm neglecting things, not seeing the obvious, having too much ego, etc. -> Do let me know!

Alright, let's see where next week takes us where we can make next week go.

I love these updates!

It seems we’re struggling/have struggled with similar mental challenges so it’s cool to hear how you work through them.

And good job on the chrome extension, that sounds like a solid implementation of the newsletter idea that was being worked on elsewhere on the forum.

Sounds like you’re on the right track, keep up the progress

 

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[ValueSystems]

Hello!

I am reading your journey and it's interesting!

Can you pls share me the chrome extension?




Previously I see some accountability app... do you use some? Or only to do system?

Thanks

Hey Joe, thanks for stopping by!

So the chrome extension I created last week is still awaiting approval on the web store (submitted it 1h ago). I can DM you a link once it's up if you'd like.

For the accountability app, not sure what you mean?
I use it daily, it sends me a message asking me how the day went and forces me to reflect on what I did.

I'm gonna do a proper post about it one of these days to introduce it to TFF but if you want to try it out early you can start talking with it on telegram: @AccountabilityCoachBot

Don't spam it, I'm paying for the A.I. cost on the backend lol.

 

[ValueSystems]

I love these updates!

It seems we’re struggling/have struggled with similar mental challenges so it’s cool to hear how you work through them.

And good job on the chrome extension, that sounds like a solid implementation of the newsletter idea that was being worked on elsewhere on the forum.

Sounds like you’re on the right track, keep up the progress

Hey man thank you for the kind words!

No idea about the newsletter idea, will look into it and post it there once it's approved.
Hopefully it can help people out!

The thing is my inbox was a mess and there was no way in hell I would go through each sender's email address one by one to add them to a label "newsletter" + "skip the inbox" filter.

I'm pretty sure there's tons of ADD-leaning people here that would feel the same way so happy to share.

I'll continue to keep you posted and hopefully provide some solutions to problems that you may also encounter!
Thanks for stopping by!

 

[ValueSystems]

Week 26 Update

Dear reader, this weekly update is 4 days late. ‍(facepalm)
I've not been to the standard you expect of me this time, I know.
I'm already all over it, fixing it, I promise.

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Side projects
  • New Chrome Extension from last week was approved
  • Found out the first extension has 6 users, 12 installations overall. Without any marketing. Nice!
  • My macos quick action has had a total of 8 sales for a total revenue of... drumroll please... $24 !
  • Enough with the side projects lol.
• Client delivery
• Have started working with the friend I was talking about last time. For now it's just helping them out here and there, small tasks and building little automations, we'll start to work for real in a couple week. For now they're re-filling the war chest a bit first. (They invested in growth services recently & pivoted the offer, so there was a slowdown. But now they're starting to get the benefits from this move (I can see their stats so can confirm)).
• Building my SaaS
  • Building it here and there.
  • I've decided to do the frontend myself instead of using pre-built stuff so I can - over time - deliver the best UI/UX. Doing it this way means I can iterate and go from v1 to v3 from the same code by just improving it instead of re-building the foundations each time.
  • For the techies that will ask "what stack sir" I'm currently using: vanilla JS + bootstrap5. Doesn't get much more simple than that, and it's super fast to build with.
• Nearly recovered from the existencial crisis of a few weeks back. Confidence has booted back up mostly. Not sure I've had such a crisis before lol. I'm usually a much more stoic person but this time it really hit me to my core and I felt compelled for once to... let it hurt me? Invite the pain? Strange. It was interesting.
• Since the crisis I didn't go to the gym, but this week I played basketball in a park in the evening. Felt super good. Lounge music and hoops. The simple things.
• Postulated to a couple jobs (I think around 10-13 this week). I've got a GPT prompt where I give him my CV and the job listing and it gives me a good start of a cover letter (just need to change like 5%).
• I created a raycast command (it's like a small extension for raycast). Got it approved and posted on the official repo on github! Good for my github profile.
  • Funny thing is the next day someone created exactly the same concept but as a full-on extension
  • It was stealing, but it was a really simple fun concept. And also that's the world of tech... This is just so funny.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• The MindLab Pro pills I've been taking reaally helped to get me productive in the meantime while I still try to figure out this "waking up always tired" situation. I've already experimented with them last year and can vouch that they're the best productivity supplement I've ever taken (and I've taken a few, including prescription ADD stuff). You're focus BUT (and it's a big but) you can still sleep at night. Anyway.
• Managed to finally fix something in my scraper project. (tech: I ended up using the user's local chrome instead of a packaged chromium, it fixes the issue of having to sign all the subpackages of chromium myself). But I'm having new signing issues now so one step after the other.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Basketball in the evenings here and there really help calm down
• Lounge / wind down period every evening

Alright, see you in a couple days, got some good stuff for this next one!

 

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[ValueSystems]

Week 27 Update

Tech wins, massive apple security breakthrough

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• FINALLY MANAGED to get my scraper bot signed notarized and WORKING on other macs. Pfiou..
  • It took me 2 months and massive efforts. Thank you (not) apple for making this a total nightmare that was way above my developper weightclass. Anyway that's DONE.
  • Now we can focus on making this product actually the best it can be as a v1 and sell sell sell it. I already have 8k leads that are very target to this use case and a couple emails warmed up so not too stressed about that but we'll have to find the right offer-to-market fit and patience for the time to send all of these.
• Built a fun Notion Formula Assitant on Sunday
  • More than just a tool for this use case, I wanted to build a boilerplate project that I could reuse later to turn any GPT prompt into a standalone chat app in 5 min. There's many potential outcomes for that projects but we'll have to see that later!
• Created a bot that get YouTube stats of prospects to help speed up the sales process for the friend's agency that I'm helping out and will probably join in a month or so.
• Client delivery, this time we're doing short-form ads instead of the regular short-form content.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• New opportunity popped up via this Notion Formula Assistant project on Sunday. Would love to pursue this more and get it done quickly, but I realise I'm limited in what I can do alone. I think I may start looking for tech-genius cofounders for some of these projects and get it done faster and better with other smart people's help. Better have a small share of a big pie than a big share of a small pie.
• Kinda stop planning my days + the mindset & vision exercises for a couple days in the end of the week, I felt like I needed some more creative flexibility instead of the routine. Maybe I need a break lol. I think I will get back to it week 28 though, maybe in a lighter fashion, because without planning I build stuff which is great but I am also less disciplined with the boring (but necessary) stuff.
• Finally finally passed the scraper bot's apple security obstacle, so now I can get this v1 done and make some $ with that project. For now, planning to sell it as a one-off tool around $300-900 a pop. What makes it possible to get this prices is that the tool is directly linked to making people more money and in a marketing b2b space.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Get back into daily planning the day (preferably the night before, with a review in the morning).

Overall feel pretty good about this week, managed to get some major wins on the code side.
Money is very low however, delays, downgrades and stopping outreach on my agency side has taken a massive toll on cashflow.
Hopefully scraper sales catch up, and I'm also still looking for a part-time for this reason.

Thank you for passing by, have a great one!

 

[ValueSystems]

Week 28 Update

Dear Reader,
I know you want to read exciting things all the time.
But that's just not every day life, I'm sorry.
Best regards,
Your weekly merchant of truth.

This week theme: Wake up, Neo.

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• Had 4 calls about part-time jobs opportunities, meeting with 1 next week. Meeting with an another opportunity in a couple weeks and one other in August.
  • The lesson is: put yourself out there. Personally I do that through cold email. I sent a semi-personalized sequence of automated emails to all the creative agencies in my region to find if someone needed a motion designer last month. These are coming from this campaign. I love cold email because it enables you to create opportunities for yourself.
  • Sales process takes a long time, and the results you get are from past efforts. This delay in feedback is hard to comprehend and messes with your brain so you have to constantly remind yourself of it.
• Re-put in place some form of morning mindset routine after around 2 weeks of pause. I cover vision boards, identity stuff, current legacy and future desired outcomes, plans, and quarter and weekly goals & systems.
  • This one is simplified from the one I did for 2 months straight before (which was based on Sam Ovens' Alchemy of Self). Now feels more well rounded and simple. Good.
  • Got back into daily planning, like I said the week before I should do, this is good. Following through.
• Finalizing the scraper bot's last few things to begin selling it next week.
  • Making the user flow less messy. (It's all console, so pretty shitty UX so far, but does the job AKA gives real results to users already. Better UX on the way for next version after this one collected ca$h)
• Working a bit on the copy for the cold emails for the scraper.
  • A couple angles are interesting, for example a "unlimited leads forever" angle. I also think the "small beta test group" angle is pretty neat to get them to buy this early bird MVP offer.
• Got back into fresh/cold showers only.
  • Realized I slowly got into the confort of warm showers, wtf. So one day I woke up from dreaming awake and decided my ideal character would take only cold showers, and so I did. This ties back to mindset and identity stuff, in this case a chapter from "Tufti" which is reality transurfing stuff if anybody is interested, would love to unpack these mind bending concepts at some point. Most of us are asleep in waking reality. Wake up (super easy, just need to learn).

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• As I feel the scraper project getting closer and closer to market, I can feel some F*cked-up, back-of-mind feelings, that try to pull me back.
  Sort of like my mind is trying to say how this might not work or how my attention would be best directed elsewhere.
  But I am not my thoughts. How does this shadow self dare think he can control the situation, it's ridiculous. Full steam ahead, LET'S GOOO.
• I think it's funny how I started my entreprenarial journey skipping all the mindset stuff thinking "nah I'm already good" but it actually came biting me in the a$$ further along. You don't realize the importance of mindset by thinking about it, but by experiencing it and looking back to see it was actually a brake to your success.
  • Ironically enough, in entrepreneuship, mindset is the first step -- but it's also the last.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Get back into gym or basketball routine, been full work sprint mode these days but I feel the toll on quality of sleep.

Attention is everything. This has multiple levels. First of all in business, attention is everything, this one is pretty self explanatory.
But what I realized is that in your own mind, the same is true. Where your attention goes, your energy flows. Careful what you pay attention tokens to. Awareness is where you take back the control and choose to consciously direct it. Be mindful of it. Don't just follow squirels, knowat I'm saying?

Be the awaken one. Wake up, Neo.

I know these are all over the place, so if someone actually went through everything I wrote this week you are one strong mind!

If you feel like some of those points speaks to you, feel free to discuss, shoot the shit, tell me HOW I'm wrong, or how it makes you feel.

Much love, see you next week!

 

[ValueSystems]

Episode 29 — "Racing to the finish line on one leg"

Hello beautiful stranger, let's take you on a journey.
A journey through time and space...

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• This week, my objective was to finish the scraper bot so I can sell that and get on with the rest of my plans. Alas, things always take more time and this week was also one with lots of daytime fatigue and difficulty focusing. The lack of gym-time may be involved. The high night temperatures this summer are definitely also involved, sweating during the night is not conclusive to good sleep. I need to get this project out ASAP!!! It's eating at me.
• Lots of bullshit admin small tasks this week
• Had an inperson meeting for a potential job, they are looking for a full time, I'm trying to get them to do 80%. We'll see.
• Met with a couple entrepreneurs friends. Their tough-love talk often help see things through a new perspective and this time helped me see through the fog of fatigue. Always great to meet in-person too, it's totally different from messages only.
  Realisations:
  • I need to pre-sale every projects I do, collect cash AND validation early on to make it a reality
  • I'm actually very good at creating a brand and a landing page beforehand, so I actually enjoy it. I'm thinking of doing this everytime for every project.
• Got an idea for a new chrome extension that would be pretty genius if I do say so myself hahah, and it could actually change how we interact with information and knowledge on the internet. But I don't have the time to build that currenty. Hit me up if you're into extensions and want to partner up!

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• For the SaaS idea, to make it a reality faster:
  • Pre-sell it. Landing page <- cold email traffic
  • Unbeatable lead magnet: Give for free the MAIN product that the competition sells. Just got this idea from Alex Hormozi's latest video on lead magnet, and in this case with this offer and market it's actually very doable to that to the extreme. It would mean I would loose ~$40 / mo per client on it however, so we'll need to make sure they are qualified prospects for the paid services it will lead to. Wondering if we should do that forever and loose $40/mo on them or a period like 3 months free or even 6 mo to make it excessive value.
• Would love to find a co-founder / COO / operations guy/gal
  • If you've worked in digital ventures before and are that type of person would love to chat.
  • Do you think I can make a post somewhere in the forum for that maybe? Haven't looked into it yet.
  • Wrote a posting for upwork I'll post that week 30 and see what comes of it. Not sure about upwork for partners / revshare deals.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Get back to the gym. I'll try today but will be moving quite a lot. Worst comes to worst I'll be in the gym tomorrow.
• Get into the habit of creating landing pages for every idea. Not sure of a good system for that yet. Framer.com ? Webflow? Seems overkill to me I want something simple. Carrd.co? Feels like it's too simple haha we'll figure it out along the way.

Thank your for sharing your most valuable asset, your attention. <3
If you're an operations person, let's talk!
If you're a chrome extensions person, let's talk!

See you next week

 

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[ValueSystems]

Week 30 Update

TL;DR Meditation and Gym got me back in the game

PAST
1. Highlights (Wins, losses, learnings/insights)

• This week got back into the gym ️‍
• Started meditating every morning, couple times throughout the days here and day for quick simple "resets" and that seems to help with ADHD type behaviour.
• Created an email verification script for my scraper bot and for my own use. Instead of paying $100 to validate ~8k I now payed $0, 4 hours and have a new tool for my bot. Let me know if y'all need it by the way happy to share for free the script. But it's now an additional value for my bot.
• Started the cold email campaign to start finally selling the scraper bot and got already one positive reply, looking good. I now have to create the VSL and the payment page lol. I prefer it this way - build as you go - forces you to figure out stuff under pressure. Speeeeed beats perfection.
• Found more clarity on the SaaS main project, eager to get back into that.

Relating PAST with -> FUTURE
2. Challenges, new opportunities

• Starting campaigns on the scraper bot, will now have to figure out VSL, landing page, and payment. I will probably go with a loom as VSL pointing to gumroad product page as LP and payment to make it fast&easy.
• Got some clarity back on SaaS project so I'm eager to get back into that and start selling this as well. I will start selling it as a service at first and transition into fully automated SaaS with time. Sell then build mentality.

FUTURE
3. Action and habits plan for improvement (how to never encounter situation again)

• Regular gym, regular meditation. Put more importance to these things around actual work to make the work hours more meaningful.

'this all, thanks for reading along.
Hit me up if you need the email validation script.